Six Months, Three Days

"Six Months, Three Days" is a science fiction novelette by Charlie Jane Anders. It was originally published online on Tor.com in 2011, and was subsequently reprinted in Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2011 Edition and Year's Best SF 17.[1] It won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.[2]

Six Months, Three Days
AuthorCharlie Jane Anders
Cover artistSam Weber
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
Published2011
PublisherTor.com

In October 2017 Tor.com published "Six Months, Three Days" in Anders' short fiction collection, Six Months, Three Days, Five Others.[3]

Plot

Doug and Judy are both precognitive: Doug can see "the future", and Judy can see "many possible futures". They fall in love, even though they both know that their relationship will last exactly six months and three days and end very badly.

Background

Anders said in a 2016 interview that in this novelette "[t]he big challenge for me ... was how to have a satisfying resolution" to the which-future-is-right question: "they can’t both be right, but they kind of both are right, and how does that work?"[4] In another 2016 interview, Anders commented that her decision to make her 2016 novel, All the Birds in the Sky a "relationship story" was influenced by the relationship that she had created in Six Months, Three Days.[5]

Reception

The story was nominated for the 2011 Nebula Award[6] and the 2011 Theodore Sturgeon Award;[7] it won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.[2]

Rachel Swirsky described the story as a "philosophical contrast" between determinism and free will.[8] Jim C. Hines said Anders' resolution to the fixed vs. multiple futures conflict was "simultaneously tragic and scary and hopeful", but added that it "felt right for the story".[9]

In 2013, Deadline Hollywood announced that a television adaptation was being prepared for NBC, with script written by Eric Garcia.[10]

gollark: Hmm. I mean, I quite like it, but I suppose people can have different food-related preferences.
gollark: Oh, that. Meh.
gollark: If your take is too spicy I MAY deploy orbital laser bees.
gollark: On what?
gollark: See, this is why AI is dangerous. As well as the other reasons.

References
  1. Bibliography: Six Months, Three Days at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database; retrieved September 3, 2012
  2. "2012 Hugo Award Winners". The Hugo Awards. September 2, 2012.
  3. "Six Months, Three Days, Five Others". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
  4. "Interview: Charlie Jane Anders". Lightspeed. May 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  5. Liang, Adrian (January 27, 2016). "'Witch Vs. Mad Scientist': Charlie Jane Anders on Her Novel All the Birds in the Sky". Omnivoracious.com. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  6. 2011 Nebula Awards Nominees Announced, at Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America; published February 20, 2012; retrieved September 3, 2012
  7. Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award Finalists, at the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction; published June 24, 2012; retrieved September 3, 2012
  8. Rachel Swirsky's Novelette Recommendations from 2011, at LiveJournal; published February 1, 2012; retrieved September 3, 2012
  9. "Hugo Novelettes". jimchines.com. Jun 6, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  10. NBC Nabs Light Procedural Produced By Krysten Ritter & David Janollari; by Nellie Andreeva; at Deadline Hollywood; published September 27, 2013; retrieved March 13, 2014
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