Gene Wolfe's "Ziggurat"SF-Lovers

A few days ago someone wondered why this novella wasn't nominated for the Hugo. After reading it, so do I. It is one of the best Wolfe pieces I have read in a long time, on a place with his best novellas of the 70s and early 80s ("The Death of Doctor Island," "Seven American Nights," etc.): beautifully written, beautifully characterized, plain and straightforward on top and disturbingly ambiguous underneath. It was originally in FULL SPECTRUM 5; I just read it in David Hartwell's YEAR'S BEST SF, and it makes most of the other contents seem like, gee, I don't know, like a bunch of goddamn pulp fiction or something. John Boston

Perhaps "The Ziggurat" wasn't nominated because not enough people saw it in time to nominate it. I've noticed that in recent years, the vast majority of short fiction nominees come from the magazines, not from anthologies. In another category, the novelette, I thought Greg Egan's "Wang's Carpets" was a stronger story than either "TAP" or "Luminous," which were both nominated, and both of which ran in Asimov's. That anthology, NEW LEGENDS, contained several very strong, award-worthy stories, but none were nominated in any category. I prefer to believe this is because far fewer people saw them than read the magazines, as opposed to thinking that Hugo nominators are mostly boneheads. Tom

Could someone please post info on where "The Ziggurat" was initially published? Thanks in advance.

"The Ziggurat" appeared in the Bantam anthology FULL SPECTRUM 5, published in mid-95. I think a mass market paperback edition will be out later this year. The volume is well worth your time. The HarperPrism anthology YEAR'S BEST SF, edited by David Hartwell, and which appeared in bookstores last month, includes "The Ziggurat." Tom