"Six Months, Three Days" is a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

novelette by

Charlie Jane Anders Charlie Jane Anders (born July 24, 1969) is an American writer specializing in speculative fiction. She has written several novels as well as shorter fiction, published in magazines and on websites, and hosted podcasts; these works cater to both ...

. It was originally published online on

Tor.com ''Reactor'', formerly ''Tor.com'', is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on specul ...

and as an ebook in 2011, and was subsequently reprinted in ''Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2011 Edition'' and ''Year's Best SF 17''.Bibliography: Six Months, Three Days
at the

Internet Speculative Fiction Database The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB ...

; retrieved September 3, 2012 It won the 2012

Hugo Award for Best Novelette The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...

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

Plot

Doug and Judy are both

precognitive Precognition (from the Latin 'before', and 'acquiring knowledge') is the purported psychic phenomenon of seeing, or otherwise becoming directly aware of, events in the future. There is no accepted scientific evidence that precognition is a ...

: 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 " e 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?" In another 2016 interview, Anders commented that her decision to make her 2016 novel, ''

All the Birds in the Sky ''All the Birds in the Sky'' is a 2016 science fantasy novel by American writer and editor Charlie Jane Anders. It is her debut speculative fiction novel and was first published in January 2016 in the United States by Tor Books. The book is abo ...

'', a "relationship story" was influenced by the relationship that she had created in "Six Months, Three Days".

Release history

Originally published online on Tor.com (now ''Reactor'') and in ebook format through Macmillan on June 8, 2011, "Six Months, Three Days" has been collected into various books. A limited-edition 300-copy print was released by

Tachyon A tachyon () or tachyonic particle is a hypothetical particle that always travels Faster-than-light, faster than light. Physicists posit that faster-than-light particles cannot exist because they are inconsistent with the known Scientific law#L ...

a few years later. Tor.com republished "Six Months, Three Days" in Anders' short fiction collection, ''Six Months, Three Days, Five Others'' in 2017. It later reprinted in anthologies such as ''Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2011 Edition'' and ''Year's Best SF 17''.

Reception

Rachel Swirsky Rachel Swirsky (born April 14, 1982, in San Jose, California) is an American literary, speculative fiction and fantasy writer, poet, and editor living in Oregon. She was the founding editor of the ''PodCastle'' podcast and served as editor fro ...

described the story as a "philosophical contrast" between

determinism Determinism is the Metaphysics, metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes ov ...

and

free will Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...

. 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". In 2013, ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. It is updated several times a day, with en ...

'' announced that a television adaptation was being prepared for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, with script written by Eric Garcia.NBC Nabs Light Procedural Produced By Krysten Ritter & David Janollari
by Nellie Andreeva; at ''

''; published September 27, 2013; retrieved March 13, 2014

Awards

References

External links

Text of the story
at

* {{Hugo Award Best Novelette Hugo Award for Best Novelette–winning works 2011 short stories Short stories by Charlie Jane Anders Works originally published in Reactor Tor Books books