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Pirates of the Somali Coast

Terry Bisson

First published September 2007
Type Short Fiction
Length Short Story

Synopsis

A child writes a series of one-way e-mails to his parents from the game room on a cruise ship. Pirates board and occupy the ship with the child obviously not understanding the concepts of death and the ramification of other abuse from the pirates. He seems to believe that at the end of "Pirate Week" things will revert to normal.

Notes

First published in Subterranean 7.

While this was included in a Science Fiction anthology it is a a non-genre story. The editor's introduction in Year's Best SF 13 reports “... a bitterly ironic satire on contemporary cruise ship culture and Somali pirates (and Disney pirate films) ... as powerful as the Harlan Ellison satires of the 1960s.

Awards

YearAwardCategoryStatus
2008 Locus Poll Award Best Short Story Nominee/Finalist

Publications (6)

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
September 2007 Subterranean, Issue #7 Subterranean Press MAGAZINE 45
June 2008 Year's Best SF 13 Eos / HarperCollins Anthology 359
July 2008 Year's Best SF 13 Eos / HarperCollins / SFBC Anthology 359
October 2009 Year's Best SF 13 HarperCollins e-books Anthology
April 2011 TVA Baby and Other Stories PM Press Collection 41
April 2011 TVA Baby and Other Stories PM Press Collection |41