I finished reading the first winner in the 2006 Nebula Showcase (yes, I’m one year behind. But this is one of the last compilations to be edited by Gardner Dozois prior to his extensive surgery, so I’m entitled to play catch-up).

In any case, the winning novella was Green Leopard Plague by Walter Jon Williams, and I discovered that the entire text of the story is available online at Asimov’s. So, I encourage you to read it! It’s a fantastic story, well-written and imaginative, and for the non-negotiated price of free, you really have no excuse not to read this.

“He was a republican, you know,” Terzian said. “You don’t get that from just The Prince. He wanted Florence to be a republic, defended by citizen soldiers. But when it fell into the hands of a despot, he needed work, and he wrote the manual for despotism. But he looked at despotism a little too clearly, and he didn’t get the job.” Terzian turned to Stephanie. “He was the founder of modern political theory, and that’s what I do. And he based his ideas on the belief that all human beings, at all times, have the same passions.” He turned his eyes deliberately to Stephanie’s shoulder bag. “That may be about to end, right? You’re going to turn people into plants. That should change the passions if anything would.”