Paolo Bacigalupi’s “The Gambler” on Kindle

I’ve written about Paolo Bacigalupi’s fabulous sci-fi stories before (here, here, and here are a few posts), and last week I discovered that I had missed a Kindle release. The Gambler*, described as a novelette, is set in the near future where click-bait news sites do all they can to attract attention and clicks. The story is clearly saying something about today’s “You’ll never guess what happened next!” click-bait stories that flood the internet every day, and it’s as remarkable as Bacigalupi’s short fiction in Pump Six and Other Stories*. Totally worth the $3 and a fantastic read!

In this Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated short story, a Laotian journalist, Ong, tries to succeed in an American news agency where glamorous “click-bait” stories drive revenue, and in-depth news stories are a dying breed. As Ong struggles to survive in the newsroom, he must choose whether he will pursue clicks and success, or stay true to his ideals, and risk everything because of it.

“The Gambler” was nominated for the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette, and the 2009 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. It was featured in Gardner Dozois’s “Year’s Best SF” Twenty-Sixth Edition, Jonathan Strahan’s “Best SF of the Year” Volume 3, and originally published in Pyr’s Fast Forward 2Anthology.

Related articles

• Affiliate Link – “The Water Knife” by Paolo Bacigalupi (battlegrip.com)
• Affiliate Link – The End is Nigh (battlegrip.com)