The Gambler

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 2 Anthology. Reviews: “The stories he [Paolo] chooses to write are those that make an easy extrapolation of the present into the near future, but with an immediacy and richness of detail that shows the reader just how close we are to seeing this come to pass. The world of The Gambler isn’t as dystopian as what we normally get from him, but his protagonist still serves a similar function as a lone voice of reason in a future you would not prefer but which seems somehow inevitable. There may be some analogy there with the author himself, but either way this is a nicely done story.” --- Mataglap SF “…The story … wisely spends its time deepening Ong’s quiet but firm sincerity. The end of the “The Gambler” is probably the most touching thing Bacigalupi has yet written: what Ong gambles on is human nature, and Bacigalupi makes us want him to win.” ---Torque Control