"Souls" is a 1982 science fiction novella by Joanna Russ. It was first published in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in January 1982,1983 Hugo Awards, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved February 3, 2014 and subsequently republished in Terry Carr's The Best Science Fiction of the Year 12,The best science fiction of the year: #12, at the Toronto Public Library; retrieved February 3, 2014 in Russ's 1984 collection Extra(ordinary) People,Russ, Joanna at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction; edited by John Clute; published November 16, 2013; retrieved February 3, 2014 as well as in the first volume of the Isaac Asimov/Martin H. Greenberg-edited anthology The New Hugo Winners,The New Hugo Winners, record number 281856, at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database; retrieved February 3, 2014 and in 1989 as half of a Tor Double Novel (with "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" by James Tiptree, Jr.)."A Checklist of the Tor Doubles", by Christopher P. Stephens; published 1993 by Ultramarine Publishing
Plot In 12th-century Germany, Radulphus tells the story of Radegunde, abbess of the abbey where he spent his childhood, and of what she did "when the Norsemen came" — and of how he discovered her true nature.Reading Joanna Russ: Extra(ordinary) People (1984), Part 1, by Lee Mandelo; at Tor.com; published January 10, 2012; retrieved February 11, 2024
Reception "Souls" won the 1983 Hugo Award for Best Novella and the Locus Award for Best Novella, and was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novella.Joanna Russ (1937-2011), at Locus; published April 29, 2011; retrieved February 3, 2014
Stephen Burt has described the story as "perfectly wrought".When Science Fiction Changed: Joanna Russ, In Memoriam, by Stephen Burt; in the Beacon Broadside; published May 20, 2011; retrieved February 3, 2014
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