"A Walk in the Sun" is a hard science fiction

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

published in 1991 by American writer

Geoffrey A. Landis Geoffrey Alan Landis (; born May 28, 1955) is an American aerospace engineer and author, working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on planetary exploration, interstellar propulsion, solar power and photovoltaics. He ...

. It won the 1992

Hugo Award for Best Short Story The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of ...

, the 1992 Asimov's Reader Poll Award and was nominated for the 1992 Locus Award.LOCUS Index to SF Awards

Plot summary

The story follows Trish, the sole survivor of a terrible crash landing on the Moon. After regaining her senses, she contacts Earth and learns that it will be thirty days before a rescue mission can reach her. In the meantime, she depends on a wing-like solar panel to provide power to her suit's recycling facilities, and lunar night is approaching. To stay alive, Trish has to keep walking continually to stay in the sunlight. Due to exhaustion and loneliness, she starts hallucinating that her elder sister Karen is with her, whose death some years earlier Trish has not yet fully coped with.

References

External links

* Science fiction short stories 1991 short stories Hugo Award for Best Short Story winning works Short stories set on the Moon Works originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction Hard science fiction Works by Geoffrey A. Landis {{1990s-sf-story-stub