"Spar" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

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 ...

by American writer Kij Johnson, first published in ''

Clarkesworld Magazine ''Clarkesworld Magazine'' (ISSN 1937-7843) is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It released its first issue October 1, 2006 and has maintained a regular monthly schedule since, publishing fiction by authors such as Elizabet ...

''. It won the 2009

Nebula Award for Best Short Story The Nebula Award for Best Short Story is a literary award assigned each year by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy short stories. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a short stor ...

, and was a finalist for the 2010

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 ...

Plot summary

A survivor of a space shipwreck is trapped in a raft with an alien, and is pitted against it in a sexual competition for survival and dominance. The story is written in a third-person perspective with a nameless female survivor of a spaceship wreck. A tentacled alien has made it into the

escape pod An escape pod, escape capsule, life capsule, or lifepod is a capsule or craft, usually only big enough for one person, used to escape from a vessel in an emergency. An escape ship is a larger, more complete craft also used for the same purpose ...

with her and tries to assert its dominance. The female spacer tries to make sense of what the alien is using her for, and what she is to it. She also tries to make a connection to the alien by teaching it about her body parts and how to pleasure her, rather than to assault her. All the while, the spacer has flashbacks to a man, Gary, lost in the accident, who tried to make an emotional connection to her when all she wanted was a physical connection. In the end, the female spacer is rescued and now has to face being around human beings again.

The Bacon Remix

Johnson contributed an alternate version to ''Baconthology'' edited by

John J. Ordover John J. Ordover Is a New York Area stand-up comic, and is the American founder and chief executive officer of JJO Marketing, a digital art gallery owner, and is best known for being an editor at Pocket Books from 1992 to 2003 overseeing the ''Star ...

featuring "baconized" stories for Bacon-Palooza II, a 2013 charity event benefiting autistic children. ''

'' published "Spar (The Bacon Remix)" as text and audio in Issue 79, April 2013.

References

External links

"Spar" (text version)"Spar" (audio version)
br/>''

'', Issue 37, October 2009
"Spar" (podcast 22:59)
''

Escape Pod An escape pod, escape capsule, life capsule, or lifepod is a capsule or craft, usually only big enough for one person, used to escape from a vessel in an emergency. An escape ship is a larger, more complete craft also used for the same purpose ...

'', Episode 248, 8 July 2010
"Spar (The Bacon Remix)" (text version)"Spar (The Bacon Remix)" (audio version)
br/>''

'', Issue 79, April 2013 {{Nebula Award for Best Short Story 2009 short stories Works originally published in Clarkesworld Magazine Nebula Award for Best Short Story-winning works Short stories by Kij Johnson Third-person narrative fiction