Looking for a Title....

[eredien]

I am trying to remember the title and/or author of a science fiction short story that I read a few years ago. I suspect that it was either a Hugo or Nebula winner, but can't be certain and am sick of looking through the ISFDB and having nothing ring a bell.

So, here's the premise. It's the future. All the elements have gotten heavier. You can now raft down a river made of helium and build your house with stuff that used to be liquid. I seem to remember something about a hat made out of a gaseous element. And I also remember the last line of the story, because it was hauntingly wonderful in context: "What you reachin' way up there in the air for, honey? Honey?"

That's it. Any clues?

Comments

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

"Down the River Road," Gregory Benford. I just read it, in a book called "After the King; Stories in Honor of JRR Tolkien." Which has some very good stories in it, but I was disappointed in thinking it would have anything to do with Tolkien. I think they just wanted an excuse to make an anthology with people in it like Terry Pratchett and Peter S. Beagle and Emma Bull and Charles de Lint.

--R

Much laughter at the title...

[eredien]

Oh. So that's where I'd read it before. No wonder it seemed familiar. I have that anthology, and have read it so many times it's about falling apart and I must soon get a new copy. It's one of my favorites. Glad you read it - and yes, unless you read the intro, it has very, very little to do with Tolkien. Except maybe the de Lint piece, "Conjure Man."

A question: my all-time favorite fantasy story, "Nine Threads of Gold," is in that one. What did you think of it?