I managed to track down one more Nebula reading: “Dark Heaven”, by Gregory Benford, which is collected in The Year’s Best Science Fiction 25th Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois. Like most of the others, it’s a pretty good story.
In a near future Biloxi that’s still not recovered from Katrina, homicide detective McKenna is called to investigate a body washed ashore with red welts wrapped around his chest and mysterious puckered wounds on his hands. I was expecting to see the word “tentacle” and really hoping for “squamous.” I think I still have shoggoths on the brain. This story is more like a good cop show crossed with the X-Files. As McKenna explores a world that’s all seamy underbelly, you get to play Mulder’s role muttering, can’t you see the killer is Not Of This Earth? The real question is what revelation will McKenna receive and what price will he pay.
Writing Every Day 