The Man Who Bridged the Mist is a science fiction/fantasy novella by Kij Johnson. It was first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in October/November 2011, and subsequently republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection, in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 6, in The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2012, in Nebula Awards Showcase 2013, in Johnson's collection At the Mouth of the River of Bees, and as a chapbook from Phoenix Pick.[1] In 2013, a Persian version was published by Parian Publications.[2]
Synopsis
A vast Empire is split by an enormous river filled with a semisolid corrosive mist that is home to monsters... until Kit Meinem arrives to build a suspension bridge.
Reception
"Bridged" won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novella[3] and the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novella.[4] As well, it was a finalist for the 2011 Theodore Sturgeon Award; however, Johnson withdrew it from consideration, as she was a Sturgeon juror.[5]
Ken Liu describes the story as "hover(ing) half way between science fiction and fantasy," stating that he likes "the way the precise nature of the mist is never made clear".[6]