"Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter", also known as "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)", is a 2006 fantasy story by Geoff Ryman. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Synopsis
editWhen Pol Pot's 18-year-old daughter Sith returns to Cambodia in 2004, she finds that everything computerized around her is haunted by the ghosts of the victims of the Cambodian genocide — and that this is making it impossible for her to have a relationship.
Reception
editPol Pot's Beautiful Daughter was a finalist for the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Novelette,[1] the 2007 World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction,[2] and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette in 2006.[3]
In the Internet Review of Science Fiction, Lois Tilton expressed unease at the fact that Pol Pot genuinely did have a daughter of that name and age, who "[did] not seem to have lived the sort of self-indulgent, moneyed life" described in Ryman's story; ultimately, Tilton "wonder[ed] what the real Sitha would think of this (...) unauthorized use of her life in a story that is not true to it."[4] Strange Horizons' Matthew Cheney found that "a story about Pol Pot written in what felt like the diction of a fairy tale was too much" for him to tolerate, and noted that he "tried to forget the story's existence altogether" until it began to be discussed online in greater detail.[5]
References
edit- ↑ https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2007-hugo-awards/ 2007 Hugo Awards; at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved May 24, 2026
- ↑ Nominees, at WorldFantasy.org; retrieved May 24, 2026
- ↑ Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy) at Science Fiction Writers of America; retrieved May 24, 2026
- ↑ Short Fiction: September, 2006, by Lois Tilton, in the Internet Review of Science Fiction; published September 2006; retrieved May 24, 2026; via archive.org
- ↑ Pol Pot's Fantasized Daughter, by Matthew Cheney; at Strange Horizons; published August 13, 2007; retrieved May 24, 2026
External links
edit- Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database