A classic work from Walter Jon Williams, "Daddy's World" earned the Nebula Award for Novelette in 2001.

Little Jamie lives with his family in an eerily perfect environment, entertained by characters from literature, sung to sleep at night by the Woman in the Moon. But cracks begin to appear in Jamie's world that reveal rifts within his family, and he begins to see the terrifying reality behind the walls of his life, and to understand that perfection has its price . . .

This short novel takes place in the universe of Walter Jon Williams' Dread Empire's Fall series.

Three years after the Naxid war, Lord Gareth Martinez has accepted a meaningless post as Inspector General of Chee, a newly-settled world. Intending nothing more than a pleasant vacation with his family, Martinezirst discovers corruption among the contractors engaged to develop Chee . . . but then he finds something far more dangerous--- a literal cosmic menace that threatens to wipe out all life on the planet.

All humanity is at peace. The Diamond Library contains all wisdom, and has incarnated itself as the semi-divine Treasured King. But now the peace is threatened by the alien Sang, a species bent on conquest, and humanity’s response is fatally divided.

At the height of the crisis, the Treasured King is found dead, and a dangerous new incarnation is born-- beautiful, seductive, erratic, and very possibly mad.

Walter Jon Williams combines cutting-edge science, Tibetan Buddhism, and hard-nosed political reality in this novelette, which was nominated for a Nebula Award on its first release.