The Saturn Game

Short story by Poul Anderson

"The Saturn Game"
Short story by Poul Anderson
cover art by Vincent Di Fate
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publication
Publisher	Analog
Publication date	2 February 1981

"The Saturn Game" is a science fiction novella by American writer Poul Anderson, originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact in February 1981.

Plot summary

Imaginative roleplaying provides relief for some of the crew on the long, dull trip to Saturn. However, their imaginary world becomes hazardously confused with the real one when a team begins the exploration of Iapetus, one of Saturn's moons.

Reception

"The Saturn Game" won the 1981 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 1982 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

Sources, references, external links, quotations

The Saturn Game title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Works by Poul Anderson

Hoka!

Earthman's Burden
Star Prince Charlie
Hoka!

The Psychotechnic League

Star Ways
The Snows of Ganymede
Virgin Planet
The Psychotechnic League
Cold Victory
Starship

Technic History

Polesotechnic League period of Nicholas van Rijn	War of the Wing-Men Trader to the Stars The Trouble Twisters Satan's World The Earth Book of Stormgate Mirkheim The People of the Wind
Terran Empire period of Dominic Flandry	Ensign Flandry A Circus of Hells The Rebel Worlds The Day of Their Return Agent of the Terran Empire Flandry of Terra A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows A Stone in Heaven The Game of Empire The Long Night Let the Spacemen Beware

History of Rustum

Orbit Unlimited
New America

Maurai

Maurai and Kith
Orion Shall Rise

Other science fiction novels

Flight to Forever
Vault of the Ages
Brain Wave
Question and Answer
No World of Their Own
The Long Way Home
Perish by the Sword
War of Two Worlds
The Enemy Stars
The High Crusade
Murder in Black Letter
Twilight World
After Doomsday
The Makeshift Rocket
Murder Bound
Shield
Three Worlds to Conquer
The Corridors of Time
The Star Fox
The Fox, the Dog and the Griffin: A Folk Tale Adapted from the Danish of C. Molbeck
World Without Stars
Tau Zero
The Byworlder
The Dancer from Atlantis
There Will Be Time
Fire Time
Inheritors of Earth
The Winter of the World
The Avatar
The Demnon of Scattery
The Devil's Game
The Boat of a Million Years
The Saturn Game
The Longest Voyage
War of the Gods
Starfarers
Genesis
Mother of Kings
For Love and Glory

Collections

Strangers from Earth
Un-Man and Other Novellas
Time and Stars
The Horn of Time
Beyond the Beyond
Seven Conquest
Tales of the Flying Mountains
The Queen of Air and Darkness and Other Stories
The Worlds of Poul Anderson
The Many Worlds of Poul Anderson
Homeward and Beyond
The Best of Poul Anderson
Homebrew
Winners
The Night Face & Other Stories
The Dark Between the Stars
Explorations
Fantasy
Winners
Cold Victory
The Gods Laughed
Starship
The Winter of the World / The Queen of Air and Darkness
Conflict
The Long Night
Past Times
The Unicorn Trade
Dialogue With Darkness
Space Folk
Alight in the Void
The Armies of Elfland
Inconstant Star
Kinship With the Stars
All One Universe
Going for Infinity
Swordsmen from the Stars

Operation Otherworld

Operation Chaos
Operation Luna

Other fantasy novels

Historical novels

The Golden Slave
Rogue Sword
Mother of Kings

Novellas and short stories

"Brake"
"Call Me Joe"
"Delenda Est"
"Entity"
"Eutopia"
"Goat Song"
"The Light"
"The Longest Voyage"
"The Man Who Came Early"
"Marius"
"Memory"
"Night Piece"
"No Truce with Kings"
"The Pirate"
"The Queen of Air and Darkness"
"Quest"
"Sam Hall"
"The Saturn Game"
"The Sensitive Man"
"The Sharing of Flesh"
"Un-Man"

v t e Hugo Award for Best Novella
Retro Hugos	Who Goes There? by Don A. Stuart (1939) If This Goes On— by Robert A. Heinlein (1941) Waldo by Robert A. Heinlein (1943) The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1944) Killdozer! by Theodore Sturgeon (1945) Animal Farm by George Orwell (1946) The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein (1951) A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1954)
1968–1980	Riders of the Purple Wage by Philip José Farmer /Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey (1968) Nightwings by Robert Silverberg (1969) Ship of Shadows by Fritz Leiber (1970) Ill Met in Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (1971) The Queen of Air and Darkness by Poul Anderson (1972) The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973) The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr. (1974) A Song for Lya by George R. R. Martin (1975) Home Is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny (1976) By Any Other Name by Spider Robinson / Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr. (1977) Stardance by Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson (1978) The Persistence of Vision by John Varley (1979) Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear (1980)
1981–1990	Lost Dorsai by Gordon R. Dickson (1981) The Saturn Game by Poul Anderson (1982) Souls by Joanna Russ (1983) Cascade Point by Timothy Zahn (1984) Press Enter by John Varley (1985) 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai by Roger Zelazny (1986) Gilgamesh in the Outback by Robert Silverberg (1987) Eye for Eye by Orson Scott Card (1988) The Last of the Winnebagos by Connie Willis (1989) The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1990)
1991–2000	The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman (1991) Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress (1992) Barnacle Bill the Spacer by Lucius Shepard (1993) Down in the Bottomlands by Harry Turtledove (1994) Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge by Mike Resnick (1995) The Death of Captain Future by Allen Steele (1996) Blood of the Dragon by George R. R. Martin (1997) ...Where Angels Fear to Tread by Allen Steele (1998) Oceanic by Greg Egan (1999) The Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis (2000)
2001–2010	The Ultimate Earth by Jack Williamson (2001) Fast Times at Fairmont High by Vernor Vinge (2002) Coraline by Neil Gaiman (2003) The Cookie Monster by Vernor Vinge (2004) The Concrete Jungle by Charles Stross (2005) Inside Job by Connie Willis (2006) A Billion Eves by Robert Reed (2007) All Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis (2008) The Erdmann Nexus by Nancy Kress (2009) Palimpsest by Charles Stross (2010)
2011–2020	The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (2011) The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson (2012) The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson (2013) Equoid by Charles Stross (2014) (No award given) (2015) Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2016) Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (2017) All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2018) Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (2019) This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2020)
2021–present	The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (2021) A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (2022) Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire (2023)

v t e Nebula Award for Best Novella
1966–1980	The Saliva Tree by Brian W. Aldiss and He Who Shapes by Roger Zelazny (1966) The Last Castle by Jack Vance (1967) Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock (1968) Dragonrider by Anne McCaffrey (1969) A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison (1970) Ill Met in Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (1971) The Missing Man by Katherine Maclean (1972) A Meeting with Medusa by Arthur C. Clarke (1973) The Death of Doctor Island by Gene Wolfe (1974) Born with the Dead by Robert Silverberg (1975) Home Is the Hangman by Roger Zelazny (1976) Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr. (1977) Stardance by Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson (1978) The Persistence of Vision by John Varley (1979) Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear (1980)
1981–2000	Unicorn Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas (1981) The Saturn Game by Poul Anderson (1982) Another Orphan by John Kessel (1983) Hardfought by Greg Bear (1984) Press Enter by John Varley (1985) Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg (1986) R&R by Lucius Shepard (1987) The Blind Geometer by Kim Stanley Robinson (1988) The Last of the Winnebagos by Connie Willis (1989) The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1990) The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman (1991) Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress (1992) City of Truth by James Morrow (1993) The Night We Buried Road Dog by Jack Cady (1994) Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge by Mike Resnick (1995) Last Summer at Mars Hill by Elizabeth Hand (1996) Da Vinci Rising by Jack Dann (1997) Abandon in Place by Jerry Oltion (1998) Reading the Bones by Sheila Finch (1999) Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang (2000)
2001–2020	Goddesses by Linda Nagata (2001) The Ultimate Earth by Jack Williamson (2002) Bronte's Egg by Richard Chwedyk (2003) Coraline by Neil Gaiman (2004) The Green Leopard Plague by Walter Jon Williams (2005) Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link (2006) Burn by James Patrick Kelly (2007) Fountain of Age by Nancy Kress (2008) The Spacetime Pool by Catherine Asaro (2009) The Women of Nell Gwynne's by Kage Baker (2010) The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window by Rachel Swirsky (2011) The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson (2012) After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress (2013) The Weight of the Sunrise by Vylar Kaftan (2014) Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress (2015) Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2016) Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (2017) All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2018) The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard (2019) This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2020)
2021–present	Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (2021) And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed (2022) Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk (2023)