M Puzzle: Second Game

by Lance Nathan

The flavor text suggests that these plotlines come from elsewhere, and indeed, they're all the plots of novels and shorter works that were nominated for Hugos ("Les Mis") but did not win, as the title suggests ("Second Game" is also the title of a Hugo-nominated novella). The stories are, in order:

• "The Winter Market" by William Gibson
• "Construction Shack" by Clifford Simak
• Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
• "The Brave Little Toaster" by Thomas Disch
• Thorns by Robert Silverberg
• Passage by Connie Willis
• Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy
• "Zwarte Piet's Tale" by Allen Steele
• "Broken Symmetry" by Michael Burstein
• "Aye, and Gomorrah..." by Samuel R. Delany
• Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein
• "A Rose for Ecclesiastes by Roger Zelazny
• "At the Rialto" by Connie Willis
• "Stardock" by Fritz Leiber
• "Border Guards" by Greg Egan
• "Another Orphan" by John Kessel
• "Not Long Before the End" by Larry Niven
• Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
• "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang
• Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
• The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey

Taking the first letters (or in one case, number; and ignoring that pesky article in the Le Guin title) of the works that beat them...

• "Permafrost" by Roger Zelazny (1987 novelette)
• "Ones who Walk Away from Omelas, The" by Ursula K. LeGuin (1974 short story)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (2001 novel)
• "Lost Dorsai" by Gordon R. Dickson (1981 novella)
• Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny (1968 novel)
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman (2002 novel)
• Startide Rising by David Brin (1984 novel)
• "Taklamakan" by Bruce Sterling (1999 novelette)
• "We Will Drink A Fish Together..." by Bill Johnson (1998 novelette)
• "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison (1967 short story)
• Neuromancer by William Gibson (1985 novel)
• "No Truce with Kings" by Poul Anderson (1964 short story)
• "Enter a Soldier Later: Enter Another" by Robert Silverberg (1990 novelette)
• "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison (1966 short fiction)
• "10¹⁶ to 1" by James Patrick Kelly (2000 novelette)
• "Souls" by Joanna Russ (1983 novella)
• "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" by Samuel R. Delany (1970 short story)
• Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (1977 novel)
• "Oceanic" by Greg Egan (1999 novella)
• Ringworld by Larry Niven (1971 novel)
• Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre (1979 novel)

...gives POHL, LAST WINNER, 1ST WORD. Frederick Pohl won three Hugos, the last of which was for his short story "Fermi and Frost." The answer is FERMI.

Training:

The reference to "mapping out" plotlines suggests using the cartography training puzzle on this answer. Decrypting FERMI using the code in that puzzle gives the real answer, which is DRIVE.