…and Gods of Night has emerged as the winner of the Unreality-SF.net poll for 2008’s Best Story of the Year — but only just barely!

Out of 2137 votes cast, here was the final breakdown: Gods of Night – 266 votes; The Eyeless – 252 votes; Good Queen, Bad Queen, I Queen, You Queen – 251 votes; A Gutted World – 246 votes; Greater Than the Sum – 243 votes; Wet Work – 209 votes; The Raincloud Man – 203 votes; The Prisoner’s Dilemma – 197 votes; Brotherhood of the Daleks – 174 votes; Almost Perfect – 96 votes.

Think about those numbers; fewer than 60 votes separated first place from sixth place; only 14 votes made the difference between first and second, and a single vote made the difference between second and third. This thing really could have gone any which way. At the moment, I feel very … lucky. Had the polls been open another hour, or an hour less, the results could have been quite different.

I just want to say that I feel honored that my book shared space on the ballot with nine other equally deserving works by such talented writers, and I want to point out that Terri Osborne’s story, which finished third, was the only work of short fiction on the ballot, the only work by a female author on the ballot, and part of an anthology published outside the United States. It is a testament to the quality of her work that it was such a formidable contender in this poll.

As author Lance Parkin pointed out in his acceptance remarks, it’s also exciting to see so many works based on Doctor Who on the final ballot, as well as such a diverse sampling of stories from across the spectrum.

My gratitude to all who cast their votes for Gods of Night in this poll; every vote was needed, and your support made the difference. Thank you.