title: Taklamakan (short story)
text: # Taklamakan (short story)
  
  Taklamakan is a short story by American writer Bruce Sterling. It was first published in the 1998 Oct/Nov volume of Asimov's Science Fiction.
  
  ## Plot
  
  The story follows a government contracted spy and his coworker as they enter the Taklamakan Desert to explore and substantiate rumors about a group of Chinese habitats that simulate generation ships in a cave under the Taklamakan Desert.
  
  ## Reception
  
  It won the 1999 Hugo Award for Best Novelette as well as the 1999 Foreign Short Story Hayakawa Award.
  
  