Dozois's "Chains of the Sea" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella and the Nebula Award for Best Novella. The novella earned a mention in the Acknowledgements section of Michael Swanwick's Nebula-Award-winning novel Stations of the Tide. "Chains of the Sea" was noted in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction for its alien invasion where the aliens "are more or less indifferent to the existence of humans"