Many of the field's finest practitioners are represented here, along with stories from promising newcomers. A useful list of honorable mentions and Dozois's insightful summation of the year in SF round out this anthology, making it indispensable for anyone interested in SF today.Contents xi • Summation: 1993 • essay by Gardner Dozois1 • Papa • (1993) • novelette by Ian R. MacLeod35 • Sacred Cow • (1993) • shortstory by Bruce Sterling49 • Dancing on Air • (1993) • novella by Nancy Kress95 • A Visit to the Farside • (1993) • shortstory by Don Webb107 • Alien Bootlegger • (1993) • novella by Rebecca Ore179 • Death on the Nile • (1993) • novelette by Connie Willis200 • Friendship Bridge • (1993) • novelette by Brian W. Aldiss223 • Into the Miranda Rift • (1993) • novella by G. David Nordley278 • Mwalimu in the Squared Circle • (1993) • shortstory by Mike Resnick290 • Guest of Honor • (1993) • novelette by Robert Reed319 • Love Toys of the Gods • (1993) • shortstory by Pat Cadigan333 • Chaff • (1993) • novelette by Greg Egan352 • Georgia on My Mind • (1993) • novelette by Charles Sheffield390 • Cush • (1993) • novelette by Neal Barrett, Jr.422 • On the Collection of Humans • (1994) • shortfiction by Mark Rich425 • There and Then • [Silurian Tales] • (1993) • novelette by Steven Utley461 • The Night We Buried Road Dog • (1993) • novella by Jack Cady507 • Feedback • (1993) • novelette by Joe Haldeman529 • Lieserl • (1993) • shortstory by Stephen Baxter545 • Flashback • (1993) • novelette by Dan Simmons586 • A Child's Christmas in Florida • (1993) • shortstory by William Browning Spencer592 • Whispers • (1993) • novelette by Maureen F. McHugh and David B. Kisor612 • Wall, Stone, Craft • (1993) • novella by Walter Jon Williams683 • Honorable Mentions: 1993 • essay by Gardner Dozois

    In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appareance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood. A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow's Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow's Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The Shadow's Child with her. As they dig deep into the victim's past, The Shadow's Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau's own murky past--and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars...

    Which may help explain why he is also one of the most brilliant, innovative, and eloquent writers on earth. Slippage simply presents recent, typical Ellison. In a word, masterful. The 21 stories in this 1997 collection, which is encased in black boxes, show Ellison at the height of his powers, with several of the stories (no surprise here) major award-winners. Highlights include a black mind reader who pays a visit to a white serial killer, a husband who falls prey to a vampiric personal computer, and a love affair between a young man and a woman who may be more undead than alive. Perhaps even more fascinating are the painfully candid snapshots of autobiography running throughout the volume. Even if Ellison's unsettling fictions are not enough to dazzle you, his often bizarre life experiences as an author will still keep you compulsively turning the page like a polite voyeur. --Stanley WiaterContents:The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore (1992)Anywhere but Here, with Anybody but You (1996)Crazy as a Soup Sandwich (1989)Darkness upon the Face of the Deep (1991)The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon Pays Its Way and Makes Change: Version 1 (1997)The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon Pays Its Way and Makes Change: Version 2 (1994)The Lingering Scent of Woodsmoke (1996)The Museum on Cyclops Avenue (1995)Go toward the Light (1996)Mefisto in Onyx (1993)Where I Shall Dwell in the Next World (1992)Chatting with Anubis (1995)The Few, the Proud (1989)The Deadly "Nackles" Affair (1987) essayNackles (1964)Nackles (1987)Sensible City (1994)The Dragon on the Bookshelf (1995) with Robert SilverbergKeyboard (1995)Jane Doe #112 (1990)The Dreams a Nightmare Dreams (1997)Pulling Hard Time (1995)Scartaris, June 28th (1990)She's a Young Thing and Cannot Leave Her Mother (1988)Midnight in the Sunken Cathedral (1995)

    The Book of Spies brings us the aristocratic intrigues of The Scarlet Pimpernel, in which French émigrés duel with Robespierre’s secret service; the savage political realities of the 1930s in Eric Ambler’s classic A Coffin for Dimitrios; the ordinary (well, almost) citizens of John le Carré’s The Russia House, who are drawn into Cold War spy games; and the 1950s Vietnam of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, with its portrait of American idealism and duplicity. Drawing on acknowledged classics and rediscovered treasures, A Book of Spies delivers literate entertainment and excitement on every page.

    Includes the first collaboration between father/son Stephen King and Joe Hill. Also includes work by Whitley Strieber, F. Paul Wilson, Joe Lansdale, John Shirley as well as a collaboration between Matheson and the late Charles Beaumont ("Conjure Wife").

    Lovecraft, the most-fevered mind of 20th century horror and weirdness! These weird tales blend horror, science-fiction and fantasy to weave stories of darkness and terror that will alternately leave you checking dark spaces for hidden horrors and wondering at the nature of reality itself. From the horror/mystery of The Altar in the Hills to the private confessions and revelations of one of mankind's most brilliant minds in Through the Ether, these seven stories bring with them Old Gods, strange twists and interesting characters that will both surprise and delight fans of horror fiction.

    In it, April, as well as her living mother Li Qin have finally come to terms with the need to deal with all of the dead left in the aftermath of the earlier events in Tamed Lightning. For this plan, they will need to call a certain Blood Worker by the name of October Daye to assist them.

    From tales of The Shaper/Mechanist to Leggy Starlitz to his Chattanooga Stories, this anthology spans the gamut of Sterlings works from 1976 to 2007.Swarm --Spider Rose --Cicada queen --Sunken gardens --Twenty evocations --Green days in Brunei --Dinner in Audoghast --The compassionate, the digital --Flowers of Edo --The little magic shop --Our neural Chernobyl --We see things differently --Dori Bangs --Hollywood Kremlin --Are you for 86? --The littlest jackal --Deep eddy --Bicycle repairman --Taklamakan --The sword of Damocles --Maneki Neko --In paradise --The blemmye's strategem --Kiosk

    Each descending sweep of the sharp pendulum brings the prisoner closer to death. One stroke neatly slices his robe. Another brings agonizing pain. Surely the next will end it all... If you like stories of mystery and suspense, get ready for Great Tales of Terror, by Edgar Allen Poe. This nightmarish collection includes these famous tales: "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Black Cat," and "Ligeia."

    John HarrisonHunting mother/ Sage WalkerMount Olympus/ Ben Bova Border guards/ Greg Egan Scherzo with tyrannosaur/ Michael SwanwickA hero of the empire/ Robert SilverbergHow we lost the moon, a true story/ Frank W. Allen & Paul J. McAuleyPhallicide/ Charles Sheffield Daddy's world/ Walter Jon WilliamsA Martian romance/ Kim Stanley RobinsonThe sky-green blues/ Tanith LeeExchange rate/ Hal ClementEverywhere/ Geoff Ryman Hothouse flowers/ Mike Resnick Evermore/ Sean Williams Of scorned women & causal loops/ Robert GrossbachSon observe the time/ Kage BakerHonorable mentions: 1999

    He also talked a fair amount about mayonnaise. The interview was conducted by Mara Altman, the author of four bestselling Kindle Singles including “Baby Steps” and “Bearded Lady.” Altman has worked as a staff writer for The Village Voice, and has also written for New York Magazine and The New York Times. In 2009, HarperCollins published Altman's first book, “Thanks For Coming: A Young Woman's Quest for an Orgasm,” which was optioned as a comedy series by HBO. Cover design by Adil Dara Kim.

    

    Meanwhile, Granuaile MacTiernan starts a private war of her own against Loki, the lord of lies, and if it brings Ragnarok early—so be it. Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys by Delilah S. Dawson The number one rule of the circus? Don't kill your volunteers, even accidentally. That's how young magician Criminy Stain ends up on the run in a forest, where he meets a beautiful woman holding a bucket of blood. But is Merissa the answer to his prayers-- or the orchestrator of his ruin? Interlude: Swallow by Chuck Wendig Miriam Black is back. Miriam is tired of her curse and finally believes she knows how to be rid of her ability to see when and how other people die. She follows a lead to the mountains of Colorado, where she believes she sees signs of a serial killer she thought she already killed. (Set between THE CORMORANT and THUNDERBIRD.)

    "I Was a Teenage Bigfoot" takes place circa Deadbeat. "Bigfoot on Campus" takes place between Turn Coat and Changes.Chicago wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden is used to mysterious clients with long hair and legs up to here. But when it turns out the long hair covers every square inch of his latest client’s body, and the legs contribute to a nine-foot height, even the redoubtable detective realizes he’s treading new ground. Strength of a River in His Shoulders is one of the legendary forest people, a Bigfoot, and he has a problem that only Harry can solve. His son Irwin is a scion, the child of a supernatural creature and a human. He’s a good kid, but the extraordinary strength of his magical aura has a way of attracting trouble.In the three novellas that make up Working For Bigfoot, collected together for the first time here, readers encounter Dresden at different points in his storied career, and in Irwin’s life. As a middle-schooler, in “B Is for Bigfoot,” Irwin attracts the unwelcome attention of a pair of bullying brothers who are more than they seem, and when Harry steps in, it turns out they have a mystical guardian of their own. At a fancy private high school in “I Was a Teenage Bigfoot,” Harry is called in when Irwin grows ill for the first time, and it’s not just a case of mono. Finally, Irwin is all grown up and has a grown-up’s typical problems as a freshman in college in “Bigfoot on Campus,” or would have if typical included vampires.

    They explore events mentioned in the novels, characters seen and unseen and may include novel teasers of things to come. This volume includes:Darkest before Darkwater by Tee MorrisA group of survivors from the airship Guy Fawkes find themselves washed ashore on an uncharted island. In their search for survival they uncover one mystery after another.The Shadows of Calcutta by Phil RossiAgent Robert Smith, on return from a mission in Nepal, is diverted to India where he is charged to find a missing agent. Alex Tanner had been investigating a series of thefts and murders holding the Ministry’s attention, and now it falls on Agent Smith to find his missing comrade.Night's Plutonian Shore by Jack ManganIn 1849 when a poet is murdered in the streets of Baltimore. The man behind the seemingly random murder manages to elude the law until — in 1889 — Agents Bruce Campbell and Brandon Hill track him down. The assassin, Mikael Scharnusser, gives the slip to the agents on revealing his “talent” and the madman’s intentions to bring down the House of Usher.The Seven by P.C. HaringAgent Brandon Hill is on assignment in South America, enjoying the local culture and women, when a mystery that could lead to El Dorado falls into his lap. Before the intrepid agent knows it, he is the jungle uncovering a plot but the devilish Illuminati. He will need all his monkey knife fighting skills to survive this one.