Featuring 18 stories by 26 contributors, Beyond is a 250+ page, black and white, queer comic anthology, full of swashbuckling space pirates, dragon slayers, death-defying astronauts, and monster royalty. Each story celebrates and showcases unquestionably queer characters as they explore the galaxy, mix magic, have renegade adventures, and save the day!The Beyond Anthology was born from a desire to see stories inspired by people like us (queer people with diverse genders and sexualities) slaying dragons, piloting spaceships, getting into trouble, and saving the day—without having to read for their queerness from between the lines. We wanted to see beautiful, heartwarming, and adventurous stories that reflect and celebrate the many facets of gender and sexuality, without having to worry that their queerness would cast them as a villain, a pariah, or turn them into a cautionary tale. Beyond is edited by Sfé R. Monster, assistant edited by Taneka Stotts, and features a group of 26 contributors who have created 18 exceptional all-ages stories that showcase and celebrate openly and unabashedly queer characters in science fiction and fantasy-based settings.Cover by Levi Hastings, interior of covers by Evan Dahm.

    Along the way a new aesthetic for the ‘Iraqi fantastical’ begins to emerge: thus we meet time-travelling angels, technophobic dictators, talking statues, macabre museum-worlds, even hovering tiger-droids, and all the time buoyed by a dark, inventive humour that, in itself, offers hope.

    In the award-winning title story, the narrator recounts the events of an expedition to the Belgian Congo in 1928 to collects gorillas for the Louisville Museum of Natural History. A mother invents a fairy-tale world for her son in 'Halfway People'. Twin sisters backpacking through Europe receive a mysterious invitation. A rebellious teenager is sent to a brutal reform school hidden away in paradise. A young woman inherits the family submarine. In 'The Dark', a researcher tracking plague outbreaks finds himself in the Viet Cong tunnels of Vietnam. A mystery writer visits an archaeological dig in Egypt and sets a curse in motion. In two stories, 'Booth's Ghost' and 'Standing Room Only', Fowler explores the circumstances of Lincoln's assassination from the perspectives of John Wilkes Booth's family and friends.Fowler, perhaps best known for her novels, is a master of the short story form: the secret history, the account of first contact, the murderous, ordinary tensions of family life. She draws on fairy tales, historical narratives, and war reportage, measuring the human capacities for hope and despair, brutality and kindness in the fantastic tradition of writers such as Shirley Jackson, T.H. White, Karen Russell, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

    A. Lafferty295 • Blind Shemmy • (1983) • novelette by Jack Dann316 • In the Islands • (1983) • shortstory by Pat Murphy329 • Nunc Dimittis • (1983) • novelette by Tanith Lee348 • Blood Music • (1983) • novelette by Greg Bear371 • Her Furry Face • (1983) • shortstory by Leigh Kennedy387 • Knight of Shallows • (1983) • novelette by Rand B. Lee419 • The Cat • [Solar Cycle] • (1983) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe426 • The Monkey Treatment • (1983) • novelette by George R. R. Martin452 • Nearly Departed • [Deadpan Allie] • (1983) • shortstory by Pat Cadigan467 • Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine • (1983) • novelette by John Kessel486 • Carrion Comfort • (1983) • novelette by Dan Simmons522 • Gemstone • (1983) • novelette by Vernor Vinge546 • Black Air • (1983) • novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson571 • Honorable Mentions: 1983 • essay by Gardner Dozois

    Now, in The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world.This venerable collection brings together award winning authors and masters of the field such as Robert Reed, Ian McDonald, Stephen Baxter, Michael Swanwick, Paolo Bacigalupi, Kage Baker, Walter Jon Williams, Alastair Reynolds, and Charles Stross . And with an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, this annual compilation has become the definitive must read anthology for all science fiction fans and readers interested in breaking into the genre.Contentsxiii • Summation: 2007 • essay by Gardner Dozois1 • Finisterra • (2007) • novelette by David Moles26 • Lighting Out • (2007) • shortstory by Ken MacLeod41 • An Ocean Is a Snowflake, Four Billion Miles Away • (2007) • novelette by John Barnes62 • Saving Tiamaat • (2007) • shortstory by Gwyneth Jones76 • Of Late I Dreamt of Venus • (2007) • shortfiction by James Van Pelt90 • Verthandi's Ring • (2007) • shortstory by Ian McDonald101 • Sea Change • (2007) • shortstory by Una McCormack110 • The Sky Is Large and the Earth Is Small • [Celestial Empire] • (2007) • novelette by Chris Roberson130 • Glory • (2007) • novelette by Greg Egan150 • Against the Current • (2007) • shortstory by Robert Silverberg164 • Alien Archeology • [Polity Universe] • (2007) • novella by Neal Asher (aka Alien Archaeology)202 • The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate • (2007) • novelette by Ted Chiang221 • Beyond the Wall • (2007) • shortfiction by Justin Stanchfield237 • Kiosk • (2007) • novelette by Bruce Sterling270 • Last Contact • (2007) • shortstory by Stephen Baxter280 • The Sledge-Maker's Daughter • (2007) • shortstory by Alastair Reynolds297 • Sanjeev and Robotwallah • [India 2047] • (2007) • shortstory by Ian McDonald309 • The Skysailor's Tale • (2007) • novelette by Michael Swanwick332 • Of Love and Other Monsters • (2007) • novella by Vandana Singh367 • Steve Fever • (2007) • shortstory by Greg Egan379 • Hellfire at Twilight • [Company] • (2007) • novelette by Kage Baker411 • The Immortals of Atlantis • (2007) • shortstory by Brian Stableford420 • Nothing Personal • (2007) • novella by Pat Cadigan452 • Tideline • (2007) • shortstory by Elizabeth Bear461 • The Accord • (2007) • novelette by Keith Brooke480 • Laws of Survival • (2007) • novelette by Nancy Kress505 • The Mists of Time • (2007) • novelette by Tom Purdom533 • Craters • (2007) • shortstory by Kristine Kathryn Rusch548 • The Prophet of Flores • (2007) • novelette by Ted Kosmatka570 • Stray • (2007) • shortstory by David Ackert and Benjamin Rosenbaum579 • Roxie • (2007) • shortstory by Robert Reed595 • Dark Heaven • (2007) • novella by Gregory Benford643 • Honorable Mentions: 2007 • essay by Gardner Dozois

    A ferocious riff on women in superhero comics.A series of linked stories from the points of view of the wives and girlfriends of superheroes, female heroes, and anyone who’s ever been “refrigerated”: comic book women who are killed, raped, brainwashed, driven mad, disabled, or had their powers taken so that a male superhero’s storyline will progress.

    Here are the lives that make up larger histories, here are tricksters and gardeners, faeries and musicians, all glittering and sparkling, finding beauty and hope and always unexpected, a touch of wild magic.Contents:Young Woman in a GardenThe Ghost of Cwmlech ManorThe Red PianoLa Fée VerteWalpurgis AfternoonThe Parwat RubyThe Fairy Cony-CatcherSacred HarpThe Printer’s DaughterNanny Peters and the Feathery BrideMiss Carstairs and the MermanThe Maid on the ShoreThe Fiddler of Bayou TecheLand’s End

    Now, for the first time, that fiction has been gathered together in one place, ready to be enjoyed one twisting, tangled tale at a time. Her work crosses genres and subverts expectations.Meet the mad scientists of “Laughter at the Academy” and “The Tolling of Pavlov’s Bells.” Glory in the potential of a Halloween that never ends. Follow two very different alphabets in “Frontier ABCs” and “From A to Z in the Book of Changes.” Get “Lost,” dress yourself “In Skeleton Leaves,” and remember how to fly. All this and more is waiting for you within the pages of this decade-spanning collection, including several pieces that have never before been reprinted. Stories about mermaids, robots, dolls, and Deep Ones are all here, ready for you to dive in. This is a box of strange surprises dredged up from the depths of the sea, each one polished and prepared for your enjoyment. So take a chance, and allow yourself to be surprised.Enjoy.

    Wells's Morlocks, and learn what really happens when aliens beam us the Encyclopedia Galactica.Contents9 • Intro (2008) essay 13 • Identity Theft • (2005) novella79 • Come All Ye Faithful (2003) 95 • Immortality (2003) 105 • Shed Skin (2002)127 • The Stanley Cup Caper (2003)131 • On the Surface • [H. G. Wells' Time Machine Universe]• (2003)143 • The Eagle Has Landed (2005) 151 • Mikeys (2004)165 • The Good Doctor (1989) 167 • Ineluctable (2002) • novelette205 • Kata Bindu (2004) 219 • Driving a Bargain (2002) 235 • Flashes (2006) 251 • Relativity (2003) 261 • Biding Time (2006) 279 • E-Mails from the Future (2008)

    From The Wizard of Oz to The Dark Tower, from Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass to C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a rich tradition of this kind of fiction, but never before have the best parallel world stories and portal fantasies been collected in a single volume—until now.

    CLARKE'S FAVORITE STORIESTHE NINE BILLION NAMES OF GOD -- A short-term course for computer the way to God.TROUBLE WITH TIME -- Martian time proves that crimes doesn't pay!NO MORNING AFTER -- Drink, drink and be merry, for tomorrow there will be no morning after...THE POSSESSED -- Or, why the lemmings drowned.ENCOUNTER AT DAWN -- The day the gods came to Earth.THE SENTINEL -- The story which inspired 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY; when man sets off the galactic burglar alarm, who will answer the call?

    One is the main course of dinner, another the porn star contracted to copulate in space for a reality TV show. They become futuristic ant farms, get knocked up by the star high school quarterback and have secret abortions, use parakeets to reverse amputations, make love to garden gnomes, go into air conditioning ducts to confront their mother’s ghost, and do so in settings that range from Hell to the local white-supremacist bowling alley.

    She’s hidden herself away in the Librarian’s book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her—a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda.The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.

    Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Paolo's work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning, and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience.The eleven stories in Pump Six represent the best Paolo's work, including the Hugo nominee "Yellow Card Man," the nebula and Hugo nominated story "The People of Sand and Slag," and the Sturgeon Award-winning story "The Calorie Man."

    Blaylock"The Giving Mouth" by Ian R. MacLeod "A Sun in the Attic" by Mary Gentle "The God-Clown is Near" by Jay Lake"The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel" by Joe R. Lansdale"The Selene Gardening Society" by Molly Brown"Seventy-Two Letters" by Ted Chiang"The Martian Agent, A Planetary Romance" by Michael Chabon"Victoria" by Paul Di Filippo"Reflected Light" by Rachel E. Pollock"Minutes of the Last Meeting" by Stepan Chapman"Excerpt from the Third and Last Volume of Tribes of the Pacific Coast" by Neal Stephenson"The Steam-Driven Time Machine: A Pop Culture Survey" by Rick Klaw"The Essential Sequential Steampunk: A Modest Survey of the Genre within the Comic Book Medium" by Bill Baker