Some of the genre's greatest writers contemplate the planet-moving encounters between humans and aliens while pondering the eternal question--what kind of relationship are humans really looking for?

    There are princesses dancing with dead suitors, a knight in love with an official of exotic lineage, and fortune’s fool stealing into the present instead of the future. In one mesmerizing tale, a time-traveling angel is forbidden to intervene in Cotton Mather’s religious ravings, while another narrative finds a wizard seduced in his youth by the Faerie Queen and returning the treasure that is rightfully hers. Bewitching, bittersweet, and deeply intoxicating, this collection draws elements from the fables of history and re-creates them in startlingly magical ways.

    Join bestselling, award-winning writers like Margaret Atwood, Paolo Bacigalupi, Kim Stanley Robinson, Seanan McGuire, and many others at the brink of tomorrow. Loosed Upon the World is so believable, it’s frightening. Contents 01 - Paolo Bacigalupi, Shooting the Apocalypse (2014 novelette, p1)02 - Seanan McGuire, The Myth of Rain (2015 short story, p25)03 - Toiya Kristen Finley, Outer Rims (2011 short story, p39)04 - Karl Schroeder, Kheldyu (2014 novelette, p52)05 - Jean-Louis Trudel, The Snows of Yesteryear (2014 novelette, p88)06 - Nancy Kress, A Hundred Hundred Daisies (2011 short story, p111)07 - Tobias S. Buckell, The Rainy Season (2012 short story, p129)08 - Jim Shepard, The Netherlands Lives With Water (2009 short story, p143)09 - Sean McMullen, The Precedent (2010 novelette, p172)10 - Robert Silverberg, Hot Sky (1990 short story, p203)11 - Alan Dean Foster, That Creeping Sensation (2011 short story, p229)12 - Kim Stanley Robinson, Truth or Consequences (2015 short story, p240)13 - Vandana Singh, Entanglement (2014 novella, p269)14 - Angela Penrose, Staying Afloat (2013 short story, p323)15 - Chris Bachelder, Eighth Wonder (2009 short story, p341)16 - Gregory Benford, Eagle (2011 short story, p362)17 - Nicole Feldringer, Outliers (2015 short story, p386)18 - Jason Gurley, Quiet Town (2015 short story, p399)19 - Charlie Jane Anders, The Day It All Ended (2014 short story, p407)20 - Chen Quifan, The Smog Society (2015 translation of 2010 short story, p419)21 - Craig DeLancey, Racing the Tide (2014 short story, p435)22 - Sarah K. Castle, The Mutant Stag at Horn Creek (2012 novelette, p453)23 - Cat Sparks, Hot Rods (2015 novelette, p487)24 - Paolo Bacigalupi, The Tamarisk Hunter (2006 short story, p511)25 - Tobias S. Buckell & Karl Schroeder, Mitigation (2008 novelette, p527)26 - Margaret Atwood, Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet (2009 short story, p556)Afterword - Ramez Naam, Science Scarier Than Fiction

    Craig Russell, Jill Carla Schwarz, Michael Zulli, and Rrandy Broecker.

    In 2005 the original Best of the Best collected the finest short stories from that series and became a benchmark in the SF field. Now, for the first time ever, Hugo Award-winning editor Gardner Dozios sifts through hundreds of stories and dozens of authors who have gone on to become some of the most esteemed practitioners of the form, to bring readers the ultimate anthology of short science fiction novels from his legendary series. Included are such notable short novels as: Sailing to Byzantium by Robert SilverbergIn the fiftieth century, people of Earth are able to create entire cities on a whim, including those of mythology and legend. When twentieth-century traveler Charles Philip accidentally lands in this aberrant time period, he is simultaneously obsessed with discovering more about this alluring world and getting back home. But in a world made entirely of man's creation, things are not always as they seem on the surface. Forgiveness Day by Ursula K. Le GuinLe Guin returns to her Hainish-settled interstellar community, the Edumen, to tell the tale of two star-crossed lovers who are literally worlds apart in this story of politics, violence, religion, and cultural disparity. Turquoise Days by Alastair ReynoldsOn a sea-wold planet covered with idyllic tropical oceans, peace seems pervasive. Beneath the placid water lurks an ominous force that has the potential to destroy all tranquility. Contributors include: Greg Egan; Joe Haldeman; James Patrick Kelly; Nancy Kress; Ursula K. Le Guin; Ian R. MacLeod; Ian McDonald; Maureen F. McHugh; Frederick Pohl; Alastair Reynolds; Robert Silverberg; Michael Swanwick; Walter Jon Williams With work spanning two decades, The Best of the Best, Volume 2 stands as the ultimate anthology of short science fiction novels ever published in the world.ContentsBeggars in Spain • [Sleepless] • (1991) • novella by Nancy KressForgiveness Day • [Yeowe and Werel • 2] • (1994) • novella by Ursula K. Le GuinGriffin's Egg • (1991) • novella by Michael SwanwickMr. Boy • (1990) • novella by James Patrick KellyNew Light on the Drake Equation • (2001) • novella by Ian R. MacLeodOceanic • (1998) • novella by Greg EganOutnumbering the Dead • (1990) • novella by Frederik PohlSailing to Byzantium • (1985) • novella by Robert SilverbergSurfacing • (1988) • novella by Walter Jon WilliamsTendeléo's Story • [Chaga] • (2000) • novella by Ian McDonaldThe Cost to Be Wise • (1996) • novelette by Maureen F. McHughThe Hemingway Hoax • (1990) • novella by Joe HaldemanTurquoise Days • [Revelation Space] • (2002) • novella by Alastair Reynolds

    The amazing lineup of illustrators includes Alice X. Zhang, Amy Beth Christenson, Annie Stoll, Annie Wu, Christina Chung, Cryssy Cheung, Eli Baum, Elsa Charretier, Geneva B., Jen Aberin Johnson, Jen Bartel, Jenny Parks, Karen Hallion, Little Corvus, Sara Alfageeh, Sara Kipin, Sarah Wilkinson, and Viviane Tanner. Check out Jen Bartel’s cover below, featuring a striking image of Rey.

    Spanning more than 30 years of Aldiss's career and encompassing a remarkable range of ideas, moods, and styles, Man in His Time is a generous collection of this writer's finest work.

    It is not an easy task, for many dangers threaten the bridge builders, from nomad raiders to Free Magic sorcerers. Despite the danger, Morghan wants nothing more than to join the Bridge Company as a cadet. But the company takes only the best, the most skillful Charter mages, and trains them hard, for the night might come when only a single young cadet must hold the bridge against many foes. Will Morghan be that cadet?Also included in this collection are eighteen short stories that showcase Nix’s versatility as he adds a fantastical twist on an array of genres including science fiction, paranormal, realistic fiction, mystery, and adventure.

    Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and re-craft a world of automatons, clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never were. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, utopian revolutionaries, and intrepid orphans solve crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships.

    In these stories of doubt, delusion, and paranoia, no belief, no claim to objectivity, is immune to the distortions of human perception. Here, self-deception is a means of justifying our most inhuman impulses--whether we know it or not.

    On your left, post-human hedonists on a distant space station bring diseases back in fashion, two scavengers find a super-powered parasite under the waves of Sunk Seattle, and a terminally-ill chemist orchestrates an asteroid prison break. On your right, an alien optometrist spins illusions for irradiated survivors of the apocalypse, a high-tech grifter meets his match in near-future Thailand, and two teens use a blackmarket personality mod to get into the year’s wickedest, wildest party. This collection of published and original fiction by award-winning writer Rich Larson will bring you from a Bujumbura cyberpunk junkyard to the icy depths of Europa, from the slick streets of future-noir Chicago to a tropical island of sapient robots. You'll explore a mysterious ghost ship in deep space, meet an android learning to dream, and fend off predatory alien fungi on a combat mission gone wrong. Twenty-three futures, ranging from grimy cyberpunk to far-flung space opera, are waiting to blow you away. So step inside the Tomorrow Factory, and mind your head.

    Short story collection by the critically acclaimed author of Revelation Space and Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days.

    Her startling and powerful works have redefined the boundaries of contemporary science fiction. Here in one volume are twelve of her greatest stories, including double award-winner "Fire Watch," set in the universe of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, in which a time-traveling student learns one of history's hardest lessons. In "A Letter from the Clearys," a routine message from distant friends shatters the fragile world of a beleaguered family. In "The Sidon in the Mirror," a mutant with the unconscious urge to become other people finds himself becoming both killer and victim. Disturbing, revealing, and provocative, this remarkable collection of short fiction brings together some of the best work of an incomparable writer whose ability to amaze, confound, and enlighten never fails.Contents:Fire Watch (1982)Service for the Burial of the Dead (1982)Lost and Found (1982)All My Darling Daughters (1985)The Father of the Bride (1982)A Letter from the Clearys (1982)And Come from Miles Around (1979)The Sidon in the Mirror (1983)Daisy, in the Sun (1979)Mail-Order Clone (1982)Samaritan (1978)Blued Moon (1984)

    Power relationships and the social fabric of three settings are intricately detailed by Morales in his fashioning of a history which at the same time is seen through lenses of the magic and supernatural. The magical realists of Latin America have their Chicano inheritor and his name is Alejandro Morales.

    She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.Three short lines, fired over social media in response to questions of why Senator Elizabeth Warren was silenced on the floor of the United States Senate, for daring to read aloud the words of Coretta Scott King. As this message was transmitted across the globe, it has become a galvanizing cry for people of all genders in recognition of the struggles that women have faced throughout history.Three short lines, which read as if they are the opening passage to an epic and ageless tale.We have assembled this flash fiction collection featuring several of the best writers in SF/F today, including Seanan McGuire, Charlie Jane Anders, Maria Dahvana Headley, Jo Walton, Amal El-Mohtar, Catherynne M. Valente, Brooke Bolander, Alyssa Wong, Kameron Hurley, Nisi Shawl and Carrie Vaughn. Together these authors share unique visions of women inventing, playing, loving, surviving, and – of course – dreaming of themselves beyond their circumstances.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.