Book picks similar to
Galactic Empires by Neil ClarkeNeal Asher
science-fiction
short-stories
sci-fi
fiction
Gunpowder Moon
David Pedreira - 2018
Every lunar walker since Apollo 11 has noticed it: a burnt-metal scent that reminds them of war. Caden Dechert, the chief of the U.S. mining operation on the edge of the Sea of Serenity, thinks the smell is just a trick of the mind—a reminder of his harrowing days as a Marine in the war-torn Middle East back on Earth.It’s 2072, and lunar helium-3 mining is powering the fusion reactors that are bringing Earth back from environmental disaster. But competing for the richest prize in the history of the world has destroyed the oldest rule in space: Safety for All. When a bomb kills one of Dechert’s diggers on Mare Serenitatis, the haunted veteran goes on the hunt to expose the culprit before more blood is spilled.But as Dechert races to solve the first murder in the history of the Moon, he gets caught in the crosshairs of two global powers spoiling for a fight. Reluctant to be the match that lights this powder-keg, Dechert knows his life and those of his crew are meaningless to the politicians. Even worse, he knows the killer is still out there, hunting.In his desperate attempts to save his crew and prevent the catastrophe he sees coming, the former Marine uncovers a dangerous conspiracy that, with one spark, can ignite a full lunar war, wipe out his team . . . and perhaps plunge the Earth back into darkness.
Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea
Sarah Pinsker - 2019
The journey is the thing as Pinsker weaves music, memory, technology, history, mystery, love, loss, and even multiple selves on generation ships and cruise ships, on highways and high seas, in murder houses and treehouses. They feature runaways, fiddle-playing astronauts, and retired time travelers; they are weird, wired, hopeful, haunting, and deeply human. They are often described as beautiful but Pinsker also knows that the heart wants what the heart wants and that is not always right, or easy.
The Cyberiad
Stanisław Lem - 1965
Ranging from the prophetic to the surreal, these stories demonstrate Stanislaw Lem's vast talent and remarkable ability to blend meaning and magic into a wholly entertaining and captivating work.
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke - 2000
Clarke is the most celebrated science fiction author alive. He is—with H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein—one of the writers who define science fiction in our time. Now Clarke has cooperated in the preparation of a massive, definitive edition of his collected shorter works. From early work like "Rescue Party" and "The Lion of Comarre," through classics like "The Star," "Earthlight," "The Nine Billion Names of God," and "The Sentinel" (kernel of the later novel, and movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later work like "A Meeting with Medusa" and "The Hammer of God," this immense volume encapsulates one of the great SF careers of all time.
Burning Chrome
William Gibson - 1986
Johnny Mnemonic (1981)The Gernsback Continuum (1981)Fragments of a Hologram Rose (1977)The Belonging Kind (1981) with John ShirleyHinterlands (1981)Red Star, Winter Orbit (1983) with Bruce SterlingNew Rose Hotel (1984)The Winter Market (1985)Dogfight (1985) with Michael SwanwickBurning Chrome (1982)
Unexpected Stories
Octavia E. Butler - 2014
The novella “A Necessary Being” showcases Octavia E. Butler’s ability to create alien yet fully believable “others.” Tahneh’s father was a Hao, one of a dwindling race whose leadership abilities render them so valuable that their members are captured and forced to govern. When her father dies, Tahneh steps into his place, both chief and prisoner, and for twenty years has ruled without ever meeting another of her kind. She bears her loneliness privately until the day that a Hao youth is spotted wandering into her territory. As her warriors sharpen their weapons, Tahneh must choose between imprisoning the newcomer—and living the rest of her life alone. The second story in this volume, “Childfinder,” was commissioned by Harlan Ellison for his legendary (and never-published) anthology The Last Dangerous Visions™. A disaffected telepath connects with a young girl in a desperate attempt to help her harness her growing powers. But in the richly evocative fiction of Octavia E. Butler, mentorship is a rocky path, and every lesson comes at a price. The award-winning author of science fiction classics Parable of the Sower and Kindred bestows these compelling, long lost gems “like the miraculous discovery that the beloved book you’ve read a dozen times has an extra chapter” (Los Angeles Review of Books). Harlan Ellison and Dangerous Visions are registered trademarks of the Kilimanjaro Corporation. All rights reserved.
Existence
David Brin - 2012
Gerald Livingston is an orbital garbage collector. For a hundred years, people have been abandoning things in space, and someone has to clean it up. But there’s something spinning a little bit higher than he expects, something that isn’t on the decades’ old orbital maps. An hour after he grabs it and brings it in, rumors fill Earth’s infomesh about an “alien artifact.” Thrown into the maelstrom of worldwide shared experience, the Artifact is a game-changer. A message in a bottle; an alien capsule that wants to communicate. The world reacts as humans always do: with fear and hope and selfishness and love and violence. And insatiable curiosity.
Night Train to Rigel
Timothy Zahn - 2005
The message is a summons from the Spiders, the exotic and mysterious creatures who run the Quadrail, an incredible transportation system connecting civilizations across the galaxy. The Spiders believe that someone or something is preparing to attack their entire network and the worlds it serves, by smuggling battleships through the Quadrail--something that should be impossible to do. Compton, with the aid of a beautiful but enigmatic agent of the Spiders, is their last hope.Because nobody else has been able to find the elusive enemy who seeks to enslave the entire galaxy…and Earth is its next target.
The Long List Anthology Volume 2: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List
David SteffenSeanan McGuire - 2016
Every year, supporting members of WorldCon nominate their favorite stories first published during the previous year to determine the top five in each category for the final Hugo Award ballot. Between the announcement of the ballot and the Hugo Award ceremony at WorldCon, these works often become the center of much attention (and contention) across fandom. But there are more stories loved by the Hugo voters, stories on the longer nomination list that WSFS publishes after the Hugo Award ceremony at WorldCon. The Long List Anthology Volume 2 collects 18 fiction stories from that nomination list, along with 2 essays from the book Letters to Tiptree that was also on the nomination list, totaling over 500 pages of fiction by writers from all corners of the world. Within these pages you will find a mix of science fiction and fantasy and horror, the dramatic and the lighthearted, from android caretakers to Lovecraftian romances, from adventures to quests and more. There is a wide variety of styles and types of stories here, and something for everyone. The stories included are: "Damage" by David D. Levine "Pockets" by Amal El-Mohtar "Today I Am Paul" by Martin L. Shoemaker "The Women You Didn't See" by Nicola Griffith (a letter from Letters to Tiptree) "Tuesdays With Molakesh the Destroyer" by Megan Grey "Wooden Feathers" by Ursula Vernon "Three Cups of Grief, By Starlight" by Aliette de Bodard "Madeleine" by Amal El-Mohtar "Neat Things" by Seanan McGuire (a letter from Letters To Tiptree) "Pocosin" by Ursula Vernon "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" by Alyssa Wong "So Much Cooking" by Naomi Kritzer "The Deepwater Bride" by Tamsyn Muir "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" by Elizabeth Bear "Grandmother-nai-Leylit's Cloth of Winds" by Rose Lemberg "Another Word For World" by Ann Leckie "The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild" by Catherynne M. Valente "Our Lady of the Open Road" by Sarah Pinsker "The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn" by Usman T. Malik "The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps" by Kai Ashante Wilson
Nevertheless, She Persisted: Flash Fiction Project
Diana M. PhoCatherynne M. Valente - 2020
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.
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelfth Annual Collection
Gardner DozoisEliot Fintushel - 1995
Le Guin40 • The Remoras • [The Great Ship Universe] • (1994) • novelette by Robert Reed65 • Nekropolis • (1994) • novelette by Maureen F. McHugh93 • Margin of Error • (1994) • shortstory by Nancy Kress98 • Cilia-of-Gold • (1994) • novelette by Stephen Baxter118 • Going After Old Man Alabama • (1994) • shortstory by William Sanders131 • Melodies of the Heart • (1994) • novella by Michael F. Flynn206 • The Hole in the Hole • [Wilson Wu and Irving • 1] • (1994) • novelette by Terry Bisson230 • Paris in June • (1994) • shortstory by Pat Cadigan243 • Flowering Mandrake • (1994) • novelette by George Turner273 • None So Blind • (1994) • shortstory by Joe Haldeman281 • Cocoon • (1994) • novelette by Greg Egan305 • Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge • [Birthright Universe] • (1994) • novella by Mike Resnick343 • Dead Space for the Unexpected • (1994) • shortstory by Geoff Ryman355 • Cri de Coeur • (1994) • novella by Michael Bishop402 • The Sawing Boys • (1994) • novelette by Howard Waldrop417 • The Matter of Seggri • (1994) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin446 • Ylem • (1994) • novelette by Eliot Fintushel465 • Asylum • (1994) • novella by Katharine Kerr492 • Red Elvis • (1994) • novelette by Walter Jon Williams507 • California Dreamer • (1994) • shortstory by Mary Rosenblum520 • Split Light • (1994) • shortstory by Lisa Goldstein531 • Les Fleurs Du Mal • [Biotech Revolution] • (1994) • novella by Brian Stableford585 • Honorable Mentions: 1994 • (1995) • essay by Gardner Dozois
At the Mouth of the River of Bees: Stories
Kij Johnson - 2012
These stories feature cats, bees, wolves, dogs, and even that most capricious of animals, humans, and have been reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, and The Secret History of Fantasy. Kij Johnson's stories have won the Sturgeon and World Fantasy awards. She has taught writing; worked at Tor, Dark Horse, and Microsoft; worked as a radio announcer; run bookstores; and waitressed in a strip bar.Contents:The Man Who Bridged the Mist (2011)Wolf Trapping (1989)The Empress Jingu Fishes (2004)The Bitey Cat (2012)Chenting, in the Land of the Dead (1999)My Wife Reincarnated as a Solitaire—Exposition on the Flaws in my Spouse's Character—The Nature of the Bird—The Possible Causes—Her Final Disposition (2007)Schrödinger's Cathouse (1993)Names for Water (2010)Fox Magic (1993)Spar (2009)The Horse Raiders (2000)26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss (2008)At the Mouth of the River of Bees (2003)The Evolution of Trickster Stories among the Dogs of North Park after the Change (2007)The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles (2009)Ponies (2010)
First Meetings in Ender's Universe
Orson Scott Card - 1999
In the years between the first two Bugger Wars, the Hegemony is desperate to recruit brilliant military commanders to repel the alien invasion. They may have found their man--or boy--in John Paul Wiggin....In "Teacher's Pest"-a novella written especially for this collection--a brilliant but arrogant John Paul Wiggin, now a university student, matches wits with an equally brilliant graduate student. "The Investment Counselor" is set after the end of the Bugger Wars. Banished from Earth and slandered as a mass murderer, twenty-year-old Andrew Wiggin wanders incognito from planet to planet as a fugitive--until a blackmailing tax inspector compromises his identity and threatens to expose Ender the Xeoncide. Also reprinted here is the original award-winning novella, "Ender's Game," which first appeared in 1977.
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year #11
Jonathan StrahanDaryl Gregory - 2017
With established names and new talent this diverse and ground-breaking collection will take the reader to the outer-reaches of space and the inner realms of humanity with stories of fantastical worlds and worlds that may still come to pass.ContentsIntroduction by Jonathan StrahanThe Future Is Blue / Catherynne M. ValenteMika Model / Paolo BacigalupiSpinning Silver / Naomi NovikTwo's Company (The First Law Universe) / Joe AbercrombieYou Make Pattaya / Rich LarsonYou'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay / Alyssa WongA Salvaging of Ghosts (Universe of Xuya) / Aliette de BodardEven the Crumbs Were Delicious / Daryl GregoryNumber Nine Moon / Alex IrvineThings with Beards / Sam J. MillerSuccessor, Usurper, Replacement / Alice Sola KimLaws of Night and Silk / Seth DickinsonTouring with the Alien / Carolyn Ives GilmanThe Great Detective (Cwmlech Manor #2) / Delia ShermanEveryone from Themis Sends Letters Home / Genevieve ValentineThose Shadows Laugh / Geoff RymanSeasons of Glass and Iron / Amal El-MohtarThe Art of Space Travel / Nina AllanWhisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9) / Caitlín R. KiernanRed Dirt Witch / N. K. JemisinRed as Blood and White as Bone / Theodora GossTerminal / Lavie TidharFoxfire, Foxfire / Yoon Ha LeeElves of Antarctica / Paul J. McAuleyThe Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight / E. Lily YuSeven Birthdays / Ken LiuThe Visitor from Taured / Ian R. MacLeodFable / Charles YuHonorable Mentions: 2016 -- essay
Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery
Jonathan StrahanGarth Nix - 2010
the Black Company ... Majipoor. For years, these have been some of the names that have captured the hearts of generations of readers and embodied the sword and sorcery genre. And now some of the most beloved and bestselling fantasy writers working today deliver stunning all-new sword and sorcery stories in an anthology of small stakes but high action, grim humor mixed with gritty violence, fierce monsters and fabulous treasures, and, of course, swordplay. Don't miss the adventure of the decade!Contents:- Introduction: Check Your Dark Lord at the Door by Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan- Goats of Glory by Steven Erikson- Tides Elba: A Tale of the Black Company by Glen Cook- Bloodsport by Gene Wolfe- The Singing Spear by James Enge- A Wizard in Wiscezan by C.J. Cherryh- A Rich Full Week by K.J. Parker- A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet by Garth Nix- Red Pearls: An Elric Story by Michael Moorcock- The Deification of Dal Bamore: A Tale from Echo City by Tim Lebbon- Dark Times at the Midnight Market by Robert Silverberg- The Undefiled by Greg Keyes- Hew the Tintmaster by Michael Shea- In the Stacks by Scott Lynch- Two Lions, a Witch, and the War-Robe by Tanith Lee- The Sea Troll's Daughter by Caitlín R. Kiernan- Thieves of Daring by Bill Willingham- The Fool Jobs by Joe Abercrombie