- Patrick Ness

    Humans are engaged in a long war against an advanced alien race, the Senexi, but the possibility for peace may exist thanks to a young girl who learns the enemy's larger role and humanity's opportunity to evolve.

    Some stories have won awards; some have been included in various 'Year's Best' anthologies; some have been well reviewed by critics and readers; and some are simply Ken's personal favorites. Many of the authors collected here (with the obvious exception of Liu Cixin) belong to the younger generation of 'rising stars'.In addition, three essays at the end of the book explore Chinese science fiction. Liu Cixin's essay, The Worst of All Possible Universes and The Best of All Possible Earths, gives a historical overview of SF in China and situates his own rise to prominence as the premier Chinese author within that context. Chen Qiufan's The Torn Generation gives the view of a younger generation of authors trying to come to terms with the tumultuous transformations around them. Finally, Xia Jia, who holds the first Ph.D. issued for the study of Chinese SF, asks What Makes Chinese Science Fiction Chinese?.

    A novella in the Terms of Enlistment universe.

    The hearth, he claims, was caused by a meteorite that fell onto the farmer’s field in 1882.“The Color Out of SPAAACE” is one of H.P. Lovecraft’s best-loved and most critically acclaimed stories. According to the author, it was also his personal favorite. It has been adapted twice for film; first in 1967 and later in 1987.HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.

    Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF.Now, collected here for the first time are all seven of this extraordinary writer's stories so far-plus an eighth story written especially for this volume.What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven-and broke through to Heaven's other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? What if all the beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity were literally true, and the sight of sinners being swallowed into fiery pits were a routine event on city streets? These are the kinds of outrageous questions posed by the stories of Ted Chiang. Stories of your life . . . and others.

    A. Corey . . . Somewhere in the vast expanse of space, a group of prisoners lives in permanent captivity.The only company they have is each other and the Belters who guard them. The only stories they know are the triumphs and crimes that brought them there. The only future they see is an empty life in an enormous room.And then the man from Mars came along . . .Set in the hard-scrabble solar system of the Expanse, The Vital Abyss deepens James S. A. Corey's acclaimed series.

    and so, they knew, were the Aliens. When two expanding empires meet... war is inevitable. Or is it...?

    But soon the program's newest recipients, Salima--a young woman recently released from a refugee camp in Arizona--and her friends with similiar backgrounds, discover themselves living in a technologically fortified parallel universe.Not only are the elevators digitally programmed to economically discriminate against the building's tenants (the low-income residents can only use the elevators if they're not occupied by anyone from the wealthy side of the building), but the apartments' appliances are designed to extract revenue. The fridge won't chill unauthorized groceries. The toaster won't toast unauthorized bread.When hedge funds tank the companies behind these electronic "conveniences," they stop working altogether. Salima then takes it upon herself to lead a dangerous jailbreaking underground, training a child army that liberates the building's appliances, even those hated elevators. However, the stakes rise when the group finds themselves faced with the danger of losing everything they've built and being deported back to their war-torn countries.

    Featuring new fiction by Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu), Sam J. Miller, Amal El-Mohtar, Richard Bowes, and Sunny Moraine, classic fiction by Ann Leckie, essays by Jim C. Hines, Erika McGillivray, Michi Trota, and Keidra Chaney, poetry by Isabel Yap, Mari Ness, and Rose Lemberg, interviews with Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu) and Ann Leckie, by Deborah Stanish, a cover by Julie Dillon, and an editoral by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas. Contents:FictionThe Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History by Sam J. MillerFolding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken LiuLove Letters to Things Lost and Gained by Sunny MoraineAnyone With a Care for Their Image by Richard BowesPockets by Amal El–MohtarThe Nalendar by Ann LeckiePoetryAfter the Moon Princess Leaves by Isabel YapAfter the Dance by Mari Nessarchival testimony fragments / minersong by Rose LembergEditorialsThe Uncanny Valley by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian ThomasEssaysThank You, Again, Kickstarter Backers!The Politics of Comfort by Jim C. HinesAge of the Geek, Baby by Michi TrotaThe Evolution of Nerd Rock by Keidra ChaneyThe Future’s Been Here Since 1939: Female Fans, Cosplay, and Conventions by Erica McGillivrayInterviewsInterview: Hao Jingfang by Deborah Stanish, translated by Ken LiuInterview: Ann Leckie by Deborah Stanish

    Clarke award-winning Adrian TchaikovskyMy name is Gary Rendell. I’m an astronaut. When they asked me as a kid what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, “astronaut, please!” I dreamed astronaut, I worked astronaut, I studied astronaut.I got lucky; when a probe sent out to explore the Oort Cloud found a strange alien rock and an international team of scientists was put together to go and look at it, I made the draw.I got even luckier. When disaster hit and our team was split up, scattered through the endless cold tunnels, I somehow survived.Now I’m lost, and alone, and scared, and there’s something horrible in here.Lucky me.Lucky, lucky, lucky.

    A short story about the universe and your place in it.

    . .[Clark] handles both ideas and characters with deftness and wit; in short, the outstanding living science fiction writers is romping".-- "Chicago Sun-Times". In the year 2110 technology has cured most of our worries. But even as humankind enters a new golden age, an amateur astronomer points his telescope at just the right corner of the night sky and sees disaster hurtling toward Earth: a chunk of rock that could annihilate civilization. While a few fanatics welcome the apocalyptic destruction as a sign from God, the greatest scientific minds of Earth desperately search for a way to avoid the inevitable. On board the starship Goliath Captain Robert Singh and his crew must race against time to redirect the meteor form its deadly collision course. Suddenly they find themselves on the most important mission in human history--a mission whose success may require the ultimate sacrifice."Clarke is still at the top of his game".-- "The Detroit News"."As good as any anything he's written. . .for a hard-science-fiction treat, I suspect "The Hammer Of God" won't be topped".-- "Star Tribune", Minneapolis."Classic Clarke. . .a good story".-- "The Denver Post".

    These carpets are made from the hairs of wives and daughters; they are so detailed and fragile that each carpetmaker finishes only one single carpet in his entire lifetime.This art descends from father to son, since the beginning of time itself.But one day the empire of the God Emperor vanishes, and strangers begin to arrive from the stars to follow the trace of the hair carpets. What these strangers discover is beyond all belief, more than anything they could have ever imagined...Brought to the attention of Tor Books by Orson Scott Card, this edition of The Carpet Makers contains a special introduction by Orson Scott Card.

    Quarrels are made in an apartment flat, baijiu is served in a state of surveillance, chow mein alternates with autonomous cars, and a girl has to choose between romance and money. It’s poignant how Beijing is divided into three segments that decides life for its 80 million citizens, and separates them — even physically — into the working, professional, and ruling class, in which ones birth determines ones future. This alone is an eerie parallel to today, where people are increasingly divided, and inhabiting different worlds within the same space — a parallel in which education, fresh air and nutritious food — and even sunlight — become luxuries, just like designer clothing and jewellery. Hao Jingfang’s writing, translated by Ken Liu, is poetic and clean, and carries a political message. It’s science-fictional, but it is the timelessness that gives this story its elegance.