Hartwell returns with this fifth annual collection of the year's most imaginative, entertaining, and mind-expanding science fiction.Here are works from some of today's most acclaimed authors, as well as visionary new talents, that will introduce you to new ideas, offer unusual perspectives, and take you to places beyond your wildest imaginings. Contents ix • Introduction (Year's Best SF 3) • (1998) • essay by David G. Hartwell 1 • Petting Zoo • (1997) • short story by Gene Wolfe 9 • The Wisdom of Old Earth • (1997) • short story by Michael Swanwick 23 • The Firefly Tree • (1997) • short story by Jack Williamson 29 • Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City • (1997) • short story by William Gibson 41 • The Nostalginauts • (1997) • short story by Sharon N. Farber [as by S. N. Dyer ] 53 • Guest Law • (1997) • novelette by John C. Wright 77 • The Voice • (1997) • short story by Gregory Benford 95 • Yeyuka • (1997) • short story by Greg Egan 117 • An Office Romance • (1997) • short story by Terry Bisson 135 • Itsy Bitsy Spider • (1997) • short story by James Patrick Kelly 151 • Beauty in the Night • (1997) • novelette by Robert Silverberg 197 • Mr. Pale • (1997) • short story by Ray Bradbury 205 • The Pipes of Pan • (1997) • novelette by Brian Stableford 233 • Always True to Thee, in My Fashion • (1997) • short story by Nancy Kress 249 • Canary Land • (1997) • novelette by Tom Purdom 277 • Universal Emulators • (1997) • short story by Tom Cool 295 • Fair Verona • (1997) • novelette by R. Garcia y Robertson 331 • Great Western • (1997) • novelette by Kim Newman 363 • Turnover • (1997) • short story by Geoffrey A. Landis 369 • The Mendelian Lamp Case • [Dr Phil D'Amato] • (1997) • novelette by Paul Levinson 415 • Kiss Me • (1997) • short story by Katherine MacLean 421 • London Bone • (1997) • novelette by Michael Moorcock

    Martin and Gardner Dozois, with the full cooperation of Jack Vance, his family, and his agents, suggest a Jack Vance tribute anthology called Songs of the Dying Earth, to encourage the best of today's fantasy writers to return to the unique and evocative milieu of The Dying Earth, from which they and so many others have drawn so much inspiration, to create their own brand-new adventures in the world of Jack Vance s greatest novel.Half a century ago, Jack Vance created the world of the Dying Earth, and fantasy has never been the same. Now, for the first time ever, Jack has agreed to open this bizarre and darkly beautiful world to other fantasists, to play in as their very own. To say that other fantasy writers are excited by this prospect is a gross understatement; one has told us that he'd crawl through broken glass for the chance to write for the anthology, another that he'd gladly give up his right arm for the privilege that's the kind of regard in which Jack Vance and The Dying Earth are held by generations of his peers.

    Simak's "City" is a series of connected stories, a series of legends, myths, and campfire stories told by Dogs about the end of human civilization, centering on the Webster family, who, among their other accomplishments, designed the ships that took Men to the stars and gave Dogs the gift of speech and robots to be their hands.Contents:· City · May 1944 · Huddling Place · Jul 1944 · Census · Sep 1944 · Desertion · Nov 1944 · Paradise · Jun 1946 · Hobbies · Nov 1946 · Aesop · Dec 1947 · The Simple Way [The Trouble with Ants] · Jan 1951.

    and the overstressed crew prepares for a direct assault by a deadly insectoid race. But the pressures of combat and close quarters have taken their toll, threatening to turn the crew to the enemy's prime advantage.

    Exotic beasts and improbable travelers roam restlessly through these darkly diverting and finely honed tales.In “The Situation,” a beleaguered office worker creates a child-swallowing manta-ray to be used for educational purposes (once described as Dilbert meets Gormenghast). In “Three Days in a Border Town,” a sharpshooter seeks the truth about her husband in an elusive floating city beyond a far-future horizon; “Errata” follows an oddly familiar writer who has marshaled a penguin, a shaman, and two pearl-handled pistols with which to plot the end of the world. Also included are two stories original to this collection, including “The Quickening,” in which a lonely child is torn between familial obligation and loyalty to a maligned talking rabbit.Chimerical and hypnotic, VanderMeer leads readers through the postmodern into a new literature of the imagination.

    Le Guin has created a profound and transformational literature. The award-winning stories in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea range from the everyday to the outer limits of experience, where the quantum uncertainties of space and time are resolved only in the depths of the human heart. Astonishing in their diversity and power, they exhibit both the artistry of a major writer at the height of her powers and the humanity of a mature artist confronting the world with her gift of wonder still intact.A Fisherman of the Inland Sea containsAnother Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea • [Hainish]Dancing to Ganam • [Hainish] Introduction: On Not Reading Science Fiction Newton's Sleep The Ascent of the North FaceThe First Contact with the GorgonidsThe KerastionThe Rock That Changed ThingsThe Shobies' Story • [Hainish]

    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?

    That version contains a new introduction by Bradley and one additional story.1 • Centaurus Changeling • (1954)50 • The Climbing Wave • (1955)121 • Exiles of Tomorrow • (1955)128 • Death Between the Stars • (1956)146 • Bird of Prey • (1957)181 • The Wind People • (1959)199 • The Wild One • (1960)215 • Treason of the Blood • (1962)231 • The Jewel of Arwen • (1973)241 • The Day of the Butterflies • (1976)253 • Hero's Moon • (1976)277 • The Engine • (1977)283 • The Secret of the Blue Star • (1979)303 • To Keep the Oath • (1979)331 • Elbow Room • (1980)349 • Blood Will Tell • (1980)

    In these and other thought-provoking stories, legendary author Harlan Ellison dissects the primal fears and inherent frailties common to all people and gives voice to the thoughts and feelings human beings bury deep within their souls. Unflinching and unapologetic, Ellison depicts men and women in all their ugliness and beauty, and humanity in all its fury and glory. Stories include “Introduction: Mortal Dreads,” “Jeffty Is Five,” “How’s the Night Life on Cissalda?,” “Flop Sweat,” “Would You Do it For a Penny?” (written in collaboration with Haskell Barkin), “The Man Who Was Heavily Into Revenge,” “Shoppe Keeper,” “All the Lies That Are My Life,” “Django,” “Count the Clock That Tells the Time,” “In the Fourth Year of the War,” “Alive and Well on a Friendless Voyage,” “All the Birds Come Home to Roost,” “Opium,” “The Other Eye of Polyphemus,” “The Executioner of the Malformed Children,” and “Shatterday.”

    Now some of the most fertile imaginations in speculative fiction offer bold and breathtaking visions of "what's out there" and "what's next" in the eleventh annual celebration of the very best short SF to appear over the past year.Once again, acclaimed editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have compiled an extraordinary collection featuring stunning works from modern masters as well as dazzling gems from brilliant new talents -- tales that carry the reader to the far corners of the galaxy and beyond, into hitherto unexplored regions. Get ready to take glorious flight on a journey to the miraculous.Contentsxi • Introduction (Year's Best SF 11) • (2006) • essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer1 • New Hope for the Dead • (2005) • shortstory by David Langford5 • Deus Ex Homine • (2005) • shortstory by Hannu Rajaniemi22 • When the Great Days Came • (2005) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois [as by Gardner R. Dozois ]29 • Second Person, Present Tense • (2005) • novelette by Daryl Gregory54 • Dreadnought • (2005) • shortstory by Justina Robson58 • A Case of Consilience • (2005) • shortstory by Ken MacLeod73 • Toy Planes • (2005) • shortstory by Tobias S. Buckell77 • Mason's Rats • [Mason's Rats] • (1992) • shortstory by Neal Asher (variant of Mason's Rats I)85 • A Modest Proposal • (2005) • shortstory by Vonda N. McIntyre89 • Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch • (2005) • shortstory by Rudy Rucker106 • The Forever Kitten • (2005) • shortstory by Peter F. Hamilton111 • City of Reason • [Homesteader/Coordinator Group • 3] • (2005) • novelette by Matthew Jarpe136 • Ivory Tower • (2005) • shortstory by Bruce Sterling140 • Sheila • (2005) • shortstory by Lauren McLaughlin156 • Rats of the System • (2005) • shortstory by Paul J. McAuley [as by Paul McAuley ]176 • I Love Liver: A Romance • (2005) • shortstory by Larissa Lai180 • The Edge of Nowhere • (2005) • novelette by James Patrick Kelly207 • What's Expected of Us • (2005) • shortstory by Ted Chiang211 • Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play • [Darger and Surplus] • (2005) • novelette by Michael Swanwick241 • Lakes of Light • [Xeelee] • (2005) • novelette by Stephen Baxter262 • The Albian Message • (2005) • shortstory by Oliver Morton266 • Bright Red Star • (2005) • shortstory by Bud Sparhawk281 • Third Day Lights • (2005) • novelette by Alaya Dawn Johnson305 • Ram Shift Phase 2 • (2005) • shortstory by Greg Bear310 • On the Brane • (2004) • novelette by Gregory Benford330 • Oxygen Rising • (2005) • novelette by R. Garcia y Robertson377 • And Future King . . . • (2005) • shortstory by Adam Roberts387 • Beyond the Aquila Rift • (2005) • novelette by Alastair Reynolds425 • Angel of Light • (2005) • shortstory by Joe Haldeman435 • Ikiryoh • (2005) • shortstory by Liz Williams448 • I, Robot • (2005) • novelette by Cory Doctorow

    . . A fighter leads his band of virtual warriors, thieves, and wizards across a deadly computer-generated landscape . . . A company outsources grief for profit, their tagline: "Don't feel like having a bad day? Let someone else have it for you."

    Fans and critics call their world cyberpunk. Here is the definitive "cyberpunk" short fiction collection.Contents:The Gernsback Continuum (1981) by William GibsonSnake-Eyes (1986) by Tom MaddoxRock On (1984) by Pat CadiganTales of Houdini (1981) by Rudy Rucker400 Boys (1983) by Marc LaidlawSolstice (1985) by James Patrick KellyPetra (1982) by Greg BearTill Human Voices Wake Us (1984) by Lewis ShinerFreezone (1985) by John ShirleyStone Lives (1985) by Paul Di FilippoRed Star, Winter Orbit (1983) by William Gibson and Bruce SterlingMozart in Mirrorshades (1984) by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner

     The Hugo Award-winning author of such groundbreaking and innovative novels as "Accelerando, Halting State," and "Saturn's Children" delivers a rich selection of speculative fiction- including a novella original to this volume- brought together for the first time in one collection, showcasing the limitless imagination of one of the twenty-first century's most daring visionaries.

    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.

    The mightily thewed warrior trip is one of these. People like Ursula Le Guin, Joanna Russ, Kate Wilhelm ... are making that seem hideously ridiculous' - Harlan EllisonIn Women of Wonder, Pamela Sargent has assembled a collection of amazing stories which show that some of the most exciting and innovative writing in science fiction is being produced by women.Women in Science Fiction (1975) essay by Pamela SargentThe Child Dreams (1975) poem by Sonya DormanThat Only a Mother (1948) story by Judith MerrilContagion (1950) novelette by Katherine MacLeanThe Wind People (1959) story by Marion Zimmer BradleyThe Ship Who Sang (1961) novelette by Anne McCaffreyWhen I Was Miss Dow (1966) story by Sonya DormanThe Food Farm (1967) story by Kit ReedBaby, You Were Great (1967) story by Kate WilhelmSex &/or Mr. Morrison (1967) story by Carol EmshwillerVaster Than Empires & More Slow (1971) novelette by Ursula K. Le GuinFalse Dawn (1972) story by Chelsea Quinn YarbroNobody's Home (1972) story by Joanna RussOf Mist, & Grass, & Sand (1973) novelette by Vonda N. McIntyreCover illustration by Candy Amsden.