How to Talk to Girls at Parties


Neil Gaiman - 2007
    "It'll be great.""No, it won't," I said, although I'd lost this fight hours ago, and I knew it."It'll be brilliant," said Vic, for the hundredth time. "Girls! Girls! Girls!" He grinned with white teeth.

Waylaid


Kim Harrison - 2016
    The magic of the Hollows runs full force into the technological sophistication of The Drafter when a device capable of carrying a city’s data stream pulls Rachel, the bounty hunter witch of the Hollows, between realities, marooning her in a world where the supernatural holds no sway. To get Rachel and Jenks home, Peri, the dangerous renegade of 2030, must decide what will chart her future: her blind trust in those who grant her power, or her intuition telling her to believe.

The Lady Astronaut of Mars


Mary Robinette Kowal - 2012
    For years she's been longing to go back up there, to once more explore the stars. But there are few opportunities for an aging astronaut, even the famous Lady Astronaut of Mars. When her chance finally comes, it may be too late. Elma must decide whether to stay with her sickening husband in what will surely be the final years of his life, or to have her final adventure and plunge deeper into the well of space.

This World is Full of Monsters


Jeff VanderMeer - 2017
    An alien invasion comes to one man’s doorstep in the form of a story-creature, followed by death and rebirth in a transformed Earth.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A Memory of Wind


Rachel Swirsky - 2009
    To fill their sails and set out, they must sacrifice Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia—and how does a human girl become the wind? The starkness and psychological insight of Rachel Swirsky's Tor.com story earned it a place among the finalists for the 2010 Nebula Award.Rachel Swirsky's short fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, and Subterranean Magazine, among others, and has been collected in Year's Best anthologies edited by Rich Horton, Jonathan Strahan, and the VanderMeers. She is also the submissions editor of Podcastle, an audio fantasy magazine.

Brave New Worlds


John Joseph AdamsNeil Gaiman - 2010
    Brave New Worlds brings together the best dystopian fiction of the last 30 years, demonstrating the diversity that flourishes in this compelling subgenre. This landmark tome contains stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Cory Doctorow, M. Rickert, Paolo Bacigalupi, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and many others.Table of ContentsIntroduction / John Joseph Adams --Lottery / Shirley Jackson --Red card / S.L. Gilbow --Ten with a flag / Joseph Paul Haines --Ones who walk away from Omelas / Ursula K. Le. Guin --Evidence of love in a case of abandonment / M. Rickert --The Funeral / Kate Wilhelm --O happy day! / Geoff Ryman --Pervert / Charles Coleman Finlay --From homogeneous to honey / Neil Gaiman & Bryan Talbot --Billennium / J.G. Ballard --Amaryllis / Carrie Vaughn --Pop squad / Paolo Bacigalupi --Auspicious eggs / James Morrow --Peter Skilling / Alex Irvine --The Pedestrian / Ray Bradbury --Things that make me weak and strange get engineered away / Cory Doctorow --Pearl diver / Caitlin R. Kiernan --Dead space for the unexpected / Geoff Ryman --"Repent harlequin!", said the Ticktockman / Harlan Ellison --Is this your day to join the revolution? / Genevieve Valentine --Independence day / Sarah Langan --Lunatics / Kim Stanley Robinson --Sacrament / Matt Williamson --Minority report / Philip K. Dick --Just do it / Heather Lindsley --Harrison Bergeron / Kurt Vonnegut Jr. --Caught in the organ draft / Robert Silverberg --Geriatric ward / Orson Scott Card --Arties aren't stupid / Jeremiah Tolbert --Jordan's waterhammer / Joe Mastroianni --Of a sweet slow dance in the wake of temporary dogs / Adam-Troy Castro --Resistance / Tobias S. Buckell --Civilization / Vylar Kaftan.

The Egg


Andy Weir - 2009
    A short story about the universe and your place in it.

Keeper of Dreams: Short Fiction


Orson Scott Card - 2008
    Keeper of Dreams contains 22 stories written since 1990.From the opening science fiction tale, "The Elephants of Poznan," we see the hand of a master at work making a familiar idea new, strange, and wonderful. "Angles" takes a sideways look at alternate universes. "Geriatric Ward" is published here for the first time; it was originally written for the legendary Last Dangerous Visions.Keeper of Dreams contains science fiction, fantasy, and several of Card's mainstream fiction works. Included are two tales from the Alvin Maker universe, "Grinning Man" and "The Yazoo Queen."In addition to the stories, this book features new introductions by Orson Scott Card for each story, with commentary on his life and work. With the earlier Maps in a Mirror, this collection is a definitive retrospective of the short fiction career of the writer that the Houston Post called "the best writer science fiction has to offer."• Preface (Keeper of Dreams) • essay by Orson Scott Card• The Elephants of Poznan • (2000)• Atlantis • (1992)• Geriatric Ward• Heal Thyself • (1999)• Space Boy • juvenile • (2006)• Angles • (2002)• Vessel • (1999)• Dust • (2002)• Homeless in Hell • (2002)• In the Dragon's House • (2003)• Inventing Lovers on the Phone • (2003)• Waterbaby • (2000)• Keeper of Lost Dreams • (2004)• Missed• 50 WPM • (2002)• Feed the Baby of Love • (1991)• Grinning Man • [The Alvin Maker Saga] • (1998)• The Yazoo Queen • [The Alvin Maker Saga] • (2003)• Notes on the Mormon Stories • essay by Orson Scott Card• Christmas at Helaman's House• Neighbors• God Plays Fair Once Too Often• Worthy to Be One of Us

The Thing in the Attic


James Blish - 1954
    In their exile on the ground they have to adapt to vastly different circumstances, fight monsters resembling dinosaurs, and finally happen upon the godly giants, whose existence they had questioned.

Christmas in the Kitchen


Nalini Singh - 2012
    A short story about life in the DarkRiver pack. Timeline: Takes place some time before Bonds of Justice.This story can be found on Nalini Singh's official website.

Axiomatic


Greg Egan - 1990
    Contents:The Infinite Assassin (1991)The Hundred Light-Year Diary (1992)Eugene (1990)The Caress (1990)Blood Sisters (1991)Axiomatic (1990)The Safe-Deposit Box (1990)Seeing (1995)A Kidnapping (1995)Learning to Be Me (1990)The Moat (1991)The Walk (1992)The Cutie (1989)Into Darkness (1992)Appropriate Love (1991)The Moral Virologist (1990)Closer (1992)Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies (1992)

You Have Arrived at Your Destination


Amor Towles - 2019
    Discover a bold new way to raise a child in this unsettling story of the near future by the New York Times bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow.When Sam’s wife first tells him about Vitek, a twenty-first-century fertility lab, he sees it as the natural next step in trying to help their future child get a “leg up” in a competitive world. But the more Sam considers the lives that his child could lead, the more he begins to question his own relationships and the choices he has made in his life.Amor Towles’s You Have Arrived at Your Destination is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas


Ursula K. Le Guin - 1973
    Some inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness.The story "Omelas" was first published in New Dimensions 3, a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973, and the following year it won Le Guin the prestigious Hugo Award for best short story.It was subsequently printed in her short story collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters in 1975.

Proto Zoa


Lois McMaster Bujold - 2011
    Bujold’s "work remains among the most enjoyable and rewarding in contemporary SF” – Publishers WeeklyContains "Barter", which was first published in The Twilight Zone Magazine, March/April 1985. "Garage Sale", which was first published in American Fantasy, Spring 1987. "The Hole Truth", first published in The Twilight Zone Magazine, December 1986. "Dreamweaver's Dilemma", first published in Dreamweaver's Dilemma, 1995. "Aftermaths" (epilogue to Shards of Honor), which first appeared in Far Frontiers, Vol. V, Spring 1986.

Raven


Lauren Oliver - 2013
    When she and the baby are taken in by a band of rebels, Raven finds herself an outsider within a tight-knit group. The only other newcomer is an untrustworthy boy known as the Thief until he finally earns himself a new name: Tack.Now she and Tack are inseparable, committed to each other, the fledgling rebellion, and a future together. But as they both take center stage in the fight, Raven must decide whether the dangers of the revolution are worth risking her dreams of a peaceful life with Tack.As her story hurtles back and forth between past and present, Raven transforms from a scared girl newly arrived in the Wilds to the tough leader who helps Lena save former Deliria-Free poster boy Julian Fineman from a death sentence. Whatever the original mission may have been, Raven abides by a conviction that she believes to her core: You always return for the people you love.By turns surprising, revelatory, and poignant, Raven’s story enriches the Delirium world and resonates with a voice that is as vulnerable as it is strong.