Hartwell's Year's Best series is a collection -- full of humor, drama, style, and surprises -- that never disappoints. Here are just some of the high points in the Sixth Edition. Contents ix • Introduction (Year's Best SF 6) • essay by David G. Hartwell 1 • Reef • (2000) • novelette by Paul J. McAuley 35 • Reality Check • (2000) • shortstory by David Brin 39 • The Millennium Express • (2000) • shortstory by Robert Silverberg 61 • Patient Zero • (2000) • shortstory by Tananarive Due 81 • The Oort Crowd • (2000) • shortstory by Ken MacLeod 85 • The Thing About Benny • (2000) • shortstory by M. Shayne Bell 95 • The Last Supper • (2000) • shortstory by Brian Stableford 113 • Tuberculosis Bacteria Join UN • (2000) • shortstory by Joan Slonczewski 117 • Our Mortal Span • (2000) • shortstory by Howard Waldrop 130 • Different Kinds of Darkness • [Blit] • (2000) • shortstory by David Langford 143 • New Ice Age, or Just Cold Feet? • (2000) • shortfiction by Norman Spinrad 147 • The Devotee • (2000) • novelette by Stephen Dedman 189 • The Marriage of Sky & Sea • (2000) • shortstory by Chris Beckett 210 • In the Days of the Comet • (2000) • shortstory by John M. Ford 214 • The Birthday of the World • (2000) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin 248 • Oracle • (2000) • novella by Greg Egan 303 • To Cuddle Amy • (2000) • shortstory by Nancy Kress 308 • Steppenpferd • (2000) • shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss 322 • Sheena 5 • [Manifold] • (2000) • shortstory by Stephen Baxter 343 • The Fire Eggs • (2000) • shortstory by Darrell Schweitzer 358 • The New Horla • (2000) • shortstory by Robert Sheckley 372 • Madame Bovary, C'est Moi • (2000) • shortstory by Dan Simmons 377 • Grandma's Jumpman • (2000) • shortstory by Robert Reed 398 • Bordeaux Mixture • (2000) • shortfiction by Henry Gee [as by Charles Dexter Ward ] 402 • The Dryad's Wedding • (2000) • novelette by Robert Charles Wilson 427 • Built Upon the Sands of Time • (2000) • shortstory by Michael F. Flynn 445 • Seventy-Two Letters • (2000) • novella by Ted Chiang

    Named after the migrant workers of America's Dust Bowl, these novels convey Blish's "history of the future," a brilliant and bleak look at a world where cities roam the Galaxy looking for work and a sustainable way of life.In the first novel, They Shall Have Stars, man has thoroughly explored the Solar System, yet the dream of going even further seems to have died in all but one man. His battle to realize his dream results in two momentous discoveries anti-gravity and the secret of immortality. In A Life for the Stars, it is centuries later and anti-gravity generations have enabled whole cities to lift off the surface of the earth to become galactic wanderers. In Earthman, Come Home, the nomadic cities revert to barbarism and marauding rogue cities begin to pose a threat to all civilized worlds. In the final novel, The Triumph of Time, history repeats itself as the cities once again journey back in to space making a terrifying discovery which could destroy the entire Universe. A serious and haunting vision of our world and its limits, Cities in Flight marks the return to print of one of science fiction's most inimitable writers.A Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club

    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?.

    S. Lewis’s adult religious books, a repackaged edition of the revered author’s definitive collection of short fiction, which explores enduring spiritual and science fiction themes such as space, time, reality, fantasy, God, and the fate of humankind.From C.S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—comes a collection of his dazzling short fiction.This collection of futuristic fiction includes a breathtaking science fiction story written early in his career in which Cambridge intellectuals witness the breach of space-time through a chronoscope—a telescope that looks not just into another world, but into another time. As powerful, inventive, and profound as his theological and philosophical works, The Dark Tower reveals another side of Lewis’s creative mind and his longtime fascination with reality and spirituality. It is ideal reading for fans of J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis’s longtime friend and colleague.

    Ranging from the poignant to the comical via the simply surreal, these selections include writing by Aldous Huxley, Martin Gardner, H.G. Wells, George Gamow, G.H. Hardy, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and many others. Humorous, mysterious, and always entertaining, this collection is sure to bring a smile to the faces of mathematicians and non-mathematicians alike.

    But he's keeping a secret that may unlock a darker destiny. FINAL REPORT “Entry One has been breached. Time to get this show on the road. They have no idea the kind of Hell I've prepared for them. May God have mercy on my soul.” MY FATHER’S SON A Delta Green agent with a mysterious past may learn more than he ever wanted to know when his current case leads where he never dared to go. THE DARK ABOVE In the face of madness and horror, two lonely Delta Green agents reach out to each other. Can they really afford such fragile bonds when the secrets of the night surf roll in? THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT An agent’s disappearance pulls a Delta Green team into a vortex of horror in this novel of personal apocalypse. The secrets they uncover threaten to ignite a war between the Delta Green conspiracy and its bitterest enemy, Majestic-12 — secrets buried within time itself. Foreword by Kenneth Hite.

    Rarely do they even leave their own rooms, in which all of their needs are met by the Machine. The Machine allows the humans to communicate "ideas" with one another, which is essentially their only activity. It doesn't stop them from leaving their rooms, but they have little desire to do so anyway. They've started to believe the Machine is omnipotent and omniscient, not to be questioned. And when it begins to malfunction, they trust that it knows what it's doing--forgetting they invented it in the first place . . .From the author of A Passage to India, A Room with a View, and other classic novels, and a sixteen-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, this remarkable science fiction story, which was included in a Science Fiction Hall of Fame anthology, was published in 1909--yet becomes more relevant and thought-provoking with each passing day of the twenty-first century.

    From strange goings-on in the present to explorations of bizarre futures, from drug-induced tragedy to time-hopping serial killers, from crucial choices in deepest space to a ravaged Earth under an alien thrall, from gritty other real worlds to surreal other realms, Solaris Rising delivers a broad spectrum of experiences and excitements, showcasing the genre at its very best.

    His assignment: to detect any signs of latent aggression in this planet’s population.To his astonishment, he finds that his own latent extrasensory powers have suddenly blossomed, and he is invited to join the company of “gods” on this planet.And people place certain expectations on their gods….

    This retrospective volume includes "All Summer in a Day,” Ray Bradbury’s lasting tale of what happened on one special day; "Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, describing what happened to Charlie Gordon when he was made into a genius; "Harrison Bergeron," Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist cautionary tale of mandatory equality; and "The Electric Ant" by Philip K. Dick, concerning what Garson Poole learned after the accident that hospitalized him. This remarkable collection also features some of the most highly acclaimed, award-winning authors, including Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison, Shirley Jackson, Peter S. Beagle, Karen Joy Fowler, Ursula K. Le Guin, Theodore Sturgeon, and Roger Zelazny. Hand-picked by the magazine’s current editor, this is an unmatched assemblage of appealing, first-rate fiction.ContentsIntroduction by Gordon Van Gelder"Of Time and Third Avenue" by Alfred Bester"All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury"One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts" by Shirley Jackson"A Touch of Strange" by Theodore Sturgeon"Eastward ho!" by William Tenn"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut"This Moment of the Storm" by Roger Zelazny"The Electric Ant" by Philip K. Dick"The Deathbird" by Harlan Ellison"The Women Men Don't See" by James Tiptree, Jr."I See You" by Damon Knight"The Gunslinger" by Stephen King"The Dark" by Karen Joy Fowler"Buffalo" by John Kessel"Solitude" by Ursula K. Le Guin"Mother Grasshopper" by Michael Swanwick"macs" by Terry Bisson"Creation" by Jeffrey Ford"Other People" by Neil Gaiman"Two Hearts" by Peter S. Beagle"Journey into the Kingdom" by M. Rickert"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang

    Hartwell. From some of the most renowned visionaries of contemporary SF -- as well as new writers who are already making an indelible mark -- comes an all-new compendium of unparalleled tales of the possible that will enthrall, astonish, terrify, and elate. Stories of strange worlds and mind-boggling futures, of awesome discoveries and apocalyptic disasters, of universes light years distant and deep within the human consciousness, are collected here as SF's brightest lights shine more radiantly than ever before.

    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.

    

    Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'] follows a path as indirect and elusive as its multiple narrative voices. With its obliquely recorded incidents, its eyewitness accounts and sealed confessions, it resembles...a [police detective's] casebook--a collection of gathered clues, fragments, through which the clever detective may be able to...project a complete narrative. Perhaps one of the most compelling aspects of this novel [of ten chapters] is that, in fact, there's so much left here for [the reader] to fill in, so many scenes that [the reader] can only imagine. Such a structure creates fertile ground for allegory [a story with symbolic meaning] hunters, and there are indeed many convincing interpretations of this novel.

    In a society revolutionised by a device that lets you walk through a door and be anywhere in the world - instantly...At a time when unauthorised travel has caused millions to die violent deaths...In a world where invasion of privacy is the ultimate crime...He is 'The Visitor'