The stories in Federations will continue that tradition. What are the social/religious/environmental/technological implications of living in such a vast society? What happens when expansionist tendencies on a galactic scale come into conflict with the indigenous peoples of other planets, of other races? And what of the issue of communicating across such distances, or the problems caused by relativistic travel? These are just some of the questions and issues that the stories in Federations will take on.Contents:Introduction / John Joseph Adams --Mazer in prison / Orson Scott Card --Carthago delenda est / Genevieve Valentine --Life-suspension / L.E. Modesitt, Jr. --Terra-exulta / S.L. Gilbow --Aftermaths / Lois McMaster Bujold --Someone is stealing the great throne rooms of the galaxy / Harry Turtledove --Prisons / Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason --Different day / K. Tempest Bradford --Twilight of the gods / John C. Wright --Warship / George R.R. Martin and George Guthridge --Swanwatch / Yoon Ha Lee --Spirey and the queen / Alastair Reynolds --Pardon our conquest / Alan Dean Foster --Symbiont / Robert Silverberg --Ship who returned / Anne McCaffrey --My she / Mary Rosenblum --Shoulders of giants / Robert J. Sawyer --Culture archivist / Jeremiah Tolbert --Other side of Jordan / Allen Steele --Like they always been free / Georgina Li --Eskhara / Trent Hergenrader --One with the interstellar group consciousnesses / James Alan Gardner --Golubash, or wine-blood-war-elegy / Catherynne M. Valente

    "New York Times "bestselling authors Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Carrie Ryan, Beth Revis, and Jane Yolen are among the many popular and award-winning storytellers lending their talents to this original and spellbinding anthology. Introduction by Genevieve ValentineThe SegmentAfter the Cure by Carrie RyanValedictorian by N. K. JemisinVisiting Nelson by Katherine LangrishAll I Know of Freedom by Carol EmshwillerThe Other Elder by Beth RevisThe Great Game at the End of the World by Matthew KresselReunion by Susan Beth PfefferBlood Drive by Jeffrey FordReality Girl by Richard BowesHow Th’irth Wint Rong by Hapless Joey @ Homeskool.guv by Richard BowesRust with Wings by Steven GouldFaint Heart by Sarah Rees BrennanThe Easthound by Nalo HopkinsonGray by Jane YolenBefore by Carolyn DunnFake Plastic Trees by Caitlín R. KiernanYou Won’t Feel a Thing by Garth NixThe Marker by Cecil Castellucci

    Melding supernatural horror with hardboiled noir, espionage, and a scientific backbone, Barron’s stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards.Barron returns with his third collection, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. Collecting interlinking tales of sublime cosmic horror, including “Blackwood’s Baby”, “The Carrion Gods in Their Heaven”, and “The Men from Porlock”, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All delivers enough spine-chilling horror to satisfy even the most jaded reader.

    Here for the first time are his short stories and other short form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen charts the course of Pratchett's long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press,; to the origins of his debut novel, The Carpet People; and on again to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series.Here are characters both familiar and yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds and others still expanding; adventure, chickens, death, disco and, actually, some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas,all of it shot through with his inimitable brand of humour.With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt, illustrations by the late Josh Kirby and drawings by the author himself, this is a book to treasure.

    The magic mirror sees all but can do nothing. A cloned savior solves a fanatically-inspired murder. Three Irish siblings thieve treasures with bad poetry and the aid of the Queen of Cats.With these captivating initial glimpses into her storytelling psyche, Jo Walton shines through subtle myths and reinvented realities. Through eclectic stories, subtle vignettes, inspired poetry, and more, Walton soars with humans, machines, and magic—rising from the every day into the universe itself.

    Also included is an introduction by Herbert describing his personal feelings about the filming of David Lynch's movie version of Dune; Herbert's own favorite short story, Seed Stock and tales from throughout his career, some never before collected.

    Few authors have matched the versatility and stylishness of Walter Jon Williams. His genre-defining novels have received wide critical acclaim and captured the rapt attention of fans worldwide. He has been nominated for every major SF award. The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories contains nine bleeding-edge tales showcasing Williams’ flexibility, power-chord storytelling, and engagingly human and post-human characters. From Walter Jon Williams, author of more than twenty novels, including This Is Not a Game, Implied Spaces, and the definitive cyberpunk novel Hardwired, comes The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, a stunning collection of short fiction including the Nebula Award-winning stories “Daddy’s World” and “The Green Leopard Plague,” and featuring an introduction by Charles Stross, plus in-depth story notes.

    Peter Hamilton takes us on a journey from a murder mystery in an alternative Oxford in the 1800s to a story featuring Paula Myo, Deputy Director of the Intersolar Commonwealth's Serious Crimes Directorate.

    This is only the start, and the close of the 21st century will look absolutely nothing like its inception. It has been said that science fiction is an ongoing dialogue about the future, and the front line of that dialogue is the short story. The field has a long history of producing famous anthologies to showcase its distinguished short fiction, but it has been several years since there has been a prestigious all-original science fiction anthology series. Fast Forward is offered in the tradition of Damon Knight’s prestigious and influential anthology series, Orbit, and Frederik Pohl’s landmark Star SF. Fast Forward marks the start of a new hard science fiction anthology series, dedicated to presenting the vanguard of the genre and charting the undiscovered country that is the future. Contributors scheduled for the first volume include:Robert Charles Wilson - YFL-500Justina Robson - The Girl Hero's Mirror Says He's Not the OnePaolo Bacigalupi - Small OfferingsRobyn Hitchcock - They Came From the FutureKage Baker - Plotters and ShootersTony Ballantyne - Aristotle OSElizabeth Bear - The Something-Dreaming GameStephen Baxter - No More StoriesA.M. Dellamonica - Time of the SnakeLarry Niven and Brenda Cooper - The Terror BardLouise Marley - p dolceKen MacLeod - Jesus Christ, ReanimatorMike Resnick and Nancy Kress - Solomon's ChoiceIan McDonald - Sanjeev and RobotwallahPamela Sargent - A Smaller GovernmentMary A. Turzillo - PrideRobyn Hitchcock - I Caught IntelligenceGeorge Zebrowski - SettlementsGene Wolfe - The Hour of the SheepJohn Meaney - Sideways from NowPaul Di Filippo - Wikiworld

    What if life was neverending? What if you could change your body to adapt to an alien ecology? What if the pope were a robot? Spanning galaxies and millennia, this must-have anthology showcases classic contributions from H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia E. Butler, and Kurt Vonnegut, alongside a century of the eccentrics, rebels, and visionaries who have inspired generations of readers. Within its pages, you'll find beloved worlds of space opera, hard SF, cyberpunk, the New Wave, and more. Learn about the secret history of science fiction, from titans of literature who also wrote SF to less well-known authors from more than twenty-five countries, some never before translated into English. In The Big Book of Science Fiction, literary power couple Ann and Jeff VanderMeer transport readers from Mars to Mechanopolis, planet Earth to parts unknown. Immerse yourself in the genre that predicted electric cars, space tourism, and smartphones. Sit back, buckle up, and dial in the coordinates, as this stellar anthology has got worlds within worlds. Including: . Legendary tales from Isaac Asimov and Ursula K. Le Guin. An unearthed sci-fi story from W. E. B. Du Bois. The first publication in twenty years of the work of cybernetic visionary David R. Bunch. A rare and brilliant novella by Chinese international sensation Cixin Liu Plus: . Aliens!. Space battles!. Robots!. Technology gone wrong!. Technology gone right!"

    In the title tale, narrator James 14 returns home with Mama to 1898 village when his father Les, time-traveller Ambassador to aliens, vanishes from 1975 jet-pack city. When the "mothaship" takes the anointed few into the brave new world, those left behind are angry. "0wnz0red" asks - what happens when hackers hack the human body? 1 Craphound 2 A place so foreign 3 All day sucker 4 To market, to market 5 Return to Pleasure Island 6 Shadow of the mothaship 7 Home again, home again 8 The super man and the bugout 9 Ownz0red

    Whether it’s a warning message from a survey ship, a harrowing journey to a new world, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction feeds the imagination and delivers a lens through which we can better understand ourselves and the world around us. With The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume One, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and thirty-one of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2015.Table of Contents:“Introduction: A State of the Short SF Field in 2015” by Neil Clarke“Today I Am Paul” by Martin Shoemaker“Calved” by Sam J. Miller“Three Bodies at Mitanni” by Seth Dickinson“The Smog Society” by Chen Quifan“In Blue Lily’s Wake” by Aliette de Bodard“Hello, Hello” by Seanan McGuire“Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfiang“Capitalism in the 22nd Century” by Geoff Ryman“Hold-Time Violations” by John Chu“Wild Honey” by Paul McAuley“So Much Cooking” by Naomi Kritzer“Bannerless” by Carrie Vaughn“Another Word for World” by Ann Leckie“The Cold Inequalities” by Yoon Ha Lee“Iron Pegasus” by Brenda Cooper“The Audience” by Sean McMullen“Empty” by Robert Reed“Gypsy” by Carter Scholz“Violation of the TrueNet Security Act” by Taiyo Fujii“Damage” by David D. Levine“The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss” by David Brin“No Placeholder for You, My Love” by Nick Wolven“Outsider” by An Owomeyla“The Gods Have Not Died in Vain” by Ken Liu“Cocoons” by Nancy Kress“Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World” by Caroline M. Yoachim“Two-Year Man” by Kelly Robson“Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer“Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan” by Ian McDonald“Meshed” by Rich Larson“A Murmuration” by Alastair Reynolds2015 Recommended Reading List

    . . ." The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal. Stories is a groundbreaking anthology that reinvigorates, expands, and redefines the limits of imaginative fiction and affords some of the best writers in the world—from Peter Straub and Chuck Palahniuk to Roddy Doyle and Diana Wynne Jones, Stewart O'Nan and Joyce Carol Oates to Walter Mosley and Jodi Picoult—the opportunity to work together, defend their craft, and realign misconceptions. Gaiman, a literary magician whose acclaimed work defies easy categorization and transcends all boundaries, and "master anthologist" (Booklist) Sarrantonio personally invited, read, and selected all the stories in this collection, and their standard for this "new literature of the imagination" is high. "We wanted to read stories that used a lightning-flash of magic as a way of showing us something we have already seen a thousand times as if we have never seen it at all." Joe Hill boldly aligns theme and form in his disturbing tale of a man's descent into evil in "Devil on the Staircase." In "Catch and Release," Lawrence Block tells of a seasoned fisherman with a talent for catching a bite of another sort. Carolyn Parkhurst adds a dark twist to sibling rivalry in "Unwell." Joanne Harris weaves a tale of ancient gods in modern New York in "Wildfire in Manhattan." Vengeance is the heart of Richard Adams's "The Knife." Jeffery Deaver introduces a dedicated psychologist whose mission in life is to save people in "The Therapist." A chilling punishment befitting an unspeakable crime is at the dark heart of Neil Gaiman's novelette "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains." As it transforms your view of the world, this brilliant and visionary volume—sure to become a classic—will ignite a new appreciation for the limitless realm of exceptional fiction.

    There is no better anthology that captures the birth of science fiction as a literary field. Published in 1973 to honor stories that had come before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame introduced tens of thousands of young readers to the wonders of science fiction and was a favorite of libraries across the country. This volume contains novellas by: Ray Bradbury, James Blish, Algis Budrys, Theodore Cogswell, E. M. Forster, Frederik Pohl, James H. Schmitz, T. L. Sherred, Wilmar H. Shiras, Clifford D. Simak, and Jack Vance.Contents: Introduction · Ben Bova · in · Call Me Joe · Poul Anderson · nv Astounding Apr ’57 · Who Goes There? [as by Don A. Stuart] · John W. Campbell, Jr. · na Astounding Aug ’38 · Nerves · Lester del Rey · na Astounding Sep ’42 · Universe [Hugh Hoyland] · Robert A. Heinlein · na Astounding May ’41 · The Marching Morons · C. M. Kornbluth · nv Galaxy Apr ’51 · Vintage Season [as by Lawrence O’Donnell] · Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore · na Astounding Sep ’46 · ...And Then There Were None · Eric Frank Russell · na Astounding Jun ’51 · The Ballad of Lost C’Mell · Cordwainer Smith · nv Galaxy Oct ’62 · Baby Is Three · Theodore Sturgeon · na Galaxy Oct ’52 · The Time Machine [Time Machine] · H. G. Wells · na The New Review Jan, 1895 (+4) · With Folded Hands... [Humanoids] · Jack Williamson · nv Astounding Jul ’47

    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