Search Worlds Without End

An insider's view of the strange and wonderful world of science fiction, by one of the most respected editors in the field.

David G. Hartwell has been editing science fiction and fantasy for over twenty years. In that time, he has worked with acclaimed and popular writers such as Robert A. Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Frank Herbert, Roger Zelazny, Robert Silverberg, Gene Wolfe, Nancy Kress, L.E. Modesitt, Terry Bisson, Lisa Goldstein, and Philip Jose Farmer, and discovered hot new talentes like Kathleen Ann Goonan and Patrick O'Leary. Now in Age of Wonders, Hartwell describes the field he has loved, worked in, and shaped as editor, critic, and anthologist.

Like those other American art forms, jazz, comics, and rock 'n' roll, science fiction is the product of a rich and fascinating subculture. Age of Wonders is a fascinating tour of the origins, history, and culture of the science fiction world, written with insight and genuine affection for this wonder-filled literature, and addressed to newcomers and longtime SF readers alike.

Newly revised for the 1990's, Age of Wonders remains "the landmark work" Roger Zelazny called the first edition. Hartwell has revised the body of the book to take into account the past twelve years' changes in the literary landscape and the publishing marketplace, and added substantial new sections that contain advice on teaching courses in science fiction, disquisitions on the controversial subgenre of hard SF, and practical explanations of the economics of publishing science fiction and fantasy. Age of Wonders still lives up to Hugo and Nebula Award winnter Vonda McIntyre's description: "An entertaining and provocative book that will inspire discussion and argument for years to come."

Table of Contents:

• The Golden Age of Science Fiction is Twelve - essay by David G. Hartwell
• I Have a Cosmic Mind -- Now What Do I Do? - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Worshipping at the Church of Wonder - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Running Away From the Real World - essay by David G. Hartwell
• When it Comes to True, It's No Fun Anymore - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Where Do You Get Those Crazy Ideas? - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Why "Science Fiction" is the Wrong and Only Name For It - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Science Fiction Writer Can't Write For Sour Apples - essay by David G. Hartwell
• New Wave: The Great War of the 1960's - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Fandom - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Let's Get SF Back in the Gutter Where It Belongs - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Crawling Home From the Future - essay by David G. Hartwell

Hartwell and acclaimed Australian anthologist Damien Broderick are bringing a higher profile to Australian SF with Centaurus, a showcase of some of the most original voices in SF. Included are stories from Peter Carey, Greg Egan, Terry Dowling, A. Bertram Chandler, Phillippa C. Maddern, Rosaleen Love, Sean McMullen, Lucy Sussex, and George Turner.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1999) - essay by Damien Broderick
• The Other Editor's Introduction - (1999) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Flowering Mandrake - (1994) - novelette by George Turner
• The Mountain Movers - (1971) - novelette by A. Bertram Chandler
• Things Fall Apart - (1988) - novelette by Philippa C. Maddern
• Written in Blood - (1999) - short story by Chris Lawson
• Pie Row Joe - (1978) - short story by Kevin McKay
• A Map of the Mines of Barnath - (1995) - short story by Sean Williams
• My Lady Tongue - (1988) - novelette by Lucy Sussex
• Wang's Carpets - (1995) - novelette by Greg Egan
• The Dominant Style - (1991) - short story by Sean McMullen
• Borderline - (1996) - novella by Leanne Frahm
• Privateers' Moon - (1992) - novelette by Terry Dowling
• Re-deem the Time - (1978) - short story by David J. Lake
• Matters of Consequence - (1992) - short story by Shane Dix
• The Total Devotion Machine - (1989) - short story by Rosaleen Love
• The Colonel's Tiger - (1995) - novella by Hal Colebatch
• The Soldier in the Machine - (1998) - novelette by Russell Blackford
• From Whom All Blessings Flow - (1995) - novelette by Stephen Dedman
• Looking Forward to the Harvest - (1991) - novelette by Cherry Wilder
• The Magi - (1982) - novelette by Damien Broderick
• The Chance - (1979) - novelette by Peter Carey

Horror fiction is a special and enduring pleasure, invoking fear and wonder. For centuries, writers have struggled to achieve the sublime through these tales, at times creating works of enduring interest. Horror novels have become one of the major bestselling forms of fiction in recent years, and Hollywood has given us a huge and varied supply of popular films, which has created an audience in the millions for horror. But throughout history, many of the finest achievements in horror have been in short fiction. From these masterpieces have been selected the contents of Foundations of Fear.

This anthology presents an international selection of the strongest work by writers such as Clive Barker, H.P. Lovecraft, and Arthur Machen, who have been identified as category horror writers, and by writers such as Carlos Fuentes, Gerald Durrell, and Daphne Du Maurier, whose literary reputations transcend category. For horror in literature cuts across all category boundaries. Thus the reader will find in this volume domestic horror stories by Thomas Hardy, Violet Hunt and Mary Wilkins Freeman; and stories by Robert A. Heinlein and Philip K. Dick, masters of science fiction.

The Introduction to Foundations of Fear takes particular note of women writers, who have made important contributions to the development of the horrific in literature; in addition to those already mentioned the collection includes works by Madeline Yale Wynne, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Gertrude Atherton, and others. Foundations of Fear challenges the notion that the supernatural in fiction has in modern times been supplanted by the psychological, the idea that horror is dead. Horror is one of the dominant literary modes of our time, a vigorous and living body of literature that continues to thrill us with the mystery and wonder of the unknown.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1992) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Don't Look Now - (1971) - novella by Daphne du Maurier
• They - (1941) - shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein
• At the Mountains of Madness - (1936) - novel by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Little Room - (1895) - shortstory by Madeline Yale Wynne
• The Shadowy Street - (1965) - novelette by Jean Ray (trans. of La ruelle ténébreuse 1932)
• Passengers - (1968) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
• The Moonstone Mass - (1868) - shortstory by Harriet Prescott Spofford
• The Blue Rose - (1985) - novella by Peter Straub
• Sandkings - (1979) - novelette by George R. R. Martin
• The Great God Pan - (1894) - novella by Arthur Machen
• Aura - (1965) - novelette by Carlos Fuentes (trans. of Aura 1962)
• Barbara, of the House of Grebe - (1890) - novelette by Thomas Hardy
• Torturing Mr. Amberwell - (1985) - novelette by Thomas M. Disch
• The Prayer - (1895) - novelette by Violet Hunt
• Who Goes There? - (1938) - novella by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• ... and my fear is great - (1953) - novella by Theodore Sturgeon
• When Darkness Loves Us - (1985) - novelette by Elizabeth Engstrom
• We Purchased People - (1974) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• The Striding Place - (1896) - shortstory by Gertrude Atherton
• In the Hills, the Cities - (1984) - novelette by Clive Barker
• Faith of Our Fathers - (1967) - novelette by Philip K. Dick
• The Bell in the Fog - (1905) - novelette by Gertrude Atherton
• The Sand-Man - (1885) - novelette by E. T. A. Hoffmann (trans. of Der Sandmann 1816)
• Bloodchild - (1984) - novelette by Octavia E. Butler
• Duel - (1971) - novelette by Richard Matheson
• Longtooth - (1970) - novelette by Edgar Pangborn
• Luella Miller - (1902) - shortstory by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
• The Entrance - (1979) - novelette by Gerald Durrell
• The Lurking Duck - (1983) - novella by Scott Baker
• Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story - (1985) - novelette by Thomas Ligotti

Here are 44 compelling tales of the fantastic--many never before anthologized--by such classic writers as L. Frank Baum and Charles Dickens through today's finest writers, including Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ and Michael Moorcock.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David G. Hartwell
• The Rule of Names - (1964) - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Magic Fishbone - (1868) - short story by Charles Dickens
• The Goddess on the Street Corner - (1953) - short story by Margaret St. Clair
• Feathertop: A Moralized Legend - (1854) - short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Root and the Ring - (1954) - novelette by Wyman Guin
• The Green Magician - (1954) - novella by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt
• Our Fair City - (1949) - short story by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Man Who Could Not See Devils - (1970) - short story by Joanna Russ
• A New Arabian Night's Entertainment - (1785) - short story by Horace Walpole
• The King and His Three Daughters - (1785) - short story by Horace Walpole
• The Dice-Box: A Fairy Tale - (1785) - short story by Horace Walpole
• The Peach in Brandy: A Milesian Tale - (1785) - short story by Horace Walpole
• Mi Li: A Chinese Fairy Tale - (1785) - short story by Horace Walpole
• A True Love Story - (1785) - short story by Horace Walpole
• The Bird's Nest - (1967) - short story by Horace Walpole
• Bird of Prey - (1941) - short story by John Collier
• The Detective of Dreams - (1980) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• The Bee-Man of Orn - (1887) - short story by Frank R. Stockton
• The Red Hawk - (1983) - novelette by Elizabeth A. Lynn
• The Canvasser's Tale - (1876) - short story by Mark Twain
• The Silken-Swift... - (1953) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• The New Mother - (1882) - short story by Lucy Clifford
• Mr. Lupescu - (1945) - short story by Anthony Boucher
• The King of the Cats - (1929) - short story by Stephen Vincent Benét
• Uncle Einar - (1947) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• Space-Time for Springers - (1958) - short story by Fritz Leiber
• Great is Diana - (1958) - short story by Avram Davidson
• The Last of the Huggermuggers: A Giant Story - (1856) - novella by Christopher Pearse Cranch
• Tobermory - (1909) - short story by Saki
• The King of the Elves - (1953) - novelette by Philip K. Dick
• The Glass Dog - (1901) - short story by L. Frank Baum
• The Queen of Quok - (1901) - short story by L. Frank Baum
• The Magic Bonbons - (1901) - short story by L. Frank Baum
• The Dummy That Lived - (1901) - short story by L. Frank Baum
• The Tale of Dragons and Dreamers - (1979) - novelette by Samuel R. Delany
• from Phantasmion - (1837) - short story by Sara Coleridge
• The Sapphire Necklace - (1930) - short story by Kenneth Morris
• The Regent of the North - (1915) - short story by Kenneth Morris
• The Eyeless Dragons: A Chinese Story - (1915) - short story by Kenneth Morris
• Elric at the End of Time - (1981) - novelette by Michael Moorcock
• Lindenborg Pool - (1856) - short story by William Morris
• The Moon Pool - (1918) - novella by A. Merritt
• The Sword of Welleran - (1908) - short story by Lord Dunsany
• Operation Afreet - (1956) - novelette by Poul Anderson

The editor of Foundations of Fear compiles thirty-eight unique tales of magic and fantasy by such authors as William Morris, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Mark Twain.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Worlds of Wonder, Worlds of Difference (Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder) (1989) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Green Is the Color [Liavek] (1987) - novella by John M. Ford
• Wooden Tony (1892) - short story by Lucy Clifford
• Lest Levitation Come Upon Us (1982) - novelette by Suzette Haden Elgin
• Prince Bull: A Fairy Tale (1855) - short story by Charles Dickens
• The Triumph of Vice: A Fairy Tale (1867) - short story by W. S. Gilbert
• Turandina (1989) - short story by Fyodor Sologub (translation of ????????? 1912)
• The Princess and the Frog (1981) - short story by Robin McKinley
• Darkness Box (1963) - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Jack and the Beanstalk (1959) - short story by Osbert Sitwell
• Peter Pan [Peter Pan] (1902) - short fiction by J. M. Barrie
• The Thrush's Nest [Peter Pan] (1902) - short fiction by J. M. Barrie
• Lock-out Time [Peter Pan] (1902) - short fiction by J. M. Barrie
• The Mouse Festival (1989) - short story by Johannes Bobrowski (translation of Mäusefest 1965)
• A Proper Santa Claus (1973) - short story by Anne McCaffrey
• Inside Out (1987) - novelette by Rudy Rucker
• The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut (1876) - short story by Mark Twain
• The Woman Who Thought She Could Read (1959) - short story by Avram Davidson
• The Third Level (1950) - short story by Jack Finney
• The Griffin and the Minor Canon (1885) - short story by Frank R. Stockton
• The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles (1951) - short story by Margaret St. Clair
• The Dragons (1965) - short story by Murilo Rubião (translation of Os dragões unknown)
• On the Downhill Side (1972) - short story by Harlan Ellison
• The Parrot (1966) - short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer (translation of Der popugay 1965)
• The Gray Wolf (1864) - short story by George MacDonald
• The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath (1982) - novelette by Patricia A. McKillip
• The Last of the Dragons juvenile (1899) - short story by Edith Nesbit
• Lila the Werewolf [Sam Farrell] (1969) - novelette by Peter S. Beagle
• The Drowned Giant (1964) - short story by J. G. Ballard
• The Enchanted Buffalo [Animal Fairy Tales] (1905) - short story by L. Frank Baum
• Narrow Valley (1966) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Beyond the Dead Reef [Quintana Roo] (1983) - short story by James Tiptree, Jr.
• The King's Bride: A Fairy Tale After Nature (1963) - novella by E. T. A. Hoffmann (translation of Die Königsbraut 1819)
• Under the Garden (1963) - novella by Graham Greene
• The Things That Are Gods [Traveller in Black] (1979) - novelette by John Brunner
• The King of Nodland and His Dwarf (1852) - novelette by Fitz-James O'Brien
• The Seventeen Virgins [Dying Earth] (1974) - novelette by Jack Vance
• The Bagful of Dreams [Dying Earth] (1977) - novelette by Jack Vance
• The Hollow Land (1856) - novelette by William Morris

From the earliest days of modern science fiction, Canada has given readers some of the most important authors in the field -- and many of the finest stories. World Fantasy Award-winning editor David G. Hartwell has teamed up with Canadian writer and critic Glenn Grant to compile Northern Stars, an anthology of stories by the writers who have built Canada's rich science fiction tradition, providing a definitive overview of science fiction's northern frontier.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (1994) essay by Glenn Grant
• "We Have Met the Alien (And It Is Us)" (1985) essay by Judith Merril
• "A Niche" (1990) novelette by Peter Watts
• "Mother Lode" (1973) novelette by Phyllis Gotlieb
• "Home by the Sea" (1985) short story by Élisabeth Vonarburg (translation of "La maison au bord de la mer")
• "Under Another Moon" (1990) novelette by Dave Duncan
• "Remember, the Dead Say" (1992) short story by Jean-Louis Trudel
• "One" (1987) novelette by Heather Spears
• "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer" (1982) short story by Lesley Choyce
• "User Friendly" (1986) short story by Spider Robinson
• "Distant Signals" (1984) short story by Andrew Weiner
• "The Woman Who Is the Midnight Wind" (1985) short story by Terence M. Green
• "The Winter Market" (1985) novelette by William Gibson
• "The Byrds" (1983) short story by Michael G. Coney
• "Soluble-Fish" (1987) shortfiction by Joël Champetier
• "Memetic Drift" (1990) short story by Glenn Grant
• "The Reckoning of Gifts" (1992) novelette by James Alan Gardner
• "The Cauldron (Excerpt) [Courtship Rite Universe]" (1994) shortfiction by Donald Kingsbury
• "Happy Days in Old Chernobyl" (1987) short story by Claude-Michel Prévost (translation of "La marquise de Tchernobyl")
• "Pity the Monsters" (1991) short story by Charles de Lint
• "Carpe Diem" (1989) short story by Eileen Kernaghan
• "Xils" (1987) short story by Esther Rochon
• "Stolen Fires" (1991) short story by Yves Meynard
• "Retrieval" (1987) short story by John Park
• "Outport" (1992) short story by Garfield Reeves-Stevens
• "Just Like Old Times" (1993) short story by Robert J. Sawyer
• "Stardust Boulevard" (1981) short story by Daniel Sernine
• "Ballads in 3/4 Time" (1987) short story by Robert Charles Wilson
• "(Learning About) Machine Sex" (1988) short story by Candas Jane Dorsey
• "Towards a Real Speculative Literature: Writer as Asymptote" (1990) essay by Candas Jane Dorsey
• "Canadian SF Awards" (1994) essay by the editors

In 1994, Tor Books published Northern Stars, a compendium of Canadian science fiction which demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that country's influence on the genre. Now award-winning anthologist David G. Hartwell and noted writer and critic Glenn Grant bring us a second volume of superlative speculative fiction with an entirely new lineup of authors.Northern Suns is an adventurous mix of visionary futures, otherworldly fantasies, and strange histories that might have been, from a dazzling combination of world-renowned masters and bright new lights. Including work from Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies, W.P. Kinsella, Geoff Ryman, John Clute, Scott Mackay, Nancy Kilpatrick, and sixteen others, Northern Suns is an anthology of great SF from the Great White North.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Another Music from a Different Kitchen - (1999) - essay by Glenn Grant
• Freeforall - (1986) - short story by Margaret Atwood
• Divisions - (1997) - novelette by Eric Choi
• The Eighth Register - (1996) - novelette by Alain Bergeron (trans. of Le huitième registre 1993)
• Doing Time - (1996) - short story by Robert Boyczuk
• The Fragrance of Orchids - (1994) - novelette by Sally McBride
• The Sages of Cassiopeia - (1994) - short story by Scott Mackay
• Domestic Slash and Thrust - (1996) - short story by Jan Lars Jensen
• Halo - (1996) - short story by Karl Schroeder
• A Habit of Waste - (1996) - short story by Nalo Hopkinson
• Things Invisible to See - (1994) - short story by W. P. Kinsella
• The Dummy Ward - (1994) - short story by David Nickle
• Near Enough to Home - (1998) - short story by Michael Skeet
• Farm Wife - (1992) - short story by Nancy Kilpatrick
• Beyond the Barriers - (1994) - short story by Charles Montpetit
• Bugtown - (1996) - short story by Ursula Pflug
• The History of Photography - (1994) - short story by Derryl Murphy
• Craphound - (1998) - short story by Cory Doctorow
• Twilight of the Real - (1997) - short story by Wesley Herbert
• Offer of Immortality - (1982) - short story by Robertson Davies
• Rêve Canadien - (1996) - short story by Jean-Pierre April (trans. of Canadian dream 1984)
• Fan - (1994) - novella by Geoff Ryman
• Fables of Transcendence - (1995) - essay by John Clute
• Appendix: Canadian SF Awards - (1999) - essay by David G. Hartwell and Glenn Grant

Featuring more than sixty groundbreaking short stories by modern science fiction's most important and influential writers, The Ascent of Wonder offers a definitive and incisive exploration of the SF genre's visionary core.

From Poe to Pohl, Wells to Wolfe, and Verne to Vinge, this hefty anthology fully charts the themes, trends, thoughts, and traditions that comprise the challenging yet rich literary form known as "hard SF."

Table of Contents:

• Real Science, Imaginary Worlds - (1994) - essay by Gregory Benford
• On Science and Science Fiction - (1993) - essay by Kathryn Cramer
• Hard Science Fiction - (1993) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Nine Lives - (1969) - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Light of Other Days - (1966) - shortstory by Bob Shaw
• Rappaccini's Daughter - (1844) - novelette by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Star - (1955) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Proof - (1942) - shortstory by Hal Clement
• "It's Great to Be Back!" - (1947) - shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein
• Procreation - (1983) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Mimsy Were the Borogoves - (1943) - novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
• Davey Jones' Ambassador - (1935) - novelette by Raymond Z. Gallun
• The Life and Times of Multivac - (1975) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• The Singing Diamond - (1979) - shortstory by Robert L. Forward
• Down & Out on Ellfive Prime - (1979) - novelette by Dean Ing
• Send Me a Kiss by Wire - (1985) - shortstory by Hilbert Schenck
• The Xi Effect - (1950) - shortstory by R. S. Richardson
• A Descent Into the Maelstrom - (1841) - shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe
• Exposures - (1981) - shortstory by Gregory Benford
• The Planners - (1968) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• Beep - (1954) - novelette by James Blish
• Drode's Equations - (1981) - novelette by Richard Grant
• The Weather Man - (1962) - novella by Theodore L. Thomas
• Transit of Earth - (1971) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Prima Belladonna - (1956) - shortstory by J. G. Ballard
• To Bring in the Steel - (1978) - novelette by Donald Kingsbury
• Gomez - (1954) - novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
• Waterclap - (1970) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• Weyr Search - (1967) - novella by Anne McCaffrey
• Message Found in a Copy of Flatland - (1983) - shortstory by Rudy Rucker
• The Cold Equations - (1954) - novelette by Tom Godwin
• The Land Ironclads - (1903) - novelette by H. G. Wells
• The Hole Man - (1974) - shortstory by Larry Niven
• Atomic Power - (1934) - shortstory by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• Stop Evolution in Its Tracks! - (1988) - shortstory by John Sladek
• The Hungry Guinea Pig - (1930) - shortstory by Miles J. Breuer, M.D.
• The Very Slow Time Machine - (1978) - novelette by Ian Watson
• The Beautiful and the Sublime - (1986) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
• "The Author of the Acacia Seeds" and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics - (1974) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Heat of Fusion - (1984) - shortstory by John M. Ford
• Dolphin's Way - (1964) - shortstory by Gordon R. Dickson
• All the Hues of Hell - (1987) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Occam's Scalpel - (1971) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• giANTS - (1979) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• Time Fuze - (1954) - shortstory by Randall Garrett
• Desertion - (1944) - shortstory by Clifford D. Simak
• Kyrie - (1968) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• The Person from Porlock - (1947) - shortstory by Raymond F. Jones
• Day Million - (1966) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• The Cage of Sand - (1962) - novelette by J. G. Ballard
• The Psychologist Who Wouldn't Do Awful Things to Rats - (1976) - novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
• In the Year 2889 - (1889) - shortstory by Jules Verne
• Surface Tension - (1952) - novelette by James Blish
• No, No, Not Rogov! - (1959) - shortstory by Cordwainer Smith
• In a Petri Dish Upstairs - (1978) - novelette by George Turner
• With the Night Mail - (1905) - novelette by Rudyard Kipling
• The Longest Science-Fiction Story Ever Told - (1966) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Pi Man - (1959) - shortstory by Alfred Bester
• Relativistic Effects - (1982) - novelette by Gregory Benford
• Making Light - (1981) - shortstory by James P. Hogan
• The Last Question - (1956) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• The Indefatigable Frog - (1953) - shortstory by Philip K. Dick
• Chromatic Aberration - (1984) - novelette by John M. Ford
• The Snowball Effect - (1952) - shortstory by Katherine MacLean
• The Morphology of the Kirkham Wreck - (1978) - novelette by Hilbert Schenck
• Tangents - (1986) - shortstory by Greg Bear
• Johnny Mnemonic - (1981) - shortstory by William Gibson
• What Continues, What Fails... - (1991) - novelette by David Brin
• Mammy Morgan Played the Organ, Her Daddy Beat the Drum - (1990) - novella by Michael F. Flynn
• Bookworm, Run! - (1966) - novelette by Vernor Vinge
• Appendix: Another Path Through the Book - (1994) - essay by Kathryn Cramer

In The Dark Descent, hailed as one of the most important anthologies ever to examine horror fiction, editor David G. Hartwell traces the complex history of horror in literature back to the earliest short stories. The Dark Descent, which won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology, showcases the finest of these ever written--from the time-honored classics of Edgar Allan Poe, D.H. Lawrence, and Edith Wharton to the contemporary writing of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Ray Bradbury.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David G. Hartwell
• The Reach - (1981) - short story by Stephen King
• Evening Primrose - (1940) - short story by John Collier
• The Ash-Tree - (1904) - short story by M. R. James
• The New Mother - (1882) - short story by Lucy Clifford
• There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding - (1976) - novelette by Russell Kirk
• The Call of Cthulhu - (1928) - novelette by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Summer People - (1950) - short story by Shirley Jackson
• The Whimper of Whipped Dogs - (1973) - short story by Harlan Ellison
• Young Goodman Brown - (1835) - short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Mr. Justice Harbottle - (1872) - novelette by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
• The Crowd - (1943) - short story by Ray Bradbury
• The Autopsy - (1980) - novella by Michael Shea
• John Charrington's Wedding - (1891) - short story by E. Nesbit
• Sticks - (1974) - novelette by Karl Edward Wagner
• Larger Than Oneself - (1966) - novelette by Robert Aickman
• Belsen Express - (1975) - short story by Fritz Leiber
• Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper - (1943) - short story by Robert Bloch
• If Damon Comes - (1978) - short story by Charles L. Grant
• Vandy, Vandy - (1953) - short story by Manly Wade Wellman
• The Swords - (1969) - novelette by Robert Aickman
• The Roaches - (1965) - short story by Thomas M. Disch
• Bright Segment - (1955) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• Dread - (1984) - novelette by Clive Barker
• The Fall of the House of Usher - (1839) - novelette by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Monkey - (1980) - novelette by Stephen King
• Within the Walls of Tyre - (1978) - novelette by Michael Bishop
• The Rats in the Walls - (1924) - novelette by H. P. Lovecraft
• Schalken the Painter - (1851) - short story by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
• The Yellow Wallpaper - (1892) - novelette by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• A Rose for Emily - (1930) - short story by William Faulkner
• How Love Came to Professor Guildea - (1897) - novella by Robert Hichens
• Born of Man and Woman - (1950) - short story by Richard Matheson
• My Dear Emily - (1962) - short story by Joanna Russ
• You Can Go Now - (1980) - short story by Dennis Etchison
• The Rocking-Horse Winner - (1926) - short story by D. H. Lawrence
• Three Days - (1984) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Good Country People - (1955) - short story by Flannery O'Connor
• Mackintosh Willy - (1979) - short story by Ramsey Campbell
• The Jolly Corner - (1908) - novelette by Henry James
• Smoke Ghost - (1941) - short story by Fritz Leiber
• Seven American Nights - (1978) - novella by Gene Wolfe
• The Signalman - (1866) - short story by Charles Dickens
• Crouch End - (1980) - novelette by Stephen King
• Night-Side - (1977) - novelette by Joyce Carol Oates
• Seaton's Aunt - (1922) - novelette by Walter de la Mare
• Clara Militch - (1893) - novelette by Ivan Turgenev
• The Repairer of Reputations - (1895) - novelette by Robert W. Chambers
• The Beckoning Fair One - (1911) - novella by Oliver Onions
• What Was It? - (1859) - short story by Fitz-James O'Brien
• The Beautiful Stranger - (1968) - short story by Shirley Jackson
• The Damned Thing - (1893) - short story by Ambrose Bierce
• Afterward - (1910) - novelette by Edith Wharton
• The Willows - (1907) - novella by Algernon Blackwood
• The Asian Shore - (1970) - novelette by Thomas M. Disch
• The Hospice - (1975) - novelette by Robert Aickman
• A Little Something for Us Tempunauts - (1974) - novelette by Philip K. Dick

Something exciting has been happening in modern SF. After decades of confusion, many of the field's best writers have been returning to the subgenre called, roughly, "hard SF" - science fiction focused on science and technology, often with strong adventure plots. Now, World Fantasy Award-winning editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer present an immense, authoritative anthology that maps the development and modern-day resurgence of this form, argues for its special virtues and present preeminence - and entertains us with some spectacular storytelling along the way.

Included are major stories by contemporary and classic names such as Poul Anderson, Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, Greg Egan, Joe Haldeman, Nancy Kress, Paul McAuley, Frederik Pohl, Alastair Reynolds, Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert J. Sawyer, Karl Schroeder, Charles Sheffield, Brian Stableford, Allen Steele, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, and Vernor Vinge.

"The Hard SF Renaissance" will be an anthology that SF readers return to for years to come.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: New People, New Places, New Politics - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Gene Wars - (1991) - shortstory by Paul J. McAuley
• Wang's Carpets - (1995) - novelette by Greg Egan
• Genesis - (1995) - novella by Poul Anderson
• Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars - (1999) - shortstory by Kim Stanley Robinson
• On the Orion Line - (2000) - novelette by Stephen Baxter
• Beggars in Spain - (1991) - novella by Nancy Kress
• Matter's End - (1989) - novella by Gregory Benford
• The Hammer of God - (1992) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Think Like a Dinosaur - (1995) - novelette by James Patrick Kelly
• Mount Olympus - (1999) - novelette by Ben Bova
• Marrow - (1997) - novella by Robert Reed
• Microbe - (1995) - shortstory by Joan Slonczewski
• The Lady Vanishes - (1996) - shortstory by Charles Sheffield
• Bicycle Repairman - (1996) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
• An Ever-Reddening Glow - (1996) - shortstory by David Brin
• Sexual Dimorphism - (1999) - shortstory by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Into the Miranda Rift - (1993) - novella by G. David Nordley
• The Shoulders of Giants - (2000) - shortstory by Robert J. Sawyer
• A Walk in the Sun - (1991) - shortstory by Geoffrey A. Landis
• For White Hill - (1995) - novella by Joe Haldeman
• A Career in Sexual Chemistry - (1987) - novelette by Brian Stableford
• Reef - (2000) - novelette by Paul J. McAuley
• Exchange Rate - (1999) - novella by Hal Clement
• Reasons to Be Cheerful - (1997) - novelette by Greg Egan
• Griffin's Egg - (1991) - novella by Michael Swanwick
• Great Wall of Mars - (2000) - novelette by Alastair Reynolds
• A Niche - (1990) - novelette by Peter Watts
• Gossamer - (1995) - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• Madam Butterfly - (1997) - novelette by James P. Hogan
• Understand - (1991) - novelette by Ted Chiang
• Halo - (1996) - shortstory by Karl Schroeder
• Different Kinds of Darkness - (2000) - shortstory by David Langford
• Fast Times at Fairmont High - (2001) - novella by Vernor Vinge
• Reality Check - (2000) - shortstory by David Brin
• The Mendelian Lamp Case - (1997) - novelette by Paul Levinson
• Kinds of Strangers - (1999) - novelette by Sarah Zettel
• The Good Rat - (1995) - novelette by Allen Steele
• Built Upon the Sands of Time - (2000) - shortstory by Michael F. Flynn
• Taklamakan - (1998) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
• Hatching the Phoenix - (1999) - novella by Frederik Pohl
• Immersion - (1996) - novella by Gregory Benford

"Science fiction is the characteristic literary genre of the century. It is the genre that stands in opposition to literary modernism." So says David G. Hartwell in his introduction to The Science Fiction Century, an anthology spanning a hundred years of science fiction, from its birth in the 1890s to the future it predicted.

David G. Hartwell is a World Fantasy Award-winning editor and anthologist who has twice before redefined a genre--first the horror field with The Dark Descent, then the subgenre of hard science fiction with The Ascent of Wonder, coedited with Kathryn Cramer. Now, Hartwell has compiled the mother of all definitive anthologies, guaranteed to change not only the way the science fiction field views itself but also the way the rest of literature views the field.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1997) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Beam Us Home - (1969) - shortstory by James Tiptree, Jr.
• Ministering Angels - (1955) - shortstory by C. S. Lewis
• The Music Master of Babylon - (1954) - novelette by Edgar Pangborn
• A Story of the Days to Come - (1899) - novella by H. G. Wells
• Hot Planet - (1963) - shortstory by Hal Clement
• A Work of Art - (1956) - novelette by James Blish
• The Machine Stops - (1909) - novelette by E. M. Forster
• Brightness Falls from the Air - (1951) - shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
• 2066: Election Day - (1956) - shortstory by Michael Shaara
• The Rose - (1953) - novella by Charles L. Harness
• The Hounds of Tindalos - (1929) - shortstory by Frank Belknap Long
• The Angel of Violence - shortstory by Adam Wisniewski-Snerg
• Nobody Bothers Gus - (1955) - shortstory by Algis Budrys
• The Time Machine - shortstory by Dino Buzzati
• Mother - (1953) - novelette by Philip José Farmer
• As Easy as A.B.C. - (1912) - novelette by Rudyard Kipling
• Ginungagap - (1980) - novelette by Michael Swanwick
• Minister Without Portfolio - (1952) - shortstory by Mildred Clingerman
• Time in Advance - (1956) - novelette by William Tenn
• Good Night, Sophie - (1973) - novelette by Lino Aldani
• Veritas - (1987) - novelette by James Morrow
• Enchanted Village - (1950) - shortstory by A. E. van Vogt
• The King and the Dollmaker - (1970) - novella by Wolfgang Jeschke
• Fire Watch - (1982) - novelette by Connie Willis
• Goat Song - (1972) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• The Scarlet Plague - (1912) - novella by Jack London
• Drunkboat - (1963) - novelette by Cordwainer Smith
• Another World - (1962) - novelette by J. H. Rosny aîné
• If the Stars Are Gods - (1974) - novelette by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford
• I Still Call Australia Home - (1990) - shortstory by George Turner
• Liquid Sunshine - (1982) - novelette by Alexander Kuprin
• Great Work of Time - (1989) - novella by John Crowley
• Sundance - (1969) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
• Greenslaves - (1965) - novelette by Frank Herbert
• Rumfuddle - (1973) - novella by Jack Vance
• The Dimple in Draco - (1967) - shortstory by R. S. Richardson
• Consider Her Ways - (1956) - novella by John Wyndham
• Something Ending - (1982) - shortstory by Eddy C. Bertin
• He Who Shapes - (1965) - novella by Roger Zelazny
• Swarm - (1982) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
• Beggars in Spain - (1991) - novella by Nancy Kress
• Johnny Mnemonic - (1981) - shortstory by William Gibson
• "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman - (1965) - shortstory by Harlan Ellison
• Blood's a Rover - (1952) - novella by Chad Oliver
• Sail the Tide of Mourning - (1975) - shortstory by Richard A. Lupoff

"Space opera", once a derisive term for cheap pulp adventure, has come to mean something more in modern SF: compelling adventure stories told against a broad canvas, and written to the highest level of skill. Indeed, it can be argued that the "new space opera" is one of the defining streams of modern SF.

Now, World Fantasy Award-winning anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have compiled a definitive overview of this subgenre, both as it was in the days of the pulp magazines, and as it has become in 2005. Included are major works from genre progenitors like Jack Williamson and Leigh Brackett, stylish midcentury voices like Cordwainer Smith and Samuel R. Delany, popular favorites like David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Ursula K. Le Guin, and modern-day pioneers such as Iain M. Banks, Steven Baxter, Scott Westerfeld, and Charles Stross.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: How Shit Became Shinola: Definition and Redefinition of Space Opera - (2006) - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• The Star Stealers - (1929) - novelette by Edmond Hamilton
• The Prince of Space - (1931) - novella by Jack Williamson
• Enchantress of Venus - (1949) - novella by Leigh Brackett
• The Swordsmen of Varnis - (1950) - short story by Clive Jackson
• The Game of Rat and Dragon - (1955) - short story by Cordwainer Smith
• Empire Star - (1966) - novel by Samuel R. Delany
• Zirn Left Unguarded, the Jenghik Palace in Flames, Jon Westerley Dead - (1972) - short story by Robert Sheckley
• Temptation - (1999) - novella by David Brin
• Ranks of Bronze - (1975) - short story by David Drake
• Weatherman - (1990) - novella by Lois McMaster Bujold
• A Gift from the Culture - (1987) - short story by Iain M. Banks
• Orphans of the Helix - (1999) - novelette by Dan Simmons
• The Well Wishers - (1997) - novella by Colin Greenland
• Escape Route - (1997) - novella by Peter F. Hamilton
• Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington - (2001) - novella by David Weber
• Aurora in Four Voices - (1998) - novella by Catherine Asaro
• Ring Rats - (2002) - novella by R. Garcia y Robertson
• The Death of Captain Future - - (1995) - novella by Allen Steele
• A Worm in the Well - (1995) - novelette by Gregory Benford
• The Survivor - (1991) - novel by Donald Kingsbury
• Fool's Errand - (1993) - short story by Sarah Zettel
• The Shobies' Story - (1990) - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Remoras - (1994) - novelette by Robert Reed
• Recording Angel - (1995) - novelette by Paul J. McAuley
• The Great Game - (2003) - short story by Stephen Baxter
• Lost Sorceress of the Silent Citadel - (2002) - novelette by Michael Moorcock
• Space Opera - (1997) - short story by Michael Kandel
• Grist - (1998) - novella by Tony Daniel
• The Movements of Her Eyes - (2000) - novelette by Scott Westerfeld
• Spirey and the Queen - (1996) - novelette by Alastair Reynolds
• Bear Trap - (2000) - novelette by Charles Stross
• Guest Law - (1997) - novelette by John C. Wright

Blood will flow, heads will roll, dragons will soar, and the dead shall rise. Journey to ancient cities ruled by sinister mages, storm-tossed seas where monsters dwell, mysterious towers full of ancient secrets, and dark dungeons with untold treasures. From Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian to George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, join the legendary heroes and villains in nineteen epic adventures that are sure to bring out the barbarian in you.

Anti-hero Elric infiltrates a band of mercenaries to match wits with a powerful sorcerer. With her trio of dragons, Daenerys Stormbringer makes a fool's bargain with slave traders. A mage's apprentice, the young Grey Mouser uses newfound power to battle an evil duke. Conan breaks into the Tower of the Elephant to steal a spectacular jewel with a dark secret. Despite her drunkard's ways, Malmury slays an old sea troll before facing his powerful daughter.

Table of Contents:

• Storytellers: A Guided Ramble into Sword and Sorcery Fiction - essay by David Drake
• The Tower of the Elephant - (1933) - novelette by Robert E. Howard
• Black God's Kiss - (1934) - novelette by C. L. Moore
• The Unholy Grail - (1962) - novelette by Fritz Leiber
• The Tale of Hauk - (1977) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams - (1962) - novelette by Michael Moorcock
• The Adventuress - (1967) - novelette by Joanna Russ
• Gimmile's Songs - (1984) - short story by Charles R. Saunders
• Undertow - (1977) - novelette by Karl Edward Wagner
• The Stages of the God - (1974) - short story by Ramsey Campbell
• The Barrow Troll - (1975) - short story by David Drake
• Soldier of an Empire Unacquainted With Defeat - (1980) - novella by Glen Cook
• Epistle from Lebanoi - short fiction by Michael Shea
• Become a Warrior - (1998) - short story by Jane Yolen
• The Red Guild - (1985) - novelette by Rachel Pollack
• Six from Atlantis - (2006) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• The Sea Troll's Daughter - (2010) - novelette by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Coral Heart - (2009) - short story by Jeffrey Ford
• Path of the Dragon - (2000) - novella by George R. R. Martin
• The Year of the Three Monarchs - short fiction by Michael Swanwick

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - (1989) - essay by Clifton Fadiman
• Introduction - (1988) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Harrison Bergeron - (1961) - shortstory by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Forgetfulness - (1937) - novelette by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• Special Flight - (1939) - novelette by John Berryman
• Chronopolis - (1960) - novelette by J. G. Ballard
• Triceratops - (1982) - novelette by Tensei Kono
• The Man Who Lost the Sea - (1959) - shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
• On the Inside Track - (1986) - novelette by Karl Michael Armer
• The Golem - (1955) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• The New Prehistory - (1983) - shortstory by René Rebetez-Cortes
• A Meeting With Medusa - (1971) - novelette by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Valley of Echoes - (1973) - shortstory by Gérard Klein
• The Fifth Head of Cerberus - (1972) - novella by Gene Wolfe
• The Chaste Planet - (1975) - shortstory by John Updike
• The Blind Pilot - (1960) - shortstory by Nathalie Henneberg
• The Men Who Murdered Mohammed - (1958) - shortstory by Alfred Bester
• Pairpuppets - (1976) - shortstory by Manuel van Loggem
• Two Dooms - (1958) - novella by C. M. Kornbluth
• Tale of the Computer That Fought a Dragon - (1977) - shortstory by Stanislaw Lem
• The Green Hills of Earth - (1947) - shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein
• Ghost V - (1954) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• The Phantom of Kansas - (1976) - novelette by John Varley
• Captain Nemo's Last Adventure - (1973) - novelette by Josef Nesvadba
• Inconstant Moon - (1971) - novelette by Larry Niven
• The Gold at the Starbow's End - (1972) - novella by Frederik Pohl
• A Sign in Space - (1968) - shortstory by Italo Calvino
• The Spiral - (1968) - shortstory by Italo Calvino
• The Dead Past - (1956) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• The Lens - (1984) - shortstory by Annemarie van Ewijck
• The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast - (1949) - shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
• Zero Hour - (1947) - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
• Nine Lives - (1969) - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Muse - (1968) - shortstory by Anthony Burgess
• The Public Hating - (1955) - shortstory by Steve Allen
• Poor Superman - (1951) - novelette by Fritz Leiber
• Angouleme - (1971) - shortstory by Thomas M. Disch
• Stranger Station - (1956) - novelette by Damon Knight
• The Dead Fish - (1955) - shortstory by Boris Vian
• I Was the First to Find You - (1977) - shortstory by Kir Bulychev
• The Lineman - (1957) - novella by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius - (1961) - shortstory by Jorge Luís Borges
• Codemus - (1976) - shortstory by Tor Åge Bringsvaerd
• A Kind of Artistry - (1962) - novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
• Second Variety - (1953) - novelette by Philip K. Dick
• Weihnachtsabend - (1972) - novelette by Keith Roberts
• I Do Not Love Thee, Doctor Fell - (1955) - shortstory by Robert Bloch
• Aye, and Gomorrah... - (1967) - shortstory by Samuel R. Delany
• How Erg the Self-Inducting Slew a Paleface - (1977) - shortstory by Stanislaw Lem
• Nobody's Home - (1972) - shortstory by Joanna Russ
• Party Line - (1976) - novelette by Gérard Klein (trans. of Ligne de partage 1969)
• The Proud Robot - (1943) - novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
• Vintage Season - (1946) - novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
• The Way to Amalteia - (1984) - novella by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
• Acknowledgements - (1988) - essay by David G. Hartwell

Twenty-First Century Science Fiction is an enormous anthology of short stories--close to 250,000 words--edited by two of the most prestigious and award-winning editors in the SF field and featuring recent stories from some of science fiction's greatest up-and-coming authors.

David Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden have long been recognized as two of the most skilled and trusted arbiters of the field, but Twenty-First Century Science Fiction presents fans' first opportunities to see what their considerable talents come up with together, and also to get a unique perspective on what's coming next in the science fiction field.

The anthology includes authors ranging from bestselling and established favorites to incandescent new talents including Paolo Bacigalupi, Cory Doctorow, Catherynne M. Valente, John Scalzi, Jo Walton, Charles Stross, Elizabeth Bear, and Peter Watts, and the stories selected include winners and nominees of all of the science fiction field's major awards.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden
• Infinities - (2008) - novelette by Vandana Singh
• Rogue Farm - (2003) - shortstory by Charles Stross
• The Gambler - (2008) - novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Strood - (2004) - shortstory by Neal Asher
• Eros, Philia, Agape - (2009) - novelette by Rachel Swirsky
• The Tale of the Wicked - (2009) - novelette by John Scalzi
• Bread and Bombs - (2003) - shortstory by M. Rickert
• The Waters of Meribah - (2003) - shortstory by Tony Ballantyne
• Tk'tk'tk - (2005) - shortstory by David D. Levine
• The Nearest Thing - (2011) - novelette by Genevieve Valentine
• Erosion - (2009) - shortstory by Ian Creasey
• The Calculus Plague - (2009) - shortstory by Marissa Lingen
• One of Our Bastards Is Missing - (2009) - novelette by Paul Cornell
• Tideline - (2007) - shortstory by Elizabeth Bear
• Finisterra - (2007) - novelette by David Moles
• Evil Robot Monkey - (2008) - shortstory by Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Education of Junior Number 12 - (2011) - shortfiction by Madeline Ashby
• Toy Planes - (2005) - shortstory by Tobias S. Buckell
• The Algorithms for Love - (2004) - shortstory by Ken Liu
• The Albian Message - (2005) - shortstory by Oliver Morton
• To Hie from Far Cilenia - (2008) - novella by Karl Schroeder
• Savant Songs - (2004) - shortstory by Brenda Cooper
• Ikiryoh - (2005) - shortstory by Liz Williams
• The Prophet of Flores - (2007) - novelette by Ted Kosmatka
• How to Become a Mars Overlord - (2010) - shortstory by Catherynne M. Valente
• Second Person, Present Tense - (2005) - novelette by Daryl Gregory
• Third Day Lights - (2005) - novelette by Alaya Dawn Johnson
• Balancing Accounts - (2008) - shortstory by James L. Cambias
• A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel - (2011) - shortstory by Yoon Ha Lee
• His Master's Voice - (2008) - shortstory by Hannu Rajaniemi
• Plotters and Shooters - (2007) - novelette by Kage Baker
• The Island - (2009) - novelette by Peter Watts
• Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction - (2009) - shortstory by Jo Walton
• Chicken Little - (2009) - novella by Cory Doctorow

Contents:

• vii - Introduction (The Battle of the Monsters and Other Stories) - (1976) - essay by David G. Hartwell and L. W. Currey
• 1 - The Secret of Apollonius Septrio - (1878) - novelette by Leonard Kip
• 69 - The Repairer of Reputations - [The King In Yellow] - (1895) - novelette by Robert W. Chambers
• 119 - The Monster-Maker - (1887) - shortstory by W. C. Morrow (variant of The Surgeon's Experiment)
• 153 - The Battle of the Monsters - (1899) - shortstory by Morgan Robertson
• 167 - A Thousand Deaths - (1889) - shortstory by Jack London
• 179 - The End of the World - (1903) - shortstory by Simon Newcomb
• 197 - The Battle for the Pacific: Sorakichi-Prometheus - (1976) - shortstory by Rowan Stevens
• 223 - Harry Borden's Naval Monster: A Ship of the Air - (1908) - shortstory by William J. Henderson

For years, those bringing SF into the classroom have had to improvise their course materials from anthologies and collections not designed for classwork. Now, David G. Hartwell, award-winning anthologist, and Professor Milton T. Wolf, Vice President of the Science Fiction Research Association, present a carefully selected reading anthology reflecting the SF field in all its modern diversity. Here are Golden Age writers like John W. Campbell and Jack Williamson, and here also are towering latter-day titans like Gene Wolfe and Ursula K. Le Guin, along with today's popular writers such as Greg Bear, Robert Jordan, and Vernor Vinge.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David G. Hartwell and Milton T. Wolf
• Critics - (1956) - essay by Damon Knight
• The Ship Who Sang - (1961) - novelette by Anne McCaffrey
• Blood Music - (1983) - novelette by Greg Bear
• Paperjack - (1991) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Forever Yours, Anna - (1987) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• The Golden Age of Science Fiction Is Twelve - (1984) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Mr. Boy - (1990) - novella by James Patrick Kelly
• Jamboree - (1969) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
• The Death of Doctor Island - (1973) - novella by Gene Wolfe
• Ender's Game - (1977) - novelette by Orson Scott Card
• "What Do You Mean... Human?" - (1959) - essay by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• Bears Discover Fire - (1990) - shortstory by Terry Bisson
• One Down, One to Go - (1990) - shortstory by Philip José Farmer
• Sur - (1982) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Introduction (England Swings SF) - (1968) - essay by Judith Merril
• Doing Lennon - (1975) - shortstory by Gregory Benford
• A Tupolev Too Far - (1989) - novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
• Them Old Hyannis Blues - (1992) - shortstory by Judith Tarr
• Paradise Charted - (1980) - essay by Algis Budrys
• Masque of the Red Shift - (1965) - novelette by Fred Saberhagen
• Redemption in the Quantum Realm - (1994) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Devil You Don't Know - (1978) - novelette by Dean Ing
• The Eye of the World (extract) - (1990) - shortstory by Robert Jordan
• Split Light - (1994) - shortstory by Lisa Goldstein
• Science Fiction & The Adventures of the Spherical Cow - (1988) - essay by Kathryn Cramer
• The Sun Spider - (1987) - novelette by Lucius Shepard
• Science Fiction and "Literature" -- or, The Conscience of the King - (1979) - essay by Samuel R. Delany
• Souls - (1982) - novella by Joanna Russ
• Overdrawn at the Memory Bank - (1976) - novelette by John Varley
• The Girl Who Was Plugged In - (1973) - novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
• Burning Chrome - (1982) - novelette by William Gibson
• Towards an Aesthetic of Science Fiction - (1975) - essay by Joanna Russ
• Identifying the Object - (1990) - novelette by Gwyneth Jones
• The Mountain to Mohammed - (1992) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Wall, Stone, Craft - (1993) - novella by Walter Jon Williams
• Boobs - (1989) - shortstory by Suzy McKee Charnas
• To Bring in Fine Things: The Significance of Science Fiction Plots - (1989) - essay by Brian Stableford
• Spider Silk - (1976) - novelette by Andre Norton
• A Braver Thing - (1990) - novelette by Charles Sheffield
• Getting Real - (1991) - novelette by Susan Shwartz
• True Names - (1981) - novella by Vernor Vinge
• Science Fiction: A Selective Guide to Scholarship - (1996) - essay by Gary K. Wolfe

Introducing The Anderson Project

This group of stories is the second in a series of story groupings based upon a pre-existing work of art, in this case a Richard Anderson painting. The first such group, The Palencar Project, was published by Tor.com a year ago, and I refer you to my short essay, Introducing the Palencar Project, for an explanation of the rationale for doing stories based on paintings, a long tradition in popular fiction that has apparently fallen out of fashion in recent decades.

I find it intriguing that in two of the stories, the painting itself is part of the setting and plays a role. The relation of illustration to the written word is complex and deep, and is centuries old. Perhaps a lot older. In my imagination there were words in some oral tradition associated with the astonishing cave paintings of the Neanderthals in Europe.

There are a number of ways one can interpret a painting, and I asked the writers in this case to interpret this in the direction of science fiction. As you can tell in particular from the Judith Moffett story, a consideration of the image can evoke a variety of responses. But whatever the image, it becomes a repository of things the writer wishes to express, and becomes embedded in the prose fiction, uniquely in each story.

There were other writers invited to submit work and I anticipate at least a couple of stories appearing in a year or two in other venues that began as drafts for this project, but could not be completed now. The three stories here, though, are finished and accomplished and make a set. They are in my opinion of high quality and it is my hope that you enjoy them.

Those writers and stories are:

• "Reborn" by Ken Liu
• "Space Ballet" by Judith Moffett
• "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" by Kathleen Ann Goonan

Introducing the Palencar Project

One day I was walking down the hall past the Tor Books art department and noticed, not for the first time, a fine painting by John Jude Palencar in the hallway. On that day, my curiosity got the better of me and I asked Irene Gallo what it was to be used for, or if it had been used and I had missed it.

She said that in fact it was unassigned, and she needed to find a book for which it would be appropriate.

And without missing a step I said, "I could commission stories based on it." You see, writers of a certain age and experience know what that means.

Long ago in the time of the pulp fiction magazines the cover artists often got paid more than the writers for their work. A good cover, after all, could really sell a lot of magazines. For the less prosperous magazines, sometimes a good cover was bought before the fiction was even written. This gave an ironic and ambiguous meaning to the phrase "the cover story" -- which was sometimes, actually fairly often, written to fit the art.

Canny editors would invite a hungry writer up to the office to see the art, and tell them they would get their name on the cover if they could write a salable story using the cover image in a short amount of time. Occasionally, an editor would invite several such hungry writers, and tell them all to write a story for that cover, and buy the first or best, and maybe one or two others. Only the first bought would get the cover credit -- the author's name in display type on the cover.

This kind of thing went on for decades, and even into the 1960s and early 1970s in the digest magazines. And for all I know may still be going on today.

And that's what gave me the idea. I could ask a bunch of really first-rate writers to write stories, knowing that each would be different, and make a kind of event of it. I asked fewer than ten writers, and five of them did it. And the rest declined only because they had too much work committed already for this past summer and fall.

Those writers and stories are:

• "New World Blues" by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
• "Dormanna" by Gene Wolfe
• "Thanatos Beach" by James Morrow
• "The Woman Who Shook the World-Tree" by Michael Swanwick
• "The Sigma Structure Symphony" by Gregory Benford

Personally, I am delighted with the results. And I hope to do it again -- in fact, I did do it again, in The Anderson Project.

Tales As Deep As Legend And As New As Dawn

Acclaimed editor David G. Hartwell has gathered a harvest of shimmering beauty and powerful writing in this inaugural volume of the very best fantasy from the last year. Established masters rub elbows with rising stars in this outstanding collection of short stories rich with imagined lands and finely etched, unforgettable characters.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2001) - essay by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell
• Everything Changes - (2000) - shortstory by John Sullivan
• A Troll Story: Lessons in What Matters, No. 1 - (2000) - shortstory by Nicola Griffith
• The Face of Sekt - novelette by Storm Constantine
• Chanterelle - (2000) - novelette by Brian Stableford
• Path of the Dragon - (2000) - novella by George R. R. Martin
• The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O - (2000) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• Ebb Tide - (2000) - shortstory by Sarah Singleton
• The Hunger of the Leaves - (2000) - shortstory by Joel Lane
• Greedy Choke Puppy - (2000) - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• The Golem - (2000) - shortstory by Naomi Kritzer
• The Devil Disinvests - (2000) - shortstory by Scott Bradfield
• A Serpent in Eden - (2000) - shortstory by Simon Brown and Alison Tokley
• Wrong Dreaming - (2000) - shortstory by Kain Massin
• Mom and Dad at the Home Front - (2000) - shortstory by Sherwood Smith
• The Fey - (2000) - shortstory by Renee Bennett
• Golden Bell, Seven, and the Marquis of Zeng - (2000) - novelette by Richard Parks
• Making a Noise in This World - (2000) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• Magic, Maples, and Maryanne - (2000) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• The Prophecies at Newfane Asylum - (2000) - shortstory by Don Webb
• The Window - (2000) - shortstory by Zoran Živkovic
• And Still She Sleeps - (2000) - novelette by Greg Costikyan
• The Walking Sticks - (2000) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Hey, Hey, Something, Something - (2000) - shortstory by Jan Lars Jensen
• The Saltimbanques - (2000) - novelette by Terry Dowling
• Debt of Bones - (1998) - novella by Terry Goodkind

Undreamed-Of Wonders From The Farthest Reaches Of Imagination

In this second volume of the previous year's finest short fantastic fiction, acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell showcases new works by stellar literary artists -- acknowledged masters of the genre and exceptionally talented newcomers alike. Astonishing worlds come alive in these pages -- realms of strange creatures and remarkable sorceries, as well as twisted shadow versions of our inhabited earthly plain. A bold and breathtaking compendium of tales -- including a new Earthsea story from the incomparable Ursula K. Le Guin -- Years's Best Fantasy 2 is the state-of-the-art of a unique and winning genre, offering unforgettable excursions into new realities wondrous, bizarre, enchanting... and terrifying.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell
• The Finder - (2001) - novella by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Senator Bilbo - (2001) - shortstory by Andy Duncan
• Big City Littles - (2000) - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• What the Tyger Told Her - (2001) - shortstory by Kage Baker
• In the Shadow of Her Wings - (2001) - shortstory by Ashok K. Banker
• The Heart of the Hill - (2001) - shortstory by Diana L. Paxson and Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Queen - (2001) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• The Black Heart - (2001) - shortstory by Patrick O'Leary
• On The Wall - (2001) - shortstory by Jo Walton
• Hell Is the Absence of God - (2001) - novelette by Ted Chiang
• The Man Who Stole the Moon - (2001) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Firebird - (2001) - novelette by R. Garcia y Robertson
• My Case for Retributive Action - (2001) - novelette by Thomas Ligotti
• The Shadow - (2001) - shortstory by Thomas M. Disch
• Stitchery - (2001) - shortstory by Devon Monk
• To Others We Know Not of - (2001) - shortstory by Kate Riedel
• The Lady of the Winds - (2001) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• His Own Back Yard - (2001) - novelette by James P. Blaylock
• A Place to Begin - (2001) - shortstory by Richard Parks
• Nucleon - (2001) - shortstory by David D. Levine
• My Stolen Sabre - (2001) - shortstory by Uncle River
• Apologue - (2001) - shortstory by James Morrow

The door to fantastic worlds, skewed realities, and breathtaking other realms is opened wide to you once more in this third anthology of the finest short fantasy fiction to emerge over the past year, compiled by acclaimed editor David G. Hartwell. Rarely has a more magnificent collection of tales been contained between book covers -- phenomenal visions of the impossible-made-possible by some of the field's most accomplished literary artists and stellar talents on the rise. Year's Best Fantasy 3 is a heady brew of magic and wonder, strange journeys and epic quests, boldly concocted by the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Swanwick, Tanith Lee, and others. Step into a dimension beyond the limits of ordinary imagination... and be amazed!.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Her Father's Eyes - (2002) - shortstory by Kage Baker
• Wants Master - (2002) - shortstory by Patricia S. Bowne
• October in the Chair - (2002) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Greaves, This is Serious - (2002) - shortstory by William Mingin
• Shift - (2002) - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• A Book, by its Cover - (2002) - shortstory by P. D. Cacek
• Somewhere in My Mind There Is a Painting Box - (2002) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• The Pyramid of Amirah - (2002) - shortstory by James Patrick Kelly
• Our Friend Electricity - (2002) - novelette by Ron Wolfe
• Social Dreaming of the Frin - (2002) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Five British Dinosaurs - (2002) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• The Green Word - (2002) - novelette by Jeffrey Ford
• The Comedian - (1997) - shortstory by Stepan Chapman
• The Pagodas of Ciboure - (2002) - novelette by M. Shayne Bell
• From the Cradle - (2002) - novelette by Gene Wolfe
• Sam - (2002) - shortstory by Donald Barr
• Persian Eyes - (2002) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Travel Agency - (2002) - shortstory by Ellen Klages
• A Fable of Savior and Reptile - (2002) - shortstory by Steven Popkes
• Comrade Grandmother - (2002) - shortstory by Naomi Kritzer
• Familiar - (2002) - shortstory by China Miéville
• Honeydark - (2002) - shortstory by Liz Williams
• A Prayer for Captain La Hire - (2002) - shortstory by Patrice Sarath
• Origin of the Species - (2002) - shortstory by James Van Pelt
• Tread Softly - (2002) - shortstory by Brian Stableford
• How It Ended - (2002) - shortstory by Darrell Schweitzer
• Cecil Rhodes in Hell - (2002) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• Hide and Seek - (2002) - shortstory by Nicholas Royle
• Death in Love - (2002) - novelette by R. Garcia y Robertson

There is magic in our world... and in others.

The fertile imagination can cultivate wondrous things, aided by ancient myths and memory, enduring childhood dreams and desires, and the power of cultural archetypes. Once again, award-winning editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer reap a magnificent crop of superior fantasy short fiction -- the finest to blossom over the past twelve months. A cornucopia of remarkable tales from some of the field's most acclaimed artists -- Neil Gaiman, Octavia Butler, Tanith Lee, and Michael Swanwick, to name but a few -- as well as stunning new works from emerging young talents, Year's Best Fantasy 4 is a collection as magical as its illustrious predecessors, a feast for every true connoisseur of fantastic literature.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell
• King Dragon - (2003) - novelette by Michael Swanwick
• The Big Green Grin - (2003) - shortstory by Gahan Wilson
• The Book of Martha - (2003) - shortstory by Octavia E. Butler
• Wild Thing - (2003) - shortstory by Charles Coleman Finlay
• Closing Time - (2003) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Catskin - (2003) - shortstory by Kelly Link
• Dragon's Gate - (2003) - novelette by Pat Murphy
• One Thing About the Night - (2003) - novelette by Terry Dowling
• Peace on Suburbia - (2003) - shortstory by M. Rickert
• Moonblind - (2003) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• Professor Berkowitz Stands on the Threshold - (2003) - shortstory by Theodora Goss
• Louder Echo - (2003) - novelette by Brendan Duffy
• The Raptures of the Deep - (2003) - shortstory by Rosaleen Love
• Fable from a Cage - (2003) - shortstory by Tim Pratt
• A Quartet of Mini-Fantasies - (2003) - shortstory by Arthur Porges
• Señor Volto - (2003) - novelette by Lucius Shepard
• Shen's Daughter - (2003) - shortstory by Mary Soon Lee
• Basement Magic - (2003) - novelette by Ellen Klages
• The Tales of Zanthias - (2003) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Of Soil and Climate - (2003) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Almost Home - (2003) - novelette by Terry Bisson

Magic lives in remarkable realms -- and in the short fiction of today's top fantasists. In this fifth breathtaking volume of the year's best flights of the fantastic, award-winning editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer present a dazzling new array of wonders -- stories that break through the time-honored conventions of the genre to carry the reader to astonishing places that only the most ingenious minds could conceive.

In the able hands of Neil Gaiman, Kage Baker, Tim Powers, and others, miracles become tangible and true, impossible creatures roam unfettered, and fairy tales are reshaped, sharpened, and freed from the restrictive bonds of childhood.

Lose yourself in these pages and in these worlds -- and discover the power, the beauty, the unparalleled enchantment of fantasy at its finest.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• The Dragons of Summer Gulch - (2004) - novelette by Robert Reed
• Miss Emily Gray - (2004) - shortstory by Theodora Goss
• The Baum Plan for Financial Independence - (2004) - shortstory by John Kessel
• Lizzy Lou - (2004) - shortstory by Barbara Robson
• The End of the World as We Know It - (2004) - shortstory by Dale Bailey
• Leaving His Cares Behind Him - (2004) - novelette by Kage Baker
• The Problem of Susan - (2004) - shortstory by Neil Gaiman
• Stella's Transformation - (2004) - shortstory by Kim Westwood
• Charlie the Purple Giraffe Was Acting Strangely - (2004) - shortstory by David D. Levine
• Pat Moore - (2004) - novelette by Tim Powers
• Perpetua - (2004) - shortstory by Kit Reed
• Quarry - (2004) - novelette by Peter S. Beagle
• Diva's Bones - (2004) - shortstory by John Meaney
• The Seventh Daughter - (2004) - shortfiction by Bruce McAllister
• Life in Stone - (2004) - shortstory by Tim Pratt
• Many Voices - (2004) - shortstory by M. Rickert
• A Hint of Jasmine - (2004) - novelette by Richard Parks
• Elvenbrood - (2004) - novelette by Tanith Lee
• Beyond the River - (2004) - shortstory by Joel Lane
• Out of the Woods - (2004) - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• The Man from Shemhaza - (2004) - novelette by Steven Brust
• The Smile on the Face - (2004) - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• Death's Door - (2004) - shortstory by Terry Bisson
• Golden City Far - (2004) - novelette by Gene Wolfe

Award-winning editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer know fantasy. This engaging anthology series, now in its sixth year, has become mandatory reading for fantasy devotees. Featuring a diverse lineup of best-selling authors and rising stars, Year's Best Fantasy 6 is the definitive guide to the best fantasy stories of 2005.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2005) - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Eating Hearts - (2005) - shortstory by Yoon Ha Lee
• The Denial - (2005) - shortstory by Bruce Sterling
• The Fraud - (2005) - novelette by Esther M. Friesner
• Sunbird - (2005) - novelette by Neil Gaiman
• Shard of Glass - (2005) - novelette by Alaya Dawn Johnson
• The Farmer's Cat - (2005) - shortstory by Jeff VanderMeer
• Crab Apple - (2005) - shortstory by Patrick Samphire
• Comber - (2005) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Walpurgis Afternoon - (2005) - novelette by Delia Sherman
• Monster - (2005) - novelette by Kelly Link
• Robots and Falling Hearts - (2005) - shortstory by Tim Pratt and Greg van Eekhout
• Still Life with Boobs - (2005) - shortstory by Anne Harris
• Heads Down, Thumbs Up - (2005) - shortstory by Gavin J. Grant
• Mom and Mother Theresa - (2005) - shortstory by Candas Jane Dorsey
• Newbie Wrangler - (2005) - shortstory by Timothy J. Anderson
• Being Here - (2005) - shortstory by Claude Lalumière
• The Imago Sequence - (2005) - novella by Laird Barron
• Magic in a Certain Slant of Light - (2005) - shortstory by Deborah Coates
• Single White Farmhouse - (2005) - shortstory by Heather Shaw
• Read It in the Headlines! - (2005) - shortstory by Garth Nix
• Niels Bohr and the Sleeping Dane - (2005) - shortstory by Jonathon Sullivan
• Mortegarde - (2005) - shortstory by Liz Williams
• Inside Job - (2005) - novella by Connie Willis

The legendary editing team of David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer return with the much-anticipated seventh installment of their popular anthology series showcasing the best-selling authors and rising stars of fantasy fiction. This engaging volume collects the essential fantasy stories of 2006, a year of outstanding and original offerings. Representing the breadth of talent in the fantasy genre and collecting each year's most outstanding stories, the Year's Best Fantasy series continues to be the definitive treasury of fantasy fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Build-A-Bear - (2006) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Pimpf - (2006) - novelette by Charles Stross
• Four Fables - (2006) - shortfiction by Peter S. Beagle
• The Potter's Daughter - (2006) - shortfiction by Martha Wells
• Thin, on the Ground - (2006) - shortfiction by Howard Waldrop
• Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy) - (2006) - novelette by Geoff Ryman
• The Osteomancer's Son - (2006) - shortstory by Greg van Eekhout
• Yours, Etc. - (2006) - shortstory by Gavin J. Grant
• Sea Air - (2006) - shortfiction by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• I'll Give You My Word - (2006) - novelette by Diana Wynne Jones
• Bea and Her Bird Brother - (2006) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• The Bonny Boy - (2006) - shortstory by Ian R. MacLeod
• Ghost Mission - (2006) - shortstory by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
• The Christmas Witch - (2006) - novelette by M. Rickert
• The Roaming Forest - (2006) - novelette by Michael Moorcock
• Show Me Yours - (2006) - shortstory by Robert Reed
• The Lepidopterist - (2006) - shortstory by Lucius Shepard
• The Double-Edged Sword - (2006) - shortfiction by Sharon Shinn
• Hallucigenia - (2006) - novella by Laird Barron
• An Episode of Stardust - (2006) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick

The legendary editing team of David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer return with the much-anticipated eighth installment of their popular anthology series showcasing the best-selling authors and rising stars of fantasy fiction. This engaging volume collects the essential fantasy stories of 2007. Representing the breadth of talent in the fantasy genre and collecting each year's most outstanding stories, the Year's Best Fantasy series continues to be the definitive treasury of fantasy fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell
• Paper Cuts Scissors - (2007) - novelette by Holly Black
• A Portrait in Ivory - (2007) - shortstory by Michael Moorcock
• The Witch's Headstone - (2007) - novelette by Neil Gaiman
• The Ruby Incomparable - (2007) - shortstory by Kage Baker
• And Such Small Deer - (2007) - novelette by Chris Roberson
• Unpossible - (2007) - shortstory by Daryl Gregory
• Winter's Wife - (2007) - novelette by Elizabeth Hand
• The King of the Djinn - (2008) - shortstory by David Ackert and Benjamin Rosenbaum
• Stilled Life - (2007) - novelette by Pat Cadigan
• Poison - (2007) - shortstory by Bruce McAllister
• Who Slays the Gyant, Wounds the Beast - (2007) - novelette by Mark Chadbourn
• Under the Bottom of the Lake - (2007) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• A Diorama of the Infernal Regions, or The Devil's Ninth Question - (2007) - novelette by Andy Duncan
• Don't Ask - (2007) - shortstory by M. Rickert
• The Stranger's Hands - (2007) - shortstory by Tad Williams
• Soul Case - (2007) - shortstory by Nalo Hopkinson
• Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz Go to War Again - (2007) - novelette by Garth Nix
• Debatable Lands - (2007) - shortstory by Liz Williams
• The Forest - (2007) - novelette by Laird Barron
• The Great White Bed - (2007) - shortstory by Don Webb
• Dance of Shadows - (2007) - novelette by Fred Chappell
• Grander Than the Sea - (2007) - novelette by Tim Pratt
• Princess Lucinda and the Hound of the Moon - (2007) - shortstory by Theodora Goss

Twenty-eight doses of wonder. From the distant past to the present day, from Antarctica and Mars to worlds that never were, the tales in this book bring news from nowhere-and everywhere. Fantasy is a mode of storytelling, a method of entertainment, a mode of argument, and a way of seeing. Here, presented by two of the most distinguished anthologists of the day, are twenty-eight stories that see, tell, argue, and entertain.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Shoggoths in Bloom - (2008) - shortstory by Elizabeth Bear
• The Rabbi's Hobby - (2008) - novelette by Peter S. Beagle
• Running the Snake - (2008) - shortstory by Kage Baker
• The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm - (2008) - novelette by Daryl Gregory
• Reader's Guide - (2008) - shortstory by Lisa Goldstein
• The Salting and Canning of Benevolence D. - (2008) - novelette by Al Michaud
• Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake - (2008) - shortstory by Naomi Novik
• A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica - (2008) - shortstory by Catherynne M. Valente
• From the Clay of His Heart - (2008) - novelette by John Brown
• If Angels Fight - (2008) - novelette by Richard Bowes
• 26 Monkeys & the Abyss - shortstory by Kij Johnson
• Philologos; or, A Murder in Bistrita - (2008) - shortfiction by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald
• The Film-makers of Mars - (2008) - shortstory by Geoff Ryman
• Childrun - (2008) - novelette by Marc Laidlaw
• Queen of the Sunlit Shore - (2008) - shortstory by Liz Williams
• Lady Witherspoon's Solution - (2008) - novelette by James Morrow
• Dearest Cecily - (2008) - shortfiction by Kris Dikeman
• Ringing the Changes in Okotoks, Alberta - (2008) - shortfiction by Randy McCharles
• Caverns of Mystery - (2008) - shortstory by Kage Baker
• Skin Deep - (2008) - novelette by Richard Parks
• King Pelles the Sure - (2008) - shortstory by Peter S. Beagle
• A Guided Tour in the Kingdom of the Dead - (2008) - shortstory by Richard Harland
• Avast, Abaft! - (2008) - shortstory by Howard Waldrop
• Gift from a Spring - (2008) - shortfiction by Delia Sherman
• The First Editions - (2008) - novelette by James Stoddard
• The Olverung - (2008) - shortstory by Stephen Woodworth
• Daltharee - (2008) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• The Forest - (2008) - shortstory by Kim Wilkins

WORLD-ALTERING SCIENCE FICTION

• Tales of wonder and adventure, set on distant planets or in the future of our own
• Stories that go beyond the limits of Space and Time
• David G. Hartwell has brought together only the best of this year's new SF from established pros and audacious newcomers, selecting only those that share the universal quality of great science fiction.

Our familiar world will look a little less familiar after you read one.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Science Fiction is Alive and Well - (1996) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Think Like a Dinosaur - (1995) - novelette by James Patrick Kelly
• Wonders of the Invisible World - (1995) - shortstory by Patricia A. McKillip
• Hot Times in Magma City - (1995) - novella by Robert Silverberg
• Gossamer - (1995) - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• A Worm in the Well - (1995) - novelette by Gregory Benford
• Downloading Midnight - (1995) - novelette by William Browning Spencer
• For White Hill - (1995) - novella by Joe Haldeman
• In Saturn Time - (1995) - shortstory by William Barton
• Coming of Age in Karhide - (1995) - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Three Descents of Jeremy Baker - (1995) - shortstory by Roger Zelazny
• Evolution - (1995) - novelette by Nancy Kress
• The Day the Aliens Came - (1995) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Microbe - (1995) - shortstory by Joan Slonczewski
• The Ziggurat - (1995) - novella by Gene Wolfe

Building on the unprecedented success of last season's Year's Best, award-winning editor David G. Hartwell has once again scoured the magazines and anthologies to bring together the very best of today's edgy, audacious, and innovative SF. Here are machines that dream and stars that sing; tales from notable pros and heretofore unknowns;wondrously diverse stories that share the sense of wonder that is the mark of great science fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1997) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• After a Lean Winter - (1996) - novelette by Dave Wolverton
• In the Upper Room - (1996) - novelette by Terry Bisson
• Thinkertoy - (1996) - short story by John Brunner
• Zoomers - (1996) - short story by Gregory Benford
• Out of the Mouths - (1996) - novelette by Sheila Finch
• Breakaway, Backdown - (1996) - short story by James Patrick Kelly
• Tobacco Words - (1996) - novelette by Yves Meynard
• Invasion - (1996) - short story by Joanna Russ
• The House of Mourning - (1996) - short story by Brian Stableford
• Life Edit - (1996) - short story by Damon Knight
• First Tuesday - (1996) - short story by Robert Reed
• The Spear of the Sun - (1996) - short story by David Langford
• Counting Cats in Zanzibar - (1996) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• Bicycle Repairman - (1996) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
• Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland - (1996) - short story by Gwyneth Jones
• Doblin's Lecture - (1996) - short story by Allen Steele
• The Bride of Elvis - (1996) - short story by Kathleen Ann Goonan
• Forget Luck - (1996) - short story by Kate Wilhelm
• Nonstop to Portales - (1996) - novelette by Connie Willis
• Columbiad - (1996) - short story by Stephen Baxter

Enjoy today's most awesome and innovative science fiction, chosen by acclaimed editor David G. Hartwell from the best short fiction published over the last year.

Like its two distinguished processors, Year's Best SF 3 is a cybercopia of astonishing stories from familiar favorites and rising stars, all calculated to blow your mind, scorch your, senses, erase your inhibitions, and reinitialize your intelligence.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Year's Best SF 3) - (1998) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Petting Zoo - (1997) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• The Wisdom of Old Earth - (1997) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• The Firefly Tree - (1997) - shortstory by Jack Williamson
• Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City - (1997) - shortstory by William Gibson
• The Nostalginauts - (1997) - shortstory by S. N. Dyer
• Guest Law - (1997) - novelette by John C. Wright
• The Voice - (1997) - shortstory by Gregory Benford
• Yeyuka - (1997) - shortstory by Greg Egan
• An Office Romance - (1997) - shortstory by Terry Bisson
• Itsy Bitsy Spider - (1997) - shortstory by James Patrick Kelly
• Beauty in the Night - (1997) - novelette by Robert Silverberg
• Mr. Pale - (1997) - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
• The Pipes of Pan - (1997) - novelette by Brian Stableford
• Always True to Thee, in My Fashion - (1997) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Canary Land - (1997) - novelette by Tom Purdom
• Universal Emulators - (1997) - shortstory by Tom Cool
• Fair Verona - (1997) - novelette by R. Garcia y Robertson
• Great Western - (1997) - novelette by Kim Newman
• Turnover - (1997) - shortstory by Geoffrey A. Landis
• The Mendelian Lamp Case - (1997) - novelette by Paul Levinson
• Kiss Me - (1997) - shortstory by Katherine MacLean
• London Bone - (1997) - novelette by Michael Moorcock

Travel to the Farthest Reaches of the Imagination

Acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell is back with his fourth annual high-powered collection of the year's most inventive, entertaining, and awe-inspiring science fiction. In short, the best.

Here are stories from today's top name authors, plus exciting newcomers, all eager to land you on exotic planets, introduce you to strange new life forms, and show you scenes more amazing than anything you've imagined.

So sit back and blast off for an amazing trip with

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1999) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Market Report - (1998) - novelette by Alexander Jablokov
• A Dance to Strange Musics - (1998) - novelette by Gregory Benford
• The Year of the Mouse - (1998) - short story by Norman Spinrad
• The Day Before They Came - (1998) - short story by Mary Soon Lee
• This Side of Independence - (1998) - short story by Rob Chilson
• The Twelfth Album - (1998) - short story by Stephen Baxter
• Story of Your Life - (1998) - novella by Ted Chiang
• Whiptail - (1998) - short story by Robert Reed
• The Eye of God - (1998) - novelette by Mary Rosenblum
• Rules of Engagement - (1998) - novelette by Michael F. Flynn
• Radiant Doors - (1998) - short story by Michael Swanwick
• Unravelling the Thread - (1998) - short story by Jean-Claude Dunyach
• That Thing Over There - (1998) - short story by Dominic Green
• The Allies - (1998) - novelette by Mark S. Geston
• My Pal Clunky - (1998) - short story by Ron Goulart
• Life in the Extreme - (1998) - short story by David Brin
• Near Enough to Home - (1998) - short story by Michael Skeet
• A Game of Consequences - (1998) - short story by David Langford
• State of Nature - (1998) - short story by Nancy Kress
• Maneki Neko - (1998) - short story by Bruce Sterling

Experience New Realms

Acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. 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.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2000) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Everywhere - (1999) - shortstory by Geoff Ryman
• Evolution Never Sleeps - (1999) - shortstory by Elisabeth Malartre
• Sexual Dimorphism - (1999) - shortstory by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Game of the Century - (1999) - novelette by Robert Reed
• Secrets of the Alien Reliquary - (1998) - poem by Michael Bishop
• Kinds of Strangers - (1999) - novelette by Sarah Zettel
• Visit the Sins - (1999) - shortstory by Cory Doctorow
• Border Guards - (1999) - novelette by Greg Egan
• macs - (1999) - shortstory by Terry Bisson
• Written in Blood - (1999) - shortstory by Chris Lawson
• Has Anybody Seen Junie Moon? - (1999) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• The Blue Planet - (1999) - shortstory by Robert J. Sawyer
• Lifework - (1999) - shortstory by Mary Soon Lee
• Rosetta Stone - (2000) - shortstory by Fred Lerner
• An Apollo Asteroid - (1999) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• 100 Candles - (1999) - shortstory by Curt Wohleber
• Democritus' Violin - (1999) - shortstory by G. David Nordley
• Fossil Games - (1999) - novelette by Tom Purdom
• Valour - (1999) - shortstory by Chris Beckett
• Huddle - (1999) - novelette by Stephen Baxter
• Ashes and Tombstones - (1999) - shortstory by Brian Stableford
• Ancient Engines - (1999) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• Freckled Figure - (1992) - shortstory by Hiroe Suga
• Shiva - (1999) - shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg
• The Queen of Erewhon - (1999) - novelette by Lucy Sussex

Get Ready To Expand Your Mind...

Acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell is back with the sixth annual collection of the year's most impressive, thought-provoking, and just plain great science fiction.

Year's Best SF 6 includes contributions from the greatest stars of the field as well as remarkable newcomers -- galaxies and into unexplored territory deep within your own soul.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (2001) - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Reef - (2000) - novelette by Paul J. McAuley
• Reality Check - (2000) - short story by David Brin
• The Millennium Express - (2000) - short story by Robert Silverberg
• Patient Zero - (2000) - short story by Tananarive Due
• The Oort Crowd - (2000) - short story by Ken MacLeod
• The Thing About Benny - (2000) - short story by M. Shayne Bell
• The Last Supper - (2000) - short story by Brian Stableford
• Tuberculosis Bacteria Join UN - (2000) - short story by Joan Slonczewski
• Our Mortal Span - (2000) - short story by Howard Waldrop
• Different Kinds of Darkness - (2000) - short story by David Langford
• New Ice Age, or Just Cold Feet? - (2000) - short story by Norman Spinrad
• The Devotee - (2000) - novelette by Stephen Dedman
• The Marriage of Sky & Sea - (2000) - short story by Chris Beckett
• In the Days of the Comet - (2000) - short story by John M. Ford
• The Birthday of the World - (2000) - novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Oracle - (2000) - novella by Greg Egan
• To Cuddle Amy - (2000) - short story by Nancy Kress
• Steppenpferd - (2000) - short story by Brian W. Aldiss
• Sheena 5 - (2000) - short story by Stephen Baxter
• The Fire Eggs - (2000) - short story by Darrell Schweitzer
• The New Horla - (2000) - short story by Robert Sheckley
• Madame Bovary, C'est Moi - (2000) - short story by Dan Simmons
• Grandma's Jumpman - (2000) - short story by Robert Reed
• Bordeaux Mixture - (2000) - short story by Henry Gee
• The Dryad's Wedding - (2000) - novelette by Robert Charles Wilson
• Built Upon the Sands of Time - (2000) - short story by Michael F. Flynn
• Seventy-Two Letters - (2000) - novella by Ted Chiang

Once again, the year's finest flights of speculative imagination are gathered in one extraordinary volume, compiled by acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. 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.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2002) - essay by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell
• Computer Virus - (2001) - novelette by Nancy Kress
• Charlie's Angels - (2001) - shortstory by Terry Bisson
• The Measure of All Things - (2001) - novelette by Richard Chwedyk
• Russian Vine - (2001) - shortstory by Simon Ings
• Under's Game - (2001) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• A Matter of Mathematics - (2001) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• Creative Destruction - (2001) - novelette by Edward M. Lerner
• Resurrection - (2001) - shortstory by David Morrell
• The Cat's Pajamas - (2001) - novelette by James Morrow
• The Dog Said Bow-Wow - (2001) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• The Building - (2001) - shortstory by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Grey Earth - (2001) - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• The Lagan Fishers - (2001) - shortstory by Terry Dowling
• In Xanadu - (2001) - shortstory by Thomas M. Disch
• The Go-Between - (2001) - novelette by Lisa Goldstein
• Viewpoint - (2001) - novelette by Gene Wolfe
• Anomalies - (2001) - shortstory by Gregory Benford
• Glacial - (2001) - novella by Alastair Reynolds
• Undone - (2001) - novelette by James Patrick Kelly

Brave New Worlds To Explore and Conquer

The astonishingly possible is once again showcased in a breathtaking volume of the best short form SF the past year had to offer. Contributed by some of the most revered and exciting voices in the genre -- and compiled by acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell -- these stories of wonder and terror, astounding technologies and miraculous discovery, stretch the imagination into realms and universes never dreamed of before. Each tale is a dazzling gem, rocketing readers across light years and into unknown dimensions -- exploring the intricate cultures of alien races and the strange, secret workings of the human mind. And together they form an unparalleled whole -- a collection of luminous visions that shines more brightly than a newborn sun.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (2003) - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• In Paradise - (2002) - short story by Bruce Sterling
• Slow Life - (2002) - novelette by Michael Swanwick
• Knapsack Poems - (2002) - short story by Eleanor Arnason
• At Dorado - (2002) - short story by Geoffrey A. Landis
• Coelacanths - (2002) - novelette by Robert Reed
• Flight Correction - (2002) - short story by Ken Wharton
• Shoes - (2002) - short story by Robert Sheckley
• The Diamond Drill - (2002) - short story by Charles Sheffield
• The Seasons of the Ansarac - (2002) - short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
• A Few Kind Words for A. E. Van Vogt - (2002) - poem by Richard Chwedyk
• Halo - (2002) - novelette by Charles Stross
• I Saw the Light - (2002) - short story by Terry Bisson
• A Slow Day at the Gallery - (2002) - short story by A. M. Dellamonica
• Ailoura - (2002) - novelette by Paul Di Filippo
• The Names of All the Spirits - (2002) - short story by J. R. Dunn
• Grandma - (2002) - short story by Carol Emshwiller
• Snow in the Desert - (2002) - novelette by Neal Asher
• Singleton - (2002) - novella by Greg Egan
• Geropods - (2002) - short story by Robert Onopa
• Afterlife - (2002) - short story by Jack Williamson
• Shields of Mars - (2002) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• Patent Infringement - (2002) - short story by Nancy Kress
• Lost Sorceress of the Silent Citadel - (2002) - novelette by Michael Moorcock

The world as we will know it is far different from the future once predicted in simpler times. For this newest collection of the finest short form SF to appear in print over the preceding year, acclaimed editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have gathered remarkable works that reflect a new sensibility. Courageous and diverse stories from some of the finest authors in the field grace this amazing volume -- adventures and discoveries, parables and warnings, carrying those eager to fly to far ends of a vast, ever-shifting universe of alien worlds, strange cultures, and mind-bending technologies. Tomorrow has never been as spellbinding, terrifying, or transforming as it is here, today, in these extraordinary pages. Hang on!

Contents:

• Introduction (Year's Best SF 9) - (2004) - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Amnesty - (2003) - novelette by Octavia E. Butler
• Birth Days - (2003) - short story by Geoff Ryman
• The Waters of Meribah - (2003) - short story by Tony Ballantyne
• Ej-Es - (2003) - short story by Nancy Kress
• Four Short Novels - (2001) - short story by Joe Haldeman
• Rogue Farm - (2003) - short story by Charles Stross
• The Violet's Embryos - (2003) - novelette by Angélica Gorodischer (trans. of Los embriones del violeta 1973)
• Coyote at the End of History - (2003) - short story by Michael Swanwick
• In Fading Suns and Dying Moons - (2003) - novelette by John Varley
• Castaway - (2003) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• The Hydrogen Wall - (2001) - novelette by Gregory Benford
• The Day We Went Through the Transition - (1998) - short story by Ricard de la Casa and Pedro Jorge Romero (trans. of Ed día que hicimos la Transición 1997)
• Nimby and the Dimension Hoppers - (2003) - short story by Cory Doctorow
• Night of Time - (2003) - short story by Robert Reed
• A Night on the Barbary Coast - (2003) - short story by Kage Baker
• Annuity Clinic - (2003) - short story by Nigel Brown
• The Madwoman of Shuttlefield - (2003) - novelette by Allen Steele
• Bread and Bombs - (2003) - short story by M. Rickert
• The Great Game - (2003) - short story by Stephen Baxter
• The Albertine Notes - (2003) - novella by Rick Moody

A banner year for speculative fiction has yielded a crop of superb short form SF. Now the very best to appear over the past twelve months has been amassed into one extraordinary volume by acclaimed editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, offering bold visions of days to come that are bright, triumphant, breathtaking, and strikingly unique. Once more, celebrated masters of the field join with exciting new voices to sing of explorations and invasions, grand technological accomplishments, amazing flights into the unknown, horrors and miracles, and the human condition.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2005) - essay by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell
• Sergeant Chip - (2004) - novella by Bradley Denton
• The First Commandment - (2004) - shortstory by Gregory Benford
• Burning Day - (2003) - novelette by Glenn Grant
• Scout's Honor - (2004) - shortstory by Terry Bisson
• Venus Flowers at Night - (2004) - novella by Pamela Sargent
• Pulp Cover - (2004) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• The Algorithms for Love - (2004) - shortstory by Ken Liu
• Glinky - (2004) - shortstory by Ray Vukcevich
• The Red City - (2004) - novelette by Janeen Webb
• Act of God - (2004) - shortstory by Jack McDevitt
• Wealth - (2004) - shortstory by Robert Reed
• Mastermindless - (2004) - novelette by Matthew Hughes
• Time, as It Evaporates... - (2004) - shortstory by Jean-Claude Dunyach (trans. of Le temps, en s'évaporant 1986)
• The Battle of York - (2004) - novelette by James Stoddard
• Loosestrife - (2004) - shortstory by Liz Williams
• The Dark Side of Town - (2004) - shortstory by James Patrick Kelly
• Invisible Kingdoms - (2004) - shortstory by Steven Utley
• The Cascade - (2004) - shortstory by Sean McMullen
• Pervert - (2004) - shortstory by Charles Coleman Finlay
• The Risk-Taking Gene as Expressed in Some Asian Subjects - (2004) - novelette by Steve Tomasula
• Strood - (2004) - shortstory by Neal Asher
• The Eckener Alternative - (2004) - shortstory by James L. Cambias
• Savant Songs - (2004) - shortstory by Brenda Cooper

This is the best short form science fiction of 2005, selected by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, two of the most respected editors in the field. The short story is one of the most vibrant and exciting areas in science fiction today. It is where the hot new authors emerge and where the beloved giants of the field continue to publish. Now, building on the success of the first nine volumes, Eos will once again present a collection of the best stories of the year in mass market. Here, selected and compiled by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, two of the most respected editors in the field, are stories with visions of tomorrow and yesterday, of the strange and the familiar, of the unknown and the unknowable. With stories from an all-star team of science fiction authors, "Year's Best Sf 11" is an indispensable guide for every science fiction fan.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2006) - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• New Hope for the Dead - (2005) - shortstory by David Langford
• Deus Ex Homine - (2005) - shortstory by Hannu Rajaniemi
• When the Great Days Came - (2005) - shortstory by Gardner Dozois
• Second Person, Present Tense - (2005) - novelette by Daryl Gregory
• Dreadnought - (2005) - shortstory by Justina Robson
• A Case of Consilience - (2005) - shortstory by Ken MacLeod
• Toy Planes - (2005) - shortstory by Tobias S. Buckell
• Mason's Rats - (1992) - shortstory by Neal Asher
• A Modest Proposal - (2005) - shortstory by Vonda N. McIntyre
• Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch - (2005) - shortstory by Rudy Rucker
• The Forever Kitten - (2005) - shortstory by Peter F. Hamilton
• City of Reason - (2005) - novelette by Matthew Jarpe
• Ivory Tower - (2005) - shortstory by Bruce Sterling
• Sheila - (2005) - shortstory by Lauren McLaughlin
• Rats of the System - (2005) - shortstory by Paul J. McAuley
• I Love Liver: A Romance - (2005) - shortstory by Larissa Lai
• The Edge of Nowhere - (2005) - novelette by James Patrick Kelly
• What's Expected of Us - (2005) - shortstory by Ted Chiang
• Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play - (2005) - novelette by Michael Swanwick
• Lakes of Light - (2005) - novelette by Stephen Baxter
• The Albian Message - (2005) - shortstory by Oliver Morton
• Bright Red Star - (2005) - shortstory by Bud Sparhawk
• Third Day Lights - (2005) - novelette by Alaya Dawn Johnson
• RAM Shift Phase 2 - (2005) - shortstory by Greg Bear
• On the Brane - (2004) - novelette by Gregory Benford
• Oxygen Rising - (2005) - novelette by R. Garcia y Robertson
• And Future King ... - (2005) - shortstory by Adam Roberts
• Beyond the Aquila Rift - (2005) - novelette by Alastair Reynolds
• Angel of Light - (2005) - shortstory by Joe Haldeman
• Ikiryoh - (2005) - shortstory by Liz Williams
• I, Robot - (2005) - novelette by Cory Doctorow

A banner year for bold, provocative, brilliantly inventive science fiction has produced some of the most enthrallingly original short sf since the genre's conception. In their twelfth remarkable collection of the very best of the last twelve months, award-winning editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer present amazing stories of galaxy-shaking events, alien contact, utopian science, and technology run amok: tales that celebrate the continually evolving literary artistry of some of the form's finest, most respected practitioners... while showcasing the magnificent talents of the science fiction superstars of the near future.

Table of Contents:

• Acknowledgments - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Introduction - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Nano Comes to Clifford Falls - (2006) - shortstory by Nancy Kress
• Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? - (2006) - shortstory by Terry Bisson
• When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth - (2006) - novelette by Cory Doctorow
• Just Do It! - (2006) - shortstory by Heather Lindsley
• Counterfactual - (2006) - novelette by Gardner Dozois
• Moon Does Run - (2006) - shortstory by Edd Vick
• Home Movies - (2006) - novelette by Mary Rosenblum
• Chu and the Nants - (2006) - shortstory by Rudy Rucker
• Silence in Florence - (2006) - shortstory by Ian Creasey
• The Women of Our Occupation - (2006) - shortstory by Kameron Hurley
• This Is the Ice Age - (2006) - shortstory by Claude Lalumière
• Speak, Geek - (2006) - shortstory by Eileen Gunn
• Expedition, with Recipes - (2006) - shortstory by Joe Haldeman
• The Age of Ice - (2006) - shortstory by Liz Williams
• Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth - (2006) - novella by Michael F. Flynn
• Applied Mathematical Theology - (2006) - shortstory by Gregory Benford
• Quill - (2006) - novelette by Carol Emshwiller
• Tiger, Burning - (2006) - novelette by Alastair Reynolds
• Dead Men Walking - (2006) - novelette by Paul J. McAuley
• Damascus - (2006) - novelette by Daryl Gregory
• Tin Marsh - (2006) - novelette by Michael Swanwick
• Taking Good Care of Myself - (2006) - shortstory by Ian R. MacLeod
• The Lowland Expedition - (2006) - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• Heisenberg Elementary - (2006) - shortstory by Wil McCarthy
• Rwanda - (2006) - shortstory by Robert Reed
• Preemption - (2006) - shortstory by Charlie Rosenkrantz

The thirteenth annual collection of the previous year's finest short-form sf is at hand. Once again, award-winning editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have gathered together a stunning array of science fiction that spans a veritable universe of astonishing visions and bold ideas. Hitherto unexplored galaxies of the mind are courageously traversed by some of the most exciting new talents in the field--while well-established masters rocket to remarkable new heights of artistry and originality. The stars are closer and more breathtaking than ever before--and a miraculous future now rests in your hands--within the pages of Year's Best SF 13.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (2008) - essay by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell
• Baby Doll - (2007) - novelette by Johanna Sinisalo (trans. of Baby Doll 2002)
• Aristotle OS - (2007) - short story by Tony Ballantyne
• The Last American - (2007) - short story by John Kessel
• Memorare - (2007) - novella by Gene Wolfe
• Plotters and Shooters - (2007) - novelette by Kage Baker
• Repeating the Past - (2007) - short story by Peter Watts
• No More Stories - (2007) - short story by Stephen Baxter
• They Came from the Future - (2007) - poem by Robyn Hitchcock
• The Tomb Wife - (2007) - short story by Gwyneth Jones
• An Evening's Honest Peril - (2007) - novelette by Marc Laidlaw
• End Game - (2007) - short story by Nancy Kress
• Induction - (2007) - short story by Greg Egan
• A Blue and Cloudless Sky - (2007) - novelette by Bernhard Ribbeck (trans. of En blå og skyfri himmel 1996)
• Reasons not to Publish - (2007) - short story by Gregory Benford
• Objective Impermeability in a Closed System - (2007) - short story by William Shunn
• Always - (2007) - short story by Karen Joy Fowler
• Who's Afraid of Wolf 359? - (2007) - short story by Ken MacLeod
• Artifice and Intelligence - (2007) - short story by Tim Pratt
• Pirates of the Somali Coast - (2007) - short story by Terry Bisson
• Sanjeev and Robotwallah - (2007) - short story by Ian McDonald
• Third Person - (2007) - short story by Tony Ballantyne
• The Bridge - (2007) - novelette by Kathleen Ann Goonan
• As You Know, Bob - (2007) - short story by John G. Hemry
• The Lustration - (2007) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
• How Music Begins - (2007) - novelette by James Van Pelt

Last year's best short-form SF--selected by acclaimed, award-winning editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer--offers stunning new extrapolations on what awaits humankind beyond the next dawn. The art of the story is explored boldly and provocatively in this powerful new collection of Year's Best speculative fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Arkfall - (2008) - novella by Carolyn Ives Gilman
• Orange - (2008) - short story by Neil Gaiman
• Memory Dog - (2008) - novelette by Kathleen Ann Goonan
• Pump Six - (2008) - novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Boojum - (2008) - short story by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
• Exhalation - (2008) - short story by Ted Chiang
• Traitor - (2008) - short story by M. Rickert
• The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away - (2008) - novelette by Cory Doctorow
• Oblivion: A Journey - (2008) - short story by Vandana Singh
• The House Left Empty - (2008) - short story by Robert Reed
• The Scarecrow's Boy - (2008) - short story by Michael Swanwick
• N-Words - (2008) - short story by Ted Kosmatka
• Fury - (2008) - novelette by Alastair Reynolds
• Cheats - (2008) - novelette by Ann Halam
• The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain - (2008) - novelette by Jason Sanford
• The Egg Man - (2008) - novelette by Mary Rosenblum
• Glass - (2008) - shortfiction by Daryl Gregory
• Fixing Hanover - (2008) - novelette by Jeff VanderMeer
• Message Found in a Gravity Wave - (2008) - short story by Rudy Rucker
• Mitigation - (2008) - novelette by Tobias S. Buckell and Karl Schroeder
• Spiders - (2008) - short story by Sue Burke

An annual celebration of the finest short form science fiction of the past year, editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's Year's Best science fiction anthologies are widely acclaimed and eagerly awaited--and Year's Best SF 15 lives up magnificently to its name! Featuring thrilling new tales by such speculative fiction luminaries as Stephen Baxter, Gene Wolfe, Nancy Kress, Geoff Ryman, Bruce Sterling, and a host of others, Year's Best SF 15 opens the door into a universe of wonders.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Infinities - (2008) - novelette by Vandana Singh
• This Peaceable Land; or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe - (2009) - novelette by Robert Charles Wilson
• The Unstrung Zither - (2009) - novelette by Yoon Ha Lee
• Black Swan - (2009) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
• Exegesis - (2009) - short story by Nancy Kress
• Erosion - (2009) - short story by Ian Creasey
• Collision - (2009) - short story by Gwyneth Jones
• Donovan Sent Us - (2009) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• The Calculus Plague - (2009) - short story by Marissa Lingen
• The Island - (2009) - novelette by Peter Watts
• One of Our Bastards is Missing - (2009) - novelette by Paul Cornell
• Lady of the White-Spired City - (2009) - short story by Sarah L. Edwards
• The Highway Code - (2009) - novelette by Brian Stableford
• On the Destruction of Copenhagen by the War-Machines of the Merfolk - (2009) - short story by Peter M. Ball
• The Fixation - (2009) - short story by Alastair Reynolds
• In Their Garden - (2009) - short story by Brenda Cooper
• Blocked - (2009) - short story by Geoff Ryman
• The Last Apostle - (2009) - short story by Michael Cassutt
• Another Life - (2009) - novelette by Charles Oberndorf
• The Consciousness Problem - (2009) - short story by Mary Robinette Kowal
• Tempest 43 - (2009) - novelette by Stephen Baxter
• Bespoke - (2009) - short story by Genevieve Valentine
• Attitude Adjustment - (2009) - short story by Eric James Stone
• Edison's Frankenstein - (2009) - novelette by Chris Roberson

A dazzling new collection of the finest short form science fiction from the previous year, compiled once again by World Fantasy and Hugo Award-winning editors by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, Year's Best SF 16 features some of the brightest stars of the genre--including Gregory Benford, Cory Doctrow, Joe Haldeman, and Michael Swanwick. From space travel to time travel to journeys through the mind, brilliant and original speculative fiction is alive and well and magnificently celebrated in this splendid compendium of plausible wonders.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2011) - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Sleeping Dogs - (2010) - short story by Joe Haldeman
• Castoff World - (2010) - shortfiction by Kay Kenyon
• Petopia - (2010) - short story by Benjamin Crowell
• Futures in the Memories Market - (2010) - short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• A Preliminary Assessment of the Drake Equation, Being an Excerpt from the Memoirs of Star Captain Y.-T. Lee - (2010) - shortfiction by Vernor Vinge
• About It - (2010) - short story by Terry Bisson
• Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra - (2010) - short story by Vandana Singh
• Under the Moons of Venus - (2010) - short story by Damien Broderick
• All the Love in the World - (2010) - short story by Cat Sparks
• At Budokan - (2010) - novelette by Alastair Reynolds
• Graffiti in the Library of Babel - (2010) - short story by David Langford
• Steadfast Castle - (2010) - short story by Michael Swanwick
• How to Become a Mars Overlord - (2010) - short story by Catherynne M. Valente
• To Hie from Far Cilenia - (2008) - novella by Karl Schroeder
• The Hebras and the Demons and the Damned - (2010) - short story by Brenda Cooper
• Penumbra - (2010) - short story by Gregory Benford
• The Good Hand - (2010) - novelette by Robert Reed
• The Cassandra Project - (2010) - short story by Jack McDevitt
• Jackie's-Boy - (2010) - novella by Steven Popkes
• Eight Miles - (2010) - novelette by Sean McMullen
• Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance: The Parke Family Scrapbook Number IV - (2010) - novella by Paul Park

The Year's Best SF 17 is a showcase of the best short form science fiction of 2011, selected by World Fantasy Award winners David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, two of the most respected editors in the field of speculative fiction. Like the previous sixteen volumes of the series that has been called "the finest modern science fiction writing," The Year's Best SF 17 features stories from some of the brightest lights in sf--including Gregory Benford (Beyond Human), Nancy Kress (Beggars in Spain), James Morrow (The Philosopher's Apprentice), Michael Swanwick (The Dragons of Babel) and Neil Gaiman (American Gods) --as well as electrifying short stories from exciting newcomers.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• The Best Science Fiction of the Year Three - (2011) - shortfiction by Ken MacLeod
• Dolly - (2011) - short story by Elizabeth Bear
• Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer - (2011) - short story by Ken Liu
• Tethered - (2011) - shortfiction by Mercurio D. Rivera
• Wahala - (2011) - novelette by Nnedi Okorafor
• Laika's Ghost - (2010) - novelette by Karl Schroeder
• Ragnarok - (2011) - poem by Paul Park
• Six Months, Three Days - (2011) - novelette by Charlie Jane Anders
• "And Weep Like Alexander" - (2011) - shortfiction by Neil Gaiman
• The Middle of Somewhere - (2011) - novelette by Judith Moffett
• Mercies - (2010) - novelette by Gregory Benford
• The Education of Junior Number 12 - (2011) - shortfiction by Madeline Ashby
• Our Candidate - (2011) - short story by Robert Reed
• Thick Water - (2011) - shortfiction by Karen Heuler
• The War Artist - (2011) - short story by Tony Ballantyne
• The Master of the Aviary - (2011) - novelette by Bruce Sterling
• Home Sweet Bi'ome - (2011) - novelette by Pat MacEwen
• For I Have Lain Me Down on the Stone of Loneliness and I'll Not Be Back Again - (2011) - short story by Michael Swanwick
• The Ki-anna - (2010) - novelette by Gwyneth Jones
• Eliot Wrote - (2011) - short story by Nancy Kress
• The Nearest Thing - (2011) - novelette by Genevieve Valentine
• A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel - (2011) - short story by Yoon Ha Lee
• The Ice Owl - (2011) - novella by Carolyn Ives Gilman

Once again, the finest SF short stories of the year have been collected in a single volume.

With Year's Best SF 18, acclaimed, award-winning editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell demonstrates the amazing depth and power of contemporary speculative fiction, showcasing astonishing short stories from some of science fiction's most respected names as well as exciting new writers to watch. In this anthology, prepare to travel light years from the ordinary into a tomorrow at once breathtaking, frightening, and possible with some of the greatest tales of wonder published in 2012.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by David G. Hartwell
• Old Paint - (2012) - novelette by Megan Lindholm
• The Ghosts of Christmas - (2012) - novelette by Paul Cornell
• Prayer - (2012) - short story by Robert Reed
• The Battle of Candle Arc - (2012) - novelette by Yoon Ha Lee
• Dormanna - (2012) - short story by Gene Wolfe
• Holmes Sherlock: A Hwarhath Mystery - (2012) - short story by Eleanor Arnason
• Electrica - (2012) - novelette by Sean McMullen
• Perfect Day - (2012) - short story by C. S. Friedman
• Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh - (2012) - short story by John Barnes
• Liberty's Daughter - (2012) - novelette by Naomi Kritzer
• Weep for Day - (2012) - novelette by Indrapramit Das
• In Plain Sight - (2012) - short story by Pat Cadigan
• Application - (2012) - short story by Lewis Shiner
• A Love Supreme - (2012) - short story by Kathleen Ann Goonan
• Close Encounters - (2012) - novelette by Andy Duncan
• Two Sisters in Exile - (2012) - short story by Aliette de Bodard
• The Waves - (2012) - novelette by Ken Liu
• The North Revena Ladies Literary Society - (2012) - short story by Catherine H. Shaffer
• Antarctica Starts Here - (2012) - short story by Paul J. McAuley
• Bricks, Sticks, Straw - (2012) - short story by Gwyneth Jones
• The Sigma Structure Symphony - (2012) - novelette by Gregory Benford
• Glass Future - (2012) - short story by Deborah Walker
• If Only... - (2012) - short story by Tony Ballantyne
• The Woman Who Shook the World Tree - short story by Michael Swanwick
• Nahiku West - (2012) - novelette by Linda Nagata
• Houseflies - (2012) - short story by Joe Pitkin
• Branches on My Back, Sparrows in My Ear - (2012) - short story by Nikki J. North
• The Peak of Eternal Light - (2012) - novelette by Bruce Sterling