Author Description

An unabridged collection spotlighting the best hard science fiction stories and novellas published in 2024 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster.<ul><li><b>"Antyesti for a Dead Ganesa" by Ashok K. Banker</b><b> </b>- An old-school cop is resurrected from deadsleep to solve the murder of a god clone in a future Mumbai.</li><li><b>"Places You Have Never Been" by David Cleden </b>- A city is threatened by invisible bubbles that take whatever is trapped inside them when they inexplicably collapse.</li><li><b>"The Icy Wasteland at Her Feet" by Deborah L. Davitt</b> - The sole survivor of a team of astronauts on Saturn's moon, Enceladus, struggles to keep sane.</li><li><b>"The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea" by Naomi Kritzer</b> - A contentious married couple, both scientists, move to a town overlooking Cape Cod Bay where men mysteriously disappear.</li><li><b>"Barbarians" by Rich Larson</b> - A rogue and a disembodied head are hired to take twins to explore a dead, planet-sized organism.</li><li><b>"The Dark at the End of the Tunnel" by Edward M. Lerner</b> - A graduate student investigates the disappearance of a distant galaxy.</li><li><b>"Western Approaches" by Ian McDonald</b> - A pilot is sent on a mission to explore a spinning storm approaching Scotland.</li><li><b>"Mirrorstar" by Sean McMullen</b> - A forensic pathologist investigates the death of a scientist in the focus cage of a space telescope.</li><li><b>"There's Nothing in the Attic" by Faith Merino</b> - The women in a man's life carry out physics experiments in his home.</li><li><b>"Luminous Glass, Vibrant Seeds" by D.A. Xiaolin Spires</b> - A glass artist and her bot are tasked with delivering a rare, viable seedling to its proper environ on a climate-damaged world.</li><li><b>"Encore" by Wole Talabi</b> - Twin AIs, created by now extinct humans, travel between star systems to make art for those who share its world of digital data.</li></ul>