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To keep up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more -- a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the inaugural volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, a new yearly anthology compiled by Hugo and World Fantasy award-winning editor Neil Clarke, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Clarke, publisher and editor in chief of the acclaimed and award-winning magazine Clarkesworld, has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

Table of Contents:

• "A Murmuration" by Alastair Reynolds (Interzone, March/April 2015)
• "In Blue Lily's Wake" by Aliette de Bodard (Meeting Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan)
• "Outsider" by An Owomeyla (Meeting Infinity, edited by Jonathana Strahan)
• "Another Word for World" by Ann Leckie (Future Visions, edited by Microsoft & Melcher Media)
• "Iron Pegasus" by Brenda Cooper (Mission Tomorrow, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt)
• "Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World" by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed, September 2015)
• "Bannerless" by Carrie Vaughn (The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey)
• "Gypsy" by Carter Scholz (PM Press)
• "The Smog Society" by Chen Qiufan, translated by Ken Liu and Carmen Yiling Yan (Lightspeed, August 2015)
• "The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss" by David Brin (Old Venus, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois)
• "Damage" by David D. Levine (Tor.com, 1/21/2015)
• "Capitalism in the 22nd Century" by Geoff Ryman (Stories for Chip, edited by Nisi Shawl and Bill Campbell)
• "Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu (Uncanny, January/February 2015)
• "Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan" by Ian McDonald (Old Venus, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois)
• "Hold-Time Violations" by John Chu (Tor.com, 10/17/2015)
• "Two-Year Man" by Kelly Robson (Asimov's, August 2015)
• "The Gods Have Not Died in Vain" by Ken Liu (The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey)
• "Today I Am Paul" by Martin L. Shoemaker (Clarkesworld, August 2015)
• "Cocoons" by Nancy Kress (Meeting Infinity, edited by Jonathana Strahan)
• "Cat Pictures Please" by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015)
• "So Much Cooking" by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, November 2015)
• "No Placeholder for You, My Love" by Nick Wolven (Asimov's, August 2015)
• "Wild Honey" by Paul McAuley (Asimov's, August 2015)
• "Meshed" by Rich Larson (Clarkesworld, February 2015)
• "Empty" by Robert Reed (Asimov's, December 2015)
• "Calved" by Sam J. Miller (Asimov's, September 2015)
• "The Audience" by Sean McMullen (Analog, June 2015)
• "Hello, Hello" by Seanan McGuire (Future Visions, edited by Microsoft & Melcher Media)
• "Three Bodies at Mitanni" by Seth Dickinson (Analog, June 2015)
• "Violation of the TrueNet Security Act" by Taiyo Fujii, Translated by Jim Hubbert (Lightspeed, July 2015)
• "The Cold Inequalities" by Yoon Ha Lee (Meeting Infinity, edited by Jonathana Strahan)

To keep up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more--a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, a new yearly anthology compiled by Hugo and World Fantasy award-winning editor Neil Clarke, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

Table of Contents:

• "The Visitor from Taured", novelette by Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov's, September 2016)
• "Extraction Request", short story by Rich Larson (Clarkesworld, January 2016)
• "A Good Home", short story by Karin Lowachee (Lightspeed, June 2016)
• "Prodigal", novelette by Gord Sellar (Analog, December 2016)
• "Ten Days", novelette by Nina Allan (Now We Are Ten, edited by Ian Whates)
• "Terminal", short story by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com, April 2016)
• "Panic City", short story by Madeline Ashby (CyberWorld, edited by Jason Heller and Joshua Viola)
• "Last Gods", short story by Sam J. Miller (Drowned Worlds, edited by Jonathana Strahan)
• "HigherWorks", novelette by Gregory Norman Bossert (Asimov's, December 2016)
• "A Strange Loop", novelette by T.R. Napper (Interzone, January/February 2016)
• "Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse", short story by Xia Jia (Invisible Planets, edited by Ken Liu)
• "Pearl", novelette by Aliette de Bodard (The Starlit Wood, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe)
• "The Metal Demimonde", novelette by Nick Wolven (Analog, June 2016)
• "The Iron Tactician", novella by Alastair Reynolds (Newcon Press)
• "The Mighty Slinger", novelette by Tobias S. Buckell and Karen Lord (Bridging Infinity, edited by Jonathana Strahan)
• "They All Have One Breath", novelette by Karl Bunker (Asimov's, December 2016)
• "Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea", short story by Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed, February 2016)
• "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices", short story by Margaret Ronald (Clarkesworld, June 2016)
• "The Three Lives of Sonata James", novelette by Lettie Prell (Tor.com, October 2016)
• "The Charge and the Storm", novelette by An Owomoyela (Asimov's, February 2016)
• "Parables of Infinity", short story by Robert Reed (Bridging Infinity, edited by Jonathana Strahan)
• "Ten Poems for the Mossums, One for the Man", short story by Suzanne Palmer (Asimov's, July 2016)
• "You Make Pattaya", short story by Rich Larson (Interzone, November/December 2016)
• "Number Nine Moon", novelette by Alex Irvine (F&SF, January/February 2016)
• "Things with Beards", short story by Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld, June 2016)
• "Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit--Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts", short story by Ken Liu (Drowned Worlds, edited by Jonathana Strahan)
• "Touring with the Alien", novelette by Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld, April 2016)

To keep up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more?a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, a new yearly anthology compiled by Hugo and World Fantasy award-winning editor Neil Clarke, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Clarke, publisher and editor in chief of the acclaimed and award-winning magazine Clarkesworld, has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

Table of Contents:

• "A Series of Steaks" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld, January 2017)
• "Holdfast" by Alastair Reynolds (Extrasolar, edited by Nick Gevers)
• "Every Hour of Light and Dark" by Nancy Kress (Omni, Winter 2017)
• "The Last Novelist, or a Dead Lizard in the Yard" by Matthew Kressel (Tor.com, March 2017)
• "Shikasta" by Vandana Singh (Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities, edited by Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich)
• "Wind Will Rove" by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov's Science Fiction, September/October 2017)
• "Focus" by Gord Sellar (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, May/June 2017)
• "The Martian Obelisk" by Linda Nagata (Tor.com, July 2017)
• "Shadows of Eternity" by Gregory Benford (Extrasolar, edited by Nick Gevers)
• "The Worldless" by Indrapramit Das (Lightspeed, March 2017)
• "Regarding the Robot Raccoons Attached to the Hull of My Ship" by Rachael K. Jones and Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali (Diabolical Plots, June 2017)
• "Belly Up" by Maggie Clark (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July/August 2017)
• "Uncanny Valley" by Greg Egan (Tor.com, August 2017)
• "We Who Live in the Heart " by Kelly Robson (Clarkesworld, May 2017)
• "A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World" by A.C. Wise (Sunvault, edited by Phoebe Wagner and Bronte Christopher Wieland)
• "Meridian" by Karin Lowachee (Where the Stars Rise, edited by Lucas K. Law and Derwin Mak)
• "The Tale of the Alcubierre Horse" by Kathleen Ann Goonan (Extrasolar, edited by Nick Gevers)
• "Extracurricular Activities" by Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com, February 2017)
• "In Everlasting Wisdom" by Aliette de Bodard (Infinity Wars, edited by Jonathan Strahan)
• "The Last Boat-Builder in Ballyvoloon" by Finbarr O'Reilly (Clarkesworld, October 2017)
• "The Speed of Belief" by Robert Reed (Asimov's Science Fiction, January/February 2017)
• "Death on Mars" by Madeline Ashby (Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities, edited by Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich)
• "An Evening with Severyn Grimes" by Rich Larson (Asimov's Science Fiction, July/August 2017)
• "ZeroS" by Peter Watts (Infinity Wars, edited by Jonathan Strahan)
• "The Secret Life of Bots" by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, September 2017)
• "Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance" by Tobias S. Buckell (Cosmic Powers, edited by John Joseph Adams)

A human detective and their partner, an enhanced chimpanzee, investigate a strange murder on the subway... a smart home goes into lockdown, turning a man's own home into his prison... at a robot factory, something has caused the machines to attempt to escape... mysterious seeds raining down from deep space could be the first sign of an alien invasion... a woman seeks to restore a broken AI, hoping it can help return humanity to better days...

For decades, science fiction has compelled us to imagine futures both inspiring and cautionary. Whether it's a warning message from a survey ship, a harrowing journey to a new world, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction inspires the imagination and delivers a lens through which we can view ourselves and the world around us. With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Four, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and twenty-nine of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2018.

Table of Contents:

• "When We Were Starless" by Simone Heller (Clarkesworld Magazine, October 2018)
• "Intervention" by Kelly Robson (Infinity's End, edited by Jonathan Strahan)
• "All the Time We've Left to Spend" by Alyssa Wong (Robots vs. Fairies, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe)
• "Domestic Violence" by Madeline Ashby (Slate, March 26, 2018)
• "Ten Landscapes of Nili Fossae" by Ian McDonald (2001: An Odyssey in Words, edited by Ian Whates and Tom Hunter)
• "Prophet of the Roads" by Naomi Kritzer (Infinity's End, edited by Jonathan Strahan)
• "Traces of Us" by Vanessa Fogg (GigaNotoSaurus, March 2018)
• "Theories of Flight" by Linda Nagata (Asimov's Science Fiction, November/December 2018)
• "Lab B-15" by Nick Wolven (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March/April 2018)
• "Requiem" by Vandana Singh (Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories, Small Beer Press)
• "Sour Milk Girls" by Erin Roberts (Clarkesworld Magazine, January 2018)
• "Mother Tongues" by S. Qiouyi Lu (Asimov's Science Fiction, January/February 2018)
• "Singles' Day" by Samantha Murray (Interzone, September/October 2018)
• "Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" by Daryl Gregory (Tor.com, September 19, 2018)
• "The Buried Giant" by Lavie Tidhar (Robots vs. Fairies, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe)
• "The Anchorite Wakes" by R.S.A. Garcia (Clarkesworld Magazine, August 2018)
• "Entropy War" by Yoon Ha Lee (2001: An Odyssey in Words, edited by Ian Whates and Tom Hunter)
• "An Equation of State" by Robert Reed (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2018)
• "Quantifying Trust" by John Chu (Mother of Invention, edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts)
• "Hard Mary" by Sofia Samatar (Lightspeed Magazine, September 2018)
• "Freezing Rain, a Chance of Falling" by L.X. Beckett (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2018)
• "Okay, Glory" by Elizabeth Bear (Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Wade Roush)
• "Heavy Lifting" by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2018)
• "Lions and Gazelles" by Hannu Rajaniemi (Slate, September 27, 2018)
• "Different Seas" by Alastair Reynolds (Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Wade Roush)
• "Among the Water Buffaloes, a Tiger's Steps" by Aliette de Bodard (Mechanical Animals, edited by Selena Chambers and Jason Heller)
• "Byzantine Empathy" by Ken Liu (Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Wade Roush)
• "Meat and Salt and Sparks" by Rich Larson (Tor.com, June 6, 2018)
• "Umbernight" by Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld Magazine, February 2018)

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more -- a task that can be accomplished by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to present the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, a yearly anthology compiled by Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning editor Neil Clarke, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Clarke, publisher and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed and award-winning magazine Clarkesworld, has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

Table of Contents:

• "Moonlight" - short story by Cixin Liu
• "Permafrost" - novella by Alastair Reynolds
• "Give the Family My Love" - short story by A. T. Greenblatt
• "At the Fall" - novelette by Alec Nevala-Lee
• "Sympathizer" - short fiction by Karin Lowachee
• "The Painter of Trees" - short story by Suzanne Palmer
• "Cratered" - novelette by Karen Osborne
• "The Work of Wolves" - novella by Tegan Moore
• "The Ocean Between the Leaves" - novelette by Ray Nayler
• "Rescue Party" [Xuya] - novelette by Aliette de Bodard
• "By the Warmth of Their Calculus" - novelette by Tobias S. Buckell
• "The Empty Gun" - short story by Yoon Ha Lee
• "In the Stillness Between the Stars" - novelette by Mercurio D. Rivera
• "On the Shores of Ligeia" - short story by Carolyn Ives Gilman
• "The Justified" - short fiction by Ann Leckie
• "Kali_Na" - short fiction by Indrapramit Das
• "Close Enough for Jazz" - short fiction by John Chu
• "Deriving Life" - novelette by Elizabeth Bear
• "Old Media" - short story by Annalee Newitz
• "Painless" - short story by Rich Larson
• "Emergency Skin" - novelette by N. K. Jemisin
• "Song Xiuyun" - novelette A Que
• "The River of Blood and Wine" - novelette by Kali Wallace
• "Knit Three, Save Four" - short story by Marie Vibbert
• "Such Thoughts Are Unproductive" - short story by Rebecca Campbell
• "Mother Ocean" - short story by Vandana Singh
• "The Little Shepherdess" - short story by Gwyneth Jones
• "One Thousand Beetles in a Jumpsuit" - novelette by Dominica Phetteplace

Visit a future where you can rent out your body, just like an apartment....

Join a robot dog repurposed for mining as it fights to stay alive after being judged as defective....

Follow a woman who must race across the surface of an alien world alone and through deadly flora and fauna to save the life of her mentor....

Discover what happens when an autonomous undersea drone sent to find life on Enceladus begins demonstrating signs of an emerging consciousness....

Find out what happens when you have your boyfriend test out your newest playbot.

For decades, science fiction has compelled us to imagine futures both inspiring and cautionary. Whether it's a warning message from a survey ship, a harrowing journey to a new world, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction inspires the imagination and delivers a lens through which we can view ourselves and the world around us. With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 33 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2020.

Table of Contents:

• Scar Tissue - short story by Tobias S. Buckell
• Eyes of the Forest - short story by Ray Nayler
• Sinew and Steel and What They Told - short story by Carrie Vaughn
• An Important Failure - novelette by Rebecca Campbell
• The Long Iapetan Night - novelette by Julie Novakova
• AirBody - short story by Sameem Siddiqui
• The Bahrain Underground Bazaar - novelette by Nadia Afifi
• Lone Puppeteer of a Sleeping City - novelette by Arula Ratnakar
• Your Boyfriend Experience - novelette by James Patrick Kelly
• Beyond the Tattered Veil of Stars - novelette by Mercurio D. Rivera
• The 1st Interspecies Solidarity Fair and Parade - novelette by Bogi Takács
• Oannes, From the Flood - short story by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Yellow and the Perception of Reality - novelette by Maureen F. McHugh
• Exile's End - novelette by Carolyn Ives Gilman
• Invisible People - novelette by Nancy Kress
• Red_Bati - short story by Dilman Dila
• Textbooks in the Attic - short fiction by S. B. Divya
• Seeding the Mountain - novelette by Maggie Clark
• "Knock, Knock" Said the Ship - short story by Rati Mehrotra
• Still You Linger, Like Soot in the Air - short story by Matthew Kressel
• Tunnels - [Lydia Duluth] - novelette by Eleanor Arnason
• Test 4 Echo - short story by Peter Watts
• Uma - short story by Ken Liu
• Beyond These Stars Other Tribulations of Love - short story by Usman T. Malik
• The Translator, at Low Tide - short story by Vajra Chandrasekera
• Fairy Tales for Robots - novelette by Sofia Samatar
• This World Is Made for Monsters - short story by M. Rickert
• Elsewhere - short story by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck [as by James S. A. Corey]
• Salvage - novelette by Andy Dudak
• The Long Tail - short story by Aliette de Bodard
• Rhizome, by Starlight - short story by Fran Wilde
• How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobucar? - novelette by Rich Larson

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more--a task that can be accomplished by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to present the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, a yearly anthology compiled by Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning editor Neil Clarke, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Clarke, publisher and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed and award-winning magazine Clarkesworld, has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.