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What would you do if you found yourself face to face with:

--A computer that you fear may drive you insane?

--A mathematical equation that proves you are about to die?

--A seductive siren who promises you sex and death in outer space?

--A brainwashing technique that will turn you either into a superman or a monster?

--A machine that lets you fight imaginary duels-until someone programs it for real-life murder?

These are just some of the future shocks in--FORWARD IN TIME

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Forward in Time) - essay
• Zero Gee - (1972) - novelette
• Test in Orbit - (1965) - shortstory
• The Weathermakers - (1966) - novelette
• A Slight Miscalculation - (1971) - shortstory
• Fifteen Miles - (1967) - shortstory
• Stars, Won't You Hide Me? - (1966) - shortstory
• The Next Logical Step - (1962) - shortstory
• Men of Good Will - (1964) - shortstory with Myron R. Lewis
• Blood of Tyrants - (1970) - novelette
• The Perfect Warrior - (1963) - novella with Myron R. Lewis

Collected when Brunner was at the peak of his writing form, this even dozen of his short stories, with a bonus poem thrown into the mix, offers provocative ideas and thrilling action mixed with conceptions of the inevitable future, the inventable future, the alternate future, the future to be avoided, and the future that is sometimes right now. A heady brew.

Table of Contents:

• A "From This Day Foreword", as It Were - essay by John Brunner
• The Biggest Game - (1956) - shortstory
• The Trouble I See - (1959) - shortstory
• An Elixir for the Emperor - (1964) - novelette
• Wasted on the Young - (1965) - shortstory
• Even Chance - (1965) - shortstory
• Planetfall - (1965) - shortstory
• Judas - (1967) - shortstory
• The Vitanuls - (1967) - shortstory
• Factsheet Six - (1968) - novelette
• Fifth Commandment - (1970) - shortstory
• Fairy Tale - (1970) - shortstory
• The Inception of the Epoch of Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid - (1971) - shortstory
• The Oldest Glass - poem

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, September 2003. The story is included in the collection I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein (2008).

Young Alex is a slave. But recognized for his potential as an Animist, he is bought by his college and begins rigorous training. Now, Alex must begin his quest for his Anim-the animal with whom he will bond.

Alex hopes it will be an extraordinary creature that will help him earn the money he needs to buy his freedom. Unfortunately, his Anim turns out to be... well, not nearly what he had hoped. But as Alex finds himself caught in one misadventure after another, he will learn-and learn to appreciate-that there is more to his Anim than meets the eye.

Proving that even in Utopia some people are oppressed, the leftover "bad guys" from the triumph of Good and Light--thieves, a black knight, a vengeful, man-eating sorceress--attempt to save the world from the terrible fate of boredom.

Out on the far boundaries of the solar system, in the Oort Cloud, intelligent life has been discovered by humanity's space probes. Now the first humans to venture beyond the planetary system have been sent to make contact with this incredibly strange race and to tour the center of their civilization. What they discover is explosive beyond their wildest dreams.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Indistinguishable from Magic)
• 6 - Antimatter
• 29 - Turn Left at the Moon
• 59 - Beanstalks
• 90 - Race to the Pole
• 104 - Starships
• 133 - Fading Into Blackness
• 148 - Antigravity
• 179 - The Singing Diamond
• 190 - Black Holes
• 212 - Acceleration Constant
• 232 - Space Warps and Time Machines
• 267 - Twin Paradox
• 291 - Future Speculations
• 321 - A Matter Most Strange
• 340 - Faster-Than-Light
• 363 - Self-Limiting
• 368 - About the Author (Indistinguishable from Magic)
• 370 - Index (Indistinguishable from Magic)

Mars starts out as a battlefield, but soon both armies find themselves united against a charismatic dictator of all Earth, who is demanding that they return or be destroyed. Their only hope is to turn Mars into a new home, which they do, with the aid of some ancient caretakers of the planet.

In the near future five intrepid men and women have been paid a billion dollars each to risk the first voyage into the upper atmosphere of Saturn. The goal: to convert atmospheric chemicals into fuel to power interplanetary spaceships.

But no one anticipates a crash landing on one of the enormous flying creatures known as rukhs that live in Saturn's atmosphere.

This is the story of Randy Hunter, a billionaire industrialist who communicates with aliens, achieves interstellar flight, and explores far-flung worlds in a future filled with technological wonders.

A scientific experiment begins, and as the button is pressed, the unexpected occurs: everyone in the world goes to sleep for a few moments while everyone's consciousness is catapulted more than twenty years into the future. At the end of those moments, when the world reawakens, all human life is transformed by foreknowledge.

For many decades now, Japan has been known for its contribution to cutting-edge technologies, and even now Japan is ranked high in fields such as robotics research. Much of Japan's advanced technologies has been inspired by ideas in comic books (authors like Osamu Tezuka of Astro Boy) and literature (authors like Sakyo Komatsu, Yasutaka Tsutsui, and Shin'ichi Hoshi).

Beginning his writing career in 1928, Juza Unno took inspiration from Western authors like Jules Verne as well as his own knowledge of electric engineering to write fiction that integrated a broad spectrum of creative innovative ideas. His stories touch upon everything from facial reconstruction and gender reassignment surgery to video phones, cryogenics, multi-dimensional beings, and celestial body orbit adjustment (and, of course, robots). Because of this, Unno is sometimes referred to as the father of Japanese science fiction.

This collection contains some of Unno's best short- and medium-length fiction, and is the first time his stories have been published in print media in English.

The highlight of this collection is the novella "Eighteen O'Clock Music Bath," one of Unno's most well-known stories about an underground dystopian world where the citizens are brainwashed daily by specially constructed music. Not only is this Japan's first work in the dystopian genre, but it also touches upon many of Unno's innovative ideas (not to mention the notable appearance of a tantalizingly beautiful robot). Like many of Unno's other works, "Eighteen O'Clock Music Bath" is a cautionary tale about how misuse of technology can have disastrous consequences.

"Fast Forward Japan" contains a total of nine stories, including "The Living Intestine", an unusual tale of a doctor's medical experiment gone awry; "Adventures of the Dinosaur-Craft", a story where two boys use technology and creativity to have the adventure of a lifetime; "The Last Broadcast", a story about a scientist whose breakthrough allows him to eavesdrop on a alien civilization on the brink of destruction; and "The World in One Thousand Years", a tale about a man who wakes up in the future from a long cryogenic sleep.

These stories are sure to delight and inform those interested in Japanese science fiction, and might even help to kickstart our own innovations.

Table of Contents:

• The Living Intestine - (2018) - short fiction
• The Adventures of the Dinosaur-Craft - (2020) - short story
• The Last Broadcast - short fiction
• The World in One Thousand Years - (2018) - short fiction
• Eighteen O'Clock Music Bath - (2018) - novella
• The Theory of Planetary Colonization - (2018) - short fiction
• Four-Dimensional Man - (2018) - short fiction
• Mysterious Spacial Rift - (2018) - short fiction
• Crematoria - (2020) - short fiction

Only a handful of authors write with such startling originality that the uniqueness of their vision has become synonymous with their name. In Spares and One of Us, Michael Marshall Smith has earned that distinction. In this unsettling, suspenseful, and wildly imaginative novel he's written a tale that from page one hurtles us....

Only Forward

Call him Stark. If you have to. If you're lucky, you won't call him at all. Because if you do, it means you've got trouble. Big trouble. And the problem is that before Stark is done fixing something, a whole lot of other things usually get broken. Like laws and lives--and anyone who gets in the way. It's that attitude that's earned him his latest assignment: finding a missing VIP named Fell Alkland. The authorities believe Alkland has been kidnapped. Stark doesn't. He hasn't stayed alive this long without learning the basics of survival in a world hurtling straight to hell: Things are always more complicated than they seem. And when a job seems too easy, that's when something really ugly is about to happen. For Fell Alkland is about to become Stark's worst nightmare, a nightmare where anything can happen at any time--where friends can become enemies in a heartbeat and your most secret fear a soul-screaming reality. And the worst of it is that for this nightmare you don't even have to be asleep.

In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms--the cheela--living on Dragon's Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers . . .

Starquake, the sequel to Dragons Egg, takes place on the surface of a neutron star. The gravity is 67 billion Earth gravities. The native cheela, the size of sesame seeds, live a million times faster than their human friends in orbit. After a starquake, the humans have only one day to save the remains of cheela civilization from extinction.

1812: The Vishenkov household, along with the rest of Moscow, faces the advance of Napoleon Bonaparte. At their heart is the radiant Dusha, a source of inspiration - and more besides - for them all. But family friend, Captain Padorin, is acting like a man possessed - by the Devil! 2024: Fitz is under interrogation regarding a burglary and fire at the Kremlin. The Doctor has disappeared in the flames. Colonel Bugayev is investigating a spate of antique thefts on top of which he now has a time-travel mystery to unravel. 5000: Lord General Razum Kinzhal is ready to set in motion the final stages of a world war. More than the enemy, his fellow generals of the Icelandic Alliance fear what such a man might do in peacetime. What can bridge these disparate events in time? Love will find a way. But the Doctor must find a better alternative. Before love sets the world on fire.

Science Fiction is the genre that looks at the implications of technology on society, which in this age of exponential technological growth makes it the most relevant branch of literature going. This is only the start, and the close of the 21st century will look absolutely nothing like its inception.

It has been said that science fiction is an ongoing dialogue about the future, and the front line of that dialogue is the short story. The field has a long history of producing famous anthologies to showcase its distinguished short fiction, but it has been several years since there has been a prestigious all-original science fiction anthology series.

Fast Forward is offered in the tradition of Damon Knight's prestigious and influential anthology series, Orbit, and Frederik Pohl's landmark Star SF. Fast Forward marks the start of a new hard science fiction anthology series, dedicated to presenting the vanguard of the genre and charting the undiscovered country that is the future.

Contributors for the first volume include: Kage Baker, Paolo Bacigalupi, Tony Ballantyne, Stephen Baxter, Elizabeth Bear, A. M. Dellamonica, Paul Di Filippo, Robyn Hitchcock, Louise Marley, Ken MacLeod, Ian McDonald, John Meaney, Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper, Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress, Justina Robson, Pamela Sargent, Mary A. Turzillo, Robert Charles Wilson, Gene Wolfe, and George Zebrowski.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Welcome to the Future - essay by Lou Anders
• YFL-500 - novelette by Robert Charles Wilson
• The Girl Hero's Mirror Says He's Not the One - shortstory by Justina Robson
• Small Offerings - shortstory by Paolo Bacigalupi
• They Came from the Future - poem by Robyn Hitchcock
• Plotters and Shooters - novelette by Kage Baker
• Aristotle OS - shortstory by Tony Ballantyne
• The Something-Dreaming Game - shortstory by Elizabeth Bear
• No More Stories - shortstory by Stephen Baxter
• Time of the Snake - shortstory by A. M. Dellamonica
• The Terror Bard - novelette by Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper
• p dolce - shortstory by Louise Marley
• Jesus Christ, Reanimator - shortstory by Ken MacLeod
• Solomon's Choice - novelette by Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress
• Sanjeev and Robotwallah - shortstory by Ian McDonald
• A Smaller Government - shortstory by Pamela Sargent
• Pride - shortstory by Mary A. Turzillo
• I Caught Intelligence - poem by Robyn Hitchcock
• Settlements - shortstory by George Zebrowski
• The Hour of the Sheep - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Sideways from Now - novella by John Meaney
• Wikiworld - novelette by Paul Di Filippo

When Fast Forward 1 debuted in February 2007, it marked the first major all- original, all-SF anthology series to appear in some time – and it was met with a huge outpouring of excitement and approbation from the science fiction community. No less than seven stories from Fast Forward 1 were chosen to be reprinted a total of nine times in the four major "Best of the Year" retrospective anthologies, a wonderful testament to the quality of contributions in our inaugural book. What’s more, Fast Forward 1 was hailed repeatedly as leading the charge in a return of original, unthemed anthologies series (several more have since appeared in our wake). Now the critically-acclaimed, groundbreaking series continues, featuring all new stories.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: The Age of Accelerating Returns - (2008) - essay by Lou Anders
• Catherine Drewe - (2008) - short story by Paul Cornell
• Cyto Couture - novelette by Kay Kenyon
• The Sun Also Explodes - (2008) - short story by Chris Nakashima-Brown
• The Kindness of Strangers - (2008) - short story by Nancy Kress
• Alone with an Inconvenient Companion - (2008) - short story by Jack Skillingstead
• True Names - (2008) - novella by Cory Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum
• Molly's Kids - (2008) - short story by Jack McDevitt
• Adventure - (2008) - short story by Paul J. McAuley
• Not Quite Alone in the Dream Quarter - (2008) - short story by Pat Cadigan and Mike Resnick
• An Eligible Boy - (2008) - novelette by Ian McDonald
• SeniorSource - (2008) - short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Mitigation - novelette by Tobias S. Buckell and Karl Schroeder
• Long Eyes - (2008) - short story by Jeff Carlson
• The Gambler - (2008) - novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi

On the eve of Earth's destruction, a young scientist discovers something too precious to lose, in a story of cataclysm and hope by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Divergent trilogy.

It's only two weeks before an asteroid turns home to dust. Though most of Earth has already been evacuated, it's Samantha's job to catalog plant samples for the survivors' unknowable journey beyond. Preparing to stay behind and watch the world end, she makes a final human connection.

As certain doom hurtles nearer, the unexpected and beautiful potential for the future begins to flower.

A video game developer becomes obsessed with a willful character in her new project, in a mind-bending exploration of what it means to be human by the New York Times bestselling author of Recursion.

Maxine was made to do one thing: die. Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision--veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?

Hugo Award-nominated Novelette

An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet's finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind -- hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out ages ago. After all this time, there's no telling how they've devolved. Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.

Nature or nurture? Neither. Discover a bold new way to raise a child in this unsettling story of the near future by the New York Times bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow.

When Sam's wife first tells him about Vitek, a twenty-first-century fertility lab, he sees it as the natural next step in trying to help their future child get a "leg up" in a competitive world. But the more Sam considers the lives that his child could lead, the more he begins to question his own relationships and the choices he has made in his life.

What's more frightening: Not knowing who you are? Or finding out? A Bram Stoker Award-winning author explores the answer in a chilling story about identity and human consciousness.

Imagine you've woken up in an unfamiliar room with no memory of who you are, how you got there, or where you were before. All you have is the disconnected voice of an attentive caretaker. Dr. Kuhn is there to help you--physically, emotionally, and psychologically. She'll help you remember everything. She'll make sure you reclaim your lost identity. Now answer one question: Are you sure you want to?

In the near future, if Vegas games are ingeniously scam-proof, then the heists have to be too, in this imaginative and whip-smart story by the New York Times bestselling author of The Martian.

An IT whiz at the Babylon Casino is enlisted to upgrade security for the game of keno and its random-number generator. The new quantum computer system is foolproof. But someone on the inside is no fool. For once the odds may not favor the house--unless human ingenuity isn't entirely a thing of the past.

White consumes the New Hampshire landscape, as US troops close like a platoon of ghosts on an armed cult, following a spate of unnaturally severe blizzards. Screams are carried on the frosty winds, but as the troops break in they find the house deserted. A gunfight with no victims.

The Fourth Doctor, hoping to give Leela a taste of life among the tribes of Native America, finds he has fractionally misjudged his coordinates, and they too are trapped in the frozen wastes, for he has strangely lost his homing affinity with the TARDIS. In the nearby small town of Winnipesaukee, a little girl called Amber Mailloux, distressed by the disappearance of her father, frustrated with her mother's roaming, unsettled life, feels almost at one with the heartless, lonely raging of the storm. But none of them know that the snow, the ice is not just a backdrop, but the real enemy. At the heart of the drift is a living presence, glorying in the cold, inhuman structures of the ice. And it's hungry...

Powered by a revolutionary laser-driven stardrive, the first interstellar expedition would reach the double planet circling Barnard's Star -- and find a world of wonders and dangers beyond all their imaginings.

Hard SF by the author of Rocheworld and his daughter. When the first interstellar expedition reached Barnard's Star, explorers found a bizarre double planet populated by hyperintelligent water-dwellers. Soon a new aquatic race is discovered--intelligent but unfriendly beings whose territorial instincts make them attack any creature that intrudes on their domain.

Armed with millions of years worth of technological innovations, the scientists embark on their mission to Barnard's Star and Rochenworld.

Humans and the giant, big-brained, lovable amoebae of Rocheworld explore the oceans and geysers of Zulu and unwittingly threaten the food supply of Zulu's native species.

Terrans Go Home!

The first interstellar expedition successfully reached Barnard's Star and its amazing double-planet - Rocheworld - and made contact with the flouwen, intelligent aquatic beings with a talent for higher mathematics and a love of surfing. The flouwen joined with the humans to explore the rest of Barnard's planets and moons. When a landing craft carrying ten humans and three flouwen crashlanded on a habitable moon - Eden - the team was marooned on Eden with no hope of rescue until decades later when a second expedition was scheduled from Earth.

Not having another option, the marooned explorers settled down to make the moon their home, befriending the indigenous inhabitants, exploring, learning to live off the land, and, most important, raising families. They struggled to survive natural disasters and unexpected attacks from the sea. The years passed.

A new generation grows up hearing of Earth and its technology as a dim legen, and thinking of Eden as their natural home.

When the Second Expedition finally arrives, its leader announces that he has orders to rescue all the survivors. But twenty-five years have passed. Who of the original members of the expedition will survive to see Earth again, and what new sort of human now waits on Eden to be... Rescued From Paradise?

The Sixth Doctor is washed up -- literally -- on an alien beach with only intelligent crabs and a madman for company.

How can he possibly rescue Peri who was lost at sea the same time as he and the TARDIS? But Peri has problems of her own. "Rescued" from drowning by an intelligent sponge growth, she has been adopted by the life form as its own personal God.

As the denizens of the beach come under increasingly vicious attack, the Doctor must discover the vital truth in time to save all their lives.

A stunning testament to his creative genius. Forward The Foundation is a the saga's dramatic climax -- the story Asimov fans have been waiting for. An exciting tale of danger, intrigue, and suspense, Forward The Foundation brings to vivid life Asimov's best loved characters: hero Hari Seldon, who struggles to perfect his revolutionary theory of psychohistory to ensure the survival of humanity; Cleon II, the vain and crafty emperor of the Galactic Empire.