The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 9 - Paperback

by Ashok K. Banker (Author), Deborah L. Davitt (Author), Naomi Kritzer (Author)

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.

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