Most Popular Books by Ken Liu

Includes stories featured in Pantheon—now an animated series on AMC+ “I know this is going to sound hyperbolic, but when I’m reading Ken Liu’s stories, I feel like I’m reading a once-in-a-generation talent. I’m in awe.” —Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author “Captivating.” —BuzzFeed “Extraordinary.” —The Washington Post “Brilliant.” —The Chicago Tribune With the release of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Ken Liu’s short fiction has resonated with a generation of readers. From stories about time-traveling assassins, to Black Mirror-esque tales of cryptocurrency and internet trolling, to heartbreaking narratives of parent-child relationships, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is a far-reaching work that explores topical themes from the present and a visionary look at humanity’s future. This collection includes a selection of Liu’s speculative fiction stories over the past five years—seventeen of his best—plus a new novelette. In addition, it also features an excerpt from The Veiled Throne, the third book in Liu’s epic fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty. Stories include: Ghost Days; Maxwell''s Demon; The Reborn; Thoughts and Prayers; Byzantine Empathy; The Gods Will Not Be Chained; Staying Behind; Real Artists; The Gods Will Not Be Slain; Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer; The Gods Have Not Died in Vain; Memories of My Mother; Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit—Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts; Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard; A Chase Beyond the Storms (an excerpt from The Veiled Throne, Book 3 of the Dandelion Dynasty); The Hidden Girl; Seven Birthdays; The Message; Cutting

Presents the author''s selection of his best short stories, as well as a new piece, in a collection that includes "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary," "Mono No Aware" and "The Waves."

One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time In the much-anticipated sequel to the “magnificent fantasy epic” (NPR) Grace of Kings, Emperor Kuni Garu is faced with the invasion of an invincible army in his kingdom and must quickly find a way to defeat the intruders. Kuni Garu, now known as Emperor Ragin, runs the archipelago kingdom of Dara, but struggles to maintain progress while serving the demands of the people and his vision. Then an unexpected invading force from the Lyucu empire in the far distant west comes to the shores of Dara—and chaos results. But Emperor Kuni cannot go and lead his kingdom against the threat himself with his recently healed empire fraying at the seams, so he sends the only people he trusts to be Dara’s savvy and cunning hopes against the invincible invaders: his children, now grown and ready to make their mark on history.

With the invasion of Dara complete, and the Wall of Storms breached, the world has opened to new possibilities for the gods and peoples of both empires as the sweeping saga of the award-winning Dandelion Dynasty continues in this third book of the “magnificent fantasy epic” (NPR). Princess Théra, once known as Empress Üna of Dara, entrusted the throne to her younger brother in order to journey to Ukyu-Gondé to war with the Lyucu. She has crossed the fabled Wall of Storms with a fleet of advanced warships and ten thousand people. Beset by adversity, Théra and her most trusted companions attempt to overcome every challenge by doing the most interesting thing. But is not letting the past dictate the present always possible or even desirable? In Dara, the Lyucu leadership as well as the surviving Dandelion Court bristle with rivalries as currents of power surge and ebb and perspectives spin and shift. Here, parents and children, teachers and students, Empress and Pékyu, all nurture the seeds of plans that will take years to bloom. Will tradition yield to new justifications for power? Everywhere, the spirit of innovation dances like dandelion seeds on the wind, and the commoners, the forgotten, the ignored begin to engineer new solutions for a new age. Ken Liu returns to the series that draws from a tradition of the great epics of our history from the Aeneid to the Romance on the Three Kingdoms and builds a new tale unsurpassed in its scope and ambition.

A woman who fears she’s failing as a painter and as an artist seeks inspiration from one of her favorite poets--finding something even more wondrous, but also more impossible to capture on canvas. . . At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Invisible Planets, edited by multi award-winning writer Ken Liu--translator of the bestselling and Hugo Award-winning novel The Three Body Problem by acclaimed Chinese author Cixin Liu--is his second thought-provoking anthology of Chinese short speculative fiction. Invisible Planets is a groundbreaking anthology of Chinese short speculative fiction. The thirteen stories in this collection, including two by Cixin Liu and the Hugo and Sturgeon award-nominated “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, add up to a strong and diverse representation of Chinese SF. Some have won awards, some have garnered serioius critical acclaim, some have been selected for Year’s Best anthologies, and some are simply Ken Liu’s personal favorites. To round out the collection, there are several essays from Chinese scholars and authors, plus an illuminating introduction by Ken Liu. Anyone with an interest in international science fiction will find Invisible Planets an indispensable addition to their collection. For more Chinese SF in translation, check out Broken Stars. Stories: “The Year of the Rat” by Chen Qiufan “The Fist of Lijian” by Chen Qiufan “The Flower of Shazui” by Chen Qiufan “A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight” by Xia Jia “Tongtong’s Summer” by Xia Jia “Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse” by Xia jia “The City of Silence” by Ma Boyong “Invisible Planets” by Hao Jingfang “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang “Call Girl” by Tang Fei “Grave of the Fireflies” by Cheng Jingbo “The Circle” by Liu Cixin “Taking Care of God” by Liu Cixin Essays: “The Worst of All Possible Universes and the Best of All Possible Earths: Three-Body and Chinese Science Fiction” by Liu Cixin and Ken Liu “The Torn Generation” Chinese Science Fiction in a Culture in Transition” by Chen Qiufan and Ken Liu “What Makes Chinese Science Fiction Chinese?” by Xia Jia and Ken Liu At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"The Grace of Kings, the first book in this epic series, tells the story of two men who become friends through rebelling against tyranny and then turn against each other in defense of irreconcilable ideals. Wily, charming Kuni Garu, a bandit, and stern, fearless Mata Zyndu, the son of a deposed duke, seem like polar opposites. Yet, in the uprising against the emperor, the two quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, silk-draped airships, soaring battle kites, underwater boats, magical books, shapeshifting gods, and scaled whales who seem to prophesy the future. Once the emperor has been overthrown, however, the two find themselves the leaders of two sides with very different ideas about how the world should be run and the meaning of justice"--

"The concluding book of the Dandelion Dynasty begins in the middle of two wars on two landsamong three peoples separated by an ocean yet held together by invisible strnds of love and ideals. Harried by Lyucu pursuers, Princess Thâera and Pâekyu Takval try to reestablish an ancestral dream even as their hearts grow in doubt. The people of Dara continue the struggle against the genocidal Lyucu as bon nations vacillate between starkly contrasting visions for their futures. Even the gods cannot see through the Wall of Storms, for only mortal hearts can decide mortal fates." -- From jacket flap

LOCUS AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST ANTHOLOGY Sixteen short stories from China''s groundbreaking science fiction writers, edited and translated by award-winning author Ken Liu. In Hugo award-winner Liu Cixin''s ‘Moonlight,’ a man is contacted by three future versions of himself, each trying to save their world from destruction. Hao Jingfang’s ‘The New Year Train’ sees 1,500 passengers go missing on a train that vanishes into space. In the title story by Tang Fei, a young girl is shown how the stars can reveal the future. In addition, three essays explore the history and rise of Chinese science fiction publishing, contemporary Chinese fandom, and how the growing interest in Chinese SF has impacted writers who had long laboured in obscurity. By turns dazzling, melancholy and thought-provoking, Broken Stars celebrates the vibrancy and diversity of SFF voices emerging from China. Stories include: “Goodnight, Melancholy” by Xia Jia “The Snow of Jinyang” by Zhang Ran “Broken Stars” by Tang Fei “Submarines” by Han Song “Salinger and the Koreans” by Han Song “Under a Dangling Sky” by Cheng Jingbo “What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear” by Baoshu “The New Year Train” by Hao Jingfang “The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales” by Fei Dao “Moonlight” by Liu Cixin “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Laba Porridge" by Anna Wu “The First Emperor’s Games” by Ma Boyong “Reflection” by Gu Shi “The Brain Box” by Regina Kanyu Wang “Coming of the Light” by Chen Qiufan “A History of Future Illnesses” by Chen Qiufan Essays: “A Brief Introduction to Chinese Science Fiction and Fandom,” by Regina Kanyu Wang, “A New Continent for China Scholars: Chinese Science Fiction Studies” by Mingwei Song “Science Fiction: Embarrassing No More” by Fei Dao For more Chinese SF in translation, check out Invisible Planets. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary is a science fictional tale that examines a branch of science rarely encountered in genre fiction: historiography. How and why should our understanding of history change if eyewitness accounts by observers sent from the future are prioritized over contemporaneous documents? A finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon awards, this story also won the Ignotus Award for Best Foreign Story in Spain. Ken Liu has called it the story he''s most proud of having written.

Future SF is a magazine focusing on international science fiction. In this issue we feature stories from the Czech Republic, Catalonia, Russia, and the United States.

A fresh, graceful translation of one of the most important and timeless classics—the foundational work of Daoism—by award-winning novelist Ken Liu, who contextualizes and demystifies this famously enigmatic text. Laozi’s Dao De Jing was written around 400 BC by a compassionate soul in a world torn by hatred and ambition, dominated by those that yearned for apocalyptic confrontations and prized ideology over experience. By speaking out against the cleverness of elites and the arrogance of the learned, Laozi upheld the wisdom of the concrete, the humble, the quotidian, the everyday individual dismissed by the great powers of the world. Earthy, playful, and defiant, Laozi’s words gave solace to souls back then, and offer comfort today. Now, this beautifully designed new edition serves as both an accessible new translation of an ancient Chinese classic and a fascinating account of renowned novelist Ken Liu’s transformative experience while wrestling with the classic text. Throughout this translation, Liu takes us through his own struggles to capture the meaning in Laozi’s text in a series of thoughtful and provocative interstitial entries. Unlike traditional notes that purport to be objective, these entries are explicitly personal and unapologetically subjective. Gradually, as Liu learns that true wisdom cannot be pinned down in words, the notes grow sparser until they fade away entirely. His journey suggests the only way out of struggle is to engage with texts that have survived the millennia, wrestling with ideas that gesture at something eternal, in hopes that we might eventually reach that moment of transcendent joy. Liu’s translation, by eschewing cleverness, paradoxically reveals the slipperiness of Laozi’s original. The Dao De Jing has been translated countless times and will be translated countless times in the future. In that constant change and flow, we finally find our home in Dao, the eternal principle that allows us, finite beings in time and space, to reckon and reconcile with the infinite.

A remote village is determined to keep their robot teacher from being fired. A poetry-loving AI controls the wastewater treatment facility, but a series of malfunctions are beginning to cause concern. The biggest pop idol of the twenty-second century is trapped on Enceladus, and deeply alone. Latchko can talk to the banned AIs and now that his secret is out things are about to get complicated. A former child soldier is raised by a plant-like species but struggles to understand them. Ice fishing on Europa just keeps turning up rocks and things just got worse ... something is changing the world, making it better, but for whom? Short fiction is the heart of science fiction, introducing new voices, experimenting with ideas and technique, and paving the way for the future of the field. Thousands of stories are published every year in the many genre magazines, anthologies, collections, podcasts, and websites, as well as other less common venues. Each year, Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning editor Neil Clarke sifts through the myriad of offerings to select works that represent the best and the brightest, report on the state of the field, and recommend additional stories for further reading. In this volume, covering 2021, you''ll find works by Aliette de Bodard, Meg Elison, Rich Larson, Ken Liu, Ray Nayler, Suzanne Palmer, Hannu Rajaniemi, Robert Reed, Karl Schroeder, Vandana Singh, Tade Thompson, and many more.

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 in 2012. Ken Liu is among the most prominent new award-winning Science Fiction writers of the last decade, and in "Reborn" his vision of a really uncanny alien invasion set in Boston, MA, is a stunner, with echoing reverberations, of love, identity, resistance and revolution. Judith Moffett is a poet, biographer, and SF writer who somehow manages to blend all these passions in a story about a new art form involving the science of dreaming, and interpreting dreams, and art. Give a poet a painting to write a story about and you get "Space Ballet", in which students at the Center for Dream Research struggle to interpret a cryptic precognitive dream, a group effort that may avert a disaster. Kathleen Ann Goonan''s stories and novels often evoke a deep desire for some form of utopian future, both better and somehow wilder that the present. Her story "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" is about an animal rights activist and a genius parrot, inter-species communication, and the dream of space, a great leap forward in several ways. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Fantasy Scroll Magazine is an online, quarterly publication featuring science fiction, fantasy, horror, and paranormal short-fiction. The magazine’s mission is to publish high-quality, entertaining, and thought-provoking speculative fiction. With a mixture of short stories, flash fiction, and micro-fiction, Fantasy Scroll Magazine aims to appeal to a wide audience. Issue #1 brings you twelve short stories from authors such as Ken Liu, Seth Chambers, KJ Kabza, Alex Shvartsman, Hank Quense, and more. The magazine contains a well-balanced mix of original stories and reprints from new authors, bestsellers, and award-winning writers, plus a variety of nonfiction features, such as author and editor interviews, book reviews, and movie reviews. The magazine is open to most sub-genres of science fiction, including hard SF, military, apocalyptic & post-apocalyptic, space opera, time travel, cyberpunk, steampunk, and humorous. Similarly for fantasy, we accept most sub-genres, including alternate world, dark fantasy, heroic, high or epic, historical, medieval, mythic, sword & sorcery, urban fantasy, and humorous. The magazine also publishes horror and paranormal short fiction.

The fifteenth anniversary of the Hugo-nominated science fiction podcast Escape Pod, featuring new and exclusive stories from today’s bestselling writers. Finalist for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. Celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of cutting-edge science fiction from the hit podcast, Escape Pod. Escape Pod has been bringing the finest short fiction to millions of ears all over the world, at the forefront of a new fiction revolution. This anthology gathers together fifteen stories, including new and exclusive work from writers such as from Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, Mary Robinette Kowal, T. Kingfisher and more. From editors Mur Laffterty and S.B. Divya comes the science fiction collection of the year, bringing together bestselling authors in celebration of the publishing phenomenon that is, Escape Pod.

FEATURING NEW WRITING BY Benjanun Sriduangkaew // Chris Beckett // Julie E. Czerneda // Ken Liu // Tony Ballantyne // Sean Williams // Laura Lam // Aliette de Bodard // Ian Watson // Gareth L. Powell // Nina Allan // Adam Roberts // George Zebrowski // Cat Sparks // Rachel Swirsky // Benjamin Rosenbaum // Alex Dally MacFarlane // Ian R. MacLeod & Martin Sketchley Award-nominated editor Ian Whates showcases the best in contemporary science fiction, celebrating new writing by a roster of diverse and exciting authors. Here you will discover how this ‘literature of ideas’ produces stories of astonishing imagination and incisive speculation. Solaris Rising 3 thrillingly demonstrates why science fiction is the most relevant, daring and progressive of genres.

recompose: to compose again or differently. This is the first pre-crowdfunded issue of recompose, #0.

12 award-winning science fiction authors from around the world offer original tales of relationships in a future world of evolving technology. For fans of anthologies like Soonish and Netflix''s Black Mirror In a future world dominated by the technological, people will still be entangled in relationships—in romances, friendships, and families. This volume in the Twelve Tomorrows series considers the effects that scientific and technological discoveries will have on the emotional bonds that hold us together. The strange new worlds in these stories feature AI family therapy, floating fungitecture, and a futuristic love potion. Imagine genetic alterations to code for altruism, or digital avatars that can interface with other avatars on dating sites, running sample conversations to find appropriate matches, or artificial assistance animals. Contributions include Xia Jia''s novelette set in a Buddhist monastery, translated by the Hugo Award-winning writer Ken Liu; and a story by Nancy Kress, winner of 6 Hugos and 2 Nebulas. A full story list: James Patrick Kelly, Your Boyfriend Experience Mary Robinette Kowal, A Little Wisdom Nancy Kress, Invisible People Rich Larson, Echo the Echo Sam J. Miller, The Nation of the Sick Annalee Newitz, The Monogamy Hormone Suzanne Palmer, Don''t Mind Me Cadwell Turnbull, Mediation Nick Wolven, Sparklybits Xia Jia, The Monk of Lingyin Temple, translated by Ken Liu Also includes an interview with Nancy Kress by Lisa Yaszek, and Tatiana Plakhova''s beautiful "data abstract" illustrations serve as frontispiece to each of the stories.

SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, HUMOR * Cranky Goblin Cooks * Unscrupulous Chemists * Lecherous Space Pirates * Disagreeable Alien Symbiotes * Soul-Searching Snot Elementals The Unidentified Funny Objects series serves an annual dose of funny. zany, and unusual science fiction and fantasy stories. All-new fiction from the genre''s top voices! Our sixth volume features a Mad Amos story by Alan Dean Foster, a Harry the Book tale by Mike Resnick, and an Alexander Outland short by Gini Koch. Jim Hines reimagines a Game of Thrones with goblins in it, Ken Liu begs a sentient AI to spare him, and Esther Friesner takes us on a tour of Chelm, complete with dragons and gratuitous footnotes. There are also tales of an interdimensional secret agent, a warrior-writer on a quest from an evil god, a necromancer intent on rehabilitating the image of his profession, and many more. TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword by Alex Shvartsman “A Game of Goblins” by Jim C. Hines “The Breakdown of Parasite/Host Relationship” by Paul R. Hardy “From This She Makes a Living?” by Esther Friesner “Twenty-Nine Responses to Inquiries About My Craigslist Post: Alien Spaceship for Sale $200, You Haul” by Tina Connolly “Tyler the Snot Elemental Scours the Newspaper, Searching for Change” by Zach Shephard “Agent of Chaos” by Jack Campbell “Display of Affection” by P. J. Sambeaux “The Great Manhattan Eat-Off” by Mike Resnick “An Evil Opportunity Employer” by Lawrence Watt-Evans “Common Scents” by Jody Lynn Nye “A Mountain Man and a Cat Walk into a Bar” by Alan Dean Foster “Lost and Found” by Laura Resnick “A Crawlspace Full of Prizes” by Bill Ferris “Return to Sender” by Melissa Mead “The Friendly Necromancer” by Rod M. Santos “An Open Letter to the Sentient AI Who Has Announced Its Intention to Take Over the Earth” by Ken Liu “Approved Expense” by David Vierling “Alexander Outland: Space Jockey” by Gini Koch “Dear Joyce” by Langley Hyde “Impress Me, Then We’ll Talk About the Money” by Tatiana Ivanova (translated from Russian by Alex Shvartsman)

Our first issue! All of the content will be available for purchase as an eBook (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) on November 4, 2014. The free online content will be released in 2 stages- half on November 4, and half on December 2. Featuring new fiction by Maria Dahvana Headley, Kat Howard, Max Gladstone, Amelia Beamer, Ken Liu, and Christopher Barzak, classic fiction by Jay Lake, essays by Sarah Kuhn, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Christopher J Garcia, plus a Worldcon Roundtable featuring Emma England, Michael Lee, Helen Montgomery, Steven H Silver, and Pablo Vazquez, poetry by Neil Gaiman, Amal El-Mohtar, and Sonya Taaffe, interviews with Maria Dahvana Headley, Deborah Stanish, Beth Meacham on Jay Lake, and Christopher Barzak, and a cover by Galen Dara.

The November/December 2020 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Featuring new fiction by Ken Liu, Hal Y. Zhang, Brit E.B. Hvide, Martha Wells, Lee Mandelo, and John Wiswell. Reprint fiction by Maurice Broaddus. Essays by Meghan Ball, Meg Elison, Michi Trota, and K.A. Doore, poetry by Jane Yolen, Peter Tacy, Brandon O''Brien, Valerie Valdes, and Jennifer Crow, interviews with Ken Liu and Lee Mandelo by Caroline M. Yoachim, a cover by Julie Dillon, and editorials by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, and Elsa Sjunneson. Uncanny Magazine is a bimonthly science fiction and fantasy magazine first published in November 2014. Edited by 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020 Hugo award winners for best semiprozine, and 2018 Hugo award winners for Best Editor, Short Form, Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, and Chimedum Ohaegbu and Elsa Sjunneson, each issue of Uncanny includes new stories, poetry, articles, and interviews.

As a cargo ship rockets across thegalaxy to Canto Bight, the deckhands on board trade stories about legendary JediKnight Luke Skywalker. But are the stories of iconic and mysterious LukeSkywalker true, or merely tall tales passed from one corner of the galaxy toanother? Is Skywalker really a famous Jedi hero, an elaborate charlatan,or even part droid? The deckhands will have to decide for themselves when theyhear The Legends of Luke Skywalker. A collection of myths and tall-tales about the legendary Jedi Luke Skywalker, written by Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy award-winning author Ken Liu.

Dad Like a Pro: A Guide for Asian Fathers Navigating Modern Parenthood ufeff“Dad Like a Pro: A Guide for Asian Fathers Navigating Modern Parenthood” Book Description Being an Asian dad in today’s world is no easy feat. You’re navigating the delicate balance between tradition and modernity, juggling work, family, and your own personal growth. Whether you grew up in a household steeped in cultural expectations or are trying to figure out your parenting groove in a new cultural environment, this book is here to help. “Dad Like a Pro” is a comprehensive guide tailored specifically for Asian fathers who want to thrive as parents, partners, and individuals. Packed with practical advice, heartfelt stories, and culturally relevant insights, this book tackles everything from parenting styles and communication to self-care and generational challenges. This isn’t about being a perfect dad—it’s about being your kind of dad, while honoring your heritage and embracing the realities of raising kids in the modern world.

The January/February 2023 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Our landmark Issue 50, a double sized issue! Featuring new fiction by Ken Liu and Caroline M. Yoachim, Mary Robinette Kowal, P. Djèlí Clark, A. T. Greenblatt, A.M. Dellamonica, Eugenia Triantafyllou, Sarah Pinsker, E. Lily Yu, Marie Brennan, Christopher Caldwell, John Wiswell, and Maureen Mchugh. Essays by Elsa Sjunneson, John Picacio, Annalee Newitz, A.T. Greenblatt, Diana M. Pho, and Javier Grillo-Marxuach, poetry by Neil Gaiman, Terese Mason Pierre, Sonya Taaffe, Betsy Aoki, Theodora Goss, Ali Trota, Abu Bakr Sadiq, Elizabeth Bear, and Brandon O''Brien, interviews with Ken Liu and Caroline M. Yoachim by Tina Connolly; interviews with Eugenia Triantafyllou, E. Lily Yu, and Christopher Caldwell by Caroline M. Yoachim, a cover by Galen Dara, and editorials by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, and Meg Elison. About Uncanny Magazine Uncanny Magazine is a bimonthly science fiction and fantasy magazine first published in November 2014. Edited by 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, & 2022 Hugo award winners for best semiprozine, and 2018 Hugo award winners for Best Editor, Short Form, Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, Meg Elison, and Monte Lin, each issue of Uncanny includes new stories, poetry, articles, and interviews.

UFO2 is the second annual collection of humorous science fiction and fantasy short stories. Inside you''ll find: - A golem on an interstellar cruise ship - Dragon-taunting for fun and profit - Time travel gone really wrong - Cubicle farm wizardry - Alien behemoths in Central Park

Short novels are movie length narratives that may well be the perfect length for science fiction stories. This unabridged collection presents the best-of-the-best short science fiction novels published in 2014 by current and emerging masters of this vibrant form of story-telling. In “The Man Who Sold the Moon,” by Cory Doctorow, hardware geeks and Burning Man fanatics band together to overcome challenges such as crowdfunding a space mission, falling in love, battling cancer and perfecting an open source engineering marvel in order to put a 3D printing robot, that creates ceramic building panels from sand, on the moon. “The Man Who Sold the Moon” won the 2015 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction. In “The Regular,” by Ken Liu, a cybernetically enhanced private investigator keeps her emotions in check with a piece of hardware called The Regulator while she searches for the murderer of a prostitute whom she suspects is a serial killer. “Claudius Rex,” by John P. Murphy, is a sci-fi whodunit comedy that pays tongue-in-cheek homage to Rex Stout and Isaac Asimov. A humble PI partners with an arrogant AI to solve the murder of the AI’s creator. Ai! In “Of All Possible Worlds,” by Jay O’Connell, an old timeline wizard coaxes a younger man to become his apprentice in an attempt to edit Earth’s history so that the planet will escape the ravages of the Long Night and ensure that our timeline is the best of all possible worlds. In “Each in His Prison, Thinking of the Key,” by William Preston, the U.S. government brings a telepathic interrogator, who is a veteran of the American war in Iraq, to a secret complex in Texas to get a handle on an enigmatic prisoner known as “The Old Man.” A test of wills ensues between the two in this homage to Doc Savage. Finally, in “The Last Log of the Lachrimosa,” by Alastair Reynolds, set in the Revelation Space universe, a crew investigates a cave on a volcanic planet in the hopes of salvaging valuable abandoned tech only to discover that the cave is defended by a horrific psychological weapon.

Fiction has a special role in the way we relate to each other. Fiction can take us outside of our own experience and give us a small hint of what it''s like to be someone else. Speculative fiction - including steampunk - has always been a metaphorical mirror to our own society, allowing us to see ourselves and our behaviors from the outside in ways that we otherwise couldn''t. It''s not magic. It''s the interworking of dozens of finely machined gears. It''s the craftswoman adjusting the tension on a spring so it doesn''t break. It''s the stoker making sure the furnace fires stay burning. It''s the conductor collecting tickets, the passengers watching the landscape roll by, the excited child standing next to the engineer who gets to pull the cord and hear the train''s steam whistle. It might not be magic, but it''s still amazing. Especially with a project like Steampunk Universe, making an anthology of steampunk stories that feature diverse characters who are disabled or aneurotypical. Join editor Sarah Hans, our cover artist James Ng, and contributors Ken Liu, Jody Lynn Nye, Maurice Broaddus, Malon Edwards, Emily Cataneo, Pip Ballantine and nine others today.

Seventeen of the funniest science fiction stories published in the past decade (2005-2015), featuring alien invasions, global conspiracies, time travel and even animal uprisings. Fiction by Hugo and Nebula award winners and nominees as well as talented newcomers. Stories were selected by the Unidentified Funny Objects series curator Alex Shvartsman.

Short novels are movie length narratives that may well be the perfect length for science fiction stories. This unabridged collection presents the best-of-the-best short science fiction novels published in 2011 by current and emerging masters of this form. In "The Ice Owl," by Carolyn Ives Gilman, an adolescent, female, Waster in the iron city of Glory to God finds an enigmatic tutor who provides her with much more than academic instruction while a fundamentalist revolt is underway. In the HUGO AWARDwinner, "The Man Who Bridged the Mist," by Kij Johnson, an architect from the capital builds a bridge over a dangerous mist that will change more than just the Empire. In "Kiss Me Twice," by Mary Robinette Kowal, a detective, with the assistance of the police department''s AI that takes on Mae West''s persona, solves a murder with all the flair of an Asimov robot story. "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary," by Ken Liu, is a moving chronicle of attempts to witness the history of Japanese atrocities against the Chinese in a World War II prison camp by traveling back in time using Bohm-Kirino particles. In "The Ants of Flanders," by Robert Reed, a teenage boy, incapable of fear, takes center stage in an alien invasion of Earth that pits alien foes against each other in a war that has no regard for mankind''s existence. Finally, in "Angel of Europa," by Allen M. Steele, an arbiter aboard a space ship, exploring the moons of Jupiter, is resuscitated from a hibernation tank to investigate the deaths of two scientists that took place in a bathyscaphe underneath the global ocean of Europa.

A mind-blowing anthology of 18 stories bringing you the infinite Earths of the multiverse. Featuring Alastair Reynolds, Ian McDonald, Lavie Tidhar, Eugen Bacon and more. INFINITY. HERE. NOW. What if every decision you’ve ever made created a new reality. A new life, a new world of possibilities for what you could become? What if the best of all possible worlds is just around the corner? Or the worst? This anthology brings together an international cast of luminaries to explore the infinite worlds of what could be. The smashed together chaos of multiple Londons piled on top of each other; a world where a tunnel turns Japan and the United States into close neighbours; catastrophic accidents on multidimensional spacecraft; shadowy organisations and the merciless assassins they control; the unstoppable force of your infinite grandmothers. Explore the infinite beauties and terrors of the multiverse with the finest minds writing in science fiction today, and see what could have been… Featuring stories from: Alvaro Zinos-Amaro Charlie Jane Anders Eugen Bacon Clive Barker Paul Di Filippo Alix E. Harrow Rumi Kaneko (translated by Preston Grassmann) Ken Liu Ian McDonald Annalee Newitz Yukimi Ogawa Chana Porter Alastair Reynolds Jayaprakash Satyamurthy D. R. G. Sugawara Jeffrey Thomas Lavie Tidhar

Paul Tremblay, Ramsey Campbell, and other modern masters of horror explore just how scary it is to be alone in this horror anthology featuring 20 horror short stories! Lost in the wilderness, or alone in the dark, isolation remains one of our deepest held fears. This horror anthology from Shirley Jackson and British Fantasy Award finalist Dan Coxon calls on leading horror writers to confront the dark moments, the challenges that we must face alone: survivors in a world gone silent; the outcast shunned by society; the quiet voice trapped in the crowd; the lonely and forgotten, screaming into the abyss. Featuring short horror stories by: • Nina Allan • Laird Barron • Ramsey Campbell • M.R. Carey • Chịkọdịlị Emelumadu • Brian Evenson • Owl Goingback • Gwendolyn Kiste • Joe R. Lansdale • Tim Lebbon • Alison Littlewood • Ken Liu • Jonathan Maberry • Michael Marshall Smith • Mark Morris • Lynda E. Rucker • A.G. Slatter • Paul Tremblay • Lisa Tuttle • Marian Womack Experience the chilling terrors of isolation!

Coffee plays a major role in each of the stories collected in this book. Brewed from such fine ingredients as magic, wonder, humor, and romance, Coffee serves up a unique blend of the fantastic you won''t be able to put down.

One hundred years after the war of Martian independence, as relations between the two worlds grows incresingly tense, a delegation of young Mars residents, including Luoying, the granddaughter of the governor of Mars, are sent to live on Earth for five years, in an attempt at reconciliation. Five years later they return to Mars caught between the two worlds, always under suspicion, and unable to reconcile the beauty and culture of Mars with what they experienced on Earth. This coming of age novel is narrated from two perspectives: Luo Ying, an eighteen-year-old girl from Mars who has spent the past five years on Earth, and Ignacio, a filmmaker in his late twenties from Earth on a job to document the delegates from Mars. Both Luo and Ignacio are trapped between worlds, with critics all around, searching for where they truly belong.