Twenty-two stories, selected by editor Donna Scott from disparate places, that represent some of the best science fiction published anywhere in 2019: stories of heroism, stories of loss, stories of wonder.
In this volume you will encounter tales in which creatures are cut off from their loved ones; someone is trapped with an abuser; a bird sings; weeds grow where we hope for a garden; we consider what our alternative selves might be doing; we can't sleep; we wish we could keep things just the way they were; we drink too much... and we look to rockets blasting off into the sky and think that there lies the future; that's hope.
Contents
2019: An Introduction - Donna Scott
The Anxiety Gene - Rhiannon Grist
The Land of Grunts and Squeaks - Chris Beckett
For Your Own Good - Ian Whates
Neom - Lavie Tidhar
Once You Start - Mike Morgan
For the Wicked, Only Weeds Will Grow - G. V. Anderson
Fat Man in the Bardo - Ken MacLeod
Cyberstar - Val Nolan
The Little People - Una McCormack
The Loimaa Protocol - Robert Bagnall
The Adaptation Point - Kate Macdonald
The Final Ascent - Ian Creasey
A Lady of Ganymede, a Sparrow of Io - Dafydd McKimm
Snapshots - Leo X. Robertson
Witch of the Weave - Henry Szabranski
Parasite Art - David Tallerman
Galena - Liam Hogan
Ab Initio - Susan Boulton
Ghosts - Emma Levin
Concerning the Deprivation of Sleep - Tim Major
Every Little Star - Fiona Moore
The Minus-Four Sequence - Andrew Wallace
About the Authors