by Peter Watts
First published 2020
Allan Kaster curates fifteen outstanding hard science fiction stories originally published in 2019. The collection spans from Elizabeth Bear's coastal researcher torn between helping police solve a murder and her distrust of the justice system, to Peter Watts' bitter submarine pilot forced to assist with controversial seabed mining operations. Greg Egan contributes two pieces: astronomers baffled by a mysteriously expanding star cluster, and a woman stranded on a lunar base who must traverse the moon's surface with her newborn to reach safety. Other standout entries include Tobias S. Buckell's dustship captain playing deadly cat and mouse with Hunter-Killers among planetary rings, Ian McDonald's lunar teenager leading her siblings on a perilous journey to Neil Armstrong's footprint, and Ted Kosmatka's tale of two watchmen whose conflict threatens a decades-long interstellar mission. The stories explore themes of environmental destruction, space colonization, artificial intelligence, and human survival against technological and natural forces. Each piece demonstrates the rigorous scientific grounding that defines hard SF while delivering compelling human drama.
Genres: short-stories, science-fiction, hard-science-fiction
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: human-drama, survival
Setting: Lunar Base, Planetary Rings
Period: 2019
440 pages · Paperback · Independently Published