First published 2020
This collection opens across star systems where massive stellar engineering projects reshape nebulae into habitable worlds. Electronic intelligences with fluid personalities accompany human descendants on relativistic journeys between galaxies. These AI entities can compress centuries into moments or stretch seconds across millennia. The stories follow encounters with alien species that prove no stranger than the transformed humans themselves. Characters navigate communication networks that span star systems while grappling with bodies and minds that shift like software. Greg Egan contributes "Riding the Crocodile," Hannu Rajaniemi offers "The Server and the Dragon," Stross provides "Palimpsest," Peter Watts delivers "The Island," and John C. Wright closes with "The Other End of History." Each tale explores how consciousness adapts when time becomes malleable and space becomes traversable at light speed.
Genres: science-fiction, literary-fiction, space-opera, hard-science-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: first-contact, transformed-humans
Setting: Star Systems, Galaxies
Period: Centuries, Millennia
224 pages · Hardcover · Alamut