The Big Book of Science Fiction

Quite possibly the greatest science fiction collection of all time-past, present, and future! What if life was neverending? What if you could change your body to adapt to an alien ecology? What if the pope were a robot? Spanning galaxies and millennia, this must-have anthology showcases classic contributions from H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia E. Butler, and Kurt Vonnegut, alongside a century of the eccentrics, rebels, and visionaries who have inspired generations of readers. Within its pages, you'll find beloved worlds of space opera, hard SF, cyberpunk, the New Wave, and more. Learn about the secret history of science fiction, from titans of literature who also wrote SF to less well-known authors from more than twenty-five countries, some never before translated into English. In The Big Book of Science Fiction, literary power couple Ann and Jeff VanderMeer transport readers from Mars to Mechanopolis, planet Earth to parts unknown. Immerse yourself in the genre that predicted electric cars, space tourism, and smartphones. Sit back, buckle up, and dial in the coordinates, as this stellar anthology has got worlds within worlds. Including: · Legendary tales from Isaac Asimov and Ursula K. Le Guin · An unearthed sci-fi story from W. E. B. Du Bois · The first publication of the work of cybernetic visionary David R. Bunch in twenty years · A rare and brilliant novella by Chinese international sensation Cixin Liu Plus: · Aliens! · Space battles! · Robots! · Technology gone wrong! · Technology gone right!

Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

The Star - H. G. Wells Sultana’s Dream - Rokheya Shekhawat Hossein The New Overworld - Paul Scheerbart The Triumph of Mechanics - Karl Hans Strobl Elements of Pataphysics - Alfred Jarry Mechanopolis - Miguel de Unamuno The Doom of Principal City - Yefim Zozulya The Comet - W. E. B. Du Bois The Fate of the Poseidonia - Clare Winger Harris The Star Stealers - Edmond Hamilton The Conquest of Gola - Leslie F. Stone A Martian Odyssey - Stanley G. Weinbaum The Last Poet and the Robots - A. Merritt The Microscopic Giants - Paul Ernst Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius - Jorge Luis Borges Desertion - Clifford D. Simak September 2005: The Martian - Ray Bradbury Baby HP - Juan José Arreola Surface Tension - James Blish Beyond Lies the Wub - Philip K. Dick The Snowball Effect - Katherine MacLean Prott - Margaret St. Clair The Liberation of Earth - William Tenn Let Me Live in a House - Chad Oliver The Star - Arthur C. Clarke Grandpa - James H. Schmitz The Game of Rat and Dragon - Cordwainer Smith The Last Question - Isaac Asimov Stranger Station - Damon Knight Sector General - James White The Visitors - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky Pelt - Carol Emshwiller The Monster - Gérard Klein The Man Who Lost the Sea - Theodore Sturgeon The Waves - Silvina Ocampo Plenitude - Will Worthington The Voices of Time - J. G. Ballard The Astronaut - Valentina Zhuravlyova The Squid Chooses Its Own Ink - Adolfo Bioy Casares 2 B R 0 2 B - Kurt Vonnegut Jr. A Modest Genius - Vadim Shefner Day of Wrath - Sever Gansovsky The Hands - John Baxter Darkness - André Carneiro "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman - Harlan Ellison Nine Hundred Grandmothers - R. A. Lafferty Day Million - Frederik Pohl Student Body - F. L. Wallace Aye, and Gomorrah - Samuel R. Delany The Hall of Machines - Langdon Jones Soft Clocks - Yoshio Aramaki Three from Moderan - David R. Bunch Let Us Save the Universe - Stanisław Lem Vaster Than Empires and More Slow - Ursula K. Le Guin Good News from the Vatican - Robert Silverberg When It Changed - Joanna Russ And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side - James Tiptree Jr. Where Two Paths Cross - Dmitri Bilenkin Standing Woman - Yasutaka Tsutsui The IWM 1000 - Alicia Yánez Cossío The House of Compassionate Sharers - Michael Bishop Sporting with the Chid - Barrington J. Bayley Sandkings - George R. R. Martin Wives - Lisa Tuttle The Snake That Read Chomsky - Josephine Saxton Reiko’s Universe Box - Kajio Shinji Swarm - Bruce Sterling Mondocane - Jacques Barbéri Blood Music - Greg Bear Bloodchild - Octavia E. Butler Variation on a Man - Pat Cadigan Passing as a Flower in the City of the Dead - S. N. Dyer New Rose Hotel - William Gibson Pots - C. J. Cherryh Snow - John Crowley The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things - Karen Joy Fowler The Unmistakable Smell of Wood Violets - Angélica Gorodischer The Owl of Bear Island - Jon Bing Readers of the Lost Art - Élisabeth Vonarburg A Gift from the Culture - Iain M. Banks Paranamanco - Jean-Claude Dunyach Crying in the Rain - Tanith Lee The Frozen Cardinal - Michael Moorcock Rachel in Love - Pat Murphy Sharing Air - Manjula Padmanabhan Schwarzschild Radius - Connie Willis All the Hues of Hell - Gene Wolfe Vacuum States - Geoffrey A. Landis Two Small Birds - Han Song Burning Sky - Rachel Pollack Before I Wake - Kim Stanley Robinson Death Is Static Death Is Movement - Misha Nogha The Brains of Rats - Michael Blumlein Gorgonoids - Leena Krohn Vacancy for the Post of Jesus Christ - Kojo Laing The Universe of Things - Gwyneth Jones The Remoras - Robert Reed The Ghost Standard - William Tenn Remnants of the Virago Crypto-System - Geoffrey Maloney How Alex Became a Machine - Stepan Chapman The Poetry Cloud - Cixin Liu Story of Your Life - Ted Chiang Craphound - Cory Doctorow The Slynx - Tatyana Tolstaya Baby Doll - Johanna Sinisalo