Neil Clarke

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 160

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 100

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 132

“Over all this anthology is mostly hits, remarkably few misses. Highly recommended.”—N.K. Jemisin, New York Times Book Review Neil Clarke, publisher of the award-winning Clarkesworld magazine, presents a collection of thought-provoking and galaxy-spanning array of galactic short science fiction. From E. E. "Doc" Smith’s Lensman, to George Lucas’ Star Wars, the politics and process of Empire have been a major subject of science fiction’s galaxy-spanning fictions. The idiom of the Galactic Empire allows science fiction writers to ask (and answer) questions that are shorn of contemporary political ideologies and allegiances. This simple narrative slight of hand allows readers and writers to see questions and answers from new and different perspectives. The stories in this book do just that. What social, political, and economic issues do the organizing structure of “empire” address? Often the size, shape, and fates of empires are determined not only by individuals, but by geography, natural forces, and technology. As the speed of travel and rates of effective communication increase, so too does the size and reach of an Imperial bureaucracy. Sic itur ad astra—“Thus one journeys to the stars.” At the beginning of the twentieth century, writers such as Kipling and Twain were at the forefront of these kinds of narrative observations, but as the century drew to a close, it was writers like Iain M. Banks who helped make science fiction relevant. That tradition continues today, with award-winning writers like Ann Leckie, whose 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice hinges upon questions of imperialism and empire. Here then is a diverse collection of stories that asks the questions that science fiction asks best. Empire: How? Why? And to what effect? Table of Contents: - “Winning Peace” by Paul J. McAuley - “Night’s Slow Poison” by Ann Leckie - “All the Painted Stars” by Gwendolyn Clare - “Firstborn” by Brandon Sanderson - “Riding the Crocodile” by Greg Egan - “The Lost Princess Man” by John Barnes - “The Waiting Stars” by Aliette de Bodard - “Alien Archeology” by Neal Asher - “The Muse of Empires Lost” by Paul Berger - “Ghostweight” by Yoon Ha Lee - “A Cold Heart” by Tobias S. Buckell - “The Colonel Returns to the Stars” by Robert Silverberg - “The Impossibles” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - “Utriusque Cosmi” by Robert Charles Wilson - “Section Seven” by John G. Hemry - “The Invisible Empire of Ascending Light” by Ken Scholes - “The Man with the Golden Balloon” by Robert Reed - “Looking Through Lace” by Ruth Nestvold - “A Letter from the Emperor” by Steve Rasnic Tem - “The Wayfarer’s Advice” by Melinda M. Snodgrass - “Seven Years from Home” by Naomi Novik - “Verthandi’s Ring” by Ian McDonald Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

Galactic Empires

Yoon Ha Lee

N. K. Jemisin

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our July 2014 issue contains: Original Fiction by Yoon Ha Lee ("The Contemporary Foxwife"), N. K. Jemisin ("Stone Hunger"), and Juliette Wade ("Souls Bargain"). Classic stories by William Browning Spencer ("The Halfway House at the Heart of Darkness") and Chris Roberson ("Gold Mountain"). Non-fiction by Susan E. Connolly (Part Two of her Analysis of Gender in Short Fiction"), an interview with Jeff VanderMeer, an Another Word column by James L. Sutton, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

Clarkesworld

姚海軍

The anthology includes stories from Liu Cixin, Han Song, Hao Jingfang, Xia Jia, Chen Qiufan, Zhang Ran, Pan Haitian, A Que and Bao Shu presented in original Chinese and English translation previously published in Clarkesworld magazine.

未來鏡像

Clarkesworld Magazine #177, June 2021

Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 184, January 2022

Alastair Reynolds

Kali Wallace

Allen Steele

Tom Crosshill

Dominica Phetteplace

M. Bennardo

Jia Xia

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our December 2014 issue contains: Original Fiction by Kali Wallace ("Fatima's Wound"), Tom Crosshill ("The Magician and Laplace's Demon"), Matthew Bennardo ("Now Dress Me in My Finest Suit and Lay Me in My Casket"), and Dominica Phetteplace ("No Vera There"). Classic stories by Allen M. Steele ("The Emperor of Mars"), Alastair Reynolds ("The Sledge-Maker's Daughter"), and Xia Jia ("Tongtong's Summer"). Non-fiction by Ken Liu (Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction), an interview with Kameron Hurley, an Another Word column by Daniel Abraham, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 145

The second volume of a new best-of-the-year science fiction short story anthology edited by Hugo Award-winning editor Neil Clarke. First contact with a mysterious race of aliens reveals an unusual request; a family’s pet dog comes to grips with the newly bestowed gift of human-like intelligence; a poet, in danger and alone on a distant world, makes unlikely allies; hundreds of years in the future, a famous hermit lives in the sea above the now-underwater Harvard University; former friends navigate unsteady peace between human refugees and the technologically superior race that saved them; in a future where human life can be infinitely extended through cybertronic rebirth, one woman declines immortality. For decades, science fiction has compelled us to imagine futures both inspiring and cautionary. Whether it’s a warning message from a survey ship, a harrowing journey to a new world, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction inspires the imagination and delivers a lens through which we can view ourselves and the world around us. With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Two, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and twenty-seven of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2016. TABLE OF CONTENTS “The Visitor from Taured” by Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov’s, September 2016) “Extraction Request” by Rich Larson (Clarkesworld, January 2016) “A Good Home” by Karin Lowachee (Lightspeed, June 2016) “Prodigal” by Gord Sellar (Analog, December 2016) “Ten Days” by Nina Allan (Now We Are Ten, edited by Ian Whates) “Terminal” by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com, April 2016) “Panic City” by Madeline Ashby (CyberWorld, edited by Jason Heller and Joshua Viola) “Last Gods” by Sam J. Miller (Drowned Worlds, edited by Jonathana Strahan) “HigherWorks” by Gregory Norman Bossert (Asimov’s, December 2016) “A Strange Loop” by T.R. Napper (Interzone, January/February 2016) “Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse” by Xia Jia (Invisible Planets, edited by Ken Liu) “Pearl” by Aliette de Bodard (The Starlit Wood, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe) “The Metal Demimonde” by Nick Wolven (Analog, June 2016) “The Iron Tactician” by Alastair Reynolds (Newcon Press) “The Mighty Slinger” by Tobias S. Buckell and Karen Lord (Bridging Infinity, edited by Jonathana Strahan) “They All Have One Breath” by Karl Bunker (Asimov’s, December 2016) “Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea” by Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed, February 2016) “And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices” by Margaret Ronald (Clarkesworld, June 2016) “The Three Lives of Sonata James” by Lettie Prell (Tor.com, October 2016) “The Charge and the Storm” by An Owomoyela (Asimov’s, February 2016) “Parables of Infinity” by Robert Reed (Bridging Infinity, edited by Jonathana Strahan) “Ten Poems for the Mossums, One for the Man” by Suzanne Palmer (Asimov’s, July 2016) “You Make Pattaya” by Rich Larson (Interzone, November/December 2016) “Number Nine Moon” by Alex Irvine (F&SF, January/February 2016) “Things with Beards” by Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld, June 2016) “Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit—Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts” by Ken Liu (Drowned Worlds, edited by Jonathana Strahan) “Touring with the Alien” by Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld, April 2016)

Volume Two

The Best Science Fiction of the Year

Jy Yang

Susan Palwick

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our September 2014 issue contains: Original Fiction by Susan Palwick ("Weather"), JY Yang ("Patterns of a Murmuration, In Billions of Data Points"), and Xia Jia ("Spring Festival: Happiness, Anger, Love, Sorrow, Joy"). Classic stories by Brendan DuBois ("Falling Star"), Leigh Kennedy ("Her Furry Face"), and Peter Watts ("Giants"). Non-fiction by Mark Cole (Why Science Fiction Isn't Always to Blame), an interview with Ann Leckie, an Another Word column by Alethea Kontis, and an editorial/special announcement by Neil Clarke.

Maggie Clark

Matthew Kressel

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our May 2014 issue contains: Original Fiction by Matthew Kressel ("The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye"), Maggie Clark ("A Gift in Time"), and E. Catherine Tobler ("Migratory Patterns of Underground Birds"). Classic stories by Howard Waldrop ("Night of the Cooters") and Andy Duncan ("Beluthahatchie"). Non-fiction by Ed Grabianowski ("From Wooden Legs to Carbon Fiber Hands: How Technology Improves Prosthetic Limbs"), an interview with L. E. Modesitt, Jr., an Another Word column by Bud Sparhawk, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 40, January 2010

Clarkesworld Magazine, Subscription ASIN to staff to Invalidate

The vast and mysterious universe is explored in this reprint anthology from award-winning editor and anthologist Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld magazine, The Best Science Fiction of the Year). The urge to explore and discover is a natural and universal one, and the edge of the unknown is expanded with each passing year as scientific advancements inch us closer and closer to the outer reaches of our solar system and the galaxies beyond them. Generations of writers have explored these new frontiers and the endless possibilities they present in great detail. With galaxy-spanning adventures of discovery and adventure, from generations ships to warp drives, exploring new worlds to first contacts, science fiction writers have given readers increasingly new and alien ways to look out into our broad and sprawling universe. The Final Frontier delivers stories from across this literary spectrum, a reminder that the universe is far large and brimming with possibilities than we could ever imagine, as hard as we may try.

Neil Clarke

About

Books

Join the club