The twenty-eight stories in this collection imaginatively take us far across the universe, into the very core of our beings, to the realm of the gods, and the moment just after now. Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents.

Supplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and a list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.

Contents:/p>

• I, Row-boat by Cory Doctorow
  
• Julian: A Christmas Story by Robert Charles Wilson
  
• Tin Marsh by Michael Swanwick
  
• The Djinn's Wife by Ian McDonald
  
• The House Beyond Your Sky by Benjamin Rosenbaum
  
• Where the Golden Applies Grow by Kage Baker
  
• Kin by Bruce McAllister
  
• Signal To Noise by Alastair Reynolds
  
• The Big Ice by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold
  
• Bow Shock by Gregory Benford
  
• In the River by Justin Stanchfield
  
• Incarnation Day by Walter Jon Williams
  
• Far As You Can Go by Greg van Eekhout
  
• Good Mountain by Robert Reed
  
• I Hold My Father's Paws by David D. Levine
  
• Dead Men Walking by Paul J. McAuley
  
• Home Movies by Mary Rosenblum
  
• Damascus by Daryl Gregory
  
• Life On the Reservation by Jack Skillingstead
  
• Yellow Card Man by Paolo Bacigalupi
  
• Riding the Crocodile by Greg Egan
  
• The Ile of Dogges by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette
  
• The Highway Men by Ken MacLeod
  
• The Pacific Mystery by Stephen Baxter
  
• Okanoggan Falls by Carolyn Ives Gilman
  
• Every Hole Is Outlined by John Barnes
  
• The Town On Blighted Sea by A. M. Dellamonica
  
• Nightingale by Alastair Reynolds