Rachel feels a little more of her strength fade every time the dead man’s hand lurches forward. Something irreplaceable leaves her. She pushes open the dense metal door marked EXIT and nearly faints with sudden day-blindness.
The woods around Love and Dignity for Everyone are dense with moss and underbrush, and Rachel’s bare feet keep sliding off tree roots. I can’t stop, Rachel pleads with herself, I can’t stop or my whole life was for nothing. Who even was I, if I let this happen to me. The nearly naked dead man crashes through branches that Rachel has ducked under. She throws the knife and hears a satisfying grunt, but he doesn’t even pause. Rachel knows that anybody who sees both her and the cadaver will choose to help the cadaver. There’s no way to explain her situation in the dead man’s voice. She vows to stay off roads and avoid talking to people. This is her life now.
Up ahead, she sees a fast-running stream, and she wonders how the corpse will take to water. The stream looks like the one she and Jeffrey used to play in, when they would catch crayfish hiding under rocks. The crayfish looked just like tiny lobsters, and they would twist around trying to pinch you as you gripped their midsections. Rachel sloshes in the water and doesn’t hear the man’s breath in her ear for a moment. Up ahead, the current leads to a steep waterfall that’s so white in the noon sunlight, it appears to stand still. She remembers staring into a bucket full of crayfish, debating whether to boil them alive or let them all go. And all at once, she has a vivid memory of herself and Jeffrey both holding the full bucket and turning it sideways, until all the crayfish sloshed back into the river. The crayfish fled for their lives, their eyes seeming to protrude with alarm, and Rachel held onto an empty bucket with Jeffrey, feeling an inexplicable sense of relief. We are such wusses, Jeffrey said, and they both laughed. She remembers the sight of the last crayfish rushing out of view—as if this time, maybe the trick would work, and nobody would think to look under this particular rock. She reaches the waterfall, seizes a breath, and jumps with both feet at once.
COPYRIGHT
Selection and “Introduction” by Jonathan Strahan. Copyright © 2017 by Jonathan Strahan.
“The Mocking Tower,” by Daniel Abraham. Copyright © 2017 by Daniel Abraham. Originally published in The Book of Swords (Bantam). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue,” by Charlie Jane Anders. Copyright © 2017 by Charlie Jane Anders. Originally published in the Global Dystopias issue of Boston Review. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Probably Still the Chosen One,” by Kelly Barnhill. Copyright © 2017 by Kelly Barnhill. Originally published in Lightspeed 81, February 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“My English Name,” by R. S. Benedict. Copyright © 2017 by Raquel Steres. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance,” by Tobias S. Buckell. Copyright © 2017 by Tobias S. Buckell. Originally published in Cosmic Powers (Saga Press). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Though She Be But Little,” by C.S.E. Cooney Copyright © 2017 by Claire Cooney. Originally published in Uncanny Magazine, July/August 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“The Moon is Not a Battlefield,” by Indrapramit Das. Copyright © 2017 by Indrapramit Das. Originally published in Infinity Wars (Solaris). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“The Hermit of Houston,” by Samuel R. Delany. Copyright © 2017 by Samuel R. Delany. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine,” by Greg Egan. Copyright © 2017 by Greg Egan. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, November/December, 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Crispin’s Model,” by Max Gladstone. Copyright © 2017 by Max Gladstone. Originally published in Tor.com, October 4, 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Come See the Living Dryad,” by Theodora Goss. Copyright © 2017 by Theodora Goss. Originally published in Tor.com, March 9, 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Bring Your Own Spoon,” by Saad Z. Hossain. Copyright © 2017 by Saad Z. Hossain. Originally published in The Djinn Falls in Love (Solaris). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Babylon,” by Dave Hutchison. Copyright © 2017 by Dave Hutchison. Originally published in 2084 (Unsung Stories). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“The Faerie Tree,” by Kathleen Kayembe. Copyright © 2017 by Kathleen Kayembe. Originally published in Lightspeed, November, 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Fairy Tale of Wood Street,” by Caitlín R Kiernan. Copyright © 2017 by Caitlin R Kiernan. Originally published in Sirenia Digest 137, July 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“The Worshipful Society of Glovers,” by Mary Robinette Kowal. Copyright © 2017 by Mary Robinette Kowal. Originally published in Uncanny 17, July/August 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“An Evening with Severyn Grimes,” by Rich Larson. Copyright © 2017 by Rich Larson. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, July/August, 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“The Chameleon’s Gloves,” by Yoon Ha Lee. Copyright © 2017 by Yoon Ha Lee. Originally published in Cosmic Powers (Saga Press). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“The Smoke of Gold is Glory,” by Scott Lynch. Copyright © 2017 by Scott Lynch. Originally published in The Book of Swords (Bantam). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Sidewalks,” by Maureen McHugh Copyright © 2017 by Maureen McHugh. Originally published in Omni, December 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Concessions,” by Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali. Copyright © 2017 by Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali. Originally published in Strange Horizons, March 6, 2017.Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“The Martian Obelisk,” by Linda Nagata. Copyright © 2017 by Linda Nagata. Originally published in Tor.com, July 19, 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“The Secret Life of Bots,” by Suzanne Palmer. Copyright © 2017 by Suzanne Palmer. Originally published in Clarkesworld, September 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“A Series of Steaks,” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. Copyright © 2017 by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. Originally published in Clarkesworld, January 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Belladonna Nights,” by Alastair Reynolds. Copyright © 2017 by Alastair Reynolds. Originally published in The Weight of Words (Subterranean). Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Eminence,” by Karl Schroeder Copyright © 2017 by Karl Schroeder. Originally published in Chasing Shadows (Tor).Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“The Lamentation of their Women,” by Kai Ashante Wilson. Copyright © 2017 by Kai Ashante Wilson. Originally published in Tor.com, August 24, 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Confessions of a Con Girl,” by Nick Wolven. Copyright © 2017 by Nick Wolven. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, November-December, 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
“Carnival Nine,” by Caroline M. Yoachim. Copyright © 2017 by Caroline M. Yoachim. Originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies 225, May 11, 2017. Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
CONFLICT IS ETERNAL
We have always fought. War is the furnace that forges new technologies and pushes humanity ever onward. We are the children of a battle that began with fists and sticks, and ended on the brink of atomic Armageddon. Beyond here lies another war, infinite in scope and scale.
But who will fight the wars of tomorrow? Join Elizabeth Bear, Indrapramit Das, Aliette de Bodard, Garth Nix and many, many more in an exploration of the furthest extremes of military scien
ce fiction…
‘One of the year’s most exciting anthologies.’
io9 on Edge of Infinity
‘[The Infinity series] has gone from strength to strength.’
Tor.com
www.solarisbooks.com
Jonathan Strahan, the award-winning and much lauded editor of many of genre’s best known anthologies is back with his 11th volume in this fascinating series, featuring the best science fiction and fantasy. With established names and new talent this diverse and ground-breaking collection will take the reader to the outer-reaches of space and the inner realms of humanity with stories of fantastical worlds and worlds that may still come to pass.
FEATURING // CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE // PAOLO BACIGALUPI // ALIETTE DE BODARD // JOE ABERCROMBIE // RICH LARSON // NAOMI NOVIK // ALYSSA WONG // DARYL GREGORY // ALEX IRVINE // SAM J. MILLER // ALICE SOLA KIM // SETH DICKINSON // CAROLYN IVES GILMAN // GENEVIEVE VALENTINE // CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN // AMAL EL-MOHTAR // THEODORA GOSS // IAN R. MACLEOD // DELIA SHERMAN // GEOFF RYMAN // NINA ALLAN // N.K. JEMISIN // LAVIE TIDHAR // YOON HA LEE // PAUL MCAULEY // CHARLES YU // E. LILY YU // KEN LIU
www.solarisbooks.com
We stand on the brink of one of the greatest ecological disasters of our time – the world is warming and seas are rising, and yet water is life; it brings change. Where one thing is wiped away, another rises.
Drowned Worlds looks at the future we might have if the oceans rise – good or bad. Here you’ll find stories of action, adventure, romance and, yes, warning and apocalypse. Stories inspired by Ballard’s The Drowned World, Sterling’s Islands in the Net, and Ryman’s The Child Garden; stories that allow that things may get worse, but remembers that such times also bring out the best in us all. Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan has put together sixteen unique tales of deluged worlds and those who fight to survive and strive to live.
Featuring fiction by Paul McAuley, Ken Liu, Kim Stanley Robinson, Nina Allan, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Christopher Rowe, Nalo Hopkinson, Sean Williams, Jeffrey Ford, Lavie Tidhar, Rachel Swirsky, James Morrow, Charlie Jane Anders, Sam J. Miller and Catherynne M. Valente.
‘I can hardly wait to see where Jonathan Strahan’s continuing chronicle of the future history of humanity heads next.’
Tor.com on Reach for Infinity
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The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 12 Page 75
