Search Worlds Without End

Infinite earths wait within easy reach. All you need is a powerful machine called a ripper, and the courage to leap into the unknown. Kala grows up in a world born from this extraordinary technology -- a vicious, male-dominated world where pretty young women are routinely abducted and then taken away to new earths. But Kala wants to break free of this cycle, and she eventually gets her chance.

Hugo Award winning and Sturgeon Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 2006. The story can also be found in the anthology Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition, edited by Rich Horton. It is included in the collection Eater-of-Bone and Other Novellas (2012).

This novella originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2010. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection (2011), edited by Gardner Dozois.

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, December 2008. It can also be found in the anthologies Clarkesworld: Year Three (2013), edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace, Season of Wonder (2012), edited by Paula Guran, and Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries & Lore (2017), also edited by Paula Guran

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Jesse is the kind of callow, sly college man who has it all. he's editor of the student newspaper, enormously popular with the female students, breezing through with terrific grade. But he's oblivious to the fragile balance of life, until something unutterly strange strips way the surface clam of his existence and exposes a universe that proves uncontrollable and endlessly mutable.

For Jesse has become the focus of conspiracy of creatures from beyond the end of time to re-create our universe anew. Blinded by sex and greed, Jesse can't see the terrible flaw in their vast plan...until a wonderful woman names Sully comes into his life and turns everything right side up.

The result is a wild, erotic joyride, a no-holds-barred tour de force, and, finally a novel of sublime grace and beauty, a testament to the transcendent power of love.

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 2009. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection (2010), edited by Gardner Dozois, and The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Four (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

This novella was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2023.

This short story originally appreared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1992. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Tenth Annual Collection (1993), edited by Gardner Dozois, and A.I.s (2004), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois.

An abortive attempt to create a new race of creatures unites the mysterious genetic scientist Dr. Florida with five genetically tailored children in a poignant story that explores the repercussions of humanity's search for perfection.

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2014, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, December 2017. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection (2015), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 2008. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2009, edited by Rich Horton.

Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appaered in Asimov's Science Fiction, September 1996. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection (1997), edited by Gardner Dozois and the collection The Dragons of Springplace (1999).

The very distant future is full of human beings. Our species has never been so brilliant or strong or rich, and we live fascinating lives, and our population is enormous. But all of that success exists inside a universe that we can longer recognize as our own.

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2002. The story can also be found in the anthologies:

• Science Fiction: The Best of 2002, edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber
• Year's Best SF 8 (2003), edited by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection (2003), edited by Gardner Dozois
• Beyond Singularity (2005), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois

It is includedin the collection The Cuckoo's Boys (2005).

Sturgeon Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November-December 2010. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011, edited by Rich Horton and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection (2011), edited by Gardner Dozois.

An alien explorer from the stars crashes into northern Minnesota, and humanity tries to do what is best. And humanity includes one solid young Marine named Caleb. A decent man, by and large, and what he does will have ramifications for generations to come.

Hugo Award noninated short story. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 1996. The story can also be found in the anthology Aliens Among Us (2000), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collection The Dragons of Springplace (1999).

In the deepness of space there are millions of worlds like our own - and each with its own humanity. They are linked by the Bright, an ancient pathway between the stars created by an ancient, godlike race known only as the Makers. Now humanity travels the Bright, uniting its worlds to a common desiny. But the Bright can also be travelled by those bent on destruction - those who have chosen a different path, whose sole purpose is conquest.

In the Marrow universe, humans are touring the Milky Way inside a derelict machine the fabled Great Ship. They are immortal and durable souls, and as they travel, some become colonists on distant worlds. Eater-of-bone is the brutal, lovely and wrenching story of a lost colony on one ancient, metal-starved world. In that wilderness, humans are nearly indestructible monsters, and they are their own worst enemies, and a young woman survives a brutal assault, finding herself washed to the shore of the oddest island paradise. Veritas is set in a distant, profoundly transformed past. The aging emperor sits before cameras, explaining how a couple of college students in the 21st century could assemble a private army, buy a few time machines, and then invade Rome in the days after the death of Julius Caesar. Which is when the difficult work began. Truth is another invasion-by-time-travel story. But it is our world that is being invaded by temporal Jihadists, or so it seems. A man from the future sits inside a secret prison, telling stories to his American captors, while the world outside goes horribly wrong. What if there was a machine that could take you and your surroundings to an alternate Earth? And what if a frustrated young man used that device to steal away the young women inside a sorority house, setting himself up as the ruler of a new world? A Billion Eves carries that what-if to its logical, borderline-hopeful conclusion.

Table of Contents:

• Eater-of-Bone - (2012) - novella
• Veritas - (2002) - novella
• Truth - (2008) - novella
• A Billion Eves - (2006) - novella

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2006 and was reprinted in Lightspeed, February 2013. The story can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume One (2007).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2015. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 1 (2016), edited by Neil Clarke.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Carbide Tipped Pens: Seventeen Tales of Hard Science Fiction (2014), edited by Ben Bova and Eic Choi. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015, edited by Rich Horton.

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, September 2005. It can also be found in the anthologies Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005, edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2006 Edition, edited by Rich Horton.

Read or listen to the full story for free at Escapepod.

The US President is coming to dinner, here in the tense Thatcher household as well as everywhere else in the nation too. The elected leader of this overcrowded, sorely tested democracy arrives as a projection, speaking to everyone and listening to everyone, including those who don't want to hear what he has to say.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1996. It can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF 2 (1997), edited by David G. Hartwell, and The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction: The Fiftieth Anniversary Anthology (1999), edited by Gordon van Gelder and Edward L. Ferman. The story is included in the collection The Cuckoo's Boys (2005).

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 2008. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection (2009), edited by Gardner Dozois, and The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Three (2009), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, October 2012.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1999. It can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best SF 5 (2000), edited by David G. Hartwell, and Future Sports (2002), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois.

This short story originally appeared in Century, Number 6, Spring 2000. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 6 (2001), edited by David G. Hartwell.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May-June 2013. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014, edited by Rich Horton.

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1993, and was reprinted in Clarkesworld Magazine, #79 April 2013. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eleventh Annual Collection (1994), The Good New Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (1999), and Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction (2005), all edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection The Dragons of Springplace (1999).

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2003. There are no other know publications available at this time.

WFA nominated short story. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, May 1999. There are no other known publications available at this time.

Sturgeon Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #86 November 2013. The story can also be found in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eight (2014), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 2007. It can also be found in the anthology Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2008 Edition, edited by Rich Horton.

All politics is local. Even while the world is collapsing.

This story was anthologized in David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's Year's Best SF 17 (2012)

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, September 2011. It can also be found in the anthology Clarkesworld: Year Five (2013), edited by Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #98 November 2014. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015, edited by Rich Horton, and Clarkesworld Year Nine: Volume One (2018), edited by Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1991. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Ninth Annual Collection (1992), edited by Gardner Dozois.

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #68 May 2012. It can also be found in the anthologies:

• The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2013, edited by Rich Horton
  
• Year's Best SF 18 (2013), edited by David G. Hartwell
• Clarkesworld: Year Six (2014), edited by Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke
• Warrior Women (2015), edited by Paula Guran

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2001. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection (2002), edited by Gardner Dozois.

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2007. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection (2008), edited by Gardner Dozois.

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, March 2006. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 12 (2007), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

Justice finds a very bad man.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 2006. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best Fantasy 7 (2007), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

Millions of years from now, humanity will be on the brink of self-destruction. The world's great leaders have created an elite group who, by their superior wisdom and abilities, keep the peace, maintain progress, and otherwise safeguard humanity's future. Genetically enhanced, they are the carriers of Earth's greatest talents, a force unlike any in the history of mankind.

For ten million years, the Families dominated the galaxy. But then Alice, a brilliant scientist of the Chamberlain family, took part in an attempt to create a new galaxy. Her experiment unleashed vast forces that the family could not control, causing a catastrophe that killed untold billions of people on many worlds.

Before she was punished for her role in the debacle, Alice visited Ord, a younger Chamberlain. Only he, of all the people in the galaxy, knows what Alice tells him. Her words launch him upon a quest that will take him across the vast reaches of space. He must discover his own true nature, and somehow restore the family honor. Sister Alice is his epic story.

The aliens have arrived. And they want to Join. Yes, that means what you think it does.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

This novella originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July-August 2011. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection (2012), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Not One of Us: Stories of Aliens on Earth (2018), edited by Neil Clarke.

A decade's worth of prolific short stories are showcased in this compilation of Robert Reed's best work. Among the dozen thought-provoking tales is the never-before-published "Abducted Souls," about a college student who becomes increasingly unsure of himself and his self-worth when the alien abduction he experienced as a child is questioned. Also included is the Asimov's Science Fiction Reader's Choice Award-winning "Savior," about a military commander who is held accountable for tortuous acts that may have saved the human race. The hot topic of cloning is discussed in futuristic terms in the title tale, "The Cuckoo's Boys," which tells of a lonely genius who clones himself, not once, but millions of times, and of a teacher who tests and challenges three of these clones. Two ageless aliens become friends with Ash, an immortal human, as he strives to help them recover lost memories in "Night of Time," a selection taken from the popular Marrow book. The collection closes with an afterword by the author, in which he details the genesis of each story.

Table of Contents:

• On the Brink of that Bright New World - (1993) - shortstory
• The Children's Crusade - (2002) - novelette
• Night of Time - (2003) - shortstory
• River of the Queen - (2004) - novelette
• The Cuckoo's Boys - (1998) - novella
• Winemaster - (1999) - novelette
• Coelacanths - (2002) - novelette
• Savior - (1998) - shortstory
• She Sees My Monsters Now - (2002) - shortstory
• Abducted Souls - novelette
• One Last Game - (2001) - novelette
• First Tuesday - (1996) - shortstory
• Afterword - essay

This novella originally appeared in Science Fiction Age, September 1998. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixteenth Annual Collection (1999), edited by Gardner Dozois. It can also be found in the collection The Cuckoo's Boys (2005).

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, September 2010. It can also be found in the anthologies Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories (second edition, 2012), edited by John Joseph Adams, and Clarkesworld: Year Four (2013), edited by Sean Wallace and Neil Clarke.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

In the title story of this first-rate science fiction collection, a renegade misfit conquers the dragons and renews the threat of nuclear chaos aboard Springplace, a man-made repository for old reactor cores, dirty plutonium, and dismantled bombs. Another story is a sprawling intergalactic epic that takes place aboard a starship. Salvaged and commandeered by humans, the massive generation starship becomes the setting for a titanic struggle between two alien entities who engage in a monumental battle for survival. The tale "Chrysalis" explores not just an alien milieu but the nature of man himself when another ancient starship lands and investigates an icy unknown planet inhabited by humans millions of years earlier.

Table of Contents

• The Dragons of Springplace - (1997) - novelette
• Waging Good - (1995) - novelette
• To Church with Mr. Multhiford - (1997) - short story
• Stride - (1994) - novelette
• Chrysalis - (1996) - novelette
• The Utility Man - (1990) - short story
• Guest of Honor - (1993) - novelette
• Decency - (1996) - short story
• The Remoras - (1994) - novelette
• Aeon's Child - (1995) - novelette
• The Shape of Everything - (1994) - short story

This novelette originally appeared on Sci Fiction, December 1, 2004. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois, Year's Best Fantasy 5 (2005), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer, and Wings of Fire (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon.

Read the full story for free at the author's website.

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, #103 April 2015. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten (2016), edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, January-February 2019.

An average American man makes a business trip to France. But this is an alternate history, a relatively different Earth where the United States has maintained a monopoly over nuclear weapons and quite a lot more too. Big events are coming, and our traveler is lost in a foreign landscape, relying on strangers for his survival.

This novelette originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, January 2010. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

Set 2000 years in the future, in the steamy, equatorial city of Brule, this is a fast-moving story of crime, money and love.

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, March 2008. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 14 (2009), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

Inspired by Hemingway's Islands in the Stream, but wholly original in conception, The Leeshore takes as its setting a bizarre planet covered almost entirely in water, the surface of which is cloaked perpetually in darkness. Miles above the planet's surface a jungle of free-floating plants forms an almost seamless carpet, blocking the light from the sun and forcing organisms below to function through biological luminescence.

Into this windswept, Hades-like shadow world converge two warring parties: one a battle-hardened crew of avenging Earthmen, the other a cult of computer worshippers known as Alteretics. The Alteretics have failed in their bid to conquer Earth with a God of their own design - the most sophisticated computer ever constructed. Now they are being hunted down by the people they had tried to subjugate.

Recruited by the Earthmen to guide them across the planet's Stygian terrain are two young people: the only inhabitants of Leeshore to have survived the attack of the Alteretics. As the search for the murderous sect escalates, brother and sister find themselves questioning not only their allegiance to their newfound conrades, but also the odd quirk of fate that has bestowed on them the power to determine who shall live and who shall die.

The next invasion won't be little green men landing their spaceship in the National Mall. It will start somewhere quiet, like a dark road at night...

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, January/February 2021.

Read the full story for free at Asimov's.

This short story originally appeared in Clarkesworld, #130, July 2017. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2018, edtied by Rich Horton.

Read the full story for free at Clarkesworld.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, November 1990. The story is included in the collection The Dragons of Springplace (1999).

Sturgeon Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, April-May 2009. There are no other known publications available at this time.

A car crashes in Montana. This is just after 9/11, and the unconscious driver is trying to smuggle bomb-grade uranium into the United States. Weeks of hard interrogation yield nothing. The prisoner won't speak, much less break. And just as his torturers are about to give up, he asks for a pen and paper, making a list of celestial events that have not yet happened. Somehow, he knows the future. And the evidence, incredible as it sounds, leads to the conclusion that he came from the distant future with a group of time-traveling terrorists.

Ramiro is the world's most important prisoner, and Carmen is his new interrogator. Years have passed since the car crash. Humanity has been transformed by war and by paranoia. A battered government, desperate to survive, gives Carmen total power to do whatever she needs to uncover the truth about Ramiro.

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 2008. The story can also be found in the anthology The Hugo Award Showcase: 2010 Volume, edited by Mary Robinette Kowal. It is included in the collection Eater-of-Bone and Other Novellas (2012).

This short story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, April-May 2004. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 10 (2005), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

This novella was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction, July/August 2023.

This is the Earth written with a different biology. This is a story about a young person and her remarkable lover and the day when everything changes.

Hugo and Tiptree nominated story. Originally published in Asimov's October/November 1998, later anthologized in David G. Hartwell's Year's Best SF 4 (1999) and and Genometry (2001), edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann.

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1999. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventeenth Annual Collection (2000), edited by Gardner Dozois, Beyond Flesh (2002), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois and The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume 2 (2014), edited by Gordon Van Gelder. It is included in the collection The Cuckoo's Boys (2005).

A mysterious man stands before the woman he loves. But their conversation is interrupted, and now he must wait and wait for her to return.

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, March 2011. It can also be found in the anthologies Lightspeed: Year One (2011), edtited by John Joseph Adams, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six (2012), edited by Jonathan Strahan and The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2012, edited by Rich Horton.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

The largest star ship in the universe has a single passenger. That shape-shifting machine walks in solitude until the humans arrive, and their robots, and increasingly strange aliens. Then after thousands of years and a sequence of odd adventures, our hero arrives at a point where he understands the purpose of the Great Ship.

This novella originally appeared in the anthology Godlike Machines (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Five (2011), also edited by Strahan. The story is available as a chapbook as well.

The ex-captain wears a borrowed face and life, allowing him to sit in public while hiding from the Ship's authorities. But then one of the most powerful captains comes to the fugitive with a mission. There is a corpse that needs to be studied. There is a nameless passenger who needs unspecified help. And there is a conspiracy involving aliens and humans and family ties and millions of years of painful history.

This novella originally appeared in the anthology Down These Dark Spaceways (2005), edited by Mike Resnick. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection (2006), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection The Greatship (2013).

Immortal humans colonize a bizarre world, but the colony collapses. Tens of thousands of years later, what remains are scattered bands and individuals fighting the natives and fighting one another. Every day is desperate. But every day also offers great beauty in an alien wilderness, and small moments of kindness.

Sturgeon Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in the collection Eater-of-Bone and Other Novellas (2012). The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (2013), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read or listen to the full story for free at Escapepod.

In the far future, on a world made of water and little else, one desperate man rides inside a giant worm. Jopale is trying to make an appointment that will save his life. Perhaps. But this wet world is dying around him. Every other passenger is trying his or her best to survive. And out in the wastelands waits a long stretch of flat ground named Good Mountain, which might or might not bring salvation.

This novella originally appeared in the anthology One Million A.D. (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (2007), also edited by Dozois.

Rich tourists pay a fortune for the honor and misery of walking across an alien habitat, and a few powerful porters make their livings helping the tourists endure the impossible gravity. Katabasis is like nobody else. A species with a population of one, she came to the Great Ship by the most unusual means, and in the course of her duties as a porter, she will meet the most singular human.

Nebula Award nominated novella. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November-December 2012, later anthologized in Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven (2013) and Garnder Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (2013)

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Science Fiction Age, July 1997. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection (1998), edited by Gardner Dozois and The Hard SF Renaissance (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It was later expanded to the full novel Marrow (2000).

She was born as the sole passenger onboard a battered starship. Physically and mentally stunted, the immortal woman had no name. For ten thousand years nothing about her life changed. Then the double suns appeared before her and, without warning, her ship crash-landed on an alien world. The Tila found her. They naturally assumed she was a god, but she didn't grow much or show any godly power besides immortality. Because she wasn't much of a god, they named her "Mere." And for the next several thousand years, Mere lived among the Tila, playing a role in the rise of the Tilan civilization, all while serving as the sole witness in their struggle to survive as their great Tilan world began to die.

Mere, a 13,300-word novelette, takes place in Robert Reed's "Marrow" universe, along with such notable new stories as "River of the Queen" and "Night of Time." The character "Mere" plays a pivotal role in Reed's "Marrow" novel, The Well of Stars. The author has also included a 5,000-word Afterword in which he details the history of his "Marrow" universe, including all the stories that comprise this future history.

A brilliant alien mind forgets one tiny detail, and the human named Ash -- a reformed torturer and expert in memory -- digs deep and finds the most amazing secret.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The Silver Gryphon (2003) edited by Gary Turner and Marty Halpern. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection (2004), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Year's Best SF 9 (2004), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer. The story is included in the collections The Cuckoo's Boys (2005) and The Greatship (2013).

A difficult job needs to be done. Tools are hired and paid well for their trouble. But one tool, an ancient AI, has a cautionary story to tell, and she tells it to one of the few humans who can appreciate what she is saying.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Bridging Infinity (2016), edited by Jonathan Strahan. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 2 (2017), edited by Neil Clarke.

A talented stardrive mechanic is kidnapped and hauled across light-years, ending up inside a derelict alien ship. The mission is to recover the treasure that must be somewhere on board. But where? The crew is untrustworthy, and the ancient creature at the helm might be insane. And the mechanic isn't a real mechanic, but instead Pamir is a criminal with just enough skills to maybe, maybe save the day.

This novella originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2013. It can also be found in the anthologies Space Opera (2014), edited by Rich Horton, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection (2014), edited by Gardner Dozois.

An odd, ancient machine with three minds comes to the Great Ship, offering a rare gift in exchange for a home and passage. But the fabled Miocene handles the interview, and this ancient captain is impossible to impress.

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2014. A self-pulished e-book edition of this story is also available.

Since the beginning of the universe, the giant starship wandered the emptiest reaches of space, without crew or course, much less any clear purpose. But humans found the relic outside the Milky Way, and after taking possession, they named their prize the Great Ship and embarked on a bold voyage through the galaxy's civilized hearts.

Larger than worlds, the Great Ship is laced with caverns and oceans, scenes of exalted beauty and corners where no creature has ever stood. Habitats can be created for every intelligent species, provided that the passengers can pay for the honor of a berth, and the human captains make the rules and dispense the justice in what soon becomes thousands of alien species joined a wild, unpredictable journey.

The first Great Ship story was "The Remoras", published in 1994 by THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. All but the most recent titles in the series have been included in this volume, arranged in a rough chronological order, each story partly rewritten to capture the author's growing expertise in the starship. New material has been added to bridge the centuries, hopefully enriching the resident confusion.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2013) - essay by Robert Reed
• Prologue - short story
• Alone - (2010) - novella
• Bridge One - short story
• Hoop-of-Benzene - (2006) - short story
• Bridge Two - short story
• Mere - (2004) - novelette
• Bridge Three - short story
• The Remoras - (1994) - novelette
• Bridge Four - short story
• Rococo - (2006) - novella
• Bridge Five - short story
• River of the Queen - (2004) - novelette
• Bridge Six - short story
• Night of Time - (2003) - short story
• Bridge Seven - short story
• Aeon's Child - (1995) - novelette
• Bridge Eight short story
• The Caldera of Good Fortune - (2007) - novelette
• Bridge Nine - short story
• Camouflage - (2005) - novella
• Bridge Ten - short story
• The Man with the Golden Balloon - (2008) - novella
• Bridge Eleven - short story
• Hatch - (2007) - short story

Quee Lee is a beautiful and rich woman, and she's immortal, and she happens to be married to a young fellow with a mysterious, intriguing past. That past comes alive in the form of a Remora named Orleans. Like any Remora, Orleans normally lives on the exposed hull of the starship, but he has come below looking for Quee Lee's husband. To settle an old debt, apparently. Which launches an adventure, and what will this grand old lady do when faced with the remarkable truth?

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1994. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelth Annual Collection (1995), edited by Gardner Dozois, The Space Opera Renaissance (2006), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. The story is included in the collections The Dragons of Springplace (1999) and The Greatship (2013).

Ash is a professional interrogator and at times has served as a torturer. He enlists an alien friend to help him cope with one of his victims, and the alien, one of the peculiar 31-1s, is witness to a pivotal moment in the lives of two immortal humans.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Extrasolar (2017), edited by Nick Gevers. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection (2018), edited by Gardner Dozois.

An alien world is inhabited living, highly-intelligent rivers. Those rivers have made a deal with the Great Ship: Send them a mortal human as a sacrifice, and humanity will be given planets and moons as gifts. But who would willingly volunteer for such a duty? A stubborn man named Amund, it turns out. And before it is over, this ordinary mortal holds the lives of billions in his grasp.

This novella originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, January-February 2017, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, Issue 107, April 2019. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3 (2018), edited by Neil Clarke.

The Ship has traveled the universe for longer than any of the near-immortal crew can recall, its true purpose and origins unknown. It is larger than many planets, housing thousands of alien races and just as many secrets.

Now one of those secrets has been discovered: at the center of the Ship is . . . a planet. Marrow. But when a team of the Ship's best and brightest are sent down to investigate, will they return with the origins of the Ship--or will they bring doom to everyone on board?

In The Well of Stars, Hugo award-nominated author Robert Reed has written a stunning sequel to his acclaimed novel Marrow. The Great Ship, so vast that it contains within its depths a planet that lay undiscovered for generations, has cruised through the universe for untold billions of years. After a disastrous exploration of the planet, Marrow, the Ship's captains face an increasingly restive population aboard their mammoth vessel.

And now, compounding the captains' troubles, the Ship is heading on an irreversible course straight for the Ink Well, a dark, opaque nebula. Washen and Pamir, the captains who saved Marrow from utter destruction, send Mere, whose uncanny ability to adapt to and understand other cultures makes her the only one for the job, to investigate the nebula before they plunge blindly in. While Mere is away, Pamir discovers in the Ink Well the presence of a god-like entity with powers so potentially destructive that it might destroy the ship and its millions.

Faced with an entity that might prevent the Ship from ever leaving the Ink Well, the Ship's only hope now rests in the ingenuity of the vast crew... and with Mere, who has not contacted them since she left the Ship...

With the excitement of epic science fiction adventure set against a universe full of wonders, the odyssey of the Ship and its captains will capture the hearts of science fiction readers.

Diamond is an odd little boy, a seemingly fragile child - who proves to be anything but. An epic story begins when he steps into the world his parents have so carefully kept him from, a world where gigantic trees each house thousands of humans and another human species, the papio, rule its far edges. Does Diamond hold the promise to remake one species and, perhaps, change all of the Creation?

This novelette originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1995. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection (1996) and Worldmakers: SF Adventures in Terraforming (2001), both edited by Gardner Dozois.

In the Realm, with its terraformed worlds, designed for the comfort of their genetically tailored human populations, the planet Pitcairn is legendary. Its inhabitants, descendents of Earth explorers, live in isolation from the Realm, in symbiosis with the Remarkables, the only other intelligent race discovered in thousands of years of galactic exploration.

Ranier Lu is one of six humans chosen to undertake a grand adventure - one no others in the Realm have ever known. He and the others will accompany a group of Pitcairns and juvenile Remarkables on a passion, a ritual wilderness journey that marks the Remarkables' passage to adulthood.

Ranier has his own reasons for leaving the comforts of the Realm for the long, difficult trek, and little by little he begins to discover those of his companions. But one of them as an agenda so unthinkable, so cruel, that Ranier comes to fear not only for his own safety but for that of the Remarkables, the Pitcairns, and even for the Realm itself.

Witnessing a spacial manifestation that changes the view of the sky from a starry universe to a mirror image of the Earth, UFO researcher's son Cornell Novak begins a journey that takes him into an alien world.

In the New York Times notable book Beyond the Veil of Stars Porsche and Cornell fell in love as they infiltrated an alien world for the sake of humanity. In Beneath the Gated Sky they return to Earth, only to discover a conspiracy so deep that it casts doubt on those to whom they've entrusted their lives.