The very best short SF fiction of any given year as recommended and nominated by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America: the best novella, novelette and short story. Here you will find the cream of the crop of science fiction and fantasy - startling ideas, the intricate construction of new worlds and mind-bending experimental writing. This anthology includes not only the Nebula Award-winning works in each short-form category, but also all the nominees in the novelette and short story categories. Here you will find colourful fantasy, outstanding speculative fiction, steampunk, edgy writing on the fringes of the mainstream and uncompromisingly hard SF in stories set in the distant past, an off-kilter present day, the far future or some times in between.

What a stitch! Willis’ delectable romp through time from 2057 back to Victorian England, with a few side excursions into World War II and medieval Britain, will have readers happily glued to the pages. Rich dowager Lady Schrapnell has invaded Oxford University’s time travel research project in 2057, promising to endow it if they help her rebuild Coventry Cathedral, destroyed by a Nazi air raid in 1940. In effect, she dragoons almost everyone in the program to make trips back in time to locate items — in particular, the bishop’s bird stump, an especially ghastly example of Victorian decorative excess. Time traveler Ned Henry is suffering from advanced time lag and has been sent, he thinks, for rest and relaxation to 1888, where he connects with fellow time traveler Verity Kindle and discovers that he is actually there to correct an incongruity created when Verity inadvertently brought something forward from the past. Take an excursion through time, add chaos theory, romance, plenty of humor, a dollop of mystery, and a spoof of the Victorian novel, and you end up with what seems like a comedy of errors but is actually a grand scheme "involving the entire course of history and all of time and space that, for some unfathomable reason, chose to work out its designs with cats and croquet mallets and penwipers, to say nothing of the dog. And a hideous piece of Victorian artwork.Nominated for Nebula Award in 1998.Won Hugo and Locus Awards in 1999.

Ocho premios Hugo, seis premios Nebula, y el John W. Campbell Memorial en unos diez años avalan la excepcional habilidad narrativa de la autora de El libro del día del juicio final, Oveja mansa y Por no mencionar al perro. Se trata de una de las mejores y más inteligentes voces de la narrativa modena, que esta vez nos sorprende e intriga con una emotiva y racional exploración del mundo de las ECM (Experiencias Cercanas a la Muerte) en una novela de implacable suspense.Según diversos testigos, en una ECM parece haber varios elementos nucleares: experiencia extracorporal, sonido, un túnel de altas paredes, una luz al final del túnel, parientes fallecidos y un ángel de luz con resplandecientes túnicas blancas, una sensación de paz y amor, una revisión de la vida, una revelación del conocimiento universal y la orden de regreso final. ¿Es todo esto algo real, o se trata tan sólo de manifestaciones surgidas de la bioquímica de un cerebro moribundo?En Tránsito, Joanna Lander es un psicóloga que investiga las ECM. Su encuentro con el neurólogo Richard Wright ha de permitirle simular clínicamente ese tipo de experiencias con el uso de drogas psicoactivas. Pero los sujetos del experimento del doctor Wright ven cosas completamente distintas de lo esperado, y Joanna decide someterse al experimento para conocer directamente una ECM. Y las sorpresas empiezan…Novela finalista del premio Hugo 2002Novela finalista del premio Nebula 2001Novela finalista del John W. Campbell Memorial Award 2002

Ecco un altro premio Nebula, stavolta di Connie Willis, una delle scrittrici più dotate e apprezzate dell’ultima generazione. Con la sua consueta grazia e dolcezza, la Willis tocca qui un tema tra i più abusati come quello del dopobomba per darcene una vista nuova e originale da un’angolazione mai considerata finora.

Wry and witty science fiction. Carson and Findriddy, the famous planetary surveyors mapping out the planetoid Boohte, have their hands full with base member C.J., ambitious scout Ev (C.J.’s latest conquest), and Bult—the indigenous guide whose chief interest is in levying fines for destruction of the planet’s surface.

Een Engelse studente in de middeleeuwse geschiedenis maakt in 2054 een tijdreis naar het Engeland van 1320. Ze heeft zich terdege voorbereid, maar als ze eenmaal in het 14e eeuwse Oxfordshire is gearriveerd, blijken diverse zaken niet te kloppen. Ze vermoedt dat haar tijdscoordinaten fout zijn en dat ze, gezien het uitbreken van de pest, in 1348 is terechtgekomen. Een bevriende professor maakt zich grote zorgen en weet haar ten slotte weer naar de 21e eeuw terug te halen. Een boeiende roman — een mix van sciencefiction en historie — levendig geschreven, vol kleurrijke figuren. Goede tekening van de historische achtergrond. Een meeslepend verhaal dat men ademloos uitleest. Vrij kleine druk.