Harlan Ellison, Richard Christian Matheson, Connie Willis, and many more contribute to a compelling psychological exploration of the many shades of love.An incubus disguised as a high school girl puts a disturbing spin on the teacher/student fantasy. An engineer creates a robot with unexpected consequences during the end of the world. A man becomes the pet of alien invaders. From stories of aliens in other worlds to those living among us, these tales will move you out of your comfort zone and open you up to experiencing something—or someone—completely different.

Just in time for spring training, two power hitters return to our pages. Ben Bova not only writes about the future, he has helped create it. The author of more than eighty-five futuristic novels and nonfiction books, he has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space program. President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of SFWA, Dr. Bova is a frequent commentator on radio and television, and a widely popular lecturer. He has also been an award-winning editor and an executive in the aerospace industry. Rick Wilber has sold about a hundred short stories and poems, and over one thousand nonfiction articles. He is the SF reviewer for the St. Petersburg Times, and he edits the Fiction Quarterly for the Tampa Tribune. Mr. Wilber is a faculty member of the School of Mass Communications at the University of South Florida. He is also administrator of the Isaac Asimov Award for excellence in undergraduate writing that is co-sponsored by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and by this magazine.

This eleventh volume of the year’s best science fiction and fantasy features twenty-six stories by some of the genre’s greatest authors, including David Gerrold, Carolyn Ives Gilman, James Patrick Kelly, Rich Larson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Yoon Ha Lee, Sarah Pinsker, Justina Robson, Kelly Robson, Lavie Tidhar, Juliette Wade, and many others.Selecting the best fiction from Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Tor.com, and other top venues, The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy is your guide to magical realms and worlds beyond tomorrow.