The definitive guide and a must-have collection of the best short science fiction and speculative fiction of 2019, showcasing brilliant talent and examining the cultural moment we live in, compiled by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan. With short works from some of the most lauded science fiction authors, as well as rising stars, this collection displays the top talent and the cutting-edge cultural moments that affect our lives, dreams, and stories. The list of authors is truly star-studded, including New York Times bestseller Ted Chiang (author of the short story that inspired the movie Arrival ), N. K. Jemisin, Charlie Jane Anders, and many more incredible talents. An assemblage of...

Deadly. Mercenary. Superhuman. Not your ordinary math geek. Cas Russell is good at math. Scary good. The vector calculus blazing through her head lets her smash through armed men twice her size and dodge every bullet in a gunfight. She can take any job for the right price and shoot anyone who gets in her way. As far as she knows, she’s the only person around with a superpower… but then Cas discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than her own. Someone who can reach directly into people’s minds and twist their brains into Moebius strips. Someone intent on becoming the world’s puppet master. Someone who’s already warped Cas’s thoughts once...

This anthology includes 120 authors—who contributed 230 works totaling approximately 1.1 million words of fiction. These pieces all originally appeared in 2014, 2015, or 2016 from writers who are new professionals to the SFF field, and they represent a breathtaking range of work from the next generation of speculative storytelling. All of these authors are eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016. We hope you’ll use this anthology as a guide in nominating for that award as well as a way of exploring many vibrant new voices in the genre.