author : Greg Bear

A collection of some of Bear's earlier stories, including the much-anthologised Blood Music, the thought-provoking Dead Run (what would you do under those circumstances?) and the deeply scary, or maybe just fun, Schrödinger's Plague.

Contents (possible spoilers)

• A Martian Ricorso. 1976

What if there had been canals on Mars, but a climate change was destroying them just as our telescopes were getting better? And what if the new winter Martians were also builders?

• Blood Music. 1983

(The original short story which grew into the novel of the same name.) What if nanotech has made the individual cells of your body intelligent, and they wanted to be in charge?

• Sleepside Story. 1988

A modern day gender-reversed Beauty and the Beast.

• Webster. 1973

A lonely woman makes a man from the words in a dictionary.

• Dead Run. 1985

A trucker gets a job shipping lost sould to Hell. But he then he learns something about the people in charge.

• Schrodinger's Plague. 1982

What if someone carries out the Schrodinger's Cat experiment, but on a much larger scale?

• Through Road No Whither. 1985

Never be nasty to strange old women in cottages, even on alternate timelines.

• Tangents. 1986

An old mathematician and a young boy contact the fourth dimension, with music.

• Sisters. 1989

Letitia finds it hard growing up as a Normal Genome, surrounded by genetically superior Pre-Planned Children. But then she discovers it isn't easy being a PPC either.

• The Machineries of Joy. 1987

(essay) A mid 1980's look at the future of computer graphics.

Contents (possible spoilers)

• The Wind from a Burning Woman. 1978

• The White Horse Child. 1979

• Petra. 1981

• Scattershot. 1978

• Mandala. 1978

• Hardfought. 1982

• Concourse panel discussion of the Arthur C Clarke Awards shortlist

An original anthology of "hard science fiction that engages strong emotions". They are all good stories, but I found that I preferred those with more emphasis on the hard SF than on the emotions. In fact, I thought the best story by far was Greg Egan's brilliant "Wang's Carpets" (buy the book just for this one: it's worth it), which had the hardest SF and the least emotions of the lot.

Contents (possible spoilers)

• Mary Rosenblum. Elegy. 1995

Amanda is experimenting with squid neurons, whilst also watching her mother's degenerative brain disease.

• Gregory Benford. A Desperate Calculus. 1995. = A Calculus of Desperation

(writing as Sterling Blake) Two scientists trying to understand new epidemics watch the planet dying from pollution and overpopulation.

• James Stevens-Ace. Scenes from a Future Marriage. 1995

New technologies and new game shows give rise to new marital tensions

• Ursula K. Le Guin. Coming of Age in Karhide by Sov Thade Tage em Ereb, of Rer, in Karhide, on Gethen. 1995. = Coming of Age in Karhide

Sov's first experience of kemmer

• Gregory Benford. High Abyss. 1995

Battles and heresies in a world with a strange non-isotropic geometry.

• Paul J. McAuley. Recording Angel. 1995

In the far future, when humans are changed and other creatures are human, an Old Human returns to upset the balance

• Sonia Orin Lyris. When Strangers Meet. 1995

Aliens with a very positive attitude to strangers await the new Dance

• Robert Sheckley. The Day the Aliens Came. 1995

Aliens that are different in ways only Robert Sheckley would think of.

• Greg Abraham. Gnota. 1995

When pig heart transplants into humans become commonplace, don't get attached to the pig.

• Geoffrey A. Landis. Rorvick's War. 1995

Bad intelligence about how the other side would fight in a war might make you think wrongly that you could win

• Carter Scholz. Radiance. 1995

How do scientists doing weapons research justify their work during the Cold War?

• Gregory Benford. Old Legends. 1995

(essay) Anecdotes about Edward Teller, bomb research during WWII, and Cartmill's famous atomic bomb story in Campbell's SF magazine

• Robert Silverberg. The Red Blaze is the Morning. 1995

An archaeologist failing to find evidence for his theory makes contact with another time explorer

• George Alec Effinger. One. 1995

What if there is no other life in the Universe?

• Poul Anderson. Scarecrow. 1995

Two scientists crash on chaotically orbiting Hyperion, where the robot explorers who might help them have gone mad.

• Greg Egan. Wang's Carpets. 1995

Downloaded humans start to explore the galaxy for other life, and find a big surprise at Vega.