Twenty-two stories, selected by editor Donna Scott from disparate places, that represent some of the best science fiction published anywhere in 2019: stories of heroism, stories of loss, stories of wonder.
In this volume you will encounter tales in which creatures are cut off from their loved ones; someone is trapped with an abuser; a bird sings; weeds grow where we hope for a garden; we consider what our alternative selves might be doing; we can’t sleep; we wish we could keep things just the way they were; we drink too much… and we look to rockets blasting off into the sky and think that there lies the future; that’s hope.
Contents

2019: An Introduction – Donna Scott

The Anxiety Gene – Rhiannon Grist

The Land of Grunts and Squeaks – Chris Beckett

For Your Own Good – Ian Whates

Neom – Lavie Tidhar

Once You Start – Mike Morgan

For the Wicked, Only Weeds Will Grow – G. V. Anderson

Fat Man in the Bardo – Ken MacLeod

Cyberstar – Val Nolan

The Little People – Una McCormack

The Loimaa Protocol – Robert Bagnall

The Adaptation Point – Kate Macdonald

The Final Ascent – Ian Creasey

A Lady of Ganymede, a Sparrow of Io – Dafydd McKimm

Snapshots – Leo X. Robertson

Witch of the Weave – Henry Szabranski

Parasite Art – David Tallerman

Galena – Liam Hogan

Ab Initio – Susan Boulton

Ghosts – Emma Levin

Concerning the Deprivation of Sleep – Tim Major

Every Little Star – Fiona Moore

The Minus-Four Sequence – Andrew Wallace

About the Authors