Thrilling, smart, and brilliant short science fiction from Simone Heller, Ken Liu, Ian McDonald, and many more. A human detective and their partner, an enhanced chimpanzee, investigate a strange murder on the subway . . . a smart home goes into lockdown, turning a man's own home into his prison . . . at a robot factory, something has caused the machines to attempt to escape . . . mysterious seeds raining down from deep space could be the first sign of an alien invasion . . . a woman seeks to restore a broken AI, hoping it can help return humanity to better days . . . For decades, science fiction has compelled us to imagine futures both inspiring and cautionary. Whether it's a warning message from a survey ship, a harrowing journey to a new world, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction inspires the imagination and delivers a lens through which we can view ourselves and the world around us. With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Four, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and twenty-nine of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2018:
When We Were Starless--Simone HellerIntervention--Kelly RobsonAll the Time We've Left to Spend--Alyssa WongDomestic Violence--Madeline AshbyTen Landscapes of Nili Fossae--Ian McDonaldProphet of the Roads--Naomi KritzerTraces of Us--Vanessa FoggTheories of Flight--Linda NagataLab B-15--Nick WolvenRequiem--Vandana SinghSour Milk Girls--Erin RobertsMother Tongues--S. Qiouyi LuSingles' Day--Samantha MurrayNine Last Days on Planet Earth--Daryl GregoryThe Buried Giant--Lavie TidharThe Anchorite Wakes--R.S.A. GarciaEntropy War--Yoon Ha LeeAn Equation of State--Robert ReedQuantifying Trust--John ChuHard Mary--Sofia SamatarFreezing Rain, a Chance of Falling--L.X. BeckettOkay, Glory--Elizabeth BearHeavy Lifting--A.T. GreenblattLions and Gazelles--Hannu RajaniemiDifferent Seas--Alastair ReynoldsAmong the Water Buffaloes, a Tiger's Steps--Aliette de BodardByzantine Empathy--Ken LiuMeat and Salt