Best Science Fiction of the Year

As Earth dies, an architect is commissioned to remote build a monument on Mars from the remains of a failed colony; a man who has transferred his consciousness into a humanoid robot discovers he's missing thirty percent of his memories, and tries to discover why; bored with life in the underground colony of an alien world, a few risk life inside one of the ';whales' floating in the planet's atmosphere; an apprentice librarian searching through centuries of SETI messages from alien civilizations makes an ominous discovery; a ship in crisis pulls a veteran multibot out from storage with an unusual assignment: pest control; the dead are given a second shot at life, in exchange for a five-year term in a zombie military program. 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 Three, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and twenty-seven of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2017. Table of ContentsIntroduction: The State of Short SF Field in 2017A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min PrasadHoldfast by Alastair ReynoldsEvery Hour of Light and Dark by Nancy KressThe Last Novelist, or a Dead Lizard in the Yard by Matthew KresselShikasta by Vandana SinghWind Will Rove by Sarah PinskerFocus by Gord SellarThe Martian Obelisk by Linda NagataShadows of Eternity by Gregory BenfordThe Worldless by Indrapramit DasRegarding the Robot Raccoons Attached to the Hull of My Ship by Rachel Jones and Khaalidah Muhammad-AliBelly Up by Maggie ClarkUncanny Valley by Greg EganWe Who Live in the Heart by Kelly RobsonA Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World by A.C. WiseMeridian by Karin LowacheeThe Tale of the Alcubierre Horse by Kathleen Ann GoonanExtracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha LeeIn Everlasting Wisdom by Aliette de BodardThe Last Boat-Builder in Ballyvoloon by Finbarr O'ReillyThe Speed of Belief by Robert ReedDeath on Mars by Madeline AshbyAn Evening with Severyn Grimes by Rich LarsonZeroS by Peter WattsThe Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne PalmerZen and the Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias S. BuckellPermissionsRecommended Reading