Something exciting has been happening in modern SF. After decades of confusion, many of the field's best writers have been returning to the subgenre called, roughly, "hard SF"-science fiction focused on science and technology, often with strong adventure plots. Now, World Fantasy Award-winning editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer present an immense, authoritative anthology that maps the development and modern-day resurgence of this form, argues for its special virtues and present preeminence-and entertains us with some spectacular storytelling along the way.
Included are major stories by contemporary and classic names such as Poul Anderson, Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, Greg Egan, Joe Haldeman, Nancy Kress, Paul Levinson, Paul McAuley, Frederik Pohl, Alastair Reynolds, Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert J. Sawyer, Karl Schroeder, Charles Sheffield, Brian Stableford, Allen Steele, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, and Vernor Vinge.
The Hard SF Renaissance will be an anthology that SF readers return to for years to come.
A major anthology of the "hard SF" subgenre-arguing that it's not only the genre's core, but also its future:
Poul Anderson
Stephen Baxter
Gregory Benford
Ben Bova
David Brin
Ted Chiang
Arthur C. Clarke
Hal Clement
Greg Egan
Michael Flynn
Joe Haldeman
James P. Hogan
James Patrick Kelly
Nancy Kress
Geoffrey A. Landis
David Langford
Paul Levinson
Paul McAuley
David Nordley
Frederik Pohl
Robert Reed
Alastair Reynolds
Kim Stanley Robinson
Robert J. Sawyer
rdKarl Schroeder
Charles Sheffield
Joan Slonczewski
Brian Stableford
Allen Steele
Bruce Sterling
Michael Swanwick
Vernor Vinge
Peter Watts
Sarah Zettel
David G. Hartwell, called "an editor extraordinaire" by Publishers Weekly, is one of science fiction's most experienced and influential editors. As an editor with Berkley Books, Pocket Books, William Morrow, and Tor Books, he has worked with many of the field's best authors and edited many award-winning works. He is the author of Age of Wonders, a nonfiction study of the science fiction field. Among his many anthologies are the bestselling World Treasury of Science Fiction and the World Fantasy Award winner The Dark Descent. He is the holder of a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Columbia University, a winner of the Eaton Award, and has been nominated for the Hugo Award twenty-four times.
Kathryn Cramer coedited the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology The Architecture of Fear and was the editor of its widely praised sequel Walls of Fear. She has edited and coedited several other anthologies. With David G. Hartwell, she edited The Ascent of Wonder, a major anthology covering the earlier history and development of "hard SF," to which this volume is a companion. Hartwell and Cramer also coedit the annual Year's Best Fantasy and Year's Best SF series. They live in Pleasantville, NY, with their son, Peter.
