The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 9

An unabridged collection spotlighting the best hard science fiction stories and novellas published in 2024 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster.

• “Antyesti for a Dead Ganesa” by Ashok K. Banker — An old-school cop is resurrected from deadsleep to solve the murder of a god clone in a future Mumbai.
• “Places You Have Never Been” by David Cleden — A city is threatened by invisible bubbles that take whatever is trapped inside them when they inexplicably collapse.
• “The Icy Wasteland at Her Feet” by Deborah L. Davitt — The sole survivor of a team of astronauts on Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, struggles to keep sane.
• “The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea” by Naomi Kritzer — A contentious married couple, both scientists, move to a town overlooking Cape Cod Bay where men mysteriously disappear.
• “Barbarians” by Rich Larson — A rogue and a disembodied head are hired to take twins to explore a dead, planet-sized organism.
• “The Dark at the End of the Tunnel” by Edward M. Lerner — A graduate student investigates the disappearance of a distant galaxy.
• “Western Approaches” by Ian McDonald — A pilot is sent on a mission to explore a spinning storm approaching Scotland.
• “Mirrorstar” by Sean McMullen — A forensic pathologist investigates the death of a scientist in the focus cage of a space telescope.
• “There’s Nothing in the Attic” by Faith Merino — The women in a man’s life carry out physics experiments in his home.
• “Luminous Glass, Vibrant Seeds” by D.A. Xiaolin Spires — A glass artist and her bot are tasked with delivering a rare, viable seedling to its proper environ on a climate-damaged world.
• “Encore” by Wole Talabi — Twin AIs, created by now extinct humans, travel between star systems to make art for those who share its world of digital data.