A collection of some of the best original science fiction and fantasy short fiction published on Tor.com in 2019.Includes stories by:Elizabeth BearSiobhan CarrollJohn ChuGreg EganKathleen Ann GoonanS. L. HuangCarole JohnstoneKJ KabzaErinn L. KemperMary Robinette KowalRich LarsonM. Evan MacGriogirSeanan McGuireLis MitchellMimi MondalAnnalee NewitzSi...

When a detective, a new mother, is assigned to the case of a horrific triple murder, it appears to be a self-contained domestic tragedy, a terrible event but something that doesn’t affect the rest of the community. But it slowly becomes clear that something much darker may be at play, something that spreads out from the scene of the crime to corrode the closest relationships of everyone it touches, in Greg Egan's The Nearest, a Tor.com Original.At the Publisher's request, ...

Immortality, but at what price, in what form, and how could you be you? Find out in Greg Egan's "Uncanny Valley," a Tor.com Original short storyIn the near future it’s possible to build a new you, a better you, one that could carry on forever. But if you could carry on, if you could make choices about who you would be forever, how much of your past would you bring with you? Would you be tempted to maybe…edit? Adam isn’t all that he used to be, but he wants to be.

Welcome to the strangest world in science fictionSeth is a surveyor, along with his friend Theo, a leech-like creature running through his skull who tells Seth what lies to his left and right. Theo, in turn, relies on Seth for mobility, and for ordinary vision looking forwards and backwards. Like everyone else in their world, they are symbionts, depending on each other to survive.In the universe containing Seth’s world, light cannot travel in all directions: there is a “dar...

From the award-winning author Greg Egan comes a Tor.com Original sci-fi short story, "Zeitgeber"For millions of years, life on Earth has taken its cues from the rising and setting of the sun, and for most of human history we've followed the same rhythm. But if that shared connection was broken, and we each fell under the sway of our own private clock, could we still hold our lives together? One family is about to find out.At the Publisher's request, this ti...

"Instantiation" is a collection of eleven science fiction stories by Hugo Award winning author Greg Egan:• "The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine"• "Zero For Conduct"• "Uncanny Valley"• "Seventh Sight"• "The Nearest"• "Shadow Flock"• "Bit Players"• "Break My Fall"• "3-adica"• "The Slipway"• "Instantiation"

A million years from now, the galaxy is divided between the vast, cooperative meta-civilisation known as the Amalgam, and the silent occupiers of the galactic core known as the Aloof. The Aloof have long rejected all attempts by the Amalgam to enter their territory, but have permitted travellers to take a perilous ride as unencrypted data in their communications network, providing a short-cut across the galaxy's central bulge.When Rakesh encounters a traveller, Lahl, who claims she...

THE HUNDRED LIGHT YEAR DIARY - Scientists can bounce messages from the future back to the present, but there's no guarantee they'll tell the truth ...LEARNING TO BE ME - Crystalline minds may take the place of human brains, but where does the self really lie?CLOSER - Lovers exchange bodies and minds, but their experiments go just that little bit too far, proving that you can have too much of a good thing

After the extinction of humans, how do you define humanity?Since the Introdus in the twenty-first century, humanity has reconfigured itself drastically. Most chose immortality, joining the polises to become conscious software. Others opted for gleisners: disposable, renewable robotic bodies that remain in contact with the physical world of force and friction. Many of these have left the solar system forever in fusion-drive starships.And there are the holdou...

Immortality can be yours . . . at a pricePermutation city is the tale of a man with a vision - how to create immortality - and how that vision becomes grows beyond his control. Encompassing the lives and struggles of an artificial life junkie desperate to save her dying mother, a billionaire banker scarred by a terrible crime, the lovers for whom, in their timeless virtual world, love is not enough - and much more - Permutation city is filled with the sense of wond...

In a world where the cells that make up our bodies are not committed to any one organism, Marla is confronted by the fickleness of her cytes, and resolves to understand them with help from Ada, a centuries-old Flourisher. Swappers like Ruth embrace fluidity, and meet with others to exchange cytes, seeking the perfect mix. But Ruth faces her own crisis, and as the technology to manipulate cytes advances, all three are drawn into a struggle to shape the future of life.

Greg Egan's Perihelion Summer is a story of people struggling to adapt to a suddenly alien environment, and the friendships and alliances they forge as they try to find their way in a world where the old maps have lost their meaning.Taraxippus is coming: a black hole one tenth the mass of the sun is about to enter the solar system.Matt and his friends are taking no chances. They board a mobile aquaculture rig, the Mandjet, self-sustaining in food, power and fresh wat...