The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 26 (Mammoth Books) Read online

  Gardner Dozois edited Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine for twenty years. He has won the Hugo Award for Best Editor fifteen times and has also received numerous Nebula Awards. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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  Constable & Robinson Ltd.

  55–56 Russell Square

  London WC1B 4HP

  www.constablerobinson.com

  First published in the US as

  The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection

  by St Martin’s Press, 2013

  First published in the UK by Robinson,

  an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2013

  Copyright © Gardner Dozois, 2013

  (unless otherwise stated)

  The right of Gardner Dozois to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him/her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

  ISBN: 978-1-47210-601-8 (paperback)

  ISBN: 978-1-47210-607-0 (ebook)

  Printed and bound in the UK

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Cover design and illustration by JoeRoberts.co.uk

  CONTENTS

  Permissions

  Acknowledgments

  Summation: 2012

  WEEP FOR DAY • Indrapramit Das

  THE MAN • Paul McAuley

  THE STARS DO NOT LIE • Jay Lake

  THE MEMCORDIST • Lavie Tidhar

  THE GIRL-THING WHO WENT OUT FOR SUSHI • Pat Cadigan

  HOLMES SHERLOCK • Eleanor Arnason

  NIGHTFALL ON THE PEAK OF ETERNAL LIGHT • Richard A. Lovett and William Gleason

  CLOSE ENCOUNTERS • Andy Duncan

  THE FINITE CANVAS • Brit Mandelo

  STEAMGOTHIC • Sean McMullen

  IN THE HOUSE OF ARYAMAN, A LONELY SIGNAL BURNS • Elizabeth Bear

  MACY MINNOT’S LAST CHRISTMAS ON DIONE, RING RACING, FIDDLER’S GREEN, THE POTTER’S GARDEN • Paul McAuley

  TWENTY LIGHTS TO “THE LAND OF SNOW” • Michael Bishop

  ASTROPHILIA • Carrie Vaughn

  WHAT DID TESSIMOND TELL YOU? • Adam Roberts

  OLD PAINT • Megan Lindholm

  CHITAI HEIKI KORONBIN • David Moles

  KATABASIS • Robert Reed

  THE WATER THIEF • Alastair Reynolds

  NIGHTSIDE ON CALLISTO • Linda Nagata

  UNDER THE EAVES • Lavie Tidhar

  SUDDEN, BROKEN, AND UNEXPECTED • Steven Popkes

  FIREBORN • Robert Charles Wilson

  RUMINATIONS IN AN ALIEN TONGUE • Vandana Singh

  TYCHE AND THE ANTS • Hannu Rajaniemi

  THE WRECK OF THE “CHARLES DEXTER WARD” • Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear

  INVISIBLE MEN • Christopher Barzak

  SHIP’S BROTHER • Aliette de Bodard

  EATER-OF-BONE • Robert Reed

  Honorable Mentions: 2012

  PERMISSIONS

  “Weep for Day,” by Indrapramit Das. Copyright © 2012 by Dell Magazines. First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, August 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Man,” by Paul McAuley. Copyright © 2012 by Paul McAuley. First published electronically in Arc 1.2. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Stars Do Not Lie,” by Jay Lake. Copyright © 2012 by Dell Magazines. First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, October/November 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Memcordist,” by Lavie Tidhar. Copyright © 2012 by Lavie Tidhar. First published electronically on Eclipse Online, December. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi,” by Pat Cadigan. Copyright © 2012 by Pat Cadigan. First published in Edge of Infinity (Solaris), edited by Jonathan Strahan. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Holmes Sherlock,” by Eleanor Arnason. Copyright © 2012 by Eleanor Arnason. First published electronically on Eclipse Online, November. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Nightfall on the Peak of Eternal Light,” by Richard A. Lovett and William Gleason. Copyright © 2012 by Dell Magazines. First published in Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact, July/August 2012. Reprinted by permission of the authors.

  “Close Encounters,” by Andy Duncan. Copyright © 2012 by Andy Duncan. First published in The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories (PS Publishing), by Andy Duncan.

  “The Finite Canvas,” by Brit Mandelo. Copyright © 2012 by Brit Mandelo. First published electronically on Tor.com, December 5. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Steamgothic,” by Sean McMullen. Copyright © 2012 by Interzone. First published in Interzone 241. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns,” by Elizabeth Bear. Copyright © 2012 by Dell Magazines. First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, January 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas on Dione, Ring Racing, Fiddler’s Green, The Potter’s Garden,” by Paul McAuley. Copyright © 2012 by Paul McAuley. First published in Edge of Infinity (Solaris), edited by Jonathan Strahan. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Twenty Lights to ‘The Land of Snow,’ ” by Michael Bishop. Copyright © 2012 by Michael Bishop. First published in Going Interstellar (Baen), edited by Les Johnson and Jack McDevitt. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Astrophilia,” by Carrie Vaughn. Copyright © 2012 by Carrie Vaughn. First published electronically on Clarkesworld, July 2012. Reprinted by permission of the au
thor.

  “What Did Tessimond Tell You?” by Adam Roberts. Copyright © 2012 by Adam Roberts. First published electronically in Solaris Rising 1.5 (Solaris), edited by Ian Whates. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Old Paint,” by Megan Lindholm. Copyright © 2012 by Dell Magazines. First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, July 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Chitai Heiki Koronbin,” by David Moles. Copyright © 2012 by David Moles. First published in The Future is Japanese (Haikasoru), edited by Nick Mamatas and Masumi Washington. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Katabasis,” by Robert Reed. Copyright © 2012 by Spilogale, Inc. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Water Thief,” by Alastair Reynolds. Copyright © 2012 by Alastair Reynolds. First published electronically in Arc 1.1. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Nightside on Callisto,” by Linda Nagata. Copyright © 2012 by Linda Nagata. First published electronically on Lightspeed, May 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Under the Eaves,” by Lavie Tidhar. Copyright © 2012 by Lavie Tidhar. First published in Robots: The Recent A.I. (Prime), edited by Rich Horton and Sean Wallace. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Sudden, Broken, and Unexpected,” by Steven Popkes. Copyright © 2012 by Dell Magazines. First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, December 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Fireborn,” by Robert Charles Wilson. Copyright © 2012 by Robert Charles Wilson. First appeared in Rip-Off! (Audible), edited by Gardner Dozois. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Ruminations in an Alien Tongue,” by Vandana Singh. Copyright © 2012 by Vandana Singh. First published electronically on Lightspeed, April, 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Tyche and the Ants,” by Hannu Rajaniemi. Copyright © 2012 by Hannu Rajaniemi. First published in Edge of Infinity (Solaris), edited by Jonathan Strahan. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Wreck of the ‘Charles Dexter Ward,’ ” by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. First presented on Drabblecast 2012.

  “Invisible Men,” by Christopher Barzak. Copyright © 2012 by Christopher Barzak. First published electronically on Eclipse Online, December. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Ship’s Brother,” by Aliette de Bodard. Copyright © 2012 by Interzone. First published in Interzone 241. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Eater-of-Bone,” by Robert Reed. Copyright © 2012 by Robert Reed. First published in Eater-of-Bone and Other Stories (PS Publishing), by Robert Reed. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The editor would like to thank the following people for their help and support: Susan Casper, Jonathan Strahan, Sean Wallace, Gordon Van Gelder, Andy Cox, John Joseph Adams, Ellen Datlow, Sheila Williams, Trevor Quachri, Peter Crowther, Chris Lotts, William Shaffer, Ian Whates, Paula Guran, Tony Daniel, Liza Trombi, Robert Wexler, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Tom Bouman, Amanda Brown, Sara Sheiner, Liz Sims, Jolie Hale, Peter Colebor, David Hutchinson, Steven H. Silver, Russell B. Farr, Brian White, Eric Reynolds, Ivor W. Hartman, Correio do Fantastico, Edwina Harvey, Roger Gray, Erin Underwood, Gabrielle Harbowy, Torie Atkinson, George Mann, Jennifer Brehl, Peter Tennant, Susan Marie Groppi, Karen Meisner, Wendy S. Delmater, Jed Hartman, Rich Horton, Mark R. Kelly, Tehani Wessely, Michael Smith, Tod McCoy, Brian White, Andrew Wilson, Robert T. Wexler, Jenny Blackford, Elizabeth Bear, Aliette de Bodard, Sarah Monette, Jay Lake, Eleanor Arnason, Indrapramit Das, Hannu Rajaniemi, Lavie Tidhar, Paul McAuley, Adam Roberts, Megan Lindholm, Richard A. Lovett, William Gleason, Michael Flynn, Michael Bishop, Andy Duncan, Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck, Robert Charles Wilson, Robert Reed, Brit Mandelo, Sean McMullen, Christopher Barzak, Linda Nagata, Pat Cadigan, David Moles, Vandana Singh, Carrie Vaughn, Alastair Reynolds, Ken Liu, Stephen Popkes, James Patrick Kelly, Linn Prentis, Liz Gorinsky, Mike Resnick, Molly Gloss, Tom Purdom, Walter Jon Williams, Nancy Kress, Damien Broderick, Jeff VanderMeer, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Tobias Buckell, Bruce Sterling, Lawrence M. Schoen, David Hartwell, Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, John Klima, John O’Neill, Charles Tan, Rodger Turner, Tyree Campbell, Stuart Mayne, John Kenny, Edmund Schubert, Tehani Croft, Karl Johanson, Ian Randall Strock, Nick Wood, Sally Wiener Grota, Sally Beasley, Tony Lee, Joe Vas, John Pickrell, Ian Redman, Anne Zanoni, Kaolin Fire, Ralph Benko, Paul Graham Raven, Nick Wood, Mike Allen, Jason Sizemore, Karl Johanson, Sue Miller, David Lee Summers, Christopher M. Cevasco, Tyree Campbell, Andrew Hook, Vaughne Lee Hansen, Mark Watson, Nadea Mina, Sarah Lumnah, and special thanks to my own editor, Marc Resnick.

  Thanks are also due to the late, lamented Charles N. Brown, and to all his staff, whose magazine Locus [Locus Publications, P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661, $60 in the U.S. for a one-year subscription (twelve issues) via second class; credit card orders (510) 339 9198] was used as an invaluable reference source throughout the Summation; Locus Online (www.locusmag.com), edited by Mark R. Kelly, has also become a key reference source.

  SUMMATION: 2012

  Well, the physical print book didn’t die in 2012, although some commentators have been predicting that it would be totally extinct by 2015. Nor have ebooks proved to be a transitory “fad,” as the more wishful thinking of the print purists once asserted that they would turn out to be.

  Instead, something interesting seems to be happening. More people are reading than ever before, and it may be that rather than driving print books into extinction, the two forms are complementing each other in a synergistic way, one helping to boost the other. It may be that the more you read, in either print or electronic form, the more you want to read.

  The average American adult read seventeen books in 2012, the highest figure since Gallup began tracking the figure in 1990.

  A Pew Research Center survey said the percentage of adults who have read an ebook rose over the past year, from 16 percent to 23 percent. But 89 percent of regular book readers said that they had also read at least one printed book during the preceding twelve months.

  Although comprehensive overall figures for 2012 won’t be available for some time yet as I type these words, according to Stephen Marche, writing in Esquire, revenue for adult hardcover books is up 8.3 percent in the January–June 2012 period from the same period in 2011, from 2.038 billion dollars to 2.207 billion. Paperback sales were up 5.2 percent (other figures suggest that this growth was mostly in trade paperbacks, while mass-market paperbacks declined, suggesting that a significant proportion of those who used to buy mass-market paperbacks are now buying ebooks instead; see the novel section below for further breakdowns), while book sales for young adults and children grew by 12 percent.

  According to Nicholas Carr, writing in The Wall Street Journal, “Hardcover books are displaying surprising resiliency. The growth in ebook sales is slowing markedly. And purchases of e-readers are actually shrinking, as consumers opt instead for multipurpose tablets. It may be that ebooks, rather than replacing printed books, will ultimately serve a role more like audio books—a complement to traditional reading, not a substitute.” The Association of American Publishers reported that the annual growth rate for ebook sales fell during 2012, to 34 percent, still impressive, but a decline from the triple-digit growth rates of the preceding four years. Sales of dedicated e-readers were down by 36 percent in 2012, while sales of tablet computers such as the iPad and the Kindle Fire exploded.

  Not that ebooks are going to go away, either. A survey by children’s publisher Scholastic Inc. indicated that 46 percent of responding kids aged nine to seventeen had read an ebook, and that around half of those who have not yet read an ebook say that they want to do so, going on to state that the rise of iPads and other tablets has helped to vastly expand the availability of picture books and other children’s books in electronic format. But 80 percent of those kids who read an ebook in 2012 also read a print book
.

  My guess is that in the future, rather than one mode driving the other out of existence, most readers will buy books both in electronic and print forms, choosing one format or the other depending on the circumstances, convenience, their needs of the moment, even their whim. There are strong indications that in some cases people will buy both ebook and print versions of the same book. It may be true that a rising tide floats all boats.

  The biggest story in the publishing world in 2012 was probably the merger of publishing giants Random House and Penguin to form Penguin Random House (and prompting wiseasses everywhere to say it should have been called “Random Penguin” instead). The merger still needs government approval to go through, but if it does, the so-called “Big Six” publishing houses will be reduced at a stroke to the “Big Five.” Since there were rumors at the end of 2012 that HarperCollins’ parent company, News Corp, is interested in acquiring Simon & Schuster’s book business, that number may be reduced even further in the near future. All this merging has, of course, prompted the usual fears that formerly independent and competing imprints will be consolidated, spelling the loss of editorial jobs and perhaps a reduction in the number of overall titles released. Elsewhere: Angry Robot launched a YA (young adult) imprint, Strange Chemistry, and will launch a crime-fiction imprint, Exhibit A, later this year. PS Publishing is launching a mass-market paperback imprint, Drugstore Indian. Penguin/Berkley/NAL added a graphic novel imprint, Inklit. Orbit will launch a new “commercial fiction” imprint, Redhook. Random House announced four new digital imprints: Alibi, to publish mysteries/thrillers/suspense; Hydra, to publish SF/fantasy; Loveswept, to publish romance; and Flirt, to publish “New Adult” fiction targeting women in their twenties and thirties. HarperCollins announced a new digital YA imprint, HarperTeen Impulse. Pearson, the parent company of Penguin, acquired self-publishing company Author Solutions, Inc. Barnes & Noble has put its Sterling Publishing arm up for sale. Amazon made a deal to acquire over four hundred titles from Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books. Betsy Mitchell has been hired by ebook publisher Open Road Media as a “strategic advisor” for their SF and fantasy titles. Patrick Nolan became editor in chief and associate publisher of Penguin Books. Madeline McIntosh became Chief Operating Officer for Random House. Devi Pillai was promoted to executive editor at Orbit, and Susa Barnes to associate editor. Therese Goulding was hired as managing editor for Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s Cheeky Frawg Books imprint. Editor David Pomerico left Del Rey to become an editor at Amazon.com’s SF imprint, 47North. Steven H. Silver resigned as editor and publisher of ISFiC Press.