Элинор Арнасон: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection

The Hunters followed closely behind, carrying the twenty-seven souls of the wicked, blessed invaders.

Into the lair went the honored leaders.

The rest of the Nots waited silently in the darkness of the forest, crowded beneath a giant gyreboy tree.

Twenty-eight monsters were carried into a distant room.

Set about that room, in neat rows and labeled in a precise, still unreadable tongue, were more than three hundred Eaters-of-bone—the previous residents of this common grave.

Some Nots had argued for sinking all of these horrors in the sea.

But other voices had won out, at least for the moment. And to make that moment eternal, the young Hunter reminded all in her presence that little was known about the creatures they were at war with. The origins and magic of these demons remained deep mysteries. But time was deeper, and patience could be eternal. Using the relics in the monster’s sanctuary, some future generation might finally tease away all of the ignorance, and wiser souls would find themselves holding all of the tools used by their unwelcome visitors.

Who could say where the next billion years would lead?

Perhaps someone of power would find a compelling reason to give these dead monsters their faces again, and their limbs, and their animal voices.

But not their freedom, she hoped.

As did all of the good Nots …

“My name is,” she began.

“Mother,” said the boy, grinning.

“Are you sure?”

And he laughed at one of their oldest, most cherished jokes. Of course she was his mother, and that was the only name she would even need from him. It was still just the two of them working as one. Other solitary humans lived in this forest of sky-hugging trees. But since these were relatively wealthy times for monsters, at least in this one northern corner of the world, there was no serious fighting. Nor were there any treaties of alliance, either. Cooperation demanded need, and none of the resident monsters saw good reasons to join forces, even for a day.

“I want a story,” the young boy said.

They were sitting in the dark, under the tattler skin, listening to the rain hit and flow off onto the muddy ground.

Mother said, “All right.”

“Which story?” he asked eagerly.

“The island,” she promised.

“About my father?”

“What about your father?”

“I want to hear how he saved you and cared for you … right up until…” Then his young voice trailed off into a sad, practiced silence.

“Another night, I think.”

“Then what will you tell me?”

She wrapped her arms around her tough little monster, and she squeezed him until both of them ached, and after a while she said, “I am going to tell you about the stars, and about the universe beyond the stars, and our great species, and the wonders you can see only with our mind’s eyes…”

Michael Alexander, “The Children’s Crusade,” F&SF , May/June.

____& K.C. Ball, “The Moon Belongs to Everyone,” Analog, December.

Molshree Ambastha, “Kalyug Amended,” Breaking the Bow .

Charlie Jane Anders, “Intestate,” Tor.com, December 17.

Eleanor Arnason, “The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times,” F&SF, July/August.

Chet Arthur, “The Sheriff,” F&SF , September/October.

Kate Bachus, “Things Greater Than Love,” Strange Horizons, March 19.

Dale Bailey, “Mating Habits of the Late Cretaceous,” Asimov’s , September.

Neelanjana Banerjee, “Exile,” Breaking the Bow.

John Barnes, “Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sign,” Edge of Infinity.

Stephen Baxter, “A Journey to Amasia,” Arc 1.1.

____, “Project Herakles,” Analog , January/February.

____, “Obelisk,” Edge of Infinity.

Neal Barrett, Jr., “Trash,” Postscripts 26/27.

Peter S. Beagle, “The Ape-Man of Mars,” Under the Moons of Mars.

____, “Great-Grandmother in the Cellar,” Under My Hat.

____, “Olfort Dapper’s Day,” F&SF, March/April.

Elizabeth Bear, “The Death of Terrestrial Radio,” Shoggoths in Bloom.

____, “No Decent Patrimony,” Rip-Off!.

____, “The Depths of the Sky,” Edge of Infinity.

____, “Faster Gun,” Tor.com, August 8.

____, “The Salt Sea and the Sky,” Brave New Love.

Chris Beckett, “The Caramel Forest,” Asimov’s, December.

Gregory Benford, “The Sigma Structure Symphony,” Tor.com, March 28.

Michael Bishop, “Unfit for Eden,” Postscripts 26/27.

Holly Black, “Little Gods,” Under My Hat.

Michael Blumlein, “Bird Walks in New England,” Asimov’s, July.

____, “Twenty Two and You,” F&SF, March/April.

Gregory Norman Bossart, “The Telling,” Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Nov 29.

Elizabeth Bourne, “Beasts,” Interzone 240.

Richard Bowes, “A Member of the Wedding of Heaven and Hell,” Apex Magazine, March 6.

____, “The Queen and the Cambion,” F&SF, March/April.

____, “Seven Smiles and Seven Frowns,” Lightspeed, May.

Keith Brooke, “War 3.01,” Lightspeed, February.

Eric Brown, “The Scribe of Betelgeuse V,” Postscripts 26/27.

Ben Bova, “A Country for Old Men,” Going Interstellar.

Tobias S. Buckell, “A Tinker of Warhoon,” Under the Moons of Mars.

____, “Press Enter to Execute,” Fireside, Spring.

Karl Bunker, “The Remembered,” Interzone 242.

Pat Cadigan, “In Plain Sight,” The Future Is Japanese.

Jack Campbell, “Highland Reel,” Rip-Off!.

Tracy Canfield, “The Chastisement of Your Peace,” Strange Horizons, January 30.

Sarah K. Castle, “The Mutant Stag at Horn Creek,” Analog, July/August

Adam-Troy Castro, “My Wife Hates Time Travel,” Lightspeed, September.

Rob Chilson, “The Conquest of the Air,” Analog, July/August.

Gwendolyn Clare, “All the Painted Stars,” Clarkesworld, January.

David Ira Cleary, “Living in the Eighties,” Asimov’s, April/May.

Geoffrey W. Cole, “Cradle and Ume,” New Worlds, September 2.

James S.A. Corey, “Drive,” Edge of Infinity.

Paul Cornell, “A New Arrival at the House of Love,” Solaris Rising 1.5.

____, “The Ghosts of Christmas,” Tor.com, December 19.

Matthew Corradi, “City League,” F&SF, May/June.

Stephen D. Covey, “The Road to NPS,” E , “Ninety Thousand Horses,” Analog, January/February.

Albert E. Cowdrey, “Asylum,” F&SF, May/June.

____, “The Goddess,” F&SF, September/October.

____, “Greed,” F&SF, March/April.

____, “Hartmut’s World,” F&SF, July/August.

____, “The Ladies in Waiting,” F&SF, November/December.

____, “Mindbender,” F&SF, January/February.

Nan Craig, “Scrapmetal,” Arc 1.3.

Ian Creasey, “Joining the High Flyers,” Asimov’s, August.

____, “Souvenirs,” Asimov’s, April/May.

Tom Crosshill, “Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes,” Clarkesworld, April.

Benjamin Crowell, “Kill Switch,” Asimov’s, July.

Tony Daniel, “Checksum Checkmate,” Baen.com, January 16.

Indrapramit Das, “Muo-Ka’s Child,” Clarkesworld, September.