The Year's Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 8

A collection spotlighting the “best of the best” science fiction stories published in 2015 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster.

• “My Last Bringback” by John Barnes — An expert on restoring the memories of Alzheimer's patients becomes her own patient.

• “The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss” by David Brin — A young man living in a bubble habitat on the ocean floor of Venus must deal with terraforming gone awry.

• “Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight” by Aliette de Bodard — The death of a scientist in the Dai Viet interstellar empire is mourned in this winner of the British Science Fiction Association Award.

• “Damage” by David Levine — The shipmind of a cobbled together fighter spacecraft and its pilot press on under dire circumstances.

• “Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan” by Ian McDonald — An aristocrat’s trip to Venus, in search of her disgraced brother, is memorialized by papercuts of flora native to this planet.

• “The Audience” by Sean McMullen — A spacecraft’s trek to another planet discovers a malevolent species interested in Earth.

• “Empty” by Robert Reed — An AI is on a mission to the outer reaches of the solar system to found a sanctuary in a posthuman universe.

• “A Murmuration” by Alastair Reynolds — A scientist struggles to publish a paper on her exhilarating findings on the flocking behavior of birds.

• “Two-Year Man” by Kelly Robson — In this dystopian future, a janitor brings a mutant baby home to his wife hoping to fill their lives with love.

• “Today I Am Paul” by Martin L. Shoemaker — An android medical attendant, capable of mimicking family members, cares for an Alzheimer’s patient.