The Year's Top Short SF Novels 8

edited by Allan Kaster

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Short novels are movie length narratives that may well be the perfect length for science fiction stories. This collection presents the best-of-the-best science fiction novellas published in 2017 by current and emerging masters of this vibrant form of storytelling, edited by Allan Kaster.

• “The Martian Job” by Jaine Fenn — A very cool heist on Mars pays homage to the classic film, The Italian Job.

• “The Tale of the Alcubierre Horse” by Kathleen Ann Goonan — A group of highly gifted children steals a luxury spaceship and kidnaps a physicist for a voyage to a new planet far outside the solar system.

• “How Sere Picked Up Her Laundry” by Alexander Jablokov — A human living in a crowded city on an alien planet risks her life to gather information on enigmatic aliens while also investigating the death of an exterminator.

• “Proof of Concept” by Gwyneth Jones — Scientists must partner with a reality show to attract funding for an experiment to achieve instantaneous transport from a dying Earth to another planet.

• “The Proving Ground” by Alec Nevala-Lee — A problem with the local birds threatens the rebuilding of Bikini Island as sea-levels rise due to global warming.

• “The Speed of Belief” by Robert Reed — Three diplomats are sent by the Great Ship to a planet of intelligent rivers to negotiate for worlds to colonize.