A collection spotlighting the “best of the best” science fiction stories published in 2011 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster.

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• “Dying Young” by Peter M. Ball — Cyborgs, clones and post-humans collide with a dragon bent on revenge in a post-apocalptic space western.

• “Martian Heart” by John Barnes — The story of a teenage couple taken to Mars as indentured servants in a “rags to riches” tale.

• “Canterbury Hollow” by Chris Lawson — Two lovers on a planet orbiting a killer sun share their few remaining weeks together before they die.

• “The Choice” by Paul McAuley — Set in the author’s Jackaroo universe, this story follows two boys who set sail to investigate a beached alien vessel on the English coast.

• “After the Apocalypse” by Maureen McHugh — A mother and daughter traverse a ravaged U.S. in a tale that takes on Cormac McCarthy’s, The Road, from a female viewpoint.

• “Purple” by Robert Reed — The story of a blind and maimed young man convalescing in an off-world menagerie of wayward alien species, prior to returning to Earth.

• “Laika’s Ghost” by Karl Schroeder — A Russian and an American search the steppes of the former U.S.S.R. for metastable weapons that terrorists could use to make nuclear bombs.

• “Bit Rot” by Charles Stross — Post-humans struggle to survive after their generation ship is struck by a Magnetar ray in this clever zombies-in-space tale.

• “For I Have Laid Me Down on The Stone of Loneliness and I’ll Not Be Back Again” by Michael Swanwick — Irishmen plot to strike back against alien occupiers by enlisting an Irish American tourist to their cause.

• “At Play in the Fields” by Steve Rasnic Tem — The story of a young man awakened from suspended animation, on a future Earth, with the technological know-how of plant-like aliens.