A collection spotlighting the “best of the best” science fiction stories published in 2014 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster.

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• “Marielena ” by Nina Allan — An immigrant is haunted by his past, as well as his present and future, in a disturbingly mean-spirited near-future England.

• “Covenant” by Elizabeth Bear — A convicted serial killer is sentenced to “rightminding” to cure his neurological disorder that resulted in the sociopathic murdering of thirteen women.

• “The Magician and LaPlace’s Demon” by Tom Crosshill — A powerful AI that discovers the existence of magic and then prosecutes a vendetta against the magicians who grow more powerful as their numbers dwindle.

• “Sadness” by Timons Esaias — A man strikes back, as best he can, against the powerful aliens who conquered Earth long ago.

• “Amicae Aeternum” by Ellen Klages — A young girl shares her last morning on Earth with her girlfriend before boarding a generation starship.

• “Red Lights, and Rain” by Gareth L. Powell — A blend of sci-fi and vampire-hunting lore in which the vampires are made, not born.

• “The Sarcophagus” by Robert Reed — The maintenance cyborgs of the Great Ship encounter a stranded spacer in a derelict lifesuit from a very old ship.

• “In Babelsberg” by Alastair Reynolds — A robot’s account of the dead colonists recently found on Titan is challenged by another AI.

• “Passage of Earth” by Michael Swanwick — A coroner gets a taste of the Earth invaders’ superior intelligence while dissecting a giant worm-like alien.

• “The Colonel” by Peter Watts — Colonel Moore tries to assess the capabilities of the hived human intelligences that have attacked a compound under his command.