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*EDITORS NOTE: Sailing to Byzantium is worth the price of admission.

Thirteen “masterfully written longer tales that span the spectrum of speculative fiction’s most inventive scenarios. . . . An indispensable treasury” (Booklist).
“This outstanding follow-up to Dozois’s Best of the Best Volume 1 . . . pays homage to the science fiction novellas of the past two decades and by extension to the entire genre in all its varied glory.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

For more than twenty years The Year’s Best Science Fiction has been recognized as the best collection of short science fiction writing in the universe and an essential resource for every science fiction fan. In 2005 the original Best of the Best collected the finest short stories from that series and became a benchmark in the SF field. Now, for the first time ever, Hugo Award–winning editor Gardner Dozios sifts through hundreds of stories and dozens of authors who have gone on to become some of the most esteemed practitioners of the form, to bring readers the ultimate anthology of short science fiction novels from his legendary series.


Included are such notable short novels as:

Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg: In the fiftieth century, people of Earth are able to create entire cities on a whim, including those of mythology and legend. When twentieth-century traveler Charles Philip accidentally lands in this aberrant time period, he is simultaneously obsessed with discovering more about this alluring world and getting back home. But in a world made entirely of man’s creation, things are not always as they seem on the surface.

Forgiveness Day by Ursula K. Le Guin: Le Guin returns to her Hainish-settled interstellar community, the Edumen, to tell the tale of two star-crossed lovers who are literally worlds apart in this story of politics, violence, religion, and cultural disparity.

Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds: On a sea-wold planet covered with idyllic tropical oceans, peace seems pervasive. Beneath the placid water lurks an ominous force that has the potential to destroy all tranquility.


Contributors include: Greg Egan; Joe Haldeman; James Patrick Kelly; Nancy Kress; Ursula K. Le Guin; Ian R. MacLeod; Ian McDonald; Maureen F. McHugh; Frederick Pohl; Alastair Reynolds; Robert Silverberg; Michael Swanwick; Walter Jon Williams


With work spanning two decades, The Best of the Best: Volume 2 stands as the ultimate anthology of short science fiction novels ever published in the world.