Bridging Infinity

BUILDING TOWARDS TOMORROW Sense of wonder is the lifeblood of science fiction. When we encounter something on a truly staggering scale – metal spheres wrapped around stars, planets rebuilt and repurposed, landscapes re-engineered, starships bigger than worlds – the only response we have is reverence, admiration, and possibly fear at something that is grand, sublime, and extremely powerful. Bridging Infinity puts humanity at the heart of that experience, as builder, as engineer, as adventurer, reimagining and rebuilding the world, the solar system, the galaxy and possibly the entire universe in some of the best science fiction stories you will experience. Bridging Infinity continues the award-winning Infinity Project series of anthologies with new stories from Alastair Reynolds, Pat Cadigan, Stephen Baxter, Charlie Jane Anders, Tobias S. Buckell, Karen Lord, Karin Lowachee, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Gregory Benford, Larry Niven, Robert Reed, Pamela Sargent, Allen Steele, Pat Murphy, Paul Doherty, An Owomoyela, Thoraiya Dyer and Ken Liu.

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM… Life is fragile. The difference between success and failure can come down to nothing – the thread of a screw, the flick of a switch – and when it goes wrong, you fix it. Or someone dies. Mission Critical takes us from our world, across the Solar System, and out into deep space to tell the stories of people who had to do the impossible. And do it fast. Featuring stories by Peter F. Hamilton, Yoon Ha Lee, Aliette de Bodard, Greg Egan, Linda Nagata, Gregory Feely, John Barnes, Tobias S. Buckell, Jason Fischer & Sean Williams, Carolyn Ives Gilman, John Meaney, Dominica Phetteplace, Allen M. Steele, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Peter Watts.

THE 0.01% HAVE DECIDED EARTH IS HISTORY Dariusz is an engineer whose career ended years ago; now, a man he’s never met sits in a bar that doesn’t exist and offers him a fresh start... at a price. Cassandra – ‘Sand,’ to her friends – is a space pilot, who itches to get her hands on the controls and actually fly a ship, rather than watch computers do it for her. The ‘Pointers’ – the elite 0.01% who control virtually all wealth – have seen the limitations of a plundered Earth and set their eyes on the stars. And now Dariusz and Sand, and a half-million ambitious men and women just like them, are sent out to extend the Pointers’ and the Market’s influence across the galaxy. But the colony fleet is sabotaged and the ESS Adam Mickiewicz crashes, on an alien planet where one hemisphere is seared by perpetual daylight and the other shrouded in eternal night. The castaways have the chance to create society from scratch... if they're not destroyed by the hostile planet – or their own leaders – before they can even begin.

HUMANITY AMONG THE STARS What happens when we reach out into the vastness of space? What hope for us amongst the stars? Multi-award winning editor Jonathan Strahan brings us fourteen new tales of the future, from some of the finest science fiction writers in the field. The fourteen startling stories in this anthology feature the work of Greg Egan, Aliette de Bodard, Ian McDonald, Karl Schroeder, Pat Cadigan, Karen Lord, Ellen Klages, Adam Roberts, Linda Nagata, Hannu Rajaniemi, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Ken MacLeod, Alastair Reynolds and Peter Watts.

ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND Those were Neil Armstrong’s immortal words when he became the first human being to step onto another world. All at once, the horizon expanded; the human race was no longer Earthbound. Edge of Infinity is an exhilarating new SF anthology that looks at the next giant leap for humankind: the leap from our home world out into the Solar System. From the eerie transformations in Pat Cadigan’s Hugo-award-winning “The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” to the frontier spirit of Sandra McDonald and Stephen D. Covey’s “The Road to NPS,” and from the grandiose vision of Alastair Reynolds’ “Vainglory” to the workaday familiarity of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “Safety Tests,” the thirteen stories in this anthology span the whole of the human condition in their race to colonise Earth’s nearest neighbours. Featuring stories by Hannu Rajaniemi, Alastair Reynolds, James S. A. Corey, John Barnes, Stephen Baxter, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Elizabeth Bear, Pat Cadigan, Gwyneth Jones, Paul McAuley, Sandra McDonald, Stephen D. Covey, An Owomoyela, and Bruce Sterling, Edge of Infinity is hard SF adventure at its best and most exhilarating.

An unabridged collection spotlighting the “best of the best” science fiction stories published in 2016 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster. In “The Art of Space Travel,” by Nina Allan, the staff of a hotel prepares for the crew of a one-way mission to Mars on the heels of earlier disasters. An artist and his wife search for fulfillment in a utopian world created by AIs in “They Have all One Breath” by Karl Bunker. In “Patience Lake,” by Matthew Claxton, an injured military cyborg helps defend a farm family that has helped him. In a top secret job, an all too conscious bus driver takes a non-cognizant alien and his human translator on a tour of the United States, in “Touring with the Alien” by Carolyn Ives Gilman. In “My Generations Shall Praise,” by Samantha Henderson, a woman on death row is persuaded to have her mind overwritten so that a wealthy relative can use her as a host body. People adapting to a melted Antarctica evolve new folklore, superstitions, and myths in “Elves of Antarctica” by Paul McAuley. In “Red in Tooth and Cog,” by Cat Rambo, a woman acquires a keen interest in the small domestic appliance AI ecosystem that evolves in a park after her phone is stolen. An ancient robot tells a human how it helped build the Great Ship, a planet-sized starship, from hyperfiber in “Parables of Infinity” by Robert Reed. In “Prodigal,” by Gord Sellar, an uplifted family dog questions the relationship between dogs and humans and then takes action. And finally, in a Bradburyesque tale, people go to Mars via cheap, one-person, one-way spacecrafts called jalopies in “Terminal” by Lavie Tidhar.

“An already impressive reference work has been made significantly more valuable . . . a well-illustrated alphabetized compendium of notable bridges.” —The Happy Pontist Bridges have a universal appeal as examples of man’s mastery of nature, from picturesque packhorse bridges to great spans stretching across broad estuaries, and the development of the technology that allows ever more audacious constructions is never-ending. Of the million or more bridges throughout Great Britain, David McFetrich has selected those that are significant in terms of their design, construction or location, or of their connections with people or events of history. His definitive book contains 1,600 separate entries for individual bridge sites or related groups of bridges covering more than 2,000 different structures, 165 general entries about different types of bridge and such topics as collapses and failures, and a summary of about 200 record-holding bridges in 50 different categories. The concise text is supported by more than 900 illustrations and diagrams. The result is a fascinating and readily accessible compendium. The Institute of Civil Engineers (ICA) is also on board. “A valuable resource to use . . . if you plan to visit some of these structures while on holiday or are merely planning a day out.” —East Yorkshire Family History Society “Well-written and researched and eminently readable . . . Because of the ubiquity of bridges throughout Great Britain, this volume should have wide appeal.” —NZ Crown Mines “Full of details covering the many bridges around the UK . . . I found it fascinating to see the variety of bridges around Britain, even the ones not railway related.” —Rail Advent