The Greatest Fiction Volume 4

From Hugo Award-winning editor Neil Clarke, the best science fiction stories of the year are collected in a single paperback volume. Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more―a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, a yearly anthology compiled by Hugo and World Fantasy Award–winning editor Neil Clarke, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers. The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Clarke, publisher and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed and award-winning magazine Clarkesworld, has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year’s writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome “sensawunda” that the genre has to offer.

GEORG EBERS An Egyptian Princess MARIA EDGEWORTH Belinda Castle Rackrent GEORGE ELIOT Adam Bede Felix Holt, the Radical Romola Silas Marner The Mill on the Floss ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN Waterloo OCTAVE FEUILLET Romance of a Poor Young Man HENRY FIELDING Amelia Jonathan Wild Joseph Andrews Tom Jones CAMILLE FLAMMARION Urania DE LA MOTTE FOUQUÉ Undine ÉMILE GABORIAU "File No. 113" JOHN GALT Annals of the Parish ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL Cranford Mary Barton WILLIAM GODWIN Caleb Williams JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE The Sorrows of Young Werther Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship OLIVER GOLDSMITH The Vicar of Wakefield EDMOND AND JULES DE GONCOURT Renée Mauperin JAMES GRANT Bothwell

A biological plague begins infecting artificial intelligence; a natural-born Earth woman seeking asylum on another planet finds a human society far different from her own; a food blogger’s posts chronicle a nationwide medical outbreak; trapped in a matchmaking game, a couple tries to escape from the only world they know; a janitor risks everything to rescue a “defective” tank-born baby he can raise as his own. For decades, science fiction has compelled us to imagine futures both inspiring and cautionary. Whether it’s a warning message from a survey ship, a harrowing journey to a new world, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction feeds the imagination and delivers a lens through which we can better understand ourselves and the world around us. With The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume One, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and thirty-one of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2015. Table of Contents: “Introduction: A State of the Short SF Field in 2015” by Neil Clarke “Today I Am Paul” by Martin Shoemaker “Calved” by Sam J. Miller “Three Bodies at Mitanni” by Seth Dickinson “The Smog Society” by Chen Quifan “In Blue Lily’s Wake” by Aliette de Bodard “Hello, Hello” by Seanan McGuire “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfiang “Capitalism in the 22nd Century” by Geoff Ryman “Hold-Time Violations” by John Chu “Wild Honey” by Paul McAuley “So Much Cooking” by Naomi Kritzer “Bannerless” by Carrie Vaughn “Another Word for World” by Ann Leckie “The Cold Inequalities” by Yoon Ha Lee “Iron Pegasus” by Brenda Cooper “The Audience” by Sean McMullen “Empty” by Robert Reed “Gypsy” by Carter Scholz “Violation of the TrueNet Security Act” by Taiyo Fujii “Damage” by David D. Levine “The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss” by David Brin “No Placeholder for You, My Love” by Nick Wolven “Outsider” by An Owomeyla “The Gods Have Not Died in Vain” by Ken Liu “Cocoons” by Nancy Kress “Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World” by Caroline M. Yoachim “Two-Year Man” by Kelly Robson “Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer “Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan” by Ian McDonald “Meshed” by Rich Larson “A Murmuration” by Alastair Reynolds 2015 Recommended Reading List

The bestselling Journey to the West comic book by artist Chang Boon Kiat is now back in a brand new fully coloured edition. Journey to the West is one of the greatest classics in Chinese literature. It tells the epic tale of the monk Xuanzang who journeys to the West in search of the Buddhist sutras with his disciples, Sun Wukong, Sandy and Pigsy. Along the way, Xuanzang's life was threatened by the diabolical White Bone Spirit, the menacing Red Child and his fearsome parents and, a host of evil spirits who sought to devour Xuanzang's flesh to attain immortality. Bear witness to the formidable Sun Wukong's (Monkey God) prowess as he takes them on, using his Fiery Eyes, Golden Cudgel, Somersault Cloud, and quick wits! Be prepared for a galloping read that will leave you breathless!

For the first time collected together, the best weird fiction from Morpheus Tales, the UK's most controversial weird fiction magazine! Only the very best weird fiction has been hand-picked from the Morpheus Tales archives to create the fourth collected volume of the magazine Christopher Fowler calls "edgy and dark." Featuring fiction by Gary Budgen, Alex Davis, James Everington, R. K. Gemienhardt, Dean M. Drinkel, Michael W. Garza, John S. Barker, Brick Marlin, Kurt Fawver, John F. D. Taff, Charles A. Muir, Martin Slag, Lenora Farrington-Sarrouf, Deborah Walker, Cate Caldwell, Richard Smith, Alex Gonzalez, Erik T. Johnson, Brian Kutco, Heather Smith, John Morgan. Established horror best-sellers rub shoulders with rising stars and newcomers in this diverse collection of short weird fiction.

Excerpt from The World's Greatest Books, Vol. 4: Fiction Boges hurried away with malicious pleasure in the near success Of his scheme. He met one Of the gardeners, whom he promised to bring some Of the nobles to inspect a special kind Of blue lily, in which the gardener took great pride. He then hurried to the harem to make sure that the king's wives should look their best, and insisted upon Phaedime painting her face white, and putting on a simple, dark dress without ornament, except the chain given her by Cambyses on her marriage, to arouse the pity Of the Achaemenidae, to which family she herself belonged. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This set of eight volumes presents the reader with selected primary texts in the genre now generally known as future fiction. The chosen texts are designed to explore the dominant characteristics of the genre and examine how it changed over the 18th and 19th centuries.

National Bestseller and Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Oscar Feldman, the renowned figurative painter, has passed away. As his obituary notes, Oscar is survived by his wife, Abigail, their son, Ethan, and his sister, the well-known abstract painter Maxine Feldman. What the obituary does not note, however, is that Oscar is also survived by his longtime mistress, Teddy St. Cloud, and their daughters. As two biographers interview the women in an attempt to set the record straight, the open secret of his affair reaches a boiling point and a devastating skeleton threatens to come to light. From the acclaimed author of The Epicure's Lament, a scintillating novel of secrets, love, and legacy in the New York art world. "Mischievous...funny, astute...As unexpectedly generous as it is entertaining.... Christensen is a witty observer of the art universe." —The New York Times

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • “A gripping and poignant ode to a messy, loving family in all its glory.” —Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe In this “rich, complex family saga” (USA Today) full of long-buried family secrets, Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. By 2016, they have four radically different daughters, each in a state of unrest. Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator turned stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby she's not sure she wants by a man she's not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. With the unexpected arrival of young Jonah Bendt—a child placed for adoption by one of the daughters fifteen years before—the Sorensons will be forced to reckon with the rich and varied tapestry of their past. As they grapple with years marred by adolescent angst, infidelity, and resentment, they also find the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile.

A collection of comic strips following the adventures of Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes.