The Final Frontier: Stories of Exploring Space, Colonizing the Universe, and First Contact

by Neil Clarke (Editor)

Overview

The vast and mysterious universe is explored in this anthology from award-winning editor and anthologist Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld magazine, The Best Science Fiction of the Year).

The urge to explore and discover is a natural and universal one, and the edge of the unknown is expanded with each passing year as scientific advancements inch us closer and closer to the outer reaches of our solar system and the galaxies beyond them.

Generations of writers have explored these new frontiers and the endless possibilities they present in great detail. With galaxy-spanning adventures of discovery and adventure, from generations ships to warp drives, exploring new worlds to first contacts, science fiction writers have given readers increasingly new and alien ways to look out into our broad and sprawling universe. Stories include are:

• A Jar of Goodwill — Tobias S. Buckell
• Mono no aware — Ken Liu
• Rescue Mission — Jack Skillingstead
• Shiva in Shadow — Nancy Kress
• Slow Life — Michael Swanwick
• Three Bodies at Mitanni — Seth Dickinson
• The Deeps of the Sky — Elizabeth Bear
• Diving into the Wreck — Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• The Voyage Out — Gwyneth Jones
• The Symphony of Ice and Dust — Julie Novakova
• Twenty Lights to “The Land of Snow” — Michael Bishop
• The Firewall and the Door — Sean McMullen
• Permanent Fatal Errors — Jay Lake
• Gypsy — Carter Scholz
• Sailing the Antarsa — Vandana Singh
• The Mind is Its Own Place — Carrie Vaughn
• The Wreck of the Godspeed — James Patrick Kelly
• Seeing — Genevieve Valentine
• Travelling into Nothing — An Owomoyela
• Glory — Greg Egan
• The Island — Peter Watts

The Final Frontier delivers stories from across this literary spectrum, a reminder that the universe is far large and brimming with possibilities than we could ever imagine, as hard as we may try.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781597809399
Publisher:	Night Shade
Publication date:	07/10/2018
Pages:	600
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Neil Clarke is the award-winning publisher and editor in chief of Clarkesworld magazine, winner of three Hugo Awards for Best Semiprozine, and the editor of many anthologies, including the annual Best Science Fiction of the Year series for Night Shade Books, as well as the standalone collections Galactic Empires and More Human than Human.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction by Neil Clarke

A Jar of Goodwill by Tobias S. Buckell

Mono no aware by Ken Liu

Rescue Mission by Jack Skillingstead

Shiva in Shadow by Nancy Kress

Slow Life by Michael Swanwick

Three Bodies at Mitanni by Seth Dickinson

The Deeps of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear

Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Voyage Out by Gwyneth Jones

The Symphony of Ice and Dust by Julie Novakova

Twenty Lights to “The Land of Snow” by Michael Bishop

The Firewall and the Door by Sean McMullen

Permanent Fatal Errors by Jay Lake

Gypsy by Carter Scholz

Sailing the Antarsa by Vandana Singh

The Mind is Its Own Place by Carrie Vaughn

The Wreck of the Godspeed by James Patrick Kelly

Seeing by Genevieve Valentine

Travelling into Nothing by An Owomoyela

Glory by Greg Egan

The Island by Peter Watts

Permissions

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/25/2018
Clarkesworld editor Clarke’s stellar reprint anthology explores the expansive variety of space exploration stories, in shades from brutal to elegantly poetic. The late Jay Lake’s “Permanent Fatal Errors” shows how far a band of vicious explorers will go to hide a truly monumental discovery. Vandana Singh’s “Sailing the Antarsa” is a beautiful and sometimes harsh journey celebrating kinship among life forms of all kinds. “The Voyage Out” by Gwyneth Jones follows a band of prisoners as they prepare for exile on another world, a journey that could either kill them or offer a rebirth of hope. The critical element in many of these stories is that even among danger and violence, there can still be wonder in exploration and discovery. Courage and imagination may sometimes be twisted for bad ends, but they’re vital to perilous journeys, and they adeptly underpin most of the tales. Clarke has brought together outstanding works in which extreme environments bring out the best and worst of human nature. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Final Frontier

“Clarke’s stellar reprint anthology explores the expansive variety of space exploration stories. . . . Outstanding works in which extreme environments bring out the best and worst of human nature.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Twenty one fascinating tales from some of science fiction’s new stars. The reprint collection is multicultural and diverse, with tales of all kinds and from some unusual places. . . . Many standouts in this one and likely something here for all sorts of different kinds of folks.”—Manhattan Book Review, 4.5/5 Stars

“A miniature version of the many-voiced conversation that is the SF genre . . . There’s life in the old genre yet.”—Locus Magazine

Praise for Neil Clarke’s Anthologies with Night Shade Books
 
“Readers should savor the stories a few at a time to get the most out of Clarke’s superior selections . . . but there are no inferior pieces here. This is a fine, thoughtful book.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review for Not One of Us
 
“Well-known SF authors grace this . . . top-notch selection of imaginative and thought-provoking stories.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review for More Human Than Human
 
“Clarke’s stellar reprint anthology explores the expansive variety of space exploration stories. . . . Outstanding works in which extreme environments bring out the best and worst of human nature.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review for The Final Frontier

“Twenty one fascinating tales from some of science fiction’s new stars. The reprint collection is multicultural and diverse, with tales of all kinds and from some unusual places. . . . Many standouts in this one and likely something here for all sorts of different kinds of folks.”
—Manhattan Book Review, 4.5/5 Stars for The Final Frontier
 
“This hefty anthology of imperial SF covers great space battles, small dramas within an empire, hopeless bureaucracy, and even living space stations, zooming in and out to capture every nuance . . . The diverse array of stories ensures that there’s plenty of interest for any fan of large-scale SF.” 
—Publishers Weekly on Galactic Empires

“Masterful editor Neil Clarke has assembled an exotic, bountiful treasure chest of reprint tales dedicated to that mode of SF that can arguably be said to constitute the very core of the field, the space opera.”
—Asimov’s on Galactic Empires
 
“Clarke has assembled a wide range of authors – from old masters like Robert Silverberg to more recent talents such as Aliette De Bodard – each offering a different take on the central premise. . . There isn’t a bad piece amongst them . . . the Galaxy really is there for the taking.”
—Starburst on Galactic Empires, reviewed by Alister Davison

“As editor Clarke points out in his introduction, when most people hear the term galactic empire, they immediately picture Darth Vader and Star Wars. But there is a long history of star-faring empires in the genre, with stories that imagine our human tendencies to explore and conquer among the stars. . . . The stories gathered here, all of which have appeared elsewhere, show the huge range of possibilities of the chosen theme.” 
—Library Journal on Galactic Empires

“The first must-read anthology of the year, no question, is Neil Clarke’s Galactic Empires, an ambitious (read: huge) collection of SF tales featuring far-flung confederations in the stars. The TOC is a who’s-who of virtually everyone doing important work at short length in science fiction.” 
—John O’Neil, Black Gate on Galactic Empires

“Brings together some of the best voices writing in the genre today. . . . a stunning collection of short fiction.”
—WorldsInInk on Galactic Empires

 

“Clarke’s stellar reprint anthology explores the expansive variety of space exploration stories. . . . Outstanding works in which extreme environments bring out the best and worst of human nature.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Twenty one fascinating tales from some of science fiction’s new stars. The reprint collection is multicultural and diverse, with tales of all kinds and from some unusual places. . . . Many standouts in this one and likely something here for all sorts of different kinds of folks.”—Manhattan Book Review, 4.5/5 Stars

From the Publisher