~~~~~~~~ CONTENTS ~~~~~~~~ 1 Introduction ~~~~~ Reviews ~~~~~ 7 Megatest Anxiety Gywneth Jones ~ Spirit; Or, the Princess of Bois Dormant 12 Shilling Hitler Jo Walton ~ Half a Crown 19 Cheaper by the Dozen Bruce Sterling ~ The Caryatids 23 Field Worker Poul Anderson ~ The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson, Volume One: Call Me Joe 28 Green Shoot Jay Lake ~ Green 32 Cold Core George Zebrowski ~ Empties 35 Love is Pronounced Adam Roberts ~ Yellow Blue Tibia 38 Gnosis Hooded Gene Wolfe ~ The Best of Gene Wolfe 43 Tidings Paolo Bacigalupi ~ The Windup Girl 46 Late Late the Pomegranate Lev Grossman ~ The Magicians 49 The Ballard Look J G Ballard ~ The Complete Stories of J G Ballard 53 Holding onto the World Kim Stanley Robinson ~ Galileo’s Dream David Constantine ~ The Shieling Jack Skillingstead ~ Are You There and Other Stories 59 Poe-Faced America Peter Straub ~ American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny 70 Water Sand Michal Ajvaz ~ The Other City Michal Ajvaz ~ The Golden Age 76 Fracking for Heinlein William H. Patterson, Jr. ~ Robert A. Heinlein: Volume 1: Learning Curve (1907-1948) Cory Doctorow ~ For the Win 84 Oubliette Me Not Hannu Rajaniemi ~ The Quantum Thief Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud ~ A Life on Paper: Selected Stories vii 90 Zoo Zero William Gibson ~ Zero History Lauren Beukes ~ Zoo City 94 Battle for the Blitz Connie Willis ~ Blackout / All Clear 101 Beat of Equipoise Johanna Sinisalo ~ Birdbrain M Rickert ~ Holiday 106 Dutifuls Tobias S Buckell ~ The Executioness Paolo Bacigalupi ~ The Alchemist Elizabeth Bear ~ The White City 110 Speakable Books China Miéville ~ Embassy Town Joan Aiken ~ The Monkey’s Wedding and Other Stories 117 A Fungible Spoor Jonathan Strahan, editor ~ Engineering Infinity Hariton Pushwagner ~ Soft City J M McDermott ~ Never Knew Another 122 Urban Fantasy Whatever Peter S Beagle & Joe Lansdale, editors ~ The Urban Fantasy Anthology Ellen Datlow, editor ~ Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy 127 Posthumous Lives Robert Charles Wilson ~ Vortex Daryl Gregory ~ Raising Stony Mayhall 132 Holy Squirming Squid Margaret Atwood ~ In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination 137 Kafka Was Here John Kessel & James Patrick Kelly, editors ~ Kafkaesque: Stories Inspired by Franz Kafka Matt Ruff ~ The Mirage 143 Fix Me Deadly Nick Harkaway ~ Angelmaker 147 Spoilers Robert Sheckley ~ Store of the Worlds Brian Evenson ~ Immobility 151 A Long Week for Zoologicals Adam Roberts ~ Jack Glass M John Harrison ~ Empty Space: A Haunting 157 It Didn’t Brian Fies ~ Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? Tim Powers ~ Salvage and Demolition Jeffrey Ford ~ Crackpot Palace Bruno Jasieński ~ I Burn Paris 162 Journey Iain M Banks ~ The Hydrogen Sonata viii 166 Bad News Steampunk Ann VanderMeer, editor ~ Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution Karen Lord, editor ~ The Best of All Possible Worlds 171 Thin Ice at Last Gary K Wolfe, editor ~ American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s 175 Brush Clearance Robert Jackson Bennett ~ American Elsewhere Paul Witcover ~ The Emperor of All Things 180 Book in the Nick of Time Kate Atkinson ~ Life after Life Joyce Carol Oates ~ The Accursed 185 Memories of Nexts Christopher Priest ~ The Adjacent 192 Third Neil Gaiman ~ The Ocean at the End of the Lane 197 MLA Ate my Homework Andrew Milner ~ Locating Science Fiction 204 Frying Pans Wolfgang Jeschke ~ The Cusanus Game Lavie Tidhar ~ The Violent Century 210 I Think the Meat is Done Robert Charles Wilson ~ Burning Paradise 214 Tells Nnedi Okorafor ~ Lagoon Karl Schroeder ~ Lockstep 221 Under the Skin Under the Skin (film) 224 Grab Aesthetic Exhibition staged at The Art Gallery of NSW, 2014 ~~~~~ Stories ~~~~~ 229 Story Notes 230 “The Knight Orpheus” 230 “The Last Word” 231 “Eden Sounding” 244 “Puffy Bear” 255 “Year King Pie” ~~~~~ The Darkening Garden ~~~~~ 269 The Darkening Garden: A Short Lexicon of Horror ~~~~~ Index ~~~~~ 347 Index - Compiled by Leigh Kennedy – ix – .