Cirrus@Austlit

'Seth is a surveyor, along with his friend Theo, a leech-like creature running through his skull who tells Seth what lies to his left and right. Theo, in turn, relies on Seth for mobility, and for ordinary vision looking forwards and backwards. Like everyone else in their world, they are symbionts, depending on each other to survive.

'In the universe containing Seth's world, light cannot travel in all directions: there is a “dark cone” to the north and south. Seth can only face to the east (or the west, if he tips his head backwards). If he starts to turn to the north or south, his body stretches out across the landscape, and to rotate as far as north-north-east is every bit as impossible as accelerating to the speed of light.

'Every living thing in Seth’s world is in a state of perpetual migration as they follow the sun’s shifting orbit and the narrow habitable zone it creates. Cities are being constantly disassembled at one edge and rebuilt at the other, with surveyors mapping safe routes ahead.

'But when Seth and Theo join an expedition to the edge of the habitable zone, they discover a terrifying threat: a fissure in the surface of the world, so deep and wide that no one can perceive its limits. As the habitable zone continues to move, the migration will soon be blocked by this unbridgeable void, and the expedition has only one option to save its city from annihilation: descend into the unknown.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Discover the mystery of the island of Teranesia, where peculiar biological evolution has created a world both beautiful and deadly. On the small uninhabited island of Teranesia, Prabir and his younger sister Madhusree live with their biologist parents, who are there to study the strange signs of evolutionary mutation in the island's butterfly population. But their peaceful time on Teranesia is cut short when a civil war breaks out in Indonesia, forcing Prabir and his family to flee. Twenty years pass, and Madhusree is now studying biology. She wishes to follow in the path of her parents, hoping to pick up where their research had been halted. Prabir, still feeling a great responsibility over his sister, highly advises her not to go back to Teranesia. But the mutations that happened during their time on the island overpower Madhusree's curiosity, and she goes against her brother's wishes. Struck with overwhelming feelings of responsibility, Prabir finds it as his duty to follow his sister, and travels back to Teranesia for the first time in twenty years. Not knowing what to expect, Prabir discovers the island to be more enchanting, and dangerous, than he could have ever imagined' (Publication summary)

In a universe where the laws of physics and the speed of light are completely alien to our own, the travellers on the ship Peerless have completed a generations-long struggle to develop advanced technology in a desperate attempt to save their home world. But as tensions mount over the risks of turning the ship around and starting the long voyage home, a new complication arises: the prospect of constructing a messaging system that will give the Peerless news of its own future.

The generation ship the 'Peerless' is suffering from a population explosion, and the only way to reduce the number of children is by drastically limiting the food intake of the females, which will trigger a natural response to famine and stop procreation. So population control consists of two barbaric choices: starvation, or suicide.

'An ancient society of cartographer wasps create delicately inscribed maps; a bodyjacking parasite is faced with imminent extinction; an Al makes a desperate gambit to protect its child from a ravenous dragon; a professor of music struggles with the knowledge that murder is not too high a price for fame; living origami carries a mother's last words to her child; a steam girl conquers the realm of imagination; aliens attack Venus, ignoring an incredulous earth; a child is born on Mars.... The science fiction and fantasy fields continue to evolve, setting new marks with each passing year. For the sixth year in a row, master anthologist Jonathan Strahan has collected stories that captivate, entertain, and showcase the very best the genre has to offer. Critically acclaimed, and with a reputation for including award-winning speculative fiction, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year is the only major 'best of' anthology to collect both fantasy and science fiction under one cover.' (Publisher's blurb)

'In Yalda's universe, light has no universal speed and its creation generates energy. On Yalda's world, plants make food by emitting their own light into the dark night sky. As a child, Yalda witnesses one of a series of strange meteors, the Hurtlers, that are entering the planetary system at an immense, unprecedented speed. It becomes apparent that her world is in imminent danger–and the task of dealing with the Hurtlers will require knowledge and technology far beyond anything her civilization has yet achieved! Only one solution seems tenable: if a spacecraft can be sent on a journey at sufficiently high speed, its trip will last many generations for those on board, but it will return after just a few years have passed at home. The travelers will have a chance to discover the science their planet urgently needs, and bring it back in time to avert disaster.' (Trove record)

Comprising a selection of 40 stories about cats and other felines, Tails of Wonder and Imagination includes an excerpt from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass (concerning about Dinah and her kittens) and and extract ("The Puma") from Theodora Goss's sequel to H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau. The stories focus on felines of all sizes and temperaments and their interactions with humans. Other authors include: Tanith Lee, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, Michael Bishop, Lucy Sussex and Kaaron Warren.

A reprint anthology of dragon stories.