Contents (view Concise Listing)

• 15 • Real Science, Imaginary Worlds • (1994) • essay by Gregory Benford
• 24 • On Science and Science Fiction • (1993) • essay by Kathryn Cramer
• 30 • Hard Science Fiction • (1993) • essay by David G. Hartwell
• 43 • Nine Lives • (1969) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
• 61 • Light of Other Days • [Slow Glass] • (1966) • short story by Bob Shaw
• 68 • Rappaccini's Daughter • [Rappaccini • 1] • (1844) • novelette by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• 86 • The Star • (1955) • short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• 91 • Proof • (1942) • short story by Hal Clement
• 103 • It's Great to Be Back • [Future History] • (1947) • short story by Robert A. Heinlein (variant of "It's Great to Be Back!")
• 116 • Procreation • (1983) • short story by Gene Wolfe
• 122 • Mimsy Were the Borogoves • (1943) • novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
• 144 • Davey Jones' Ambassador • (1935) • novelette by Raymond Z. Gallun
• 166 • The Life and Times of Multivac • [Multivac] • (1975) • short story by Isaac Asimov
• 174 • The Singing Diamond • ['Red' Vengeance • 1] • (1979) • short story by Robert L. Forward
• 180 • Down & Out on Ellfive Prime • (1979) • novelette by Dean Ing
• 196 • Send Me a Kiss by Wire • (1985) • short story by Hilbert Schenck
• 208 • The Xi Effect • (1950) • short story by R. S. Richardson [as by Philip Latham]
• 222 •
  A Descent Into the Maelström^?A Descent Into the Maelstrom
  A Descent Into the Maelstroem
  • (1841) • short story by Edgar Allan Poe
• 233 • Exposures • (1981) • short story by Gregory Benford
• 243 • The Planners • (1968) • short story by Kate Wilhelm
• 254 • Beep • (1954) • novelette by James Blish
• 278 • Drode's Equations • (1981) • novelette by Richard Grant
• 288 • The Weather Man • (1962) • novella by Theodore L. Thomas
• 313 • Transit of Earth • (1971) • short story by Arthur C. Clarke
• 323 • Prima Belladonna • [Vermilion Sands] • (1956) • short story by J. G. Ballard
• 333 • To Bring in the Steel • novelette by Donald Kingsbury [as by Donald M. Kingsbury]
• 360 • Gomez • (1954) • novelette by C. M. Kornbluth
• 377 • Waterclap • (1970) • novelette by Isaac Asimov
• 398 • Weyr Search • [Dragonriders of Pern short fiction] • (1967) • novella by Anne McCaffrey
• 434 • Message Found in a Copy of Flatland • (1983) • short story by Rudy Rucker
• 442 • The Cold Equations • [Cold Equations (Godwin)] • (1954) • novelette by Tom Godwin
• 459 • The Land Ironclads • (1903) • novelette by H. G. Wells
• 474 • The Hole Man • (1974) • short story by Larry Niven
• 484 • Atomic Power • (1934) • short story by John W. Campbell, Jr. [as by Don A. Stuart]
• 494 • Stop Evolution in Its Tracks! • (1988) • short story by John Sladek [as by John T. Sladek]
• 499 • The Hungry Guinea Pig • (1930) • novelette by Miles J. Breuer, M.D.
• 514 • The Very Slow Time Machine • (1978) • novelette by Ian Watson
• 528 • The Beautiful and the Sublime • (1986) • novelette by Bruce Sterling
• 547 • The Author of the Acacia Seeds • short story by Ursula K. Le Guin (variant of The Author of the Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics 1974)
• 553 • Heat of Fusion • (1984) • short story by John M. Ford
• 564 • Dolphin's Way • (1964) • short story by Gordon R. Dickson
• 576 • All the Hues of Hell • (1987) • short story by Gene Wolfe
• 585 • Occam's Scalpel • (1971) • novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• 600 • giANTS • (1979) • short story by Edward Bryant
• 612 • Time Fuze • (1954) • short story by Randall Garrett
• 616 • Desertion • [City] • (1944) • short story by Clifford D. Simak
• 627 • Kyrie • (1968) • short story by Poul Anderson
• 635 • The Person from Porlock • (1947) • short story by Raymond F. Jones
• 651 • Day Million • (1966) • short story by Frederik Pohl
• 656 • Cage of Sand • (1962) • novelette by J. G. Ballard (variant of The Cage of Sand)
• 672 • The Psychologist Who Wouldn't Do Awful Things to Rats • (1976) • novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
• 689 • In the Year 2889 • (1889) • short story by Jules Verne and Michel Verne (trans. of La journée d'un journaliste américain en 2890 1890) [as by Jules Verne]
• 700 • Surface Tension • [Pantropy] • (1952) • novelette by James Blish
• 724 • No, No, Not Rogov! • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1959) • short story by Cordwainer Smith
• 737 • In a Petri Dish Upstairs • (1978) • novelette by George Turner
• 758 • With the Night Mail • [Aerial Board of Control • 1] • (1905) • novelette by Rudyard Kipling
• 788 • The Longest Science Fiction Story Ever Told • (1966) • short story by Arthur C. Clarke (variant of The Longest Science-Fiction Story Ever Told)
• 790 • The Pi Man • (1959) • short story by Alfred Bester
• 803 • Relativistic Effects • (1982) • novelette by Gregory Benford
• 818 • Making Light • (1981) • short story by James P. Hogan
• 826 • The Last Question • [Multivac] • (1956) • short story by Isaac Asimov
• 835 • The Indefatigable Frog • (1953) • short story by Philip K. Dick
• 843 • Chromatic Aberration • (1984) • novelette by John M. Ford
• 864 • The Snowball Effect • (1952) • short story by Katherine MacLean
• 873 • The Morphology of the Kirkham Wreck • (1978) • novelette by Hilbert Schenck
• 892 • Tangents • (1986) • short story by Greg Bear
• 904 • Johnny Mnemonic • [Neuromancer / Sprawl Trilogy] • (1981) • short story by William Gibson
• 917 • What Continues, What Fails ... • (1991) • novelette by David Brin
• 937 • Mammy Morgan Played the Organ; Her Daddy Beat the Drum • novella by Michael F. Flynn (variant of Mammy Morgan Played the Organ, Her Daddy Beat the Drum 1990)
• 967 • Bookworm, Run! • (1966) • novelette by Vernor Vinge
• 989 • Appendix: Another Path Through the Book (The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF) • (1994) • essay by Kathryn Cramer