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Saint Petersburg, 1812. Russian forces have defeated Napoleon at great cost, and the tsar's empire is once again at peace. Sasha, a captain in the imperial army, returns home to Grand Duke Felix, the disgraced second son of the tsar and his irrepressibly charming lover, but their reunion is quickly interrupted by the arrival of Sofia, a mysteriously persuasive figure whose disruptive presence Sasha suspects to be something more than human. Felix, insisting that Sasha's old-fashioned superstitions are misplaced, takes Sofia into his confidence.

“Short stories have to accomplish a nearly impossible magic trick: to introduce a world often much stranger than our own and make you care about it in a matter of pages,” writes R. F. Kuang in her introduction. “The most important part of this magic trick is just a willingness to get weird.” The stories in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 are brimming with bizarre and otherworldly premises.

In 2108, Colony Ship Voyager departed Earth for the planet of Promissa with 18,000 of the world’s best and brightest on board. 250 years and 27 light years later, an arrival is imminent. But all is not well. The probes that they’ve sent ahead to gather the data needed to establish any kind of settlement aren’t responding, and the information they have received has presented more questions than answers. It’s a time when the entire crew should be coming together to solve the problem, but science officer Sheila Jackson can’t get people to listen.

In the hope of taming the Great Rift that divides the galaxy in two, Archmagos Belisarius Cawl invites representatives from across the Imperium to the artificial world of Pontus Avernes. Confident he can convince them of his genius, he must secure their assistance in unlocking the secrets of the pylon network – significant structures built by an ancient race that he believes can stave off the pull of the warp. But among the attendees is an uninvited guest: Fabius Bile himself.

Um Kontakt mit außerirdischen Intelligenzen zu suchen, wird auf der Erde das "Projekt S.E.T.I." betrieben. Damit sollen Radiosignale aus dem All aufgefangen werden. Gerade, als ein Senator des US-Finanzausschusses dem Projektleiter die Streichung der finanziellen Mittel mitteilt, wird etwas Ungewöhnliches empfangen, zunächst nur unverständliche Funksignale. Wie sich herausstellt, handelt es sich um komplexe Zahlenreihen und Bezeichnungen für bestimmte Aminosäuren.

Dr. Schneider bekommt Besuch von der Erde: Seine beiden Söhne, Roland und Martin, wollen einige Zeit bei ihrem Vater wohnen, der auf der Raumstation Orbit Challenger nach einem neuartigen Medikament forscht. Den beiden Jungen fällt sofort James Wingrove unangenehm auf; als kurz nach ihrer Ankunft eine Explosion im Labor ihres Vaters stattfindet, wird Wingrove sofort von den beiden verdächtigt.

Auf der Raumstation "Orbit Challenger" wird eine Bombe entdeckt, im letzten Moment kann der gefährdete Bereich isoliert werden, aber damit ist klar geworden, dass irgendjemand vorhat, die Station zu zerstören. Der Verdacht fällt auf einen nordafrikanischen Staat, dessen Präsident Kadidi sich gegenüber den westlichen Staaten profilieren will. Kurz darauf wird ein Space Shuttle der Station entführt, schafft aber den Eintritt in die Erdatmosphäre nicht und explodiert.

In the wake of defeating Gornath of the Ontishog, above the streets of Manhattan, and saving Earth from a devastating plague, Wic and Phantom Team believe their work is done. But Major Insarka Kindesh has other plans for the heroes and invites them back to Karkin Four. Phantom Team cross through New York’s origin ring to find the Blood Guard orchestrating covert operations against an Androchidan Empire in the throes of war. But galactic battle is not this trip’s focus.

The team of commercial sorcerers at Dawson, Ahriman & Dawson can help with any metaphysical engineering project, large or small (though by definition they all tend to be pretty large). They can also create massive great puddles of chaos that might one day swallow up the entire universe. Take, for example, the decision to recruit a certain bearded fellow whose previous work experience mainly involves reindeer and jingle bells. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but is he really the best person to save the world from Tiamat the Destroyer, who has literally gone ballistic?

The Sabbat Worlds Crusade has reached the fortress-world of Jago, and the Tanith First are given a vital – and dangerous – mission to defend a key pass against the enemy, garrisoned in an ancient mansion, the Hinzerhaus. Strange things are happening there. There are voices on the wind, and people are disappearing. With the enemy outside and ghosts within, Colonel-Commissar Gaunt and his men must face their fears – for only in death does duty end.

Raised in the Imperial court and born to be a political bargaining chip, Irulan was sent at an early age to be trained as a Bene Gesserit Sister. As Princess Royal, she also learned important lessons from her father—the Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Now of marriageable age, Princess Irulan sees the machinations of the many factions vying for power—the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, the Spacing Guild, the Imperial throne, and a ruthless rebellion in the Imperial military. The young woman has a wise and independent streak and is determined to become much more than a pawn.

The Hive Mind has deceived the Americans and the Thacians into believing they had the strategy that would destroy it once and for all…and instead, they opened the gates through to Thacia and, from there, into the United States. And the demons streamed through by the tens of thousands, too many for artillery and air support to drive them back. The Army and Air Force keep pouring on the hurt, but it’s only a matter of time until they’re forced to do the unthinkable…nuke an American city.

In an all too imaginable future, where the privileged lead lives untouched by wars that have become a global pastime, disenfranchised young people who “volunteer” to become super soldiers are injected with nano technology that repeatedly brings them back from death. In a race against time, one such soldier and an analyst struggle to understand strange phenomena that occur after too many resurrections: glitches known as nostalgia, which even in the midst of combat can hurtle a soldier into the past. But after eight, nine, even ten resurrections lies something much worse than just glitches.

Em um futuro não muito distante, pós uma nem tão distópica Terceira Guerra Mundial, as máquinas finalmente venceram. Quase tudo foi automatizado e logo a sociedade se dividiu sob um novo sistema de estratificação não mais baseado em dinheiro, mas sim em inteligência. De acordo com seu QI e capacidade intelectual, os indivíduos são classificados e registrados em um cartão perfurado e sua posição social ― um destino de glória ou esquecimento―só pode ser definida a partir da análise desses dados.

Barry Sutton é policial em Nova York e convive com a tristeza da morte da filha. Ao ser acionado para intervir em uma tentativa de suicídio, ele se depara com uma mulher que sofre da Síndrome da Falsa Memória, uma doença misteriosa que planta na cabeça de suas vítimas lembranças de vidas que elas nunca tiveram.

Neste novo mundo, Jason leva outra vida. Sua esposa não é sua esposa, seu filho nunca nasceu e, em vez de professor numa universidade mediana, ele é um gênio da física quântica que conseguiu um feito inimaginável. Algo impossível. Será que é este seu mundo, e o outro é apenas um sonho? E, se esta não for a vida que ele sempre levou, como voltar para sua família e tudo que ele conhece por realidade?

O título da coletânea faz alusão a um livro dentro do audiolivro—mais precisamente, a uma peça teatral fictícia—e a seu personagem central, uma figura sobrenatural cuja existência extrapola a narração. A peça O Rei de Amarelo é mencionada em quatro dos contos, mas pouco se conhece de seu conteúdo. É certo apenas que o texto, em dois atos, leva o ouvinte à loucura, condenando sua alma à perdição. Um risco ao qual alguns aceitam se submeter, dado o caráter único da obra, um misto irresistível de beleza e decadência.

A smog has spread. Food crops are disappearing. A chef escapes her career in London to take a job at a decadent mountaintop colony seemingly free of the world's troubles. There, her enigmatic employer and his visionary daughter have built a lush new life for the global elite, one that reawakens the chef to the pleasures of taste, touch and her own body. In this atmosphere of hidden wonders and seductive violence, the chef's boundaries undergo a thrilling erosion. Soon she is pushed to the center of a startling attempt to reshape the world far beyond the plate.

Ryland Grace é o único sobrevivente de uma desesperada missão de emergência — se ele falhar, toda a humanidade e o planeta Terra serão destruídos. Mas no momento ele não sabe disso. Ryland não se lembra nem do próprio nome, muito menos de sua missão ou de como cumpri-la. Tudo o que ele sabe é que dormiu por muito, muito tempo. E que despertou a milhões de quilômetros de casa, com apenas dois cadáveres como companhia.

Imagine the universe as a forest, patrolled by numberless and nameless predators. In this forest, stealth is survival – any civilisation that reveals its location is prey. Earth has. Now the predators are coming. Crossing light years, the Trisolarians will reach Earth in four centuries' time. But the sophons, their extra-dimensional agents and saboteurs, are already here. Only the individual human mind remains immune to their influence.