Description: An unabridged collection spotlighting the best hard science fiction stories and novellas published in 2023 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster.
- "The Last Cathedral of Earth, In Flight" by Tobias S. Buckell - The last of humanity flees, among the stars, from alien Prowlers.
- "The Unpastured Sea" by Gregory Feeley - A mission to the planet Neptune runs into many setbacks.
- "The Tinker and the Timestream" by Carolyn Ives Gilman - Colonists on a planet orbiting a decaying sun encounter interstellar time travelers.
- "Six Incidents of Evolution Using Time Travel" by Derek Künsken - Time travel is found to be encoded in the DNA of some alien species.
- "Cloudskimmer" by Geoffrey A. Landis - Robots and humans team up to explore Venus.
- "Even if Such Ways Are Bad" by Rich Larson - A two-person crew goes on a deep space mission inside a living wormship.
- "The Enthnomusicology of the Last Dreadnaught by Yoon Ha Lee - The battle glory of an atrocious weapon of war is honored.
- "Exiled to Gravity" by Marissa Lingen - A mysterious ailment hampers an engineer's return to space.
- "Clockwork Melting by James Maxey - An immortal races against time to complete an ice sculpture on Venus.
- "The Elephant Maker" by Alec Nevala-Lee - Scientists clash with hunters and poachers for a rogue elephant needed to test a brain implant.
- "The Ghosts of Mars" by Dominica Phetteplace - A teenager struggles to survive on Mars amidst peculiar phenomena attributed to ghosts.
- "The Many Different Kinds of Love" by Geoff Ryman with David Jeffrey - After ten years of silence, an abiotic intelligence on Enceladus receives unauthorized messages from Earth.
- "Lemuria 7 Is Missing" by Allen M. Steele - The disappearance of a passenger moonship is scrutinized.
- "Defective" by Peter Watts - A zero-sum battle for survival rests on the ability of a scientist to communicate with an alien species.
- "OCASTA" by Daniel H. Wilson - An AI, with an algorithm that analyzes and learns, has a story to tell.