Contents (view Concise Listing)

• ix • Introduction (Science Fiction: The Best of 2004) • (2005) • essay by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan
• 1 • The Best Christmas Ever • (2004) • short story by James Patrick Kelly
• 23 • The Voluntary State • [The Voluntary State] • (2004) • novelette by Christopher Rowe
• 74 • The Lost Pilgrim • (2004) • novelette by Gene Wolfe
• 113 • Memento Mori • (2004) • short story by Joe Haldeman
• 119 • PeriAndry's Quest • [Old Earth] • (2004) • novelette by Stephen Baxter
• 147 • Three Days in a Border Town • (2004) • novelette by Jeff VanderMeer
• 178 • Elector • [Macx Family • 8] • (2004) • novella by Charles Stross
• 249 • Opal Ball • (2004) • short story by Robert Reed
• 259 • My Mother Dancing • (2005) • short story by Nancy Kress (variant of My Mother, Dancing 2004)
• 278 • The People of Sand and Slag • (2004) • novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi
• 307 • Tourists • (2004) • short story by M. John Harrison (variant of Tourism)
• 329 • All of Us Can Almost ... • (2004) • short story by Carol Emshwiller
• 343 • The Tang Dynasty Underwater Pyramid • (2004) • novelette by Walter Jon Williams