The vast and mysterious universe is explored in this anthology from award-winning editor and anthologist Neil Clarke (Clarkesworld magazine, The Best Science Fiction of the Year).

The urge to explore and discover is a natural and universal one, and the edge of the unknown is expanded with each passing year as scientific advancements inch us closer and closer to the outer reaches of our solar system and the galaxies beyond them.

Generations of writers have explored these new frontiers and the endless possibilities they present in great detail. With galaxy-spanning adventures of discovery and adventure, from generations ships to warp drives, exploring new worlds to first contacts, science fiction writers have given readers increasingly new and alien ways to look out into our broad and sprawling universe. Stories include are:


A Jar of Goodwill — Tobias S. Buckell
Mono no aware — Ken Liu
Rescue Mission — Jack Skillingstead
Shiva in Shadow — Nancy Kress
Slow Life — Michael Swanwick
Three Bodies at Mitanni — Seth Dickinson
The Deeps of the Sky — Elizabeth Bear
Diving into the Wreck — Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Voyage Out — Gwyneth Jones
The Symphony of Ice and Dust — Julie Novakova
Twenty Lights to “The Land of Snow” — Michael Bishop
The Firewall and the Door — Sean McMullen
Permanent Fatal Errors — Jay Lake
Gypsy — Carter Scholz
Sailing the Antarsa — Vandana Singh
The Mind is Its Own Place — Carrie Vaughn
The Wreck of the Godspeed — James Patrick Kelly
Seeing — Genevieve Valentine
Travelling into Nothing — An Owomoyela
Glory — Greg Egan
The Island — Peter Watts


The Final Frontier delivers stories from across this literary spectrum, a reminder that the universe is far large and brimming with possibilities than we could ever imagine, as hard as we may try.