Widely regarded as the one essential book for every science fiction fan, The Year's Best Science Fiction (Winner of the 2004 Locus Award for Best Anthology) continues to uphold its standard of excellence with more than two dozen stories representing the previous year's best SF writing.The stories in this collection imaginatively take readers far across the universe, into the very core of their beings, to the realm of the Gods, and to the moment just after now. Included are the works of masters of the form and the bright new talents of tomorrow. This book is a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.<br/><br/>Contents<br/>xi Acknowledgments (The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection) (2005) essay by Gardner Dozois<br/>xiii Summation: 2004 essay by Gardner Dozois<br/>1 Inappropriate Behavior (2004) novelette by Pat Murphy<br/>27 Start the Clock (2004) shortstory by Benjamin Rosenbaum<br/>42 The Third Party (2004) novelette by David Moles<br/>72 The Voluntary State (2004) novelette by Christopher Rowe<br/>105 Shiva in Shadow (2004) novelette by Nancy Kress<br/>153 The People of Sand and Slag (2004) novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi<br/>172 The Clapping Hands of God (2004) novelette by Michael F. Flynn<br/>214 Tourism (2004) shortstory by M. John Harrison<br/>228 Scout's Honor (2004) shortstory by Terry Bisson<br/>244 Men Are Trouble (2004) novelette by James Patrick Kelly<br/>283 Mother Aegypt [Company] (2004) novella by Kage Baker<br/>348 Synthetic Serendipity (2004) shortstory by Vernor Vinge<br/>366 Skin Deep (2004) shortstory by Mary Rosenblum<br/>389 Delhi (2004) shortstory by Vandana Singh<br/>405 The Tribes of Bela [Colonel Kohn] (2004) novella by Albert E. Cowdrey<br/>465 Sitka (2004) shortstory by William Sanders<br/>478 Leviathan Wept (2004) shortstory by Daniel Abraham<br/>499 The Defenders (2004) shortstory by Colin P. Davies<br/>504 Mayflower II [Xeelee] (2004) novella by Stephen Baxter<br/>562 Riding the White Bull (2004) novelette by Caitlín R. Kiernan<br/>588 Falling Star (2004) shortstory by Brendan DuBois<br/>603 The Dragons of Summer Gulch (2004) novelette by Robert Reed<br/>628 The Ocean of the Blind (2004) shortstory by James L. Cambias<br/>649 The Garden: A Hwarhath Science Fictional Romance [Hwarhath] (2004) novella by Eleanor Arnason<br/>688 Footvote (2004) shortstory by Peter F. Hamilton<br/>706 Sisyphus and the Stranger (2004) shortstory by Paul Di Filippo (aka Sisyphe et l'étranger)<br/>718 Ten Sigmas (2004) shortstory by Paul Melko<br/>726 Investments [Dread Empire's Fall] (2004) novella by Walter Jon Williams<br/>811 Honorable Mentions: 2004 essay by Gardner Dozois