Anthology of 18 short stories from various authors. Strange invaders. Alien planets. Genetic engineering. Artificial Intelligence. Time Travel. Space Adventure. These are just some of the themes science fiction is best known and loved for—and what you’ll get when you open the cover of Year’s Best SF 9. Every one of its 18 stories is pure science fiction, displaying some of the finest work being written today. They’re not like anything you’ve ever known…and they’re here to stay. Octavia Butler preps six job-seekers for employment with Earth’s alien invaders—a story about finding the strength to survive and transcend a horribly oppressive situation. I think we are the endangered species now. Geoff Ryman offers the diary of a gay protagonist at four stages of his life, in futures where homosexuality can be screened out of embryos, cured out of adults…and where he is the first pregnant man in history. Lieutenant, all I know is…they’re collecting butterflies. John Varley drops Earth a line—actually, many lines—of enigmatic, dimension-hopping entities who reveal the real purpose of life on Earth. It seems a small measure in return for the life of your world. Gregory Benford charges a Fourth Millennium librarian with a daunting task: to probe an alien AI for information that will save the solar system from an onslaught of interstellar plasma. But its price is wholly unexpected…. From transforming technologies and science gone wrong to strange cultures and alien creatures, the world of tomorrow has never been so exciting.