An eclipse is a rare and unusual event, when the world is transformed and the sky becomes a dark eldritch thing. It's a time when anything could happen, when any kind of story just might be true. That sense of the strange and wonderful guides Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy, the second volume in an exciting new annual anthology series edited by acclaimed anthologist Jonathan Strahan. Set to become a major event on the science fiction and fantasy calendar, Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy gathers together new science fiction and fantasy stories by the best writers working today. You can see that in Eclipse Two, which features more extraordinary tales of the fantastic and astounding. Contents Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom • (2008) • by David Moles Elevator • (2008) • by Nancy Kress Ex Cathedra • (2008) • by Tony Daniel Exhalation • (2008) • by Ted Chiang Fury • (2008) • by Alastair Reynolds Invisible Empire of Ascending Light • (2008) • by Ken Scholes Michael Laurits Is: DROWNING • (2008) • by Paul Cornell Night of the Firstlings • (2008) • by Margo Lanagan Skin Deep • (2008) • by Richard Parks The Hero • \[Virga\] • (2008) • by Karl Schroeder The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm • (2008) • by Daryl Gregory The Rabbi's Hobby • (2008) • by Peter S. Beagle The Seventh Expression of the Robot General • (2008) • by Jeffrey Ford Truth Window: A Tale of the Bedlam Rose • (Wormwood / Nobodoi) • (2008) • by Terry Dowling Turing's Apples • (2008) • by Stephen Baxter

To observe an eclipse is to witness a rare and unusual event. Under darkened skies the sun becomes a negative image of itself, its corona transforming the landscape into a strange space where anything might happen, and any story may be true... In the spirit of classic science fiction anthologies such as Universe, Orbit, and Starlight, master anthologist Jonathan Strahan (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year) presents the non-themed genre anthology Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy. Here you will find stories where strange and wonderful things happen—where reality is eclipsed by something magical and new. Continuing in the footsteps of the multiple-award-nominated anthologies Eclipse One, Eclipse Two, and Eclipse Three, Eclipse Four delivers new fiction by some of the genre's most celebrated authors, including Andy Duncan's tale of a man's gamble that he can outrun a bullet; Caitlin R. Kiernan's story of lovers contemplating the gravity of a tiny black hole; Damien Broderick's chronicle of a beancounter who acquires a most curious cat; Michael Swanwick's tale of the grey man who pulls an unhappy woman from the path of an oncoming train; Nalo Hopkinson's story of ghosts haunting a shopping mall; and Gwyneth Jones' story of an alien priest who suffers a crisis of faith...