Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific accuracy, inside the realm of scientific possibility, that anything that occurs in the story is not outside the known physical laws of the universe. . An anthology collection spotlighting the "best of the best" hard science fiction stories published in 2017 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster..: Contents: Shadows of Eternity / by Gregory Benford: a student investigates enigmatic SETI recordings from probes sent to nearby stars despite her teachers’ admonishments to stick to the curriculum. The Chatter of Monkeys / by Bond Elam: An alien robot offers to help save Earth as war and pollution ravage the last of the survivors on the planet. Acadie / by Dave Hutchinson, the first humans still, even after five hundred years, hunt across the stars for their augmented children who have left Earth in search of paradise. Canoe / by Nancy Kress.: the crew of an exploratory starship finds an icy moon that might harbor life. The Use of Things / by Ramez Naam: an astronaut struggles to survive after being jolted free from an asteroid while on a solitary prospecting mission. The Proving Ground / by Alec Nevala-Lee.: a problem with the local birds threatens the rebuilding of Bikini Island as sea-levels rise due to global warming. Holdfast / by Alastair Reynolds: a genmod human soldier faces off with an alien warrior in the inhospitable terrain of a superjovian planet. Vanguard 2.0 / by Carter Scholz.: aRussian astronaut, gathering debris in near-Earth space, must make tough moral choices when asked to carry out a special mission. ZeroS / by Peter Watts. after a terrorist attack, a technically dead fish farmer gets a new body and second chance at life as an experimental super soldier. .