An anthology collection spotlighting the "best of the best" science fiction stories published in 2017 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster. Once again offering a definitive and incisive exploration of science fiction themes, trends, and traditions to delight the discernig science fiction reader. Contents: * My English Name (2017) / R. S. Benedict: an intelligent alien, who parasitizes an English teacher in China, falls in love. * Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance (2017) / Tobias S. Buckell: after a victorious space battle, an indentured robot finds a refugee who makes an offer it can't refuse. * The Moon is Not a Battlefield (2017) / Indrapramit Das: an Indian soldier retires on Earth after spending most of her life on the Moon. * Dear Sarah (2017) / Nancy Kress: a young woman joins the U.S. Army to fight terrorists after aliens arrive on Earth bearing tech gifts unevenly dispersed to humans. * An Evening with Severyn Grimes (2017) / Rich Larson: a gifted hacker uses cyberspace to extract pay-back on the rich businessman who put her in prison. * The Chameleon's Gloves [Hexarchate Universe • The Machineries of Empire] (2017) / Yoon Ha Lee: an ex-Kel super soldier is enlisted to retrieve a weapon of mass destruction stolen by a rogue general. * The Martian Obelisk (2017) / Linda Nagata: on a dying Earth, an architect remotely building a monument to mankind on Mars receives a message from an abandoned Mars colony. * A Series of Steaks (2017) / Vina Jie-Min Prasad: a petty meat counterfeiter is blackmailed into forging T-bone steaks for an anonymous thug. * The Residue of Fire [The Great Ship Universe] (2017) / Robert Reed: a torturer tries to cope with one of his alien victims who witnessed a pivotal moment in the lives of two immortals. * Night Passage [Revelation Space] (2017) / Alastair Reynolds: a starship captain wakes from hibernation with her ship stalled next to an alien artifact and a mutiny in progress. .