The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 10

A collection spotlighting the best hard science fiction stories and novellas published in 2025 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster. · “Apartment Wars” by Vera Brook—the widow of a physicist, residing in a country short of living space for its citizens, finds a device that creates small pocket dimensions. This novella is a finalist for a 2025 Analog Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Award. · “ESRI” by James Dick—the daughter of the woman who launched a failed second mission to Europa, launches the third mission to that moon. · “Freediver” by Isabel J. Kim—a two-man team risks a spacewalk to repair vital portal-spanning telecom cables hanging a hundred meters beneath the ocean . . . billions of light years away. · “Reality Check” by Nancy Kress—parents resort to deep brain stimulation to break their teenage son’s addiction to gaming. · “Threat Assessment” by Matthew Kressel & Mercurio D. Rivera—a psychologist is recruited by the military to determine why a self-aware AI, secluded on the Moon, wants to destroy humankind. · “The Last Lunar New Year” by Derek Künsken—the fate of humanity’s descendants is argued in a far-future zero-G court. · “In the Slime of Life” by Edward M. Lerner—humans and alien green scum antagonize each other on a malodorous, water world. · “The Hunt for Lemuria 7” by Allen M. Steele—robotic rovers search for the passengers and crew of a tourist-class lunar spacecraft that mysteriously vanished on the Moon. · “Tenth Contact” by Bruce Sterling & Paul Di Filippo—astronauts on Ganymede are caught in a once-in-twenty-million-years galactic aurora storm. This novelette is a finalist for a 2025 Asimov’s Readers’ Award. · “The Twenty-One Second God” by Peter Watts—a man able to keep his sanity after briefly joining a hivemind is interrogated by the government. This novelette is a finalist for a 2026 Locus Award. · “Infestation” by Jay Werkheiser—borane life-forms discover a planet infested with carbon life-forms.