From a misty beach in Massachusetts to worlds both distant and alien, some of the best writers in science fiction—some old favorites like Robert J. Sawyer and Stephen Baxter, some up-and-coming—explore some of the many places our future may take us. You’ll find problems we face right now, as in Edward M. Lerner’s “The Night of the RFIDs” and Richard A. Lovett’s “Tiny Berries”; and others that may (or may not?) be much farther down the road, like the very alien viewpoints in Juliette Wade’s “Cold Words” and Carl Frederick’s “The Universe Beneath Our Feet.” You’ll find engaging characters like the very young extraterrestrial with a critical mission (in the White House) and an unforgiving deadline in David D. Levine’s “Pupa,” and the retired astronaut with Alzheimer’s who must remotely salvage a Moon mission in Marianne J. Dyson’s “Fly Me to the Moon.” All are guaranteed to entertain and to make you think in ways you’ve never thought before.
