Galactic Empires

Neil Clarke, publisher of the award-winning Clarkesworld magazine, presents a collection of thought-provoking and galaxy-spanning array of galactic short science fiction. From E. E. "Doc" Smith’s Lensman, to George Lucas’ Star Wars, the politics and process of Empire have been a major subject of science fiction’s galaxy-spanning fictions. The idiom of the Galactic Empire allows science fiction writers to ask (and answer) questions that are shorn of contemporary political ideologies and allegiances. This simple narrative slight of hand allows readers and writers to see questions and answers from new and different perspectives. The stories in this book do just that. What social, political, and economic issues do the organizing structure of “empire” address? Often the size, shape, and fates of empires are determined not only by individuals, but by geography, natural forces, and technology. As the speed of travel and rates of effective communication increase, so too does the size and reach of an Imperial bureaucracy.Sic itur ad astra—“Thus one journeys to the stars.” At the beginning of the twentieth century, writers such as Kipling and Twain were at the forefront of these kinds of narrative observations, but as the century drew to a close, it was writers like Iain M. Banks who helped make science fiction relevant. That tradition continues today, with award-winning writers like Ann Leckie, whose 2013 debut novel Ancillary Justice hinges upon questions of imperialism and empire. Here then is a diverse collection of stories that asks the questions that science fiction asks best. Empire: How? Why? And to what effect? Table of Contents: - “Winning Peace” by Paul J. McAuley - “Night’s Slow Poison” by Ann Leckie - “All the Painted Stars” by Gwendolyn Clare - “Firstborn” by Brandon Sanderson - “Riding the Crocodile” by Greg Egan - “The Lost Princess Man” by John Barnes - “The Waiting Stars” by Aliette de Bodard - “Alien Archeology” by Neal Asher - “The Muse of Empires Lost” by Paul Berger - “Ghostweight” by Yoon Ha Lee - “A Cold Heart” by Tobias S. Buckell - “The Colonel Returns to the Stars” by Robert Silverberg - “The Impossibles” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - “Utriusque Cosmi” by Robert Charles Wilson - “Section Seven” by John G. Hemry - “The Invisible Empire of Ascending Light” by Ken Scholes - “The Man with the Golden Balloon” by Robert Reed - “Looking Through Lace” by Ruth Nestvold - “A Letter from the Emperor” by Steve Rasnic Tem - “The Wayfarer’s Advice” by Melinda M. Snodgrass - “Seven Years from Home” by Naomi Novik - “Verthandi’s Ring” by Ian McDonald

Seven full-length novels of adventure, war, intrigue and survival in the far reaches of space. The Backworlds by M. Pax A man struggles to survive in the harsh world of humanity's outer settlements and prove his father wrong. Ambassador 1: Seeing Red by Patty Jansen To look an alien superior in the eye is a deadly offense. To accuse him of a political murder… Alien Hunters by Daniel Arenson A scruffy alien pest controller faces an alien threat the likes of which the universe has never seen. Hard Duty by Mark E. Cooper Hostile aliens nearly eradicated humanity. Will the next encounter finish the job? Bypass Gemini by Joseph Lallo A disgraced racer pilot gets mixed up with a mega-corporation. Now he has to stop them. Sky Hunter by Chris Reher Sent to a human outpost to investigate sabotage, a pilot finds more trouble than she bargained for. First Conquest by David VanDyke To find a home and keep humanity safe from hostile aliens, Task Force Conquest must fight to seize a new star system.

This ebook is a compendium of short hard science fiction stories.

In a distant future, the Galactic Empire stretches from one end of the Milky Way to the other. Its capital lies on a soulless, metallic world-city close to Galactic Center, its fortress planets guard every spiral arm. At its heart, its citizens dwell in sybaritic indulgence, their lives eased by luxuries imported from the outer worlds whose populations toil as slaves beneath the stinging electro-lash of the overseers. For a million years the Empire has been expanding, but its star cruisers can venture no further until a spacedrive is invented that can cross the unimaginable gulfs between this galaxy and Andromeda. Now the Empire begins to turn inward. The ensuing revolt will set the Galaxy at war. Does this spell the end of Empire? When it is gone, what will take its place? Freedom? Or a tyranny far worse? For now, all the citizens of the galaxy can do is prepare themselves for the FALL OF THE GALACTIC EMPIRE...

Shaped by a unique vision, Galactic Empires is a brilliant mosaic of a quarter century of the best writing in science fiction. It is both a chronicle of man's outward move from Earth and a collection of fourteen original views of space conquest. Volume One tells of galactic war and the rise of an Empire.