Introduction / Jonathan Strahan -- Exhalation / Ted Chiang -- Shoggoths in bloom / Elizabeth Bear -- Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the angel / Peter S. Beagle -- Fixing Hanover / Jeff VanderMeer -- Gambler / Paolo Bacigalupi -- Dust assassin / Ian McDonald -- Virgin / Holly Black -- Pride and Prometheus / John Kessel -- Thought war / Paul McAuley -- Beyond the sea gates of the Scholar Pirates of Sarsköe / Garth Nix -- Small door / Holly Phillips -- Turing's apples / Stephen Baxter -- New York Times at special bargain rates / Stephen King -- Five thrillers / Robert Reed -- Magician's house / Meghan McCarron -- Goblin music / Joan Aiken -- Machine maid / Margo Lanagan -- Art of alchemy / Ted Kosmatka -- 26 Monkeys, also The abyss / Kij Johnson -- Marry the sun / Rachel Swirsky -- Crystal nights / Greg Egan -- His master's voice / Hannu Rajaniemi -- Special economics / Maureen F. McHugh -- Evidence of love in a case of abandonment / M. Rickert -- From Babel's fall'n glory we fled / Michael Swanwich -- If angels fight / Richard Bowes -- Doom of love in small spaces / Ken Scholes -- Pretty monsters / Kelly Link.