Best Short Novels: 2004 (College of Mystery #2 - The Green Leopard Plague)

Best Short Novels: 2004. "These are good times for the novella", says editor Jonathan Strahan, offering nine of these "marvels of compression". From a distant future where both beer and rebellion brew in a tavern on Mars to an alternate WWII—where the cutting-edge science is quantum biology, and from a haunting story of a bizarre prison without guards or rules to a Bradbury-esque tale of small-town America, Best Short Novels: 2004 is a landmark collection of some of the finest short work in science fiction, a must-have collection for sf readers.

Contents:
* Introduction (Best Short Novels: 2004) (2004) • essay by Jonathan Strahan
* The Empress of Mars [Mars] (2003) / novella by Kage Baker: a distant future where both beer and rebellion brew in a tavern on Mars.
* The Green Leopard Plague [College of Mystery] (2003) / novella by Walter Jon Williams: tells of a philosopher who develops a way to make human skin photosynthetic-ending starvation as a tool of oppression. But his breakthrough has unforeseen repercussions.
* Springdale Town (2003) / novella by Robert Freeman Wexler: Bradbury-esque tale of small-town America.
* The Swastika Bomb (2003) / novella by John Meaney
Jailwise (2003) / novella by Lucius Shepard: haunting story of a bizarre prison without guards or rules.
* Just Like the Ones We Used to Know (2003) / novella by Connie Willis: the ultimate global warming effect: a freak snowstorm that effectively shuts down North America.
* Greetings (2003) / novella by Terry Bisson
* Awake in the Night (2003) / novella by John C. Wright: life in a distant future after the sun has gone out and true humans are confined to a single giant pyramid.
* Off on a Starship (2003) / novella by William Barton: a sf-loving teen travels on-an automated probe that carries him across space to a world where he's all alone, except for a robot that becomes increasingly female.


Also published titled: The Best Short Science Fiction Novels of the Year (Jan2006)
Also published titled: Modern Greats of Science Fiction: Nine Novellas of Distinction (Apr2007)
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