Introduction -- A jar of goodwill / Tobias S. Buckell -- Mono no aware / Ken Liu -- Rescue mission / Jack Skillingstead -- Shiva in shadow / Nancy Kress -- Slow life / Michael Swanwick -- Three bodies at Mitanni / Seth Dickinson -- The deeps of the sky / Elizabeth Bear -- Diving into the wreck / Kristine Kathryn Rusch -- The voyage out / Gwyneth Jones -- The symphony of ice and dust / Julie Novakova -- Twenty lights to "The land of snow" / Michael Bishop -- The firewall and the door / Sean McMullen -- Permanent fatal errors / Jay Lake -- Gypsy / Carter Scholz -- Sailing the Antarsa / Vandana Singh -- The mind is its own place / Carrie Vaughn -- The wreck of the Godspeed / James Patrick Kelly -- Seeing -- Genevieve Valentine -- Travelling into nothing / An Owomoyela -- Glory / Greg Egan -- The island / Peter Watts

The urge to explore and discover is a natural and universal one, and the edge of the unknown is expanded with each passing year as scientific advancements inch us closer and closer to the outer reaches of our solar system and the galaxies beyond them. In this collection of galaxy-spanning adventures of discovery and adventure, science fiction writers give readers increasingly new and alien ways to look out into our broad and sprawling universe. From generations ships to warp drives, exploring new worlds to first contacts, they are a reminder that the universe is brimming with possibilities. -- adapted from back cover