Welcome to Litsy!

Sixteen all-new stories by science fiction�s top talents, collected by bestselling author George R. R. Martin and multiple-award-winning editor Gardner Dozois From pulp adventures such as Edgar Rice Burroughs�s Carson of Venus to classic short stories such as Ray Bradbury�s �The Long Rain� to visionary novels such as C. S. Lewis�s Perelandra, the planet Venus has loomed almost as large in the imaginations of science fiction writers as Earth�s next-nearest neighbor, Mars. But while the Red Planet conjured up in Golden Age science fiction stories was a place of vast deserts and ruined cities, bright blue Venus was its polar opposite: a steamy, swampy jungle world with strange creatures lurking amidst the dripping vegetation. Alas, just as the last century�s space probes exploded our dreams of Mars, so, too, did they shatter our romantic visions of Venus, revealing, instead of a lush paradise, a hellish world inimical to all life. But don�t despair! This new anthology of sixteen original stories by some of science fiction�s best writers�edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois�turns back the clock to that more innocent time, before the hard-won knowledge of science vanquished the infinite possibilities of the imagination. Join our cast of award-winning contributors�including Elizabeth Bear, David Brin, Joe Haldeman, Gwyneth Jones, Mike Resnick, Eleanor Arnason, Allen M. Steele, and more�as we travel back in time to a planet that never was but should have been: a young, rain-drenched world of fabulous monsters and seductive mysteries. FEATURING ALL-NEW STORIES BY Eleanor Arnason � Elizabeth Bear � David Brin � Tobias S. Buckell � Michael Cassutt � Joe Haldeman � Matthew Hughes � Gwyneth Jones � Joe R. Lansdale � Stephen Leigh � Paul McAuley � Ian McDonald � Garth Nix � Mike Resnick � Allen M. Steele � Lavie Tidhar And an Introduction by Gardner Dozois