“Harrison Bergeron” is a 1961 science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut. It is about a future society in which talented and gifted people are forced to wear handicapping equipment to make them “more normal.”

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“Scanners Live in Vain” is a 1950 science fiction novelette by Cordwainer Smith. It is about a sensory deprived man who tries to stop his Scanner brothers from killing a human who has just made a great scientific breakthrough.

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“Approaching Perimelasma” is a 1998 science fiction novelette by Geoffrey A. Landis. It is about a tiny downloaded human who agrees to take his spaceship into a black hole and hopes that an untested scientific trick can pull him back out again.

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“The Colour Out Of Space” is a 1927 science fiction novelette by H.P. Lovecraft. It is about a meteorite that falls from the sky in the 1880′s and the devastating consequences it has upon the people in a rural New England town.

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“When Thorns Are the Tips of Trees” is a 2008 science fiction short story by Jason Sanford. It is about a boy who is trying to deal with the local ramifications of a deadly, world-wide virus.

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“Yellow Card Man” is a 2006 science fiction novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is about a formerly wealthy Chinese refugee living a very hard life in a future Bangkok.

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“Fountain of Age” is a 2007 science fiction novella by Nancy Kress. It is about a wealthy, reformed criminal who tries to track down his famous long lost lover.

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“Tower of Babylon” is a 1990 science fiction novelette by Ted Chiang. It is about the journey of a young miner who ascends the great tower of Babylon to help break through the vault of heaven.

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“I, Row-Boat” is a 2006 science fiction novelette by Cory Doctorow. It is about a sentient row-boat who becomes involved in an uplifted reef’s grudge war against humanity.

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“The Planck Dive” is a 1998 science fiction novelette by Greg Egan. It is about a group of beings who are sending cloned copies of themselves on a scientific journey into a black hole.

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“21 Minutes” is a 2008 science fiction short story by Rahul Jaisheel. It is about a researcher who travels back in time to discuss theories with a famous scientist.

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“The Crystal Spheres” is a 1984 science fiction short story by David Brin. It is about a man who travels to a distant star system after learning that the inhabitants there have broken out of their crystal shell.

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“Neutron Star” is a 1966 science fiction short story by Larry Niven. It is about a man sent to investigate the mysterious deaths of two space explorers who were studying the galaxy’s only known neutron star.

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“Helen O’Loy” is a 1938 science fiction short story by Lester del Rey. It is about two men who buy a beautiful robot house keeper and the all too life-like problems they encounter with her.

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“Jeffty is Five” is a 1977 science fiction short story by Harlan Ellison. It is about a five year old boy who never ages and the strange pocket of time in which he lives.

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“We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” is a 1966 science fiction novelette by Philip K. Dick. It is about a man who desperately wants to go to Mars but can’t afford it, so he gets vacation memories implanted instead.

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“The Chief Designer” is a 2001 science fiction novella by Andy Duncan. It is a fictionalized account of the man in charge of the Soviet Union’s space program during the “race to the moon.”

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“Understand” is a 1991 science fiction novelette by Ted Chiang. It is about a man whose use of an experimental drug makes him super intelligent.

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“The Concrete Jungle” is a 2004 science fiction novella by Charles Stross. It is about an agent who works for a secret British intelligence organization handling supernatural cases, and his discovery that someone has hacked into their deadly network.

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“Slow Life” is a 2002 science fiction novelette by Michael Swanwick. It is about an astronaut on Titan who believes she is in communication with a newfound life form.

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