AustLit

When humans land on and begin colonise a seemingly beautiful planet full of lush green grass they initially celebrate their luck having found a world seemed so rich and abundant. 'But the dazzling green turns out to be razor edged, and every day the colonists need to cut back the Grass in order to survive. Then it turns out that an alien species has laid claim to the place' (Lois Tilton, Locus Online).

Comprising twelve stories by twelve Australian authors, contributors to the fourth volume in Mirrordance Books Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy series are: Greg Egan, Adam Browne, Terry Dowling, Trent Jamieson, Lucy Sussex, Richard Harland, Cat Sparks, Ben Peek, Rick Kennett, Ana Tambour, Rjurik Davidson, and Garth Nix.

Provoking and inventive, this third annual edition of the Best of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy includes talented newcomers as well as established professionals at the peak of their form. The contributors are Simon Brown, Deborah Biancotti, Terry Dowling, Margo Lanagan, Geoffrey Maloney, Lee Battersby, Chris Lawson, Alistair Ong, Ben Peek, Kim Westwood and Kaaron Warren.

'A mysterious craft docks unexpectedly on a space station in orbit around the Earth –could this be humankind's first contact with an alien civilisation? Eerily, the ship that sits silently in the dock is similar–with a few significant differences–to the Orion, a spacecraft launched from Earth into deep space 180 years before and never heard from again. What Senator Maya Russini discovers when she leads a team to board the ship will change her life, and the course of human civilisation, forever: five hundred life forms poised to wake from stasis. While they are genetically human, unnerving violet eyes and predatory teeth and claws suggest otherwise. And, as Maya comes to discover, they have no empathy, no memories, no names–and they don't know where they came from or why. She and the newcomers become pawns in a dangerous game between rival space stations desperate to get their hands on whatever technological secrets they and their spacecraft might hold.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.