It’s beginning to look as if Jonathan Strahan’s Meeting Infinity is the most successful SF anthology of 2015… at least if you use story reprints as your yardstick (which I kinda do).

Let’s examine the evidence. Rich Horton reprinted two stories from Meeting Infinity for his Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy:

“My Last Bringback” by John Barnes
“Drones” by Simon Ings

Neil Clarke reprinted a whopping four for his Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 1, more than any other source except Asimov’s SF. Of course, they were a different four.

“In Blue Lily’s Wake” by Aliette de Bodard
“Outsider” by An Owomeyla
“Cocoons” by Nancy Kress
“The Cold Inequalities” by Yoon Ha Lee

Meanwhile Gardner Dozois picked a completely different set of three tales, for the upcoming 33rd volume of his Year’s Best Science Fiction

“The Falls: A Luna Story,” by Ian McDonald
“Emergence,” by Gwyneth Jones
“Rates of Change,” by James S.A. Corey

That’s a darned impressive hit rate… over 50% of the Table of Contents selected for Best of the Year volumes. I’m sure there’s an historical precedent if you look hard enough, but I can’t remember one. And I tried.

As for his own Year’s Best volume, Jonathan modestly selected two stories from Meeting Infinity for Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten, (both of which are included on the above lists).

“Drones,” Simon Ings
“Emergence,” Gwyneth Jones

While we’re on the topic, I’ve been impressed with all three previous volumes in this series:

Engineering Infinity (2010)
Edge of Infinity (2012)
Reach For Infinity (2014)

Meeting Infinity is the first in the series to graduate to trade paperback. Truthfully, I miss the mass market format — which was cheaper and presumably had wider distribution — but I understand the economics.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents for Meeting Infinity.

“Memento Mori” by Madeline Ashby
“My Last Bringback” by John Barnes
“Aspects: A Galactic Centre Story” by Gregory Benford
“Rates of Change” by James S.A. Corey
“In Blue Lily’s Wake” by Aliette de Bodard
“Body Politic” by Kameron Hurley
“Drones” by Simon Ings
“Emergence” by Gwyneth Jones
“Cocoons” by Nancy Kress
“The Cold Inequalities” by Yoon Ha Lee
“The Falls: A Luna Story” by Ian McDonald
“Exile from Extinction” by Ramez Naam
“Outsider” by An Owomoyela
“Desert Lexicon” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
“Pictures from the Resurrection” by Bruce Sterling
“All the Wrong Places” by Sean Williams

We previously covered Meeting Infinity here.

Meeting Infinity was published by Solaris on December 1, 2015. It is 272 pages, priced at $14.99 in trade paperback, and $8.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Adam Tredowski.

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