Dust jacket by Lee Moyer

Subterranean Press is proud to announce a mammoth (38 stories, over 200,000 words) Best of Volume by SF Best-Seller Jack McDevitt.

Jack McDevitt loves a good mystery. And he enjoys baffling his readers with enigmas like why, after so many years of listening with no results, would a SETI director hear an artificial signal and keep it quiet? Why might an astronomer at a space station, facing imminent death from a solar radiation blast, send off a frantic message that he had discovered a Clyde Tombaugh Special? Tombaugh, of course, was the discoverer of Pluto.

What really happened to Christopher Sim, the George Washington of the war against the Ashiyyur? Why had a beloved artist at the top of his profession, with everything to live for, killed himself? Why had a brilliant young biologist discovered how life got started on Earth, but neglected to tell anyone?

And there are of course other anomalies to be encountered in McDevitt's work: A computer threatens the literary world, while a time traveler worries the churches. One artificial intelligence runs for president, and another claims to be a Catholic and demands access to the sacraments. Two friends discover that whenever they get together, shuttles crash, wars break out, or tidal waves hammer a coastline.

A researcher watches endless fighting on another world and finally rebels against the Academy's hands-off doctrine. Meantime, a crewman stranded light-years from Earth, entertains himself by intercepting radio broadcasts from home, originally transmitted during World War II.

Among other questions these tales will answer: What might happen when people in a research lab literally try to play God. Why you don't ever, ever, want to turn out the lights at Bolton's Tower in the Dakotas. Why someone might want to blow up a star. And why it would be a really good idea if Hatch kept his hands off the mallet. These, and twenty-three other cosmic rides, await the reader.

Table of Contents:

Part I: Unlikely Connections

Cryptic
The Fort Moxie Branch
Nothing Ever Happens in Rock City
Tweak
Melville on Iapetus
Lighthouse (with Michael Shara)
Cool Neighbor (with Michael Shara)
Whistle
In the Tower

Part II: Lost Treasures

Ignition
Indomitable
Last Contact
Never Despair
Windows
Dutchman
The Tomb
Promises to Keep
To Hell with the Stars
The Mission

Part III: Out There

Report from the Rear
Black to Move
The Far Shore
Sunrise
Kaminsky at War

Part IV: Touching the Infinite

Fifth Day
Deus Tex
Gus
Welcome to Valhalla (with Kathryn Lance)
Tyger
Auld Lang Boom

Part V: Inventions and Fallout

Cruising through Deuteronomy
The Candidate
Act of God
Ellie
Time's Arrow
Dead in the Water
Henry James, This One's for You
Time Travellers Never Die

From Analog:
"...McDevitt...is surely one of the best writers of SF alive today. His novels are enough to support the statement, but if he had never written the novels, his short fiction could do the job almost as well. If you doubt me, get a copy of Cryptic.... The book has thirty-nine tales, and I am not about to go through them all for you! Suffice it to say that you should have no trouble finding plenty to enjoy."

From Library Journal:
"Bearing witness to a brilliant mind and an ever-expanding interest in things mysterious and unknown, this volume belongs in most libraries with an interest in top-notch speculative short fiction."

From Booklist:
"McDevitt has a knack for making the familiar mysterious and a fondness for mysteries that bring a frisson of joyful recognition to fans of classic sf."

From Publishers Weekly:
"[McDevitt's] strong, clear voice easily sustains each individual story."