The Wind From a Burning Woman

The asteroid Psyche was to become mankind’s first vessel to the stars. It was equipped with engines and was to be hollowed out to support generations of interstellar travelers. But before its completion, a strange sickness overcame the construction crew, leading to mutiny and halting the project permanently. Was it madness caused by long periods in a near weightless environment, or sabotage?

Now, five years later, Giani Turco, granddaughter of the project’s administrator, has commandeered Psyche, restarted its engines, and put it on a collision course with Earth. She has promised to alter the asteroid’s destructive course only after Earth’s government discloses publicly what really happened on Psyche.

This selection also includes “The White Horse Child,” “Petra,” “Scattershot,” “Mandala,” and the Nebula Award–winning “Hardfought.”

“[Bear] is one of SF’s finest, no journeyman tale-teller, but an artist of the imagination.”—Analog