When mankind moves out to the stars, the colonists of the future will remake the worlds they inhabit in their image. Included here are twenty stories from the most imaginative writers in the field:

Poul Anderson

Cordwainer Smith

Arthur C. Clarke

Richard McKenna

Roger Zelazny

John Varley

Gregory Benford

Ian McDonald

Bruce Sterling

Charles Sheffield

Robert Reed

G. David Nordley

Joe Haldeman

Phillip C. Jennings

Geoffrey A. Landis

Stephen Baxter

William H. Keith, Jr.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Pamela Sargent

Laura J. Mixon

These are the stories of the explorers and pioneers who transform their destinations in the image of their distant home--exciting tales of alien landscapes and the struggle to make them suit human desires.