Victoria is the 'wild card' pioneer on a ship that carries all the hope for the future of humanity. Every seven weeks Victoria and one of her shipmates (on an all-female crew) is woken up. For several days they conduct inspections of the ship and its precious cargo of seeds and embryos – and converse with the ship AI, Athena. When the ship tells Victoria that it has identified a planet that could be their new home it also sets her a moral dilemma that will have lasting repercussions.

The award-winning Chris Beckett interrogates the nature of happiness, purpose and duty.

On a century-old journey Keihi is woken up by her ship. She has been travelling the stars, seeking a possible new home for the inhabitants of Earth. But she has been travelling for so long, with so many disappointments, that she doubts there is still anyone left at home for her to report to.

When her ship wakes her, it is to the view of a strange star, one that is shielded by an engineered 'second skin'. And the star is trying to communicate. What happens when the discovery you have been hoping for comes in an unexpected form? What happens when you have forgotten how to hope?

A bold emerging voice in the SF field, An Owomoyela's prose is faultless, beautifully crafted and boldly imagined.

In this story Nikesh Shukla introduces a new superhero for our times. Anuj is a good boy from a nice family who have sent him from Amenebad to Bristol to study law. All he wants is to work hard, get his degree, and maybe find some friends along the way. But weeks into his trip he realises nobody seems able to see him.

A meeting with fellow classmate Cynthia leads Anuj to ask: is he becoming invisible or is he being erased? With characteristic humour and a keen social message, Shukla uses the classic superhero story to interrogate what it means to be a stranger in a strange and unwelcoming land.

When the asteroid hits it is sudden and nothing can stop it. Zama is, along with many of her compatriots, exiled from the Exclusion Zone that was once known as Cape Town. When two rich 'disaster tourists' offer her the chance to join them, Zama jumps at the chance to revisit the place she once called home – hoping to escape the heartbreak of her failed relationship and to jumpstart her writing career. But when their guides seemingly turn against them, Zama and her companions are faced with a choice that could change everything.

With her characteristic fast-paced, tech-savvy prose, acclaimed Speculative Fiction author Lauren Beukes has once again imagined a near-future that is chillingly believable.

As a child, Rita heard the story of the orphan Da Niu and the Magic Paintbrush – that could bring pictures to life – every night. Set in an ancient mythical Chinese kingdom and a near future USA, Ken Liu's story explores the tension between humans and the artificial intelligences they build; the act and the art of creation and its inescapable cost.

Two scientists, two labs, an over-bearing Company that oversees all work and interactions – both professional and personal. This is the stuff of classic SF in the tradition of Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov – but with a twist that is all Cornell and tantalisingly relevant to our current political moment.

Asaph and his work friend Kala meet for lunch once a month. When they begin collaboration on one of her projects, they unwittingly discover the meaning of the life – and it's not what anyone could have expected.