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The largest star ship in the universe has a single passenger. That shape-shifting machine walks in solitude until the humans arrive, and their robots, and increasingly strange aliens. Then after thousands of years and a sequence of odd adventures, our hero arrives at a point where he understands the purpose of the Great Ship.

This novella originally appeared in the anthology Godlike Machines (2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Five (2011), also edited by Strahan. The story is available as a chapbook as well.

The ex-captain wears a borrowed face and life, allowing him to sit in public while hiding from the Ship's authorities. But then one of the most powerful captains comes to the fugitive with a mission. There is a corpse that needs to be studied. There is a nameless passenger who needs unspecified help. And there is a conspiracy involving aliens and humans and family ties and millions of years of painful history.

This novella originally appeared in the anthology Down These Dark Spaceways (2005), edited by Mike Resnick. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection (2006), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection The Greatship (2013).

Immortal humans colonize a bizarre world, but the colony collapses. Tens of thousands of years later, what remains are scattered bands and individuals fighting the natives and fighting one another. Every day is desperate. But every day also offers great beauty in an alien wilderness, and small moments of kindness.

Sturgeon Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in the collection Eater-of-Bone and Other Novellas (2012). The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (2013), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Read or listen to the full story for free at Escapepod.

In the far future, on a world made of water and little else, one desperate man rides inside a giant worm. Jopale is trying to make an appointment that will save his life. Perhaps. But this wet world is dying around him. Every other passenger is trying his or her best to survive. And out in the wastelands waits a long stretch of flat ground named Good Mountain, which might or might not bring salvation.

This novella originally appeared in the anthology One Million A.D. (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (2007), also edited by Dozois.

Rich tourists pay a fortune for the honor and misery of walking across an alien habitat, and a few powerful porters make their livings helping the tourists endure the impossible gravity. Katabasis is like nobody else. A species with a population of one, she came to the Great Ship by the most unusual means, and in the course of her duties as a porter, she will meet the most singular human.

Nebula Award nominated novella. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November-December 2012, later anthologized in Jonathan Strahan's The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven (2013) and Garnder Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (2013)

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Science Fiction Age, July 1997. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection (1998), edited by Gardner Dozois and The Hard SF Renaissance (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. It was later expanded to the full novel Marrow (2000).

She was born as the sole passenger onboard a battered starship. Physically and mentally stunted, the immortal woman had no name. For ten thousand years nothing about her life changed. Then the double suns appeared before her and, without warning, her ship crash-landed on an alien world. The Tila found her. They naturally assumed she was a god, but she didn't grow much or show any godly power besides immortality. Because she wasn't much of a god, they named her "Mere." And for the next several thousand years, Mere lived among the Tila, playing a role in the rise of the Tilan civilization, all while serving as the sole witness in their struggle to survive as their great Tilan world began to die.

Mere, a 13,300-word novelette, takes place in Robert Reed's "Marrow" universe, along with such notable new stories as "River of the Queen" and "Night of Time." The character "Mere" plays a pivotal role in Reed's "Marrow" novel, The Well of Stars. The author has also included a 5,000-word Afterword in which he details the history of his "Marrow" universe, including all the stories that comprise this future history.

A brilliant alien mind forgets one tiny detail, and the human named Ash -- a reformed torturer and expert in memory -- digs deep and finds the most amazing secret.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology The Silver Gryphon (2003) edited by Gary Turner and Marty Halpern. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection (2004), edited by Gardner Dozois, and Year's Best SF 9 (2004), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Kramer. The story is included in the collections The Cuckoo's Boys (2005) and The Greatship (2013).

A difficult job needs to be done. Tools are hired and paid well for their trouble. But one tool, an ancient AI, has a cautionary story to tell, and she tells it to one of the few humans who can appreciate what she is saying.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Bridging Infinity (2016), edited by Jonathan Strahan. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 2 (2017), edited by Neil Clarke.

A talented stardrive mechanic is kidnapped and hauled across light-years, ending up inside a derelict alien ship. The mission is to recover the treasure that must be somewhere on board. But where? The crew is untrustworthy, and the ancient creature at the helm might be insane. And the mechanic isn't a real mechanic, but instead Pamir is a criminal with just enough skills to maybe, maybe save the day.

This novella originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2013. It can also be found in the anthologies Space Opera (2014), edited by Rich Horton, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection (2014), edited by Gardner Dozois.

An odd, ancient machine with three minds comes to the Great Ship, offering a rare gift in exchange for a home and passage. But the fabled Miocene handles the interview, and this ancient captain is impossible to impress.

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2014. A self-pulished e-book edition of this story is also available.

Since the beginning of the universe, the giant starship wandered the emptiest reaches of space, without crew or course, much less any clear purpose. But humans found the relic outside the Milky Way, and after taking possession, they named their prize the Great Ship and embarked on a bold voyage through the galaxy's civilized hearts.

Larger than worlds, the Great Ship is laced with caverns and oceans, scenes of exalted beauty and corners where no creature has ever stood. Habitats can be created for every intelligent species, provided that the passengers can pay for the honor of a berth, and the human captains make the rules and dispense the justice in what soon becomes thousands of alien species joined a wild, unpredictable journey.

The first Great Ship story was "The Remoras", published in 1994 by THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. All but the most recent titles in the series have been included in this volume, arranged in a rough chronological order, each story partly rewritten to capture the author's growing expertise in the starship. New material has been added to bridge the centuries, hopefully enriching the resident confusion.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2013) - essay by Robert Reed
• Prologue - short story
• Alone - (2010) - novella
• Bridge One - short story
• Hoop-of-Benzene - (2006) - short story
• Bridge Two - short story
• Mere - (2004) - novelette
• Bridge Three - short story
• The Remoras - (1994) - novelette
• Bridge Four - short story
• Rococo - (2006) - novella
• Bridge Five - short story
• River of the Queen - (2004) - novelette
• Bridge Six - short story
• Night of Time - (2003) - short story
• Bridge Seven - short story
• Aeon's Child - (1995) - novelette
• Bridge Eight short story
• The Caldera of Good Fortune - (2007) - novelette
• Bridge Nine - short story
• Camouflage - (2005) - novella
• Bridge Ten - short story
• The Man with the Golden Balloon - (2008) - novella
• Bridge Eleven - short story
• Hatch - (2007) - short story

Quee Lee is a beautiful and rich woman, and she's immortal, and she happens to be married to a young fellow with a mysterious, intriguing past. That past comes alive in the form of a Remora named Orleans. Like any Remora, Orleans normally lives on the exposed hull of the starship, but he has come below looking for Quee Lee's husband. To settle an old debt, apparently. Which launches an adventure, and what will this grand old lady do when faced with the remarkable truth?

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1994. It can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelth Annual Collection (1995), edited by Gardner Dozois, The Space Opera Renaissance (2006), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. The story is included in the collections The Dragons of Springplace (1999) and The Greatship (2013).

Ash is a professional interrogator and at times has served as a torturer. He enlists an alien friend to help him cope with one of his victims, and the alien, one of the peculiar 31-1s, is witness to a pivotal moment in the lives of two immortal humans.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Extrasolar (2017), edited by Nick Gevers. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection (2018), edited by Gardner Dozois.

An alien world is inhabited living, highly-intelligent rivers. Those rivers have made a deal with the Great Ship: Send them a mortal human as a sacrifice, and humanity will be given planets and moons as gifts. But who would willingly volunteer for such a duty? A stubborn man named Amund, it turns out. And before it is over, this ordinary mortal holds the lives of billions in his grasp.

This novella originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, January-February 2017, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, Issue 107, April 2019. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 3 (2018), edited by Neil Clarke.

The Ship has traveled the universe for longer than any of the near-immortal crew can recall, its true purpose and origins unknown. It is larger than many planets, housing thousands of alien races and just as many secrets.

Now one of those secrets has been discovered: at the center of the Ship is . . . a planet. Marrow. But when a team of the Ship's best and brightest are sent down to investigate, will they return with the origins of the Ship--or will they bring doom to everyone on board?

In The Well of Stars, Hugo award-nominated author Robert Reed has written a stunning sequel to his acclaimed novel Marrow. The Great Ship, so vast that it contains within its depths a planet that lay undiscovered for generations, has cruised through the universe for untold billions of years. After a disastrous exploration of the planet, Marrow, the Ship's captains face an increasingly restive population aboard their mammoth vessel.

And now, compounding the captains' troubles, the Ship is heading on an irreversible course straight for the Ink Well, a dark, opaque nebula. Washen and Pamir, the captains who saved Marrow from utter destruction, send Mere, whose uncanny ability to adapt to and understand other cultures makes her the only one for the job, to investigate the nebula before they plunge blindly in. While Mere is away, Pamir discovers in the Ink Well the presence of a god-like entity with powers so potentially destructive that it might destroy the ship and its millions.

Faced with an entity that might prevent the Ship from ever leaving the Ink Well, the Ship's only hope now rests in the ingenuity of the vast crew... and with Mere, who has not contacted them since she left the Ship...

With the excitement of epic science fiction adventure set against a universe full of wonders, the odyssey of the Ship and its captains will capture the hearts of science fiction readers.

Diamond is an odd little boy, a seemingly fragile child - who proves to be anything but. An epic story begins when he steps into the world his parents have so carefully kept him from, a world where gigantic trees each house thousands of humans and another human species, the papio, rule its far edges. Does Diamond hold the promise to remake one species and, perhaps, change all of the Creation?