The prestigious Nebula Awards are the Oscars of science fiction and fantasy, the only SF awards bestowed annually by the writers' own demanding peers, the Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Just as the Nebula Awards honor only the finest science ficiton and fantasy, the Nebula Awards series showcases only the best of the ballot, offering as well fiction and nonfiction not collected elsewhere and a dazzling selection of essays written expressley for each volume. No other best-of-year anthology represents the achievement of the Nebula Awards so well. Nebula Awards 31 is, as Publishers Weekly said of a previous volume, "essential reading for anyone who enjoys science fiction."