The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick ISBN: Print 978-1-61696-450-4 / Digital 978-1-61696-452-8 Published: 3 February 2026 Available Format(s): trade paperback; digital Discover the vast worlds and pocket universes of Michael Swanwick (Stations of the Tide), the only author to win science fiction’s most prestigious award five times in six years. In his dazzling new collection, the master of speculative short stories returns with tales in which magic and science improbably coexist with myth and legend. With two stories original to this collection, Swanwick aptly demonstrates with poignant humor why he is widely respected as a master of imaginative storytelling. [STARRED REVIEW] “Five-time Hugo Award winner Swanwick (Stations of the Tide) swirls together myth and science in this wildly inventive collection. —Publishers Weekly In engaging stories, Mischling the thief races through time to defeat three trolls before the sun rises for the first time and turns the inhabitants of her city into stone. A scientist is on the run from assassins, because her research in merging human intelligence with sentient AI is too dangerous. An aging veteran obtains a military weapon from his past: a VR robotic leopard in which he rediscovers the consequences of the hunt. In the biggest heist in the history of the universe, a loser Trickster (and the girlfriend who is better than he deserves), sets out to violate every trope and expectation of fiction possible. Table of Contents Introduction “Starlight Express” “The Last Days of Old Night” “The Year of the Three Monarchs” “Ghost Ships” “The White Leopard” “Dragon Slayer” “The Warm Equations” “Requiem for a White Rabbit” “Dreadnaught” “Grandmother Dimetrodon” “The Star-Bear” “Nirvana or Bust” “Reservoir Ice” “Artificial People” “Huginn and Muninn—and What Came After” “Cloud” “Timothy: An Oral History” “Annie Without Crow” “Universe Box”
