Gypsy

Gypsy, the title story of this collection, was the best short hard SF I've read in ages. It tells the story of a small group of scientists fleeing an earth that is in the final throes of destruction due to greed and shortsightness. Their makeshift craft is headed to Tau Ceti in the desperate hope that there might be a habitable planet waiting for them, while the crew is kept in an untested suspended animation until need arises. The story is told in episodic fashion from the POV of these individually awakened crew members, with each episode containing a healthy slug of cutting-edge science, but also giving us lovely characterizations that really let us get to know the crew.

Bleakly magnificent, Gypsy really deserves to be considered for all the major novella awards this year - I hope it fares well.

The other pieces in the collection are, for various reasons, of lesser import, but Gypsy more than carries the collection.