What would your world be without essential services? The greatest gift to us is caring and sharing, no matter who we are.

What would your world be like without someone or something to care for or to care with? Would love survive? From the world of twenty-three science fiction and fantasy authors comes a gift that can be funny, heartwarming, strange, or sad. Or not what we expect.

How can a henchman keep up with a mischievous retired supervillain? Can a dog help a hockey player score again? Will an odd couple with a zany sense of adventure and diminished capabilities survive an earthquake? Where does a stray cat go to find love every night? What secret does a pious monk have with a cargo of sleeping human? Will terrorism in space take out a young apprentice and a blind welder? What does an oracle tell a lover about her final days? Can a "heart of gold" prevent a soldier from crossing the enemy line with the governor's children? These, and many hopeful more.

Featuring Original Stories by Colleen Anderson, Charlotte Ashley, Brenda Cooper, Ian Creasey, A.M. Dellamonica, Bev Geddes, Claire Humphrey, Sandra Kasturi, Tyler Keevil, Juliet Marillier, Matt Moore, Heather Osborne, Nisi Shawl, Alex Shvartsman, Kate Story, Karina Sumner-Smith, Amanda Sun, Hayden Trenholm, James Van Pelt, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, Edward Willett, Christie Yant, and Caroline M. Yoachim

Introduction by Dominik Parisien

Edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law

Anthologies in this series (Strangers Among Us, The Sum of Us, Where the Stars Rise, Shades Within Us) have been recommended by Publishers Weekly, Booklist (American Library Association), Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Locus, Foreword Reviews, and Quill & Quire.