The Dragons of Springplace

A collection of thought-provoking science fiction short stories—including tales set in the Great Ship universe—from the Hugo Award–winning author.

In The Dragons of Springplace, Robert Reed’s provocative stories of the far future reveal alien visitors and genetic engineering altering people’s very humanity on Earth while their continuing evolution makes them near-immortal adventurers on colonized worlds and aboard interstellar ships.

In the Nebula Award–nominated “Chrysalis,” a young woman tailored by extraterrestrial beings to be a Voice for life throughout the universe uncovers the true aftermath of Earth’s devastating final war. 

An aging, athletic champion hits his “Stride” when his metabolism is altered by an energy drink—preparing him for a life or death race against an otherworldly competitor.

After an eternity of traveling the stars on an endless vacation in luxury, a woman spends time with “The Remoras,” learning how the mutated working class lives—and survives—in a society that needs and fears them.

Lonely and struggling to connect, “The Utility Man” hopes to find a friend in an alien coworker in this Hugo Award–nominated tale.

Eight years after serving a hard labor sentence of “Waging Good” on a radiated, devastated Earth, an ex-con returns home with vengeance in her heart, and bearing a hidden weapon in plain sight.

In the title story, a man orphaned at an early age, genetically enhanced with strength and stamina, overcomes his past misdeeds to build a black-market empire from poaching dragons found in a facility where the world’s nuclear arsenal is buried.

With these extraordinary stories, plus five more, Reed explores how interactions with technology and nature affect people biologically and psychologically, offering insight into the experiences and characteristics that make us human.