The book includes 36 stories, all first published in 2014. The book also includes a summation by Dozois, a brief introduction by Dozois to each story, and a referenced list of honorable mentions for the year. The stories are as follows:^[1]

• "The Fifth Dragon" by Ian McDonald (from Reach for Infinity)
• "The Rider" by Jérôme Cigut (from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• "The Days of the War, as Red as Blood, as Dark as Bile" by Aliette de Bodard (from Subterranean Online)
• "The Burial of Sir John Mawe at Cassini" by Chaz Brenchley (from Subterranean Online)
• "The Regular" by Ken Liu (from Upgraded)
• "The Woman from the Ocean" by Karl Bunker (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine)
• "Shooting the Apocalypse" by Paolo Bacigalupi (from The End Is Nigh)
• "Weather" by Susan Palwick (from Clarkesworld)
• "The Hand Is Quicker" by Elizabeth Bear (from The Book of Robert Silverberg)
• "The Man Who Sold the Moon" by Cory Doctorow (from Hieroglyph)
• "Vladimir Chong Chooses To Die" by Lavie Tidhar (from Analog Science Fiction and Fact)
• "Beside the Damned River" by D.J. Cockburn (from Interzone)
• "The Colonel" by Peter Watts (from Tor.com)
• "Entanglement" by Vandana Singh (from Hieroglyph)
• "White Curtain" by Pavel Amnuel (from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
• "Slipping" by Lauren Beukes (from Twelve Tomorrows)
• "Passage of Earth" by Michael Swanwick (from Clarkesworld)
• "Amicae Aeternum" by Ellen Klages (from Reach for Infinity)
• "In Babelsberg" by Alastair Reynolds (from Reach for Infinity)
• "Sadness" by Timons Esaias (from Analog)
• "West to East" by Jay Lake (from Subterranean Online)
• "Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)" by Rachel Swirsky (from Subterranean Online)
• "Covenent" by Elizabeth Bear (from Hieroglyph)
• "Jubilee" Karl Schroeder (from Tor.com)
• "Los Pirates del Mar de Plastico (Pirates of the Plastic Ocean)" by Paul Graham Raven (from Twelve Tomorrows)
• "Red Light, and Rain" Gareth L. Powell (from Solaris Rising 3)
• "Coma Kings" by Jessica Barber (from Lightspeed)
• "The Prodigal Son" by Allen M. Steele (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine)
• "God Decay" by Rich Larson (from Upgraded)
• "Blood Wedding" Robert Reed (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine)
• "The Long Haul From the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009" by Ken Liu (from Clarkesworld)
• "Shadow Flock" by Greg Egan (from Coming Soon Enough)
• "Thing and Sick" by Adam Roberts (from Solaris Rising 3)
• "Communion" by Mary Anne Mohanraj (from Clarkesworld)
• "Someday" by James Patrick Kelly (from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine)
• "Yesterday’s Kin" by Nancy Kress (from Tachyon)