High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF is a definitive 1994 anthology of hard science fiction (sf) short stories compiled by the award-winning editing team of David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. This 990-page book includes 68 stories, each prefaced by a brief note to describe facts about the author, related works, or the logic of the story`s inclusion in the genre. In addition, the book opens with three essays that meditate on the meaning and the boundaries of hard science fiction. The editors further explored these issues in The Hard SF Renaissance (2002).