The building blocks of life are more common in our galaxy than previously thought. The bleak flip side: in the case study examined, the carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, and oxygen get there because one of their orbiting planets crashed into the star, its matter ultimately exhaled into orbit like a belch from a sated diner. 

"The thing that makes the Fermi Paradox interesting for SF is that like the speed of light, you have to have an answer for it. It can be any answer you like, but it has to answer it."

Tor compiles a list of possible solutions to the Fermi paradox, including: 

—The aliens will arrive any minute
—The aliens, who planted us as a crop, will arrive any minute for the harvest 
—The aliens are already here
—The aliens are so advanced we can't even understand that they're already here
—"Life is common, intelligence vanishingly rare."
—Our part of the universe is boring
—The aliens think we're boring
—All the aliens have had their own Singularities and live in other dimensions now

Then there's the somewhat noble possiblity that we really are the chosen ones, the first intelligent species, as well as the depressing probability that we, like every galactic civilization before us, will kill ourselves before we can explore the stars.

This year's nominations includes a novel about people who can control earthquakes in a postapocalyptic Evil Earth, an allegory about neurodiversity told through a job shuttling fairies between parallel universes, and the revenge of a murdered angel. 

See the whole list, including links to stories you can read online, here.