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Let's talk about science fiction short stories

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Graphite:
There's probably a rule somewhere about how if you like sci fi, you're meant to read Jorge Louis Borges' "The Library of Babel", just to be aware of it. It gets referenced a fair bit, and is worth reading in its own right.

FIXDIX:
I've loved short stories before I knew what a short story was, but sci fi has never been a main interest of mine. I prefer fantasy/other spec fic. genres, so the few sci fi authors I know have already been recommended. Speaking of Borges he along with A. Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo released a really good collection of short stories called The Book of Fantasy which is basically everything from folk tales to 18th century New Weird. It's not exactly sci but it's worth checking our if you can find it.

Gene Wolfe is a favourite of mine too. The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories is a great collection and a good read if you've read and enjoyed his novels.

Sci fi has always been a genre I've been interested in but never had the time to look into, I'm definitely going to be checking out this thread.

KharBevNor:
A lot of the novelists discussed are great, but there's plenty of fantastic stories out there that might be from authors people might not otherwise have read, some of them perhaps fairly minor. The reason short stories are so important to the sci-fi genre is I think the roots of so much great sci-fi literature in former pulps like Astounding Science Fiction. People like Campbell, Asimov, Sturgeon and Heinlein all first emerged in that context.

I realised I hadn't made an opinionated list in ages so here are some of my top sci-fi short stories that I think people with more than a passing interest in the genre should make some stab at reading (actually they are just my faves):

Isaac Asimov – Nightfall
Alfred Bester – Fondly Fahrenheit
James Blish – Common Time
Phil K. Dick – We Can Remember it For You Wholesale
Thomas M. Disch – Problems of Creativeness
E.M. Forster – The Machine Stops
William Gibson – Burning Chrome
Tom Godwin - The Cold Equations
Damon Knight - The Country of the Kind
Walter M. Miller, Jr. - Crucifixus Etiam
Frederik Pohl - The Tunnel Under the World
Raccoona Sheldon - The Screwfly Solution
Cordwainer Smith – The Game of Rat and Dragon
Bruce Sterling - Swarm

Jimor:
Two newer writers (as in the past couple of decades rather than going back to the classics) to look for are Ted Chiang, and Robert Reed. They mostly do short stories and appear in the magazines, but every time they write a story, it's exquisite. I believe each has a collection available, but it might take some digging.

A very good way to get an overview of the better new short works is to take a look at the various "Best of the Year" anthologies that come out each year. Gardner Dozois' in particular because it's a big book with a lot of good reading. This is a good way to browse for writers you might like to find more of as well. There are also fantasy anthologies that do the same one, the standard there being by Ellen Datlow (and is essentially the companion book to Dozois).

I don't know the particulars of what's available for these year's best outside of the U.S./Canada, but these 2 should be obtainable.

I'm a big fan of the magazines, but since the stories aren't distilled down by time or further editing, the quality is more uneven. In the US you have Asimov's, Analog, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Realms of Fantasy as the big pro mags. Canada has a small press magazine On Spec, UK has Interzone, and Australia has Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Aurealis. There are also a number of online magazines these days as well so you can check out a lot of work for free.

Here's a pretty good list of possibilities.

scarred:
bleh, I hate the Gardner Dozois anthologies. there's usually one or two decent stories in there but man the rest tend towards awful/unreadable.

the last really good anthology i read was rewired: the post-cyberpunk anthology. among the 16 stories featured most are excellent, with only a couple duds. can't rec this highly enough.

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