Recent SF/F/H short fiction online
January 15, 2017 11:12 PM Subscribe
Tables of contents have been published for upcoming best SF, fantasy, and horror collections edited by Neil Clarke, Gardner Dozois, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, and Jonathan Strahan. The Nebula Award suggested reading lists (previously) for novella, novelette, and short story are well-populated. BestSF.net has selected its shortlist. At Strange Horizons, Rachel Swirsky has comments on her favorite short fiction of the year. And at r/Fantasy, the Stabby Award winners have been announced. Many stories suggested by these sources can be read for free.
For each available story, the initials of one or more recommenders appear in brackets. For Nebula Award suggestions, only suggestions with 4 or more votes are listed, and the recommender is given as n# where # reflects the number of votes at the time of posting.
Novelettes
Nina Allan, "The Art of Space Travel." Tor.com [gd, js]
Eleanor Arnason, "Checkerboard Planet." Clarkesworld [gd]
Steven Barnes, "Fifty Shades of Grays." Lightspeed [gd, n5, rh]
A.M. Dellamonica, "The Glass Galago." Tor.com [n4]
Gregory Feeley, "The Bridge of Dreams." Clarkesworld [rh]
Carolyn Ives Gilman, "Touring with the Alien." Clarkesworld [bsf, gd, js, nc, rs]
Theodora Goss, "Red as Blood and White as Bone." Tor.com [js]
Kameron Hurley, "The Plague Givers." Uncanny [rh]
James Patrick Kelly, "One Sister, Two Sisters, Three." Clarkesworld [gd, n5]
Rich Larson, "Extraction Request." Clarkesworld [nc]
Rich Larson, "Jonas and the Fox." Clarkesworld [gd]
Yoon Ha Lee, "Foxfire, Foxfire." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [js, n4]
Rose Lemberg, "The Book of How to Live." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [n5]
Sarah Pinsker, "Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea." Lightspeed [nc, n8]
Lettie Prell, "The Three Lives of Sonata James." Tor.com [nc]
Jason Sanford, "Blood Grains Speak Through Memories." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [rh, n9]
Delia Sherman, "The Great Detective." Tor.com [js]
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, "The Orangery." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [n7]
Alena Indigo Anne Sullivan, "Gorse Daughter, Sparrow Son" (and part 2). Strange Horizons [rh]
Catherynne M. Valente, "Snow Day." Uncanny [rs]
Genevieve Valentine, "Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home." Clarkesworld [js, rh]
Alyssa Wong, "You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay." Uncanny [js, n9]
Short stories
Joe Abercrombie, "Two's Company." Tor.com [js]
Paolo Bacigalupi, "Mika Model." Slate [gd, js]
Barbara A. Barnett, "43 Responses to "In Memory of Dr. Alexandra Nako"." Daily Science Fiction [n10]
James Beamon, "17 Amazing Plot Elements... When You See #11, You'll Be Astounded!." Daily Science Fiction [n11]
Helena Bell, "I've Come to Marry the Princess." Lightspeed [rh]
Brooke Bolander, "Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies." Uncanny [n10, pg]
Chaz Brenchley, "In Skander, for a Boy." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [rh]
L.E. Buis, "Only a Signal Shown." Perihelion [n4]
Nadia Bulkin, "Wish You Were Here." Nightmare [pg]
Jennifer Campbell-Hicks, "Aphrodite's Blood, Decanted." Clarkesworld [n4]
Beth Cato, "The Souls of Horses." Mythic Delirium Books [n4]
Maggie Clark, "A Tower for the Coming World." Clarkesworld [gd]
Tom Crosshill, "The Dark City Luminous." Clarkesworld [rs]
Aliette de Bodard, "A Salvaging of Ghosts." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [gd, js]
Aliette de Bodard, "Lullaby for a Lost World." Tor.com [pg]
Craig Delancey, "RedKing." Lightspeed [gd, rh]
Seth Dickinson, "Laws of Night and Silk." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [js, n6, rh]
Amal El-Mohtar, "Seasons of Glass and Iron." Uncanny [js, pg]
Cate Gardner, "As Cymbals Clash." The Dark [pg]
A.T. Greenblatt, "A Non-Hero's Guide to the Road of Monsters." Mothership Zeta [rh]
Maria Dahvana Headley, "Little Widow." Nightmare [rs]
Kat Howard, "The Sound of Salt and Sea." Uncanny [pg]
José Pablo Iriarte, "Life in Stone, Glass, and Plastic." Strange Horizons [n9]
José Pablo Iriarte, "The Curse of Giants." Daily Science Fiction [n9]
N.K. Jemisin, "The City Born Great." Tor.com [stabby]
Rachael K. Jones, "The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [n5]
Rebecca Ann Jordan, "We Have a Cultural Difference, Can I Taste You?" Strange Horizons [n6]
Cassandra Khaw, "The Games We Play." Mythic Delirium Books [pg]
Alice Sola Kim, "Successor, Usurper, Replacement." Buzzfeed [js]
Ted Kosmatka, "The One Who Isn't." Lightspeed [gd]
Carrie Laben, "Postcards from Natalie." The Dark [pg]
Marc Laidlaw, "The Finest, Fullest Flowering." Nightmare [pg]
Ken Liu, "Seven Birthdays." Tor.com [js]
Karin Lowachee, "A Good Home." Lightspeed [nc]
Carmen Maria Machado, "My Body, Herself." Uncanny [pg]
Paul McAuley, "Something Happened Here, But We're Not Quite Sure What It Was." Tor.com [rh]
Seanan McGuire, "The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch." Lightspeed [pg]
Sam J. Miller, "Things With Beards." Clarkesworld [gd, js, nc, n8, rh]
Samantha Murray, "Of Sight, of Mind, of Heart." Clarkesworld [n5]
An Owomoyela & Rachel Swirsky, "Between Dragons and Their Wrath." Clarkesworld [n4]
An Owomoyela & Rachel Swirsky, "Whose Drowned Face Sleeps." Nightmare [pg]
Sunil Patel, "Girl in a Blue Dress (1881)." Fantastic Stories [n6]
Michael Reid, "Bend Back the Shadows." Escape Pod [n4]
Mercurio D. Rivera, "Those Brighter Stars." Lightspeed [gd]
Margaret Ronald, "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices." Clarkesworld [bsf, nc]
A. Merc Rustad, "This is Not a Wardrobe Door." Fireside [n12]
Kelly Sandoval, "The Right Sort of Monsters." Strange Horizons [n9]
Ferrett Steinmetz, "Rooms Formed of Neurons and Sex." Uncanny [n4]
Lavie Tidhar, "Terminal." Tor.com [gd, js, nc]
Carrie Vaughn, "That Game We Played During the War." Tor.com [gd, rh]
Douglas F. Warrick, "Sic Semper, Sic Semper, Sic Semper." Tor.com [n4]
Fran Wilde, "Only Their Shining Beauty Was Left." Shimmer [pg]
Alyssa Wong, "A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers." Tor.com [n6, pg, stabby]
Alyssa Wong, "Natural Skin." Lightspeed [n6]
Isabel Yap, "An Ocean the Color of Bruises." Uncanny [pg]
Caroline M. Yoachim, "Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0." Lightspeed [n13]
Charles Yu, "Fable." The New Yorker [js]
E. Lily Yu, "The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight." Uncanny [js]
E. Lily Yu, "Braid of Days and Wake of Nights." PodCastle [n4, pg]
Melissa Yuan-Innes, "Fairy Tales are for White People." Fireside [pg]
Incidentally, in addition to the changes in how nominees will be tallied, slate voting for the Hugo is expected to be less emphasized this year.
For each available story, the initials of one or more recommenders appear in brackets. For Nebula Award suggestions, only suggestions with 4 or more votes are listed, and the recommender is given as n# where # reflects the number of votes at the time of posting.
Novelettes
Nina Allan, "The Art of Space Travel." Tor.com [gd, js]
Eleanor Arnason, "Checkerboard Planet." Clarkesworld [gd]
Steven Barnes, "Fifty Shades of Grays." Lightspeed [gd, n5, rh]
A.M. Dellamonica, "The Glass Galago." Tor.com [n4]
Gregory Feeley, "The Bridge of Dreams." Clarkesworld [rh]
Carolyn Ives Gilman, "Touring with the Alien." Clarkesworld [bsf, gd, js, nc, rs]
Theodora Goss, "Red as Blood and White as Bone." Tor.com [js]
Kameron Hurley, "The Plague Givers." Uncanny [rh]
James Patrick Kelly, "One Sister, Two Sisters, Three." Clarkesworld [gd, n5]
Rich Larson, "Extraction Request." Clarkesworld [nc]
Rich Larson, "Jonas and the Fox." Clarkesworld [gd]
Yoon Ha Lee, "Foxfire, Foxfire." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [js, n4]
Rose Lemberg, "The Book of How to Live." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [n5]
Sarah Pinsker, "Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea." Lightspeed [nc, n8]
Lettie Prell, "The Three Lives of Sonata James." Tor.com [nc]
Jason Sanford, "Blood Grains Speak Through Memories." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [rh, n9]
Delia Sherman, "The Great Detective." Tor.com [js]
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, "The Orangery." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [n7]
Alena Indigo Anne Sullivan, "Gorse Daughter, Sparrow Son" (and part 2). Strange Horizons [rh]
Catherynne M. Valente, "Snow Day." Uncanny [rs]
Genevieve Valentine, "Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home." Clarkesworld [js, rh]
Alyssa Wong, "You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay." Uncanny [js, n9]
Short stories
Joe Abercrombie, "Two's Company." Tor.com [js]
Paolo Bacigalupi, "Mika Model." Slate [gd, js]
Barbara A. Barnett, "43 Responses to "In Memory of Dr. Alexandra Nako"." Daily Science Fiction [n10]
James Beamon, "17 Amazing Plot Elements... When You See #11, You'll Be Astounded!." Daily Science Fiction [n11]
Helena Bell, "I've Come to Marry the Princess." Lightspeed [rh]
Brooke Bolander, "Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies." Uncanny [n10, pg]
Chaz Brenchley, "In Skander, for a Boy." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [rh]
L.E. Buis, "Only a Signal Shown." Perihelion [n4]
Nadia Bulkin, "Wish You Were Here." Nightmare [pg]
Jennifer Campbell-Hicks, "Aphrodite's Blood, Decanted." Clarkesworld [n4]
Beth Cato, "The Souls of Horses." Mythic Delirium Books [n4]
Maggie Clark, "A Tower for the Coming World." Clarkesworld [gd]
Tom Crosshill, "The Dark City Luminous." Clarkesworld [rs]
Aliette de Bodard, "A Salvaging of Ghosts." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [gd, js]
Aliette de Bodard, "Lullaby for a Lost World." Tor.com [pg]
Craig Delancey, "RedKing." Lightspeed [gd, rh]
Seth Dickinson, "Laws of Night and Silk." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [js, n6, rh]
Amal El-Mohtar, "Seasons of Glass and Iron." Uncanny [js, pg]
Cate Gardner, "As Cymbals Clash." The Dark [pg]
A.T. Greenblatt, "A Non-Hero's Guide to the Road of Monsters." Mothership Zeta [rh]
Maria Dahvana Headley, "Little Widow." Nightmare [rs]
Kat Howard, "The Sound of Salt and Sea." Uncanny [pg]
José Pablo Iriarte, "Life in Stone, Glass, and Plastic." Strange Horizons [n9]
José Pablo Iriarte, "The Curse of Giants." Daily Science Fiction [n9]
N.K. Jemisin, "The City Born Great." Tor.com [stabby]
Rachael K. Jones, "The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [n5]
Rebecca Ann Jordan, "We Have a Cultural Difference, Can I Taste You?" Strange Horizons [n6]
Cassandra Khaw, "The Games We Play." Mythic Delirium Books [pg]
Alice Sola Kim, "Successor, Usurper, Replacement." Buzzfeed [js]
Ted Kosmatka, "The One Who Isn't." Lightspeed [gd]
Carrie Laben, "Postcards from Natalie." The Dark [pg]
Marc Laidlaw, "The Finest, Fullest Flowering." Nightmare [pg]
Ken Liu, "Seven Birthdays." Tor.com [js]
Karin Lowachee, "A Good Home." Lightspeed [nc]
Carmen Maria Machado, "My Body, Herself." Uncanny [pg]
Paul McAuley, "Something Happened Here, But We're Not Quite Sure What It Was." Tor.com [rh]
Seanan McGuire, "The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch." Lightspeed [pg]
Sam J. Miller, "Things With Beards." Clarkesworld [gd, js, nc, n8, rh]
Samantha Murray, "Of Sight, of Mind, of Heart." Clarkesworld [n5]
An Owomoyela & Rachel Swirsky, "Between Dragons and Their Wrath." Clarkesworld [n4]
An Owomoyela & Rachel Swirsky, "Whose Drowned Face Sleeps." Nightmare [pg]
Sunil Patel, "Girl in a Blue Dress (1881)." Fantastic Stories [n6]
Michael Reid, "Bend Back the Shadows." Escape Pod [n4]
Mercurio D. Rivera, "Those Brighter Stars." Lightspeed [gd]
Margaret Ronald, "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices." Clarkesworld [bsf, nc]
A. Merc Rustad, "This is Not a Wardrobe Door." Fireside [n12]
Kelly Sandoval, "The Right Sort of Monsters." Strange Horizons [n9]
Ferrett Steinmetz, "Rooms Formed of Neurons and Sex." Uncanny [n4]
Lavie Tidhar, "Terminal." Tor.com [gd, js, nc]
Carrie Vaughn, "That Game We Played During the War." Tor.com [gd, rh]
Douglas F. Warrick, "Sic Semper, Sic Semper, Sic Semper." Tor.com [n4]
Fran Wilde, "Only Their Shining Beauty Was Left." Shimmer [pg]
Alyssa Wong, "A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers." Tor.com [n6, pg, stabby]
Alyssa Wong, "Natural Skin." Lightspeed [n6]
Isabel Yap, "An Ocean the Color of Bruises." Uncanny [pg]
Caroline M. Yoachim, "Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0." Lightspeed [n13]
Charles Yu, "Fable." The New Yorker [js]
E. Lily Yu, "The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight." Uncanny [js]
E. Lily Yu, "Braid of Days and Wake of Nights." PodCastle [n4, pg]
Melissa Yuan-Innes, "Fairy Tales are for White People." Fireside [pg]
Incidentally, in addition to the changes in how nominees will be tallied, slate voting for the Hugo is expected to be less emphasized this year.
This is good metafilter.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:22 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Ghidorah at 5:22 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
Can someone compile all of these into a document I can download to my Kindle? Please?
posted by srt19170 at 9:29 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by srt19170 at 9:29 AM on January 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
Many of the Tor ones are available as part of their free download of Some of the Best from Tor.com 2016 Edition. The offer is only good until 11:59 P.M. EST on January 17th.
Also, at least for Chrome, there is an extension called Send to Kindle. You go to the story link on your browser, click on the extension button, make sure things look right, and the story gets sent. It means you (or at least I) will have lots and lots of short documents on my Kindle, but that's fine. I've got all of winter to get through.
posted by AMyNameIs at 10:42 AM on January 16, 2017 [4 favorites]
Also, at least for Chrome, there is an extension called Send to Kindle. You go to the story link on your browser, click on the extension button, make sure things look right, and the story gets sent. It means you (or at least I) will have lots and lots of short documents on my Kindle, but that's fine. I've got all of winter to get through.
posted by AMyNameIs at 10:42 AM on January 16, 2017 [4 favorites]
I have read some of these! My personal favourites, out of the dozen or so that I have read:
Isabel Yap, "An Ocean the Color of Bruises." Uncanny [pg]
Seth Dickinson, "Laws of Night and Silk." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [js, n6, rh]
Amal El-Mohtar, "Seasons of Glass and Iron." Uncanny [js, pg]
Brooke Bolander, "Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies." Uncanny [n10, pg]
Uh, perhaps unsurprisingly, I have a subscription to Uncanny (an excellent use of $25). Looks like I should check out the rest of Paula Guran's list as well.
Its publication date is 2017, so it's not on any of these lists, but I would also like to recommend Goddess, Worm by Cassandra Khaw.
posted by quaking fajita at 11:23 AM on January 16, 2017 [2 favorites]
Isabel Yap, "An Ocean the Color of Bruises." Uncanny [pg]
Seth Dickinson, "Laws of Night and Silk." Beneath Ceaseless Skies [js, n6, rh]
Amal El-Mohtar, "Seasons of Glass and Iron." Uncanny [js, pg]
Brooke Bolander, "Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies." Uncanny [n10, pg]
Uh, perhaps unsurprisingly, I have a subscription to Uncanny (an excellent use of $25). Looks like I should check out the rest of Paula Guran's list as well.
Its publication date is 2017, so it's not on any of these lists, but I would also like to recommend Goddess, Worm by Cassandra Khaw.
posted by quaking fajita at 11:23 AM on January 16, 2017 [2 favorites]
I love these lists even though I am so behind on my piles/files of short SF/F I may never catch up.
I had not realized that there was a Best of TOR 2016 out there. Thanks AMyNameIs for the notice. Now I just need to track down the 2014.
posted by Ber at 5:08 PM on January 16, 2017
I had not realized that there was a Best of TOR 2016 out there. Thanks AMyNameIs for the notice. Now I just need to track down the 2014.
posted by Ber at 5:08 PM on January 16, 2017
This is one of those posts that's just awesome, but creates no discussion whatsoever.
So I'll just say I'm on my sixth, I've only bailed on one so far, and thanks for putting this together.
posted by Leon at 4:51 PM on January 17, 2017 [3 favorites]
So I'll just say I'm on my sixth, I've only bailed on one so far, and thanks for putting this together.
posted by Leon at 4:51 PM on January 17, 2017 [3 favorites]
Wow! Great post.
posted by joannemerriam at 7:33 AM on January 18, 2017
posted by joannemerriam at 7:33 AM on January 18, 2017
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posted by bryon at 5:00 AM on January 16, 2017 [7 favorites]