Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

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roymeo
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by roymeo »

I just started reading our Kickstarter supporter copy of the new short story anthology Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond last night.
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Imdeng
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by Imdeng »

It has my vote - and I am also surprised that it took this long for it to appear.

The Last Question along with Nighfall would remain my absolute favorites of Asimov's works.
sometimesinvestor wrote:Am really surprised no one has yet mentioned THE LAST QUESTION by ASIMOV.
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telemark
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by telemark »

"Born of Man and Woman", Richard Matheson
"Flowers for Algernon", Daniel Keyes
galectin
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by galectin »

Cordwainer Smith--The Rediscovery of Man contains all of his short fiction.

J.G. Ballard--The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard Check out Abe Books for cheap used copies. Also, there are a number of collections of his short stories.

James Tiptree Jr.--Ten Thousand Light Years from Home, Up the Walls of the World, and others.

Harlan Ellison--Many books with his short stories. Also, check out the two collections he edited, Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions.

There are plenty of anthologies out there with short stories in them, such as The Year's Best Science Fiction Stories. I occasionally have picked up one from a couple of years ago cheap at used book stores.

And, you can just go into a bookstore and find a monthly magazine to check out current fiction.
90south
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by 90south »

Not a short story, but "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M Miller Jr is a short read and, for me, a classic.

I'll give a shout-out to http://escapepod.org as an excellent, dependable source of short story sci-fi podiocasts.
technovelist
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by technovelist »

The "Venus Equilateral" series of stories by George O. Smith are good. Also "Little Fuzzy" and "Omnilingual" by H. Beam Piper.
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Rusa
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by Rusa »

John Varley's collections eg The Persistence of Vision. 30 years old but still great. His best story was "Press Enter" (and it was pre-Internet).
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telemark
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by telemark »

Not a classic, exactly, but surprisingly prescient in its own weird way:

Fritz Leiber's The Creature from Cleveland Depths
eucalyptus
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by eucalyptus »

Hard to beat "I have no mouth ...."

I suppose surrealism is too far afield from traditional science fiction, but Barthelme, Calvino and Borges are superb IMO.
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by Tamahome »

I rather enjoyed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (which is actually science fiction, if not very OLD science fiction), but there has never been a movie version that did it justice. Of course, that is not a short story, but a short story that ties in WONDERFULLY for those that enjoyed this bit of older science fiction is John Polidori's The Vampyre. This story follows the protagonist on a journey where he meets an odd man. The man refuses to give money to another in need who would use the money for good, but freely gives a loan to another when he knows this other will be in ruin from gambling because of the loan. It is a wonderful work that I cannot recommend enough. It comes to about 15-20 pages or so. Link: http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/l_vampyr.htm

Edited to note: As soon as I hit post, I realized that I was thinking one of of my favorite Sci-Fi works which was not a short story, and then recommended a short story that also delves into the depths of human emotion and motivations. Unfortunately, the short story is not actually Sci-Fi. My mind trail went to a similar work, but forgot the original question. I hope you do not mind the switch to the Fantasy genre that my mind overlooked. (I know many think of them as different, whereas I always kindof lumped them in together.)
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fidelio
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Re: Sci-Fi Short Story Recs

Post by fidelio »

many great stories have been mentioned, but i can't believe no one has yet offered philip k. dick, who wrote dozens of great sci fi shorts. also, the granppappy of sci fi (although some would classify him as horror), h. p. lovecraft.
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