I've been playing around with re-reading favorite science fiction short stories and seeing if there's anything that has managed to elude me over the years. (Or at least I've totally forgotten if I did read it.) It's not always as easy as it seems as if it should be to track down individual short stories--at least legally. But that's a story for another day.
Anyway, my initial list (sorted chronologically) is below. A few rules I set for myself:
- One story per author. Certainly there are many on this list for which I could effortlessly reel off multiple deserving entries.
- I didn't worry about exact definitions. There are stories here that are longer than the science fiction awards definition of a short story.
- I didn't cut a lot of slack for popular older stories that require a lot of historical perspective to appreciate today.
- I also didn't include authors who I like for their novels but don't have any short stories I'm aware of that really wowed me.
- I tried to pick stories that work well in isolation. For example, while I really like Larry Niven's Known Space stories, I think "Inconstant Moon" is probably his best standalone story.
Who am I missing? Are there any of my picks that you think are really off?
The Machine Stops | E. M. Forster | 1909 | |
A Martian Odyssey | Stanley G. Weinbaum | 1934 | |
Microcosmic God | Theodore Sturgeon | 1941 | |
The Weapon Shop | A. E. van Vogt | 1942 | |
Mimsy were the Borgoves | Lewis Padgett (pseudonym) | 1943 | |
A Logic Named Joe | Murray Leinster | 1946 | |
The Lottery | Shirley Jackson | 1948 | |
Scanners Live in Vain | Cordwainer Smith | 1950 | |
There Will Come Soft Rains | Ray Bradbury | 1950 | |
Surface Tension | James Blish | 1952 | |
It's a Good Life | Jerome Bixby | 1953 | |
Fondly Fahrenheit | Alfred Bester | 1954 | |
The Star | Arthur C. Clarke | 1955 | |
The Last Question | Isaac Asimov | 1956 | |
All You Zombies | Robert Heinlein | 1959 | |
Flowers for Algernon (short story) | Daniel Keyes | 1959 | |
A Rose for Ecclesiastes | Roger Zelazny | 1963 | |
Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman | Harlan Ellison | 1965 | |
Light of Other Days | Bob Shaw | 1966 | |
We Can Remember it for you Wholesale | Philip K. Dick | 1966 | |
Aye, and Gomorrah | Samuel Delany | 1967 | |
Inconstant Moon | Larry Niven | 1973 | |
Ender's Game (short story) | Orson Scott Card | 1977 | |
Sandkings | George R. R. Martin | 1979 | |
The Gernsback Continuum | William Gibson | 1981 | |
True Names | Vernor Vinge | 1981 | |
Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight | Ursula Le Guin | 1987 | |
Bears Discover Fire | Terry Bisson | 1990 | |
Even the Queen | Connie Willis | 1992 | |
Story of your Life | Ted Chiang | 1998 |
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