03-26-2009, 07:51 PM | #1 |
Zealot
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SF short stories - recommendations
I have never really likes short stories. Most of the ones I've read were for school, and I stopped taking lit courses as soon as possible. Once or twice I read anthologies at cottages when it was rainy etc.
Fastforward to my getting my Sony, and getting emails from Fictionwise with "specially selected" stories just for me - I bought Hawksbill Station, because it was trivially cheap, and loved it. Short stories are great on a reader, because you can store lots of them without lugging around a huge book, and are a perfect length to read before bed. So, any recommendations? I have pretty eclectic tastes, and have read almost no short stories but that one, and an Ellison anthology. |
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03-27-2009, 08:22 AM | #3 |
Wizard
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Jim Baen's Universe has a lot of strories:
www.baens-universe.com |
03-27-2009, 09:03 AM | #4 |
Grand Sorcerer
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General (mixed author anthologies)
Dangerous Visions - Harlan Ellison The World Turned Upside Down - Eric Flint - Baen Free Library Individual Author The Works of Cornwainer Smith - even the one novel is two novellas, glued together - Baens books (some currently free) Deathbird Stories - Harlan Ellison |
03-27-2009, 10:28 AM | #5 |
Wizard
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Shoot, make sure you check out Project Gutenberg, Feedbooks and Manybooks.net. There is a lot of short SF there.. particularly since a lot of the stuff in the pulps from the 30s-though 60 or so didn't have their copyrights renewed. Check out H. Beam Piper (his novels are worth reading as well).
-- Bill |
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03-28-2009, 07:46 PM | #6 |
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Check out BestScienceFictionStories.com. Each blog entry has a review and lists where the story may be found. Many, if not most, are available somewhere as online texts, which should be easy to convert to your reader's format.
http://bestsciencefictionstories.com/ |
03-29-2009, 06:51 AM | #7 |
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I like getting my science fiction short story fix from Escape Pod. It's a podcast, not electronic text, but most of the stories are pretty good, and it is free. Most of the stories are about half an hour long.
http://escapepod.org/ |
09-01-2009, 03:30 PM | #8 |
Maria Schneider
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I second the Baen's Universe and EscapePod. If you like fantasy at all, Fictionwise has one of Jim Hines short stories. I really enjoy most of his work, long and short.
My other favorite source for short fiction is Black Gate -- it's mostly fantasy. They have a downloadable PDF starting with the last issue...Maybe one before that. Black Gate is my favorite magazine. Another freebie read you might like is online. Beneath Ceaseless Skies. But it's mostly fantasy too, come to think of it. Maria Sage: (multiple formats; Amazon or Smashwords--$1.00) Catch an Honest Thief (Kindle only format: $1.99; a cozy mystery) |
09-02-2009, 08:20 AM | #9 |
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Arthur C. Clarke's complete short story collection is very
hard to beat. Some of the best SF short stories ever written. |
09-02-2009, 08:53 AM | #10 |
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09-02-2009, 11:18 AM | #11 |
Maria Schneider
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If you want a physical book, you might also try www.AnthologyBuilder.com You grab whatever stories you want and build a book and then have it shipped to you. I know Eric Flint has at least one story out there. I read one by Nancy Fulda that was a mystery/sci/fi (might be too space opera for you, but it was an *excellent* mystery.)
You can search on science fiction or authors, etc. |
09-05-2009, 10:57 AM | #12 |
Kevin Gerard
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The Martian Chronicles
Hands down, the best sci-fi short stories I ever read. Ray Bradbury.
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09-05-2009, 05:43 PM | #13 |
Maria Schneider
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Another really fun place to find short stories (and these are free) is www.towndrunkmag.com
They only put out one or two stories per month, but they focus on humor. My favorite online zine! (full disclosure: one of my stories has been published in town drunk). Maria |
09-06-2009, 04:16 AM | #14 |
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Just the other day I came across this particular website, which has reviews of online content, some of which is available for free: The Fix, Short Fiction Review
The Free SF Reader -- Lots here, will keep you occupied. These are aggregate review blogs of short SF; there are many ezines out there with free content of varying quality, some of which have long gone into hiatus, but which is still available. |
09-06-2009, 06:56 AM | #15 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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Hey thanks everyone for those links. Any more? The Short Story is my favorite form of literature and it seems that ebooks (I'm relatively new to this) are focused (as is the world) more on novels than short story collections which I love such as the annual Years Best Science Fiction from Gardner Dozois -- which seems to be available for Kindle but not in epub wtf??
I also buy the annual general fiction - Best American Short Stories, O Henry Prize stories, Pushcart Prize Stories...but don't seem to find them available either. Guess it's just a market/marketing thing. I was thinking, and think I will start a separate thread on short fiction in general and see about what others have found. |
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