Best Short Science Fiction
Explore the best short science fiction books with our curated list of top picks. Discover thrilling, thought-provoking stories from acclaimed authors in compact, powerful reads.
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The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein
by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein, the dean of American SF writers, also wrote fantasy fiction throughout his long career, but especially in the early 1940s. The Golden Age of SF was also a time of revolution in fantasy fiction, and Heinlein was at the forefront. His fantasies were convincingly set in the real world, particularly those published in the famous magazine Unknown Worlds, including such stories as "Magic, Inc.," "'They--,'" and "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag." Now all of Heinlein's best fantasy short stories, most of them long novellas, have been collected in one big volume for the first time.
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To Outlive Eternity
by Poul Anderson
From the aftermath of World War III to a world inherited by robots, where humans are unwelcome . . . from a handful of human survivors on a starship desperately searching for other ships carrying survivors of the destruction of the entire Earth by an unknown enemy, who may strike again at any time, to another starship hurtling through the cosmos at a speed so close to that of light"and unable to slow down"that relativistic effects make millennia fly by for each tick of the clock onboard . . . from a team striving to make Venus habitable for humans to a group of men who find the ominous secret behind a new quasi-religious philosophy that is sweeping the world. . . . The wide-ranging imagination and exciting storytelling of Poul Anderson brings many different worlds to vivid life in a great volume of his best stories that will thrill all fans of science fiction.
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Selected Stories of Theodore Sturgeon
by Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was a genuine American master. Praised, revered, and even envied by the likes of Bradbury, Vonnegut, and King, his short stories contain some of his best work. In "Thunder and Roses," soon after a nuclear Holocaust, a starlet gives one final performance during which she makes an odd request of the few remaining survivors. In perhaps his most praised story, "The Man Who Lost the Sea," a man riffs on memory and experience on the way to the story's powerful conclusion. And in the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning masterpiece, "Slow Sculpture," a young woman with a lump in her breast chances upon a strange healer. With unrivaled emotional impact, Theodore Sturgeon's stories are funny, lyrical, surprising, and provoking.
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Bradbury Stories
by Ray Bradbury
For more than sixty years, the imagination of Ray Bradbury has opened doors into remarkable places, ushering us across unexplored territories of the heart and mind while leading us inexorably toward a profound understanding of ourselves and the universe we inhabit. In this landmark volume, America's preeminent storyteller offers us one hundred treasures from a lifetime of words and ideas. The stories within these pages were chosen by Bradbury himself, and span a career that blossomed in the pulp magazines of the early 1940s and continues to flourish in the new millennium. Here are representatives of the legendary author's finest works of short fiction, including many that have not been republished for decades, all forever fresh and vital, evocative and immensely entertaining.
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The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
by Arthur C. Clarke
Introduces readers to the author's shorter works, spanning his entire writing career, including "The Nine Billion Names of God," "Nemesis," "The Sentinel," and "The Songs of Distant Earth."
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The Essential Ellison
by Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison is probably best known as a script writer for sci-fi and fantasy movies and TV series such as the original Outer Limits, The Hunger, Logan's Run, and Babylon Five. But his range is much broader than that, encompassing stories, novels, essays, reviews, reminiscences, plays, even fake autobiographies. Essential Ellison includes contains 74 unabridged works, including such classics as A Boy and His Dog, Xenogenesis, and Mefisto in Onyx. Includes black-and-white photos.
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Nine Hundred Grandmothers
by R. A. Lafferty
"Here at last are the finest of Lafferty's shorter works, stories about: a man who found one day that he knew absolutely everyone in the world; a race who kept their most ancient ancestors on shelves in the basements; a speeded-up world where a man could earn and lose a dozen fortunes a night; a friendly bearlike creature named Snuffles who said he was God ... In all, twenty-one immensely enjoyable stories that will continue to delight you long after you've finished reading them."--Page 1
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Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
by James Tiptree
These 18 darkly complex short stories and novellas touch upon human nature and perception, metaphysics and epistemology, and gender and sexuality, foreshadowing a world in which biological tendencies bring about the downfall of humankind. Revisions from the author's notes are included, allowing a deeper view into her world and a better understanding of her work. The Nebula Award?winning short story Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death, the Hugo Award?winning novella The Girl Who Was Plugged In, and the Hugo and Nebula Award?winning novella Houston, Houston, Do You Read? are included.
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The Masque of Manana
by Robert Sheckley
The 45 pieces in this stellar collection, though they include some soberer entries (e.g., "A Wind Is Rising"), make it clear that Sheckley is one of sf's all-time masters of the humorous or satirical short story.
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Platinum Pohl
by Frederik Pohl
A new compilation of short fiction includes a never-before-published Heechee story and other science fiction tales.
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Virtual Unrealities
by Alfred Bester
"Dazzlement and enchantment are Bester's methods. His stories never stand still a moment." —Damon Knight, author of Why Do Birds Alfred Bester took science fiction into hyperdrive, endowing it with a wit, speed, and narrative inventiveness that have inspired two generations of writers. And nowhere is Bester funnier, speedier, or more audacious than in these seventeen short stories—two of them previously unpublished—that have now been brought together in a single volume for the first time. Read about the sweet-natured young man whose phenomenal good luck turns out to be disastrous for the rest of humanity. Find out why tourists are flocking to a hellish little town in a post-nuclear Kansas. Meet a warlock who practices on Park Avenue and whose potions comply with the Pure Food and Drug Act. Make a deal with the Devil—but not without calling your agent. Dazzling, effervescent, sexy, and sardonic, Virtual Unrealities is a historic collection from one of science fiction's true pathbreakers. "Alfred Bester was one of the handful of writers who invented modern science fiction. " —Harry Harrison
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The Philip K. Dick Reader
by Philip K. Dick
Includes the stories that inspired the movies Total Recall, Screamers, Minority Report, Paycheck, and Next "More than anyone else in the field, Mr. Dick really puts you inside people's minds." --The Wall Street Journal The Philip K. Dick Reader Many thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick's works has continued to mount, and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K. Dick Society is devoted to the study and promulgation of his works. Dick won the prestigious Hugo Award for the best novel of 1963 for The Man in the High Castle. In the last year of his life, the film Blade Runner was made from his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This collection includes some of Dick's earliest short and medium-length fiction, including We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (the story that inspired the motion picture Total Recall), Second Variety (which inspired the motion picture Screamers), Paycheck, The Minority Report, and twenty more.
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The Best of Gene Wolfe
by Gene Wolfe
The best stories of a long and influential career by “quite simply a superb writer” (The Washington Post Book World)
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The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg: To be continued
by Robert Silverberg
Subterranean Press's definitive collection of Silverberg's short fiction, with stories produced during the years 1953 to 2009. The volumes include commentary by the author.
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Burning Chrome
by William Gibson
Best-known for his seminal sf novel Neuromancer, William Gibson is actually best when writing short fiction. Tautly-written and suspenseful, Burning Chrome collects 10 of his best short stories with a preface from Bruce Sterling, now available for the first time in trade paperback. These brilliant, high-resolution stories show Gibson's characters and intensely-realized worlds at his absolute best, from the chip-enhanced couriers of "Johnny Mnemonic" to the street-tech melancholy of "Burning Chrome."
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Gravity's Angels
by Michael Swanwick
These thirteen stories established Michael Swanwick as one of the brightest stars in the science-fiction firmament. Alongside its companion volume, Tales of Old Earth, Gravity's Angels showcases the very best of Swanwick's considerable talent, including the Sturgeon Award--winner "The Edge of the World." Each story is a unique and engrossing exploration of character, conflict, and conscience.