Comments on: Time for some new reading material.

Question: Time for some new reading material.

Scientist — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:05:31 -0800

Hit me with some great, freely-available, science fiction short stories.

I love science fiction shorts. My dad always had a few old Nebula and Hugo collections kicking around the house and I went through them over and over again. I'm looking to pick up some more and I figure there have got to be quite a few available here and there across the internet. Help me find some of the very best!

Here are the requirements:

1) Must be a short story. If it takes more than an hour to read it, it's probably too long.

2) Must be science fiction. Feel free to take as broad a definition of this as you like.

3) Must be available, on the web, for free. HTML, PDF, TXT, doesn't matter. I need to be able to just browse over to it and start reading.

4) Must be a specific story. I'm not looking for collections, magazines, anthologies, or writing groups. Just links to single stories that I can go ahead and start reading.

5) Must come highly recommended by you. I'm looking for stuff that you personally have read and loved, stuff that's really, really good. If you want to tell me why you think it's good so much the better, but honestly you look like a reliable, discerning sort of person and I'm willing to trust your judgement.

That's it. In the interests of making this question maximally useful to as many people as possible, I won't try to restrict things to only stories I have read myself, or only certain subgenres, or anything like that.

Now go to it! Bring me your choicest bite-sized bits of online SF! Find me something to tickle my brain and entertain me in the boring cracks of my life. All I have to offer in return is undying universal love.

By: procrastinator

procrastinator — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:13:04 -0800

You probably know it, but hey, it would be shameful not to commemorate it:
The Last Question by Isaac Asimov, 1956

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:17:20 -0800

Spar by Kij Johnson. It was also a Metafilter post.

By: Scientist

Scientist — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:17:38 -0800

"Have read myself" should have read "haven't read myself." Don't worry about whether or not I've read something, even if I have I probably don't have a copy on hand and would be down to re-read. Old Asimov stuff is perfectly kosher!

OK, less threadsitting, more reading.

By: Janta

Janta — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:18:26 -0800

First one that comes to mind for me is maybe more horror than SF, but A Colder War by (Metafilter's Own, I think) Charles Stross is outstanding.

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:21:21 -0800

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula Le Guin

When It Changed by Joanna Russ

The Screwfly Solution by Racoona Sheldon (who was also James Tiptree Jr. and Alice Sheldon.)

Elan Vital by K. Tempest Bradford

By: purenitrous

purenitrous — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:21:53 -0800

Everything Ted Chiang has written. Here's one: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/under.htm

By: Monsieur Caution

Monsieur Caution — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:24:49 -0800

I recently read 6 of the "best of 2010" anthologies and noted which among those collected/mentioned that I liked were available online: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

By: KeSetAffinityThread

KeSetAffinityThread — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:31:56 -0800

Check these guys out.

By: EmGeeJay

EmGeeJay — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:32:54 -0800

Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream".

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:34:18 -0800

The Things

By: MaryDellamorte

MaryDellamorte — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:44:52 -0800

The Machine Stops written in 1909 by E.M. Forster. It's been my favorite for a very long time.

By: subject_verb_remainder

subject_verb_remainder — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:53:38 -0800

I'd also like to second Ted Chiang - I discovered him through metafilter. I particularly liked:

Understand (linked above too)
Story of Your Life, which felt a lot like something Jorge Luis Borges would have written if he had been a scientist instead of a librarian

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:09:59 -0800

Little Lost Robot - Paul McAuley.

By: Rock Steady

Rock Steady — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:11:09 -0800

"They are made out of meat."

By: PhoBWanKenobi

PhoBWanKenobi — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:15:22 -0800

Bespoke by Genevieve Valentine; How to Make Friends in the Seventh Grade by Nick Poniatowski.

By: teraflop

teraflop — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:03:38 -0800

"The Island" by Peter Watts. (winner of the Hugo award for best novelette)

"Singleton" by Greg Egan.

"The Seasons of the Ansarac" by Ursula Le Guin.

"Valuable Humans In Transit" by Sam Hughes. (If you're in the mood for something longer, his "Fine Structure" series begins as a sequence of semi-independent short stories that eventually connect up with each other.)

By: creepygirl

creepygirl — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:06:06 -0800

The Island by Peter Watts
Start The Clock by Benjamin Rosenbaum
Cucumber Gravy by Susan Palwick
Linkworlds by Will McIntosh
The Little Goddess by Ian McDonald.
It Takes Two by Nicola Griffith (pdf)
Second Person, Present Tense by Daryl Gregory
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots by Sandra McDonald
The Empress Of Mars by Kage Baker

Thank you for asking this question. In the process of putting together this list, I discovered that my favorite authors have a lot of stories online that I haven't read yet, so I have a lot of new reading material to enjoy.

By: Doleful Creature

Doleful Creature — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:21:06 -0800

This AskMe + Instapaper = JOY

Also, not quite science fiction, but kind of, and it's seriously awesome:

The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges

By: Rhaomi

Rhaomi — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:47:49 -0800

This is going to sound like an anthology answer, but hear me out! As others have said, Ted Chiang is staggeringly good -- every one of his longer stories is mindblowing and even his shorter work is intriguing.

As evidence, I submit this post I did on him last year rounding up all his stories that are available online. Nothing too fancy, just a list of links to the text and/or MP3 versions, with short descriptions of each and a few interview pieces at the end.

Nearly a year on, that post is still the most popular post on the entire site. His writing is just that amazing.

(The "Tower of Babylon" link is now broken, btw, but should point here.)

By: Gorgik

Gorgik — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 06:04:26 -0800

All You Zombies, by Robert Heinlein, one of the greatest time-travel stories ever written.

By: Rash

Rash — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 06:46:06 -0800

Seconding "The Machine Stops" (so relevant today, because the Internet is The Machine) as well as another old classic, The Waveries by Frederic Brown.

By: bibliogrrl

bibliogrrl — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 11:04:22 -0800

Here is a whole lot of Richard Kadrey short stories. I like his work a lot.

By: ainsley

ainsley — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 12:02:27 -0800

All Summer in a Day, by Ray Bradbury

By: FatRabbit

FatRabbit — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:01:15 -0800

Anything from Stanislav Lem the Cyberiad is a collection of short stories, that can be strung together. You can read some of them on the website.

By: FatRabbit

FatRabbit — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:06:52 -0800

for example, How The World Was Saved

By: Scientist

Scientist — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:38:12 -0800

It seems pointless to try and pick best answers from so many wonderful responses, but suffice it to say I have instapapered the hell out of this entire thread and I'm already thoroughly enjoying your recommendations . A resounding success! Thank you all, and don't feel shy about adding more if there's more to be added!

By: wittgenstein

wittgenstein — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 07:23:59 -0800

Beyond lies the Wub

By: dee lee

dee lee — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:33:55 -0800

A themed anthology chock full of awesome.

By: Anything

Anything — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:32:26 -0800

The Riddle of the Universe and its Solution by Christopher Cherniak is a creepy computational mystery. Unfortunately I couldn't find it in a better format.

By: mumblingmynah

mumblingmynah — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:04:33 -0800

All the stories in this collection by John Kessel are good, but I'll pick It's All True as a standout.

Although it has some dead links, the Free SF List is a good jumping off point. Also the Strange Horizons archive page.

By: Monochrome

Monochrome — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:37:58 -0800

Machine of Death