Novellas, novelettes, short stories

August 26, 2015 5:56 PM

Where do you read novellas, novelettes and short stories in science fiction? Whom do you suggest? During the golden age of sf I relied on Analog/Astounding, but after all the recent Hugo drama I have realized that I barely keep up with the new novels. Looking back at the titles that won Hugos and Nebulas, I realized how many of the shorter pieces I truly loved and I feel the need to get to know the youngish writers. Tell me whom I should read and where I'll find that author.
posted by francesca too to Writing & Language (11 answers total)

I asked a related question on Twitter in May, and here are the answers.
posted by wintersweet at 6:14 PM on August 26, 2015

Gardner Dozois' annuals are a good place to start, although his taste does run very strongly to post-apocalyptic fiction.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:41 PM on August 26, 2015

Some excellent free-to-read online SFF magazines, non-exhaustive:
Strange Horizons
Beneath Ceaseless Skies (fantasy)
Clarkesworld
Lightspeed

Some excellent currently-publishing SFF short story authors, also non-exhaustive:
Yoon Ha Lee
Aliette de Bodard
Seth Dickinson
Marissa Lingen
Ellen Kushner (mostly known for starting the fantasy-of-manner subgenre, she also writes short stories but doesn't publish frequently)
Ted Chiang (doesn't appear to have a personal website that I can find, but here's a third-party bibliography with links)
posted by serelliya at 6:47 PM on August 26, 2015

I posted this list in April (mostly pared down from other lists linked there too) and a few more things in May that I found via @SFFMicroReviews and Karen Burnham's tumblr. Lady Business has been running polls of current favorites and sharing a Google Docs spreadsheet of more.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 7:02 PM on August 26, 2015

check out john joseph adams. he does a lot of anthologies and i have really enjoyed all of them that i've read. i especially liked wastelands and the three the end is... anthologies. oooh, seeds of change was good too and is only 3.99 on kindle right now.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 9:00 PM on August 26, 2015

This site lists SF award nominees and where they're available online. I recommend Grand Jeté by Rachel Swirsky from the 2014 Nebula ballot.
posted by crone islander at 9:47 PM on August 26, 2015

Other online sources are tor.com, 365tomorrows, and Terraform.
posted by neushoorn at 1:19 AM on August 27, 2015

For scifi and speculative flash fiction, I like Cease, Cows.
posted by mermaidcafe at 8:35 AM on August 27, 2015

Thanks, a lot of interesting suggestions.
posted by francesca too at 8:58 AM on August 27, 2015

Agree with pretty much all of the above mentions.

A few magazines I'd add:
Daily Science Fiction
Ideomancer
Shimmer

These publish both science fiction and fantasy. If you need recommendations for strictly fantasy, let me know!
posted by xenization at 9:38 AM on August 27, 2015

Also Uncanny Magazine! They just completed their second year kickstarter, and have been publishing some really wonderful stuff.
posted by bibliogrrl at 5:05 PM on August 27, 2015