Can you recommend a good science fiction short story collection?

[gdoc]

I don't often read short stories. Can anyone recommend a good collection. Ideally this would be a general collection I.e. Not the works of a single author like Bradbury.

Any insights appreciated.

 

[The Judge]

There are the Mammoth series of anthologies The Mammoth Book of ...

I've picked up a few -- Nebula Awards 2011, SF Wars (edited by our own Ian Whates!), Best New SF 2010, and some non-genre ones like mysteries. The content is variable to my mind, with some excellent stories alongside ones I'm amazed ever got into print let alone into an anthology.

Meanwhile, Book Search is really for those searching for a book they've read before but can't recall the name or author, so as this is rather a recommendation request, I'll move it over to GBD.

 

[J-Sun]

One of the most famous anthologies of all time is Adventures in Time and Space, aka Famous Science Fiction Stories, edited by Healy and McComas. Another is part of a set of four big Crown anthologies edited by Groff Conklin: The Best of Science Fiction, aka The Golden Age of Science Fiction. A slightly later one is the pair of A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, edited by Boucher. All of these deal with basically 40s and 50s SF. For newer SF, I don't know of any as definitive and generally well-received. Perhaps some of the bugcrushers from Dozois or Hartwell, such as The Good Stuff (in "Old" and "New" versions, as well as combined) or the various "Renaissance/Ascent/whatever" books, like The Hard SF Renaissance might be okay. The Nebula series, edited by various, and the Hugo series, originally presented by Isaac Asimov, were superb until the 80s/90s, being composed of award-winning fiction. A great resource is all the various annual "best sf" anthologies which cover all but the earliest SF from 1939 to the present.

Probably all these and many more would be on this thread after the first couple of posts, which deal with collections rather than anthologies.

 

[BAYLOR]

Galactic Empires volume 1 and 2 edited by Brian Aldiss

 

[gdoc]

@Judge, @J-Sun, @BAYLOR Thank you for these suggestions. Much appreciated. I have found it difficult to track down decent collections, so this is great.

 

[BAYLOR]

Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions both edited by Harlan Ellison.

 

[Lew Rockwell Fan]

To push a wee bit further back in time "Before the Golden Age" edited by Asimov. I believe it is 2 volumes, maybe 3. I loved 'em. At the other extreme you might check out "The Best of Jim Baen's Universe" series. There are at least 2.
The Best of Jim Baen's Universe edited by Eric Flint - WebScription Ebook

 

[Stephen Palmer]

How about something newer, such as Boo Books' anthology After The Fall ?

 

[Randy M.]

Not sure how easy these are to get anymore -- might have to use Inter-Library Loan -- but James E. Gunn's The Road to Science Fiction is really good, a series of teaching anthologies with solid stories interspersed with information about the genre, the authors and the stories themselves. A good introduction to the broad range of s.f. up to, I think, the late 1980s or early 1990s. (I recall they were updated and reissued, but can't remember exactly when.)


Randy M.

 

[Randy M.]

Anyone yet tackled The Big Book of Science Fiction ed. by Jeff & Ann Vandermeer? This is from Vintage, under their Black Lizard imprint -- which I don't really understand, since that's been associated with mystery/detective/crime since inception, though they have previously included zombie, vampire and ghost anthologies.

Anyway, I've looked through the contents and I've read about 20 of the >100 stories, all of which I thought quite good. As usual, the Vandermeers look to extend the scope of the genre by including stories from beyond the U.S. and Britain and from beyond the usual suspects.

Randy M.

 

[Rodders]

I've never been a big fan of short stories, but I did read Gollancz released a series of five Philip K. Dick's short stories and they were excellent. Totally recommended. I have three of the yellow jacket hardbacks.

I also really enjoyed Alistair Reynolds Galactic North which was a series of short stories based in his Revelation Space universe. The Nightingale was my favourite, although I did really enjoy Diamond Dogs and Turquoise days.

 

[Ensign Shah]

I'm guessing this maybe young for you but I hear it has a few good yarns and features our very own @ratsy.

 

[Gordon K.]

The Hard SF Renaissance Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. Excellent.

 

[zaltys13]

Solaris Rising: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction, this is a great collection, as is Solaris Rising 2, haven't read the third one yet but I definitely will.

 

[BigBadBob141]

First off try "The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus" edited by Brian W. Aldiss.
Also by Aldiss are "Space Operas", "Space Odysseys", "Galactic Empires vols 1 & 2", "Evil Earths" & "Perilous Planets".
Also vintage are the "Best Writings In S.F." series which goes up to about 30 volumes.
They were edited by John Carnell, possibly published by Corgi paperbacks.
Also try "The Great SF Stories" series, each volume is from a single year.
Volume one is 1939, two is 1940 ect.
I think they go up to about volume 30 so they cover the 40s, 50s & 60s.
They are edited by Isaac Asimov.
To anyone out their who loves SF like me, I beg you do not be put off just because these stories are old.
The best of vintage is as good as any of the modern stuff!
A lot better in some cases!

 

[BigBadBob141]

Also try "Best SF" volumes 1 to 7 edited by Edmund Crispin & published by Faber.