Looking for short stories

[Natman]

New member. Can you help the un-initiated find the best place for short stories?
Thanks

 

[Randy M.]

Old/new? On-line/print? Mainstream? S.f.? Fantasy? Horror? All of the above?

A bit more info on your tastes would help direct our answers.


Randy M.
(oh, and welcome aboard )

 

[Nick B]

I've heard the finest new short stories are to be found in Woodbridge Press' anthologies...

 

[Natman]

Old/new? On-line/print? Mainstream? S.f.? Fantasy? Horror? All of the above?

A bit more info on your tastes would help direct our answers.


Randy M.
(oh, and welcome aboard )

 

[Natman]

Thanks for the welcome. Sci fi and fantasy mainly but I'd like to mix it up a bit. I've read a lot of main stream authors and want to spread my wings. Short stories seem like a good way to try new things.
Not a big horror fan but I did find The Dice Man compelling.

 

[Nick B]

Joking aside, if you are looking for some really good indie authors, the Explorations series from Woodbridge is a good start, with contributors from a wide background.
Look up Explorations - Through the Wormhole and Explorations - First Contact. And the fantasy anthology Journeys.

 

[ratsy]

Thanks for suggesting my books Nick! natman, if you are interested in trying one of the Explorations books, you can DL Through the Wormhole for free for kindle or ePub by signing up for our non-invasive Newsletter at www.scifiexplorations.com

 

[Hugh]

For anthologies pre 1975 (my interest) Robert Silverberg's Alpha series (1-9) and the Donald Wollheim / Terry Carr "World's Best Science Fiction" and "Best Science Fiction of the year" series are very dependable and excellent value.

 

[Randy M.]

Hey, Natman.

If you're not averse to older works, the University of New Zealand has a wide, if somewhat idiosyncratic selection of contents from various magazines, from The Atlantic Monthly to Weird Tales. You can pick and choose at random from mainstream, mystery, s.f., fantasy and horror, among others.

For myself, I'd suggest a couple of recent story collections:
A Feast of Sorrows by Angela Slatter (fantasy, horror)
Ghost Summer by Tananarive Due (s.f., horror)

A bit older,
In the Palace of Repose by Holly Phillips (fantasy, s.f.)
In the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss (fantasy, fairy tales)
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susannah Clarke

If there is older work that can be regarded as essential, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (s.f.) would be one. Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, Clifford Simak's City and Robert Heinlein's The Past Through Tomorrow would be others, as would any decent collection of H. G. Well's short work.

And there are a lot of recent anthologies that would give you a grounding in work valuable to the progress of s.f. and/or fantasy:
The Big Book of Science Fiction edited by Jeff & Ann Vandermeer
The Weird edited by Jeff & Ann Vandermeer (if you're interested in what's come to be called Weird Fantasy)
The S.F. Hall of Fame, vols. 1, 2A and 2B were go-to volumes for a quick introduction to s.f. when I was first reading s.f. and would give you a decent idea of the genre up to about 1970.

I'm sure there are other volumes, and if you check the forums here for threads on s.f. recommendations and "Essential Anthologies" you'll find a lot of suggestions.


Randy M.

 

[Natman]

Wow, thanks a lot. I'll have to have a look through them. Got some long journeys coming up so it looks like I'll have some good leisure reading. N

 

[Cathbad]

​

Two stories from this anthology are up for awards (not mine, lol). And the most acclaimed story (from reviews), Maria Haskins', isn't one of them, either! Fact is, there ain't a bad apple in this bunch!

 

[J-Sun]

If you're interested in current short SF/F/H, there is a lot of stuff freely available on the web. I keep a list of webzines at my blog which has links to other resources as well. If you're interested in old stuff, Project Gutenberg and archive.org have centuries of stuff. And, yes, like Randy says, the Essential Anthologies thread has a lot of discussion of those great works that aren't necessarily available either place.

 

[Inari Writer]

Tor have a load of free sff short stories on their website.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Kraxon magazine, ran by @Glitch , have loads of free on line stories too.