Short stories compilations
Hello!
For the past few years, I've been an avid reader of fantasy and fiction. I've explored numerous books and sagas within these genres, ranging from well-known titles to some relatively underground gems. However, I've encountered a recent issue with my reading habits.
Firstly, reading has always been my preferred and "healthier" form of entertainment from a productivity standpoint. Compared to games or TV/movies, it has been easier for me to set aside a book when it's time to focus on work or study. Lately, though, I've become deeply engrossed in series with multiple entries. When a book's plot captivates me, putting it down becomes a challenge. This was particularly true with the Expanse series; by the fourth book, I was completely immersed in the narrative and characters. Unfortunately, the series comprises nine books, leading me to avidly read subsequent books almost obsessively and, regrettably, procrastinate on important tasks.
Admittedly, this lack of discipline is my own fault. However, I believe that if I had access to interesting short stories, I could read them during breaks or brief moments of leisure, satisfying my entertainment needs without committing to a lengthy plot. Recently, I enjoyed "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, which exemplifies the kind of short story I'm seeking. Another example would be "The Jaunt" by Stephen King.
Unfortunately, I'm unfamiliar with how to access such stories. It seems that short stories are often published in niche magazines, a trend that appears to be more specific to the US culture. I primarily read on Kindle, so if you know of a way to download these types of stories in bulk in epub format or specific book compilations containing short stories, I would greatly appreciate your recommendations!
I am also a short story enjoyer! I've found that looking at authors you may not want to jump into fully is a good way to find interesting things. Occasionally, picking a famous author and looking for short story collections is a good plan. That's how I came across the Hemingway collection I mention below.
First I'll share some collections that I've enjoyed, then try to answer your other question about where to get some stories digitally. I'm guessing you can buy most of these on Amazon if that's your thing. I tried to link to either publisher/author pages or Wikipedia instead of directly to Amazon, though.
As mentioned by @shinigami, Issac Asimov's short stories are really good. There are a few anthologies of his, but you can find them all collected in The Complete Stories.
If you want to stray out of sci-fi/fantasy, Hemingway's short story collection is really good as well. He has a very "modern" style of writing which is pretty easy to get into.
You mentioned Stephen King, and he has a number of short story collections as well.
George RR Martin has two collections called Dreamsongs I and Dreamsongs II. I loved a lot of the stories in these. A number have stuck with me over the years, especially "Meathouse Man" and "Sandkings."
I just finished Exhalation by Ted Chiang the other day and really loved these stories as well. Definitely some "makes you think" sci-fi type stuff.
Now for your other question. If you want to find new short fiction, there are "magazines" that specialize in it.
For sci-fi, Analog and Asimov's are the two big ones. They offer digital subscriptions on their websites - I'm only linking Asimov's here because you can subscribe to both from the same page.
There are a number of sites that list out other short story magazines. This one (from 2012) has a pretty good list. With some digging you can probably find out how many of these are still going and how to subscribe to a digital edition.
I will also echo what @FluffyKittens mentioned about your local library, but that might be US specific advice. I will say that my local library has a number of these magazines available for checkout.
Good luck and happy reading!
Jumping on the Ted Chiang train here. I read Stories of Your Life and Others a few years ago and really enjoyed it. His stories all have a modern Philip K. Dick feel to them (which by the way I'd also recommend as most of the concepts in his stories still stand up today).
Fantastic call out for Philip K. Dick. I read his short story collection this year and it was great!
I will add that moving away from my primary reading genres has DEFINITELY made me a more well-rounded person, and so I try to cycle genres as often as possible (i.e. I'll read a sci-fi, then a history, then a horror, then a biography, then a fantasy, then a comedy, etc.).
And the author who helped get me into non-sci-fi/fantasy was David Sedaris, whose books are pretty much all collections of short stories and essays, and they're all very good.
Sedaris is a great suggestion! I've read a couple of his books, but it's been a long time so he slipped my mind.
Sign up for your local library: you’ll get de-facto unlimited ebooks (typically through Libby these days), which are easy to copy to your kindle.
From there, look for anthologies from your favorite authors. Short stories typically get bundled into collections after initial publications, and that’s the best way to find them in bulk.
If you like science fiction, I always used to enjoy the anthologies of short stories edited by Gardner Dozois:
The Year's Best Science Fiction
The stories are optimistic, pessimistic, crude or detailed, but you'll always get a good mix and I enjoyed them a lot when I was younger. Gardner passed in 2018 so there haven't been any for the last few years but it had a good run.
Neil Clarke is basically carrying the torch of that one and is still releasing a new anthology each year with a good selection of the years best science fiction stories. I think it is the only one that covers science fiction in a broad manner. There are several other "years best" anthologies, but usually with a narrower focus like Best American, Best British, Best Hard SF etc.
Thanks for posting that! I will look into his anthologies!
I loved this series! Dozois selected such a diverse range of stories every year and I discovered so many new-to-me authors.
If you haven't already found it, Issac Asimov has an anthology, If not more than one, of his short stories. Some are a couple pages, some a bit longer.
There's a magazine you can subscribe to (in print and on kindle) called one story and they've had some excellent fiction.
I would recommend The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke which appears to be available on Kindle from Amazon although possible you can get it elsewhere. It contains my favorite short story of all time, The Nine Billion Names of God which someone has posted here. It's very short and highly recommended.
I really enjoyed Analog and Asimov's back in the 90's but dropped them in college after the stack of unread issues was more than a foot high. Not because it wasn't good, just because I didn't have time. One thing I like about that is that it's curated by someone else, so it's a chance to find authors and stories that I would never have read otherwise.
The poetry with a speculative bent was also good. I still remember a poem named dragon skin from Asimov's I made into a poster to put on my wall. I found it on the Internet Archive here.
It appears that you can .... download a PDF of the whole issue from that page. So .... I guess that's one source. The poem at least doesn't appear to be in print anywhere else I can find.
Oh, I am a speculative short fiction fan too! If you are looking for active online magazines, I can suggest Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons and Lightspeed Magazine as a few favourites. Subterranean Online was the absolute best, but unfortunately they're now defunct and their online stories no longer accessible without the Wayback Machine.
As a wildcard, I will throw in my suggestion of Alicorn's self published short stories on her website. They are fantastic and reminiscent of Ted Chiang's works, which I assume you're familiar with. Highly recommend Muse, Dogs and Threshold + Lilac in particular.
As far as the niche magazines go, most of them release electronic versions these days, alongside (or in place of) their print versions.
I had a subscription to Uncanny Magazine, which I'd recommend looking into if you're a sci-fi/fantasy fan. Uncanny has published numerous short stories that went on to win the Hugo in their categories, as well as winning a couple of Hugos themselves for best zine. They distribute ebooks, and you can put your "Send to Kindle" email into their book-delivery service and they'll send new issues straight to your Kindle library. From what I've seen, that's a fairly common way for independent booksellers to handle Kindle compatibility, and it seems to work well.
I'll cosign the webzines - you can get short stories easily and subscribe via RSS or email or what have you, Lightspeed and Uncanny are my favs.
As a collection:
How Long Til Black Future Month by NK Jemisin
And
Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler are two of my favs
I can recommend Machine of Death. It's an anthology where the stories are centered around an alternate universe where a machine is can tell you how you're going to die. So you give a blood sample and the machine spits out a slip of paper saying KILLED BY DANIEL or ALMOND or whatever, and good luck doing anything with that, because it always come true. Such fun!
Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, Roald Dahl, Mark Twain wrote amazing short stories.
I can recommend a modern collection We See a Different Frontier a Post Colonial Speculative Fiction.
The Adventures of Dunk and Egg is a series of short stories.
Out of those authors I'd wholeheartedly recommend Fantastic Mr Fox and The Masque of the Red Death. In fact I get the urge to reread the latter every year during spooky season. It's just so well written.
My favorite adult Roald Dahl story is the Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. Danny Champion of the World is my favorite Dahl kids book.
To Build a Fire by London is great.
The fable collection of Ambrose Bierce—biting, witty satire, despite its age. It seems that it can be found on project gutenberg.
Some of the other compilations I've enjoyed (some of these are old / "classics")
Mirrorshades - An anthology of cyberpunk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mirrorshades-Anthology-Cyberpunk-Paladin-Books/dp/0586087826
The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Lady-Churchills-Rosebud-Wristlet/dp/0345499131
Feeling Very Strange - the slipstream anthology: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feeling-Very-Strange-Slipstream-Anthology/dp/189239135X
Africa Risen - a new era of speculative fiction: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Africa-Risen-New-Speculative-Fiction/dp/1250833000
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you! Firstly, it appears that the classification I was seeking is "anthology," so just knowing that term will greatly assist me in finding the books I'm looking for.
Secondly, I want to extend my thanks for all your suggestions! I've already acquired a couple, and I'm absolutely loving them so far; they're precisely what I was hoping to find. I plan to read all the recommendations provided here. Thank you!