Finding short stories

[ajdecon]

Lately, it seems like it's been pretty hard to find good short story collections out there. I think a lot of it's probably financial: SF/fantasy authors have learned that writing novel-length books pay better, and bookstores have learned that they can make more money by stocking the next big novel than collections of older stories.

Personally I find that I prefer SF and fantasy short stories to novels. What could have been a tight, interesting short story becomes meandering and somewhat drawn-out when forced to be book-length: compare Isaac Asimov's or Larry Niven's short stories to their novels for good examples.

But since I'm having so much trouble, I thought I'd ask you: what do you read when you don't want to slog through a whole novel? Any particularly good collections or anthologies that you've read? Really good fiction magazines? Help me out here!

[GOLLUM]

Well as far as fantasy collections goes I can recommend to you Legends I and II, II in particular I thought was excellent. These showcase a lot of well known authors in the genre and feature stories set in some of their best known worlds.

Prepare to have a truckload of recommendations from the members here...

[Teresa Edgerton]

On the basis of the amount of work put in to the amount of money that comes back, short stories are not a bad deal for an author.

But what writers are willing to write and what publishers are willing to publish and what bookstores are willing to sell -- those are three very different things.

Coincidentally, I just received from Amazon a collection of short fiction by James Blaylock. The stories I've read so far are typical of this writer: quirky, surprising, and told with Blaylock's unique voice.

The title is Thirteen Phantasms which is also the name of the first story. Most of the stories are contemporary fantasy, but it looks like there is some Steampunkish stuff mixed in.

[Alia]

Sometimes the length of the books can bog me down and it's nice to pick up a small book and whip right through it. I personally enjoy YA fiction for such occasions. It offers some wonderful short stories series that make excellent reads even for the most intelligent adult. Some stories are more complex than others. I don't know if you would interested or not, but there are some great recommendations up in the YA section.

[ravenus]

If you don't mind horror/dark fantasy, I'd recommend:

The Emperor of Dreams - Clark Ashton Smith
Any complete tales collection of H.P. Lovecraft
Complete Tales and Poems - Edgar Allan Poe (Gothic horror)
Skeleton Crew, Night Shift - Stephen King (contemporary horror/fantasy)
The Nightmare Factory - Thomas Ligotti (Kafka meets Lovecraft type horror/dark fantasy)

[Jay]

I love short stores, here are some collections I recoomend:


First I want to second Clark Ashtom Smith's Emperor of Dreams.


Stranger Things Happen - Kelly Link (big critical favorite currently) her first collection has been made available for free via download:
here

Fantasy Writer’s Assistant - Jeffrey Ford

New Arabian Nights - Robert Louis Stevenson

The Shadow at the Bottom of the World - Thomas Ligotti

In the Palace of Repose - Holly Phillips ( I reviewed this <A href="http://www.fantasybookspot.com/?q=node/view/175" target=_blank>here

Noctuary - Thomas Ligotti

The Essential Ellison: A 50 Year Retrospective - Harlan Ellison

Things that Never Happen - M. John Harrison

Lost Pages by Paul Di Filippo

The State of Art by Ian M. Banks

The Black Gondolier - Fritz Leiber

Tales of the Old Earth - Michael Swanwick

Nowhere Near Milkwood - Rhys Hughes

The Rediscovery of Man - Cordwainer Smith

Burning Your Boats - Angela Carter

The Bloody Chamber and other stories - Angela Carter

Leviathan 3 - work by Jeffrey Ford, Michael Moorcock, Zoran Zivkovic, Tamar Yellin, Jef VanderMeer etc.

Island of Doctor Death and Other stories - Gene Wolfe

City of Saint and Madmen - Jeff VanderMeer

Secret Life - Jeff VanderMeer

Punktown - Jeffrey Thomas (excellentnnew writer)

Voyages by Starlight - Ian R. Macleod

Storeys from the Old Hotel - Gene Wolfe

Things That Never Happen: Fantasies, Lunacies and Entertaining Lies - Matthew Rossi (I reviewed this as well here

Boats of the Glen Carrig and Other Nautical Adventures - William Hope Hodgson

The House on the Borderland and Other Mysterious Places - William Hope Hodgson

The Ghost Pirates and Other Revenants of the Sea - William Hope Hodgson

Ficciones - Jorge Luis Borges

Smoke and Mirrors - Neal Gaiman

Endangered Species - Gene Wolfe

I would also recommend various collections by Bradbury, and JG Ballard.

[GOLLUM]

See ajdecon, told you you'ld get a truckload soon enough...

BTW you've mentioned some real beauties in that list there Ainulindale, most impressive..

[ravenus]

Boats of the Glen Carrig and Other Nautical Adventures - William Hope Hodgson

The House on the Borderland and Other Mysterious Places - William Hope Hodgson

They were a grand inspiration for HPL I think especially House on the Borderland which was a totally awesome story. Boats of the Glen Carrig was great up to a point but later devolved into a straight ahead romantic adventure tale.
Also love China Mieville's intro to the author on the Fantasy Masterworks compilation of Hodgson stories.

Also much thanks Ainulindale for mentioning some collections I have not previously heard of from writers I like. Shall have to keep an eye out

[ajdecon]

Thanks for all the suggestions! Looks like I have some serious reading in my future...

Ainulindale: I hope you were sitting next to your bookshelf while typing that. Otherwise, I bow down before your memory skills... WOW.

[Jay]

Ainulindale: I hope you were sitting next to your bookshelf while typing that. Otherwise, I bow down before your memory skills... WOW.

I can't claim a good memory ( I have to many bad habits and that's the first to go). It's a topic that I had answered recently a couple of times on other boards, so it was still fresh. The bulk of my books are in the U.S.

I also forgot to mention one that should not have slipped my mind - Lucius Shepard's Jaguar Hunter.

[lazygun]

Only 2 more recommendations......both SF.

"Dangerous Visions" ,'last i checked it was edited by Harlan Ellison,one of the origional contributors to the very first "Dangerous Visions",which i miss a little more each day... ..if you can pick any of these collections up i don't think you would be dissapointed.

Phillip k Dick has 5 books of Collected stories (that I'm aware of..)
1.Beyond lies the Wub.
2.Second Variety.
3.The Father Thing.
4.The Days of Perky Pat.
5.We can Remember it for you Wholesale.
All of them good and my own personal preference when it comes to P.D.K.
Found a few of his longer works,.....draining?...

Whatever you decide,i hope you will remember to tell us all?.....always looking myself for fresh/new SF.

[Brys]

Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar novels (really, split into short stories) and some of Moorcock's Elric stuff seems to be the most obvious choices in fantasy. Moorcock's Elric stories very rarely go above about 150 pages, and most are a bit shorter, in Fritz Leiber's Fafhd and Gray Mouser, in Swords against Death and Swords in the Mist most are short stories about 40-50 pages, or a bit shorter.
Viriconium Nights by M John Harrison is also a good choice, but hard to find on its own.

Check the Fantasy Masterworks series for them.