What are Your Favorite Anthologies and Short Story Collections

[Cheryl]

Anything by Fredric Brown. Too few; he died too young!

Asimov's Robot stories are good, imo, too. And for some reason I used to reread Lester del Rey's Early Del Rey several times (pre-goodreads) and plan to again someday.

I'll check out that group, Gaines. I love short stories, even the librivox recordings of the pulps.

[Gaines]

Cheryl wrote: "I'll check out that group, Gaines. I love short stories, even the librivox recordings of the pulps."

Great!

[Julia]

Last summer I read a great one: Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury edited by Sam Weller .

But I've since discovered a different graphic novel version has come out: Shadow Show by Neil Gaiman . I haven't read this second one yet.

[Gaines]

Julia wrote: "Last summer I read a great one: Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury edited by Sam Weller [bookcover:Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration..."

I love Bradbury. He certainly mastered the art of short fiction, imo.

[Kenny]

I read Anthony Doerr's "The Memory Wall" a while back. It is not classified as SF but several of the stories (including the first which is the title story and last) are definitely in the SFF category.

The Memory Wall has to do with being able to record and play-back memories which are stored on computer chips that can be plugged in to brains.

The final story 'Afterlife' - is about that exactly and explores some very interesting thoughts on the topic.

Excellent writing. He is simply amazing!

Memory Wall

[E.J.]

I absolutely ADORE Charles Yu's short story collection Sorry Please Thank You. It's the most meta, absurd, self-aware, humorous and captivating short stories I've ever read.

[Susan]

E.J. wrote: "I absolutely ADORE Charles Yu's short story collection Sorry Please Thank You. It's the most meta, absurd, self-aware, humorous and captivating short stories I've ever read."

I so agree. Each story is a lightweight bit of brilliance.

[ScoLgo]

For the past year, I have been nibbling on The Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois. I'm currently about halfway through and, thus far, this is a great collection.

[Kenny]

A couple of anthologies with a somewhat unique selection of stories are two edited by Ben Marcus. They are not all SF but some certainly fall into the category.

New American Stories - New American Stories
and
The Anchor book of New American Short Stories - The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories

Great Stuff!

[Cheryl]

The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales, edited by Alison Lurie, is unfortunately named. It's not all elves and dragons; the earliest story is from 1839, and it's got a lot of stories that are *not* for children. But it's rich, representative of many of the best (through 1989), and even though I've read it twice I still want to own a copy for myself.

[Beth]

I didn't like all the stories in Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances, but The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains was wonderfully creepy. As an overall collection, I prefer Gaiman's earlier Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and Illusions (the standout story in that one is probably "Murder Mysteries.")

Seconding The Stories of Ray Bradbury Volume 1 & 2 and Stories of Your Life and Others.

Cosmicomics is one of my favorite single-author collections.

Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti is another favorite, a brilliant horror collection.

I have The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF but I haven't read it yet.

[Monica]

Random wrote: "I can't recommend Ted Chaing's Stories of Your Life and Others enough. I really wish he wrote more."

I would second this one! Excellent collection!

[Kenny]

Monica wrote: "Random wrote: "I can't recommend Ted Chaing's Stories of Your Life and Others enough. I really wish he wrote more."

I would second this one! Excellent collection!"

Yes! The Best SF short stories I've read in decades!

[Julia]

Kelly Link only writes short stories. Her collections Pretty Monsters and Magic for Beginners have the story "The Faery Handbag," which was on "Selected Shorts" recently, an npr (or is it mpr?) radio show that has actors reading great short stories.

Also, look for The Very Best of Charles de Lint by Charles de Lint.

[Kenny]

Kelly's "The Summer People" is incredible!

[Trike]

Julia wrote: "Kelly Link only writes short stories. Her collections Pretty Monsters and Magic for Beginners have the story "The Faery Handbag," which was on "Selecte..."

I have so many short story collections languishing in my TBR pile that it makes me antsy. Link's Get in Trouble is one of those.

Of recent collections I've read in the 6 years (!!) since I last posted in this thread, the two I would recommend are Word Puppets by Mary Robinette Kowal and War Stories: New Military Science Fiction, edited by Jaym Gates.

War Stories review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Word Puppets review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...