The 22 Greatest Sci-Fi Short Story Collections

Golden Age robot parables share shelf space with cyberpunk manifestos and twenty-first-century stories that swept the awards. Short fiction is where the genre does its boldest thinking.

1. 1
   Stories of Your Life and Others

   Ted Chiang's 2002 debut collection, home of the novella that became the film Arrival.
   1000pts
2. 2
   The Rediscovery of Man

   The complete short science fiction of Cordwainer Smith and his strange far-future Instrumentality.
   681pts
3. 3
   I, Robot

   Isaac Asimov's 1950 linked collection of robot stories that introduced the Three Laws of Robotics.
   622pts
4. 4
   To Hold Up the Sky

   Liu Cixin's 2020 English collection of grand-scale Chinese hard science fiction.
   551pts
5. 5
   I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream

   Harlan Ellison's 1967 collection led by his chilling tale of a vengeful supercomputer.
   551pts
6. 6
   The Wind's Twelve Quarters

   Ursula K. Le Guin's 1975 collection including The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.
   551pts
7. 7
   Her Smoke Rose Up Forever

   The definitive collection of James Tiptree Jr., including The Women Men Don't See.
   466pts
8. 8
   Fire Watch

   Connie Willis's 1985 collection whose Hugo- and Nebula-winning title story began her Oxford time-travel series.
   466pts
9. 9
   The Science Fiction Hall of Fame

   The 1970 anthology of the best pre-Nebula stories, chosen by the Science Fiction Writers of America.
   466pts
10. 10
    Axiomatic

    Greg Egan's 1995 collection of hard-SF stories about identity, consciousness and physics.
    466pts
11. 11
    The Cyberiad

    Stanisław Lem's 1965 comic stories about two robot constructors who build impossible machines.
    466pts
12. 12
    Driftglass

    Samuel R. Delany's 1971 collection including the Nebula winner Aye, and Gomorrah.
    363pts
13. 13
    The Paper Menagerie

    Ken Liu's 2016 collection whose title story swept the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy awards.
    363pts
14. 14
    Exhalation

    Ted Chiang's 2019 collection of philosophical stories about free will, time and machine minds.
    362pts
15. 15
    Invisible Planets

    Ken Liu's 2016 anthology that introduced Chinese science fiction to English readers.
    362pts
16. 16
    The Martian Chronicles

    Ray Bradbury's 1950 cycle of stories about the human colonization of Mars.
    362pts
17. 17
    Welcome to the Monkey House

    Kurt Vonnegut's 1968 collection featuring the dystopian classic Harrison Bergeron.
    362pts
18. 18
    The Illustrated Man

    Ray Bradbury's 1951 collection framed by a tattooed man whose living tattoos each tell a story.
    0pts
19. 19
    Burning Chrome

    William Gibson's 1986 collection of cyberpunk stories, including Johnny Mnemonic.
    0pts
20. 20
    Bloodchild and Other Stories

    Octavia E. Butler's collection led by her Hugo- and Nebula-winning title story.
    0pts
21. 21
    The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke

    Every Clarke short story in one volume, from The Sentinel to The Nine Billion Names of God.
    0pts
22. 22
    How Long 'til Black Future Month?

    N. K. Jemisin's 2018 collection of speculative stories spanning futures, cities and myths.
    0pts

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