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It's long past time for my annual short story recommendation list! In which I tell you about 10 stories I read in the last year-ish that I think are particularly worth reading, and link you to them. As always, all the stories are SFF because that's my jam.
Here's this year's stories! (and by this year I mean from summer 2017 to summer 2018, whoops, writing story summaries/enticements is hard)
1. And Her Eyes Sewn Shut with Unicorn Hair, by Rosamund Hodge
You can tell from the title that it's not going to be a happy story about unicorns. But it's fascinating, and I love the worldbuilding, as you get drawn deeper and deeper into the awfulness of the situation. And also SISTERS.
2. The Effluent Engine, by N.K. Jemisin
A steampunk AU about Haiti and New Orleans in the time relatively recently after Haiti's revolution, featuring women who are SPIES and INVENTORS. Amazing.
3. Fandom for Robots, by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
A delightful story about an elderly robot in a museum who discovers the joys of fandom!
4. Krace Is Not a Highway, by Scott Vanyur
A robot designed for rating the safety and repair conditions of highway surfaces faces the apocalypse as the sole companion of a human, and learns how to deal with, gasp, humans having emotions. I love the extreme outside pov, where the reader can see so much more into what the human is experiencing than the robot is at all capable of understanding.
5. Oshun, Inc., by Jordan Ifueko
An immortal who serves the Nigerian goddess of love, working on making the romantic match between humans that'll make her career. A fun read.
6. Sour Milk Girls, by Erin Roberts
In an orphanage where girls who are admitted usually have their memories of their previous life taken from them, three girls who have been at the home long-term react to the latest new addition to their number. I like how although the narrative makes us sympathise with the viewpoint character, it also doesn't soften any of the difficult things about her or the others.
7. Strange Waters, by Samantha Mills
A fisherwoman blown off course spends years trying to sail back to her family before it's too late, taking imprecise time-travelling currents back and forth across the centuries. I'm fascinated by all the glimpses of this world, and how having occasional time travellers telling them what to expect from the future is just....normal. And also I have a lot of feelings about the main character.
8. The Sun God At Dawn, Rising From A Lotus Blossom, by Andrea Kail
In a future where museums create living copies of famous people of history as exhibits, a young Tutankhamun writes letters to Abraham Lincoln. The reader only sees the one side of the correspondence, but you can see so much of what's going on through the letters regardless. And as the boy grows, he also grows in his understanding of the modern world around him in all its complexities and problems, and how they relate to his own existence.
9. Umbernight, by Carolyn Ives Gilman
A colony on a planet that's occasionally subjected to dangerous radiation, and a hurried cross-country trip trying to get back to safety before it's too late. The kind of story that totally immerses you in the setting - amazingly evocative and intense.
10. unfurl/ed, by Jes Rausch
It's a story from the perspective of an orbiting solar collector. Which you wouldn't necessarily expect to work but totally does. Does wonderfully interesting things with pov!
(Click my annual rec list tag to see my recommendations from other years!)
Here's this year's stories! (and by this year I mean from summer 2017 to summer 2018, whoops, writing story summaries/enticements is hard)
1. And Her Eyes Sewn Shut with Unicorn Hair, by Rosamund Hodge
You can tell from the title that it's not going to be a happy story about unicorns. But it's fascinating, and I love the worldbuilding, as you get drawn deeper and deeper into the awfulness of the situation. And also SISTERS.
2. The Effluent Engine, by N.K. Jemisin
A steampunk AU about Haiti and New Orleans in the time relatively recently after Haiti's revolution, featuring women who are SPIES and INVENTORS. Amazing.
3. Fandom for Robots, by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
A delightful story about an elderly robot in a museum who discovers the joys of fandom!
4. Krace Is Not a Highway, by Scott Vanyur
A robot designed for rating the safety and repair conditions of highway surfaces faces the apocalypse as the sole companion of a human, and learns how to deal with, gasp, humans having emotions. I love the extreme outside pov, where the reader can see so much more into what the human is experiencing than the robot is at all capable of understanding.
5. Oshun, Inc., by Jordan Ifueko
An immortal who serves the Nigerian goddess of love, working on making the romantic match between humans that'll make her career. A fun read.
6. Sour Milk Girls, by Erin Roberts
In an orphanage where girls who are admitted usually have their memories of their previous life taken from them, three girls who have been at the home long-term react to the latest new addition to their number. I like how although the narrative makes us sympathise with the viewpoint character, it also doesn't soften any of the difficult things about her or the others.
7. Strange Waters, by Samantha Mills
A fisherwoman blown off course spends years trying to sail back to her family before it's too late, taking imprecise time-travelling currents back and forth across the centuries. I'm fascinated by all the glimpses of this world, and how having occasional time travellers telling them what to expect from the future is just....normal. And also I have a lot of feelings about the main character.
8. The Sun God At Dawn, Rising From A Lotus Blossom, by Andrea Kail
In a future where museums create living copies of famous people of history as exhibits, a young Tutankhamun writes letters to Abraham Lincoln. The reader only sees the one side of the correspondence, but you can see so much of what's going on through the letters regardless. And as the boy grows, he also grows in his understanding of the modern world around him in all its complexities and problems, and how they relate to his own existence.
9. Umbernight, by Carolyn Ives Gilman
A colony on a planet that's occasionally subjected to dangerous radiation, and a hurried cross-country trip trying to get back to safety before it's too late. The kind of story that totally immerses you in the setting - amazingly evocative and intense.
10. unfurl/ed, by Jes Rausch
It's a story from the perspective of an orbiting solar collector. Which you wouldn't necessarily expect to work but totally does. Does wonderfully interesting things with pov!
(Click my annual rec list tag to see my recommendations from other years!)
