7 of the Best Science Fiction Short Stories Over the Past 30 Years
Science Fiction is a genre uniquely suited for short fiction. Historically, great science fiction writers used the short story medium to communicate elegant ideas without complex characters. Stories like Isaac Asimov’s “Nightfall” and Arthur C. Clarke’s “Nine Billion Names of God” function because the ideas are so strong, though the characters could be anyone. Over the last 30 years a new generation of writers have used science fiction short stories to introduce characters that are integral and organic parts of the ideas they are communicating. Below I’ve chosen seven stories that I found had powerful and moving effects beyond making me think “wow, what a cool idea.” They are also all award winners or nominees and regularly appear in collections of the best science fiction. Obviously, I have not read every science fiction short story every written nor could I include all my favorites in this list. If you like science fiction and are looking for stories that might make you think in a different way, you really can’t go wrong with these seven. If you have other science fiction short stories you’d like to recommend, please leave a comment for me below.
Perhaps the best science fiction story of all time–at least in the top ten. A wealthy and cruel exotic-pet collector purchases a colony of insect-like Sandkings. There are four different-colored factions of these semi-intelligent creatures, and they battle each other for food and their owner’s entertainment. They also worship their collector, even though he is cruel and punishing. This is a great science fiction short story in the classic vein of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, driven by plot and ideas and featuring a last-minute twist. It is addictive and powerful.
“Speech Sounds,” Octavia Butler (1983) Hugo Winner
A disease ravages the United States, reducing most of the population into speechless animals. One woman tries to trek across Los Angeles to see if a relative is still alive. It’s a fast-paced, post-apocalyptic science fiction short story exploring alienation and human nature. Butler writes with a depth rarely seen in science fiction.
“Snow,” John Crowley (1985) Hugo and Nebula nominee
A wealthy, fun-loving woman pays to have her life video-taped by a mechanized bee. After her death, her lover reviews the footage. Unfortunately, it can only be viewed randomly and it degrades with time. Fascinated by the figurative snow that appears on the tapes, the husband begins to suspect that the footage is not random after all. An eerie story whose disparate elements fit together like a perfect crystal. A science fiction short story that lingers in the mind and soul long after you read it.
“Out of All Them Bright Stars,” Nancy Kress (1985) Nebula Nominee
A science fiction short story that doesn’t focus on the big picture or big ideas, it focuses on a waitress at a little diner who encounters with an alien. In the short story, aliens arrived at Earth for unknown reasons a few years earlier, and are treated with distrust and disrespect. This is a beautiful short story that uses the genre of science fiction to explore deeper human themes. The alien and the waitress are equally essential to the story in a way that characters in traditional genre classics like Asimov’s “Nightfall” are not.
This short story is a perfect example of character-driven science fiction. A scientist, in an attempt to save his child, imprints her personality into the brain of a chimpanzee. Rachel is therefore both a little girl and a chimpanzee, and must deal with the prejudices of the human world and the animal nature of the chimp world. Murphy created a science fiction short story full of hope, humor, and warmth.
“Bears Discover Fire,” Terry Bisson (1990) Hugo and Nebula Winner
This is an odd, quirky science fiction short story. The title describes exactly what happens–bears discover fire. Unfortunately, since they can’t talk, they gather around the fire and linger silently, much to the surprise of the people who see them. This is a short story that transcends the genre of science fiction and could just as easily appear on a list of the best literary short fiction of the last 30 years.
“Magic For Beginners,” Kelly Link (2005) Hugo and Nebula Nominee
Link is an author who erases the boundaries between science fiction and literary fiction and this is one of her best short stories. The characters in this story share and obsession with a weird TV show that airs at random dates and times and features the same characters, but with different actors playing each role. It’s a story about change and growth, with levels of complexity beyond my abilities to decipher. Literary without being pretentious, it is still enjoyable and readable in the tradition of the great science fiction short stories.
If you are interested in finding these stories, and other great works of short science fiction, here are some collections you should check out:
