Yesterday, I offered up a list of My Favorite Genre Novelettes of 2016.
Today I’d like to offer up a list of My Favorite Genre Short Stories of 2016.
Of the roughly 200 stories I read last year, these were, in my humble opinion, the Top 30.
I’ve included a short synopsis and links to an online reading copy. You may also want to consider purchasing the issues outright (or, better yet, subscribing!). And, if you’re interested in further reading, I would heartily recommend RockStackRank, a site that offers up monthly aggregate ratings for works in the categories of short stories, novelettes, and novellas.
“Salvage Opportunity” by Jack Skillingstead (Clarkesworld #114) – SF
Badar has a 4-year contract sits all alone at a salvage site on Kepler-186f. – RocketStackRank
“The Governess with a Mechanical Womb” by Leena Likitalo (Clarkesworld #114) – Post Apocalyptic
Agneta and her little sister, Saga, are among the last human survivors. The invading aliens have assigned a modified human “governess” to watch over them. – RockStackRank
“Into the Wreck” by June Oldfather (Strange Horizons – February 22nd, 2016) – SF
A human science team studies the colossal wreck of an alien spacecraft. – RocketStackRank
“The Artificial Bees” by Simon Guerrier (Uncanny #9) – SF
Randall, a robot, investigates an unfamiliar place: a home garden. RocketStackRank
“Not a Wardrobe, Tornado, or Looking Glass” by Jeremiah Tolbert (Lightspeed Magazine #69) – Fantasy
Ellie used to travel freely to the other world, but lately her door doesn’t work. In fact, all the portals are broken for some reason. – RocketStackRank
“Blessed are Those Who Have Seen and Do Not Believe” by D.K. Thompson (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #91) – Magical Steampunk
Elijah is dying of tuberculosis in a London where Darwin discovered spirits, not evolution. He and a vampire friend descend into the underground to look for a cure. – RocketStackRank
“In Skander, For a Boy” by Chaz Brenchley (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #91) – High Fantasy
Having no heir, King Rulf sends Harlan, his most trusted adviser, to find the son of the king he overthrew 20 years ago. – RocketStackRank
“We Have A Cultural Difference, Can I Taste You?” by Rebecca Ann Jordan (Strange Horizons – April 18th, 2016) – SF
Filo/Gee, an intelligent giant amoeba, isn’t the ideal college roommate, particularly since he experiences the world through touching and tasting, which is hard on books, electronics, and relationships. – RocketStackRank
“1957” by Stephen Cox (Apex Magazine #84) – SF Horror
Daniel is 17, attends a British boys school, and is very happy except in those moments when he remembers a very different life. – RocketStackRank
“Blameless” by Jeffrey Ford (A Natural History of Hell – Stories)
A couple are invited over to a neighbor’s daughter’s exorcism. (Small Beer Press) – New Weird Horror
“Life in Stone, Glass, and Plastic” by Jose Pablo Iriarte (Strange Horizons – June 13th, 2016) – Contemporary Fantasy
Sergio is called to remove an offensive mural, but when he touches it, it makes him “remember” things from other people’s lives. – RocketStackRank
“A Good Home” by Karin Lowachee (Lightspeed Magazine #73) – SF
A disabled human veteran takes in a disabled AI veteran. The AI doesn’t talk anymore due to trauma, but Tawn tries to get through to it, even though his mother thinks it’s dangerous. – RocketStackRank
“Binaries” by S.B. Divya (Lightspeed #73) – SF
The narrator describes his life in exponential steps. – RocketStackRank
“Cuckoo Girls” by Douglas F. Warrick (Apex Magazine #85) – Horror
Nikki and Samantha are on the run from luminous monsters that are trying to kill them–and anyone they care about who’s near them. – RocketStackRank
“Lullaby For A Lost World” by Aliette De Bodard (Tor.com) – Horror
Charlotte’s sacrifice kept the forces of chaos at bay, but only for a while, and in her grave, she grows resentful. – RocketStackRank
“Against the Stream” by A Que (Clarkesworld #118) – Time Travel
An “illness” causes a man to wake each morning in the previous day, and as he lives his life backwards, he sees the mistakes he made. – RocketStackRank
“The One Who Isn’t” by Ted Kosmatka (Lightspeed Magazine #74) – SF
A woman appears to be helping a child recover from some form of brain damage. His perceptions and memory are off, but something is off about her too. – RocketStackRank
“The Assassin’s Secret” by Adam Troy-Castro (Lightspeed #75) – Fantasy
The world’s greatest assassin sits in his lair, waiting for people to come to him to beg his assistance. – RocketStackRank
“The Gentleman of Chaos” by A. Merc Rustad (Apex Magazine #87) – High Fantasy
An immortal assassin threatens the new king, so he has his sister trained as the ultimate bodyguard. – RocketStackRank
“The Engines Imperial” by Sean Bensinger (Clarkesworld #119) – Fantasy SF
The starship Rook returns to the system to mourn her sister starship, who died there 10,000 years ago. – RocketStackRank
“Rooms Formed of Neurons and Sex” by Ferrett Steinmetz (Uncanny Magazine #12) – Near-Future SF
Lydia’s boyfriend, Ross, was just a brain in a jar. So how, exactly, did she injure him during sex? – RocketStackRank
“Of Sight, Of Mind, Of Heart” by Samantha Murray (Clarkesworld #122) – SF
You adopt an android baby. You name him Ben. He grows amazingly fast. – RocketStackRank
“Afrofuturist 419” by Nnedi Okorafor (Clarkesworld #122) – SF
Nigerian astronaut Abacha Tunde has been abandoned in space since 1990 and he would appreciate some help getting home. – RocketStackRank
“Every Day Is The Full Moon” by Carlie St. George (Lightspeed Magazine #79) – Slipstream
B’s werewolf dad beats her, but what really gets her down is she hasn’t become supernatural like her friends have. – RocketStackRank
“A Salvaging of Ghosts” by Aliette De Bodard (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #195) – Space Opera
Thuy seeks her daughter’s remains in the twisted parts of unreal space where salvagers pick over the remains of wrecked starships. – RocketStackRank
“Terminal” by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com) – SF
A vast fleet of “jalopies” carry individuals on a one-way trip from Earth to Mars. People do it for different reasons, some of which we learn about in this story. – RocketStackRank
“The Savannah Liar’s Tour” by Will McIntosh (Lightspeed Magazine #68) – Urban Fantasy
In the near future, Ben uses cryosleep for a side-effect: while he’s under, he can meet his dead wife. Trouble is, he has a new wife. – RocketStackRank
“Secondhand Bodies” by JY Yang (Lightspeed #68) – SF
Agatha wants a svelte replacement for her plump body, but since she can’t get one grown in a reasonable time, she looks into an illegal swap. – RocketStackRank
“Two’s Company” by Joe Abercrombie (Tor.com) – High Fantasy
A warrior woman and a thief fleeing from the south meet a male warrior fleeing from the north in the middle of a bridge. Then it gets complicated. – RocketStackRank
“Blood Grains Speak Through Memories” by Jason Sanford (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #195)- SF
Frere-Jones controls the nanobot “grains” that help protect the ecology in the bit of land she “anchors.” She’s come to view the grains as a tyranny, but there doesn’t seem to be much she can do about it. – RocketStackRank
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