My short story collection, The Butterfly Disjunct, is out today from Interstellar Flight Press!
To celebrate the book’s release day, I’m sharing some of the fantastic SFF short fiction collections that came out this year. Most of them are from small publishers or independent authors, too!
Why Read Short Story Collections?
These days, it often seems like the trend in fiction is novel series that are as big, epic, and immersive as possible. Even though I mostly write short fiction, I find that’s where my reading time usually goes as well.
But this year (perhaps because I have a collection coming out myself!) I’ve noticed that there are actually quite a few short story collections that come out every year—even if they don’t get the kind of press the latest blockbuster/doorstopper epic does.
Long before I was a writer myself, I enjoyed short fiction collections just as much as novels. Especially in college, I have fond memories of reading books of short stories by Philip Dick, Jorge Luis Borges, Angela Carter, Edgar Allan Poe, Yasunari Kawabata, and many more. I have no doubt that reading all those collections played a part in my focusing more on short fiction once I did start writing.
Don’t get me wrong! I still love novels and novellas. It’s rewarding and compelling as a reader to be able to immerse myself into a different world for a long time.
But at the same time, there’s a lot to be said for short story collections. They can give you a much better sense of an author’s range—whether that means differences in genre, topics, settings, or tone. They can also introduce you to trends in a writer’s work that you might not notice if you only look at their longer-form work.
And last but not least, as a reviewer of my collection pointed out on Goodreads, short story collections allow you to dip in and read a story or two at a time, without needing a huge time commitment:
I would like to have this book living on my night stand or end table picking it up in a quiet moment to read and re-read my favorite stories.
Goodreads review, MagnoliaJulie
That’s certainly something I can appreciate, as an always-busy person whose reading time is not as frequent or as long as I’d like!
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the pile of thick novels in your to-read list, want to check out something by an author who’s new to you, or are just looking to dive into a favourite author’s backlist, make sure you check out some of the collections below—or go seek out others elsewhere.
Some Great Short Story Collections from 2024
This is far from an exhaustive list of the short story collections that were published this year. But each is from a writer whose work I know and enjoy—and I’m absolutely certain their short story collections are filled with the amazing writing, wonderful characters, and unique settings I’ve come to expect every time I click through to their latest published work.
If you’d like to tell me about a book I’ve missed that should be on this list, send me an email and let me know—I’d love to hear from you. (2024-11-05: added two new collections)
The short story collections below are organized alphabetically by title. I’ve shared the cover, publisher blurb, links to buy, and a link to a sample story from each.
Broken Stars, by Jeremy Szal
Broken Stars combines previously published short stories and novelettes with new and exciting tales, ranging from space opera to military SF to science-fantasy and everything in-between.
Tales of broken heroes fighting for hope in dark worlds, full of aliens and outcasts, drug dealers and bounty hunters, mercenaries and soldiers. Tales of far-flung worlds where the lines between machine and human become blurred, the humanity of monsters is explored, and victory always comes with a heavy price.
In these eighteen stories, violence explodes, betrayals abound, and no one is safe.
Sample story: “The Galaxy’s Cube” (Abyss & Apex, 2016)
Links to buy: Author website
Convergence Problems, by Wole Talabi
From the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Nommo award nominated author of Shigidi and The Brass Head Of Obalufon comes a stunning new collection of stories that investigate the rapidly changing role of technology and belief in our lives as we search for meaning, for knowledge, for justice; constantly converging on our future selves.
In “An Arc of Electric Skin,” a roadside mechanic seeking justice volunteers to undergo a procedure that will increase the electrical conductivity of his skin by orders of magnitude. In “Blowout,” a woman races against time and a previously undocumented geological phenomenon to save her brother on the surface of Mars. In “Ganger,” a young woman trapped in a city run by machines must transfer her consciousness into an artificial body and find a way to give her life purpose. In “Debut,” Nairobi-based technical support engineer tries to understand what is happening when an AI art system begins malfunctioning in ways that could change the world.
The sixteen stories of Convergence Problems, which include work published for the first time in this collection, rare stories, and recently acclaimed work, showcase Talabi at his creative best: playful and profound, exciting and experimental, always interesting.
Sample story: “An Arc of Electric Skin” (Asimov’s, 2021)
Links to buy: Astra Publishing House
Different Kinds of Defiance, by Renan Bernardo
Defiance has many faces, and in DIFFERENT KINDS OF DEFIANCE, they are as varied as they are gripping. In a world teetering on the brink of moral ambiguity, each story is a testament to the spirit that resists, rebuilds, and redeems.
From the sunbaked docks of a Rio de Janeiro, changed yet still familiar, to the oil-streaked shores of Barra Nova, Renan Bernardo weaves tales of characters caught in the throes of life’s tempests. Meet Hamilton, whose pursuit of a stolen yacht morphs into a crusade for healthcare for the forgotten, his acts a mosaic of bravery and necessity. Walk with Vitória as she battles the relentless tide of pollution with a fleet of smart-bots at her side, her resolve as persistent as the oil that stains her beach. Stand by Jota, who faces the storms of parenting in the shadow of a past that is never quite done with him or his defiant bloodline.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF DEFIANCE is a collection for the rebels at heart—for those who find courage where hope seems lost and for whom every act of resistance is an act of sheer will.
Sample story: “Soil of Our Home, Storm of Our Lives” (Apex, 2021)
Links to buy: Android Press
Elephants in Bloom, by Cécile Cristofari
Debut collection from a French author who has been making a name for herself with regular contributions to Interzone and elsewhere (Clarkesworld, ParSec, etc). Providing a fresh perspective on the world, humanity, and its potential (both good and bad), Cécile’s fiction reflects her love of the natural world and concern for its future. Elephants in Bloom contains her finest previously published stories, as selected by the author, alongside eight brand new tales that appear here for the first time.
Each story is followed by a note from the author, providing further insight and context.
Sample story: “The Fishery” (Interzone Digital, 2023)
Links to buy: NewCon Press
Human Resources, by Fiona Moore
Fiona Moore is a Canadian-born academic, writer and critic living in London. In 2023 her work won a BSFA Award, having been previously shortlisted for both BSFA and World Fantasy Awards. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Interzone and elsewhere, and has been selected for six consecutive editions of the annual Best of British Science Fiction anthology.
Eighteen stories drawn from more than a decade of publications, plus the title story: a brand new novelette that appears here for the first time.
From a woman rebelling against the corporation that has turned her into living, breathing product placement to a story of misfit automata that have outlived their sell-by date. From a murder case involving an AI car to the hunt for a sentient battle tank lost somewhere in the jungle… These stories show us disturbing futures that may be a lot closer than we like to think.
Sample story: “The Lori” (Clarkesworld, 2020)
Links to buy: NewCon Press
Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism: Short Stories, by Andrea Kriz
A short story collection exploring unexpected, fantastical futures and how we cope in them.
Your friend creates an award-winning VR game—based on your friendship. An AI starts a YouTube channel at the expense of its creator. A fanfic writer plagiarizing the lives of the marginalized gets her comeuppance. Time travel meets magic in a world blown into pieces by war. Dragons modify DNA and undergo peer review. In Andrea Kriz’s debut short story collection, technology and genres wildly blend in stories that will challenge how you see our future.
Sample story: “Communist Computer Rap God” (Clarkesworld, 2021)
Links to buy: Intestellar Flight Press
The Memory Plague and Other Stories, by D. Thomas Minton
Featuring alien artifacts, curious trans-dimensional mementoes, magical carousel horses, and more, this collection of twenty-four speculative short stories brings together the best of D. Thomas Minton’s explorations of reality, the universe, and what it means to be human.
Sample story: “The Memory Plague” (Lightspeed, 2021)
Links to buy: Author website
Pick Your Potion, by Ephiny Gale
Magic, mystery, and the macabre collide in Pick Your Potion, a mesmerising collection of genre-blending fantasy, science-fiction, and horror stories from award-winning Australian author Ephiny Gale.
The 26 weird tales in Pick Your Potion are female-centric, mostly queer, and always intriguing.
Within these pages, you’ll find:
A deadly and addictive magical board game.
A time-loop demon apocalypse.
A dimension-jumping cruise ship.
A competition to win a magical orchard.
A collection of murder victims’ last texts.Heartwarming, heart-stopping, and heartbreaking in turn, Pick Your Potion offers a full apothecary of speculative stories to serve the curious reader.
Sample story: “Rewind” (The Dread Machine, 2022)
Links to buy: Author website
A Place Between Waking and Forgetting, by Eugen Bacon
A Place Between Waking and Forgetting is dark speculative fiction, an Afro-Irreal collection in which transformative stories of culture, diversity, climate change, unlimited futures, collisions of worlds, mythology, and more, inhabit. It cases black people stories in bold and evocative text, at times deeply flawed but potentially redeemable protagonists in rich hues of blackness and light. Something beautiful, something dark in lyrical language packed with affection, dread, anguish and hope.
Featuring the World Fantasy Award finalist story “The Devil Don’t Come With Horns”, this collection of short stories is the latest offering by a genre-bending, multi-award winner.
Sample story: Excerpts from “Naked Earth” and “Derive, Moderately”
Links to buy: Raw Dog Screaming Press
Sinking, Singing, by Gwynne Garfinkle
A young girl hears unsettling messages in the grooves of an old record album. A washed-up horror star gets a second chance at stardom, but at a great price. A robot rebellion is fueled by the poetry of Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde.
In this collection of short fiction, some characters seek to escape (often through music or magic), while others choose to remain in the beautiful, albeit damaged, present moment.
Sample story: “Sinking, Singing” (Not One of Us 60, )
Links to buy: Aqueduct Press
So You Want to Be a Robot, 2nd Edition, by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
Set aside traditional norms and the gender binary in this updated collection of twenty-two stories by Nebula Award finalist Merc Fenn Wolfmoor.
Here you’ll find robots and cyborgs exploring their own forms of personhood; lose yourself in wildly imaginative landscapes and dystopian worlds; follow assassins, sentient shadows, sorrowful ghosts, and all forms of monsters. Dare to feel everything—from the brightest joy to sorrow and the rainbow of emotion in between.
(First released in 2017 from Lethe Press, the new edition features an extra story (“Gray Skies, Red Wings, Blue Lips, Black Hearts,” first published in Apex in 2021), as well as two gorgeous cover options.)
Sample story: “This Is Not a Wardrobe Door” (Fireside, 2016)
Links to buy: Author website (robot cover) or Author website (discreet cover)
Sunflowers in Snow, by Dawn Bonnano
A collection of fourteen fantasy stories about magic in the real world, Sunflowers in the Snow explores friendships and family bonds through sentient houses, magical taverns, secret gardens, and people from other realms who are more like us than we could ever dream.
Featured stories include: Sunflowers in the Snow, Cara’s Heartsong, Voices Heard Within Heartbreak House, Never Say Never, The Legacy of Kalila Arquette, Sarah’s Little Monster Hunter, and more.
Sample story: “Cara’s Heartsong” (Daily Science Fiction, 2014)
Links to buy: Author website
Writing Update: A Short Story Collection and a Short Game
The Butterfly Disjunct, and Other Stories
Speaking of short story collections, The Butterfly Disjunct is out today from Interstellar Flight Press! Featuring more than 30 of my science fiction stories from the last ten years, it’s available in ebook and print from most major retailers.
Although I’ve had lots of short stories published over the years, this is my print book debut, and the first time I’ve filled a whole book with my work and nothing else. That’s exciting!
You can learn more about the collection on my website, and if you’d like a look at what’s inside you can download a free sampler, which includes my stories “How to Break Causality and Write the Perfect Time Travel Story” (Translunar Travelers Lounge, 2019), “The Spread of Space and Endless Devastation” (Lightspeed, 2022), and “Maricourt’s Waters, Quiet and Deep” (No Police = Know Future, 2020).
Forevermore: A Game of Writing Horror
Forevermore is a very short, humorous piece of interactive fiction about writing and distractibility. Written in just under 4 hours for ECTOCOMP 2024, the game puts you in the shoes of Allen Edgar Poet as you try to stay sufficiently broody to complete your latest masterpiece.
It’s very short (did I mention that?) and a casual, quick play. You can play the game for free on itch.io—and don’t forget to take a look at all the great spooky games folks have put together for this year’s ECTOCOMP.
That’s all for this month. See you in December!