Favorite Short Fiction of 2016
I recently posted about my favorite novels, anthologies, and collections of 2016. As with my longer form reading, I had the best of intentions of staying caught up with All the Things in short fiction, but the truth is, that was never an achievable goal. We’re in a golden age for short fiction; there’s so much of out there, and so much of it is truly excellent. Of course I’m going to miss stories, and I’ll miss a lot of them. That said, I did read a lot, too. Here are my favorites for the year thus far. Should I manage more catching up by the year’s end, I’ll update the post accordingly.
Palingenesis by Megan Arkenberg - Short Story - Shimmer - Art, loss, shifting truths, family, and nature reclaiming its own.
The Virgin Played Bass by Maria Dahvana Headley - Novelette - Uncanny - A style-soaked retelling of the Bremen Town Musicians, laced with war, death, and resurrection.
The Tomato Thief by Ursula Vernon - Novelette - Apex Magazine - Shapeshifters, gods, and transformation, both willing and unwilling, set in the same universe as Vernon’s excellent and award-winning Jackalope Wives.
Secondhand Bodies by JY Yang - Short Story - Lightspeed - What happens at the intersection of wealth, beauty standards, jealously, and technology.
The Sincerity Game by Brit Mandelo - Short Story - Uncanny - A relationship played as a game of chicken, mixing truth, lies, and transformation.
Salt and Cement and Other Denials by Sara Saab - Short Story - Lackington’s - An epic story of unrequited love, self-identity, entitlement, gender roles, and self-actualization, all taking place between barnacles rooted to a rock.
Lotus Face and the Fox by Nghi Vo - Short Story - Uncanny - Gods, grief, identity, and determination. (Reviewed in more detail as part of Women to Read: Where to Start - March 2016)
The Opening of Bayou St. John by Shawn Scarber - Short Story - Strange Horizons - A gorgeous story soaked in a sense of place, about desperate women, unwanted children, and the one person willing to help them.
Godfall by Sandra Odell - Short Story - Giganotosauraus - The bodies of gods as salvage opportunities and what happens to those who mine myths for scrap. (Reviewed in more detail as part of Women to Read: Where to Start - March 2016)
The Shadow Collector by Shveta Thakrar - Short Story - Uncanny - Sentient flowers and court intrigue.
Red Mask by Jessica May Lin - Short Story - Shimmer - Ghosts, vengeance, and the worth of women combined in what feels like it could be a superhero origin story. (Reviewed in more detail as part of Women to Read: Where to Start - April 2016)
A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers by Alyssa Wong - Short Story - Tor - A haunting story of branching realities, weather, magic, sisters, and loss.
The Governess with the Mechanical Womb by Leena Likitalo - Short Story - Clarkesworld - An unsettling story of semi-mechanical creatures, an eerie invasion of Victorian wannabes, and two sisters coping with grief over the loss of their parents. (Reviewed in more detail as part of Women to Read: Where to Start - April 2016)
A Salvaging of Ghosts by Aliette de Bodard - Short Story - Beneath Ceaseless Skies - An atmospheric and lonely story of deep sea divers, salvage, and ghosts.
Foxfire, Foxfire by Yoon Ha Lee - Novelette - Beneath Ceaseless Skies - A science-fantasy blend of magic, mechs, tricksters, and little gods caught in the midst of a war.
The Right Sort of Monsters by Kelly Sandoval - Short Story - Strange Horizons - What would you sacrifice to gain your heart’s desire? What if what you wished for turned out flawed?
Touring with the Alien by Carolyn Ives Gilman - Novelette - Clarkesworld - A first contact story about truly alien aliens and the struggle to communicate.
The Signal Birds by Octavia Cade - Short Story - Liminal Stories - The brutality of war, and the uses the military might have for women who grow metallic wings. (Reviewed in more detail in June 2016’s Words for Thought.)
Cloud Dweller by E. Catherine Tobler - Short Story - Beneath Ceaseless Skies - A tightrope walker who walks invisible lines in the sky and catches a glimpse of an alternate world beneath and inside his own. (Reviewed in more detail in June 2016’s Words for Thought.)
Left the Century to Sit Unmoved by Sarah Pinsker - Short Story - Strange Horizons - Mysterious vanishings, the weight of grief, and the freedom of falling. (Reviewed in more detail in June 2016’s Words for Thought.)
The Haferbrautigam by Steve Berman - Short Story - The Dark - A disturbing story about appetites left unchecked and the bargains people make in order to live with themselves. (Reviewed in more detail in June 2016’s Words for Thought.)
A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark - Novelette - Tor - A steampunk-flavored whodunnit, mashing up myth, mystery, a dapper detective, and gorgeous creatures out of myth and legend. (Reviewed in more detail in June 2016’s Words for Thought.)
Wednesday’s Story by Wole Talabi - Short Story - Lightspeed - Stories nested within stories, highlighting the importance of tales and the power and limit of storytellers. (Reviewed in more detail in July 2016’s Words for Thought.)
1957 by Stephen Cox - Short Story - Apex - Desire, shifting timelines, and the malleable nature of reality.
Things With Beards by Sam J. Miller - Short Story - Clarkesworld - A queer retelling of The Thing/Who Goes There, exploring identity and disguises adopted in order to survive. (Reviewed in more detail in July 2016’s Words for Thought.)
The Drowning Line by Haralambi Markov - Short Story - Uncanny - A story that blurs the line between fantasy and reality as a father is torn between a family curse, the seductive notion of drowning, and trying to save his daughter. (Reviewed in more detail in July 2016’s Words for Thought.)
A Good Home by Karin Lowachee - Short Story - Lightspeed - A man and a machine, both veterans of war, struggle to find a place for themselves in a world where they are uncomfortable reminders of realities people would rather forget.
Cuckoo Girls by Douglas F. Warrick - Short Story - Apex - Final girls and the creatures who hunt them.
Life in Stone, Glass, and Plastic by José Pablo Iriarte -Short Story - Strange Horizons - A heartbreaking story about art and memory, and what deserves to be memorialized. (Reviewed in more detail in August 2016’s Words for Thought.)
The Non-Hero’s Guide to the Road of Monsters by A.T. Greenblatt - Short Story - Mothership Zeta - Tackling the trope of quest stories and slaying monsters while exploring friendship and what heroism truly means.
.subroutine:all///end by Rachael Acks/Alex Acks - Short Story - Shimmer - A painful story about the loss of memory, and an AI caregiver. (Reviewed in more detail in August 2016’s Words for Thought.)
Painted Grassy Mire by Nicasio Andres Reed - Short Story - Shimmer - An atmospheric story about a girl caught between worlds, and the power of her inheritance. (Reviewed in more detail in September 2016’s Words for Thought.)
Her Sacred Spirit Soars by S. Qiouyi Lu - Short Story - Strange Horizons - A gorgeous and poetic story of loss, separation and identity. (Reviewed in more detail in Non-Binary Authors to Read Part 6.)
The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles by Rachael K. Jones - Short Story - Beneath Ceaseless Skies - A story of transformation and desire full of gorgeous worldbuilding. (Reviewed in more detail in September 2016’s Words for Thought.)
Those Brighter Stars by Mercurio D. Rivera - Short Story - Lightspeed - A first contact story that explores the relationships between mothers and daughters. (Reviewed in more detail in September 2016’s Words for Thought.)
glam-grandma by Avi Naftali - Short Story - Shimmer - A fun and stylish story about breaking away from expectations and being yourself.
Only Their Shining Beauty Was Left by Fran Wilde - Short Story - Shimmer - A haunting and beautiful story of transformation, longing, and trees. (Reviewed in more detail in October 2016’s Words for Thought.)
My Body, Herself by Carmen Maria Machado - Short Story - Uncanny - An effective story, seething with quiet rage, about women being seen as disposable. (Reviewed in more detail in October 2016’s Words for Thought.)
With Her Diamond Teeth by Pear Nuallak - Short Story - The Dark - A story of blurred identity, laced with violence. (Reviewed in more detail in October 2016’s Words for Thought.)
The Life and Times of Angel Evans by Meredith Debonnaire - Novelette - The Book Smugglers - A stylish, noiresque story about ghosts and destiny.
Shadow Boy by Lora Gray - Short Story - Shimmer - A dark re-imagining of Peter Pan, about a character fighting with their shadow, and searching for themselves. (Reviewed in more detail in Non-Binary Authors to Read Part 6.)
The City Born Great by N.K. Jemisin - Short Story - Tor - Living cities and eldritch beings. (Reviewed in more detail in November 2016’s Words for Thought.)
The House That Creaks by Elaine Cuyegkeng - Short Story - The Dark - A disturbing story about what causes a house to be haunted. (Reviewed in more detail in November 2016’s Words for Thought.)
Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home by Genevieve Valentine - Novelette - Clarkesworld - A heartbreaking story about virtual reality, and the line between truth and fiction. (Reviewed in more detail in November 2016’s Words for Thought.)
Rooms Formed of Neurons and Sex by Ferrett Steinmetz - Short Story - Uncanny - The nature of self, a phone sex operator, and a brain in a jar. (Reviewed in more detail in November 2016’s Words for Thought.)
Terpsischore by Teresa P. Mira Echeverría (translated by Lawrence Schimel) Novelette - Strange Horizons - An uneasy story of multiple realities. (Reviewed in more detail in December 2016’s Words for Thought.)
Ever Changing, Ever Turning by Yukimi Ogawa - Short Story - Lackington’s - A story about friendship and harsh standards of beauty.
The Wreck at Goat’s Head by Alexandra Manglis - Short Story - Strange Horizons - A gorgeous story of deep sea diving, loss, and ghostly apparitions.
Standing on the Floodbanks by Bogi Takács - Novelette - GigaNotoSaurus - A subtle and layered story exploring magic and the nature of power.
Number One Personal Hitler by Jeff Hemenway - Short Story - Shimmer - A story of grief and loss, complicated by time travel.
Screamers by Tochi Onyebuchi - Short Story - Omenana - A dark story of racial tension, police brutality, fathers and sons, and rage made manifest.
The Orangery by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam - Novelette - Beneath Ceaseless Skies - A story about women reclaiming their place in myth, and exercising the power of choice.
Painter of Stars by Wang Yuan (translated by Andy Dudak) - Short Story - Clarkesworld - A robot searching for purpose, and finding it through art, losing and gaining hope for humanity along the way.
Marion’s War by Hayden Trenholm - Short Story - Strangers Among Us - An aging solider fights her programming and the treacherous nature of memory and her own unreliable thoughts while she continues to wage a war that ended years ago.
There’s my list as it stands right now. As I said, it may continue to grow. And on that note, what were your favorite stories from 2016? What did I miss that I need to add to my must-read list right now!
Originally published at A.C. Wise. You can comment here or there.