Other people’s short stories I liked in 2016
On my list of things to do in 2017: keep better track of which stories I liked in anthologies, not readily linkable. There are a few on this list from things I read on my Kindle once I thought of that, but not many, and while I went through my book posts trying to spot the anthologies that came out this year and the stories I liked in them, I am tired and have a cold and probably missed some. And again: this list makes no pretense at being comprehensive, nor is it the N best for your award-nominating needs. I care about getting short stories into brains; that is what this is for, and secondarily to pat people on the back and say go team. I have not read all of any one thing, and I have not read some of everything. I have just read some things and liked them. Here they are.
Das Steingeschopf, by G. V. Anderson (Strange Horizons)
Palingenesis, by Megan Arkenberg (Shimmer)
Blood Reckonings, by Alec Austin (BCS)
The Paper Sword, by Alec Austin (Hidden Youth)
The Spy Who Never Grew Up, by Sarah Rees Brennan (Uncanny)
The Signal Birds, by Octavia Cade (Liminal)
Mortal Eyes, by Ann Chatham (BCS)
A Dead Djinn in Cairo, by P. Djeli Clark (Tor.com)
A Hundred and Seventy Storms, by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny)
Anon and the Antlers, by Michael J. DeLuca (Orthogonal)
Asleep in the Traces, by Michael J. DeLuca (Middle Planet)
Binaries, by S. B. Divya (Lightspeed: PoC Destroy SF)
Written in the Book of the Woods, by L.J. Geoffrion (Reckoning)
Big Thrull and the Askin Man, by Max Gladstone (Uncanny)
A Name to Ashes, by Jaymee Goh (Hidden Youth)
Civitas Sylvatica, by Cae Hawksmoor (Reckoning)
The Stone Garden, by C. A. Hawksmoor (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
The Virgin Played Bass, by Maria Dahvana Headley (Uncanny)
Transition, by Erin Hoffman (Reckoning) (a poem, not a story)
Plague Winter, by Emily Houk (Reckoning)
My Grandmother’s Bones, by S. L. Huang (Daily SF)
Spirit of Home, by Jose Pablo Iriarte (Motherboard)
The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles, by Rachael K. Jones (BCS)
Zombies in Winter, by Naomi Kritzer (Persistent Visions)
The True and Otherworldly Origins of the Name Calamity Jane, by Jordan Kurella (BCS)
Foxfire, Foxfire, by Yoon Ha Lee (BCS)
Where She Went, by Linden A. Lewis (BCS)
The Governess With a Mechanical Womb, by Leena Likitalo (Clarkesworld)
A New Home, by Karin Lowachee (Lightspeed: PoC Destroy SF)
Contra Gravitatem (Vita Genevievis), by Arkady Martine (Lackington’s)
“Fear Death by Water,” by Arkady Martine (Unlikely Story)
Skills to Keep the Devil in His Place, by Lia Swope Mitchell (Shimmer)
In His Own Image, by E. C. Myers (Hidden Youth)
Hundreds, by Mari Ness (Daily SF)
The Middle Child’s Practical Guide to Surviving a Fairy Tale, by Mari Ness (Fireside)
A Citizen’s Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven, by Josh Pearce (Orthogonal)
The Sweetest Skill, by Tony Pi (BCS)
Left the Century to Sit Unmoved, by Sarah Pinsker (Strange Horizons)
Recalled to Service, by Alter S. Reiss (Tor.com)
Playing Prometheus, by Frances Rowat (Persistent Visions)
Once I, Rose, by Merc Rustad (Daily Science Fiction)
Blue Flowers: Fragments, by Sofia Samatar (Uncanny) (This also may be a poem. Or not. As you will. It is a thing I like.)
The Right Sort of Monsters, by Kelly Sandoval (Strange Horizons)
As Long as It Takes to Make the World, by Gabriela Santiago (Lightspeed: PoC Destroy SF)
Three Alternate Histories, by Kate Schapira (Reckoning)
Today I Am Paul, by Martin L. Shoemaker (Clarkesworld)
Listen, by Karin Tidbeck (Tor.com)
Only Their Shining Beauty Was Left, by Fran Wilde (Shimmer)
Foreign Tongues, by John Wiswell (Flash Fiction Online)
Project Daffodil, by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (Nature Futures)
Exquisite Corpse, by Caroline M. Yoachim (Daily SF)
Originally published at Novel Gazing Redux