Inventing Reality: A Guide to Writing Science Fiction

Best science fiction short stories

The short story has been called the perfect format for the science fiction tale. Here’s a list of classic science fiction short stories.

 

A
All You Zombies (Robert Heinlein)
And He Built a Crooked House (Robert Heinlein)
Arena (Fredric Brown)
Aristotle and the Gun (L. Sprague de Camp)
B
Bears Discover Fire (Terry Bisson)
The Bicentennial Man (Isaac Asimov)
Billenium (J.G. Ballard)
Blood Music (Greg Bear)
A Boy and His Dog (Harlan Ellison)
Burning Chrome (William Gibson)
But Who Can Replace a Man? (Brian Aldiss)
By His Bootstraps (Robert Heinlein)
C
A Canticle for Leibowitz (Walter Miller)
The Cold Equations (Tom Godwin)
Common Time (James Blish)
Country Doctor (William Morrison)
D
Day Million (Frederik Pohl)
Desertion (Clifford D. Simak)
E
Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
Enemy Mine (Barry Longyear)
F
First Contact (Murray Leinster)
Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)
Fondly Fahrenheit (Alfred Bester)
G
The Green Hills of Earth (Robert Heinlein)
H
Harrison Bergeron (Kurt Vonnegut)
Helen O’Loy (Lester del Rey)
Hell Is the Absence of God (Ted Chiang)
History Lesson (Arthur C. Clarke)
I
I Always Do What Teddy Says (Harry Harrison)
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (Harlan Ellison)
Inconstant Moon (Larry Niven)
It’s a Good Life (Jerome Bixby)
J
Jeffty Is Five (Harlan Ellison)
Johnny Mnemonic (William Gibson)
K
L

The Last Question (Isaac Asimov)
The Lincoln Train (Maureen F. McHugh)
The Lottery (Shirley Jackson)
M
The Man Who Could Work Miracles (H.G. Wells)
The Man Who Lost the Sea (Theodore Sturgeon)
The Man Who Sold the Moon (Robert Heinlein)
A Martian Odyssey (Stanley Weinbaum)
The Martian Way (Isaac Asimov)
Microcosmic God (Theodore Sturgeon)
The Monster (A.E. van Vogt)
N
Neutron Star (Larry Niven)
Nightfall (Isaac Asimov)
The Nine Billion Names of God (Arthur C. Clarke)
O
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Ursula K. Le Guin)
P
The Persistence of Vision (John Varley)
Q
R

“Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman (Harlan Ellison)
The Roads Must Roll (Robert Heinlein)
Robbie (Isaac Asimov)
A Rose for Ecclesiastes (Roger Zelazny)
S
Sandkings (George R.R. Martin)
Sargeant Chip (Bradley Denton)
Scanners Live in Vain (Cordwainer Smith)
The Sentinel of Eternity (Arthur C. Clarke)
The Sound of Thunder (Ray Bradbury)
The Star (Arthur C. Clarke)
The Star (H.G. Wells)
T
That Only a Mother (Judith Merrill)
There Will Come Soft Rains (Ray Bradbury)
Think Like A Dinosaur (James Patrick Kelly)
U
Unaccompanied Sonata (Orson Scott Card)
The Ugly Little Boy (Isaac Asimov)
V
The Veldt (Ray Bradbury)
W
We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (Philip K. Dick)
...Where Angels Fear to Tread (Allen Steele)
Who Goes There? (John W. Campbell)
With Folded Hands (Jack Williamson)
The Word for World is Forest (Ursula K. Le Guin)
X
Y
Z