# favorite sci-fi short stories?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-short-stories/147666>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 10, 2003, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-short-stories/147666 "2003-01-10T02:44:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-short-stories/147666/41 "2003-01-11T07:22:48Z")

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Well, for collections, I’d reccommend _Black Projects, White Knights_, by Kage Baker, whom I absolutely adore.

Also, William Gibson’s _Burning Chrome_. There’s also an anthology of short stories called _Mirrorshades_ edited by Bruce Sterling. I really love the story _Mozart in Mirrorshades_, but I don’t remember who it’s by, and since the book’s out of print right now, I have no way of checking (though I suppose I could bug the SO about it tomorrow since he owns it).

There was also this one anthology called _Future Net_ that was pretty okay, if you’re bored, but I think you’d like it :).

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**Author:** ![Linus\_Van\_Pelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Linus\_Van\_Pelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linus_Van_Pelt)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-short-stories/147666/42 "2003-01-11T09:06:43Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Evil Captor \*  
> \*\*Re: Who Goes There – right, it was Campbell, don’t know why I switched 'em up.  
> …  
> \*\*

Quite possibly because Clarke has a very similarly named story called “Who’s There?”, which I think can be found in the collection The Other Side of the Sky. I would also like to second those who have mentioned “The Nine Billion Names of God”. One of the best SF short stories ever.

I quite enjoyed the Callahan’s short stories by Spider Robinson - They were gathered in Calahan’s Crosstime Saloon and its sequals.

Lessee…

Off the top of my head - I always enjoyed Asimov’s Robot stories, found in I Robot, although they are not to everyone’s tastes - some have found that they’ve become too dated, though I disagree.

Heinlien has a few good ones, although I usually prefered his novels to his short stories. “The Long Watch” is one that comes to mind as a good one.

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**Author:** ![HeatMiser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecd19e/32.png) [@HeatMiser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeatMiser)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-sci-fi-short-stories/147666/43 "2003-01-11T22:07:57Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Politzania \*  
> **"By His Boostraps" Robert Heinlein (ditto)**
> 
> - snip! -

Ah, thanks **Politzania** for reminding me of that one - I remember thinking of it as the definitive “time travel paradox” story, done well and with humor that’s not entirely characteristic for Heinlein (at least in my limited experience with his rocket-ship-engineers-carrying-slide-rules “hard” SF tales).

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