# What's a good sci-fi short story collection, post 1964? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259 "2006-01-16T20:07:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/1 "2006-01-16T20:07:49Z")
I have the **The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One** , but that only covers up to 1964. I’m looking for another volume to go with it. The obvious choice, **Volume 2** , seems to be novellas not short stories. Any suggestions? (I do also have a few of the **Year’s Best Science Fiction** books. They’re very good, but getting the rest of these would be a bit too much, both to buy and read.) ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/2 "2006-01-16T20:20:00Z")
I enjoyed two that were edited, with comments or forewords, by Harlan Ellison. Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again Dangerous Visions (1972). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/3 "2006-01-16T20:25:07Z")
I don’t recommend the later volumes of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. I’ve been dissatisfied with them, and they’re not up to the standards of the others. There are various anthologies of The Nebula Award Winners, The Hugo ward Winners, Fantasy and Science Fiction’s Best, and Terry Carr Picks the Best SF of … , all for several years post-1964. They’re mostly, if not all, out of print, so you’ll have to check the used book places. I like Ellison’s anthologies, too, but be aware that they lean more toward fantasy, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/4 "2006-01-16T20:28:31Z")
**Mirrorshades** edited by Bruce Sterling was my introduction to what came to be called “cyber-punk”. A collection of short stories by relatively unknown authors (at the time) such as William Gibson, Greg Bear, Pat Cadigan, Lewis Shiner and others. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/5 "2006-01-16T21:02:49Z")
**Dangerous Visions** and **Again, Dangerous Visions** , ed. Harlan Ellison. Two must-read anthologies. The first is one of the best original anthologies ever, and the second it pretty good, too. And be sure to grab **The Last Dangerous Visions** when it comes out. 🙂 **The Persistence of Vision** by John Varley. A superb single-author collection. Most of the concepts (which show up all over the place) were first popularized by Varley. **San Diego Lightfoot Sue** by Tom Reamy. Reamy died young, but this collection is superb. Any of the Gardner Dozois **Years Best SF** anthologies to capture the state of the art. The various Nebula Award Anthologies. ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/6 "2006-01-16T21:17:11Z")
I rather liked _Will The Last Person To Leave The Planet Pleast Shut Off The Sun?_, a collection of stories by Mike Resnick. The mood of the stories vary widely, from the (obviously) humorous title story or a self-referential and highly irrelevant satire on science fiction novels, to excerpts from his Kirinyaga series and some downright scary ones. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper than what’s already been suggested. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/7 "2006-01-16T21:27:34Z")
The only science fiction anthologies which remain on my shelf after decades of periodic purges: _Dangerous Visions_, _Again, Dangerous Visions_, and _The Hugo Winners_, Vol 1 - 3. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/8 "2006-01-17T00:58:28Z")
The _Orbit_ series of anthologies is a good way to experience late New Wave and Ur-Cyberpunk sf. Also, Robert Silverberg alone must have edited dozens of good anthologies, often based on a given theme (e.g., _Trips in Time_). ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/9 "2006-01-17T01:42:12Z")
Another Ellison collection, but with a twist:[Partners In Wonder](http://www.islets.net/collections/partners.html) ,wherein he teams with an impressive list of other writers. My copy is autographed by the man himself. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/10 "2006-01-17T03:16:42Z")
A few from my personal shelves: Axiomatic, Greg Egan Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang A Place So Foreign and 8 More, Cory Doctorow Tales of Old Earth, Michael Swanwick, Burning Chrome, William Gibson The Ultimate Cyberpunk, Pat Cadigan ed. Impossible Things, Connie Willis Any of Spider Robinson’s “Callahan” collections The Locus Awards, Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Charles N. Brown and Jonathan Strahan, eds. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/11 "2006-01-17T04:26:48Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **The Persistence of Vision** by John Varley. A superb single-author collection. Most of the concepts (which show up all over the place) were first popularized by Varley. And if we ever create a technology by which you can clone yourself, convince your clone to undergo a sex change, and have crazy monkey-sex with your clone, this book will be the _Kama Sutra_ of the process. My dim memory of the book is that this is the plot of like half the stories in it. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/12 "2006-01-17T05:20:50Z")
[The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/074347922X/ref=cm_cr_dp_pt/104-2269456-1125541?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=283155&s=books) By Zelazney, 1971; before he got all Ambered up. Keith Laumer wrote a lot of good stories in his 60’s [Retief](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retief) series. [Retief At Large](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441715079/104-2269456-1125541?v=glance&n=283155) contains a goodly chunk of them. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/13 "2006-01-17T11:44:18Z")
> [@SmackFu](#): > > I have the **The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One** , but that only covers up to 1964. I’m looking for another volume to go with it. The obvious choice, **Volume 2** , seems to be novellas not short stories. Any suggestions? > > (I do also have a few of the **Year’s Best Science Fiction** books. They’re very good, but getting the rest of these would be a bit too much, both to buy and read.) Keith Roberts was a brilliant short story writer (though some of his later work was more ‘magical reality’ than SF). Wildside Press has kept him in print in the States since his death in 2000 and all his collections are still available. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/14 "2006-01-17T13:34:19Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > And if we ever create a technology by which you can clone yourself, convince your clone to undergo a sex change, and have crazy monkey-sex with your clone, this book will be the _Kama Sutra_ of the process. My dim memory of the book is that this is the plot of like half the stories in it.el I can’t offhand think of any story in that collection with that plot. Varley used clones for sex changes, but the original was destroyed in the process, and I don’t recall that being mentioned until the story “Options,” which isn’t in this collection. Looking at the story list, I see only one where a sex change was part of the plot, though it was mentioned in a few of the others. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/15 "2006-01-17T14:18:07Z")
Either of Brian Aldiss’ Galactic Empires collections are fun reads. And Groff Conklin’s collections are generally good reads. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/16 "2006-01-17T14:18:24Z")
I don’t know if it’s still being put out, but L. Ron Hubbard’s _Writers of the Future_ anthologies contained some pretty good short stories by new authors. Usually I was quite happy with almost all of the stories contained in each anthology. Don’t be put off by Elron’s name, just skip his essays if they’re included. Vernor Vinge has some very good short story collections out too. Here’s an online [collection](http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/archive.html) of good SF stories…some I love, some I don’t llike, but almost all of them are worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/17 "2006-01-17T14:42:06Z")
So much to read! I hope my library has some of these. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/18 "2006-01-17T16:04:05Z")
_Nanodreams,_ edited by Elton Elliot (Baen 1995). Themed collection of stories about nanotechnology and its effects on society (except for one story about strong AI, included for no reason I can see). _Indistinguishable from Magic,_ by Robert L. Forward (Baen 1995); series of essays about exotic technologies, paired with short stories (not very good stories, IMO, but illustrative) about their applications. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/19 "2006-01-17T16:04:51Z")
_Neutron Star_, with some of Niven’s best ever work, was published in 1968 according to Wiki, so I’d plump for that for a start. A number of brilliant stories including _The Soft Weapon_ and _Flatlander_, probably my two favourites ever. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259/20 "2006-01-17T16:17:18Z")
> [@Lynn Bodoni](#): > > I don’t know if it’s still being put out, but L. Ron Hubbard’s _Writers of the Future_ anthologies contained some pretty good short stories by new authors. Usually I was quite happy with almost all of the stories contained in each anthology. Don’t be put off by Elron’s name, just skip his essays if they’re included. I second the WOTF series. I have read some seriously good stories there. And I don’t mind Elron’s essays on the technical side of writing. To give the devil his due, the man could write, and he wrote some good stuff. Then he got wierd. And don’t forget Spider Robinson’s short stories based around Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon. Those stories inspired the Usenet group alt.callahans and Spider himself occasionally turns up in there. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-sci-fi-short-story-collection-post-1964/340259.md?page=2)