Can you recommend a SFF anthology (or collection)?

SianaBlackwood

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Hi everyone,

I'm studying online at the moment (Bachelor of Arts through Open Unis Australia) and one of my current classes is about reading and writing short stories. As part of the class, we have to read and review an anthology or a collection of short stories. We have a list of big-name authors to avoid and it has to be 'adult' (as in, not marketed as YA or younger readers) but other than that, we can choose anything published in the last 10 years. I'm having trouble finding something - overwhelmed by choice, but nothing has grabbed me so far.

So, I was wondering if maybe you awesome peoples of the SFF board could recommend me some things you might have read recently, particularly if it's one of those "More people should know about this!!!" things or maybe something you or someone you know has appeared in?

Thanks,
Siana.
 

veinglory

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It might cause some weirdness but i think Ellen Datlow's "Alien Sex" anthology is astounding. Failing that George R R Martin's short story "the way of the cross and the dragon" is my favorite short story of all time and has been reprinted an many anthologies.
 

BethS

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As part of the class, we have to read and review an anthology or a collection of short stories.

Hmmm. Collections-- Lois McMaster Bujold, Borders of Infinity. (Though that one might be older than ten years.) Connie Willis, The Winds of Marble Arch. Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others. (Which contains the original story that the movie Arrival was adapted from.) And I think Ursula K LeGuin recently published a big collection.
 
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ironmikezero

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griffins

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Hi Siana,
I'm not big on themed anthologies, but for short story collections, keep George Saunders (Pastoralia, In Persuasion Nation, Tenth of December) in mind. His work is all SF but has a literary slant (I discovered him in the New Yorker) that might do well for university work.
 

Laer Carroll

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Thanks for bringing this up. You inspired me to Google BEST SCIENCE FICTION. Found out there are several long-running yearly anthologies of "best" SF/F, and because of you I bought one of the latest. Here are several with a Look Inside link. You can probably get them from your public library.

The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016 Edition
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GXG6R7O/?tag=absowrit-20

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection
https://us.macmillan.com/theyearsbe...annualcollection/gardnerdozois/9781250080844/

Year's Best SF 18
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C74PDF4/?tag=absowrit-20

The last two are different books despite the similar name.
 

SianaBlackwood

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Some great suggestions here. :D I'm particularly liking the look of the Ursula Le Guin collection at the moment.

(Although Alien Sex definitely sounds fun...)
 

SianaBlackwood

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I read and reviewed The Djinn Falls In Love for a previous unit. It's excellent and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a cool anthology of creative and unusual SFF.
 

Dave Williams

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We have a list of big-name authors to avoid

I, for one, am quite interested in who might be on that list...


For a collection: "The Moon Moth and Other Stories" by Jack Vance

For an anthology: "A Science Fiction Omnibus" by Brian W. Aldiss
 

Kjbartolotta

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If you have a taste for the offbeat, any collection Jeff Vandemeer or Kelly Link put together is worthwhile.
 

C Alberts

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Depending on your socio-political interests, there's a really interesting anthology called Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements that I think is very unique and pretty special. Not for everyone, but perfect for some.
 

SianaBlackwood

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I think I'm going to need a bigger library. :)

For those who were curious, here's The List of famous authors the tutors don't want to read about:

AESOP’S fables
ANDERSEN, Hans Christian
ARCHER, Jeffrey
ATWOOD, Margaret
BARKER, Clive
BLYTON, Enid
CARTER, Angela
CHRISTIE, Agatha
DAHL, Roald
DOYLE, Sir Arthur Conan
GAIMAN, Neil
GIBRAN, Kahlil
GINSBERG, Allen
THE BROTHERS GRIMM
JENNINGS, Paul
KAUR, Rupi
KING, Stephen
LAWSON, Henry
MARSH, Bill ‘Swampy’
PALAHNIUK, Chuck
PATERSON, A.B. 'Banjo'
PLATH, Sylvia
POE, Edgar Allen
SAUNDERS, George
TENNYSON, Lord Alfred
WHITMAN, Walt
WILDE, Oscar
WORDSWORTH, William
 

Shoeless

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William Gibson, (one of the founding fathers of cyberpunk) has an amazing collection of short stories gathered together under the collection Burning Chrome. That collection was one of the reasons I wanted to become a writer, and when you read it now, you have to keep reminding yourself that a lot of the stories in it aren't just ripping off cyberpunk cliches, they were creating them in the first place. His language is lyrical and amazing and despite the fact that the stories are short, they're very dense. I still go back to it once a year to recharge my inferiority complex.
 

Brightdreamer

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For things published in the past 10 years, I enjoyed most of Cat Rambo's Eyes Like Sky And Coal and Moonlight - some good imagery and imaginative tales. Her story about Jumbo the elephant lingers as one of the more unusual fantastic retellings of real-life events I've read in recent memory.

Charles de Lint is a popular author, and his The Very Best of Charles de Lint was published in 2010 according to Amazon, so it should count. Not always quite my cup of cocoa, but if you want stories drawing on older, particularly Celtic-flavored myth and magic, bringing them into modern times, you might give him a try. He also has a few Native American themed tales.

Seconding the Kelly Link recommendation, though her stuff can be a bit surreal. (Started one of her collections once, but stopped when I hit one that just rubbed me the wrong way. Still, her stuff's interesting enough I'd suggest trying it.)

ETA - It's probably past your cutoff, being published in 2004, but if you're willing to consider YA fantasy, Bruce Coville's themed anthology Half-Human has some good takes on mermaids, centaurs, and more. I'd recommend most of his collections and anthologies, actually, though I believe they're mostly beyond the 10-year deadline. Even though they're mostly MG/YA, he includes wide varieties of tales and authors, not just the usual big names. (He'll even include classics alongside newer material.)
 
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jdp1886

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The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I know it's a popular one, but, man, I loved it.
 

ULTRAGOTHA

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Does the Anthology need to be in the last 10 years, or the Short Story?

Because Connie Willis is one of the best short story writers out there, and Winds of Marble Arch was published in the last 10 years, but most of the stories in it are older than that.

There was The Long List Anthology of short stories, novellas and novelettes that didn't make the final Hugo ballot in 2015 but ought to have done (they were on the long list of the next 15 works, hence the name). All the stories in that were published in 2014.

George RR Martin and Gardner Dozois did the Old Mars and Old Venus anthologies. Modern stories as if written during classic SF era when we knew a lot less about Mars and Venus.
 

yumpty-tum

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Neil Gaiman Fragile Things

Neil Gaiman Smoke and Mirrors

Neil Gaiman Trigger Warning

Terry Pratchett A Blink of the Screen

ETA: Not sure if the Gaimans are less than 10 years old
 
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gbondoni

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Just slightly over ten years old, but definitely relevant and probably the best hard SF being written today: Alastair Reynolds: Zima Blue and Other Stories
 

blacbird

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I have an old paperback edition of The Vintage Anthology of Science Fantasy, which contains stories by Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, John Wyndham, C.M. Kornbluth, Clifford Simak, J.G. Ballard, Robert Sheckley, Damon Knight, William Styron and Avram Davidson, among others. A great set of stories by some masters of the genre, all from before the mid-1960s. It might still be in print.

caw
 

mafiaking1936

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GRRM edited a 2014 short story collection called "Rogues." Gaiman's in there but so are a lot of other names that aren't on that blacklist...