I don't read alot, but I love short stories and had been eyeing "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" ever since AI came out.

So I needed to get a book for school, and needed to go over $35 for the coupon and free shipping, so I tossed this in from my wish list. So far I'm really enjoying it.

Other suggestions? Good SF writers of short stories... that's what I'm looking for.

Just to talk about Arliss for a second, I loved the "David" stories and the other few I read were pretty good. He tends to talk directly to the reader as if they are in the future and understand the state of the world as if it were the present. I find his names for characters and groups/societies to be a little weird, but for the time they were written, they were probably decent.

I'd first recommend looking for any collection from the golden/silver age (40s, 50s, 60s?) because all the Grand Masters were all then in fine form. That way you get (hopefully) the cream of the crop. Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke etc will all be there with many other "greats".

Looking at single author volumes:

• "Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester". Fondly Farenheit is fantasic!
• There is a 5-volume set of Philip K Dick short stories.
• Theodore Sturgeon was a fine writer of short stories. PKD's executor compiled "Bright Segment: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon"
• See if you can find The Best of Cordwainer Smith/The Rediscovery of Man. Scanners Live in Vain is brilliant.
• Of modern day writers, Gene Wolfe is the master. I think there are two or three collections available.
• Or you could try the Australian Greg Egan, if his short fiction work has been anthologised.
• Sterling and Gibson are usually worth a look.

Finally, a current Best Of the year anthology will almost certainly be worthwhile. Gardner Dozois has one out , er, annually.

See also: Short Story Writers?

Agreed with the above poster--I get so much out of any of the old anthologies; look for ones edited by Asimov, Ferman, Carr, Knight. You can't go wrong with the classic 'The Hugo Winners' ed. Asimov.
I have read a number of Dozois's collections, and for me, the newer scifi just doesn't do that much. Some of it isn't bad, but most of it is either repetitive, or gratuitous, IMHO.

Heinlein's The Past Through Tomorrow is an awesome collection, it's also about 500 pages, I believe.
And apologies for sticking with the classics, but Asimov's collections 'The Complete Stories' have got to be in every science fiction fan's library.

One of the newer authors I did like was Rudy Rucker's 'Gnarl!' A few of the stories are very hard science fiction; I couldn't follow the science of a few of them, but the characters were very well fleshed out and realistic. The last couple stories in the book didn't do much for me, but it's about 500+ pages, with at least 30+ stories of varying things. Some of them were pretty funny, too. Overall, this one is very good at exploring how the scientific advances posited in the stories affect the people in the stories.

Orson Scott Card's 'Maps in a Mirror' is also excellent. It's not all science fiction, but it is all incredible. Some scifi, some humor, some horror, couple of fantasies.

Good luck, welcome to the wonderful world of science fiction short stories

--Tony, who is anxiously awaiting the library's annual book sale [5 bucks for a box of books! My wife hates it!]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I remember reading Asimov when I was younger, and I liked them quite a bit.

Have you guys read any of Aldiss' shorts? Where does he rank in the SFSS world? Is he well known, or was AI just a fluke?

I know that I have read some of his short fiction in my time, but no particular collection springs to mind. Of his novels Non-Stop (aka Starship) and The Malacia Tapestry were certainly memorable as were the Helliconia books but you were after short fiction....<small></small>.... Younger than, say, Arthur Clarke, nevertheless Aldiss is now something of a Grand Old Man of British science-fiction.

He writes a little in the non-SF field and was co-author with David Wingrove of a history of the genre: Trillion Year Spree (itself an update of his own "Billion Year Spree")

There is a lot on his website (including some free writing links) worth checking out. Click the "non-SF" link above.