
Short Story Readings
The page is an on-going account of my various readings of science fiction short stories. I break them down into the various magazines and anthologies they’re found in, including a ‘tag/hub area’ description, ‘therapeutic tags’ and a ‘personal rating’ for each story. It’s all very trainspottery, I know, but my hope is the page visitor will find the format useful enough to consider doing something similar with their own short story readings. I hope it will encourage them to think more deeply about what they read, to consider the themes and possible hub areas on show, and especially to find the therapeutic value, if any, contained in each story. The personal rating is just that – my own subjective response to each story, whether I really liked it or was indifferent to it. I don’t make claims like a five star rating (the highest in my schema) is the objective best, and the one star rated story is awful and you must never read it. Everyone responds differently to stories, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. But just in case the visitor is piqued by a high rated story (usually the four and five star stories), I’ve included links to the author page for that story, so the visitor can investigate the author’s works further. This blog post I wrote on short stories might also help clarify my thinking on all this.
Space Lords, by Cordwainer Smith
Steampunk 2, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer
The Hugo Winners 1953 – 1962, edited by Isaac Asimov
Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy 2008, edited by Bill Congreve & Michelle Marquardt
Andromeda Spaceways #81 (Vol 16/No 4, Dec 2020)
Octavia’s Brood, edited by Adrienne Maree Brown & Walidah Imarisha
Who Goes There? (and other stories) by John W. Campbell
Andromeda Spaceways #80 (Vol 16/No 3, Sept 2020)
Andromeda Spaceways #79 (Vol 16/No 2, June 2020)
Andromeda Spaceways #78 (Vol 16/No 1, March 2020)
Andromeda Spaceways #77 (Vol 15/No 4, Dec 2019)
Andromeda Spaceways #76 (Vol 15/No 3, Sept 2019
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