What are must read short stories?

[BookTenTiger]

I'm a big fan of short stories as a medium, both in reading and writing them. I buy The Best American Short Stories and the O'Henry Prize collection every year. There's an annual Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology too, though I haven't checked it out.

Most of my favorite short story writers are not in the genre of science fiction or fantasy, though some are adjacent. If you're interested in reading more short fiction, I would recommend any collection by:

Alice Munro, possibly one of the greatest short story writers of the 20th century. Her collection 'Open Secrets' has many of my favorite stories.

Tobias Wolff, just an awesome, skilled storyteller. I'd recommend 'In the Garden of the North American Martyrs.'

George Saunders, a modern satirist whose stories often dip into sci fi concepts. My favorite of his short story books is 'Tenth of December.'

I grew up reading Ray Bradbury, and it really is hard to beat 'The Martian Chronicles' or 'The Illustrated Man.'

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Um, Actually...

I believe Terminator was more closely inspired by Harlan Ellison's "Soldier of Tomorrow" and, to a lesser extent, "Demon with a Glass Hand".

To be more accurate, I should have written “an” instead of “the”. But it was actually an early interview about the first Terminator movie that put “Second Variety” on my radar.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Most of my favorite short story writers are not in the genre of science fiction or fantasy, though some are adjacent.

One of my favorite short stories in any genre is O. Henry’s “Ransom of Red Chief”. Tangent: that short story clearly influenced the writing of the horror movie, The Cottage.

 

[Enaknomolos]

The best modern Sword & Sorcery magazines:

Tales From the Magicians Skull: the most polished, with great art and the most established authors. Also the most gaming-adjacent, with a section on converting creatures to DCC in every issue.
New Edge: works as the hub of new sword & sorcery as a movement. Has a mix of stories and articles, and a very strong commitment to increasing diversity in the genre.
Old Moon: the most experimental. It's working in the tradition of Clark Ashton Smith and the weird side of weird fiction more than the others. Some well-established authors, such as James Enge, seem to place their wilder stories in it; but it also has plenty of newcomers.

 

[Bohandas]

Off the top of my head

*Library of Babel (by Jorge Borges)
*Lottery of Babylon (by Jorge Borges)
*The Circular Ruins (Jorge Borges)
*The Other Aasterion (Jorge Borges)
*The Theologians (Jorge Borges)
*Tlon Uqbar Orbis Tertis (Jorge Borges)
*Blue Tigers (Jorge Borges)
*Mirror of Ink (Jorge Borges)

*Dreams In The Witch House (H.P.Lovecraft)
*The Shadow Out Of Time (H.P.Lovecraft)
*The Color Out of Space (H.P.Lovecraft)
*The Whisperer In Darkness (H.P.Lovecraft)
*The Haunter of the Dark (H.P.Lovecraft)

*The Balloon Hoax (Edgar Allen Poe)
*The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade (Edgar Allen Poe)
*The Cask of Amontillado (Edgar Allen Poe)

*Ubbo-Sathla (Clark Ashton Smith)
*The Eternal World (Clark Ashton Smith)
*Double Cosmos (Clark Ashton Smith)
*A Star-Change (Clark Ashton Smith)
*The Dweller In The Gulf (which I may be confusing with a different story) (Clark Ashton Smith

 

[Ryujin]

Um, Actually...

I believe Terminator was more closely inspired by Harlan Ellison's "Soldier of Tomorrow" and, to a lesser extent, "Demon with a Glass Hand".

Definitely Ellison. There was an agreement in place that all showings of "The Terminator" would include the line "We wish to acknowledge the works of Harlan Ellison" in the credits, as part of a settlement.

 

[nyvinter]

A bit of that is because Ellison was really litigious and a loud prick, where-as the estate of PkD wasn't. So only one inspiration got the spotlight that way.

 

[Ryujin]

A bit of that is because Ellison was really litigious and a loud prick, where-as the estate of PkD wasn't. So only one inspiration got the spotlight that way.

There was also the admission to ripping him off that was made during an interview. I can't remember if Dick was mentioned during it.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Fall of the House of Usher. Obviously many of us read it in school and it is well known. But this is such a beautifully written and perfect horror story for me

Nie Xiaoqian and Hua Pi (painted skin) by Pu Songling. Both these stories have been made into movies (A Chinese Ghost Story and Painted Skin). Pu Songling’s Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio is filled with fascinating stories that vary in length, usually dealing with anomaly accounts of the supernatural. These two are very good entry points. I think Nie Xiaoqian also demonstrates a compelling approach to things like ghosts

I highly recommend the Complete Short Stories of Herman Melville. I love his writing and obviously Moby Dick is a classic. His short stories are very good as well. Maybe check out The Lightning Rod Man. If that convinces you, dice into the rest

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[Bohandas]

Um, Actually...

I believe Terminator was more closely inspired by Harlan Ellison's "Soldier of Tomorrow" and, to a lesser extent, "Demon with a Glass Hand".

While I've never read Soldier of Tomorrow, the plot synopsis that I was able to look up doesn't sound like it has anything to do with Terminator at all. Maybe the summary is leaving a lot out, but the only thing it seems to have in common with The Terminator based on the synopsis is that a character travels through time