Request for recommendations - short story collections

[wildeabandon]

Dear lazyweb...

I would like to read more short stories. I'm not particularly bothered about genre. I care more about plot and characters than atmosphere, style, and clever wordplay (although I do like those things too). I'd prefer things on the shorter side - around 2-3000 words would be ideal, but up to 6000ish would be okay. Some authors I've enjoyed short stories by before are Roald Dahl, Daniel Handler, Angela Carter, Isaac Asimov, Neil Gaiman, Poppy Z Brite (as was).

What else should I try?

Comments

[liv]

Ted Chiang writes really very good short stories, they're mostly sort of SF but a fairly unusual take on the genre. The title story in the collection Stories of your life is really outstanding, one of the best things I've read at any length. Jane Gardam is mostly a novelist, but has a couple of collections of shorts which are very character-driven.

The absolute classic for ultra-short stories is Saki. He's kind of bitchy, and you probably don't want to read dozens of his stories back to back unless you get really inspired. But definitely worth dipping into.

[wildeabandon]

I've read a few Saki before and enjoyed them, so yes, that's a good idea - and free e-texts, huzzah :)

I've never heard of the others, and will check them out. Thank you.

[wildeabandon]

I've been reading the Ted Chiang that's available on the intermawebnets for free. I partly want to thank you, and partly want to hate you, because he's written so little that I'm going to get to the end of everything he's written soon, and then there won't be any more left.

It's so good! Usually it's food that makes me have the "It's so good, I'm going to cry when it's gone" reaction, and then you can always get more. Stupid words.

(I don't actually hate you)

[booklectica]

*cough*

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fausterella-Other-Stories-Kate-Harrad/dp/1447759680/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347363779&sr=8-2

[wildeabandon]

Ooh, I should have thought of that myself considering how much I enjoyed All Lies and Jest. *orders*

[sfred]

I came here to recommend this!

[mirrorshard]

I recommend A Series of Ordinary Adventures by Stevie Carroll - http://www.candlemarkandgleam.com/shop/a-series-of-ordinary-adventures/

[elf]

Here from network.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch has "free fiction Monday" at her blog; every Monday she posts one of her short stories for free. They stay up for a week and then go away, whisked off to ebook sites to sell for $2.99 each. She writes in a diverse range of genres and styles.

Her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, is also a prolific writer, and has a fiction blog with stories free for a while and then sold, mostly $2.99 for ebooks, $4.99 for paper.

When I'm feeling adventurous, I poke through Smashwords short fiction (by which they mean "under 20k words"). ALWAYS read some of the preview before buying at Smashwords. If there's no preview, skip it. While there are some gems, Smashwords is a huge digital slushpile; there's no quality control whatsoever.

[gool_duck]

I recommend stories by Etgar Keret. Some stories are here: http://ruthi.dreamwidth.org/345173.html

[mr_magicfingers]

Arthur C Clarke's short stories are even better than his novels, if you're into sci-fi at all.

[hatter]

Charles Stross has a lot of his writing available on his website (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/online-fiction-by-charles-stro.html) with pointers to other bits that aren't freely available electronically if you take a fancy to his scribblings.


the hatter

[damerell]

Pohl and Kornbluth did some good ones back in the day.