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Best Science Fiction Story (1961 to now)



MODERN SCIENCE FICTION STORY

SEE ALSO IN OTHER CATEGORIES
(not included in this list!):

- BEST SPACE-THEMED SF STORIES
- BEST TIME-THEMED SF STORIES
- BEST APOCALYPTIC STORIES

Again let me repeat, this list omits any SPACE-themed or TIME-themed or "END-of-the-WORLD" themed stories - they get their own "best lists"!
In a way this list is only for stories with general sf cool ideas and stylistic impact.


_____________________________________________________
FIRST PLACE Best SF Story (1961 to now)

Roger Zelazny "The Man Who Loved the Faioli"

_____________________________________________________
SECOND PLACE Best SF Story (1961 to now)

Storm Constantine "The Time She Became"
John Crowley "Snow"
Paul Di Filippo "The Reluctant Book"
Gardner R. Dozois "The Last Day of July"
Jeffrey Ford "Floating In Lindrethool"
Estelle Frye "The Face in the Mask"
David Langford "Different Kinds Of Darkness"
Fritz Leiber "When The Change-Winds Blow"
George R. R. Martin "Bitterblooms";
"The Second Kind of Loneliness"
"With Morning Comes Mistfall"
Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling "Junk DNA"
Lucius Shepard "Fire Zone Emerald"
Pamela Zoline "The Heat Death of the Universe"
George Zebrowski "The Idea Trap"; "The Word Sweep"

_____________________________________________________
THIRD PLACE Best SF Story (1961 to now)

J. G. Ballard "The Subliminal Man"; "The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista"
Barrington J. Bayley "The Big Sound"; "Flux" (with Michael Moorcock)
"Me And My Antronoscope"; "The Ship of Disaster"
Greg Bear "Petra"
Gregory Benford "Around The Curve Of A Cosmos"
"Exposures"; "The Voice"
Terry Bisson "An Office Romance"
Ted Chiang "Seventy-Two Letters"; "Understand"
Tony Daniel "No Love In All Of DwindleDoo"
Samuel R. Delany "Corona"; "Driftglass"; "High Weir"
"Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones"
Paul Di Filippo "Little Worker"; "Shipbreaker"
Philip K. Dick "The Electric Ant"; "The Pre-Persons"
"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"
Gardner R. Dozois "Morning Child"
Harlan Ellison "Seeing"
Jeffrey Ford "Man Of Light"
William Gibson "The Gernsback Continuum"
"Hinterlands"; "The Winter Market"
Gavin J. Grant "Editing For Content"
Frank Herbert "The Mary Celeste Move"
Richard Kadrey "Horse Latitudes"
Nancy Kress "Down Behind Cuba Lake"; "Talp Hunt"
Ursula Le Guin "Nine Lives"; "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow"
Stanislaw Lem "137 Seconds"
George R. R. Martin "...For a Single Yesterday"
"The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr" ; "Meathouse Man"
Kim Newman "The Next-To-One Man"
Susan Palwick "Cucumber Gravy"
Adam Roberts "The Order of Things"
Spider Robinson "Antinomy"
Michael Shea "The Extra"
John Shirley "The Almost Empty Rooms"
Cordwainer Smith "Drunkboat"
Brian Stableford "The Pipes Of Pan"
Bruce Sterling "Dori Bangs"; "Taklamakan"
Charles Stross "Rogue Farm"
Michael Swanwick "The Dog Said Bow-Wow"
"The Man Who Met Picasso"; "Radiant Doors"
James Van Pelt "Resurrection"
John Varley "Air Raid"; "Bagatelle"; "Overdrawn At The Memory Bank"
Robert Charles Wilson "Divided By Infinity"; "State of the Art"

_____________________________________________________
FOURTH PLACE Best SF Story (1961 to now)

Leah Alpert "Love Is a Drug"
Brian Aldiss "Another Little Boy"; "The Dark Soul Of The Night"; "Lies!"
Poul Anderson "Fortune Hunter"; "Goat Song"; "Hunter's Moon"
"Industrial Revolution" ("The Rogue")
Piers Anthony "None But I"; "Quinquepedalian"
Catherine Asaro "Light And Shadow"
Isaac Asimov "The Billiard Ball"
Stephen Baxter "Lakes of Light"
Elizabeth Bear "The Chains That You Refuse"
R. V. Branham "Chango Chingamadre, Dutchman, & Me"
Kage Baker "Her Father's Eyes"
J. G. Ballard "The Cage of Sand"; "The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D"
"The Day Of Forever"; "Deep End"; "The Delta at Sunset"
"Dream Cargoes"; "End-Game"; "The Enormous Space"
"The Garden of Time"; "The Illuminated Man"; "Minus One"
"The Impossible Man"; "Mr. F is Mr. F"; "Now Wakes the Sea"
"The Overloaded Man"; "A Question of Re-Entry"
"Storm Bird, Storm Dreamer"; "The Terminal Beach"
"The Time-Tombs"; "The Watch-Towers"
Barrington J. Bayley (as P. F. Woods) "The Radius Riders"
Greg Bear "Tangents"
Charles Beaumont "Something in the Earth"
Gregory Benford "Matter's End"
Alfred Bester "They Don't Make Life Like They Used To"
Dmitry Bilenkin "Vechny Svet"
Michael Bishop "A Gift From The GrayLanders"
Terry Bisson "Charlie's Angels"; "He Loved Lucy"; "macs"
"There Are No Dead"
James Blaylock "The War Of The Worlds"
Ray Bradbury "The Love Affair"
Marion Zimmer Bradley "The Wild One"
Reginald Bretnor "The Gnurrs Come from the Voodvork Out"
David Brin "The Giving Plague"
Eric Brown "The Death Of Cassandra Quebec", "Heritage of Stars"
Edward Bryant "Kicks Are For Kids"; "Stone"
Richard Calder "The Allure"; "Mosquito"
Robert R. Chase "Bearings"; "The Figure Of Drosselmeyer"
R. Chetwynd-Hayes "The Cave"
Richard Chwedyk "The Measure Of All Things"
Pat Cadigan "Criers And Killers"; "The Power & The Passion";"Rock On"
Terry Carr "The Dance of the Changer and the Three"
Ted Chiang "Division By Zero"; "Tower Of Babylon"
Rob Chilson "This Side of Independence"
Michael Coney "Snow Princess"
"Whatever Became Of The McGowans?"
Ronald Anthony Cross "The Country Store"
Tony Daniel "Prizm Tree"
Jack Dann "Marilyn"; "There Are No Banisters"
Avram Davidson "The House The Blackeneys Built"
Samuel R. Delaney "Night and the Loves of Joe Dicostanzo"
Paul Di Filippo "Big Eater"; "Brain Wars"; "Neutrino Drag"
"One Night in Television City"; "Seeing is Believing"
"Take Me to the Pilot"
Philip K. Dick "Cantata 140" ("Top Stand-By Job"); "Oh, to Be a Blobel!"
"Project Plowshare"; "Return Match"; "The Waterspider"
Thomas M. Disch "The Number You Have Reached"
Anatoli Dneprov "Kraby Idut Po Ostrovu"
Cory Doctorow "Visit the sins"
Gardner Dozois "A Dream at Noonday"; "A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows"
Andy Duncan "The Chief Designer"
George Alec Effinger "B.K.A. The Master"
Greg Egan "The Extra"; ``TAP'' ; "Yeyuka"
Gordon Eklund "The Mother Of The Beast"
Harlan Ellison "All the Sounds of Fear"
"The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World"
"The Boulevard of Broken Dreams"; "Bright Eyes";
"Cold Friend"; "Count the Clock That Tells the Time"; "Croatoan"
"Eidolons"; "Ernest and the Machine God"; "Final Trophy"
"The Function of Dream Sleep"; "Hindsight: 480 Seconds"
"The Hour That Stretches"; "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream"
"In Fear of K"; "Incognita, Inc."; "Jeffty Is Five";
"Kiss of Fire"; "Knox"; "Lonelyache";
"Night of Black Glass"; "On the Downhill Side"
"Pennies, Off a Dead Man's Eyes"; "Shatterday";
"Shattered Like a Glass Goblin"; "Silent in Gehenna"
"Strange Wine"; "Try a Dull Knife"; "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs"
"With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole"
Gregory Frost & John Kessel "Reduction"
Augustine Funnell "River of the Dying"
Jeffrey Ford "The Malthusian Zombie"
Karen Joy Fowler "Black Glass"; "Face Value"
David S. Garnett "The Only One"
Rick Gauger "The Vacuum-Packed Picnic"
Mary Gentle "Human Waste"
Jon Courtenay Grimwood "Point Of No Return"
Sever Gansovski "Vincent Van Gogh"
William Gibson & John Shirley "The Belonging Kind"
William Gibson "Burning Chrome"; "Fragments of a Hologram Rose"
"New Rose Hotel"; "Skinner's Room"; "Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City"
William Gibson & Bruce Sterling "Red Star, Winter Orbit"
William Gibson & Michael Swanwick "Dogfight"
Felix Gotschalk "Charisma Leak"; "Square Pony Express"
"Conspicuous Consumption"; "A Day In The South Squad"
"A Family Winter Of 1987"; "Home Sweet Geriatric Dome"
James Gunn "The Listeners"; "The North Wind"
Robert Hoskins "Pop Goes The Weasel"
Elisabeth Hand "In The Month Of Athyr"; "Snow On Sugar Mountain"
Alex Irvine "Jimmy Guang's House of Gladmech"
Philip C. Jennings "The Road To Reality"
K. W. Jeter "The New Floor", "The First Time"
Merle Kessler "Some Rooms"
Damian Kilby "Daniel's Labirinth"
Richard Kadrey "Synaptic Intrigue"
Richard Kearns "Grave Anglels"; "Love, Death, Time And Katie"
James Patrick Kelly "Breakaway, Backdown"
"Itsy-Bitsy-Spider"; "Undone"
Stephen King "Battleground"
Damon Knight "Masks"
Nancy Kress "Computer Virus"
"Shadows On The Cave Wall"; "To Cuddle Amy"
John M. Landsberg "And of the Earth, a Womb"
Mary Soon Lee "Lifework"
Elisabeth A. Lynn "Circus"
R. A. Lafferty "Bright Flightways"; "Splinters"
Marc Laidlaw "Four Hundred Boys"; "Jane"
Geoffrey A. Landis "The City of Ultimate Freedom"; "Ouroboros"
"Winter Fire"
David Langford "Comp.Basilisk FAQ"; "A Game of Consequences"
Keith Laumer "In The Queue"
Ursula Le Guin "Direction of the Road"; "Social Dreaming of the Frin"
Tanith Lee "You Are My Sunshine"
Fritz Leiber "One Station of the Way"
Stanislaw Lem "The Rat In The Maze"; "The Truth"
Phyllis MacLennan "Thus Love Betrays Us"
Tom Maddox "The Robot And The One You Love"
Ian R. MacLeod "Isabel Of The Fall"; "Starship Day"
George R. R. Martin "Dark, Dark Were The Tunnels"
"The Exit To San Breta"; "Override"
Jack McDevitt "The Fort Moxie's Branch"; "Tracks"
Vonda McIntyre "Little Faces"
China Mieville "An End To Hunger"
Michael Moorcock "Escape from Evening"; "The Time Dweller"
James Morrow "The Cat's Pajamas"; "Daughter Earth"
Pat Murphy "Art In The War Zone"; "Bones";"Peter"; "Rachel In Love"
"A Cartographic Analysis of the Dream State"; "His Vegetable Wife"
Larry Niven "All The Myriad Ways"; "The Jigsaw Man"; "Passerby"
"Rammer"; "Wrong-Way Street"
Charles Ott "The Ecologically Correct House"
Severna Park "The Cure For Everything"
Charles Platt "The Total Experience Kick"
Christopher Priest "The Perihelion Man"; "Real-Time World"
W. T. Quick "Cyberserker"
Robert Rohrer "Pattern"; "The Sheeted Dead"
Alan Ryan "Comstock"
Marta Randall "Secret Rider"
Tom Reamy"Under Hollywood Sign"
Kit Reed "Sisohpromatem"
Robert Reed "Aeon's Child"; "Brother Perfect"; "Sister Alice"
"The Children's Crusade"; "Mudpuppies"; "Tongues"
"Melodies Played Upon Cold, Dark Worlds"
"Treading in the Afterglow"
Keith Roberts "The Scarlet Lady" (as Alistair Bevan)
Spider Robinson "By Any Other Name"
Rudy Rucker "The Fifty-Seventh Franz Kafka"; "Soft Death"
"Monument To The Third International"
Richard Paul Russo "For A Place In The Sky"; "Just Drive, She Said"; "Celebrate the Bullet"
Geoff Ryman "Everywhere"
Robin Scott "The Big Connection"
Richard R. Smith "Alien Used Cars"
Sherwood Springer "The Scorch on Wetzel's Hill"
Scott Sanders "The Eros Passage"; "Mountains Of Memory"
"Touch the Earth"
Pamela Sargent "Gather Blue Roses"
Vladimir Savchenko "Tupik"
Jack Sharkey "No Harm Done"
Bob Shaw "Call Me Dumbo"; "Frost Animals"; "A Full Member of the Club"
"The Giaconda Caper"; "Skirmish On A Summer Morning"
"Uncomic Book Horror Story"; "Waltz of the Bodysnatchers"
Robert Sheckley "Budget Planet"; "The Cruel Equations"
"The Day The Aliens Came"; "Dr. Zombie & His Furry Little Friends"
Lucius Shepard "The Arcevoalo"; "Black Coral"; "The Jaguar Hunter"
"Voyage South From Thousand Willows"
Lewis Shiner & Bruce Sterling "Mozart In Mirrorshades"
Lewis Shiner "Stuff of Dreams"; "Twilight Time"
John Shirley "Free Zone"; "Screens"; "Ticket to Heaven"; "Will The Chill"
Clifford Simak "The Autumn Land"; "Brother"
Dan Simmons "E-Ticket To NamLand"; "One Small Step For Max"
"Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds"
John Sladek "The Babe In The Oven"
("The Secret Of The Old Custard"); "The Bestseller"
"One Damned Thing After Another"; "Solar Shoe-Salesman"
Cordwainer Smith "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard"; "Under Old Earth"
"The Ballad of Lost C'Mell";"The Crime & the Glory of Commander Suzdal"
"The Dead Lady of Clown Town"; "The Lady Who Sailed the Soul"
"Three to a Given Star"; "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons"; "Nancy"
Norman Spinrad "The Big Flash"; "Eye Of The Storm"
"Heroes Die But Once"; "The Lost Continent"
Brian Stableford "The Furniture Of Life's Ambition"
Bruce Sterling "Flowers of Edo"; "In Paradise"; "Maneki Neko"
Charles Stross "Tourists"
Michael Swanwick "Ancient Engines"; "The Dragon Line"
"The Edge of the World"; "A Midwinter's Tale"; "Walking Out"
"Moon Dogs"; "Mortal Engines"; "Scherzo With Tyrannosaur"
"Picasso De-constructed: Eleven Still-Lifes"; "Snow Angels"
"The Wisdom Of Old Earth"
Jeffrey Thomas "The Flaying Season"
Vladimir Tretyakov "Ya Ponyatno Govoryu?"
Walter Tevis Jr. "Rent Control"
James Tiptree Jr. "The Last Flight Of Dr. Ain"; "The Milk Of Paradise"
Lisa Tuttle "A Cold Dish"; "The Hollow Man"
"Memories Of The Body"
Steven Utley "The Despoblado"; "The Thirteenth Labour"
Frances Valery "Bumpie (tm)"
Jeff VanderMeer "Ghost in the Machine"
James Van Pelt "Parallel Highways"
Sydney J. Van Scyoc "A Visit to Cleveland General"
John Varley "Equinoctial"; "The Funhouse Effect"
"Good-Bye Robinson Crusoe"; "In Fading Suns And Dying Moons"
"In The Bowl"; "Manikins"; "Options"; "The Persistence Of Vision"
"The Phantom Of Kansas"; "Press Enter [] "; "Retrograde Summer"
Ian Watson "The Navigator's Children"
Liz Williams "Quantum Anthropology"
Ian Watson "Ahead!"; "Cold Light"; "The Flesh Of Her Hair"
"The People On The Precipice"; "Slow Birds"
"Thousand Cuts"; "Thy Blood Like Milk"
"A Time-Span To Conjure With"; "The Width Of The World"
Sharon Webb "Shadows From A Small Template"
Kate Wilhelm "And The Angels Sing"
Jack Williamson "The Firefly Tree"; "The Highest Dive"
Connie Willis "In the Late Cretaceous"
Robert Charles Wilson "Extras"; "A Knight of Antiquity"
Gene Wolfe "Car Sinister"; "Petting Zoo"; "Procreation"
"The Tale Of The Rose And The Nightingale"; "The Headless Man"
Askold Yakubowski "Mefisto"; "Nechto"; "Sporu Net Konca"
"Poslednyaa Velikaya Okhota"; "Zveri Bolshie I Malenkie"
Robert F. Young "Little Dog Gone"; "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory"
"The Pyramid Project" ("The Sphynx")
Roger Zelazny "Devil Car"; "The Engine at Heartspring's Center"
"For a Breath I Tarry"
"The Furies"; "The Great Slow Kings"; "The Keys to December"
David Zindell "Shanidar"


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Also see: (full navigation tree)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL:
Best SF Novel (General Themes)
Best Space SF Novel
Best Time SF Novel
Best Apocalyptic SF Novel

BEST SCIENCE FICTION COLLECTIONS

BEST SCIENCE FICTION SERIES:
Best SF Series (general themes)
Best Space SF Series

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA:
Best SF Novella 1920-1960 (general themes)
Best SF Novella 1961-now (general themes)
Best Space SF Novella 1920-1960
Best Space SF Novella 1961-now
Best Time SF Novella
Best Apocalyptic SF Novella

BEST SCIENCE FICTION STORY:
Best SF Story 1920-1960 (general themes)
Best SF Story 1961-now (general themes)
Best Space SF Story 1920-1960
Best Space SF Story 1961-now
Best Time SF Story
Best Apocalyptic SF Story

BEST FANTASY NOVEL

BEST FANTASY COLLECTION

BEST FANTASY SERIES

BEST FANTASY NOVELLA

BEST FANTASY STORY:
Best Fantasy Story 1920-1960
Best Fantasy Story 1961-now

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