The best short story collections, according to hackers
13 short story collections recommended in Hacker News comments over the past year, ranked by how many separate people recommend each one.
All short story collections
- Exhalation by Ted ChiangA short story collection that people recommend for its thought-provoking ideas and strong stories, with several readers calling it a favorite; no recurring criticism appears in the quotes.21recommend
- Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted ChiangA short story collection praised for weaving advanced mathematics, philosophy and computer science into human narratives; the title story inspired the film Arrival.15recommend
- Valuable Humans in Transit by qntmShort story collection that readers call one of their favorite pieces of short fiction, praised for being compact and high in impact.10recommend
- Ficciones by Jorge Luis BorgesReaders recommend Ficciones for its speculative short stories and the feeling it evokes, and several say it changed how they read literature.6recommend
- The Decameron by Giovanni BoccaccioPeople recommend it for its short, self-contained stories that suit dipping in and out. The most common caveat is that it is taxing to read in long stretches.6recommend
- Cosmicomics by Italo CalvinoPeople recommend it for its beautiful short stories, which are easy to dip in and out of.6recommend
- Axiomatic by Greg EganRecommended as a strong short story collection by Greg Egan, with one commenter suggesting it as a starting point for his work.5recommend
- Think Weirder: The Year's Best SciFi Ideas by Jeffrey FordReaders who recommend it say it is an engaging collection of near-future science fiction that helps them think about how the future could look. Critics say it falls short of its title and that the Amazon ebook carries DRM.5recommend
- The Dying Earth by Jack VancePeople recommend it as a standout read and praise Vance's prose. No recurring caveats appear in the quotes.4recommend
- The Cyberiad by Stanisław LemReaders call it a lifelong favorite and one of the most fun science books, easy to dip in and out of.3recommend
- Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis BorgesRecommended on Hacker News as a source of inspiration for other creative work, though only a few people mention it.3recommend
- All the Troubles of the World by Isaac AsimovRecommended for its MULTIVAC story with a pre-crime theme; one commenter calls that element somewhat disturbing.3recommend
- The Persistence of Vision by John VarleyRecommended for entertaining stories that present societies different from our own without condescension or fear.3recommend