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Short stories
Five collections for when you want a whole world in one sitting.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Nine stories about free will, time and memory, from a mechanical universe running down to a gate into the past; big ideas with real warmth.
+ The best stories balance feeling and ideas superbly; the title story and the Arabian Nights time-gate tale alone justify the book.
− Uneven collection: two very short pieces feel underdeveloped, and the long novella about digital pets drags. (summed up from The Guardian)Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Labyrinths, an infinite library and an invented encyclopedia that rewrites the world; short, dense puzzles that shaped modern fiction.
+ Dense, meticulous and still mind-blowing: entire worlds, religions and histories built rigorously inside short stories.
− Impressive more on an intellectual than an emotional level, and closer to thought experiment than fantasy. (summed up from A Sky of Books and Movies)Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Chiang's first collection, eight precise what-if stories, including the one the film Arrival was based on.
+ Thought-provoking what-if stories with high existential stakes that brilliantly put the science back in science fiction.
− Offers little in the way of rounded characters or dynamic action. (summed up from Booklist)The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
Fifteen stories of family, history and identity; the title story was the first to win the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy awards.
+ Balances a striking idea with a lived human story, and its best moments make it a strong collection.
− Uneven across fifteen long stories: some are middling and predictable, and 400-plus pages take a while. (summed up from Reactor)Tenth of December by George Saunders
Funny, dark and humane stories about ordinary people in strange corners of America; winner of the Folio Prize and the Story Prize.
+ Critics praised stealthily funny, complexly affecting stories with an irresistible mix of humour and humanity.
− Some reviewers found the stories lacked cohesion, and one called the overall effect rather insubstantial. (summed up from Wikipedia (reception))
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