For those of you who didn't regularly read Sci Fiction and are wondering what all the fuss is about, a list of my own personal favorite stories published there with links to them. Read now, as no one seems to know how long the site will be archived. I'm only linking to new stuff; pretty much everything from the classic science fiction series is worth your time. I know I'll leave out some excellent stories, but here goes nothing. (Oh, and I didn't read the site consistently from the very, very beginning, so that explains why I'm missing a bunch of excellent stories from the start--I suggest you go browse the archives on your own.)
- From the Files of the Time Rangers, Rick Bowes
- The Pottawatomie Giant, Andy Duncan
- Editing for Content, Gavin J. Grant
- Standing in His Light, Kage Baker
- The Black Heart, Patrick O'Leary
- Non-Disclosure Agreement, Scott Westerfeld
- Struwwelpeter, Glen Hirsberg
- Water Master, Carol Emshwiller
- What I Didn't See, Karen Joy Fowler (This story alone should have justified Sci Fiction's existence forever!)
- What Mattered Was Sleep, Patrick O'Leary
- Dr. Pretorius and the Lost Temple, Paul McAuley
- Boys, Carol Emshwiller
- The Empire of Ice Cream, Jeff Ford (There's a ton of great Ford stories in the archive, but this my favorite.)
- Daughter of the Monkey God, M.K. Hobson
- Ancestor Money, Maureen McHugh
- At the Mouth of the River of Bees, Kij Johnson (If you have an older pet, be warned before reading this; but it's a beautiful story.)
- It's All True, John Kessel (And my name makes a cameo!)
- House of the Future, Richard Butner (A far underappreciated story)
- Zora and the Zombie, Andy Duncan (Yams!)
- The Baum Plan for Financial Independence, John Kessel
- The Voluntary State, Christopher Rowe (My Favorite by my favorite, although he's writing this awesome new story called Asphalt which might displace it.)
- The Wolf-man of Alcatraz, Howard Waldrop
- Super 8, Terry Bisson
- Heads Down, Thumbs Up, Gavin J. Grant (Awesome story)
- There's a Hole in the City, Rick Bowes
- Calypso in Berlin, Elizabeth Hand
- Anyway, M Rickert
We are losing something special. Ellen is one of the best editors working right now, period. As far as I'm concerned, the best literary magazine in the world just got shut down. It's a pretty rare situation that an amazing editor with fantastic, broad taste is able to pay such that she can pick from the best stories being written in the field. It's time for some billionaire who loves SF to step up and start a new magazine for her to edit.
(p.s. What stories am I missing, peeps? I haven't read everything, obviously, with Lucius Shephard being a big blindspot.)
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