It’s nominating season. Hugo nominations have just opened as I write this, and there are great lists everywhere of fantastic fiction that is all worthy of nominations and awards.
My monthly roundups of stories I read and loved through 2016 can be found here. In this post, I boil those roundups down to 30 short fiction stories, plus six novellas, and three novels.
For more story recommendations:
- …check out A.C. Wise’s meta eligibility and recommendations post (a fabulous resource).
- …and this excellent post by Cat Rambo listing many eligible writers and their fiction.
My Long List
Novellas:
- The Ballad of Black Tom
, by Victor LaValle
- A Taste of Honey, by Kai Ashante Wilson.
- The Lilies of Dawn, by Vanessa Fogg
- The Kraken Sea, by E. Catherine Tobler.
- Culdesac, by Robert Repino.
Novelettes:
- The Night Cyclist, by Stephen Graham Jones at Tor.com.
- A Dead Djinn in Cairo, by P. Djeli Clark at tor.com.
- Blood Grains Speak Through Memories, by Jason Sanford at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
- Touring With The Alien, by Carolyn Ives Gilman at Clarkesworld.
- The Jewel And Her Lapidary, by Fran Wilde.
Novels:
- The Obelisk Gate, by N.K. Jemisin
- Cloudbound, by Fran Wilde.
- Vigil, by Angela Slatter.
- Mongrels, by Stephen Graham Jones
Short fiction:
- Tom, Thom, by K. M. Ferebee, at tor.com.
- Breaking Water, by Indrapramit Das, at tor.com.
- The Abduction of Europa, by E. Catherine Tobler in Clarkesworld.
- All the Souls Like Candle Flames, by Vanessa Fogg in Luna Station Quarterly.
- The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage, by Alix E. Harrow at TOR.com.
- Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies, by Brooke Bolander in Uncanny Magazine.
- A Spell To Retrieve Your Lover From the Bottom of the Sea, by Ada Hoffman in Strange Horizons.
- The Banshee Behind Beamon’s Bakery, by Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali at Diabolical Plots.
- The Warrior Boy Who Would Not Suffer, by Abhinav Bhat in Apex Magazine.
- Now Watch as Belinda Unmakes the World, by Lynette Mejía at Flash Fiction Online.
- 1957, by Stephen Cox in Apex Magazine.
- So, You’re In an Alternate Universe, by Jeremy Packert Burke in Metaphorosis.
- My Body, Herself, by Carmen Maria Machado in Uncanny Magazine.
- Shadow Boy, by Lora Gray in Shimmer.
- My Grandmother’s Bones, by S.L. Huang at Daily Science Fiction.
- In Our Rags of Light, by Shira Lipkin in Strange Horizons.
- El Cantar of Rising Sun, by Sabrina Vourvoulias in Uncanny Magazine.
- Postcards From Natalie, by Carrie Laben in The Dark Magazine.
- A Certain Kind of Spark, by Gwendolyn Kiste in Mantid Magazine.
- Things With Beards, by Sam J. Miller in Clarkesworld.
- All The Colors You Thought Were Kings, by Arkady Martine at Shimmer.
- The Men From Narrow Houses, by A.C. Wise at Liminal Stories.
- 17 Amazing Plot Elements… When You See #11, You’ll Be Astounded!, by James Beamon at Daily Science Fiction.
- Songbird, by Shveta Thakrar at Flash Fiction Online.
- The Governess with a Mechanical Womb, by Leena Likitalo at Clarkesworld.
*toots own horn cautiously*
Well, will you look at that: I even made my own eligibility post. *blush*
Maria Haskins 
Wonderful list…and good luck! 🙂
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💗
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You have a tasteful, wonderful list. Short and sweet.
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I notice that all of your short fiction recommendations are from online magazines. There were some excellent stories published in the print magazines this year too. Rocket Stack Rank has a list of stories, recommendations from multiple reviewers, and instructions on how to get copies of back issues (for free, where possible). http://www.rocketstackrank.com/p/2016-year-to-date.html
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Very true. I read as much short fiction as I can, but there is SO MUCH great speculative short fic out there that I never get around to reading. I do try to catch up with the Best of … anthologies as well, but yeah, there is TONS more out there. My lists (both this one and my monthly roundups) are just what I like, from what I’ve had a chance to read, and is definitely not covering the whole scope of stories out there. Thank you so much for the link – it’s the season of lists, and the more good stories get eyes on them, the better!
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The tables of contents for the four big annual “best of” SFF anthologies are out now, even though the anthologies themselves won’t be out for several months. Here are the contents, sorted according to how many prolific reviewers (ones who gave critical reviews to at least 500 short stories) recommended them.
http://www.rocketstackrank.com/2016/12/2016-best-sff-anthologies.html
A decent way to pick some of the best stories to read is to look down the list, picking ones where the short description of the story sounds appealing. That’s especially good for folks who subscribe to print magazines but feel guilty that they never get around to reading them and really just want someone to point them at four or five of the very best.
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