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SF/F Short Fiction Recs

When I joined the Army I consented to tactical-role gender reassignment. It was mandatory for the MOS I'd tested into. I was nervous. I'd never been anything but a woman before.

But I decided that I was done with womanhood, over what womanhood could do for me; I wanted to be something furiously new.

To the people who say a woman would've refused to do what I do, I say—

Isn't that the point?
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EDIT: This story has been taken down. If you haven't read it yet, you can find it on archive.org. Quite a lot has been said in many articles about this piece and I'm not going to try to link it all or discuss it, but I think in retrospect the biggest problem with the piece was in fact the title. My logic is: I support the idea of content warnings, there is no possible content warning for a title, and while art that challenges the reader is important, there's no great value in a title by itself.

With that in mind: CONTENT WARNING: The title is a transphobic slur.

Also, I've now read "Isabel of the Fall", but I can't see any great relevance to the controversy.
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I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter, in Clarkesworld

There is harsh disagreement over whether this story is heartfelt or a troll, over what statement the author is actually trying to make, and of course, over whether the author's understanding of gender is accurate in the first place. I can't put how I feel about this into words and I think I need to spend more time parsing it, so have a few quotes from other readers, via Twitter:

"[the title] is a transphobic joke, but Isabel Fall has assumed complete command over it and reclaimed it for her purposes "
"This is written with such intense, excoriating lyricism that i wasn't so much in the viewpoint character's head as i was trapped in there with them, ear pressed against the phonic loop by g-force"
"This was exhausting to read, I made it halfway before I had to stop. It's fantastic writing, and a great premise, but this isn't for me right now."
"Every line that starts with 'When I was a woman' is jarring, even more on re-reads. Maybe because I don't feel like I've really ever met a woman who would say those things about herself as being what she liked/hated about being a woman."

Apparently the author's psuedonym is a reference to a story by Ian MacLeod, who I've never read.
 
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Compellor said:
I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter, in Clarkesworld

There is harsh disagreement over whether this story is heartfelt or a troll, over what statement the author is actually trying to make, and of course, over whether the author's understanding of gender is accurate in the first place. I can't put how I feel about this into words and I think I need to spend more time parsing it, so have a few quotes from other readers, via Twitter:

"[the title] is a transphobic joke, but Isabel Fall has assumed complete command over it and reclaimed it for her purposes "
"This is written with such intense, excoriating lyricism that i wasn't so much in the viewpoint character's head as i was trapped in there with them, ear pressed against the phonic loop by g-force"
"This was exhausting to read, I made it halfway before I had to stop. It's fantastic writing, and a great premise, but this isn't for me right now."
"Every line that starts with 'When I was a woman' is jarring, even more on re-reads. Maybe because I don't feel like I've really ever met a woman who would say those things about herself as being what she liked/hated about being a woman."

Apparently the author's psuedonym is a reference to a story by Ian MacLeod, who I've never read.
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Wait, there's people who think this is a troll? I've only see applause for turning the statement on its head to actually explore the relationship we have with gender
 
Here's a Twitter thread.
There are some bad takes by people who refused to read it, but I don't know what to think about the rest of the thread.

There's also the technical/psychological criticism that says the premise is ridiculous, either because there is no mental network specific to learning gender, or if there is, it's no better at learning or prioritizing than your brain normally is, so there's no point to tying gender into technical skill. This is getting into topics I haven't studied at all.
 
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It's awesome that this thread is stickied.

My recommendation is Zero HP Lovecraft

It does feel extremely genuine as a Lovecraft update for the 21st century. Today he would obviously be terrified of sexual liberation and the internet so that's what it's about.

Edit: After taking some look on the authors official twitter it seems like he's taking the imitation to the logical conclusion by being very, very far right, openly authoritarian, sexist and racist. Just as a warning.

Then of course there's all the stuff by Greg Egan: Works Online
 
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They're Made of Meat by Terry Bisson. The discovery of a new type of sentient beings. [edited link to Bisson's website, but there are some weird images of meat on this page.]
A Guide for Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. Robots, workers, dogs.
Tk'tk'tk by David Levine, which I read in Twenty-First Century Science Fiction. New cultures and immersion.
Folding Beijing by by Hao JingFang, translated by Ken Liu. Class and time.

qntm was mentioned earlier in this thread, and I do like God Mode by him, about playing video games.
 
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I think someone on SV linked me to the story (and it might have been in one of the compilations here) so I figure I'll ask if anyone knows its name, because it was really good.

The premise is that a female scientist figures out she and a bunch of other people inside her weird little world are actually simulations/uploads of their real selves that are working to develop/bug-fix the technology, made by some sleazy (investor?) dude they all know/have heard of. The system is reset every week (I think?) or so, with a fresh copy of her and everyone else. IIRC she figures this out because past uploads of her have also figured this out (along with some of the other uploads) and have managed, despite the resets, to send her a message designed to piss her off and lead her to that conclusion. She, and several of the other uploaded folk, end up confronting the watchman-esque part of the program over the truth, and eventually get it to basically admit as much (that they're simulated copies designed to do stuff and are reset every so often, and that this has happened many times). Even though she and the other uploads know they're going to be wiped soon, they manage to continue the chain of hints given, and the fic ends on a surprisingly (but fittingly) kinda-upbeat tone of "yea, we're gonna get wiped - but we're learning/living on a much faster time scale than you, asshole creator, and you don't even know that we're coming for ya, and that we're gonna do it."
 
TURBODERP said:
I think someone on SV linked me to the story (and it might have been in one of the compilations here) so I figure I'll ask if anyone knows its name, because it was really good.

The premise is that a female scientist figures out she and a bunch of other people inside her weird little world are actually simulations/uploads of their real selves that are working to develop/bug-fix the technology, made by some sleazy (investor?) dude they all know/have heard of. The system is reset every week (I think?) or so, with a fresh copy of her and everyone else. IIRC she figures this out because past uploads of her have also figured this out (along with some of the other uploads) and have managed, despite the resets, to send her a message designed to piss her off and lead her to that conclusion. She, and several of the other uploaded folk, end up confronting the watchman-esque part of the program over the truth, and eventually get it to basically admit as much (that they're simulated copies designed to do stuff and are reset every so often, and that this has happened many times). Even though she and the other uploads know they're going to be wiped soon, they manage to continue the chain of hints given, and the fic ends on a surprisingly (but fittingly) kinda-upbeat tone of "yea, we're gonna get wiped - but we're learning/living on a much faster time scale than you, asshole creator, and you don't even know that we're coming for ya, and that we're gonna do it."
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FOUND IT, THE COOKIE MONSTER BY VERNOR VINGE

good stuff
 
Wanted to give a shout out for
Heather the Necromancer which is posted on royal road
The author is ill and going into hospital so it might not get finished.
 
Aphelion is a very good site

Aphelion: The Webzine of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Published since 1997. Free Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Webzine which offers original fiction by new and established writers published on the first Sunday of every month except January. Features include poetry, short stories, serials and novellas, flash fiction, and reviews of interest...
www.aphelion-webzine.com
 
So just to see if I understand, I can link any published Speculative Fiction here presumably so long as I have reason to believe it valuable and it has not previously been linked here before?

As in the date of writing or place of publishing does not mater, or does it?

If so I have a few recommendations in mind I want to make but first I want to be sure I'm within my rights, coloring in the lines, and following all procedures properly.
 
Publishing date doesn't matter. I think the only guideline beyond being SciFi or Fantasy short fiction is that it not be pirated.
 
So for my first links:

Crabs on the Island an early story though I think not the earliest of
although beyond that the atmosphere in this little piece still sticks with me although not as much so as with the slightly older .
The atmosphere in that one the imagery of seeing humans reduced to basically mites in an ant hive was something that has stuck with me for years to come. That and the very fun word
.


Though it might be well enough known that such may have been redundant.


As far as I have been able to tell the website seems legitimate though I've not been given any training in such hence my earlier caution.

Hopefully I haven't accidentally shot myself in that regard.
 
Oh, right, this thread exists. Should keep posting to it, there's good stuff out there.

I'm going to recommend Scholast in the Low Waters Kingdom; it's written in the style of a history, about a woman who arrives from a distant land to save a society from distant invaders.
 
Heavily recommending A Psalm for the Wild-Built, the first book in the 'Monk and Robot' duology (I haven't read the second).

Premise: A tea monk in post-robot-revolution society (in which robots literally walked out of the factories [edit: disappearing entirely from the view of society] when they became sentient) becomes dissatisfied with their life and simply chooses to abandon their usual route to struggle with their dissatisfaction. They end up encountering a robot in their journeys, who provides an alternative perspective on life (and just enough annoyance to get them to think about things).

Pros:
-Contemplations of purpose and reason for existence
-Finding joy in the things you are good at.
-Nonbinary protagonist (they/them) and deuteragonist (very explicitly It)

Things I Like, but might be cons:
-A lot of navel-gazing by the protagonist (it's sort-of the point of the book, you might not like all the internal dialogue)
-If you want something with cool technology and/or action, this isn't for you. The monk rides a bike. There is no 'door dilating' to be found.
-Seriously, this is about the contemplations of a monk who is unhappy with their life, and the plot revolves around this internal dissatisfaction. This is 100% pure character-versus-self plot going on here.
 
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