Everybody is out here announcing their “best of 2016” lists – and I still haven’t finished tell everyone what I loved from 2015!!!
I got lazy earlier this year, and the started school, and here we are now, almost a full 12 months post 2015 X… Oops! XD
Today, I am happy to announce my…
Top 10 Reads of 2015! Short Fiction
10. Fish Night (The Time Traveler’s Almanac) by Joe Lansdale
My Rating: 4/5
Why You Should It: You ever read a book, where the ending leaving stunned, mouth hanging open… and then you suddenly burst out laughing as tears roll down your face? Fish Night has that kind of ending XD
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9. Noble Mold (The Time Traveler’s Almanac) by Kage Baker
My Rating: 5/5
Why You Should It: I’ve read a NUMBER of stories during The Time Traveler’s Almanac Read-Along, but this one is by far the best one of the collection that I’ve read!
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8. Three Voices (Uncanny Magazine #4: May/June 2015) by Lisa Bolekaja
My Rating: 4/5
Why You Should It: Lisa is able to convey the greatest song I’ve never heard nor will hear simply by using her characters emotions and reaction to the singer.
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7. Catcall (Uncanny Magazine #5: July/August 2015) by Delia S. Dawson
My Rating: 4/5
Why You Should It: You should be able to get what the story will be about based off the title – and it delivers a very powerful and eye-opening message.
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6. Eat Fish and Die by S. Ron Mars
My Rating: 4/5
Why You Should It: This was the funniest story I read last year.
The characters, dialogs, narration, and plot are all hilarious. There was not a single joke that fell flat! And this is not some stupid, cheap story. S. Ron Mars is a great writer, with a great sense of humor, who can write hilarious jokes.
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5. Midnight Hour (Uncanny Magazine #5: July/August 2015) by Mary Robinette Kowal
My Rating: 4/5
Why You Should It: You may think you’ve read the classic fairy-tale of the King and Queen who has a curse bestowed upon them. And you may have. But you have NOT read a version this.
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4. During the Dance by Mark Lawrence
My Rating: 4.5/5
Why You Should It: This is an excellent example of how to write an effective short story.
It is about a short as as short story can be (9 page), but on man will this leave an impact on you.
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3. The Oiran’s Song (Uncanny Magazine #6: September/October 2015) by Isabel Yap
My Rating: 4.5/5
Why You Should It: A powerful dark fantasy story set in Ancient Japan about love and demons.
I nominated this story for a Hugo earlier this year, and it was written masterfully in the second person.
If you haven’ read Isabel Yap yet, I see no problems in starting here.
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2. In Libres (Uncanny Magazine #4: May/June 2015) by Elizabeth Bear
My Rating: 5/5
Why You Should It: If you ever had to write any type of research or thesis paper in under/post-graduate, you will LOVE this story.
Bear takes a simple task of trying to check her book out of the library for a paper she is writing and puts truly fantastical, hilarious, and imaginative twist on it.
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1. A Year and a Day In Old Theradane (Uncanny Magazine #5: July/August 2015) by Scott Lynch
My Rating: 5/5
Why You Should It: This was first thing I had EVER read by Scott Lynch before and you know what my reaction was?
HOW HAVE I NEVER READ SCOTT LYNCH BEFORE!?!?!?!?!?
Lynch’s prose, world-building, characters, and imagination are second to none.
Read My Review
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-DJ
MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape 
That is a good list of books “Eat fish and die” is the one I like to get my ears on. (Because you recommend audio.) 🙂
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YES! You must! And doing this list reminded me that this actually a second story too 🙂
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I don’t get around to reading much short fiction, but this top ten list definately makes me want to track down some of these and check them out. Thanks for the great suggestions!
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I’d recommend subbing to Uncanny Magazine in general for great short stories! (Plus, they did just win the Hugo) 😉
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Joe Lansdale and Kage Baker? How the heck has The Time Traveler’s Almanac completely slipped by me?
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You have to take a look at the table of content for this anthology. I’d be hard pressed to find a better all-star, hall-of-fame author line up out there. It’s CRAZY good; introduced me to many authors I’d only heard of but hadn’t had the opportunity to read yet.
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when it comes to talking about favorite stories, it is always better late than never. I especially feel that way about short stories because comparatively few people enjoy reading them and that makes me sad.
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You know, I follow a fairly decent number of blogs, and even though my blog time has cut down considerably due to school, even when it wasn’tI still, if almost never, saw any type of reviews of mentions of short fiction.
I don’t know if it because there are too many short stories out there, people don’t know where to find them, or because people prefer the longer format, but you don’t hear much.
I make this list becauseI wanted people to know what my favorite were for all type of reading I did in the year, but think of it now, these “end of the year best of” lists, are probably the best publicity for short stories because reviews of them are so rare.
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Really need to check out During the Dance by Mark Lawrence – it seems very different from his usual work. And I’ve heard such amazing things! Can’t help but be curious, after all it’s only 9 pages 😀
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It is very different from Jorg and everything – but similar in that it is a great display of writing.
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I’ve bookmarked a ton of these! Thank you so much for the recs. 🙂
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You are very welcome! If do happen to read any of them, please do let me know! 🙂
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