2025 Online Short SFF Fiction - Post One
Feb. 27th, 2026 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraHi! This is a big post of what I've read and am reccing so far, combining stories that I read during the year and liked, stories I picked up from other people's rec lists/eligibility posts/etc, and stories I read from the Locus list here. I have not yet read everything on the Locus list, nor have I gone through the TOCs of all my favorite magazines looking for stuff, so hopefully I'll have a few more posts. But I wanted to post these to get started. These are vaguely alphabetical by magazine, and I've divided out stuff that's on the Locus list and stuff that wasn't, so that people who have already gone through the Locus list can easily find the other ones. A few standouts or likely nominees in bold.
Short stories on the Locus list:
Wire Mother, Isabel J. Kim, Clarkesworld. I think this is my personal frontrunner; this is really good.
Missing Helen, Tia Tashiro, Clarkesworld. Divorce and clones.
The Year the Sheep God Shattered, Marissa Lingen, Diabolical Plots. A small fantasy about art and magic and growing up.
35/F/Lane's Creek, Oklahoma, Hans Ege Wegner, Escape Pod. Remote work and connection.
Toothpaste Feelings, Sharang Biswas, khōréō. Symbiont, adjustment.
Tell Them a Story to Teach Them Kindness, B Pladek, Lightspeed. AI in the classroom. Sadly probably prescient.
Courtney Lovecraft's Book of the Dead, Sam J. Miller, Nightmare. A drag queen medium does a podcast.
Woodpecker, Warbler, Mussel, Thrush, Ruth Joffre, PodCastle. Extinction, birder grief.
Pandora's Formula, Hannah Yang, Strange Horizons. I don't think the world would last a day in this scenario but I thought the story was good.
Short stories not on the Locus list:
Autonomy, Meg Elison, Clarkesworld. Self-driving cars.
In the Shells of Broken Things, A.T. Greenblatt, Clarkesworld. Disability, community.
Laser Eyes Ain't Everything, Effie Seiberg, Diabolical Plots. The superhero union building isn't ADA compliant.
The Repairers of Reality, Shaenon K. Garrity, Drabblecast. Art and humanity and meaning.
Question 3, Cliff Jerrison. Democracy!
All That Means or Mourns, Ruthanna Emrys, Reactor. Fungal symbiosis and human connection.
Murder in the Clavist Autonomous Zone, Rich Larson, Strange Horizons. This is about a small intentional community inside a techno-dystopia we only see secondhand; some nice worldbuilding and character work in a small space.
10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days, Samantha Mills, Uncanny. This one has a lot of buzz and I would have said was the frontrunner except for its surprising omission from the Locus list.
Novelettes on the Locus list:
A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library, Chris Wilrich, Beneath Ceaseless Skies. NOVELETTE. Like fantasy Godel Escher Bach.
The Twenty-One Second God, Peter Watts, Lightspeed. NOVELETTE. Hive minds.
Regarding the Childhood of Morrigan, Who Was Chosen to Open the Way, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Reactor. NOVELETTE. This one is weird and I have mixed feelings but it's interesting to see what Rosenbaum is up to.
After the Invasion of the Bug-Eyed Aliens, Rachel Swirsky, Reactor. NOVELETTE. Vignettes from various different perspectives.
Phantom View, John Wiswell, Reactor. NOVELETTE. Illness and care and ghosts.
Novelettes not on the Locus list:
The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For, Cameron Reed, Reactor. NOVELETTE. Sort of a Cyteen riff.
Short stories on the Locus list:
Wire Mother, Isabel J. Kim, Clarkesworld. I think this is my personal frontrunner; this is really good.
Missing Helen, Tia Tashiro, Clarkesworld. Divorce and clones.
The Year the Sheep God Shattered, Marissa Lingen, Diabolical Plots. A small fantasy about art and magic and growing up.
35/F/Lane's Creek, Oklahoma, Hans Ege Wegner, Escape Pod. Remote work and connection.
Toothpaste Feelings, Sharang Biswas, khōréō. Symbiont, adjustment.
Tell Them a Story to Teach Them Kindness, B Pladek, Lightspeed. AI in the classroom. Sadly probably prescient.
Courtney Lovecraft's Book of the Dead, Sam J. Miller, Nightmare. A drag queen medium does a podcast.
Woodpecker, Warbler, Mussel, Thrush, Ruth Joffre, PodCastle. Extinction, birder grief.
Pandora's Formula, Hannah Yang, Strange Horizons. I don't think the world would last a day in this scenario but I thought the story was good.
Short stories not on the Locus list:
Autonomy, Meg Elison, Clarkesworld. Self-driving cars.
In the Shells of Broken Things, A.T. Greenblatt, Clarkesworld. Disability, community.
Laser Eyes Ain't Everything, Effie Seiberg, Diabolical Plots. The superhero union building isn't ADA compliant.
The Repairers of Reality, Shaenon K. Garrity, Drabblecast. Art and humanity and meaning.
Question 3, Cliff Jerrison. Democracy!
All That Means or Mourns, Ruthanna Emrys, Reactor. Fungal symbiosis and human connection.
Murder in the Clavist Autonomous Zone, Rich Larson, Strange Horizons. This is about a small intentional community inside a techno-dystopia we only see secondhand; some nice worldbuilding and character work in a small space.
10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days, Samantha Mills, Uncanny. This one has a lot of buzz and I would have said was the frontrunner except for its surprising omission from the Locus list.
Novelettes on the Locus list:
A Random Walk Through the Goblin Library, Chris Wilrich, Beneath Ceaseless Skies. NOVELETTE. Like fantasy Godel Escher Bach.
The Twenty-One Second God, Peter Watts, Lightspeed. NOVELETTE. Hive minds.
Regarding the Childhood of Morrigan, Who Was Chosen to Open the Way, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Reactor. NOVELETTE. This one is weird and I have mixed feelings but it's interesting to see what Rosenbaum is up to.
After the Invasion of the Bug-Eyed Aliens, Rachel Swirsky, Reactor. NOVELETTE. Vignettes from various different perspectives.
Phantom View, John Wiswell, Reactor. NOVELETTE. Illness and care and ghosts.
Novelettes not on the Locus list:
The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For, Cameron Reed, Reactor. NOVELETTE. Sort of a Cyteen riff.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-28 10:11 pm (UTC)I’ve been making steady progress on my potential-nominees-to-read list—I had it down to only 40 novelettes, short stories, and poems left to read as of ten minutes ago. Now it’s up to 57, ’cause only a few of the works you listed here were already on my list.
(“10 Visions…” and “Missing Helen” are two of my three favorites among what I’ve read so far, the third being “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson.)
Oh, well, I still have time to get through everything before the deadline, if I can keep up a steady pace.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-28 11:02 pm (UTC)If you have any particular poetry recs I'd be interested!
Locus list?
Date: 2026-03-22 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-22 07:14 pm (UTC)* I really liked “The Twenty-One Second God”—thank you for recommending it! That’ll be on my ballot.
* I recently read some of the Nebula nominees. “Never Eaten Vegetables,” by H.H. Pak, turns out to be my favorite novelette of the year, among those I’ve read so far.
(Side note: At the time when I read your post, I had found only two novelettes that I liked enough to nominate. Now I have seven, so I’ll have to figure out which two to drop.)
* Another short story on my list: “Unbeaten,” by Grace Seybold.
Re: Locus list?
Date: 2026-03-22 08:40 pm (UTC)Also added to my post mostly for my own future use, thanks for suggesting that ;)
Re: Locus list?
Date: 2026-03-22 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-26 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-27 12:59 am (UTC)But I can see how the story could give off that kind of vibe. And I may well have missed things that reinforced that feeling.
(And likewise, not to say that you *should* like it.)