Mindblowing SF stories

[cahn]

So I was thinking a little bit about "mindblowing" stories because of seeing Matthew Cheney's list here. I don't really care that much about the controversy; as far as I can tell "Mammoth" does not necessarily mean "comprehensive" (I own the Mammoth Book of Fantasy, which is not at all comprehensive), or even really anything at all. As far as I can tell from the table of contents, none of which are stories I actually found mindblowing, I suspect it's just that Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF sounded better than Book of Friends of Editor That Would Be Willing to Give Him Cheap Reprint Rights, which is what it actually looks like to me (and would explain the skewing against authors, women and POC and otherwise, that I actually think have written mindblowing SF stories).

In addition to the Butler, Chiang, Kress, LeGuin, Moore, Tiptree, and Willis stories that Matthew Cheney names, I thought offhand of the following (note that almost all my good SF anthologies are in NC, so I'm sure I'm forgetting some good ones). Note that these are all stories I found mindblowing at some point in my life (possibly not this one).

Mountains of Mourning (Bujold)
The Dead Lady of Clown Town (Cordwainer Smith)
Pots (C.J. Cherryh)
Salvage (Orson Scott Card)
I'm sure some story by Alfred Best should go here
Piecework (David Brin)

(I adore Zenna Henderson and Tanith Lee, but I wouldn't call anything I've read by them mindblowing SF. Same with Cheney's Delany, Fowler, Goldstein, Murphy, Russ, and Wilhem -- I've read them, and liked many of them, but maybe didn't get to them at quite the right point in my life, or something.)

(Restricting to hard SF would, I think, mostly restrict my list to the Bujold and Brin, and Tiptree.) He was explicitly trying to make a list of non-white-males, and I wasn't, but notably I got two on my short list anyway, not counting that I would definitely have put Tiptree and Willis on my list if he hadn't (I am ashamed to say that I probably would have forgotten Butler, even though I think several of her stories are pretty darn amazing).

Anyhow. My real question is the following: more mindblowing SF short stories I Must Read?

Comments

[nayrene.livejournal.com]

Hi. I was thinking that you might want to read "Burning Chrome," by William Gibson. It's a collection of short stories, all of which I liked very much when I first read them, and some of them were truly mind-blowing. With apologies if you've already read him and don't like it.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Oh! Yes! I have read the title story, and that definitely counts as mind-blowing. I haven't read a whole lot of Gibson's other short stories, though, so I should really go check them out. Thanks!

[julianyap.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Ooh! I want to play:

I have a ton of short stories I love. That said, the list does not immediately come to mind. Matt listed "Story of Your Life" which is probably one of the best short stories I've ever read. But then, everything Ted Chiang writes is so good that sometimes I want to bottle his brain.

"Second Person, Present Tense" by Darryl Gregory leaps immediately to mind, probably the best short story I read two years ago when it completely blew my mind. I think it was nominated for a Nebula so you can find the text online.

"Listening to Brahms" by Suzy McKee Charnas is very moving.

I love Michael Swanwick and all his works, so I will merely pick his latest short story "From Babel's Fall'n Glory we Fled" which is in the latest Gardner Dozois edited Year's Best Science Fiction.

Does George Saunder's "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" count?

George R.R. Martin's "Sandkings" remains one of the most frightening short stories I've ever read.

Okay, more when I think of them.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! Yeah, "Story of Your Life" is one of those stories where I'm just like, "Okay, if you don't like this, it's clearly your fault, because the story is just that good."

I have not read the Gregory, Charnas, or Saunder. (I don't think I've even heard of Saunder!) I will look those up, yay!

I've read the occasional Swanwick, but I think again that I didn't catch them at the right time (because he is clearly very good) -- so it is clearly time to go back to him :)

I realize that my list is also pretty skewed towards older stories, because a) I read more short stories as a kid, anbd b) it was much easier to blow my mind then :)

[nolly.livejournal.com]

"The Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation" by, IIRC, Raphael Carter (but I might be misremembering the last name). It's in one of the Starlight anthologies, and is the story I've most often forgotten was fiction.

I remember there was at least one really good one in Flying Cups and Saucers, but I'd have to look it up and the book's at home.

I'd've chosen a different Willis, probably "All My Darling Daughters".

Also in a Starlight anthology, "Hell is the Absence of God".

Something from Sturgeon, but _More than Human_ is longer than a short story, and I'm not sure which of his many shorts I'd choose.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Huh. I think I tried reading a novel by Carter once but didn't get through it. I'll have to take a look; I think I have the Starlight anthologies reasonably accessible somewhere, yay!

Yeah, I agree about Willis. "All My Darling Daughters" and "Schwartzchild Radius" (remember that one? :) ) would be my picks for a Willis.

"Hell is the Absence of God" (which is also Chiang, have you read "Story of Your Life"?) is one of those tales that drove me nuts because of my being religious (I had to read it two or three times to actually appreciate it and get past my kneejerk distaste, after which I loved it - had the same problem with Bujold's Curse of Chalion) - did you have any such problem?

I kind of feel like Sturgeon falls into the "Found at wrong time" category for me. (I think I found him too early, actually, and didn't really appreciate his work until later.) You know, I haven't actually read More than Human; I'll have to look for that. Thanks!