The Quick Sip Reviews 2018 Recommended Reading List

Okay, so first a few disclaimers. This list is compiled from my reading, and I have a rather strict reading list. As such, there’s a lot that I’ve missed. You can find what I read here. Further, this list reflects simply my tastes when it comes to short SFF. I read a lot, and review a lot, but that doesn’t really make me an expert on what is “good.” As the title implies, though, these are definitely stories that I recommend everyone read, because they are awesome. I tried to put something of a restriction on the number of stories I’m listing here, so there are only 5 novellas, 20 novelettes, and 50 short stories (for a total of 75 works). Which means these represent something like the top 10% of the stories I read this last year. What’s more, you can find my reviews of these works by searching the site (in the top left of the blog but only if you’re not viewing in mobile mode). Most of these have also been featured in X Marks the Story at The Book Smugglers, so there’s that, too.

This is also just a gutting, incredibly difficult project for me, because I love so many stories. Needless to say there is A LOT of short SFF that appeared in 2018 that doesn't appear here that I would also recommend. In the interests of keeping the list manageable, though...I've done my best to not go overboard.

Okay, that’s about it. Without further delay, my 2018 recommended reading list!

Novellas

Berger, Michele Tracy, “Nussia” (The Book Smugglers)
Gilman, Carolyn Ives, “Umbernight” (Clarkesworld)
Sanford, Jason, “The Emotionless, In Love” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Willrich, Chris, “Shadowdrop" (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Yang, JY, “Between the Firmaments” (The Book Smugglers)

Novelettes

Baker, Celeste Rita, “De Motherjumpers” (Strange Horizons)
Cipri, Nino, “Dead Air” (Nightmare)
Connolly, Tina, “The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections” (Tor)
de Bodard, Aliette, “Court of Birth, Court of Strength” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Gregory, Daryl, “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth” (Tor)
Jansen, Mike, “Fluxless” (Samovar)
Joffre, Ruth, “Nitrate Nocturnes” (Lightspeed)
Johnson, Kij, “The Privilege of the Happy Ending” (Clarkesworld)
Kurella, Jordan, “Three Dandelion Stars” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Longxiang, Luo, translated by Dudak, Andy, “The Foodie Federation’s Dinosaur Farm” (Clarkesworld)
Marcroft, Evan, “Chasing the Start” (Strange Horizons)
Nichols, Russell, “What Man Knoweth” (Strange Horizons)
Pang, Y.M., “The Palace of the Silver Dragon” (Strange Horizons)
Paul, Shari, “The Epic of Sakina” (Fiyah)
Rolon, Nelson, “Saudade" (Fiyah)
Ronald, Margaret, “Silence in Blue Glass” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Tsamaase, Tlotlo, “Murders Fell From Our Wombs” (Apex)
Wanak, LaShawn M., “Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie Sing the Stumps Down Good” (Fiyah)
Wolfmoor, Merc Fenn & Hoffmann, Ada, “I Sing Against the Silent Sun” (Lightspeed)
Yap, Isabel, “How to Swallow the Moon” (Uncanny)

Short Stories

Alexander, William, “The House on the Moon” (Uncanny)
Beautement, Tiah Marie, “Momento Mori” (Omenana)
Berrout, Jamie, “A Snow, A Flood, A Fire” (Strange Horizons)
Bryski, KT, “Song of the Oliphant” (Lackingtons)
Cárdenas, Tori, “The River” (Terraform)
Carrol, Siobhan, “The War of Light and Shadow, in Five Dishes” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Chan, L, “The Last Epic Pub Crawl of The Brothers Pennyfeather” (The Dark)
Charette, Stephanie, “By the Hand That Casts It” (Shimmer)
Clark, Phenderson Djèlí, “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” (Fireside)
Dollarhyde, Kate, "A Taxonomy of Hurts" (Fireside)
Dunbar, Eboni J., “The Percivals: The Bennett Benefit” (Fiyah)
Fitzwater, A.J., “Logistics” (Clarkesworld)
Fogg, Vanessa, “Traces of Us” (GigaNotoSaurus)
Fox, Ani, “Coyote Now Wears a Suit" (Apex)
Fox, Sara, “When the Letter Comes” (The Book Smugglers)
Griswold, Amy, “The Questing Beast” (Glittership)
Harris, Nin, “Violets on the Tongue” (Clarkesworld)
Harrow, Alix E., “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies” (Apex)
Hoffman, Ada, “Variations on a Theme from Turandot” (Strange Horizons)
Hui, Chi, translated by Dudak, Andy, “The Heaven-Moving Way” (Apex)
Ilo, Innocent Chizaram, “Of Warps and Wefts” (Strange Horizons)
Kassel, Mel, “Ten Deals with The Indigo Snake” (Lightspeed)
Killjoy, Margaret “Into the Gray” (Tor)
Lee, Yoon Ha, “The Starship and the Temple Cat” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Lubangakene, Derek, “Origami Angels” (Omenana)
McCombs, Theodore, “Talk to Your Children about Two-Tongued Jeremy” (Lightspeed)
Miller, Sam J., “Conspicuous Plumage” (Lightspeed)
Mills, Samantha, “Strange Waters” (Strange Horizons)
Muneshwar, Ian, “Salt Lines” (Strange Horizons)
Neri, Celia, “The Barnum Effect” (Apex)
O'Brien, Brandon. “The Howling Detective” (Uncanny)
Ohaegbu, Chimedum, “Toothsome Things” (Strange Horizons)
Osborne, Emma, “Don’t Pack Hope” (Nightmare)
Ow, Anya, “Everything Under Heaven" (Uncanny)
Peynado, Brenda, “The Kite Maker” (Tor)
Prasad, Vina Jie-Min, “Pistol Grip” (Uncanny)
Pueyo, H., “What the South Wind Whispers” (Clarkesworld)
Roberts, Erin, “Sour Milk Girls” (Clarkesworld)
Sen, Nibedita, “Leviathan Sings to Me in the Deep” (Nightmare)
Shawl, Nisi, “The Things I Miss the Most” (Uncanny)
Sjunneson-Henry, Elsa & Wolfmoor, Merc Fenn, “By Claw, By Hand, By Silent Speech” (Uncanny)
Skerry, Cory, “Antumbra” (Shimmer)
Szpara, K.M., “You Can Make a Dinosaur, but You Can’t Help Me” (Uncanny)
Vaughn, Carrie, “The Island of Beasts” (Nightmare)
Wagner, E.K., “More Blood Than Bone” (Heroic Fantasy Quarterly)
Warrick, Dee, “Me, Waiting for Me, Hoping for Something More” (Shimmer)
Wasserstein, Izzy, “Unplaces: An Atlas of Non-existence” (Clarkesworld)
Wehm, M. Darusha, “A Most Elegant Solution” (Terraform)
Williams, Takim, “The Sower” (Fiyah)
Yu, E. Lily, “Music for the Underworld” (Terraform)

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