Quick Sip Reviews 2021 Recommended Reading List

Greetings and welcome to the Quick Sip Reviews 2021 Recommended Reading List! The purpose of this is fairly straightforward--to share with everyone the stories that I enjoyed most from my coverage of 2021 SFF short fiction. To make things as easy as possible, I've included links where possible to where to read or purchase the stories either individually or as part of a larger issue. If I've made an error of any sort in the author name, title, or publication details, please feel free to reach out to correct me. Thanks!

The works this year come from all over the short SFF realms, 100 total from 40 different publications and 98 different authors. Only two authors, Jen Brown and Marika Bailey, appear on the list more than once (each has two stories), and Strange Horizons leads the pack of publications, placing seven stories on the list. Two novellas appear, as well as thirteen novelettes, 78 short stories, and seven flash fiction works. So yeah, far and away more short stories than anything else, but that also makes sense given what I read, where the vast majority is short stories (I covered 1157 short stories, 112 novelettes, and 19 novellas). And randomly, this year saw more letters of the alphabet represented but missed authors with last names beginning with E, Q, and U (though one of the translators of one of the stories did have a surname beginning with U). 

If you want to find my thoughts on these stories, you can do a search in the browser version of the site for the author and title and it should bring you to the appropriate post. Or you can head over and become a patron, as all of these works were featured in my third year of Sip of the Week, my weekly recommendation posts sent directly to patrons of all levels.

Quick Sip Reviews 2020 Recommended Reading List

Hello and welcome to the 2020 Quick Sip Reviews Recommended Reading List. List every year, I read A Lot of fiction this year, and this list represents what are my favorites from what I've reviewed on the blog. Meaning, for this at least, no works are considered that I didn't read and review. Lists like this are always limited. There's no way for one person to read all that comes out. I do what I can, though, and I find a lot of stories that I want to celebrate. Hence, the list!

As of now, there are 104 stories from 98 authors and spread over 34 different publications/publishers. 4 authors (C.L. Clark, Anya Johanna DeNiro, R.B. Lemberg, and Gabriela Santiago) appear twice on the list, and one (John Wiswell) appears thrice. The publications with the most placements are Strange Horizons and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, each with 8. There are far and away more short stories on the list than anything else (with 83), but there's also 7 novellas and 14 novelettes. And, completely messing with my wanting things to be neat and orderly, there were no authors represented on the list with last names beginning with Q, U, X, Y, or Z this year. Alas. 

For ease of use I've sorted the list by author's last name to the best of my abilities, and added little breaks for each used letter. I've included the publication but not the specific dates and I'm hoping the links are all more or less accurate. Not all stories are available for free online, but the links should take you to where you can purchase a copy or similar for those that aren't. I've also tried to put award distinction for length after each, but those should always be confirmed with the publication or author's official statement. I welcome corrections, and you can reach out via twitter, in the comments, or with an email to quicksipreviews@gmail.com. 

If you want more information on these stories, or want to see my reviews (I have reviewed or will review all of these on QSR), just copy the title and author and past into the search bar of the blog and it should come up. There was simply too much to get to to make comments for every story on the list.

2020 has been rough. But the fiction has been amazing, and has been a lot of how I've coped with...everything. So it is my supreme joy to present this list and honor the stories that have helped get me through these difficult times. A list of this nature can never be fully complete, though, and I do want to thank everyone out there writing and helping to put stories out in the world, from authors to first readers to editors to proofreaders and beyond. Thank you. And cheers!

The Quick Sip Reviews 2019 Recommended Reading List

2019 is dead! Long live 2020! Well, perhaps not quite. Before I officially pronounce 2019 over and done, there's some business to get to first, namely looking back and taking stock of ALL THE AMAZING STORIES that I read over the year. Hence, the Quick Sip Reviews 2019 Recommended Reading List! Below are 106* works spanning the entirety of the year. I admit, I kind of cheated. This is pretty much a collation of all my weekly recommendations, which I do on my Patreon as my Sip of the Week column. Every Friday I give one Sip of the Week and one Honorable Mention, with a review of the former and brief note on the later. These are patron-exclusive, so if you want to get in on weekly recs (plus lots more), I'd recommend joining.

That said, the Sips and this list have two MAJOR caveats to them. The first is that they reflect my tastes and opinions. I'm not trying to give you the best stories, but rather the stories I liked the most. Secondly, these stories are ONLY taken from venues that I cover in my reviews. This incredibly narrows my field, regardless of how much I try to read. The field is vast and I would totally read more if I could, but circumstances restrict me in what I can get to. I regret not being able to read more and wider, but I do feel that what I read now allows me to get to as much and as wide a sampling of the field as possible. I own that, and while I do make apologies for it, I also stand behind it. This is what I do. This is what limits me. I still think and hope that this list will have value to some, and might help people find some stories they might have missed. The good news is that I have reviewed all of these stories right here at Quick Sip Reviews. You can put the title into the search (at the top left of the screen on desktops...if you're using mobile you can toggle on the desktop mode by going to the bottom of the page and finding the button there). So if you're curious to know more, there will be keywords and notes and all sorts of info. Plus more if you check the posts on my Patreon.

Next some brief stats. These 106 stories came from 26 different publications and 101 different authors (7 authors have 2 stories on the list). Strange Horizons placed the most on the list with 9; followed by Uncanny and Clarkesworld with 8; Beneath Ceasless Skies, Fireside, and The Dark with 7; Lightspeed and Terraform with 6; Apex with 5; Anathema, Fiyah, Nightmare, Tor, and Flash Fiction Online with 4; Diabolical Plots and PodCastle with 3; Escape Pod, GigaNotoSaurus, Glittership, Lackington's, Omenana, Augur, and Translunar Travelers Lounge with 2; and Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Mithila Review, and Samovar with 1.

My many thanks to all of the authors, editors, and other people involved with bringing these stories into the world. They are amazing. So, without further delay, the list! Cheers!

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!