The Online SciFi Strange Anthology

Note: A year ago I first noticed a new trend in science fiction which I called SciFi Strange. Since then I've been compiling a list of SciFi Strange stories. Hence this online "anthology." Please enjoy.

Introduction to SciFi Strange

SciFi Strange isn't a label. It isn't a definition.  Instead, it's an attempt to describe the science fiction being created by some of today's most exciting writers. These stories combine the literary standards and cultural understandings of the New Wave movement with the basic strangeness and sensawunda from the golden age of science fiction--all seen through the lens of today's multicultural world, where diversity and difference are the norm even as basic human values and needs still bind us together.

SciFi Strange also flirts with the boundaries of what is scientifically--and therefore realistically--possible, without being bounded by the rigid frames of the world as we know it today. But don't call SciFi Strange fantasy. This is pure science fiction. It's merely an updated version of the literature of ideas. A science fiction for a world where the frontiers of scientific possibility are almost philosophical in nature.

Writers of SciFi Strange are a diverse group. Many are new writers who first came to the genre by experiencing science fiction in film and video games--meaning they don't see the term SciFi as derogatory but instead as celebratory. A few have been writing science fiction for decades. Others mainly write fantasy, but cross over into science fiction from time to time. The more established of these authors publish their stories in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Asimov's. The newer ones frequently find homes in Interzone, Clarkesworld Magazine, and Strange Horizons.

Please understand that this is a dream anthology. Unless a publisher offers to actually publish an book along these lines, this is as far as I go. But the stories below are still well worth the read, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

The SciFi Strange Stories

• "Exhalation" (PDF) by Ted Chiang
  Published in Eclipse Two; winner of the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
• "The Sky that Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and Into the Black" by Jay Lake
  Published in Clarkesworld Magazine.
• "The Gambler" by Paolo Bacigalupi
  Published in Fast Forward 2; finalist for the 2009 Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novelette.
• "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster
  Published in Interzone, winner of the 2009 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, finalist for the 2009 Hugo Award.
• "From the Lost Diary of TreeFrog7" by Nnedi Okorafor
  Published in Clarkesworld Magazine.
• "Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky
  Published in Tor.com, finalist for the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
• "Longing for Langalana" (PDF) by Mercurio D. Rivera.
  Published in Interzone; winner of the 2006 Interzone Readers' Poll.
• "Elegy for a Young Elk" by Hannu Rajaniemi
  Published in Subterranean Online.
• "Blue Ink" by Yoon Ha Lee
  Published in Clarkesworld Magazine.
• "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" (PDF) by Jason Sanford
  I know, its crass of me to include my own story but since it's my dream anthology kiss off if you have a complaint. Published in Interzone, reprinted in Year's Best SF 14.
• "Spinning Out" by Jamie Barras
  Published in Strange Horizons.
• "Ack-Ack Macaque" (podcast) by Gareth L. Powell
  Published in Interzone. Winner of the 2007 Interzone Readers' Poll.
• "The Integrity of the Chain" and "The Spontaneous Knotting of an Agitated String" by Lavie Tidhar
  Both published in Fantasy Magazine, but yes, they are science fiction.
• "Jigoku no Mokushiroku" by John G. McDaid
  An older story, but definitely SciFi Strange. Originally published in Asimov's.
• "Stone Wall Truth" by Caroline M. Yoachim
  Published in Asimov's. (Note: I originally had this in the list of print-only stories I wished to include. But now that Yoachim has posted the story online, I no longer have to wish.)
• "The Shipmaker" (PDF) by Aliette de Bodard
  Published in Interzone, shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award, and reprinted in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection.

Stories I'd love to include in this "anthology" but which aren't online include

• "Third Day Lights" by Alaya Dawn Johnson
  Published in Interzone, reprinted in Year's Best SF 11.
• "Skinner's Room" by William Gibson
  An older story, but still one which fits with SciFi Strange. Gibson later revisited this short story in his Bridge trilogy.
• "Làzaro y Antonio" by Marta Randall
  Published in F&SF.

If you know any stories which would make a good addition to this online anthology, please add them in the comments below.

Comments

[Djibril]

I for one have no objection to your including 'The Ships Like Clouds Risen by their Rain' in this anthology, as it's an excellent story that I'd have included too.

[SMD]

I think it's a requirement to include "Ships" in this kind of project. It's the story that Hartwell called New Weird SF, which led to the term "Scifi Strange." I'm Djibril on this: I'd include it too, if I were making an antho on this subject.

[Aaron M. Wilson]

You're kind'a my hero. What great line up!

[Sean Wallace]

Don't these just count as new weird? Do we need new labels when we have a perfectly-adequate one already? :p

[Leary Chris]

Great line-up. I'd like to see you break this into subsections.

[Jason Sanford]

Thanks to everyone for the great support and kind words.

As for the New Weird, SciFi Strange is related to that subgenre and shares many similarities. However, SciFi Strange is still an extension of science fiction, which by definition deals with the world and/or the future as it could possibly turn out to be. In addition, SciFi Strange grabs with both hands that sensawunda from the golden age of science fiction. While the New Weird brings many great things to literature, it doesn't deals with worlds that could possibly become reality, and it rarely deals with sensawunda.

[Jason Sanford]

After I wrote that comment I saw this wonderful post on New Weird vs SciFi Strange by Adam Callaway. It's a great analysis of the differences and similarities and I suggest people read it: http://adamcallaway.blogspot.com/2010/08/editorial-new-weird-vs-scifi-strange.html

[C Merry]

Farm Girl's Lament
http://xnmerry.typepad.com/blog/2010/08/farm-girls-lament.html

[Damien G. Walter]

A great collection of stories. I'm in the camp that hold the divide between Sci-Fi and Fantasy as artificial anyway, so I'm not sure the SciFi Strange label is required. Why not just call them stories? But, well worth gathering together.

[Jason Sanford]

Thought I'd post more of the great feedback on all this:

io9 "Science fiction is getting seriously strange"
http://io9.com/5617935/science-fiction-is-getting-seriously-strange

From Adam Callaway comes "New Weird vs SciFi Strange: Part 2" (see above for the first part)
http://adamcallaway.blogspot.com/2010/08/editorial-new-weird-vs-scifi-strange_21.html

Tres Crow on "Jason Sanford sees the future of Sci-Fi" http://dogeatcrow.blogspot.com/2010/08/jason-sanford-sees-future-of-sci-fi.html

Metafilter "Stranger than a strange land"
http://www.metafilter.com/94972/Stranger-than-a-strange-land

"A Scifi Strange Anthology? Publishers, Pay Attention!"
http://wisb.blogspot.com/2010/08/scifi-strange-anthology-publishers-pay.html

Episode 14 of the Skiffy and Fanty Show
http://skiffyandfanty.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/the-skiffy-and-fanty-show-14-jason-sanford-lord-of-scifi-strange-interview/

[Bob Blough]

Jason,

I think you have hit the nail on the head -to so deftly use the language. This is a major new step in SF. Only one writer I think you really should include - Catherine M. Valente. Perhaps "Thy Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew" from Clarkeswold or her newest story in Clarkesworld "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time.

[Jason Sanford]

Bob: Thanks for the kind words. And you are absolutely right about Catherine M. Valente. I loved "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time" and will have to read the other story.