Fiction recommendations

Short stories, novellas, and similar things

This is a collection of links to fiction you can read on the World Wide Web. Flash (extremely short) fiction is marked with a “⚡”.

• “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Edgar Allan Poe1839

• “The Masque of the Red Death”, Edgar Allan Poe1842

• “The Assignation”, Lord Dunsany1915 ⚡

• “The White Ship”, H. P. Lovecraft1919

• “An Imperial Message”, Franz Kafka1919 ⚡

• “The Cats of Ulthar”, H. P. Lovecraft1920 ⚡

• “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”, Jorge Luis Borges1940

• “Dogfight on 101” (aka “Along the Scenic Route”), Harlan Ellison1969

• “The Gospel According to Mark” (audio), Jorge Luis Borges1970

• “Why Johnny Can’t Speed”, Alan Dean Foster1971

• “Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death”, James Tiptree, Jr1973

• “The Last Answer”, Isaac Asimov1980

• “BLIT”, David Langford1988

• “They’re Made Out of Meat”, Terry Bisson1991

• “A Colder War”, Charles Stross2000

• “Three Wish Habit” (audio), Janni Lee Simner2005

• “Postcard”, Kathy Kachelries2005 ⚡

• “The Long Chase”, Geoffrey A. Landis2010

• “The Things”, Peter Watts2010

• “The Ones Who Walk Towards Acre”, Gwern Branwen2010 ⚡

• “Clarity didn’t work, trying mysterianism” (the Whispering Earring story), Scott Alexander2012 ⚡

• “The Study of Anglophysics”, Scott Alexander2014

• “The Northern Caves”, nostalgebraist2015

• “FAQ on LoadBear’s Instrument of Precommitment”, DataPacRat2015

• “The Dime Spared”, R. Scott Bakker2016

• “The Gig Economy”, Zero HP Lovecraft2018

• “FLUORESCENT GRAVEYARDS”, Nanda2018

• “top bunk”, ctrlcreep2018 ⚡

• “Untitled” (“A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog…”), sadoeuphemist2020

• “Lena”, qntm2021

• “Basilisk collection”, Blackle Mori2021

Collaborative fiction wikis

• The Holders (archived)
• Calgary’s Gideon Keys