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
• “Flop Sweat” (audio), Harlan Ellison1977
• “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” (audio), 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
• “It Looks Like You’re Trying To Take Over The World”, Gwern Branwen2022 ⚡
• “Eager Readers in Your Area!”, Alexander Wales2022
• “The ants and the grasshopper”, Richard Ngo2023

Collaborative fiction wikis

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