News & Highlights

🔎Finding a Science-Fiction/Fantasy Magazine to Subscribe To

Diversity in Outstanding SF/F Short Fiction
Stories with 🌈LGBT people: 2019 2018 2017 2015-2016
Stories by 📚People of Color: 2019 2018 2017 2015-2016

Monthly Ratings & Annual Outstanding Selections
📅2020: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
🏆Best SF/F: 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
🚀Hard SF: 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
✨High Fantasy: 2019 2018 2016-2017
😱SF/F Horror: 2019 2018 2016-2017

July 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 7; Time & Words: [3h:54m] 💬70K
Recommended By Stories: 24; Time & Words: [10h] 💬190K
Total Stories: 65; Time & Words: [24h] 💬450K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

June 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 5; Time & Words: [3h:22m] 💬61K
Recommended By Stories: 16; Time & Words: [8h:43m] 💬157K
Total Stories: 30; Time & Words: [12h] 💬231K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

Outstanding LGBT Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2019

June is Pride Month, and here are 31 outstanding stories with LGBT characters from 2019 reviewed by RSR that were either finalists for major SF/F awards 🏆, included in "year's best" SF/F anthologies 📙, or recommended by prolific reviewers 👍 in short fiction (see Q&A). For earlier outstanding stories, click this link.

This list of stories and the recommendations for each story will be updated as award finalists/winners and the table of contents for year's best anthologies are announced. As long as an LGBT story scores 2 or more (even if it was not recommended by RSR), it will be included here.

As always, our focus is on the stories, not the authors. These are stories with memorable LGBT characters—not necessarily stories by noted LGBT authors. These include stories in which a key character merely happens to be an LGBT person as well as stories where the LGBT angle is crucial to the plot.

May 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 10; Time & Words: [5h:15m] 💬95K
Recommended By Stories: 29; Time & Words: [12h] 💬229K
Total Stories: 55; Time & Words: [21h] 💬389K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

April 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 6; Time & Words: [3h:49m] 💬69K
Recommended By Stories: 22; Time & Words: [10h] 💬190K
Total Stories: 39; Time & Words: [15h] 💬275K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

March 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 14; Time & Words: [9h:02m] 💬163K
Recommended By Stories: 33; Time & Words: [14h] 💬263K
Total Stories: 58; Time & Words: [21h] 💬388K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

February 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 8; Time & Words: [6h:01m] 💬108K
Recommended By Stories: 30; Time & Words: [13h] 💬235K
Total Stories: 43; Time & Words: [20h] 💬371K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

Annotated 2019 Locus Reading List for Short Fiction

Update 8/1/20: Tagged 3 🏆Hugo Award winners (click to highlight them them).
Update 7/27/20: Tagged 11 🏆World Fantasy Award finalists (click to highlight them them).
Update 7/22/20: Tagged 28 stories in 📙Neil Clarke's year's best anthology (click to highlight them them).
Update 7/14/20: Tagged 20 stories in the 📙Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy anthology + 35 of 60 notable stories (click to highlight them them).
Update 7/13/20: Tagged 2 🏆Shirley Jackson Award winners (click to highlight them them). (More)

Update 6/28/20: Tagged 3 🏆Locus Award winners (click to highlight them them).
Update 6/18/20: Tagged 14 stories in 📙Allan Kaster's year's best anthology (click to highlight them them).
Update 6/16/20: Tagged 3 🏆Readers Poll winners each for Analog and Asimov's magazines (click to highlight them them).
Update 6/10/20: Tagged 11 🏆Sturgeon Award finalists (click to highlight them them).
Update 6/9/20: Tagged 5 🏆Shirley Jackson Award finalists (click to highlight them them).
Update 6/4/20: Tagged 5 🏆Eugie Award finalists (click to highlight them them).
Update 6/1/20: Tagged 1 🏆Lambda Award winner (click to highlight it it).
Update 5/31/20: Tagged 3 🏆Nebula Award winners (click to highlight them).
Update 5/29/20: Tagged 30 🏆Locus Award finalists (click to highlight them).
Update 5/20/20: Tagged 1 🏆BSFA Award winner (click to highlight it).
Update 4/19/20: Tagged 1 🏆Stoker Award winner (click to highlight them).
Update 4/17/20: Tagged 4 of 22 stories in 📙Ellen Datlow's year's best horror anthology (click to highlight them).
Update 4/14/20: Tagged 1 🏆Otherwise Award finalist (formerly Tiptree) (click to highlight them).
Update 4/9/20: Tagged 11 of 25 stories in 📙Paula Guran's year's best anthology (click to highlight them).
Update 4/7/20: Tagged 18 🏆Hugo Award finalists (click to highlight them).
Update 3/13/20: Tagged 28 stories in 📙Jonathan Strahan's year's best anthology (click to highlight them).
Update 3/11/20: Tagged 1 🏆Lambda Literary Award finalist (click to highlight it).
Update 2/21/20: Tagged 18 🏆Nebula Award finalists (click to highlight them).
Update 2/11/20: Tagged 13 🏆Analog Readers' Award finalists (click to highlight them) with links to the now-free stories.
Update 2/11/20: Tagged 15 🏆Asimov's Readers' Award finalists (click to highlight them) with links to the now-free stories.
Update 2/10/20: Tagged 6 🏆BSFA finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 2/10/20: Tagged 5 finalists & 1 winner of the 🏆Uncanny Favorite Fiction Reader Poll (click link to highlight).
Update 2/6/20: Added 7 links to now-free stories from 📘Analog and 📘Asimov's in the Locus List (click link to highlight).

Here is the annotated 2019 Locus Recommended Reading List for short fiction, merged with RSR's 2019 Best SF/F list (aka our aggregated list of "outstanding" stories from 2019 that score 2 or more based on 👍reviewers, 🏆awards, and year's best 📙anthologies). All the stories are grouped by length and score, with stories from the Locus list highlighted in red.

The merge lets us analyze the Locus list to see which stories that were broadly recognized as outstanding were left out, which publications stood out, which authors did particularly well (or not), how many were eligible for the Astounding Award, and how RSR's own recommendations stack up with Locus reviewers in general.

As with every RSR annotated list, there are links galore to the stories, their authors, the magazines, any award nominations/wins or "year's best" anthology inclusions, and search-links to find other reviews.

Anyone can vote for the Locus Awards at this link. Due date is Monday April 15, 2020.

If you want to skip the analysis and just start reading, click here (free stories highlighted).

2020 YTD, New Writers and My Ratings

Now that the January 2020 Ratings have been updated with recommendations by other reviewers and the 2020 YTD and (2020) New Writers pages are no longer empty, we've refreshed the tabs at the top of the home page by replacing the 2018 Best SF/F tab with the 2019 SF/F Ballots tab (use for award nominations and catching up on reading), and updating the 2019 YTD, (2019) New Writers, and (2019) My Ratings tabs with the 2020 YTD, (2020) New Writers, and (2020) My Ratings tabs, respectively.

Note: The (2019) New Writers and (2019) My Ratings pages are accessible from the Jump To... drop-down list above the table in any 2019 Ratings page. For older stories, the Best SF/F pages for 2018 through 2015 are linked from the "News & Highlights" pinned post at the top of the home page.

2020 Professional Artists

To help people make nominations for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, we have set up a "lightbox" system to let fans quickly flip through over 300 works by over 100 artists listed below and to set aside the ones they particularly liked. Here's how it works:

1. In the artist list below, click on a thumbnail image. The lighbox should open, showing a larger image of the work.
2. If you like the picture, ctrl-click (or long-press) the artist's name above it. That will reopen this page in a new tab with that artist's information at the top.
3. Press the right-arrow key (or tap the picture) to advance to the next picture.
4. Once you've looked at all the pictures, go through the tabs you opened. For most artists there's a link to their website where you can find a gallery of their work.
5. Browse the gallery and see if the picture you liked was representative of their work as a whole.
6. Close the tabs of the ones you liked least.

January 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 8; Time & Words: [3h:47m] 💬68K
Recommended By Stories: 27; Time & Words: [12h] 💬233K
Total Stories: 56; Time & Words: [21h] 💬382K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

SF/F Ballots For Stories From 2019

Here are links to ballots for various SF/F awards, 5 that are open to all, and 4 that are open to members of a convention or association.

The magazine-specific awards come with a longlist link to all stories published by each magazine, with blurbs to help you remember the ones you've read and scores to guide further reading.

For the general awards, see the outstanding stories at the 2019 YTD page, grouped by length (novella, novelette, short story), by publication, by new writer (year 1, year 2), or by author.

Awards in bold are currently available for voting.

Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2018

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 65 stories by 53 people of color that had scores of 2 or higher from RSR's 2018 Best SF/F list. That list contains the 342 most-recommended stories out of 785 covered, so the 65 stories by people of color make up around 19% of the best of 2018.

Some stories not reviewed by RSR are in the Best SF/F list because they were award finalists 🏆, included in year's best anthologies 📙, or recommended by other prolific reviewers 👍 (see Q&A for SF/F awards, year's best anthologies, and prolific reviewers followed).

Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings). This is the third year we've done this list (2017, 2015-2016).

December 2019 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 4; Time & Words: [4h:35m] 💬83K
Recommended By Stories: 15; Time & Words: [9h:25m] 💬170K
Total Stories: 40; Time & Words: [19h] 💬360K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

Outstanding High Fantasy of 2018

Here are 39 outstanding high fantasy stories from 2018 that were finalists for major SF/F 🏆awards, included in "year's best" SF/F 📙anthologies, or recommended by prolific 👍reviewers in short fiction (see Q&A). That's 39 out of 340+ best SF/F stories from 2018. A story's score is the sum of the +n points in it's "Recommended By" list (click the Details link to see the awards, year's best, and reviewers and the points).

For our purposes, we define "high fantasy" as a fantasy story that takes place in a secondary world. That is, something like Lord of the Rings, where Middle Earth is clearly not in the past or future of our world.

We've included portal fantasies, provided the destination is a secondary world.

November 2019 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 11; Time & Words: [4h:20m] 💬78K
Recommended By Stories: 32; Time & Words: [13h] 💬238K
Total Stories: 76; Time & Words: [30h] 💬557K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

The Mythic Dream, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe

[Anthology]

★★★☆☆

(Mythological SF/F) A reimagining of 18 mythic stories with new perspectives and different settings. (107,092 words; Time: 5h:56m)

October 2019 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 3; Time & Words: [1h:08m] 💬21K
Recommended By Stories: 17; Time & Words: [5h:12m] 💬94K
Total Stories: 38; Time & Words: [13h] 💬249K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

Outstanding SF/F Horror of 2018

Although horror isn't our focus, we do review horror stories that turn up in our regular magazines, so in honor of Halloween, here are 30 outstanding SF/F horror stories from 2018 that were finalists for major SF/F 🏆awards, included in "year's best" SF/F 📙anthologies, or recommended by prolific 👍reviewers in short fiction (see Q&A). That's 30 out of 340+ best SF/F stories from 2018. A story's score is the sum of the +n points in it's "Recommended By" list (click the Details link to see the awards, year's best, and reviewers and the points).