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Diversity in Outstanding SF/F Short Fiction
Stories with 🌈LGBT people: 2020 2019 2018 2017 2015-2016
Stories by 📚People of Color: 2020 2019 2018 2017 2015-2016

Monthly Ratings & Annual Outstanding Selections
📅2021: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
🏆Best SF/F: 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
🚀Hard SF: 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
✨High Fantasy: 2020 2019 2018 2016-2017
😱SF/F Horror: 2020 2019 2018 2016-2017

Five New Reviewers

I've added recommendations from four 👍reviewers and three 🏆awards to improve coverage of standalone 📘novellas in RSR's monthly and year-to-date lists of short fiction. Prior to this change, the 2021 YTD page had just eight novellas, all from magazines. Now, there are 24 novellas with scores from 2-5.

Recommendations for standalone novellas come from Goodreads.com and three of the big four book industry journals: Publishers' Weekly (PW), Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal.

1. 👍R.Goodreads: A novella recommended by 70+% of readers (5★+4★ ≥ 70%, ratings ≥ 200) on Goodreads.com gets a +1. It gets a +2 if 80+% of readers recommend it.
2. 👍R.PW: A novella with a ★starred review in Publishers' Weekly gets a +1. About 500 out of 10,000 books reviewed each year at PW earn a starred review. A novella gets a +2 if it makes the annual PW "Best Books" or "Summer Reads" SF/Fantasy/Horror list.
3. 👍R.Kirkus: A novella recommended in Kirkus Reviews gets a +1. A ★starred review gets a +2. About 10% of 7,000 books reviewed each year at Kirkus earn a starred review (Washington Post).
4. 👍R.LibraryJournal: A novella with a ★starred review in Library Journal gets a +1.

Awards for standalone novellas come from Goodreads, Booklist (the fourth big book industry journal), and the American Library Association.

1. 🏆A.₃Choice: A novella finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror categories gets a +1. A winner gets a +2.
2. 🏆A.₃Booklist: A novella in the Booklist Editors' Choice Adult Books list gets a +2.
3. 🏆A.₃ReadingList: A novella finalist in The Reading List: Best Adult Genre Fiction gets a +1. A winner gets a +2. The Reading List is put together by librarians in the Reading List Council established by the CODES section of RUSA in the American Library Association.

I've also added recommendations from Tangent Online (👍R.Tangent). Combined with the standalone novella reviewers, each of the 12 magazines followed by RSR now have 3-4 recommendations for their top stories (before stories gain recommendations from award nominations and year's best anthologies).

January 2022 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: → Due next month
Total Stories: 82; Time & Words: [23h] 💬426K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

December 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 4; Time & Words: [1h:21m] 💬24K
Total Stories: 34; Time & Words: [9h:26m] 💬170K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2020

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 56 stories by 43 people of color that had scores of 3 or higher from RSR's 2020 Best SF/F list. That list contains the 256 most-recommended stories out of 600+ covered, so the 56 stories by people of color make up around 22% of the best of 2020.

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 fifth year we've done this list (2019, 2018, 2017, 2015-2016).

November 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 23; Time & Words: [10h] 💬194K
Total Stories: 81; Time & Words: [25h] 💬458K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

Outstanding High Fantasy of 2020

Here are 19 outstanding high fantasy stories from 2020 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 19 out of 250+ best SF/F stories from 2020. 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.

October 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 11; Time & Words: [3h:35m] 💬65K
Total Stories: 38; Time & Words: [10h] 💬191K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

Outstanding SF/F Horror of 2020

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 31 outstanding SF/F horror stories from 2020 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 28 out of 250+ best SF/F stories from 2020. 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).

September 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 30; Time & Words: [14h] 💬262K
Total Stories: 75; Time & Words: [27h] 💬490K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

Outstanding Hard Science Fiction of 2020

Here are 26 outstanding hard science fiction stories from 2020 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 26 out of 240+ best SF/F stories from 2020. 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).

August 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 8; Time & Words: [3h:23m] 💬61K
Total Stories: 29; Time & Words: [10h] 💬192K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

July 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 28; Time & Words: 💬NaNM
Total Stories: 81; Time & Words: [27h] 💬495K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

June 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 11; Time & Words: 💬NaNM
Total Stories: 38; Time & Words: [9h:30m] 💬171K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

Outstanding LGBT Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2020

June is Pride Month, and here are 27 outstanding stories with LGBT characters from 2020 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 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 23; Time & Words: [9h:45m] 💬176K
Total Stories: 77; Time & Words: [26h] 💬482K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

April 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 13; Time & Words: [4h:17m] 💬77K
Total Stories: 27; Time & Words: [8h:19m] 💬150K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

March 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 30; Time & Words: 💬NaNM
Total Stories: 78; Time & Words: [27h] 💬493K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

February 2021 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 7; Time & Words: [2h:09m] 💬39K
Total Stories: 29; Time & Words: [8h:05m] 💬146K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

Annotated 2020 Locus Reading List for Short Fiction

Update 12/19/21: Tagged 3 🏆Hugo Award winners (click link to highlight).
Update 11/7/21: Tagged 2 🏆World Fantasy Award winners (click link to highlight).
Update 10/18/21: Tagged 3 🏆Sturgeon Award winners (click link to highlight).
Update 10/4/21: Tagged 32 stories from 📙Neil Clarke's year's best science fiction anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 9/29/21: Tagged 1 🏆British Fantasy Award winner (click link to highlight).
(More)

Update 9/7/21: Tagged 3 🏆Otherwise Award finalists and winner (click link to highlight).
Update 9/6/21: Tagged 1 🏆Eugie Award winner (click link to highlight).
Update 8/23/21: Tagged 3 🏆Readers Award winners each for Analog and Asimov's magazines, respectively (click link to highlight).
Update 8/19/21: Tagged 1 🏆Shirley Jackson Award winner (click link to highlight).
Update 7/27/21: Tagged 2 🏆British Fantasy Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 7/25/21: Tagged 20 stories from 📙Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 7/21/21: Tagged 9 🏆World Fantasy Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 7/8/21: Tagged 5 🏆Eugie Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 7/5/21: Tagged 11 🏆Sturgeon Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 7/3/21: Tagged 2 🏆Shirley Jackson Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 6/26/21: Tagged 3 🏆Locus Award winners (click link to highlight).
Update 6/7/21: Tagged 3 🏆Nebula Award winners (click link to highlight).
Update 6/2/21: Tagged 12 stories from 📙Paula Guran's year's best dark fantasy and horror anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 5/24/21: Tagged 1 🏆Stoker Award winner (click link to highlight).
Update 5/2/21: Tagged 30 🏆Locus Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 4/13/21: Tagged 18 🏆Hugo Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 4/3/21: Tagged 10 stories from 📙Allan Kaster's year's best hard SF anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 4/3/21: Tagged 2 stories from 📙Ellen Datlow's year's best horror anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 3/16/21: Tagged 14 and 16 🏆Readers Award finalists for Analog and Asimov's magazines, respectively, with new free links (click link to highlight).
Update 3/16/21: Tagged 18 🏆Nebula Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 3/15/21: Tagged 2 🏆Lambda Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 3/1/21: Tagged 1 🏆Clarkesworld Reader's Poll winner (click link to highlight). Update 2/22/21: Tagged 2 of 10 🏆Stoker Award finalists for long/short fiction (click link to highlight).
Update 2/21/21: Tagged 1 of 6 🏆BSFA Award finalists for short fiction (click link to highlight).
Update 2/16/21: Tagged 7 🏆Uncanny Reader's Poll finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 2/8/21: Tagged 27 stories from 📙Jonathan Strahan's year's best SF/F anthology (click link to highlight).

Here is the annotated 2020 Locus Recommended Reading List for short fiction, merged with RSR's 2020 Best SF/F list (aka our aggregated list of "outstanding" stories from 2020 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 Thursday April 15, 2021.

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