Now that I’ve finished reading short stories for 2012, it’s time for some lists and statistics! I know, I know, lists can be boring. But not this one. I put together a list of what I consider the best short fiction of 2012. This is culled from my Favorite fiction lists I’ve been doing all year. Keep in mind that this is pretty much limited to free fiction online, so it doesn’t include stories from print mags like F&SF, Asimov’s, and the like.

If you plan on nominating works for awards, I encourage you to consider these. All are eligible for the Hugo, and some are eligible for other awards (I marked the ones I could think of below).

I’ve listed them in chronological order from most recently published backwards.

• The Wisdom of Ants by Thoraiya Dyer
  Though this story is pure science fiction, it has a fantasy sensibility that I deeply love. Here again is that thing I like to read about: female empowerment mixed in with some coming of age. And comeuppance. I love me some comeuppance.
• Good Hunting by Ken Liu
  Yet another amazing Ken Liu story. His works aren’t always a home run, but when he’s on he’s really good, and this story is just more evidence of that. There are several layers of complexity here as he folds in colonialism, imperialism, and cultural death while addressing issues of sexism and even rape culture (there are no on-screen rapes, though). Very finely crafted story. [World Fantasy, Carl Brandon Parallax Award & Kindred Award]
• Household Management by Ellen Klages
  Sherlock Holmes fans who love Mrs. Hudson will love this story. And I’m not just talking people who like BBC Sherlock or the Downey/Law movies or people who’ve read the books and stories. It’s one that works across many of the different Sherlock-infused medium (at least, the ones that include this character. Sorry Elementary fans). short and fun and very on point (and feminist, too).
• How to Make a Triffid by Kelly Lagor
  Despite not being a huge science geek myself, I love the way this piece entwines hardcore biological science with a richly-told character exploration and doesn’t force me to feel one particular way about the protagonist in the end. Really complex and great.
• One Little Room an Everywhere by K.J. Parker
  This story could be read as a fun little romp, but I like the intricacies of the magic system and the protagonist. [World Fantasy]
• The King’s Huntsman by Jennifer Mason-Black [novelette]
  This is a novelette, so be prepared to settle in for a long read. It’s well worth it, since this story uses the space to develop the main character and the world very well. Though it seems like your standard woman passing as a man in repressive patriarchy for the sake of freedom story, Mason-Black goes beyond that basic trope. I don’t know that it quite reaches the resonance the author was going for in the end, but it comes very close. [World Fantasy]
• Said the Princess by Dani Atkinson
  DailySF usually doesn’t publish stuff I like, but this one caught me off guard. The quirkiness, mostly, and also the meta aspect. In the end it’s fun without being fluff, and I appreciated what the author did to solve the central problem. [World Fantasy]
• The 17th Contest of Body Artistry by Alex Dally MacFarlane
  Obviously, I’m a fan of stories that take some format other than a straight up narrative, so this one hits my kink in that arena. Plus, it’s just very good and once again has me thinking about aspects of my own worldbuilding. The things that can be revealed about a culture from such things as an art contest and how people react to it is many and varied. Lovity love.
• Mrs. Henderson’s Cemetery Dance by Carrie Cuinn
  I had no idea where this story was going when I started, but I loved where it ended up. Funny and touching.
• Breaking the Frame by Kat Howard
  There are a million post modern, female centric takes on fairy tales out there, but I particularly like the frame (hahaha) Howard uses for this story. At first I was not down with the cliched relationship at the beginning, then I realized the author was doing that for more than just hipster irony. Highly recommended.
• The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species by Ken Liu
  “Everyone makes books.” Not only do I just love this story for the glimpses into other worlds and other species, I also love that it made me start thinking about the kind of books exist in the worlds I create in fiction. Oddly, it’s not a question I generally ask myself, though you’d think it would be one of the first things to come to mind. Wouldn’t this make an excellent interview question for any writer? What kind of books do your characters create? [Carl Brandon Parallax Award]
• Mantis Wives by Kij Johnson
  I’m not entirely sure this is science fiction or fantasy, but it’s certainly speculative. Regardless, Johnson pulled me in with the descriptions of these intricate art pieces.
• Fade to White by Catherynne M. Valente
  Because I read the first paragraph of this story, got interrupted, then came back later, I didn’t remember that Cat wrote it until I got to the end and went back to read it again. I love, love, loved this and I already suggested it to the Tiptree jury. I really dug the way she played with gender roles and with the commentary on advertising and marketing slyly added in. It’s just a really good story, go read. [Sturgeon Award]
• Song Of The Body Cartographer by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
  I love this story’s worldbuilding and the characters. Though I felt it wasn’t truly complete the first time I read it, the great elements stuck with me for months. [World Fantasy, Carl Brandon Parallax Award & Kindred Award]
• Astrophilia by Carrie Vaughn
  Post-apocalyptic stuff usually isn’t my thing, but this story manages to make that trope feel less like window dressing than most other stories I’ve read.
• Winter Scheming by Brit Mandelo
  [TRIGGER WARNING: Domestic Violence.] What I like best about this story is that it starts out in an unexpected way given what’s really going on (which you understand at the end). Very well structured and executed.
• Daddy’s Girl by Amy Sundberg
  I love the main character of this story like burning. She’s is so damn fierce!
• Her Words Like Hunting Vixens Spring by Brooke Bolander
  Revenge story! And it doesn’t pull punches in the end. I am a fan of that.
• Recognizing Gabe: un cuento de hadas by Alberto Yáñez
  This gorgeous folktale-like story is fierce and forthright, which I love. It also doesn’t go for easy sentimentality, which it could have slipped into with a lesser author. Yanez explores gender issues without being preachy or prescriptive. That’s not easy to pull off, but he does. [World Fantasy, Carl Brandon Parallax Award & Kindred Award]

Now as to stats.

There are 19 stories on my best of list, that’s out of 82 favorite stories for 2012. I don’t have an accurate count for how many stories I read in total, sadly, but I know I read a great deal. I can’t claim to have read every story published for free online. A lot of time I stuck to the magazines I know I like the most. But toward the middle of the year I did pick up some new reading and tried to dip into new-to-me markets more often.

Just taking the 19 stories on my Best Of list, it’s clear that I dig Clarkesworld and Lightspeed Magazines the most, since there are 4 stories from each. Next is Strange Horizons, with two stories that made the list. (Also keep in mind that this only represents stories published in 2012 and not reprints from other years).

This pattern pretty much holds when you look at the breakdown of all magazines that made my favorites list this year.

Lightspeed is at the top (again, this is with originals) followed closely by Clarkesworld and Strange Horizons. Apex also has a good showing. After that it drops pretty dramatically. For some magazines, this is because they publish far fewer stories in a year. Eclipse Online is new, so the percentage of stories I’ve liked from the magazine is high, relatively. However, it is telling that DailySF is only on my list once. If you include the reprints I liked (9 total) then Lightspeed gets 22 thumbs up from me for the year.

I would be interested to hear from the editors of these magazines on how many stories they published in 2012 so I can get an idea of what percentage of their offerings I liked.

Of my favorite stories, 60 were written by women and only 19 written by men. Two were written by persons of unknown (to me) gender. There are 18 authors of color on my favorites list. Most of the male authors I like are POC.

The SF/F split continues to be about even. 48 of the stories I liked are science fiction and 51 are fantasy. Only 4 horror stories and 3 I classed as Interstitial (with some overlap with SF/F).

Several authors show up in my favorites more than once: Aliette de Bodard, Rahul Kanakia, Ken Liu. This is partially a testament to how prolific they are, but also does represent my fondness for them. Liu in particular comes to mind whenever someone asks me about favorite authors or for suggestions on what to read. Should also mention here that I’m in Diverse Energies with both Liu and Kanakia — to be in this company makes me very happy. (I also really liked their stories.)

Overall, I’ve enjoyed reading all this short fiction in 2012. It’s definitely inspired me to write more. Plus, I like being able to see the growing expansion of the genre as I discover new gems. I will continue to read as much short fiction as possible in 2013. In fact, I’ll likely read way more.

The crew over at Not If You Were The Last Short Story On Earth asked me to join the blog, and I happily said yes. So more print mags are in my future. I also talked to AnnaLee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders about possibly doing a short fiction roundup for io9. Hopefully that will happen this month.

You can see all of the short stories I liked this year by surfing the tag on my blog or over on Delicious. On Delicious you’ll see some more numbers that may interest you.

Welcome to 2013, everyone! Since I was so abominably late with my October favorites I decided to spend my vacation time reading and thus get you my final favorites for 2012 just as we rang in the new year. In a separate post I’ll also put up my top picks for the year. The stories that I would put in a year’s best collection were I in charge of one.

There’s a nice, long list of great stories here with some new names among them.

• Relic by Jeffrey Ford
  This story sits on the line between SF and F and sticks out it’s tongue at anyone who wants to drag it firmly into one territory or another. It entreats you into the narrative in waves and even when you think you understand where it’s going and what it’s doing, there’s another bend and there’s that tongue again. Very well crafted and evocative.
• Labyrinth by Mari Ness
  Lovely and crunchy and dark, which is pretty classic Mari Ness. And you’ll hear no complaints from me about it as this story wrapped itself around me right from the start. A labyrinth!
• The Wisdom of Ants by Thoraiya Dyer
  Though this story is pure science fiction, it has a fantasy sensibility that I deeply love. Here again is that thing I like to read about: female empowerment mixed in with some coming of age. And comeuppance. I love me some comeuppance.
• Sprig by Alex Bledsoe
  This story is nice and cute and fun and I adored it. I’m more of a sucker for fairies than you’d imagine.
• Firebugs by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
  I found this story really moving and engaging and I don’t feel like I’ve even plumbed its depths properly. I want to sit down with it again after a few months and read it for fresh insights. As always, Hoffman piles on so many layers and is doing so many different things that it’s possible to read it in various ways and still grok the story. Excellent.
• A Well-Adjusted Man by Tom Crosshill
  Trigger warning on this for violence and hints of domestic violence. This dystopia isn’t so very far away from where we are now. Not in internal chronology, but culturally. Good read.
• Seven Smiles and Seven Frowns by Richard Bowes
  I often groan when I see fantasy authors trying to create credible myths and folk tales for their created worlds. Often, they’re bad at it because they don’t understand how mythology works and the purpose of tales told to The People. So, I say to all you fantasy authors out there, if you want to create some myths and tales, read the story first. It’s also just a really good story. (With badass women)
• A Game of Rats and Dragon by Tobias S. Buckell
  The comment thread in this story was the scene of a rather ridiculous flamewar which I fear may have overshadowed the story itself, which is quite good. I love the idea of people living out their lives in a real time, real life massively multiplayer game. And, of course, in a world like that you’ll have people scraping together a living taking small part in those worlds. I felt that the emotional resonance at the end didn’t satisfy me as much as I would have liked given the world Buckell builds up, but it does prime me for more stories or even a novel with this backdrop, perhaps even with these characters.
• Searching for Slave Leia by Sandra McDonald
  Even though this kind o story could easy be waved off as geek pandering because of how meta it is, I think McDonald manages to avoid being twee and get to something deeper and more interesting than just fan service.
• As the Wheel Turns by Aliette de Bodard
  It is not surprising that this story was first published in an anthology called EPIC, because that’s what it is. Cycles of reincarnation and pain plus a woman finding her power. All good stuff.
• Good Hunting by Ken Liu
  Yet another amazing Ken Liu story. His works aren’t always a home run, but when he’s on he’s really good, and this story is just more evidence of that. There are several layers of complexity here as he folds in colonialism, imperialism, and cultural death while addressing issues of sexism and even rape culture (there are no on-screen rapes, though). Very finely crafted story.
• Household Management by Ellen Klages
  Sherlock Holmes fans who love Mrs. Hudson will love this story. And I’m not just talking people who like BBC Sherlock or the Downey/Law movies or people who’ve read the books and stories. It’s one that works across many of the different Sherlock-inflused medium (at least, the ones that include this character. Sorry Elementary fans). short and fun and very on point (and feminist, too).
• The Memory Eater by Holly Day
  This story is very evocative and creepy, but I wish that in the end I understood better what exactly was going on. However, I kept thinking about the story for several days after I read it, which is a good sign.
• How to Make a Triffid by Kelly Lagor
  Despite not being a huge science geek myself, I love the way this piece entwines hardcore biological science with a richly-told character exploration and doesn’t force me to feel one particular way about the protagonist in the end. Really complex and great.
• Heads Will Roll by Lish McBride
  I have a dubious history with unicorn stories, but give me something about badass women raining down vengeance on the deserving and you have me hooked. While this reads clearly to me as the backstory to a fabulous novel, I think it resolves itself in a satisfying way. And again: badass women get me almost every time.
• America Thief by Alter S. Reiss
  A period piece that combines gangsters with magic. I like the moral ambiguity going on here as well as the evocation of the cultures roiling around with each other.
• The Hateful Brilliance of His Eyes by Alec Austin
  This is a fun story, though it doesn’t come off that way at first. I imagine that there are many buddy tales of Liao Jun and Yan Ming that are equally entertaining in this author’s future (or perhaps they already exist). One of the things I like about it is that even though there’s clearly a history between these two and there are clearly more adventures, this is a complete story in itself that resolves satisfyingly on both a character and plot level. Well done!

Visit my Favorite Fiction tag to see all the other short stories I’ve liked so far this year.

Yeah… so October. I realized today that the reason I’m behind on posting this list is that I just haven’t had the energy to write up a little review/summary of why I like these stories. And that continues and continues to be the case. Since we’re deep into December and I haven’t even posted November’s picks yet, I figured I would just toss the list up.

Here’s what I’ll say about them all: I liked each of these stories and loved others. If I had to pick out one that stood out, it’s Said The Princess. That one totally charmed and amused me. I think I was most surprised because Daily Science Fiction rarely publishes anything I like.

• Art of War by Nancy Kress
• One Little Room an Everywhere by K.J. Parker
• Dancing Day by Lindsey Duncan
• In the Library of Souls by Jennifer Mason-Black
• Said the Princess by Dani Atkinson
• Monster, Finder, Shifter by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Spindles by L.B. Gale
• The Contrary Gardener by Christopher Rowe
• The King’s Huntsman by Jennifer Mason-Black

Visit my Favorite Fiction tag to see all the other short stories I’ve liked so far this year.

This month, the list is rather long. This explains my lateness in putting up this post (sort of… I’m also lazy!). I discovered a cache of new magazines this month, thus adding greatly to the number of stories I read and liked.

Several weeks ago I lamented about the fact that there weren’t many markets for long stories such as novellas and novelettes. As a result, people kept suggesting markets to me. I was reminded that Electric Velocipede takes longer stuff, and introduced to GigaNotoSaurus and The Red Penny Papers, which both take novelettes. I’ll put up a post later this week with a longer list.

As always, I welcome any discussion of these stories in the comments. let me know if you liked them or not and why an feel free to tell me I’m wrong and have bad taste! Also, consider dropping a comment where the option is available on the original stories.

• Breaking the Frame by Kat Howard
  There are a million post modern, female centric takes on fairy tales out there, but I particularly like the frame (hahaha) Howard uses for this story. At first I was not down with the cliched relationship at the beginning, then I realized the author was doing that for more than just hipster irony. Highly recommended.
• Cutting by Ken Liu
  Stories that require a particular kind of layout can be difficult to do well without seeming gimmicky. No surprise that this is not the case for Ken Liu. Short and amazing.
• The Last Supper by Scott Edelman
  This is one of the best zombie stories I’ve ever read. I’m not that into zombies, so my view may be skewed. However, I love the POV here and how Edelman is able to bring all this tension and foster engagement with a character that should be really boring and tedious.
• muo-ka’s Child by Indrapramit Das
  Touching first contact story that takes a different angle than most. Again, I really like stories where the aliens are SO very alien.
• Mrs. Henderson’s Cemetery Dance by Carrie Cuinn
  I had no idea where this story was going when I started, but I loved where it ended up. Funny and touching.
• The Harpy by Laura Heron
  Another story that hits many of my kinks. Kinks include dudes who leave their wives for younger women getting what they deserve. Also: women finding their crone power.
• Sexagesimal by Katharine E.K. Duckett
  Duckett’s vision of the afterlife pulled me in, but the ending is what completely sold me on this story.
• The 17th Contest of Body Artistry by Alex Dally MacFarlane
  Obviously, I’m a fan of stories that take some format other than a straight up narrative, so this one hits my kink in that arena. Plus, it’s just very good and once again has me thinking about aspects of my own worldbuilding. The things that can be revealed about a culture from such things as an art contest and how people react to it is many and varied. Lovity love.
• Night’s Slow Poison by Ann Leckie
  A story about a boring 6 month trip through dead space on a small ship might be super boring itself in the hands of a less skilled author. Instead, Leckie nails it.
• Secrets of the Sea by Jennifer Marie Brissett
  Touching story that centers on a father/son relationship. Its all blendy with the SF and fantasy, though perhaps if you ask Jenn she would say it’s all SF.
• Garlic Squash by Nicki Vardon
  This one is just a lot of fun, especially for those of you tired of people falling in love with sexy vampires. They are not sexy!
• On Higher Ground by Annie Bellet
  Normally, I don’t care for stories about sports or where the protagonist is super interested in a sport. But, I have to admit that the author’s descriptions of skiing were so beautiful that I almost wanted to go out and learn to ski. People who are fans of high class sports and the ridiculousness corporateness of them will like this.
• Je me souviens by Su J. Sokol
  Trigger warning: rape and child abuse. This one got a little rambly in the middle, but really resonated with me in the end. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between the father and son. I also like that it can be read as speculative or not.
• Heaven Under Earth by Aliette de Bodard
  The story as a whole didn’t do it for me as much as I hoped it would in the beginning and middle bits. I am very much enamored with the worldbuilding and the gender politics at play. Would love to discuss such with other folks who read this.
• The Fourth Exam by Dorothy Yarros
  Political intrigue! I’m not usually a fan of that, but this pulled me in. Unfortunately, the story feels more like the backstory to a fantastic novel about a political coup and the bureaucrats caught in the middle of the struggle than a standalone. At the end I felt very much like I’d read a prologue.

Visit my Favorite Fiction tag to see all the other short stories I’ve liked so far this year.

As I predicted, this is way late thanks to WorldCon. All things can be blamed on WorldCon. The good thing about going was being at the Hugo ceremony to see many deserving writers and artists get their shiny rockets. It’s sort of a coincidence (but not exactly) that many of the Hugo Award winners also have fiction on my list below. A coincidence because I didn’t plan it that way, but not because it’s no surprise that I’d love their stories given their track record.

Last month I also did some novel reading. I finally finished Liar by Justine Larbalestier. If you haven’t read it yet, go now! It’s so good. I also read the last of the Midnighters books by Scott Westerfeld. I put it off a long time because I love the first two so much I didn’t want to be done with those characters.

September is already shaping up to be a great month, especially since there’s a new issue of Electric Velocipede out. Also, did you know they have a Kickstarter? They so do.

• Waiting for Beauty By Marie Brennan
  So, this story. It’s fairly short, but even so I saw the ending coming pretty early. I’m not sure how I feel about what it says about Beauty and the Beast, and thus I’m not sure how I feel about the story as a whole. I’d welcome some discussion on it.
• The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species by Ken Liu
  “Everyone makes books.” Not only do I just love this story for the glimpses into other worlds and other species, I also love that it made me start thinking about the kind of books exist in the worlds I create in fiction. Oddly, it’s not a question I generally ask myself, though you’d think it would be one of the first things to come to mind. Wouldn’t this make an excellent interview question for any writer? What kind of books do your characters create?
• Mantis Wives by Kij Johnson
  I’m not entirely sure this is science fiction or fantasy, but it’s certainly speculative. Regardless, Johnson pulled me in with the descriptions of these intricate art pieces.
• Honey Bear by Sofia Samatar
  This story is just sad! I feel like people who desperately want to be parents will appreciate it in particular.
• Fade to White by Catherynne M. Valente
  Because I read the first paragraph of this story, got interrupted, then came back later, I didn’t remember that Cat wrote it until I got to the end and went back to read it again. I love, love, loved this and I already suggested it to the Tiptree jury. I really dug the way she played with gender roles and with the commentary on advertising and marketing slyly added in. It’s just a really good story, go read.
• The Bear with the Quantum Heart by Renee Carter Hall
  At first, this story reminded me a lot of the movie A.I., but it did move beyond that. I’m including this on the list less because it’s a favorite story and more because I want to discuss it with people who’ve read it. Would love to read some reactions to the Kayla character.
• Love Might Be Too Strong a Word by Charlie Jane Anders
  Charlie Jane spins a lot of cool stuff about gender in this with a little bit of commentary on the nature of love in the public square.
• Cotillion by Delia Sherman
  I can’t decide which aspect of this I like best: the funny take on life as a Deb, the old-school New York, or the mythy aspects. As usual, Delia blends everything perfectly.

Visit my Favorite Fiction tag to see all the other short stories I’ve liked so far this year.

I came home from WisCon 36 with a big to-read pile (though these days it’s less of a pile and more of a list on my Nook) and so June’s favorite fiction list may include less short stories and more novels. Also, I don’t think I scooped every new May story into Readability, so I’ll probably a have few more published last month in the next list.

One last thing — I notice that Rahul Kanakia keeps popping up everywhere and I must say I’m super pleased about that. I’ve liked everything I’ve read by him so far. If he’s as prolific as he seems, I will have plenty to catch up on over the next few months.

• Tomorrow’s Dictator by Rahul Kanakia
  As a person who spends much time going to conferences and networking, I find the setting of this story very funny. Great tale about mind manipulation (the consensual kind).
• Decomposition by Rachel Swirsky
  So, this is a zombie story. But in true Rachel Swirsky style, it’s not the kind of zombie story you’d expect.
• What Everyone Remembers by Rahul Kanakia
  A really touching post-apocalyptic story with all kinds of crunchy science and morality questions to work out.
• My Dignity in Scars by Cory Skerry
  This story snuck up on me. I wasn’t sure I’d like it at first, but the tone drew me in and the conflict eventually engaged me.
• Alarms by S. L. Gilbow
  I dig stories where characters make OCD lists about things. I also just like the way this one flows. The main character is very relate-able, even with the odd sfnal things going on.
• Her Words Like Hunting Vixens Spring by Brooke Bolander
  Revenge story! And it doesn’t pull punches in the end. I am a fan of that.
• The Chastisement of Your Peace by Tracy Canfield
  I’m a sucker for parallel world stories. I like how this one plays with the idea of the same person from multiple versions of the universe.
• Machine Washable by Keffy R.M. Kehrli (podcast)
  This is a short one, but oh so much fun. And read really well.
• The Rugged Track by Liz Argall (podcast)
  This one made me smile because I know that Liz’s love of roller derby is the reason it exists. Even if you don’t love roller derby, this beautiful story about love and difficult choices and daughters and mothers will totally make you cry.

Visit my Favorite Fiction stack to see all the other short stories I’ve liked so far this year.