I’ve been spending the last couple of days thinking about a reading list for my science fiction course this fall. I’ve been collecting my various books of short stories and combing through them looking not only for stories, but a way to organize the course. I might do so topically, like spend a week on stories that address nanotechnology, biotechnology, robots, metaphysics, and the like. I also thought about an historic approach: classic, golden-age, new-wave, cyberpunk, etc. I’m leaning toward the former.

One of the reasons that I’m searching for stories is to avoid having my students purchase a science fiction anthology that is too expensive and doesn’t have all the selections in it I’d choose for my course anyway. Last year, I used the The Science Fiction Research Association Anthology; it had a decent selection, was ordered chronologically, but was way too expensive (presently listed for $94 on Amazon!) for stories that looked like they were printed using a dot-matrix printer from the early 90s. No, I will make my own collection of stories and critical essays this time.

During my search, I’ve rediscovered some classic short stories that I have forgotten about, like Michael Moorcock’s time-travel novella Behold the Man, and have begun looking for selections available online. So far, I have found a collection from the Sci-Fi Channel, edited by Ellen Datlow (who knew a network owned by NBC would encourage anyone to read? — well, they don’t really, since the collection is a bitch to find from the main page, and their web site states that they will no longer be publishing fiction as they will now “expand with exciting new ventures utilizing the newest technology” — whatever that means). Their archive includes several stories by Bruce Sterling, James Tiptree, Jr., Alfred Bester, John Varley, and other big and small names in the field. Cosmos has a small collection, featuring stories by the likes of Paul Di Filippo and Joe Haldeman. Helix, an online speculative fiction quarterly, looks intriquing. EscapePod is a weekly podcast that seems as if they’re attracting some big names, like the aforementioned Di Filippo and some Hugo nominees. . .

There’s much more, pleasantly. I’ll keep a list on del.icio.us.