10 Best spacefaring sci-fi short stories

You could spend a lifetime reading sci-fi novellas and short stories, even if you just restricted yourself to ones that take place in deep space. 

Who has the time for that? If you’ve got a hankering for stories involving aliens, space travel, and the loneliness of the void, then here, in no particular order, are some of the best the genre has to offer. 

Bloodchild – Octavia Butler

Great sci-fi novelists tend to be great short story writers, and Octavia Butler is no exception. “Bloodchild” is the titular story in one of Butler’s collections, and it’s as haunting as anything else she’s written. A colony of humans coexists peacefully with an alien race called the Tlic on their home planet. The only catch is that families have to volunteer a child to become a host for the Tlic’s eggs. The story is told from the perspective of a host, and the fact that he accepts his fate actually helps to make it all the more disturbing. 

Into the Comet – Arthur C. Clarke 

“Into the Comet” is a story of survival and advanced mathematics from the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey. A science ship heads out into space to observe a comet, but becomes trapped when its computer malfunctions and the comet’s gasses interfere with its radio transmissions. With no way to calculate a trajectory that will allow the ship to escape from the comet’s pull, the crew is resigned to their deaths. Then a journalist who went along for the expedition comes up with the idea to arm the crew with abacuses and manually calculate their path to survival. 

Let Us Save the Universe – Stanislaw Lem 

Stanislaw Lem is another sci-fi legend who’s probably best known for writing the novel Solaris, which was adapted into a movie in 1972 by director Andrei Tarkovsky. Lem wrote a whole series of short stories starring a well-traveled spaceman named Ijon Tichy, and “Let Us Save the Universe” takes the form of an open letter from Ijon to the rest of humanity. It manages to brilliantly mix social commentary with galaxy-wide worldbuilding and makes for an excellent introduction to Ijon’s series. 

The Long Rain – Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury was a prolific sci-fi writer and the author of Fahrenheit 451. “The Long Rain” comes from his short story collection The Illustrated Man and recounts the story of a group of astronauts who’ve crashed onto the surface of Venus. They try to make their way to the Sun Dome, the only safe place on the planet, but along the way they’re forced to contend with the endless, almost mystical Venusian rain that slowly drives them insane.

The Green Hills of Earth – Robert A. Heinlein 

Rhysling is a blind songwriter who uses his musical skills to book passage on spaceships traveling across the solar system. He decides to take one last trip to Earth, so he can live out his final days on his home planet. Naturally, disaster strikes, and Rhysling is forced to face his death early while also composing his final song. “The Green Hills of Earth” is a touching little story that uses the excitement of a spaceship catastrophe to talk about mortality and the importance of art. 

Schrödinger’s Catastrophe – Gene Doucette

“Schrödinger’s Catastrophe” is a story for fans of cerebral sci-fi horror a la Event Horizon. The story takes place on a ship called the USFS Erwin, where all known laws of physics and probability suddenly and disastrously stop functioning. Corporal Alice Aste travels to the Erwin to find out what happened to the crew and why the ship stopped communicating, but nothing in her military career has prepared her for the chaos that unfolds when she arrives on the ship. 

Prott – Margaret St. Clair 

Margaret St. Clair’s “Prott” is a strange first contact story told in the form of diary entries. The diary in question belongs to a researcher who traveled deep into space to study the mating habits of an alien race called the prott. The researcher observes the aliens but also goes to great lengths to find a way to communicate with them before strapping his notes to a rocket and sending them back to Earth. As a nice change of pace, this first contact story isn’t about the fate of humanity, but the bizarre impressions of the aliens in question will hang in your mind for days. 

Drive – James S.A. Corey

Set in the universe of The Expanse, this story focuses on Solomon Epstein, the man who invented the spaceship drives that fueled humanity’s push into the stars. In a few dozen pages, “Drive” manages to capture most of the big themes and emotional overtones that make The Expanse such a phenomenal series. Part speculative sci-fi, part political thriller, and part touching romance, “Drive” is a 100% memorable short story. 

Vaster Than Empires and More Slow – Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin’s name is really all you need to know that “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow” is worth reading. Le Guin is a legendary sci-fi author, and “Vaster Than Empires” is a unique first contact story about an exploratory space vessel landing on a planet covered in forests. At first, the team thinks that the planet lacks any conscious life, but eventually, they come to realize that the planet itself may be a living consciousness. 

The Pizza Boy – Meg Elison 

“The Pizza Boy” is one of the most delightful sci-fi short stories I’ve ever read. The story follows a young boy who, like his father before him, makes a living by delivering pizzas to the many ships of a military fleet. What begins as an almost whimsical tale of a space-age pizza business slowly morphs into a story about quiet rebellion and the fight against imperialist forces. If you only read one story from this list, “The Pizza Boy” should be it.