Hard Science Fiction Short Stories

Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction that emphasizes technical detail as well as scientific accuracy. The term is also used to refer to science fiction short stories that focus on the scientific elements of the story - as opposed to focusing on the characters or something else non-science related (soft science fiction.) If you think of the term "hard sciences" (which describes measurable scientific fields such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and so on) then you'll be on the right track!

Here is a list of hard science fiction short stories featured on our site:



  • Crystal Nights by Greg Egan
  • Bow Shock by Gregory Benford
  • Approaching Perimelasma by Geoffrey A. Landis
  • Mars: A Traveler’s Guide by Ruth Nestvold
  • Galactic Stress by David Levine
  • Little Lost Robot by Paul McAuley
  • The Planck Dive by Greg Egan
  • Neutron Star by Larry Niven
  • Understand by Ted Chiang
  • Slow Life by Michael Swanwick
  • The Giving Plague by David Brin
  • Oceanic by Greg Egan
  • The Green Leopard Plague by Walter Jon Williams
  • The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin
  • Second Skin by Paul J. McAuley
  • Wang’s Carpets by Greg Egan
  • Online short stories from Greg Egan
  • Mortimer Gray’s History of Death by Brian Stableford
  • The Real World by Steven Utley
  • Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
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