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:



  • 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
  • The Ghost Pit by Stephen Baxter
  • The Very Pulse of the Machine by Michael Swanwick
  • Blood Music by Greg Bear
  • A Walk In The Sun by Geoffrey A. Landis
  • Falling Onto Mars by Geoffrey A. Landis
  • Titanium Mike Saves the Day by David D. Levine
  • The Clockwork Atom Bomb by Dominic Green
  • The House Beyond Your Sky by Benjamin Rosenbaum
  • Eight Episodes by Robert Reed
  • —And He Built a Crooked House by Robert Heinlein
  • Beyond the Wall by Justin Stanchfield
  • Raft by Stephen Baxter
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