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Brian Aldiss, "Who Can Replace a Man?" in Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century. Science Fiction under 'Masterpieces'
Machines of the world determine that humankind has been wiped out and discuss what to do.

Isaac Asimov, "Nightfall" in The Edge of Tomorrow.
A planet with six suns is always entirely in daylight except for a period of darkness every 2,000 years.

Greg Bear, "The Wind from a Burning Woman" in Collected Stories of Greg Bear.
A vengeful woman steers an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

Jerome Bixby, "It's a Good Life" in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Science Fiction under 'Science'
A town with nothing beyond its borders is terrorized by a 6-year-old boy who can control everything with his mind.

Ben Bova, "Fifteen Miles" in Tales of the Grand Tour.
An astronaut undertakes a daring mission to rescue a colleague stranded on the Moon but finds the man knows a secret from his past.

Ray Bradbury, "A Sound of Thunder" in The Golden Apples of the Sun.
A man takes a safari back to prehistoric times, but one false step has devastating consequences.

Fredric Brown, "Arena" in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Science Fiction under 'Science'
Omnipotent beings force a human and an alien to fight each other as a means of resolving a war between their species.

Octavia Butler, "Bloodchild" in Bloodchild & Other Stories.
On an alien planet, humans are used as incubators for the eggs of worm-like creatures.

Orson Scott Card, "Unaccompanied Sonata" in Unaccompanied Sonata & Other Stories.
A boy discovered to be a musical prodigy is taken from home to compose in isolation from other musical influences.

Ted Chiang, "Tower of Babylon" in Stories of Your Life and Others.
A miner makes the four-month-long ascent up a tower that took hundreds of years to build in order to tunnel through the Vault of Heaven.

Arthur C. Clarke, "The Nine Billion Names of God" in Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.
A computer generates all the possible names for God.

Philip K. Dick, "The Minority Report" in The Minority Report and Other Stories.
In a society where murders are prevented by mutants who can see the future, a cop learns he is about to kill a man he hasn't met yet.

Greg Egan, "Oceanic" in The Year's Best Science Fiction: 16th Annual Collection. Science Fiction under 'Year's'
A biologist's studies of the native life on his ocean world leads to revelations about the true history of the planet and the nature of his own beliefs.

Harlan Ellison, "'Repent Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" in Alone against Tomorrow.
In the future, being late is a crime for which the penalty is having a proportionate amount of time deducted from your life.

Neil Gaiman, "October in the Chair" in Fragile Things: Short Fiction and Wonders. Fiction
The months of the year are personified and sit around a campfire telling stories; October shares a ghostly tale.

William Gibson, "Hinterlands" in Burning Chrome.
A cosmonaut in orbit vanishes and reappears two years later holding an object unknown on Earth and is unable to explain what happened.

Tom Godwin, "The Cold Equations" in Ascent of Wonder. Science Fiction under 'Ascent'
A stowaway is discovered on a rescue ship that does not have enough fuel to carry the additional weight to its destination.

Robert Heinlein, "They" in The Fantasies of Robert Heinlein.
A man in an insane asylum believes he is one of the few real beings in existence and that the rest of the universe was created to deceive him.

Damon Knight, "The Country of the Kind" in Modern Classics of Science Fiction. Science Fiction under 'Modern'
A society deals with a mutant by physically altering him and by refusing to acknowledge his existence.

C.M. Kornbluth, "The Little Black Bag" in His Share of Glory.
A doctor who lost his license finds a bag filled with advanced medical equipment from the future and uses it to revive his career.

Geoffrey Landis, "A Walk in the Sun" in Impact Parameter & Other Quantum Realities.
An astronaut stranded on the Moon must keep walking in order to remain in sunlight and keep her solar cells charged until help arrives.

Ursula LeGuin, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" in The Wind's Twelve Quarters.
The inhabitants of a utopian city are informed as they come of age that their happiness depends on the misery of a single child.

Murray Leinster, "First Contact" in Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Science Fiction under 'Science'
A human spacecraft encounters aliens for the first time far from home and neither race is prepared for the first interspecies contact.

H. P. Lovecraft, "The Shadow out of Time" in Tales. Fiction
A man fears he is losing his mind when an alien switches bodies with him.

George Martin, "Sandkings" in Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century. Science Fiction under 'Masterpieces'
A collector of exotic pets buys a colony of tiny creatures that worship him as a god.

Larry Niven, "Inconstant Moon" in The World Treasury of Science Fiction. Science Fiction under 'World'
A man fears a disaster is imminent when he notices the moon glowing brighter than usual.

Frederik Pohl, "Fermi and Frost" in Platinum Pohl.
During a nuclear war, a man helps a lost boy escape to Iceland where they wait to see what will become of the Earth.

Robert Silverberg, "Sundance" in Nebula Awards Showcase 2005. Science Fiction under 'Nebula'
A man assigned to eradicate pests called Eaters begins to wonder if they're sentient.

Clifford Simak, "Desertion" in The SFWA Grand Masters, vol. 1. Science Fiction under 'SFWA'
A man tries to determine whether people can survive in a different form on Jupiter but his test subjects never come back.

Cordwainer Smith, "The Game of Rat and Dragon" in Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century. Science Fiction under 'Best'
Humankind teams up with cats to fight an unknown force they encounter in space.

Theodore Sturgeon, "Saucer of Loneliness" in Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century. Science Fiction under 'Masterpieces'
A lonely young woman receives a message from a flying saucer and suddenly finds herself the center of attention.

James Tiptree, "The Screwfly Solution" in Her Smoke Rose up Forever.
A woman goes on the run when an epidemic of mass murder of women by men begins.

Kurt Vonnegut, "Harrison Bergeron" in Welcome to the Monkey House. Fiction
In the future, equality is enforced by the Handicapper General who gives handicaps to people born with exceptional talent or beauty.

H.G. Wells, "The Star" in The Complete Short Stories of H.G. Wells.
A shooting star approaches Earth, causing fear among humankind.

Jack Williamson, "With Folded Hands" in The SFWA Grand Masters, vol. 1. Science Fiction under 'SFWA'
The perfect robots are created to serve humankind and relieve them of all their cares.

Connie Willis, "The Sidon in the Mirror" in Fire Watch.
A drifter in a solar mining colony has the ability to unconsciously mimic other people.

Gene Wolfe, "The Lost Pilgrim" in Innocents Abroad.
A time traveler intending to visit early America ends up instead in ancient Greece and joins the voyage of the Argonauts.