I heartily second Ted Chiang. He is an expert at the craft of the short story despite it being his first whole compilation that was published. Short stories ha

I heartily second Ted Chiang. He is an expert at the craft of the short story despite it being his first whole compilation that was published. Short stories have historically been the way science fiction was popularized starting in the early 1900s. Novels and series would develop out of those successful shorts or if an author becomes successful enough.