ORBIT – Otherworldly Reads, Bold Ideas, and Tales. SF & F Short Stories and Novelettes discussion

After reading his latest novelette at asimov's science fiction may/june 2025 I decided to read his every SF work. So, I visited his site, https://www.raynayler.net and got his entire bibliography. Here it is:
Fiction

"The Tin Man's Ghost" (SF Novelette) Asimov's May/June 2025
Where the Axe is Buried, (novel) MCDxFSG / W&N April 2025
"The Demon of Metrazol" (SF SS) Asimov's March/April 2025
"A Grey Magic" (SF SS) Asimov's September/October 2024
"Charon's Final Passenger" (SF SS) Asimov's, March/April 2024
The Tusks of Extinction, (SF Novella) Tordotcom, January 2024
"Berb by Berb" (SF SS) in Asimov's, November/December 2023
"The Job at the End of the World" (SF SS), Tordotcom August 2023
"The Case of the Blood Stained Tower" (SF Novelette) in Asimov's March/April 2023
The Mountain in the Sea (SF Novel) MCDxFSG October 2022
​"The Empty" (SF SS) in Asimov's November/December 2022
"Fostering" (SF SS) in Vice.com (Terraform) July 2022
"Mender of Sparrows (SF Novelette) in Asimov's March/April 2022
"Rain of Days" (SF SS) in Clarkesworld March 2022
"The Summer Castle" (Horror SS) in Nightmare #113 February 2022
"Muallim" (SF SS) in Asimov's November/December 2021
"Scissors" (Horror SS) by Anastasia Bookreyeva (as translator) in ​Samovar October 2021
"Yesterday's Wolf" (SF SS) in Clarkesworld September 2021
"Año Nuevo" (SF Novelette) in Asimov's May/June 2021
"Sarcophagus" (SF SS) in Clarkesworld April 2021
"The Shadow of His Wings" (SF SS) in Analog March/April 2021
"Terra Rasa" (SF SS) by Anastasia Bookreyeva (as translator) in Clarkesworld, February 2021
"A Rocket for Dimitrios" (SF Novella) in Asimov's January/February 2021
​"Evrim's Children" (SF SS) in Dark Matter Magazine January/February 2021
"In the Petrified Forest" (Mainstream SS) in Cobalt #61 December 2020
"Outside of Omaha" (Horror SS) in Nightmare #96 September 2020
​"Architecture" (Mainstream SS) in Queen's Quarterly Volume 127 #3 Fall 2020
"The Swallows of the Storm" (SF SS) in Lightspeed #122 July 2020
"Father" (SF SS) in Asimov's July/August 2020
"Albedo Season" (SF SS) in Clarkesworld May 2020
"Eyes of the Forest" (SF SS) in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction May/June 2020
"Return to the Red Castle" (SF SS) in Asimov's March/April 2020​
"The Disintegration Loops" (SF SS) in Asimov's November/December 2019
"If I Were You" (mainstream SS) in Yemassee, webzine, ​November 2019
"The Death of Fire Station 10" (SF SS) in Lightspeed #113 October 2019
"Beyond the High Altar" (Horror SS) in Nightmare #84 September 2019
​"The Ocean Between the Leaves" (SF novelette) Asimov's July/August 2019
​"Fire in the Bone" (SF SS) in Clarkesworld January 2019
"Incident at San Juan Bautista" (SF SS) in Asimov's November/December 2018
"A Threnody for Hazan" (SF Novelette) in Asimov's March/April 2018
"Winter Timeshare" (SF SS) in Asimov's January / February 2017
"The Cigarette Machine" (Graphic SS) in Pinball #5, webzine, 2016
"Do Not Forget Me" (SF SS) in Asimov's March 2016
​"Mutability" (SF SS) in Asimov's June 2015
The Idiot Birds (Horror / Slipstream SS) in nthposition.com, online, 2009
"Catch" (Noir SS) in Crimewave #7: The Last Sunset, June 2003
"Because I Could Not Stop For Death" (Noir SS) in Cemetery Dance #38, spring 2002
"The Bat House" (Noir SS) in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, April 2002
​American Graveyards (Detective novella) TTA Press: Witcham, Ely, UK, October 2001
"Population Zero" (Noir SS) in Blue Murder #20, webzine, 2001
"Sleepwalking" (Noir SS) in Blue Murder #18, webzine, 2001
"How They Kill You at Thousand Palms" (Noir SS) in Plots With Guns, webzine, May-June 2001.
"Saturday Night Special" (Noir SS) in Ellery Queen, February 2001
"Hang on St. Christopher" (Noir SS) in Plots With Guns, webzine, January-February 2001
"Cutting Wood, Carrying Water" (Noir SS) in Crimewave #4: Mood Indigo, November 2000
"The Ride" (Noir SS) in The Edge: Tales of Suspense #5, September 1999
"The Watchman" (mainstream SS) in Berkeley Fiction Review #18, May 1998
"The Ropes of the Lasso Inn" (Horror SS) Deathrealm #30 Winter 1996/1997
"Waiting" (Mainstream SS) Lines in the Sand, 1996

I was surprised that he had so many non-SF works from 1996 to 2015 and decided to concentrate on SF first

The list of his SF works:
The Tin Man's Ghost a Novelette at Asimov's May/June 2025
Where the Axe is Buried a Novel at MCDxFSG / W&N April 2025
The Demon of Metrazol a Short story at Asimov's March/April 2025
A Grey Magic a Short story at Asimov's September/October 2024
Charon's Final Passenger a Short story at Asimov's, March/April 2024
The Tusks of Extinction a Novella at Tordotcom, January 2024
Berb by Berb a Short story at Asimov's, November/December 2023
The Job at the End of the World a Short story at Tordotcom August 2023
The Case of the Blood Stained Tower a Novelette at Asimov's March/April 2023
The Mountain in the Sea a Novel at MCDxFSG October 2022
The Empty a Short story at Asimov's November/December 2022
Fostering a Short story at Vice.com (Terraform) July 2022
Mender of Sparrows a Novelette at Asimov's March/April 2022
Rain of Days a Short story at Clarkesworld March 2022
Muallim a Short story at Asimov's November/December 2021
Yesterday's Wolf a Short story at Clarkesworld September 2021
Año Nuevo a Novelette at Asimov's May/June 2021
Sarcophagus a Short story at Clarkesworld April 2021
The Shadow of His Wings a Short story at Analog March/April 2021
A Rocket for Dimitrios a Novella at Asimov's January/February 2021
Evrim's Children a Short story at Dark Matter Magazine January/February 2021
The Swallows of the Storm a Short story at Lightspeed #122 July 2020
Father a Short story at Asimov's July/August 2020
Albedo Season a Short story at Clarkesworld May 2020
Eyes of the Forest a Short story at The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction May/June 2020
Return to the Red Castle a Short story at Asimov's March/April 2020​
The Disintegration Loops a Short story at Asimov's November/December 2019
The Death of Fire Station 10 a Short story at Lightspeed #113 October 2019
The Ocean Between the Leaves a Novelette at Asimov's July/August 2019
Fire in the Bone a Short story at Clarkesworld January 2019
Incident at San Juan Bautista a Short story at Asimov's November/December 2018
A Threnody for Hazan a Novelette at Asimov's March/April 2018
Winter Timeshare a Short story at Asimov's January / February 2017
Do Not Forget Me a Short story at Asimov's March 2016
Mutability a Short story at Asimov's June 2015

A high percentage of the sf has been published in Asimov’s.

Stephen wrote: "A high percentage of the sf has been published in Asimov’s."

Yes, Asimov's 20, the next largest Clarkesworld only 5

Thanks, guys. A great new(ish) SF author! One of my faves.

Mutability a Short story at Asimov's June 2015 the debut SF story. I guess it's too complex for its own good. It starts with a narrator describing a coffee shop where he likes to work or observe other consumers and their interactions. A new woman comes and asks to come with her - at her apartment, she shows him a photo where they two are together. None of them remembers it, moreover, they are dressed in clothes obsolete last 400 years (I thought the setting was our times/near future). Moreover, the more I read the less I understand this setting. 3*

The story can be read here https://www.raynayler.net/mutability....

Do Not Forget Me a Short story at Asimov's March 2016 this is a much better story. It uses a matroshka structure - a man comes to his house and tells his wife a story he heard from a great poet (Omar Khayyam?), who tells a story of a brigand and so on. The innermost story is good as well. 4*

The story can be read here https://www.raynayler.net/do-not-forg...

Oleksandr wrote: "Do Not Forget Me" a Short story at Asimov's March 2016 this is a much better story. It uses a matrioshka structure - a man comes to his house and tells his wife a story he heard from a great poet ...."

Thanks for this. New to me: a first-rate alternate-history, of how strange a real immortal might be. One of Nayler's best shorts, I think. He really is a master story-teller. An easy 4+ stars for me.

Yes, a very good story, 4 stars. Thanks for the pointer.

More first-rate Nayler SF shorts: the Istanbul Protectorate series,
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?...
Which opens with "Winter Timeshare" (2017), set in the future of that series, likely before Nayler worked out the details of the series. Two lovers meet in Istanbul for their winter vacation. Bittersweet slice of life. I just reread it: an even better story than I recalled. 4+ stars. Not to be missed.

Some of these stories can be found at Nayler's website, https://www.raynayler.net/ in the Stories Online section. They are all worth reading, but this might be my favorite. Along with a related story, set in an alternate postwar Albuquerque, whose title escapes me. And I just got reminded of some urgent chores.....

Winter Timeshare a Short story at Asimov's January / February 2017, as Peter correctly noted, the first in the Istanbul Protectorate series. I guess it should read after A Threnody for Hazan, which gives more background info but was published a bit later. I call this kind of story a-day-in-life, the unique SF idea to show an ordinary life in extraordinary circumstances, like mentioned in another thread 'It's a Good Life' by Jerome Bixby.

Here we have a regular meeting of two post-humans in Istanbul. For this they use temporary bodies (so they mostly live/work in VR) and a lot of 'ordinary humans', locals hate them, for they live in different worlds. This time, one of them (gendered female) has to use a 'blank' male body. They want to get the most from their short encounter... 3.5*
read it here https://www.raynayler.net/winter-time...

I read Winter Timeshare, a good interesting story. I’m not familiar with the series it belongs to. I’ll read more.

A Threnody for Hazan a Novelette at Asimov's March/April 2018 this is the proper entry story for the Istanbul Protectorate series. It follows life and discoveries of Hazan, the scientist who (with a lot of others) gave the world the concept of connectome (the map of the synaptic connections, which is pure information and thus can exist as a process outside the body). It is written by a man, who met her accidentally, but fell in love (not as much passion as caring) with her. From the title and the word threnody (I had to check the dictionary), readers can expect that the story will end in tragedy. 4.5*
https://www.raynayler.net/a-threnody-...

Incident at San Juan Bautista a Short story at Asimov's November/December 2018 August is the man living in the post-Civil War USA. He is a dentist, an emigrant, a deserter and an assassin. In the latter capacity, he goes from NY to San Juan Bautista and now is in a room with a woman, planning his next move. The woman, Madeleine, talks to him and it turns out that not only she knows everything about his plans but also that (view spoiler)[she actually is able to temporarily inhibit all bodies around except the assassin (hide spoiler)] 4*
https://www.raynayler.net/incident-at...

The Ocean Between the Leaves a Novelette at Asimov's July/August 2019 [the Istanbul Protectorate] Feride is a local in Istanbul, she worked at a garden till she pricked her finger on the thorn of a rose, and fell asleep got a severe infection, ending up in coma at a hospital. She is an orphan, and after she went into coma, Fahri, her "brother she had never met", turns out. He is working “from one blink to another", finding out bodies with uploaded minds which stayed overdue and severing the link. For he is in a blanc body himself (view spoiler)[in reality he is Feride's mind. As an experiment, the Institute thought of giving terminally ill a temporary body for a few days. Feride got such a body and ran away instead of returning it. (hide spoiler)] Another great story. 5*
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...

Oleksandr wrote: "The Ocean Between the Leaves a Novelette at Asimov's July/August 2019 [the Istanbul Protectorate] Feride is a local in Istanbul, she worked at a garden till she pricked her finger on the thorn of a..."

Thanks for reminding me of this one. Nayler is a wonderful writer. Even if I can't quite believe this one. Still, not to be missed. 4 stars for me.