Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Poga | 2011 | John Barnes | Buy |
| 2 | Every Hole is Outlined | 2011 | John Barnes | Buy |
| 3 | The Lost Princess Man | 2011 | John Barnes | Buy |
| 4 | Things Undone | 2011 | John Barnes | Buy |
| 5 | The Quiet Guy It Always Was | 2011 | John Barnes | Buy |
The five short story collections published in 2011 – Poga, Every Hole is Outlined, The Lost Princess Man, Things Undone, and The Quiet Guy It Always Was – represent a significant release of Barnes’s shorter fiction in digital form. They were part of a wave of ebook publishing in the early 2010s when many science fiction authors brought their periodical work into accessible collected formats.
The collections draw on Barnes’s career as a short fiction writer alongside his novel work. His short stories tend to be tightly constructed and idea-forward, often exploring a speculative premise with the same rigor he applies in his longer work. Readers who know Barnes primarily through his series novels will find the short fiction covers similar thematic territory in compressed form.
For readers wanting to sample Barnes’s range without committing to a full series, these 2011 collections are a practical entry point. They are available in digital format and cover a spread of his interests from social SF to satirical fiction.