The Short Story Thread

[Fried Egg]

I just read the most enjoyable (and frightening) story so far in my Lovecraft collection entitled "The Shunned House". A fairly slow build up to a truly chilling conclusion. The first story I've read of his about vampires with quite a different take on them to our modern conception.

 

[Connavar]

With Folded Hands a 1947 novelette by Jack Williamson was my last short story.
The first story in Williamson's Humanoids series.

A story I read is in SF Hall of Fame, having read it that's easy to understand.

 

[Contrary Mary]

Tom Goodwin's "The Cold Equations". Has been collected in several short story collections. Very well told.

Also, the original short story version of "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes, before it was later expanded to novel length.

ONe more personal favorite, out of many---"The ones who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula LeGuin.

 

[Fried Egg]

I just read a couple of corkers from "The October Country" by Ray Bradbury:

"The Skeleton" - A chilling tale about a man becoming increasingly ill at ease with his own skeleton. He becomes increasingly disturbed and desperate until he eventually decides to seek help with an unconventionally qualified bones specialist who is more sinister than meets the eye...

"The Jar" - Some kind of strange looking thing suspended in a jar of preserving liquid which a hapless country man uses to captivate his neighbours attention but his wife doesn't like his sudden change in popularity...

 

[Connavar]

I read The Halfling by Leigh Brackett in the collection The Halfling and Other Stories.

The story was a bit dated and a big generic pulp story.

The second story looks to be much better.

 

[Thufir]

Exhalation by Ted Chiang. I recently heard this being read on Starship Sofa website in audio book format. It's excellently read but is also available as text for free from other sites. I'm not sure if Chiang has been published yet but he has won a few awards including the Nebula Award.

Exhalation was very good. About a race of beings who live in an all metal world which relies on air to work. My poor synopsis won't do it any justice but it is very well written and the idea is brilliant. Well worth a read. And if you don't mind audio books I'd recommended listening to it on Starship Sofa. The reading sets the atmosphere really well. And I think it was only about 45min long (unabridged).

Right I'm off to try and find The Last Question, Nightfall (heard about that before but never read it) and From Beyond! Thanks for the recommends

 

[Fried Egg]

I just read "The Neighbours Landmark" by M.R. James and was quite chilled. A ghost that haunts a wood that is no longer a wood is discovered. A soul is trapped there for moving a neighbour's landmark in order to take their land. It shrieks at wanderers through it's domain and disorientates it's listerners. What it might do if one were to hear it shriek three times in a row or, heaven forbid, it were to catch you the reader is left to wonder.

One of his better stories I think...

 

[GOLLUM]

Exhalation by Ted Chiang. I recently heard this being read on Starship Sofa website in audio book format. It's excellently read but is also available as text for free from other sites. I'm not sure if Chiang has been published yet but he has won a few awards including the Nebula Award.

Absolutely Chiang has been published, I've got his stuff and met the guy when in Japan at WorldCon in '07.

He's one of those gems who are still a little underrated by the mainstream IMO.

Check out his collection Story Of Your Life and Others, you won't be disappointed.

Another writer who is not all that well known but excellent in a similar vein to Chiang is Kelly Link.

 

[Sparrow]

I usually hate traveling through time stories, usually avoid them no matter what, but I happened upon one that I really like.

The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman.

I can't really give a review of it without giving away some really cool twists. So I'll recommend it as a short story to seek out and read, and leave it at that.

 

[Fried Egg]

I just finished "The Willows", a short story by Alrgernon Blackwood in the Penguin Classics collection entitled "Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories".

This was a masterpiece of supernatural fiction. Two friends set out to ride the Danube river in canoes, following it from it's source to it's mouth, camping on the way. All is well until they stumble upon an island that is a borderland close to the domain of unknown, otherworldly entities that do not take to kindly to their intrusion.

What I particularly like about this story is the way it moves from an idyllic, dream like world of beauty and happiness to sinister, malevolant world of fear and terror. The atmosphere and tension is masterfully built up ever so gradually. The many characters of the river on it's winding course were evokatively described, conveying the majesty and awe of it well.

I'm thinking that I really like this Algernon Blackwood.

 

[GOLLUM]

I'm thinking that I really like this Algernon Blackwood.

Yes, I've become a bit of a Blackwood fan myself and have that collection you speak of.

IMO overall he's very good, although I think I'm safe in saying that he is generally better regarded for his novellas that his short fiction.

You may be aware that, accordiung to the information I have, Lovecraft himself regarded Blackwood's The Willows as the finest weird tale ever written and was quite an admirer of his. I enjoyed the title story Ancient Sorceries more but I agree on your sentiments regarding The Willows.

Thanks for ensuring this thread is kept alive. I intend to read a lot of short fiction (SFF and non-SFF) over my current summer break, so I expect to be visiting here quite regualrly.

Bye for now...

 

[Fried Egg]

No, I didn't know he was better known for his novellas. Reading the introduction (by S.T. Joshi) I notice that his earlier work is supposed to be superior to his later work. Although I'm not sure of how much is currently in print at the moment...

 

[blacknorth]

Today I read The Time Trawlers by Burt Filer (it's in the 11th Galaxy Reader anthology) - I'm wondering if anyone else has enjoyed this marvellous little item?

I struggled along with Kearney, the main character, about the morality of mankind trawling the distant future for resources. His solution, when it came, seemed too much of a compromise for me. But this germ of an idea - stealing from the future; exactly what we're doing now with climate change and natural resources - seems a little ahead of its time for a 1968 story.

Easily enough ideas in there to spin the story out to the length of short novel - considering the story ended rather abruptly, I'm surprised the editors of Galaxy didn't push for something longer. The writing was quality.

Anyway, recommended to all.

 

[dask]

"The Individualists", the fourth of five stories comprising the "novel" THE MAN WHO AWOKE by Laurence Manning first appearing in Wonder Stories, 1933. Great stuff. Not without the ability to provoke thought. The far future views the 20th century with no lack of disdain as a corrupt civilization who squandered away Earth's natural resources.

 

[blacknorth]

THE MAN WHO AWOKE by Laurence Manning

I have that, but I haven't got around to reading it. There's a 70's PB edition, must be a fixup. Must dig it out.

 

[dask]

Here 'tis. Let it slip by in 1975 but caught it the second time around in March, 1979. Dean Ellis, artist.

 

[j d worthington]

One of these days I need to look up that particular "fix-up"; I've only read the initial story, and that because it was in Asimov's Before the Golden Age (for which I have a tremendous fondness, actually). That piece, I think, still holds up rather well as an example of the short story form.

 

[woodsman]

How have I not noticed this before? A great thread for finding some short stories, of which, I have read very few.

I would recommend Ursula K. Le Guin for all her short stories although I paticularly enjoyed The Birthday of the World collection. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is another I think everyone should read.

I remember Asimov's Bicentennial Man and That Thou Art Mindful Of Him from The Complete Robot fondly as well, although the rest of the collection is a bit mixed.

 

[Connavar]

I have read Jorkens collections by Dunsany and The Continental OP stories by Hammett in The Big Knockover.

Its hard not to enjoy the short story format when you are reading literary talents of that level.

I seriously need more collections like that. Its almost a shame i have to read novels again that are limited to one story

Next i plan to read S&S collections by REH,Karl Edward Wagner,Charles R. Saunders.

 

[GOLLUM]

Next i plan to read S&S collections by REH,Karl Edward Wagner,Charles R. Saunders.

Way to go! I've got the complete fiction of Wagner (w.r.t Kane stories) and heaps of REH as you know plus the Imaro books by Saunders. I've not read much of the Wagner or Saunders yet though.... and still have a back log of REH shorts to read.

Hurry up and invent some sort of time machine Conn, so I can somehow condense more into the coming year.....

Glad you like the Jorkens, I knew you would. Are you getting hold of the other volumes then?