The Short Story Thread

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Quickstone" by Marc Laidlaw.

One of a series of stories about a wandering bard (can you tell already that this is typical pseudo-medieval fantasy?) who has had one hand switched with that of a gargoyle. In this one he meets with the gargoyle inside the earth, where it and its fellow gargoyles are laboring to release their god. Some vivid descriptions of the gargoyles' underground dwelling, but otherwise pretty average for this sort of thing.

 

[j d worthington]

Interesting. I can see why it has the power to influence not just a younger writer but a writer at any stage in his career. Even more interesting and impressive is your ability to retain and instantaneously recall such obscure bits of information. Many thanks. Is that the only place the Ellison letter is available? Do you by any chance know who Ellison was writing to?

Dask: Sorry to be so long replying. I obviously missed this one for some reason. In answer to your queries: As far as I know, this is the only place this has been published, though Ellison also says something similar in his piece on Out of Space and Time for Horror: 100 Best Books. As for who he was writing to... Sidney-Fryer, I assume, as there are several tribute letters included in that volume, written by: Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury, August Derleth, Stanton a. Coblentz, Avram Davidson, H. Warner Munn, George F. Haas, Madelynne Greene, E. Hoffman Price, Sam Moskowitz, Ethel Heiple, Genevieve Sully, and Rah Hoffman....

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Shadow-Below" by Robert Reed.

Creates a complex and subtle near future as a background for this tale of a Lakota working as an outdoor survival instructor for some rich folks. The author manages to weave complicated back stories into the narrative without losing any clarity. The highlight of the issue.

Up next: April/May 2009 (when the magazine went to a bimonthly schedule):

The untitled cover painting does not illustrate any of the stories.

Besides the fiction (seven new stories in this larger format), the contents include an editorial, two book review columns, a movie column, a science column, a competition, cartoons, "Plumage From Pegasus," and "Curiosities." There are two "classic reprints." First if Thomas M. Disch's famous "bedtime story for small appliances," "The Brave Little Toaster." Second is "Sea Wrack" by Edward Jesby, a story I don't recall at all, with an introduction by Ted White relating how he found the story in the slush pile (and mentioning in passing how he discovered another story the same way by a fellow named Larry Niven.)

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I decided to reread "Sea Wrack" since I could not recall it at all. As far as I can find out, this story and "Ogre!" (also in F&SF) were the only works of fiction Edward Jesby ever published.

"Sea Wrack" turns out to be a rather Zelazny-ish tale about an encounter between wealthy folks and a sea-dweller in the near future. It seemed somewhat ahead of its time for 1964, with a mood of decadent sophistication overlying hidden violence.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Spiral Briar" by Sean McMullen.

Set in the year 1449, this is what I suppose they call "hard fantasy." It's all about some folks, harmed in various ways by the elves of Faery, who build a steamship and a steam-powered cannon to fight back. Not bad.

"The Avenger of Love" by Jack Skillingstead.

The author pulls off a remarkable feat. This manages to be a perfect pastiche of Harlan Ellison, capturing the mood, style, and themes of that writer, while remaining an original and fine story in its own right. I suspect this will turn out to be the highlight of the issue.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"'A Wild and Wicked Youth'" by Ellen Kushner. (Yes, the title is in quotes.)

Apparently a prequel to the author's novel Swordspoint, which I have not read. The only reason this might be considered fantasy at all is that it takes place in a sort of pseudo-medieval or pseduo-renaissance setting. There is nothing supernatural or magical in the story at all. It relates how a boy learns to be a swordsman. The whole thing reads like the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, assuming Tom and Huck lived in a pseduo-feudal world and were lovers.

"Andreanna" by S. L. Gilbow.

Alternates interior monologue and dialogue to tell the story of a humanoid robot on the Moon. OK, nothing special.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Stratosphere" by Henry Garfield.

A baseball player on the Moon hits the ball so hard it goes into orbit. Since we're told what's going to happen in the first paragraph, that's not a spoiler. Not much else to it.

"The Price of Silence" by Deborah J. Ross.

Star Trek-style story in which the crew of a starship try to figure out what happened to the inhabitants of a colony world and the planet's space station. It goes a little overboard on who's attracted to whom.

"One Bright Star to Guide Them" by John C. Wright.

Takes the kind of story in which a group of children are drawn into a fantasy world (particularly the Narnia series, including a strong dose of Christian allegory) and shows us what happens when they're adults. I was not entirely comfortable with the story's implied theme that seeing things as Good or Evil rather than shades of gray was preferable, and this particular line made me wonder what the author was implying.

. . . the East, where their powers are stronger, and where they have countries whose evil rulers worship the Darkness almost openly.

 

[dask]

Dask: Sorry to be so long replying. I obviously missed this one for some reason. In answer to your queries: As far as I know, this is the only place this has been published, though Ellison also says something similar in his piece on Out of Space and Time for Horror: 100 Best Books. As for who he was writing to... Sidney-Fryer, I assume, as there are several tribute letters included in that volume, written by: Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury, August Derleth, Stanton a. Coblentz, Avram Davidson, H. Warner Munn, George F. Haas, Madelynne Greene, E. Hoffman Price, Sam Moskowitz, Ethel Heiple, Genevieve Sully, and Rah Hoffman....

Many thanks. Makes sense the letter was written to the editor of a tribute collection. Sounds like a good one.

 

[Randy M.]

About Ellison: I think he made a similar statement in a Martin Greenburg anthology. If I get a chance I'll try to track it down.

Currently rereading Arthur Machen's Tales of Horror and the Supernatural. "The Novel of the Black Seal" feels to me like a central story in dark fantasy/horror: Told from a distance of time and place by a witness, the story follows a professor and antiquarian who tries to track the origins of a peculiar black seal that he has acquired. Exploring the area in which the object was found, he disappears, leaving his nanny/personal secretary behind to piece together what must have happened. This framing of the story is so prevalent in fiction of this kind from that time period, I think current writers avoid it unless they are looking to capture a certain flavor.

In line of descent "The Novel of the White Powder" is roughly mid-way between Poe's "The Case of Monsieur Valdemar" and Lovecraft's "Cool Air," and conveys a cautionary tale of drinking wine of a certain vintage injudiciously. While that's a somewhat flippant summary, the story still packs some power in the telling.

I haven't reread "The White People" since my first reading 35+ years ago, and while the sense of otherness, of a strange, distant foreign land comes through, the story is told in the form of a young girl's diary extract and Machen, probably not intentionally, makes her rather long-winded. It's possible I should have picked a better time than my lunch hour to dive into a story packed with 3- and 4-page long paragraphs. Anyway, in spite of the story-telling approach, it does seem central to Machen's view of the occult.

"The Inmost Light" and "The Shining Pyramid" take the form of detective stories, each featuring an epicure of the occult, Dyson, trying to fathom a mystery set before him. Again we see aspects of a world Machen posits as hidden from us, a world that is sinister and dangerous. Maybe not as powerful as the earlier stories, but still good reading and good introductions to this kind of dark fantasy/horror.


Randy M.

 

[j d worthington]

I haven't reread "The White People" since my first reading 35+ years ago, and while the sense of otherness, of a strange, distant foreign land comes through, the story is told in the form of a young girl's diary extract and Machen, probably not intentionally, makes her rather long-winded. It's possible I should have picked a better time than my lunch hour to dive into a story packed with 3- and 4-page long paragraphs. Anyway, in spite of the story-telling approach, it does seem central to Machen's view of the occult.

Yes, I think reading this one without plenty of leisure harms the experience. It is, to some extent, the very hypnotic cumulative nature of the hallucinatory text which carries such power here, and breaking it up tends to disrupt the careful weaving of subtle shifting from the real to the unreal.

One question, though: "3- and 4-page long paragraphs"? As I recall, save for the opening and closing framework, the story itself -- not a particularly short one -- is actually told in only about three or four paragraphs total. Some of these paragraphs go on for ten or twenty pages. If the edition you're reading has them as shorter paragraphs, I wonder whose decision this was....

 

[Randy M.]

[...]One question, though: "3- and 4-page long paragraphs"? As I recall, save for the opening and closing framework, the story itself -- not a particularly short one -- is actually told in only about three or four paragraphs total. Some of these paragraphs go on for ten or twenty pages. If the edition you're reading has them as shorter paragraphs, I wonder whose decision this was....

Hoo, boy, already blurring in my mind. I was remembering some indented quotes as paragraphing, and even at that my memory of length was inaccurate. Anyway, you're right about the page length of the central paragraph which starts on page 126 and ends on page 151.

I'm reading a 1948 Alfred A Knopf first edition I stumbled on in a local used bookstore a few years ago; according to the notation inside it cost me a whopping $6.00. It's not in mint condition, but whoever owned it before me took care of it and I find the old, slightly yellowed, textured paper adds something to the reading. Maybe it's touching on deep memories of the old books I used to borrow from the library as a kid.

Randy M.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Back in 1968, Ballantine Books published six books by William Tenn. One was his only novel, Of Men and Monsters. (Brief review: Pretty good account of a small number of surviving humans existing as vermin within the homes of gigantic aliens that took over the Earth.) Five were collections of short stories. I happened to find three of them at a used book store not too long ago. The ones that got away:

Detailed reviews of the contents of the other three volumes to follow.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

First up:

"Down Among the Dead Men" (Galaxy, 1954) -- A spaceship commander has to face his new crew; artificial men grown from the tissue of men killed in a space war. A gruesome premise, with an interesting way in which the commander convinces them that he has something in common with them.

"Me, Myself, and I" (Planet Stories, 1947) -- Slapstick time travel farce in which a goofy guy gets send back to the days of the dinosaurs, changes the present, goes back in time, meets himself, and so on. Typical for that kind of silliness.

"The Liberation of Earth" ("Liberation of Earth," Future Science Fiction, 1953) -- Relates how two alien species fight a space war, using Earth as a convenient base of operations, each "liberating" the planet from the other multiple times, at great cost to the inhabitants. A biting satire of war.

"Everybody Loves Irving Bommer" (Fantastic Adventures, 1951) -- Comic fantasy of a nerdy guy who gets a love potion which works much too well. Amusing.

"Flirgleflip" ("The Remarkable Flirgleflip," Fantastic Adventures, 1950) -- A guy from a future where the progress of technology is rigidly controlled by time travellers from his future winds up in our own time. Satiric comedy results.

"The Tenants" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1954) -- Two very weird guys rent the thirteenth floor of a building that doesn't have one. A very strange, surreal story.

"The Custodian" (If, 1953) -- The last man on Earth after everybody else has fled on starships (because the Sun is about to go nova) finds out he isn't as alone as he thought, and decides to save as many of civilization's treasures as possible. Interesting.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Generation of Noah" ("The Quick and the Bomb," Suspense, 1951) -- Grim tale of a farmer with an elaborate fallout shelter who trains his children to get into the shelter within three minutes when the alarm sounds. A taut story which could have been adapted into a Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

"Brooklyn Project" (Planet Stories, 1948) -- In a security-obsessed future United States, the demonstration of a time travel device has unexpected consequences. Darker in tone than the other time travel comedies from this author.

"The Dark Star" (Galaxy, 1957) -- The narrator explains why he didn't become the first person to land on the Moon. An interesting psychological study.

"Null-P" (Worlds Beyond, 1951) -- Political satire set in a post-atomic war USA, where an absolutely average man becomes the founder of a dynasty of ruling mediocrity. Sardonic wit abounds.

"Eastward Ho!" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1958) -- Another satiric story of post-apocalypse America, this one set in a future where Native Americans are the ruling class over the few remaining whites. Nicely done, with lots of good details.

"The Deserter" (Star Science Fiction Stories, 1953) -- A gigantic enemy alien is captured by humans, and the protagonist communicates with it telepathically. A hard-hitting attack on militarism.

"Betelgeuse Bridge" (Galaxy, 1951) -- Friendly, super-technological aliens arrive on Earth, and offer a life-extension device in exchange for the planet's radioactive elements. A story with multiple ironies.

"'Will You Walk a Little Faster'" (Marvel Science Fiction, 1951) -- Madcap farce in which gnome-like aliens capture a bunch of people and offer them the ultimate weapon so humanity can destroy itself ahead of schedule. Carries a bite beyond its goofiness.

"It Ends With a Flicker" ("Of All Possible Worlds," Galaxy, 1956) -- Yet another "change the present through time travel" yarn, this one involving two different unpleasant futures which keep changing themselves into the other one. Not as silly as some, not as serious as others.

"Lisbon Cubed" (Galaxy, 1958) -- A guy winds up getting mixed up with all kinds of alien spies disguised as humans, and finds out that Earth is just a very minor part of an extremely complex interstellar war. Darkly comic.

"The Masculinist Revolt" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1965) -- Wild satire of the war between the sexes shows us an androgynous near future where an attempt to return to male domination begins with the return of the codpiece. The author's poison pen spares neither feminists nor male chauvinists.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Alexander the Bait" (Astounding, 1946) -- The author's first published story relates how a great, wealthy engineer forces the world to promote space travel by exploiting their greed. Reads like Heinlein with a satiric edge.

"The Last Bounce" (Fantastic Adventures, 1950) -- Action-packed space opera in which explorers try to escape a mysterious menace in deep space. Adds a bit of character depth to a typical adventure yarn.

"She Only Goes Out at Night . . ." (Fantastic Universe, 1956) -- The son of a country doctor falls in love with a vampire. Surprisingly, this story is neither horror nor comedy, but a rather sweet, charming little love story.

"My Mother Was a Witch" (P.S., 1966) -- Not fantasy at all, and possibly not even fiction. (It was published in a nostalgia magazine which was very briefly put out by the folks at F&SF. Amusingly, the acknowledgements page of the paperback claims it appeared in Planet Stories -- I guess they got mixed up by the name of the obscure publication P.S..) Anyway, the narrator (the author?) tells us how his mother traded elaborate spoken curses with other Jewish immigrants in the early part of the 20th century. Cute.

"The Jester" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, 1951) -- Screwball comedy in which a joke-writing robot decides to deliver its own material. Interesting mostly for the way in which the author extrapolates early television into the future.

"Confusion Cargo" (Planet Stories, 1948) -- Mutiny in space yarn with the odd twist that, due to the treason of "feminists" in a previous space war, it's illegal for women to be aboard military spaceships. As far as I can tell, this detail is included only for the corny twist ending. Not the best story this author ever wrote.

"Venus is a Man's World" (Galaxy, 1951) -- Another "war between the sexes" story. In this one, women are politically dominant on Earth, and the real he-men go to Venus, and Earth women have to go to Venus to find husbands. Not as clever a use of this theme as "The Masculinist Revolt."

"Consulate" by (Thrilling Wonder Stories, 1948) -- A couple of guys on a fishing trip get swept up by an alien thing and are taken to Mars so that one can serve as the local representative to the super-advanced aliens. (The local Martians are only five times as advanced as humans.) Silly farce.

"The Lemon-Green Spaghetti-Loud Dynamite-Dribble Day" ("Did Your Coffee Taste Funny This Morning?," Cavalier, 1967) -- Relates what happens when LSD gets into the New York water supply. Wild enough, but without any real conclusion.

 

[Kyza]

What actually constitutes as a short story? Because I would consider Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle to be short, that is, in comparison to other stories that I have read.

Anyway;

This is arguably the first book I read the way through, and it's actually what interested me in reading. I read this as a youngster and actually believed every single world to be non-fiction up until the end when I realised that .... well actually I won't reveal for those who haven't read, but for those who have - until he opened the hatch of the bunker and found ice-9 on the floor...

But this interested me so much because of the science behind it, and most prominently, like to make myself feel intelligent haha!

Has anyone else read it?

 

[J-Sun]

What actually constitutes as a short story? Because I would consider Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle to be short, that is, in comparison to other stories that I have read.
...
Has anyone else read it?

There can be a lot of debate but in simple terms, strictly speaking, a short story is a few pages of prose fiction focusing on a single character, incident, effect, etc. But more general usage is in the sense of "short fiction": "any prose fiction that's shorter than a novel" and that's defined by the SFWA as 40K words (which Cat's Cradle exceeds, so is not a short story) and is generally in that ballpark for most other word-limit definitions. This includes novellas (17.5-40K) and novelettes (7.5-17.5K) as well as actual "short stories" (less than 7.5K).

As far as Cat's Cradle itself, I've read it and recall enjoying it but it's been a really long time. (But, as I say, I'd figure it's off-topic here. I think there's a thread somewhere already devoted to it or at least there's certainly a Vonnegut thread somewhere.)

 

[Kyza]

That definition helps so much! Thankyou for that, and I may look for the Cat's Cradle thread, I enjoyed it very very much!

 

[Bick]

I've been reading an issue of Galaxy from 1958:

The standard is pretty good, with some enjoyable stories from a few big names.

"The Civilization Game" - Clifford D. Simak. A decent story about humans on earth who have decided to maintain the human way of life in a cosmos full of aliens who are inevitably changing the human culture. But is the 'civilization game' working as planned? Nice parallels to changing societies at the time of writing. Simak writes well I think.

"Birds of a Feather" - Robert Silverberg. Light and quite jokey. This precedes Silverberg's best output by a decade, but he was always a good writer, and his stories are bouyant and entertaining. This about collecting aliens for a terran zoo - the extraterrestrials want to come to earth and signing up to the zoo is the one way to achieve the visit. Some nice twists and good pacing.

"No Substitutions" - Jim Harmon. This was the first story I've read by Harmon, although ISFDB tells me he wrote a couple of novels and about 30 shorts, mostly between 1954 and 1974. This wasn't bad; a bit like P.K. Dick-lite. Its all about dreams versus reality. What is real, what is a dream. The protagonist works as a warden for a "prison" where imprisonment means being put into an alternative reality dream-state. Quite good fun.

There's anoher short in the issue by Alan Arkin, but I've not read that yet.
Overall a decent issue if you can find it;I picked it up on eBay.

 

[Bick]

I seem to have killed off the Short Story Thread, possibly by confusing the server by not being Victoria!