The Short Story Thread

"The Last Lonely Man" by John Brunner (New Worlds, May 1964) -- An interesting, if implausible, technology that allows the mind of one person to enter the mind of another at death is at the heart of this study of a desperate man and the lengths he will go to to make sure he will be able to use this technique. Not bad.

"The Star Party" by Robert Lory (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1964) -- A mystic at a cocktail party who can tell the astrological sign of anyone just by observing is baffled by one particular woman. The reason may seem a bit silly.
 
Finishing up after a week away from the computer, so my memory of these stories may not be all it should be:

"The Weather in the Underworld" by Colin Free (Squire, June 1964) -- Australian story which might be described as a horrible utopia or a pleasant dystopia. Anyway, it's a well-written description of people in a luxurious but imprisoning underground society.

"Oh, to be a Blobel!" by Philip K. Dick (Galaxy, February 1964) -- An early example of PKD's theme of what it means to be human, but told as a dark comedy. A human who was transformed into an amoeba-like alien in order to be a spy gets married to an alien who was transformed into a human for the same reason. Then things get complicated. Detailed discussion here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh,_to_Be_a_Blobel!

"The Unremembered" by "Edward Mackin" (New Worlds, March 1964) -- As I feared, I have completely forgotten (!) this one, so I'll just mention that the author is much better known as mystery writer Ralph McInerny.

"What Happened to Sergeant Masuro?" by Harry Mulisch (published in Dutch in the author's collection in 1957) -- Something very strange happens to a Dutch soldier in New Guinea. Reads more like fantasy to me. Apparently the author is considered one of the greatest Dutch writers.

"Now is Forever" by Thomas M. Disch (Amazing, March 1964) -- Very dark story shows how the world changes completely when a device that can duplicate anything is invented. Quite compelling.

"The Competitors" by Jack B. Lawson (If, January 1964) -- I have no memory of this one either.

"When the Change-Winds Blow" by Fritz Leiber (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1964) -- The narrator has a series of visions, including Chartres Cathedral, on Mars. Beautifully written.
 
Victoria, I always enjoyed the Wollheim and Carr World's Best SF Collections. I think I might have all the original paperbacks. It's been a while since I read them. Your insightful reviews certainly bring back memories.

Victoria Silverwolf said:
"The Unremembered" by "Edward Mackin" (New Worlds, March 1964) -- As I feared, I have completely forgotten (!) this one, so I'll just mention that the author is much better known as mystery writer Ralph McInerny.
Click to expand...

How ironic! Maybe you could try to unremember this one.

Victoria Silverwolf said:
"When the Change-Winds Blow" by Fritz Leiber (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1964) -- The narrator has a series of visions, including Chartres Cathedral, on Mars. Beautifully written.
Click to expand...

One of my favorite Leiber stories.

J-Sun said:
...And It Comes Out Here by Lester Del Rey - Free Ebook
Click to expand...

One of my favorite Del Rey stories. I'm also a sucker for a good time travel story.
 
I had a chance to review the latest, March/April 2016, issue of F&SF and, while the overall issue was fine, particularly liked "The Liar" by John P. Murphy and "The Silver Strands of Alpha Crucis-D" by N. J. Schrock.
 
Prayers to Broken Stones Dan Simmons

Songs of the Dying Earth Stories in Honor of Jack Vance Edited by george R . R . Martin and Gardner Dozois
 
Starting reviews from the anthology Terry's Universe (1988), edited by Beth Meacham; original stories dedicated to the memory of Terry Carr.

"House of Bones" by Robert Silverberg. The narrator, a man from the year 2013, is stranded in paleolithic times when a time travel experiment goes wrong. Notable mostly for the culture the author creates for the Cro-Magnons in the story.

"Kore 87" by Ursula K. LeGuin. A brief, dense, difficult prose poem narrated by what seems to be a modernized version of the mythical Persephone. I have no idea what the title means.
 
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"Slack Lankhmar Afternoon Featuring Hisvet" by Fritz Leiber. Innocuous title for a tale in which the Gray Mouser finds himself underground, invisibly spying on the antics of the rat princess Hisvet and her two servants (very much human women, despite being called rats.) These can only be described as lesbian BDSM fantasies, and the whole story is mostly elegantly written pornography, with a touch of horror at the end. Quite an eyeopener.

"Isosceles" by Kate Wilhelm. Not speculative fiction at all, this is a psychological story about a woman who "talks" in her head to the people who have died or otherwise left her, eventually coming to an epiphany about her former lover and her current husband. Would be at home in The New Yorker.
 
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"Transients" by Carter Scholz. The premise is that a group of young people become "unstuck" in space (as Billy Pilgrim did in time), suddenly finding themselves in various places in the USA. That makes the story seem more linear than it really is, as it's made up of multiple short sections from many points of view. Most of the characters are escaping pretty serious family issues, and the theme would seem to be the struggle to escape one's past. Somewhat overwritten.
 
"Le Hot Sport" by R. A. Lafferty. Typical outrageous Lafferty yarn in this tale of predictions of the future, rare and deadly sports cars, and various supernatural Romany lore. (I have no idea how much of this is based on real Romany lore, if any.) A wild and darkly ironic ride.
 
"The Lunatics" by Kim Stanley Robinson. Vivid, complex story of folks with their memories wiped clean who have been sentenced to the brutal work of mining the interior of the Moon. Creates a richly imagined future setting and a fast-moving plot.
 
"Deadboy Donner and the Filstone Cup" by Roger Zelazny. The pilot of a racing spacecraft swaps consciousness with an artificial intelligence. The plot may be cyberpunk, but the style seems to be a pastiche of Damon Runyon. Quite lighthearted in tone.
 
"Lukora" by Gene Wolfe. Explorers of an alien planet encounter the strange "Small Folk" who inhabit it. As with most of this author's stories, it's never entirely clear what's going on. Has the flavor of dark fantasy.
 
"At the Double Solstice" by Gregory Benford. Takes place in the far future, when a few remaining humans, living the life of pre-agricultural nomads, struggle to survive against the machines that rule the Earth. The discovery of evidence that humans used to build great things leads to a poignant conclusion.

"The Dance of the Changer and the Three" by Terry Carr (reprinted from the 1968 anthology The Farthest Reaches.) The classic story of an alien myth, and how the aliens can never be understood by humans.
 
The War Millennia - Brian Aldiss

Nice little story about a fututre where criminals are put into a sort of dream sleep and an overseer looks in on one man's dreams of his crimes. In the background of the story there is a war between humanity. 6/10
 
The first two novellas in the anthology Futures (2001):

"Watching Trees Grow" by Peter F. Hamilton. Creates a strange parallel history where a form of the Roman Empire still exists, most people live for many centuries, and technological progress seems to be much faster. The story takes place over a couple of centuries or so, as the narrator investigates a murder in 1832 (where automobiles are a new invention) which is not solved until 2038 (when a journey to a star ten thousand light-years from Earth is simple.) Although the plot is that of a traditional who-dun-it, the background is more interesting.

"Reality Dust" by Stephen Baxter. Lots of advanced concepts are tossed out in this tale set a short time after humanity has defeated aliens who took over the Earth, and who wiped out most of human history. Sections set in another reality, which seems fantastic or allegorical, alternate with sections set in "our" reality, where we slowly learn the explanation for the other sections. Quite a mindbender.
 
The next novella:

"Making History" by Paul McAuley. Takes place not long after Earth defeated various rebelling colonies in the Solar System. The narrator is a historian trying to track down what happened to the leader of the rebels in the city of Paris on Dione, a moon of Saturn. He gets mixed up with a beautiful, mysterious woman and the leader of the occupying Earth security forces. Not a bad page turner, although the stunningly gorgeous, manipulative woman seemed a bit of a cliche.
 
The last story in this anthology:

"Tendeleo's Story" by Ian McDonald. Deals with a young Kenyan woman in a near future in which alien nanomachines are changing the world. By far the best story in the book. A richly imagined and deeply characterized story which shows us characters of a kind not usually found in science fiction. A true work of literature.

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Moving on to the stories collected in The Haunting of Lake Manor Hotel (2016), edited by Nathan Hystad and Samanda R. Primeau.

"The Boy by the Lake" by Anna Dickinson. The author perfectly captures the voice of a troubled adolescent. The narrator manages to be romantic and sardonic at the same time in a completely convincing manner. The resolution of the plot is unexpected but entirely logical, and explains much about the protagonist.

"Forget Me Not" by Thaddeus White. This story creates a eerie mood from the very start, and the tension keeps building from there. A sense of unavoidable doom fills the narrative as the tale moves inexorably to its conclusion. By the end, we feel as if we have shared every moment of the protagonist's fate.
 
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"Dark Reflections" by David I. Thomson. Here the protagonist is forced to face the darkness within himself, externalized in a particularly disturbing form. A mood of incomprehension in the face of irrational events is powerfully conveyed. The conclusion makes it clear that this sort of unpleasant introspection may be a universal experience.

"The Lure of Light" by Scarlett R. Algee. The author creates a protagonist whose emotional chaos after a great tragedy is brought to life, so that every reader can empathize with it. The mixture of shock, horror, sorrow, guilt, and anger after such an event are brought to life, and we share the character's emotions. The ending suggests that not everyone may be able to escape from this storm of feelings.
 
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