The Short Story Thread

[Victoria Silverwolf]

On to this one:

(1971 American edition of 1965 British original)

"The Inner Wheel" -- Novella that takes up somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the book. Deals with a man drawn to a seemingly idyllic village which is controlled by a group of people with various psychic powers who act as a group organism. Sort of like a more sinister version of More Than Human. Intensely written.

 

[dask]

Who wrote this?

 

[johnnyjet]

Keith Roberts wrote "The Inner Wheel." I remember it well. Excellent story.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Thanks. Once again I forgot to put in the author's name.

I should note that the novella was later expanded with two other stories into the book of the same name.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Horizontal Man" by William Spencer -- In the far future, people are kept alive for a very long time in their degenerating bodies, and spend their time in what we would now call virtual reality. Not much plot, but an effective depiction of the theme.

"The Day Before Never" by Robert Presslie -- Grim story of humans who have to make themselves into ruthless killers in order to fight off the alien invaders. Plenty of gruesome action.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Hands" by John Baxter -- Humans come back to Earth after being held on an alien world, each one with extra body parts. Pretty much a horror story.

"The Seekers" by E. C. Tubb -- The crew of a starship whose captain has killed himself confront an alien object. Each one interprets it differently. Interesting multiple character study.

 

[J-Sun]

My review of Tor.com's October stories is up on Tangent and, while I have some reservations, I'd encourage folks to read "meat+drink" by Daniel Polansky, especially as 'tis the season to be scary...

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Atrophy" by Ernest Hill -- Satiric story set in a future where most people, with the exception of rare "Thinkers," do meaningless jobs and escape into simulated sensations. Structured like an ironic hero-makes-good tale.

"Advantage" by John Rackham -- An officer working on an extrasolar colonization project makes use of the ability of his aide to telepathically "feel" impending disasters, allowing him to prevent them. OK story which doesn't lead to a very strong conclusion.

And that's the end of that anthology.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Next up:

This is where things get confusing in this series. This American volume contains stories selected from three volumes of the British series of the same name.

"The Pen and the Dark" by Colin Kapp (from British volume 8) -- Part of the "Unorthodox Engineers" series. Here they investigate a gigantic alien artifact on a human colony world. A hard science puzzle story which would be at home in Analog.

"Gifts of the Gods" by Arthur Sellings (from British volume 9) -- Gigantic numbers of strange objects begin to appear in an English town. Their true purpose is unexpected. Realistically written, given the fantastic premise.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Long Memory" by William Spencer (from British volume 9) -- Takes place in a future where everything is monitored and recorded. The protagonist is the person who lives inside the gigantic storage area for all these data. Interesting, if a bit implausible at the end.

"The Man Who Missed the Ferry" by Douglas R. Mason (from British volume 7) -- Offbeat story about a fellow who casually walks across the water one day instead of taking the ferry; then the really weird stuff happens. Different, anyway.

"The Night of the Seventh Finger" by Robert Presslie (from British volume 7) -- A teenage girl encounters a strange being one night. Manages to be both darkly comic and oddly touching.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Six Cubed Plus One" by "John Rankine" (Douglas R. Mason again, from British volume 7) -- Several computer teaching machines come together accidentally to form a new consciousness, using a schoolgirl as their link. Bittersweet ending.

"Defence Mechanism" by Vincent King (from British volume 9) -- In the far future the inhabitants of an ancient, completely enclosed, gigantic city war against other humans and aliens. The narrator eventually learns what's really been happening. Interesting.

And that's the end of that anthology.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Next up:

Again, it gathers stories from various volumes in the British series of the same name.

"The Imagination Trap" by Colin Kapp (from British volume 10) -- Scientists and a psychologist investigate the strange and potentially deadly effects of a faster-than-light drive. An unusually weird hard science story, and somewhat difficult to follow at times.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Apple" by John Baxter (from British volume 10) -- Deals with a man who tunnels into a mountain-sized apple (!) in order to hunt down the semi-humanoid giant insect that lives inside it. Definitely different.

"Robot's Dozen" by G. L. Lack (from British volume 10) -- Comedy in the form of a series of letters all about a man replaced by his look-alike robot. Not that funny.

"Birth of a Butterfly" by Joseph Green (from British volume 10) -- Family of space explorers encounter alien life in the form of "butterflies" made out of light. Some imaginative concepts.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"They Shall Reap" by David Rome (from British volume 12) -- A family escapes the city to join a group of farmers in what seems to be an idyllic rural setting, but not all is what it seems to be. Effectively told.

"Shock Treatment" by Lee Harding (from British volume 11) -- One of the few "thinkers" left in a far future Earth where the lack of challenges has made almost everyone languid and absentminded sends people out to seek the "great engine" which runs the world. Interesting portrait of decadence.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Dead to the World" by H. A. Hargreaves (from British volume 11) -- Satiric black comedy set in a highly regimented world where a fellow is accidentally recorded as dead. Reminds me a bit of Brazil.

"Visions of Monad" by M. John Harrison (from British volume 12) -- An artist who feels overwhelmed by the complexity of the modern world spends two weeks in sensory deprivation, with strange effects. Reminds me a bit of Altered States.

"The Wall to End the World" by Vincent King (from British volume 11) -- Fast-moving, violent action story set in the far future where people live behind a gigantic wall, waiting for the sign that the world will end. The narrator finds out the truth about things.

And that's the end of that anthology.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Next up:

Once again, this American edition collects stories from various volumes in the British series of the same name.

"When I Have Passed Away" by Joseph Green (from British volume 15) -- Deals with an alien culture which seems very similar to humans at first, but later turns out to be one in which the females, at a certain point in their life cycle, grow to a very large size and eventually "die" to become a sort of cloud being. In addition to this, there's a lot of violent fighting among the huge female warriors. Not very elegantly written.

 

[Bick]

Where did you get all these Victoria? - in a used book store, presumably - you seem have found quite a few volumes.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

These were all from the book sale of a local library. They usually have several old paperback SF anthologies.

"Symbiote" by Michael G. Coney (from British volume 15) -- Takes place on Earth in a future when people have become attached to alien organisms who do the thinking for them in exchange for work and movement, leading to the loss of intellectual power. Effectively done.

 

[Bick]

"Symbiote" by Michael G. Coney (from British volume 15) -- Takes place on Earth in a future when people have become attached to alien organisms who do the thinking for them in exchange for work and movement, leading to the loss of intellectual power. Effectively done.

This sounds very interesting. You could substitute 'smartphone', 'the internet' or 'social media' in place of 'alien organisms' and it would have considerable relevance to the present day...

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"If You're So Smart" by Paul Corey (from British volume 14) -- Narrated by a mentally slow laborer, assisting neuroscientists performing experiments on cats, who has a form of empathy that allows him to perceive things in a strange way. Powerful story which reminds me a bit of "Flowers for Algernon."

"Testament" by Vincent King (from British volume 13) -- The statement of a space traveler who has found, after all the rest of the Galaxy has been explored, the first sign of another form of intelligent life. Reminds me a bit of "The Sentinel," but has a weak twist at the end.

"The Macbeth Expiation" by M. John Harrison (from British volume 13) -- The gunman among a crew of space explorers kills alien creatures encountered on a distant planet and later seems to be haunted by them. Rather melodramatic.