The Short Story Thread

[Fried Egg]

Lost of good stories in "The Solaris book of new Science Fiction: Volume 3" so far but one that really grabbed me was "Providence" by Paul Di Filippo.

A future in which AI has taken over earth and wiped out humanity only to find out that many things that humans (who they call Carnals) produced they don't know how to make themselves and are in ever dwindling supply, such as engine coolant and an addictive drug like thing they call "Spiral"...

Also an excellent story called "Carnival Night" by Warren Hammond. A crime noir story in a futuristic SF setting.

 

[GOLLUM]

Lost of good stories in "The Solaris book of new Science Fiction: Volume 3" so far but one that really grabbed me was "Providence" by Paul Di Filippo.

I've got a couple of Di Filippo stories in a New Weird and Steampunk anthology and been quite impressed with his apparent versatility as a writer.

I've had my eye on his Steampunk Trilogy for a while now. I wonder if anyone here has read it?

 

[Fried Egg]

Hmmm...I just remembered I've read another story of his called "Jack Neck and the Worry Bird". Although I really didn't get on with that one...

 

[dask]

I've got a couple of Di Filippo stories in a New Weird and Steampunk anthology and been quite impressed with his apparent versatility as a writer.

I've had my eye on his Steampunk Trilogy for a while now. I wonder if anyone here has read it?

He wrote a sequel to the film CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON which I read a few years ago for Halloween. Thought it was pretty good. Contains the most ingenious time machine I've come across since Charles Eric Maine's "Highway J".

Finished the remaining stories in the January, 1960 issue of AMAZING STORIES. All six were enjoyable with the last two good enough to be included in a Best Of The Year Antnology: "The Perfectionists" by Arnold Castle, and "Man Made" by Albert R. Teichner. Never heard of either of them but they're now on my radar. Without meaning to take away from --- or diss --- Mr. Castle, Teichner may be the (slightly) better writer with the better story artistically, but I was really taken with the Castle yarn. Edgy and strange, almost like Twilight Zone but told in the controlled headlong pace of the superior Analog story, reversed reality untwists itself back to (almost) normal by story's end. Well done.

 

[blacknorth]

Contains the most ingenious time machine I've come across since Charles Eric Maine's "Highway J".

I've thoroughly enjoyed everything I've read by Mr Maine, especially his disaster novels - The Tide Went Out and The Darkest of Nights. But Highway J is new to me - has it been anthologised, or is it in an old back number you have?

 

[dask]

I've thoroughly enjoyed everything I've read by Mr Maine, especially his disaster novels - The Tide Went Out and The Darkest of Nights. But Highway J is new to me - has it been anthologised, or is it in an old back number you have?

It's in the anthology OTHER WORLDS, OTHER TIMES edited by Sam Moskowitz and Roger Elwood. The only place I've ever seen it. Noteworthy too is the longish sf story, "New Worlds" by Erle Stanley Gardner. Embarrassingly I've only read one Charles Eric Maine novel, but it was a good one: HIGH VACUUM.

 

[blacknorth]

It's in the anthology OTHER WORLDS, OTHER TIMES edited by Sam Moskowitz and Roger Elwood. The only place I've ever seen it. Noteworthy too is the longish sf story, "New Worlds" by Erle Stanley Gardner. Embarrassingly I've only read one Charles Eric Maine novel, but it was a good one: HIGH VACUUM.

Thanks, I'll have a look around for a copy.

I've read a few Maine. Those which stand out in my head, apart from the two I mentioned, are The Festival of Earth and The Man Who Owned The World. A couple of his novels were filmed - Spaceways and The Mind of Mr Soames.

It's always a joy to find one of his stories in an old magazine or anthology.

edit - just remembered The Festival of Earth is actually titled Crisis 2000 - the FoE is just something inside it.

 

[dask]

Thanks, I'll have a look around for a copy.

Here's what the earlier edition looks like:

Except for the Soames I can't say I recognize any of the other titles off hand. I'll start checking the "M" section at the used book stores in town next time I go.

 

[dask]

Here are a few Charles Eric Maine paperbacks I have. I tried to post more at one time, but if I attempted more than these two, stupid things would happen, like red x-es that wouldn't show picture when clicked or boxes appearing informing me these images have been moved or deleted from Photobucket when in no way they were. Strange. Two by two, that's all you get for now.

 

[dask]

More Maine 2 x 2 'cause that's all this particular thread will allow me.

 

[dask]

And my one Maine hb if Mr. Thead allows me.

 

[jojajihisc]

A Criminal Proceeding by Gene Wolfe - The insanity of a highly publicized and several years long trial is detailed. Complete with a stadium setting for maximum ticket sales. The story appears in the collection Storeys from the Old Hotel.

Even The Queen by Connie Willis - In a post-female liberation, world several women from one family get together to discuss the possibility of one of them joining the "Cyclists." And that is not a bike group.

 

[Connavar]

Even The Queen by Connie Willis i have read that story in 20 Years special of Year's Best SF.

Dont remember if i finished it though and not because of the very female issue of the story...

 

[jojajihisc]

Connavar - Which ones out of that collection have you read? I've read about half of them over a couple years span. Wolfe, Shepard, Kress, Crowley, Resnick, Bisson, Willis, Haldeman, Egan, Chiang, Kelly and Gloss so far. Favorites in bold.

 

[Connavar]

Connavar - Which ones out of that collection have you read? I've read about half of them over a couple years span. Wolfe, Shepard, Kress, Crowley, Resnick, Bisson, Willis, Haldeman, Egan, Chiang, Kelly and Gloss so far. Favorites in bold.

Resnick story i enjoyed most. I was thinking in the back of my head i'm so tired of all these future sf stories about anglo-saxons....

Then i read his interesting African story which was new,thrilling to me as an idea let alone the quality of the story.

Haldeman's None so Blind was very impressive too. I'm not sure if i read half or more, i have to check which i read and get back to you.

 

[Fried Egg]

I've started reading "The Dying Earth", a collection of interconnected stories by Jack Vance. The second one's entitled: "Mazirian the Magician" and as I read it, I realised I've read it before in an anthology.

I really love that story and am thoroughly enjoing the collection in general. Vance breaks all the rules, characters and places just pop in to (and out of) existence as needed to move the plot along. He does not spend time constructing a convincing world nor worrying about how to fit the story to the world in which it is set. The world and characters are strictly subservient to the plot rather than, as is often the case these days, the other way around. I wish more modern authors wrote like this.

 

[Connavar]

I've started reading "The Dying Earth", a collection of interconnected stories by Jack Vance. The second one's entitled: "Mazirian the Magician" and as I read it, I realised I've read it before in an anthology.

I really love that story and am thoroughly enjoing the collection in general. Vance breaks all the rules, characters and places just pop in to (and out of) existence as needed to move the plot along. He does not spend time constructing a convincing world nor worrying about how to fit the story to the world in which it is set. The world and characters are strictly subservient to the plot rather than, as is often the case these days, the other way around. I wish more modern authors wrote like this.

I wonder what you will think of the world when you have read the other 3,4 stories in the book. Its like he doesnt care about the setting but at the same the world becomes vivid through the characters,stories.

Guyal of Sfere the last story in DE i have in 3 books at home. Two other masters of short novels type collections.

I enjoyed,remember best Liane the Wayfarer,Guyal of Sfere.

 

[Jojo999]

Recently I tackled a few Brain Aldiss books I last read maybe 40 or so years ago when I was a teenager. I was blown away with the quality of many of his stories in Starswarm and No Time Like Tomorrow.

The stories in Starswarm occur a million centuries in the future from when mankind began space travel. The stories are vignettes from selected "sectors" of the galaxy at that time. Considering that this book was first published in 1964, I thought Aldiss was incredibly creative.

The stories in No Time Like Tomorrow are not linked together in any way but stand alone on their own themes.

I enjoyed all the stories but I will give particular mention to two stories:

"* T" about a time in the very far future where there are only two races in the whole universe and one of them, mankind is expanding to other galaxies and threatening the other race. The other race sends a mission back in time to destroy the Earth long before before mankind has had chance to develop.

The story "Poor Little Warrior!" is again about time travel, but this time a hunter from the future time travels back to the age of dinosaurs to kill a Brontosaurus. Unfortunately, he makes a serious miscalculation.

 

[jojajihisc]

The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi - A story about an Asian immigrant writer in the U.S. working for a news media company who must find a way to improve the popularity of his stories. This is really a pretty conventional story that could just about be set in the present time.

podcast

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[jojajihisc]

Roadside Rescue by Pat Cadigan - A man meets an alien after his car breaks down and asks for help. Service is rendered.

podcast