The Short Story Thread

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Meeting of the Minds" (Galaxy, February 1960) -- An alien being accidentally brought to Earth from Mars winds up on an isolated island in the Pacific where a group of men are seeking treasure. The alien has the ability to share its mind with any animal it can bite, including humans, and its goal is to bring all life on the planet into one group entity, even if it has to kill those who oppose it. Reads kind of like a warm weather version of John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?"

"Potential" (Astounding, November 1953) -- A man wakes up alone on a starship with amnesia. He eventually finds out that he's the last survivor when the Sun went nova, but he can't remember why he was sent out to find an alien planet inhabited by humanoids. Interesting puzzle story.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Fool's Mate" (Astounding, March 1953) -- Super-computers make it impossible for a fleet of human starships to make any kind of move against enemy aliens starships without losing the battle, until another method is tried. OK puzzle story.

"Subsistence Level" (Galaxy, August 1954, as by "Finn O'Donnevan") -- A newlywed couple heads out to an asteroid as settlers of the new frontier. Mostly satirically describes their "roughing it," which we would consider luxury.

"The Slow Season" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1954) -- A tailor is paid a lot of money to make very strange clothing. Surreal little chiller.

"Alone at Last" (Infinity, February 1957) -- A guy who just wants to be alone heads off to an uninhabited asteroid with his robt servant. Ironic twist at the end.

"Forever" (Galaxy, February 1959, as by "Ned Lang") -- A scientist who discovers a serum that will greatly extend the human life span runs into folks who want to stop him. Starts off as an action story, winds up with an unusually historical point of view.

"The Sweeper of Loray" (Galaxy, April 1959, as by "Finn O'Donnevan") -- A couple of humans on an alien world find out the natives have a substance which will cure all injuries and extend lives. Features a lot of satire of the concept that humans are superior to aliens, as found in John W. Campbell's Astounding of the time.

"The Special Exhibit" (Esquire, October 1953) -- Brief tale in which an ornithologist takes his domineering wife to see an unusual exhibit at the museum. Pretty straight forward, and I assume the author got a lot more money by appearing in Esquire than a genre magazine.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Next up:

"Everywhere" by Geoff Ryman (Interzone, February 1999) -- A young man narrates memories of his relationship with his grandfather in a future of advanced technology. The copyright notes explain that this story was commissioned as part of a project to offer the people of the North of England visions of a better future, and it meets that goal. It's also an intimate tale of family. (The author does a pretty good job predicting the functions of a smart phone, although here it's a watch. Other predictions, such as personal wings that allow you to fly, haven't come true yet.)

"Evolution Never Sleeps" by Elisabeth Malartre (Asimov's, July 1999) -- Ecology students discover a change in the behavior of chipmunks. Done in a realistic, convincing manner, although one of the students makes a joke about "Attack of the Killer Chipmunks." The open-ended conclusion will make you wonder what's about to happen.

"Sexual Dimorphism" by Kim Stanley Robinson (author's collection The Martians [1999]; later in Asimov's, June 1999) -- A geneticist studying the fossil DNA of the ancient ancestors of dolphins has a bad breakup with his lover. Although this is set on the author's terraformed Mars, which has an ocean, the science fiction content isn't really part of the story. Rather it's an introspective psychological tale of the man's reaction to his loss and his musings on evolution and the sexes. Reads almost like something from The New Yorker of a couple of centuries from now.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Game of the Century" by Robert Reed (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1999) -- A legal technicality makes it very briefly legal to alter human genomes in the USA. Years later, this results in a handful of super-athletes with animal-like characteristics. The story deals with those recruited to college football teams. OK, but not up to the high standard I expect from this author.

"Secrets of the Alien Reliquary" by Michael Bishop (author's collection Time Pieces [1998]; later in Asimov's, July 1999) -- Brief prose poem about the discovery of an alien museum of sorts, which contains random things related to humanity. Told in an ironic manner.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Kinds of Strangers" by Sarah Zettel (Analog, October 1999) -- A NASA spacecraft sent to explore an asteroid is stranded in space with no apparent way to return to Earth, until an unexpected source of help suggests a desperate plan. Notable for being a hard science puzzle story with a lot of psychological depth.

"Visit the Sins" by Cory Doctorow (Asimov's, June 1999) -- A man goes to visit his grandfather in an institute, where he is one of several people with attention deficit disorder who was "cured" by an operation as a child, leaving him with the ability to "turn off" his consciousness while continuing to function in a seemingly normal manner.. A powerful story. Reprinted by Strange Horizons (March 31, 2003) so you can read it here:

Visit the Sins

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Border Guards" by Greg Egan (Interzone, October 1999) -- In an incredibly advanced future where immortals protected from all physical harm inhabit artificial universes, a comparatively young man (only a few thousand years old) encounters a much older woman who was alive in the days of death and suffering. As usual for this author, combines mind-blowing concepts with human emotion.

"Macs" by Terry Bisson (Published as "macs" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October-November 1999) -- Very grim satire of "closure" in which the clones of a mass killer (pretty obviously supposed to be Timothy McVeigh) are given to the families of those murdered, so they can be tortured and killed. A very disturbing story.

"Written in Blood" by Chris Lawson (Asimov's, June 1999) -- A virus is created which allows the Koran to be recorded in the DNA of the white blood cells of a Muslim who chooses to undergo the procedure. That's the speculative content, but the story also deals with both Islamic extremism and prejudice against Muslims.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Has Anybody Seen Junie Moon?" by Gene Wolfe (original anthology Moon Shots, 1999) -- Pastiche of R. A. Lafferty; there's even mention of a fellow named Roy T. Laffer. Anyway, it's an odd tale of a circus strongman looking for Junie Moon, who is seeking out the White Cow Moon, apparently another Moon which goes around the Earth in a low orbit because it's got a lot of mass but very little gravity, because it's half antimatter. Also involves Arthurian legends and Greek myth. Weird stuff.

"The Blue Planet" by Robert J. Sawyer (published as "Mars Reacts!" in The Globe and Mail: Canada's National Newspaper, December 11, 1999) -- Light, ironic little story about the Martians reacting to the probes sent from Earth. Cute.

"Lifework" by Mary Soon Lee (Interzone, June 1999) -- Set in a future where people have greatly extended lifespans and staying married is considered a psychological abnormality. An intimate look at a subtle dystopia.

"Rosetta Stone" by Fred Lerner (Artemis, Spring 2000) -- An information scientist goes to the Moon to investigate an alien library found on the far side. Quiet, open-ended, somewhat old-fashioned story.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"An Apollo Asteroid" by Brian W. Aldiss (Moon Shots, 1999) -- Complex, multilayered story set at a time when easy teleportation has colonized the Moon. Deals with what happens when an asteroid hits the Moon, but is not in any sense a disaster story. Requires close reading, due to multiple concepts.

"100 Candles" by Curt Wohleber (TransVersions # 10, 1999) -- On her one hundredth birthday a woman encounters her friends and relations, most of whom have made clones or computerized duplicates of themselves in which to place their consciousnesses. Well-written and intriguing.

"Democritus' Violin" by G. David Nordley (Analog, April 1999) -- In order to prove a music professor who does not believe in reductionism wrong, a pair of college students "borrow" his Stradivarius in order to make an exact copy of it with high tech. Also deals with the complexities of young love.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Fossil Games" by Tom Purdom (Asimov's, February 1999) -- Long, complex novelette (it seemed more like a novella to me) set in a future where people with greatly extended lifespans travel slower-than-light in asteroids to nearby star systems. When fossils are found on a planet of one of these stars, the conflict between two philosophies -- humans should keep enhancing their bodies and minds are far as possible, or humans should enjoy what they have -- breaks out into a kind of low-level, non-deadly warfare. The protagonist has to try to keep the battle from disrupting the society of the asteroid in which he lives. A fine story.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Valour" by Chris Beckett (Interzone, March 1999) -- Takes place in a future where a decoded message from the stars has revealed a three-part philosophy of the aliens. Instead of Good and Evil, they have Evil, Gentleness, and Valour. The story deals with the actions of a rather neurotic young man in a future Europe with a privileged upper class and an isolated lower class. (Like nowadays, I suppose.) Another story that reads as if it came from a literary magazine of the future.

"Huddle" by Stephen Baxter (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1999) -- Set something like a million years after a large object smashed into the Earth, creating another moon. The characters are seal-like humans, the greatly changed descendents of the few survivors of the disaster, who eke out an existence in extreme cold. Imaginative and intimate.

"Ashes and Tombstones" by Brian M. Stableford (Moon Shots, 1999, as by Brian Stableford) -- A couple of centuries after an ecological war nearly wiped out humanity (and a lot of other life), there are a few very old survivors (thanks to life extension.) The plot deals with a much younger man trying to convince one of the elders, who was involved with the last missions of the first space age, to show up for the start of the new one. There's a lot more to it besides that, with a secret project involved during the first one.

 

[J-Sun]

Review of Science Fiction by Scientists, Mike Brotherton, ed. is up on Tangent and, as it says on my slightly revised blog (still trying to get the hang of it), I recommend

• “Down and Out” by Ken Wharton (SF short story *)
• “The Gatherer of Sorrows” by J. M. Sidorova (SF novelette)

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Finishing up:

"Ancient Engines" by Michael Swanwick (Asimov's, February 1999) -- A robot has a discussion with an old man and his granddaughter about how one might go about achieving extreme longevity. Ironic ending.

"Freckled Figure" by Hiroe Suga (first published in Japanese in 1992; translated by Dana Lewis and Stephen Baxter and published in Interzone, March 1999) -- Tiny dolls representing characters in manga (or something like it) are brought to seeming life through high tech. The experiences of one parallel the experiences of the young woman who owns it. Seems very Japanese to this Westerner.

"Shiva" by Barry N. Malzberg (Science Fiction Age, May 1999) -- Brief tale of a guy going to talk to various famous people in history in a futile attempt to change history. Dryly ironic.

"The Queen of Erewhon" by Lucy Sussex (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1999) -- I reviewed this one a while back.

Creates a future where circumstances have caused the loss of much modern technology. An anthropologist from a slightly more technological society goes to visit one with less technology in order to study their custom of polyandry. She comes across two women who are lovers, and who have broken the rules of their culture. Reminds me of LeGuin. Definitely written from a feminist viewpoint, and with a great deal of gay content.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Starting reviews of this anthology of original stories (2004):

"The Battle of Space Fort Jefferson" by Timothy Zahn -- In the asteroid belt, a space station that has seen better days is scheduled to have the President of the World fly by, so a group of terrorists disguised as tourists board it as part of an assassination plot. The irony is that the station's many flaws, due to its age and neglect, help defeat the bad guys.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Redundancy" by Alan Dean Foster -- An accident on an Earth-orbit station leaves a ten-year-old girl alone in a module which is slowly losing its air. Rescue seems impossible, but help comes from an unexpected source. Intended to be heartwarming.

"Dancers of the Gate" by James Cobb -- A wormhole connects a human space station with an alien one, allowing them to exchange goods. When one of the vessels carrying cargo gets stuck in the wormhole, humans and aliens have to figure out how to work together to prevent disaster. Somewhat old-fashioned engineering problem story, with interesting otter-like aliens.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

How do you have time to watch so many films and read so many stories @Victoria Silverwolf? Teach me!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

It's called "goofing off."

"Mikeys" by Robert J. Sawyer -- Two astronauts setting up a station on Deimos, in preparation for those who will undertake the first Mars landing, make an amazing discovery. Realistic story (given the astonishing find.)

"The Franchise" by Julie E. Czerneda -- Some time before the story starts, people intending to emigrate to terraformed worlds had to remain inside space stations for many years because of the threat of an alien disease. Now they can emerge, and a group of them head to an unused station to bring it back into operation, leading to unforeseen dangers. Background more complex than the plot.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Follow the Sky" by Pamela Sargent -- The protagonist is first seen as a little girl whose mother is part of the underclass, and who makes a living through theft. The mother is arrested by the Guardians of the ruling class, and the girl grows up to be a Guardian herself. The real plot begins when she's an officer on a space station and is given a mysterious assignment. Sophisticated in its complex political background and moral ambiguities.

"Auriga's Streetcar" by Jean Rabe -- An elderly woman travels to an abandoned astronomical station on her one-person spaceship in order to salvage the stuff left behind, and makes more than one unexpected discovery. I could nitpick that the future technology doesn't seem much more advanced than that of the present day, but the station has artificial gravity that you can turn on and off easily.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Falling Star" by Brendan DuBois -- An elderly astronaut now lives in a world which has gone back to 19th century technology due to a computer virus which destroyed all high tech. An excellent humanistic story. Reprinted in Clarkesworld, so you can read it here.

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy

"Countdown" by Russell Davis -- The last human being aboard a space station about to be captured by enemy aliens has a conversation with the station's computer. Brief and to the point.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Serpent on the Station" by Michael A. Stackpole -- A Catholic priest on an interstellar station is asked to participate in a religious ritual during the birth of an alien. She (yes, she; this is a future where a woman can be a Catholic priest and be addressed as "Father") has to decide whether to follow the dictates of her faith or of her conscience. A solid story.

"First Contact Cafe" by Irene Radford -- The alien proprietor of a station full of different species welcomes the first human to arrive. This is the kind of silly comedy I don't care for. The human is a stereotypical Texan, and the space station is pretty much just a saloon.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Orbital Base Fear" by "Erik Kotani" (Yoji Kondo) -- Two rival missions to Mars have to work together when disaster strikes. The author is an astrophysicist, so all the space travel stuff seems realistic. However, the story is written in an amateurish style. Long paragraphs of heavy exposition, characters saying to each other "As you know," and awkward synonyms for "said."