Weird, wacky and imaginative SFF short stories?

[Ring Ring]

So, I was looking through this Japanese light novel blog, and discovered an author named Ryohgo Narita who writes a bunch of weird, crazy short stories, such as one about an alien ninja born in a bamboo shoot and a war between science and magic zombies. Unfortunately, you can't get them in English.

I've been looking for authors like this for a long time. Authors that take SFF and just RUN with it. A sort of Twilight Zone approach, even. Not necessarily something funny, but something imaginative.

I have Harlan Ellison, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury so far.

 

[J-Sun]

Cordwainer Smith, PKD, Lethem (I've only read one novel but, if his stories are anything like it, he'd qualify), Rucker. Many others that will occur to me as soon as I post. I mean, SF authors have to be weird, wacky, and imaginative by definition, really, but I'm guessing you mean people who consistently refuse to write straight.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Thomas M. Disch comes to mind, and Spider Robinson might fill the bill as well. Not sure how wacked-out you want.

 

[jojajihisc]

Maybe Stanislaw Lem, Jeff VanderMeer, Ian McDonald, Zelazny, Sturgeon.

 

[D_Davis]

Check these out:

 

[Diggler]

All of the greats have written some oddball SF shorts, though the most notable to me would be Philip K. Dick (as mentioned by J-Sun). One particular short story I liked was Edmund Cooper's Nineteen Ninety-Four, in his short story collection Voices in the Dark. It was a parody of consumerism gone mad, where Government employees audit peoples homes, smashing outdated products with powered sledgehammers.

 

[J-WO]

Norman Spinrad's Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde.

Jerry Cornelius (A Michael Moorcock character Spinrad borrows) gets mixed up in an Opium deal between Mao Tse Tung's China and the Hollywood Mafia. The trouble really starts when 200 geriatric Mongolian warriors ride in to nix the deal. With, er, hilarious consequences.

 

[Fried Egg]

Ted Chiang writes great short stories, if you're looking for something modern as well as deeply imaginative.

 

[Connavar]

Victoria by Paul Di Flippo if you want more contemporary weird short story.


You want the old greats look PKD,Jack Vance,Sturgeon,Zelazny.

Dying Earth Tales by Vance if you want weird,different fantasy short stories,novellas.

 

[J Riff]

Sheckley, Brown, Tenn.

 

[dwndrgn]

You could try Nancy Fulda - her short stories aren't completely wacky but she does take an idea and run with it. Read Backlash for a taste.

 

[D_Davis]

Ted Chiang writes great short stories, if you're looking for something modern as well as deeply imaginative.

I've never read Chiang; I'll have to check him out.

 

[Fried Egg]

I've never read Chiang; I'll have to check him out.

I've only read two of his stories but they were both excellent and from his collection entitled "Stories of Your Life and Others". Given you're appreciation of Rudy Rucker I would definitely recommend him to you since Chiang is another SF author with a math/computing background.

 

[D_Davis]

I've only read two of his stories but they were both excellent and from his collection entitled "Stories of Your Life and Others". Given you're appreciation of Rudy Rucker I would definitely recommend him to you since Chiang is another SF author with a math/computing background.

Nice!

Stories of Your Life and Others is at a used book store I go to - just saw it this weekend, almost picked it up (liked the cover, and it sounded interesting).

Thanks for the rec.

 

[jojajihisc]

Chiang is excellent and one of my favorite short story writers right now along with Greg Egan and a few others. I think of his stories more so for scientific esoterica and precision and the careful way in which they are written more than them being weird or wacky, they are certainly imaginative though, and a great recommendation nonetheless. You can also read many of his stories for free online even his most recent The Lifecycle of Software Objects which was a Nebula nominee.

 

[blacknorth]

Mm, surely R.A. Lafferty is the king of weird in sf short story form.

 

[dask]

Good suggestions but give John Sladek a try.

 

[Waiting]

Miles J. Breuer - "The Gostak and the Doshes"

Philip K. Dick wrote some short stories.

 

[nomadman]

Mm, surely R.A. Lafferty is the king of weird in sf short story form.

Absolutely. I was just going to mention him myself. His collection Nine Hundred Grandmothers contains some excellent and very surreal stories, in the dreamlike "surreal but sort of still makes sense", kind of way. Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne is a hilarious take on the effects of tampering with the past and epitomises Lafferty's off-beat way of thinking about the world and its inhabitants.

Since I tend to associate their works as being similar to each other (in quality and originality if not in tone) then let also me mention Avram Davidson. He wrote a number of extremely odd and brilliant short stories throughout his career covering such ideas as the lifecycles of coat hangers, the effects of prescience on fashion, the nature of planetary societies formed entirely by inbreeding, and quite a few others that I'll leave you to experience for yourself should you choose to read him.

 

[JustPassingThrough]

I just a few weeks ago read my first Cordwainer Smith story and I agree that it was strange and weird but in a really cool way. I don't think there are authors our there right now writing like that, mores the pity.