GRRM Short Story Discussion Thread

[Bick]

I'll admit gave up on Game of Thrones after the third book, but I'm still enjoying reading GRRM's other work. His Wild Cards books (Edited) are good, but probably his work that has garnered the most major awards over the last 50 years are his science fiction short stories.

This week I read the short stories With Morning Comes Mistfall, and also Override from the original Analog magazines where they were first published. Both were very good, with Mistfall being the superior story (it was nominated for the Hugo in 1974). Override was a blast though - a really neat idea.

His most well regarded short stories are perhaps:

With Morning Comes Mistfall (1973) - Hugo award runner-up
A Song for Lya (1974) - Hugo award winner
The Storms of Windhaven (1976) - Locus award winner, Hugo award runner-up
And Seven Times Never Kill a Man (1975) - Hugo and locus awards nominee
The Way of Cross and Dragon (1979) - Hugo award winner
Meathouse Man (1976) - Locus award nominee
Sandkings (1979) - Hugo award winner
Nightflyers (1980) - Locus award winner, Hugo award nominee
Unsound Variations (1982) - Hugo award nominee
The Monkey Treatment (1983) - Hugo and Locus awards nominee
Portraits of His Children (1985) - Nebula award winner and Hugo award runner-up
The Blood of the Dragon (1996) - Hugo and Locus awards winner (a Song of Ice & Fire story)

What are your favourite George Martin short fiction pieces, either from the list here, or any other stories that you've particularly enjoyed?

 

[Topher]

I really enjoyed a song for lya.

i also enjoyed the four short stories collected together as Tuf Voyaging, which are fun and light hearted but with some interesting ideas.

 

[Bick]

I really enjoyed a song for lya.

i also enjoyed the four short stories collected together as Tuf Voyaging, which are fun and light hearted but with some interesting ideas.

I’ll keep an eye out for Tuf Voyaging.

 

[Bick]

I just read A Song for Lya, from the original issue of Analog in which it appeared (June 1974). Terrific story, full of depth and nuance, but also terrifically plotted and with good pace. One of the best SF novellas I’ve read in the last few years. I always enjoy it when authors reference other works of literature too, such as here, where Martin references Matthew Arnold’s 19th century poem Dover Beach, and its line And we are here as on a darkling plain.

The story concerns two telepaths who arrive at a world where the indigenous people give up life to ‘join the union’, by accepting death from a gelatinous parasite. This cultural suicide would be accepted as a strange alien custom by the human colonists, except that humans are starting to take the same path. The telepaths are brought in to try and find out why and stop the worrying trend.

Well worth reading if you can find it.

 

[Dave Vicks]

I liked Martin's SANDKINGS short Story.

 

[Bick]

I liked Martin's SANDKINGS short Story.

Thanks Dave- I've heard good things about it of course, but have not run it to ground yet, and haven't read it. I see it was first published in Omni - I've been meaning to try and source some of these magazines, so this maybe a good reason to do so.

 

[Dave Vicks]

The New Outer limits Filmed The Sandkings.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Amazon has both.