Author Topic: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories  (Read 28138 times)

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #120 on: September 13, 2017, 07:11:46 PM »
heading

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #121 on: September 13, 2017, 07:13:11 PM »
That link worked fine for me.  Good story, well told, kind of touching.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #122 on: October 10, 2017, 06:18:33 AM »
Something different in the land of short story SciFi. Amazon Prime will be airing a new series next year called Phillip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. Here is IMDB's page with trailer:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5711280/ Click on the Episode Guide to see the description of the upcoming episodes based on Dick's short stories. I don't recognize any of these, but then I only read a very few of his stories.



Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #123 on: October 28, 2017, 04:48:42 PM »
I am trying catch up on some of the short stories I downloaded quite a while ago.

This one, by Dallas McCord Reynolds is called Ultima Thule I downloaded mine from Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30334 It is about a guy who is hired by a little known government agency to track down a person named Tommy Paine (named after Thomas Paine of Common Sense fame) who has supposedly been encouraging insurrections, wars, and the like on many planets. It is about 82 pages.

The other, is Thin Edge by Randall Garrett, where a guy from the asteroid belt is on Earth investigating the disappearance of a friend. This one is about 24 pages. Another Project Gutenberg find http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30869 it is also available free on Amazon.

Both are light, with a bit of humor. I enjoyed them very much.

Oh, I did a little research on the meaning of Ultima Thule since I thought that is what Iceland is sometimes called. Iceland is simply Thule, and Ultima Thule refers to Greenland. Also, the term was used in Medieval times and before to indicate those places beyond the known world.

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #124 on: November 04, 2017, 09:26:45 PM »
I enjoyed Thin Edge too.  Ultima Thule will have to wait until I'm caught up in Barchester Towers.

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #125 on: November 07, 2017, 08:25:42 PM »
In choosing stories to post here, I try to cover a wide spectrum of past and present, realistic and fantastical, hard science, and science only as a background, to show the great variety of this field.  The hardest of hard sci-fi authors I can think of is Hal Clement.  With him, it's all about physics, with characterization lagging well behind.  A typical scene has characters of various species brainstorming together about the physics of the current disaster.  I couldn't find anything of his online; either the copyrights are tightly held or no one bothers, but I did find this interesting list of Top 10 but Obscure Science Fiction Novels.  The description of Iceworld is accurate both for the book and for what Clement's stories are like.

That's the only one of the 10 I've read.  I remember the existence of the Leinster, but didn't read it, and have heard of Eric Frank Russell, but the rest are obscure to me at least.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #126 on: November 21, 2017, 06:48:19 AM »
Early Ray Bradbury efforts. https://www.theverge.com/2013/8/22/4647008/read-futuria-fantasia-ray-bradbury-early-science-fiction-zine

The article has links to the Project Gutenberg issues and to Open Culture's audio of the first issue.

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #127 on: December 04, 2017, 11:46:30 AM »
I finally got a chance to read Ultima Thule during the Thanksgiving Portland trip--very enjoyable.  I guessed part of where he was going, but not all.  Of course you wouldn't have such a high success rate of establishing new colonies, especially done by impractical groups of idealists, and it's hard to believe that there would be only one such complete sighting as described, but nothing's perfect.

My early exposure to Ray Bradbury consisted of reading some of The Martian Chronicles stories in popular magazines like Colliers and the Saturday Evening Post when they first came out.  The image of the blast shadows of the family on the wall of their still-functioning automated house stuck with me permanently.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #128 on: January 24, 2018, 12:17:43 PM »
I read "Transfer Point" by Anthony Boucher the other night and liked it enough to pass it on. It is a time loop story printed way back in 1950 in the November edition of Galaxy Science Ficition magazine. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51115


PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #129 on: January 24, 2018, 12:49:53 PM »
Glad you liked it, Frybabe.  I read it in Galaxy when it came out, and it stuck with me enough so I was glad to find it again and put it here.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #130 on: February 09, 2018, 05:14:11 AM »
Here is another SciFi short, this time a video, called The Time Agent. I do like Chinese SciFi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeSRwdq5M_E 

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #131 on: March 02, 2018, 05:16:15 AM »
I just got notification that Daniel H. Wilson, author of Robopocalypse and Clockwork Dynasty, has a new book of short stories releasing on March 6 called Guardian Angels and Other Monsters. I am a fan of his AI/Robotics based stories.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #132 on: June 06, 2018, 08:15:53 AM »
I'm glad I stopped in here this morning. I forgot about Wilson's book of short stories. Another thing to look up today.

I've just started Hugh Howey's book of short stories, called Machine Learning and Collected Stories. The first one, "A Walk Up Nameless Ridge" is compelling. His comments at the end of the story are equally compelling, thoughtful and philosophical. He took a story about something I thought wasn't very interesting to me and made into something much more. It isn't any wonder that I am attracted to his writings. If going through his Wool series isn't to your taste, I suggest reading Sand, Beacon 23, or The Shell Collector. Howey is an avid sailor and is still sailing the world on his catamaran. He keeps a commentary of his travels on Twitter. Maybe we will someday see a book or two come out of his travels. Last I heard he is off Fiji somewhere.

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #133 on: June 06, 2018, 07:50:01 PM »
Well, no recommendation more promising than your own. ;)

The Howey sounds promising to me.  I read the first Wool book, and had issues with it that left me not wanting to read the others, but I feel I might very well enjoy other stuff of his.  He writes well, knows how to hold your interest, etc.  And anyone who enjoys sailing is automatically a notch or two up in my estimation.  So I'll look for that book.  The library branch that's actually accessible to me has finally reopened from renovations, so maybe I can get it.

The Vor Game: I should have thought of this sooner, maybe it's not too late.  The strategies of the second half of the book don't make much sense unless you know the wormhole geography and what connects to what.  I can't imagine keeping it straight via an audiobook.  My paperback has a map that makes it clear.  Should I post a picture to help?  Or have you already finished the book?


Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #134 on: June 07, 2018, 06:56:21 AM »
Pat, The Shell Collector is a nice romance which features a future global warming coastal flooding effect. Sand is a future post-apocalypse or severe environmental scene; the characters are mostly scavengers who  have learned how to dive through sand to explore and scavenge from the buried cities below. Beacon 23 is focused on a man who suffers from PTSD who takes a job as a light beacon operator near a treacherous asteroid field. Howey focuses on the human aspects more than scientific aspects of his stories. His book of short stories are fascinating. Not all the stories, mind you, are of interest to me, but his explanations of what triggered the writing of them and what he, at times, hopes the reader takes away from them. One rather gruesome very short story was triggered by some ballet dance friends and his proclaimed struggle with an eating disorder. I would not have put that together without his explanation of how the story came about.

I am now on to Cetaganda , but it appears skipping the short stories and novellas (including Mountains of Mourning, Borders of Infinity and Labyrinth) shows me that I am missing something. Also, I thought Cetaganda was next on the list. I missed Mirror Dance, so that is now on hold for the audio version. It looks like I am next on the list for that. I might be able to get what I am missing through an ILL. I will also check Gutenberg to see where they are with the now copywrite free Analog issues, although I doubt Bujold's short stories will be included, it is worth a look.

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #135 on: June 07, 2018, 12:49:03 PM »
Cetaganda occurs next in time after The Vor Game, then comes Brothers in Arms among the full-length books.

The three novellas you mention don't all occur at the same time.  The Mountains of Mourning takes place right after Miles graduates from the Academy, and illuminates some of his motivations.  Labyrinth occurs after Cetaganda, is about a mission to Jackson's Whole, and introduces some characters who will reappear later.  The Borders of Infinity tells of Miles' mission to rescue prisoners of war from a Cetagandan camp, by a means that I found infinitely tedious and somewhat unlikely.  It explains why the Cetagandans are mad at Miles in the next long book, Brothers in Arms, but the book recapitulates enough to make sense.  The second and third novellas also appear in some of the combined volumes that are the current republishing, but I've only seen Mountains of Mourning in a hard to find trilogy, Borders of Infinity.  I finally found a used copy in Powell's a year ago.

Ethan of Athos has nothing to do with the main story, being a side solo mission of Elli Quinn, though you don't see much of her.  I thought it not very good.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #136 on: June 08, 2018, 07:09:36 AM »
Thanks, Pat. I was having trouble with the reading order.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #137 on: August 10, 2018, 01:30:10 PM »
PatH, in case I haven't mentioned, Jack McDevitt is coming out with a book of his short stories. It will release on August 31.  I am delighted to see that at least one of the stories is about his Alex Benedict character and another one or two about Priscilla Hutchins.

I did a little research and found out YEA! that another Alex Benedict book is in the works with a projected release sometime in 2019.


Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #138 on: August 18, 2018, 07:18:55 AM »
Coming out in September is a new anthology of classic SciFi stories written by women, most of whom I have never heard. I only recognize one short story that I have read (and possibly one other). I am including Amazon's site because it lists the story contents. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1598535803/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=publiweekl05-20

The publisher is listed as Library of America, https://www.loa.org/ From their "About" page comes what is essentially their mission statement.
Quote
...to curate and publish authoritative new editions of America’s best and most significant writing, including acknowledged classics, neglected masterpieces, and historically important documents and texts
I am happy to discover this resource.


PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #139 on: August 18, 2018, 01:11:57 PM »
That looks like a good collection.  I recognize 10 of the authors, many from my remote past.

C. L. Moore was the wife of Henry Kuttner, and they wrote stories both together and separately.

Zenna Henderson wrote some books and short stories about the survivors of a spaceship that crashed on earth.  They have various extrasensory powers, which they have to hide in order not to be persecuted, as they try to fit in, find each other, and figure out what role their gifts will play in making life better for earthlings.

Carol Emshwiller is the widow of classic sci-fi illustrator Ed Emshwiller, or Emsh.  I've read one or two of her stories.

I've read most of James Tiptree, Jr.'s stories, including that one.

And I've read that LeGuin story too.

I've read the Judith Merril story too, if it's the one I think it is.

I find Marion Zimmer Bradley fairly unreadable, and Kate Wilhelm and Joanna Russ are mostly just names to me.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #140 on: August 18, 2018, 03:57:30 PM »
I liked A Door Through Space a lot, but it is practically the only one I remember reading. I was hoping to find some sequels, but no go.  I think I read  The Color of Space too, but I do not remember a thing about it. I just noticed that Wikipedia says that two of Bradley's children accused her of child sexual abuse. UGH! I had earlier seen that she had been accused of being abusive, but I never before saw the word sexual attached to it.


Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #141 on: September 05, 2018, 05:45:38 PM »
Pat, I liked Komarr better than I thought. Now it is on to A Civil Campaign which sounds a bit over the top, but hey, it was one of the series that got several nominations for awards. Bujold sure knows how to keep things interesting, even if the synopsis of the book doesn't make it sound that interesting. This book and an old Jack McDevitt stand alone is on hold at the library. They should be ready to pick up Friday.

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #142 on: September 06, 2018, 07:25:40 AM »
Bujold says somewhere that A Civil Campaign is deliberately goofy, and that's particularly true of one of the story lines.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #143 on: October 05, 2018, 07:31:15 AM »
New book due to release on the 23rd, Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee, a biography about John W. Campbell, Jr. and his relationship with Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard. Sounds interesting.


PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #144 on: October 05, 2018, 01:42:49 PM »
That would indeed be interesting.  At the time, I didn't like the way Astounding veered under his direction--too much psi phenomenon stuff.  But he printed good stuff too.  The book will have lots of stuff of interest to me.

I'll see if my library gets it.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #145 on: April 10, 2019, 07:58:12 AM »
I discovered this on YouTube and just loved it. The author, who bills himself as Exurb1a and Exurb2a, has several books of short stories out on Kindle and has posted readings of some of them on YouTube. I plan on ordering at least one of his books soon. Maybe one day the author will reveal his name. The author appears to live in Sofia, Bulgaria and like reading and writing things with a leaning to the metaphysical. Here is "The Lantern":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um6cGuJ4mNE

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #146 on: April 10, 2019, 07:42:54 PM »
Good story, well read, and a nice variation on a classic sort of theme.  Thanks, Frybabe.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #147 on: April 22, 2019, 11:39:32 AM »
Forgot to mention, Pat, that I am trying out a free trial of Analog. I didn't have too much interest in the first several stories, but most of the rest are interesting.  Of course, I had to read Jack McDevitt's short story, "Tea Time with Aliens". It wasn't as good as I expected.

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #148 on: April 23, 2019, 08:59:07 AM »
Gee, it's been ages since I so much as held an issue of Analog in my hands.  I guess it's still one of the better ones?  When I was growing up, my father subscribed to just about every sci-fi magazine you could name, and I would gobble them up, but when I moved out, I mostly didn't get any, just read some when visiting my parents.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #149 on: June 23, 2019, 06:43:22 AM »
Just wanted to mention how much I enjoy The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year volumes edited by Jonathan Strahan. He seems to have outdone himself with Volume 12. So far I've read six of the first nine stories, skipped two, skimmed one. Tobias S. Bucknell did not disappoint. Nor did Linda Nagata and Yoon Ha Lee, whose story, "The Chameleon's Gloves", left me wanting to know more about the Kel and Rehan in particular. Rehan is referred to as them or they which is never explained in the story. I am almost done reading "The Mocking Tree" by Daniel Abraham, who is one half for the James S. A. Corey duo who write the Expanse series books. This is the first of his short stories I have read to my knowledge. Except for a short story by Alastair Reynold's, none of the other authors names sound familiar.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #150 on: January 12, 2020, 06:43:00 AM »
This is a most interesting short story called "All Together, Now" by Jason Hough and Ramez Naam and recently republished in Lightspeed.http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/all-together-now/ Human/machine interfaced war from a different perspective, it seems almost poetic at times.

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #151 on: January 13, 2020, 12:22:21 PM »
Wow.  Thanks for that story, Frybabe.  Yes, poetic at times, and memorable, and ingenious.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #152 on: March 26, 2020, 06:06:59 AM »
Finished listening to Proto Zoa, which is a book of about five or six early  short stories by Lois McMaster Bujold. Nice to listen to, nothing spectacular, but good, all of them.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #153 on: April 08, 2020, 05:02:50 PM »
PatH, I just finished reading two awesome short stories. "A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones" by Genevieve Valentine is about a guy who is an émigré to Europa. He is a communications technician on the night shift and communicates with a com tech in India as the Earth is being inundated with water. It is a rather poignant story with a rather startling ending given what is commanding most of the news today. http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/valentine_10_12/

The other is called "The Grinnell Method" by Molly Gloss. You may have heard of her as she native of the Portland, OR area. Here is a short bio including pix: note the one with Ursula Le Guin from whom she took a course years ago. https://www.mollygloss.com/about  The story is about an ornithologist studying birds somewhere around the mouth of the Columbia River during WWII. It includes sad bits, a mystery, and a young girl who shows interest in  the ornithologist's work  as well as the nature around her. This, of course, was back when women were still looked down on in the sciences. www.strangehorizons.com/fiction/the-grinnell-method-part-1-of-2/ Link to part two at the bottom of part 1.

These two are included in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven, edited by Johnathan Strahan. I hope you get a chance to read them. 

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #154 on: April 09, 2020, 12:41:28 PM »
Frybabe, I know Molly Gloss more for her fiction about Oregon, which is quite good.  The best is The Jump-Off Creek, about a solitary widow establishing a homestead in the Oregon mountains in the 1890s.  By that time, the lush areas were filled up--it's a hard life in a male-dominated world.  The book was roughly based on one of her forebears.  I recommend it.

The Hearts of Horses is about a young woman establishing herself as a horsebreaker in 1917, when most of the men were off fighting, so a woman had a chance at such a job.

The Dazzle of Day is sci-fi, a tale of a colony ship that's going to take generations to reach its destination.

Wild Life is fantasy, about a woman lost in the woods, rescued by a Sasquatch-like creature, who lives among these for a while, acquiring their way of life, and then has to readjust to the human world.

Those stories sound good.  I'll have a look after lunch.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #155 on: April 11, 2020, 06:21:02 AM »
Pat, I am adding Ken Liu's short story, " Mono no aware", to my short list of fabulous stories in Strathan's volume VII. In fact, I would put this one, if asked for a list of must read short stories, at or near the top of the list. It struck me as profound, a life-lesson, a life philosophy that should be on a required or included on a list of short-stories to read before you die (or more like, graduate high school/college). http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/mono-no-aware/ It was the Hugo Award winner in 2012 for best short story of the year.

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #156 on: April 11, 2020, 03:44:35 PM »
Wow!  That's powerful, overwhelming.

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #157 on: May 17, 2020, 06:48:20 AM »
Project Gutenberg has been listing a bunch of short stories from Planet Stories magazine. I never heard of it, but it was around long enough to publish 71 issues between 1939 and 1955. The stories I looked at so far have not appealed to me. Wikipedia says that it initially published stories to appeal to youngsters, which may have something to do with it, or it could be that I just have not been real interested in reading older works lately.

PatH

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #158 on: May 17, 2020, 11:27:00 AM »
I never heard of Planet Stories either.  It must have been pretty minor, because my father never subscribed to it, and he got just about every s-f magazine worth reading. 

Frybabe

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Re: Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories
« Reply #159 on: June 20, 2020, 06:40:28 AM »
A new book of short stories, To Hold Up the Sky by Cixin Liu, will be released in October. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250306081