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Worlds and Stories => Worlds & Stories Discussion Board => Topic started by: Songbird on April 30, 2021, 12:57:31 PM

Title: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Songbird on April 30, 2021, 12:57:31 PM

I've been thinking about what makes a story satisfying. I used to love reading sprawling epics, picking them over shorter fiction as it meant I wouldn't have to part with them so soon. That's been changing and I can't help but marvel at the skill involved in delivering a sense of resolution without solving all plot points and conflicts presented. It's fascinating how some can hint at so much outside at the scope of the story yet never feel unfinished.

Do you read short stories? Which ones are your favorites and what makes them so special?

I don't have an extensive bibliography of shorts I've read yet to reference. I tend to pick things from authors I already know and like. Many of these aren't even true short stories, they're novellas and novelettes. Mostly stuff from super prolific authors like Brandon Sanderson, with only a few from authors I came to know through their shorts first like Andrzej Sapkowski (the first books in The Witcher saga are compilations of short tales) and Isaac Asimov.

Then there are the shorts I came across by chance on the internet. These are the majority of what I read and I'm picking my current favorite to kick off the thread:

Ugly Mary (https://www.ofgeography.com/post/2016/05/01/ugly-mary)
by Molly ofgeograpphy

Theme - Weaponized ugliness in contrast to weaponized beauty
CW - death and abortion (mentioned, offscreen), verbal abuse, villainy up close
Links to read - 1 (https://ofgeography.tumblr.com/post/109834479431/glintglimmergleam-tumblr-overpraises-weaponized) (broken css style makes hard to read) 2 (https://www.ofgeography.com/post/2016/05/01/ugly-mary) (Missing first 3 paragraphs :()

First lines
when she is born, they name her mary. it means “bitter.” her mother–plain, unlovely–knows what her ugliness will mean. how it will feel. knows that ugliness makes everything harder, the mirror image of how being too beautiful makes everything harder. mary’s mother is unlovely, and she is happy, basically. she went to school, and they let her, not pretty enough to earn their scorn but too pretty to earn derision.

Thoughts on the story
The writing is so lean, nearly every phrase establishing something useful or advancing the plot. I love how compelling it is, to the point the lack of capitalization which would greatly bother me otherwise was quickly forgotten. The story isn't nearly as depressing as one could expect from the theme. Adding the rest under a spoiler tag not due big spoilers but to let those who like to go into a work with few expectations do so.

Spoiler: show

Sooo, do you have any rewarding short stories to share and pore over?

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: SkyWhalePod on April 30, 2021, 01:23:46 PM

Short stories are my absolute favorite form of prose! I have several collections in my (limited due to moving around a lot, most of my books are at my childhood home) personal library. Mainly science fiction and fantasy, some horror, one more literary that I haven't looked at much, a collection of Shirley Jackson stories, and Help the Witch by Tom Cox (who is a completely delightful UK writer who describes different British landscapes in totally engrossing and enchanting ways, and also he's funny and tells excellent rambly stories about wildlife and local folklore and colorful UK folks, I really think a number of people here would like him. You can find his recent essays for free on tom-cox.com (http://tom-cox.com) okay I'm done plugging).

Quote from: Songbird on April 30, 2021, 12:57:31 PM

Mostly stuff from super prolific authors like Brandon Sanderson, with only a few from authors I came to know through their shorts first like Andrzej Sapkowski (the first books in The Witcher saga are compilations of short tales) and Isaac Asimov.

Having read almost all of the Witcher books, I have to say that the short story collections are my favorite. There's a big satisfaction button in my heart reserved for twisted folk tales and fairy tales.

(I'm supposed to be working right now but I will read the story you've shared, Songbird, and respond! I hope other people chime in with their comments on it too. I have a very, very weak brain for literary/storytelling analysis, always have, and it doesn't stop me from enjoying things, but other people see depths I never see and it's very illuminating.)

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: thegreyarea on April 30, 2021, 06:27:58 PM

Well, I also love short stories! (and long ones, and mid-sized, and... you get it :) )

I shall check Songbird's suggestion. Meanwhile I want to answer the prompt of this thread and tell you about the last short story that I read, and it was... Today!

It's The Angel of Khan-el-Khalili (https://www.tor.com/2021/04/28/the-angel-of-khan-el-khalili-p-djeli-clark/), by Djeli Clark, that takes place in Cairo, but on a somewhat different universe... I enjoyed it a lot, and it's free to read at Tor.com

And speking about that publisher, there's much more to read there for free. Just go here (https://www.tor.com/category/all-fiction/) and check.
Of course they offer those freebies as a way to gain our attention over their authors and larger/newer stories, but that is up to each one of us.

I'll try to make a small list along the weekend to share here, and would love to hear more recomendations. :)

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: muidole on April 30, 2021, 07:14:43 PM

Two short stories that come to mind are The iHole by Julian Gough and There Will Come Soft Rains (https://www.btboces.org/Downloads/7_There%20Will%20Come%20Soft%20Rains%20by%20Ray%20Bradbury.pdf) by Ray Bradbury.
I remember reading The iHole some years back but have unfortunately been unable to find a version of it online. :( From what I remember, The iHole was a story about a guy who basically created a mini black hole, which was then sold as a consumer product. I don't remember much else about the story aside from that, but I remember enjoying it a lot.
There Will Come Soft Rains is a science fiction story about a smarthouse in a world tarnished by nuclear war. I enjoyed the imagery that Bradbury was able to depict in his story.

I also used to look through r/WritingPrompts (https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/) to find short stories to read. The basic premise of the subreddit is that people post writing prompts for other users to write short stories about. I like the premise as it gives a wide variety of topics and ideas, though the quality of the stories vary and parts of the plot may be spoiled by the writing prompt (depending on where the writer decides to take the story). I suppose a good starting point would be from the subreddit's top of all time (https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/top/?t=all) sorting, to see what prompts/stories people over the years have liked the most.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Keep Looking on May 01, 2021, 03:34:52 AM

The first story that comes to my mind when I think of short stories is Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart', which is a really good example of an unreliable narrator. Aside from that, I've got several short stories I've found online over the years that I've liked. Tumblr user Shanastoryteller's Retold Fairytales (https://shanastoryteller.tumblr.com/post/163122674945/shanastorytellers-retold-fairytales-masterpost) and Gods and Monsters (https://shanastoryteller.tumblr.com/post/163084184430/gods-monsters-series-in-chronological-order) series are ones that I've really enjoyed. Retold Fairytales are exactly what it says on the tin, and the Gods and Monsters series is Greek mythology retold in interesting/unexpected ways. It's all quite creative, and I like her writing style.

Additionally, I've found some good stories on the site 'The Wanderer's Library' (made by the same people who host the SCP foundation, users contribute the stories). Ones that have stuck with me are There is Dust on my Mind (http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/there-is-dust-on-my-mind) and Excerpt from a journal found in a brightly lit city (http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/excerpt-from-a-journal-found-in-a-brightly-lit-city), both by the same author, which I'd describe as gentle fantasy in a southeast Asian urban setting, with a very strong focus on the significance of place - how we interact with places, and how places interact with us. There's also A New Shade of Sky (http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/a-new-shade-of-sky), which is a scifi story from the perspective of somebody who chooses to stay on Earth.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: SkyWhalePod on May 01, 2021, 06:54:14 PM

There seem to be a lot of more informally-released works mentioned thus far. Do you guys tend to read more short stories written by strangers on the Internet, rather than physically published collections of short stories? (Which I guess are still written by strangers, but with some sort of financial exchange involved.)

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: thegreyarea on May 01, 2021, 08:05:38 PM

I see several interesting suggestions in this thread! :) How will I find time to check them all?

Answering to SkyWhalePod, I usually read short stories on physical books, and only occasionally on the net. I thought that speaking about those collections could be useful. So I'll go one at a time. Anyway I'm speaking about paperbacks that won't be very expensive to order, I hope, if any of you want to try. I believe you won't regret the money spent on any of them.

I'll start by an old one (first published in 1953), Expedition to Earth, by Arthur C. Clarke (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_to_Earth).
I can't talk much about them because I don't want to spoil anything... The stories sound, here and there, a bit dated. They were written just a few years after the end of WW II... but Clarke was more interested in exploring concepts and ideas than describing tech (or developing characters, one could add, but the short story format makes it less problematic).
I like all the stories in the book, but will underline the best ones IMHO.

This book includes eleven stories.
"Second Dawn" opens the book by throwing the reader inside the mind of an alien species that's facing a turning point in history. A fascinating example of Clarke's imagination.
Then comes "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth" where a young boy fully realizes his place in a large design, and "Breaking Strain", where two men alone in a spaceship must find a solution for a deadly problem.
"Expedition to Earth" follows, and this is one that I often remember when talking about short stories. I don't know exactly why, maybe it's the bitterness in the concept...
"Superiority" and "Nemesis" come next. Both are fine, but not that interesting.
"Hide-and-Seek" is more interesting. It tells the story of a hunted spy that tries to find a clever way to buy time until someone rescues him.
"Encounter in the Dawn", "Loophole" and "Inheritance" are also good.
The last story is "The Sentinel", that later would be the base for "2001".

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Vulpes on May 02, 2021, 09:54:57 AM

I am racking my brain trying to remember a title, and it's not working!

I had a sci fi short story collection, I think put out by some sci fi magazine or other, that focused on stories of survival - quite relevant to SSSS, come to think of it. They were all excellent. But I cannot for the life of me remember anything that would help me find the darn thing, or any of the titles. Except one: When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, by Cory Doctorow. But that hasn't helped me find the anthology. There were a couple of other stories out of it that come to mind more often, but I can't remember titles or authors. In one, some kind of wormhole appears in a fogbank somewhere near Seattle, and the story follows the fate of several people affected by it; another involves the brain-wasting disease kuru. If those ring bells with anyone, I would love to figure out who wrote them!

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: SkyWhalePod on May 02, 2021, 10:44:44 AM

Quote from: Vulpes on May 02, 2021, 09:54:57 AM

I am racking my brain trying to remember a title, and it's not working!

I had a sci fi short story collection, I think put out by some sci fi magazine or other, that focused on stories of survival - quite relevant to SSSS, come to think of it. They were all excellent. But I cannot for the life of me remember anything that would help me find the darn thing, or any of the titles. Except one: When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, by Cory Doctorow. But that hasn't helped me find the anthology. There were a couple of other stories out of it that come to mind more often, but I can't remember titles or authors. In one, some kind of wormhole appears in a fogbank somewhere near Seattle, and the story follows the fate of several people affected by it; another involves the brain-wasting disease kuru. If those ring bells with anyone, I would love to figure out who wrote them!

Vulpes, is it Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse? (I've never read it, I just went to Goodreads to see if the When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth page mentioned any collections, and that anthology was brought up in one of the reviews.)

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Songbird on May 02, 2021, 11:41:06 AM

Quote from: thegreyarea on May 01, 2021, 08:05:38 PM

I see several interesting suggestions in this thread! :) How will I find time to check them all?

My exact feelings. ;D

So many good suggestions, my solace is that being short stories working through them should be feasible.

I'll just add something SkyWhalePod brought to my mind by mentioning folk tales—of which I now I realized I've read many collections and certainly fit in the short story category.

There's a collection of translated German folklore I've read the manuscript some years ago I'm happy to see now was released in full in 2020. They have some running themes that stuck with me like hidden treasures with a penchant for sinking into the ground, half white half black maidens (literally a single color on each half), and of course... evil poodles.

What, didn't you know black poodles are the devil in disguise? :'D
Those tales read a lot like urban legends from 19th century. CW for things original tales usually contain like some lethal punishments and of course all sorts of easily tricked evil spirits being banished by displays of faith.

The name is Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles: Commentaries on German Folklore, by Jürgen Hubert

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Vulpes on May 02, 2021, 01:34:37 PM

Quote from: SkyWhalePod on May 02, 2021, 10:44:44 AM

Vulpes, is it Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse? (I've never read it, I just went to Goodreads to see if the When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth page mentioned any collections, and that anthology was brought up in one of the reviews.)

Good guess, but not the same anthology. This was the problem I ran into - the story occurs in so many anthologies! I wish I could remember the name or author of the story with kuru in it, that was was creepy-good. And I think of the one with the ferry in fog every time it's foggy, and especially when I take a ferry.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Sc0ut on May 02, 2021, 04:21:38 PM

I love short stories, as well as novellas and novelettes, I suppose - English is not my first language and I'm not sure where to draw the line between them. So I want to contribute to this thread, and I do have some things to say, with the caveat that I have read the things I will talk about a good while ago and have not revisited them recently, so you are effectively hearing the impressions of a younger me, who in a way used to be a different person (certainly less aware about things that I now would look at critically etc).

Some of my favourites

Some of the first I paid lots of attention to were Asimov's, who you've already mentioned. Growing up I was a huge reading nerd and I came across a collection of his short stories when I was around 12 or so - I remember being so surprised that he can set up something intriguing in barely 3 pages, seeing that I was used to longer books. The favourites I have as an adult are probably George R R Martin and William Gibson, who both write sci-fi, but different flavours of it.

GRRM's are mostly sci-fi horror (or at least lean in a dark direction) but occasionally have striking insights into human psychology beyond what you normally expect from the genre. "Song for Lya" is way up there in my top favourite writings ever, but many of the ones grouped in "Nightflyers" and similar volumes, as well as his Tuf series, are worthwhile imo (though warning for lots of gore and some unsettling adult themes, less so than in his ASOIAF books though - I far prefer his short form writing, and his sci-fi to his fantasy, for several reasons).

Gibson's short stories are varied, some are fast paced and action-y, other are downright contemplative and romantic. Something about them is very immersive. In most of them, I find a very understated bittersweet sadness related to living in a world that's exciting and stimulating, yet occasionally (or maybe often) still leaves you without the things you need or desire most. I find that very relatable.

Why do I think short stories work

I suppose I can't speak for others, but in my case, the fast paced writing makes me feel energised. Also, the frequent lack of descriptions when it comes to either large parts of the setting or the characters allows the reader's brain to fill in the blanks with what the reader finds interesting. For for sci-fi, this often means that the shorter the story is, the better it ages, because it avoids avoid describing too many details that become dated faster than the author imagined (whether it's technology or social norms).

A question

Many years ago I read a short story online. The main character is a woman, and we see her adapting to technology making leap after leap (including some that allow her, as well as other people, to have a longer-than-currently-possible lifespan, as well as interstellar travel), and who then becomes the first ambassador for an encouter with a species of intelligent extraterrestrial beings. I found it incredibly heartwarming because as you first start reading it, you fear it will be a sad story about someone dying just as humanity is about to take a big technological leap, but it doesn't go in that direction. Instead, technology helps her overcome her health problems, she becomes closer to her family who lives far away, and becomes more and more adventurous and curious about the world in her very old (yet more active than ever) age. It was very uplifting and probably the only explicitly utopic (no darker hidden side) story I've ever come across.

I can't remember its name or find it again. Can anyone help?

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Songbird on May 02, 2021, 05:27:48 PM

@Vulpes Is it Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth by Michael F. Flynn, published in Year's Best SF 12?

A Seattle ferry disappears into a strange disturbance, taking all of its passengers with it. The families of those who went missing try to cope, the city and others investigate, and scientists attempt to develop theories as to what happened.

I found this one by looking up "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" on isfdb (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?494091) then using the highly scientific method of googling each likely anthology + seattle. Struck gold in an off-and blog mention. :'D
Other possibilities would be stories that cropped up in different issues of the same anthologies in which the sysadmins story appeared.

Sc0ut Do you remember any other details? Like date range, likely sites where you might have read it, keywords in the story?

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Vulpes on May 02, 2021, 05:58:42 PM

Quote from: Songbird on May 02, 2021, 05:27:48 PM

@Vulpes Is it Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth by Michael F. Flynn, published in Year's Best SF 12?

A Seattle ferry disappears into a strange disturbance, taking all of its passengers with it. The families of those who went missing try to cope, the city and others investigate, and scientists attempt to develop theories as to what happened.

I found this one by looking up "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" on isfdb (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?494091) then using the highly scientific method of googling each likely anthology + seattle. Struck gold in an off-and blog mention. :'D
Other possibilities would be stories that cropped up in different issues of the same anthologies in which the sysadmins story appeared.

DING! We have a winner!

Thank-you, Songbird. I would definitely never, ever have remembered the title or author. You have more patience for googling than I do - I did a quick search and then decided I had better get back to what I had set out to do, calibrating some timelapse cameras I'm going to be using for field work. Field season is creeping up on me so I couldn't let myself get dragged any further into the black hole that is google! :'D

Next challenge... find the anthology. I doubt our local library has it, but stranger things have happened. Only a few of the story titles look familiar, it'll be quite interesting to see if I remember any of them. It's been quite a while.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Sc0ut on May 02, 2021, 09:48:38 PM

Quote from: Songbird on May 02, 2021, 05:27:48 PM

Sc0ut Do you remember any other details? Like date range, likely sites where you might have read it, keywords in the story?

Date range I'd say 10-15 years ago? The site was not somewhere I went regularly, I remember finding it randomly somehow. The page was black text on a white background without any banners or menu that I can remember. Might've been just a text file hosted somewhere. Content-wise I put about everything I remembered in my summary. The writing style was quite straightforward, I don't remember anything particular about it, nor any detail to latch onto really. I know there were grandchildren mentioned?... Sorry, I know this isn't very helpful.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Opaque on May 03, 2021, 02:33:48 PM

I have not thought about short stories since I was in school. I completely forgot that they were a thing. And now y'all got me hooked. See what you did? This is your fault.
... not that I'm complaining. ;)

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: SkyWhalePod on May 04, 2021, 06:43:09 PM

Re, what makes a short story compelling:

To be honest, the thing that first drew me to short stories was their literal brevity. When I was younger -- like, teenager into early 20s -- there was this sourceless, vague sense that I was supposed to Get Books on a Deep Level and Have Smart Thoughts About Them. And also this (again, sourceless and vague) sense that I was wasting my life if I didn't read at all, and (perceived) pressure to Read All the Recommended Things. I think that kind of anxiety exists for a lot of people who got good grades when they were a kid. You know, that "what if I'm unable to do anymore what I think people expect me to do and then I look stupid and people think I have no more worth" feeling.

Short stories were nice because they were digestible. I could read one quickly, minimizing the amount of time I spent feeling anxious that I wasn't Thinking Hard Enough, but still feel afterward that I had made some progress toward Being More Well-Read. They also give you quick exposure to a lot of different authors, if you're reading a variety anthology instead of a single-author collection. That made me feel a little better as well, like I was covering more ground that way. If anybody asked me if I had read Heinlein, I could say, "Oh yes, that one short story he had in The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Vol 1." Even if I couldn't have a smart conversation about it, at least I felt like I was In the Club. But still, that fear of not measuring up, not looking smart enough, the fear of feeling dumb while reading something that was supposed to be inspiring and impactful, poisoned how I read/thought about books for a long, long time.

(Wow, even just writing this reflection makes my chest tighten with stress.)

I still really appreciate the brevity and breadth of a collection of short stories, and would rather have a volume of short stories than any single-story book. A single short story, shared between people, is so much easier to sit down and read than a recommended book, so it lends itself to sharing. And a good short story has such a thematic purity to it -- instead of a piece of music, which a longer work of prose might be, the skillfully-written short story is a struck bell, or pair or trio of bells. Direct, clear in its vision (even if its final message is ambiguous, a la Turn of the Screw, which was wonderful), impactful. The poetry of stories.

I felt this way when somebody shared that Ursula K LeGuin short story in the Lovely People thread -- it struck straight to the heart of what it was saying by the end, and had at least two main facets that I kept going back and forth between.

It's very interesting to me, Songbird, that the thing you like is how a larger world can be hinted at by a short story without needing to be explored -- and Sc0ut, you've said something similar, that the lack of descriptive detail allows you to fill in the gaps in the setting yourself. The sense that I'm looking at just a piece of something larger/incomplete often bothers me, possibly because of that old fear of Not Getting the Whole Picture and not being smart enough to see it. But the way you talk about it, it makes a short story seem sort of floaty and gauzy, you know, a delicate shred wafting gently on a broad, undefined wind. (I don't really know how to describe it better than that, sorry, that's just how it looks in my head.) I would like to be able to appreciate that aspect of short stories someday.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Vulpes on May 04, 2021, 08:34:28 PM

SkyWhalePod, you describe my relationship to literature very well! :'D

I always put it down to being more interested in Science and Facts (which are not the same thing, despite what many think), plus I just wanted to enjoy the darn story, not dissect it. Um, which does lead me to question why I'm (sort of) okay with dissecting plants or animals, but that's a totally different topic.

All through school I hated English, because we'd pick apart stories and plays, and everybody else seemed to get it, but I just found it spoiled my enjoyment of the plot. Extra bonus, my SO has an MA in English Literature, and my stepdaughter got a BA in English Lit before becoming a vet - when they get going, I just tune out. I just cannot get into minute literary analysis.

I kind of suspect that this is why I enjoy web comics and graphic novels. When I read a novel I tend to race through it to "find out what happens", and miss important stuff along the way. If the important stuff is portrayed graphically, I'm more likely to catch it. And web comics, at least ones that are actively updating, force a slower pace and I'm likely to go back and look at earlier pages while awaitng an update. Short stories have some of the same characteristics. Yes, I can still race through, but then it's not as daunting to go back. Much easier to look for a detail in the first third of a 12 page story than a 600 page novel!

Another thing I've realised as I've been thinking about what makes a good short story is that I am much more open to challenging, dark themes in a short story. A good friend thrust a David Adams Richards novel at us. We both tried to read it, and we both failed miserably... because it was a miserable read! It falls in a genre that I think of as "Maritime Misery" - all about poor, downtrodden people who remain poor and downtrodden, exploring in unrelenting, excruciating detail all the reasons they're as they are. For hundreds of pages. But Those Who Walk Away From Omelas probably shares some thematic threads, yet I've read it a number of times, and enjoyed it. I have thought about and discussed the ideas that Le Guin presumably hoped that her readers would consider.

So, for me a good short story has all the elements you'd find in any novel, but distilled to their essence. I can "find out what happened" easily, but equally easily go back and find the details. Perhaps it's also easier to understand what the author's point was, when it isn't buried under a whole pile of descriptions, secondary plots, and peripheral characters. Sort of like this post, in which I suspect I've buried my point... but I'm afraid it's the end of a long day, so I'm not editing at this point!

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: muidole on May 04, 2021, 11:30:20 PM

Something that I like about short stories is that they are easy to read in one sitting. Reading longer stories has a higher chance of me putting it down and never picking it back up again due to a lack of motivation to finish the book. Short stories don't have that issue; I get to enjoy the plot and have fun without getting bored or worn out from reading it. I also agree with what others have said in that short stories can be more impactful due to their length than if it were drawn out across hundreds of pages.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Jitter on September 03, 2021, 09:57:27 AM

I just finished a collection of short stories by Carmen Maria Machado and wow! That was… I don’t know what it was, but it certainly was thought-provoking. It’s a collection titled Her body and other parties in English (I read the Finnish translation) and it has won the Shirley Jackson Award.

The stories haunt the darkness between magic realism and horror, with a hefty lump of SciFi and/or fantasy thrown into the mix and shaken vigorously. Many of the stories also have graphic sexual content so it’s for adults only. Several of the stories are more or less subtle body horror, sometimes wrapped up with sex. I think it speaks louder for readers with female-typical bodies, but then I have no experience in a male-type body so I don’t actually know.

My favorite story in the collection is the novella Especially Heinous, based on the episode list of Law & Order: SVU. It starts slightly surreal and proceeds to become quite a fascinating trip.

I’m sorry I can’t seem to get much said, as I don’t want to spoil any of the stories. But if you like subtle weirdness and twisted tales worlds, and don’t mind body horror and sex, it may be worth checking out.

Oh and BTW I don’t like horror because I can’t take it. So it’s not particularly horrendous horror, at least in terms of what scares me. It’s more eerie than scary.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: ohnosir on September 04, 2021, 02:00:16 AM

I highly recommend anything by Ray Bradbury. I saw the suggestion of There Will Come Soft Rains here, and that's really what got me into him. After that, check out Sound of Thunder. But aside from those you don't even have to be a sci fi fan, his short stories span a broad range of...really any topic, any human topic at all. And he could make a beautiful and heartfelt story out of two pages. If I was to recommend a book, it would be the Martian Chronicles, which is not a novel but a series of vignettes.
I would also recommend Harlan Ellison along the same lines, but he's the whole cynical negativity vs Bradbury's hopefulness. "Jeffty is Five" is a piece of art but a real goddamn heartbreaker

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Róisín on September 04, 2021, 04:13:49 AM

ohnosir, I totally agree about both Ellison and Bradbury. May I also recommend Fredric Brown, especially ‘Nightmares and Geezenstacks’ and any short stories by Shirley Jackson. Have you read Bradbury’s ‘Dandelion Wine’? Brilliant.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: ohnosir on September 08, 2021, 09:29:14 PM

Oh gosh, Dandelion Wine hits different. It's one of my favourites though. It is hands-down the best display of the nostalgic, emotional and yet fantastical power of his stories. I only rank it behind Martian Chronicles because 1) aliens and 2) the VISUALS of Mars
And I have a few Fredric Brown books somewhere I know...I inherited an unreasonable amount of sci fi/fantasy books from my dad a few years ago and I KNOW that name. Shirley Jackson, I love her stories, I've read them in several anthologies, but I haven't read any of her novels yet!

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Jitter on October 20, 2022, 09:34:36 AM

Here’s a brilliant and very short story They Are Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson (1991).

https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html

I want to dedicate this post to @thegreyarea

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: dmeck7755 on October 20, 2022, 12:03:22 PM

Quote from: Jitter on October 20, 2022, 09:34:36 AM

Here’s a brilliant and very short story They Are Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson (1991).

https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html

I want to dedicate this post to @thegreyarea

Jitter!! Thank you so much for pointing the story out. I read it years ago and recently was trying to find it. (I wanted to send it to a friend) I am *so* glad you had found it.

Thank you!!

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Róisín on October 20, 2022, 12:46:49 PM

Yeah, the Bisson story is chilling in its simplicity.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Jitter on October 20, 2022, 03:40:42 PM

Great! I’m glad you like it, and that it was useful! I came across it in a Facebook post and there were man comments exactly like ours, Grey, that the commenter remembers it from a long time ago and was happy to get back to it :)

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: thegreyarea on October 21, 2022, 07:20:31 AM

Quote from: Jitter on October 20, 2022, 09:34:36 AM

Here’s a brilliant and very short story They Are Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson (1991).

https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html

I want to dedicate this post to @thegreyarea

Wow, the meaty membranes that cover those gelatin-filled spheres that capture light and turn it in electric-chemical impulses openned wide when I saw that mention, and my sponge-like meaty brain jumped in excitement!
After that the spongy thing knew what to do! It ordered some articulated meaty parts at the end of the meat-bag forelimbs to tap several times at small plastic squeres on a machine* to convey the proper response:

Thank you!

Yes, it's complicated... But that's how meat works :)

*Uff, something that's not made of meat!

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: dmeck7755 on October 21, 2022, 09:17:56 AM

Speaking twisty stories :)

This one is one I happen to like also

The Road Not Taken
Harry Turtledove

https://eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf

hopefully the link will work for everyone!!

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Jitter on October 21, 2022, 02:15:37 PM

It worked, thank you dmeck! Great, albeit depressing, a story.

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: JoB on October 22, 2022, 05:19:50 AM

Quote from: thegreyarea on October 21, 2022, 07:20:31 AM

tap several times at small plastic squeres on a machine*
*Uff, something that's not made of meat!

So glad to hear that ...

https://www.deviantart.com/madzematix/art/Meat-Keyboard-574667239

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: dmeck7755 on October 22, 2022, 07:16:04 PM

Quote from: JoB on October 22, 2022, 05:19:50 AM

So glad to hear that ...

https://www.deviantart.com/madzematix/art/Meat-Keyboard-574667239

It looks like the pork base is wrapped in plastic. That would be a definite smelly mess if it was lit aflame..

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: thegreyarea on October 25, 2022, 06:56:00 PM

Quote from: JoB on October 22, 2022, 05:19:50 AM

So glad to hear that ...

https://www.deviantart.com/madzematix/art/Meat-Keyboard-574667239

That's one very meaty meat-keyboard! I'd like mine well done, please.

(Imagining how one of those could actually work is a bit nightmerish - tendons, cartilage, bones... argh - but a simple membrane keyboard (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membrane_keyboard) would probably be easy. You just need a tissue with pressure sensitive nerves running through it, like skin, and... ok, ok, this one is also nightmerish!)

Quote from: dmeck7755 on October 22, 2022, 07:16:04 PM

It looks like the pork base is wrapped in plastic. That would be a definite smelly mess if it was lit aflame..

"Please remove the wrapping before cooking" :D

So, what next? Pizza-made albuns?

Spoiler: show

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: Jitter on January 15, 2023, 07:12:07 AM

Here’s another nice one in the Earth is a Death World genre. I’m not sure if this is actually a collaborative short story, a joke, poetry even? But it’s entertaining!

https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2022/11/29/what-if-an-alien-invasion-was-fought-off-by-wildlife/?fbclid=IwAR2I3XPt5zTF4EMAodgZTBLYVazYoFqnOd3fp1w9Iqn2OcwcXf7RIOfkoHg

Title: Re: Tell me about Short Stories!
Post by: JoB on January 15, 2023, 09:16:24 AM

Quote from: Jitter on January 15, 2023, 07:12:07 AM

Here’s another nice one in the Earth is a Death World genre. I’m not sure if this is actually a collaborative short story, a joke, poetry even? But it’s entertaining!

"Yes, yes, 'Esteemed Invasion Commander', I heard you - no need to beat me again with that wet fluke of yours. So you plan to erect an off-planet base where your troops can catch their breath without any threat from Earth's fauna and flora, and without your ships being rendered immobile because they have to serve as space stations. And you want to put it on the Moon (https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49265125)."

Spoiler: show

The Stand Still, Stay Silent Fan-Forum

Worlds and Stories => Worlds & Stories Discussion Board => Topic started by: Songbird on April 30, 2021, 12:57:31 PM