posted
With so many of us working on short stories, I thought it would be worthwhile posting some of the best short stories (or authors of) that we've read.
I'll throw out one: "Unaccompanied Sonata" by Orson Scott Card. I love his collection in my hardcover version (has more stories than the trade paperback) of Maps in a Mirror. It really is a fantastic treasury.
posted
"The River Styx Runs Upstream" by Dan Simmons.
From the anthology "Prayers to Broken Stones."
This short was a big hit when it came out. Won (tied) the Twilight Zone's first short story contest for unpublished writers out of nearly seven thousand entries.
If you want to learn to write a masterpiece in five thousand words, read this.
posted
"A Pail of Air," Fritz Leiber. It's everything I ever wanted to write in a short story. Available in Selected Stories, released last year, along with a host of other great stories.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
"Darkness Box," Ursula K. Le Guin "Suffer the Little Children," Stephen King "Tideline," Elizabeth Bear "Spar," Kij Johnson "Speech Sounds," Octavia Butler
[This message has been edited by JenniferHicks (edited March 05, 2011).]
"Night They Missed the Horror Show" by Joe Lansdale is a kick in the gut.
Partial to Bradbury's short fiction, especially his work from The October Country and Dark Carnival (which, I guess, is really the same book with just a few differences).
But my all-time favorite short story is "Bullet in the Brain" by Tobias Wolff. I can read that thing over and over, and never get tired of it. I'm like a born again Christian with that story: always trying to get people to read it, and won't shut up about my conversion. It's on the web, just Google it.
posted
Someone brought up one of Isaac Asimov's robot stories. I think most of his stories would fit on this list. I loved his combo or should I say fusion, or detective and SF. I wish I could find them in one book..or two or three.
Than there is David Weber. "Ms. Midshipwoman Harrington" is a good example of his shorter stuff but be warned he does to short stories what he does to novels. ...makes them not so short.
I rather like Jim Butcher's short stories. He threw in a surprise in one-it's a First Person POV of one of the other characters in his Dresden universe. Very well done I thought. "Even Hand" in the "Dark And Stormy Knight" anthology edited by P.N. Elrod I still love the name of that anthology.
Actually most of the stories in Elrod's Urban Fantasy anthologies could fit the description for this thread. There's one that starts where the MC receives a hand written letter from the Pope. The MC is the last dragon slayer and is keeping on eye on the last dragon supposedly asleep in a desert. Than there's the one about the blind witch and werewolf who wants her to find his brother. And of course the one about the Elvis impersonator who can do magic through Elvis' songs. That last one is in "My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding".
The witch and werewolf one does two things at once. I think it is an example of how pros can get by with breaking rules--I was just having a discussion along those lines with someone--the writer hides something from the reader, two things I believe and I think there was another rule broken. But at the same time she is a good example of how to mix an info dump with the story. The second scene is great.
If anyone is interested I can search for the titles.
[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited March 09, 2011).]
posted
I would agree about the Gift. I've read it three or four times because of the writing. I've seen the movie and know the story almost by heart but it's worth reading.
My local paper has published it almost every Christmas, hmmm not sure if they did in '10.
posted
Just read The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang and really enjoyed it. Great take on time travel and fate vs free will.
Posts: 475 | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Gift of the Magi and The Lottery (Shirley Jackson, I think) were two of the only short stories I read in school that stuck with me, and each in a hauntingly beautiful way.
I have served as a slush reader for Flash Fiction Online since the beginning and have really LOVED some of the stories we've published,
Apologies All Around James Brown is Alive and Doing Laundry Alligators by Twitter
Are three I can think of without even looking up titles, but we've had many really incredible stories come through our doors.
posted
The ones I remember from school are "Most Dangerous Game" and "The Monkey's Paw." I should look those up and see who wrote them, I guess.
Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
| IP: Logged |
posted
"The Most Dangerous Game," Richard Connell; "The Monkey's Paw," W. W. Jacobs. Don't credit my gigantic brain for remembering: I looked 'em up on Wikipedia. (I was pretty sure of "The Monkey's Paw," though.)
Since this one has come back to life..."The Next in Line," Ray Bradbury.
posted
Given my love of idea stories, its interesting that the stories that most stick in my mind are more mood stories. Not quite sure of the size of a couple on my list.
posted
I may have missed it as I scrolled down, but "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov is the short story that has stuck in my head for the last 35 years.
I also refer to "A Boy and His Dog" from time to time, it's become pretty much a cliche. I read it before I ran into (not literally) Harlan Ellison in an elevator. Otherwise I probably would've skipped it. But now I know why the dog survived.
posted
Lovecraft is great, Merlion, but I always figured I liked him because of my demented mind.
Nightfall is really good and was later expanded into a novella.
LD, have you read the short stories in the collection, "Asimov's Mysteries"? Those are all pretty good.
Posts: 459 | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged |
I probably have. It's been a few years since I read some of his stories. Wouldn't mind going back over some of them but I wish they were put some of his series together in one book. There was one Professor in the future who solved mysteries. Either there were only around half a dozen or I never found them all.
That last anthology of his I read was "Gold" wanted it as much for his essays on writing as for the stories. The essays were a disappointment, most were on his writing: interesting enough for a general fan. One or two I read were general enough to be of some help but not as much as I expected.
Posts: 5289 | Registered: Jun 2010
| IP: Logged |
quote:There was one Professor in the future who solved mysteries.
If it's the Wendell Urth stories you mean, all of 'em are in Asimov's Mysteries, along with several others. I think there were just four.
quote:...but I wish they were put some of his series together in one book
I'm mystified. Most of Asimov's stuff got collected in one book or another...part of his prolific proclivities. You've just got to hunt them up.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Like I said it was few years ago, make that quite a few years ago. But if there was only four of the Urth stories I probably did read them all-- could have been in one volume at that. But I don't think they were next to each other.
Posts: 5289 | Registered: Jun 2010
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
