Short stories that should be read - Send us your cautionary stories about not being terrible

[Alexander Thaut]

Oh I love short fiction. Lemme pull up and just flat out recommend The Science Fiction Hall of Fame trio of books. They were a set of books that collected short fiction/novells the SFWA voted on. The catch is that these were all pre-Nebula wards so pre 1964. Mind you, this was back when the SFWA members had good writers. The first volume (1-A) is edited by Robert Silverberg and is 26 stories, all kino, that are top tier short stories. You got the usual suspects of major heavy hitting sci-fi (Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Bradbury), your historically important sci-fi writers that are just as fun (Weinbaum, Leinster, Moore & Kuttner, Brown, Campbell), and everyone else is a solid writer that got me interested in their other works (Blish, Boucher, Bester, Zelazny, etc.) Volumes 2-A and 2-B are edited by Ben Bova and collect the novellas that the SFWA voted as being the best. You have shit like The Machine Stops and Time Machine, which are evergreen and old classics. But the rest of them are varied and, of course, by an all-star selection of respected SF writers of that era.

Aside from this, I've also been enjoying Robert Sheckley's works. Watchbirds is a kino short story that's very proto-Robocop in theme. Seabury Quinn's Jest of Warberg Tantavul was a fun little grotesque tale.

Honestly just look for anthologies of old short fiction. There's shitloads of sci-fi ones. There's also a dozen or so anthologies centered on the Weird Tales Pulp magazine and related rivals/similar content. I also highly recommend these. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, August Derleth, Seabury Quinn, and etc. are all splendidly fun writers.

You want fantasy? Fritz Leiber was an old writer, a latter member of the Lovecraft Circle, and a masterfully enjoyable storyteller that did sci-fi, fantasy, and horror all very well. While his horror and sci-fi are certainly well remembered, his sword and sorcery tales are probably his most famous and influential. Fafhrd & Grey Mouser were a pair of adventurers that bantered and ran around. They inspired a lot of what DnD would become. I'd also highly recommend C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner's works. They were a husband and wife duo that worked a lot together. Moore is known for her sword and sorcery Jirel tales and well as her sorta planetary romance proto-Han Solo tales of Northwest of Earth. She also did some fantasy and horror and sci-fi. Kuttner's overall solid too and they often worked together. I'd also toss in L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's Enchanter books for fun short-ish fantasy.

I also highly recommend Chandler, Hammett, Macdonald (John AND Ross), and Spillane for crime/noir fiction. They had plenty of short stuff.

 

[Miriam Margoyles]

'Crouch End' was going to be my original King pick but you beat me to it!

My one autistic nitpick with it is that, as a story set in London written by an American, there are a few instances of King acting like he totally knows how an English person would speak, when it's obvious to anybody who's actually English that he doesn't.

The most egregious example is when one of the Cockney coppers expressed doubt about the sincerity of his colleagues with the line, "You can't tell me you believe any part of it? Come on, mate, Bob's your uncle."

Which is not what the expression 'Bob's your uncle' means or even the proper context for someone to use it. He should've said 'Pull the other one' or something like that.

What I will say about Crouch End, though, is that if you can track down the audiobook version, read by Tim Curry, that's probably the best way to enjoy it. He reads it beautifully and it's so comfy and atmospheric.

The Forbidden is one of those stories everyone knows about but never gets round to reading, and it's definitely worth it if only to see how different it is to the film (which is also excellent imo, but much more straightforward than the Silent Hill-esque vibe of the short story).

I suspect you might enjoy The Man In The Underpass by Ramsey Campbell.

 

[Oliver Onions]

The most egregious example is when one of the Cockney coppers expressed doubt about the sincerity of his colleagues with the line, "You can't tell me you believe any part of it? Come on, mate, Bob's your uncle."

I'm surprised his editor didn't pick up on that either, since I'm pretty sure even Americans are familiar with that phrase. Even just 'come off it, mate' would have done the job. He should hire Damon Albarn in future to keep him right on the cockney rhyming slang.

What I will say about Crouch End, though, is that if you can track down the audiobook version, read by Tim Curry, that's probably the best way to enjoy it. He reads it beautifully and it's so comfy and atmospheric.

I have been looking for it since my last post, (I had to google 'Crouch End' to make sure I wasn't getting mixed up with the story where the house goes into space). Unfortunately all I've been able to track down is this fucking awful, Best of the Worst-tier TV adaptation:

Are You Afraid Of The Dark had better production values than this

I suspect you might enjoy The Man In The Underpass by Ramsey Campbell.

For some reason it's really difficult to find copies of Ramsey Campbell's books. I've been trying to track down a different short story collection of his for awhile to no avail, so I'll add the one this is in to my list as well.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

just finished reading Clarke's "9 Billion Names of God"

fun story, haven't read Clarke in over a decade so my re-introduction to him was baller. I think a lot of these big publishing houses that have the rights to all the classic short fiction by famous SF/F/Horror writers should contemplate a really cheap way to have them readable because there's probably a market for this. I mean, RoyalRoad, Reddit, and god knows where else are all free and have a lot of shit. Why not try to popularize a sorta free way to read classics.

 

[Weltraumgraf]

While this isn't really a short story, it's more of a poem, it has stayed with me since my youth. and for some reason, I really like it. I couldn't find a translation anywhere, so I decided to give it a shot and translate it myself as best as I could. If you can provide a better translation, please do so. Had to take a lot of liberties to get it to this version:

The Last Chapter
Erich Kästner, 1930

On the twelfth of July, two thousand three,
A message rang out through the skies:
A fleet of planes, with cold decree,
Would soon ensure that all life dies.

The world government coldly declared,
Peace could no longer be reached by voice.
The only path left, however unfair,
Was to poison all life without a choice.

Escape, they said, was pointless and vain.
No one could hide, no refuge was sure.
The gas would find its way through all,
No need to die by your own hand, the end was secure.

On the thirteenth of July, from Boston took flight
A thousand planes to spread the blight.
They circled the globe, their mission unfurled,
To bring death to the cities, to blanket the world.

People trembled and hid beneath beds,
Ran to the woods, or cellars instead.
But yellow clouds gathered, thick over towns,
And millions lay still on the cold, silent ground.

Each thought they could outrun the end,
But none could escape the poison’s hand.
It crept like a shadow, whispered through air,
Over deserts, through forests, it spread everywhere.

Bodies lay scattered like bundles of hay,
others hung lifeless in windows, left to decay.
The animals wailed their last mournful cries,
as the furnaces dimmed, and the last breath died.

Ships drifted heavy with corpses at sea,
No voice left to cry, no eyes left to see.
The planes, now aimless, with pilots long gone,
Burned as they crashed, while silence dragged on.

Mankind had fulfilled its dark, twisted scheme,
Though the method was madness, cruel and extreme.
Now Earth moved on, in an eerie, calm state,
Spinning in silence, untouched by its fate.

(and yeah, it kinda sounds like a doomer Dr. Suess)

Spoiler: original version in deutsch

Am zwölften Juli des Jahres 2003
lief folgender Funkspruch rund um die Erde:
daß ein Bombengeschwader der Luftpolizei
die gesamte Menschheit ausrotten werde.

Die Weltregierung, so wurde erklärt, stelle fest,
daß der Plan, endgültig Frieden zu stiften,
sich gar nicht anders verwirklichen läßt,
als alle Beteiligten zu vergiften.

Zu fliehen, wurde erklärt, habe keinen Zweck,
Nicht eine Seele dürfe am Leben bleiben.
Das neue Giftgas krieche in jedes Versteck,
man habe nicht einmal nötig, sich selbst zu entleiben.

Am 13. Juli flogen von Boston eintausend
mit Gas und Bazillen beladene Flugzeuge fort
und vollbrachten, rund um den Globus sausend,
den von der Weltregierung befohlenen Mord.

Die Menschen krochen winselnd unter die Betten.
Sie stürzten in ihre Keller und in den Wald.
Das Gift hing gelb wie Wolken über den Städten.
Millionen Leichen lagen auf dem Asphalt.

Jeder dachte, er könne dem Tod entgehen,
keiner entging dem Tod und die Welt wurde leer.
Das Gift war überall, es schlich wie auf Zehen.
Es lief die Wüsten entlang, und es schwamm übers Meer.

Die Menschen lagen gebündelt wie faulende Garben.
Andere hingen wie Puppen zum Fenster heraus.
Die Tiere im Zoo schrien schrecklich, bevor sie starben.
Und langsam löschten die großen Hochöfen aus.

Dampfer schwankten im Meer, beladen mit Toten.
Und weder Weinen noch Lachen war mehr auf der Welt.
Die Flugzeuge irrten mit tausend toten Piloten,
unter dem Himmel und sanken brennend ins Feld.

Jetzt hatte die Menschheit endlich erreicht, was sie wollte.
Zwar war die Methode nicht ausgesprochen human.
Die Erde war aber endlich still und zufrieden und rollte
völlig beruhigt ihre bekannte elliptische Bahn.

 

[Miriam Margoyles]

I have been looking for it since my last post, (I had to google 'Crouch End' to make sure I wasn't getting mixed up with the story where the house goes into space). Unfortunately all I've been able to track down is this fucking awful, Best of the Worst-tier TV adaptation:
Are You Afraid Of The Dark had better production values than this

Could be worse. It could be read by a tranny and have a trigger warning at the beginning for 'nasty words for cigarettes'.

Spoiler: Spoiler for off-topic politisperging

Is Americans taking offense at the British slang 'fag' (which, in this context, has literally nothing to do with gay people and refers to cigarettes) not an example of weird, post modern, politically correct colonialism?

"Oh no, you can't use THAT word, because you see, where we come from, we use that particular word in an entirely different context to mean something highly offensive and it's very problematic of you to use it, as you have for generations, to describe something else completely unrelated, ackshually. You should stop doing that and be decent people, like us."

Shut up, you whiny cigarette. That's what I say.

 

[sodomy lifestyle]

"Autofac" by Philip K. Dick. I think I heard a radio play version of this as a teen and it stuck. Was reminded of it again when I started cranking Factorio.

Spoiler

This might also be the only time a reader review got me MATI.

I wish if my distaste of the story was because of the dated technology, which have definitely contributed to making it less gripping. (The truck antennas going up and down whenever it's communicating with the factory, felt rather cartoonish to say the least)

Do you not understand what the drones and factories are analogous to, you fucking neighbor

I really enjoyed The Last Question by Asimov

I wonder how many people like me recall this story was titled "Let There be Light".

 

[Metal Slime 20x6]

I really enjoyed The Last Question by Asimov

It was also made into a planetarium show, narration by Leonard Nimoy. Saw it as a kid and it freaked me the heck out, in a good way. Will always have fond memories of this one.

 

[TheRedChair]

The Survivor. Amazing Stories. 1965 by Walter Moudy.

2 Military Companies of 100 men, from 2 different nations. They fight every 4 years in a terrained arena for the right to dictate the world's policies of existance.

Interesting read.

 

[ChunkyKong]

Recently re-read Screw-Jack by Hunter S Thompson because my phone died while taking a shit and it was the most interesting thing I could find on the back of my toilet since I already re-read the magazines on there so much I could recite them.

Death of a Poet stuck out to me the most out of the 3 short stories. Something about the description of Hunter talking to Leach and the build up were a lot more vivid now than when I first read these when I was a teen. Maybe it's because of the internet seeing so many freaks and weirds slowly become more and more unhinged. The scene seems like something I could see occurring now with live streaming. IP2 specifically.

I attached the PDF if anyone else wants to take a look.

 

[FamicomGorby]

I really like Harry Turtledove's "The Road Not Taken", basically about space conquistadors.

 

[Betonhaus]

Anyone got that short story posted a while back of a liberal coup where they start a middle east war and use that to kill the Internet and then do a massive right wing purge? Which only backfires when not-Obama balks and it's not to kill all remaining right wing media types once the people start realizing what's going on and leads to one of the ringleaders of the coup opining as she's led to the gallows how the coup would have succeeded had Not-Obama gotten cocky in thinking that they were untouchable and able to dismiss anyone calling them out as conspiracy nuts (and cursing him for fleeing right before the masses rose up and overthrew the left)?

You are thinking of the short story "What I Saw at the Coup", by Matt Bracken.

I believe it was originally posted to the Western Rifles Shooters Association blog (archive.org, archive.is), which was killed by Wordpress in early June of 2020(archive.org), citing ToS violations, right in the middle of the Fentanyl Floyd riots.

The archive.org copy has not yet been purged, and the story has since been re-posted(archive.org, archive.is) elsewhere(archive.org, archive.ph) on the(archive.ph) web(archive.org, archive.ph), and printed in an anthology(archive.org, archive.ph).