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More Tomorrow & Other Stories
Going well beyond the scope of his UK collection from several years ago, this is the definitive collection of Smith's shorter fiction, as well as his long overdue first US collection. MORE TOMORROW & OTHER STORIES features 30 of the author's best stories, plus an introduction by award-winning editor Stephen Jones and an afterword by Michael Marshall Smith.
More Tomorrow
Being Right*
Hell Hath Enlarged Herself
Save As...
The Handover
What You Make It*
Maybe Next Time
The Book of Irrational Numbers
When God Lived in Kentish Town
The Man Who Drew Cats
A Place To Stay
The Dark Land
To See The Sea
Two Shot
Last Glance Back
They Also Serve
Dear Alison
To Receive Is Better
The Munchies*
Always
Not Waving
Everybody Goes
Dying
Charms
Open Doors*
Later
More Bitter Than Death
A Long Walk, For The Last Time
The Vaccinator
Enough Pizza
More Tomorrow
Being Right*
Hell Hath Enlarged Herself
Save As...
The Handover
What You Make It*
Maybe Next Time
The Book of Irrational Numbers
When God Lived in Kentish Town
The Man Who Drew Cats
A Place To Stay
The Dark Land
To See The Sea
Two Shot
Last Glance Back
They Also Serve
Dear Alison
To Receive Is Better
The Munchies*
Always
Not Waving
Everybody Goes
Dying
Charms
Open Doors*
Later
More Bitter Than Death
A Long Walk, For The Last Time
The Vaccinator
Enough Pizza
488 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2003
13 people are currently reading
334 people want to read
About the author
Michael Marshall Smith
253 books1,057 followersMichael Marshall (Smith) is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. His first novel, ONLY FORWARD, won the August Derleth and Philip K. Dick awards. SPARES and ONE OF US were optioned for film by DreamWorks and Warner Brothers, and the Straw Men trilogy - THE STRAW MEN, THE LONELY DEAD and BLOOD OF ANGELS - were international bestsellers. His most recent novels are THE INTRUDERS, BAD THINGS and KILLER MOVE.
He is a four-time winner of the BFS Award for short fiction, and his stories are collected in two volumes - WHAT YOU MAKE IT and MORE TOMORROW AND OTHER STORIES (which won the International Horror Guild Award).
He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and son.
He is a four-time winner of the BFS Award for short fiction, and his stories are collected in two volumes - WHAT YOU MAKE IT and MORE TOMORROW AND OTHER STORIES (which won the International Horror Guild Award).
He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and son.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 16, 2021
In the late Twentieth and early Twenty-First Centuries, before pivoting to more mainstream production under a streamlined nom de plume, Michael Marshall Smith wrote a number of impressive and deeply weird novels, like Spares, Only Forward, and One of Us.
He also wrote a whole host of short stories, 30 of which are collected in More Tomorrow, which was published in 2003.
As Stephen Jones recognizes in his Introduction, though, these shorter works aren't much like the novels Smith was writing at the time. Smith's books—before he switched to writing as Michael Marshall, anyway—are science-fictional (or at least SF-adjacent, after the manner of slipstream authors like Jonathan Lethem).
Some SFnal concepts do creep into More Tomorrow, here and there—several tales involve time travel, for example, sideways as well as back-and-forth—but this collection leans a lot more towards horror—the supernatural third leg of the genre tripod, home of the transgressive, the inexplicable, and the inexorable.
There's some scary stuff here, folks, is what I'm saying. And some wonders, too...
"More Tomorrow"
In the decades since this one was written, we've somehow gone from having to explain what the Internet could be, to being forced to describe what it used to be. Downloading images as fragments from text-only Usenet newsgroups, then stitching them together one by one... most of you reading this, I suspect, have never even heard of such a thing, much less had to do it. And until you had all the parts downloaded and the file all put together, you never knew for sure what it'd show. Things could take a very ugly turn...
"Being Right"
Getting one's wish doesn't have to go wrong. This one does the opposite to "More Tomorrow" (no, not "opposite from"—this seems like a good place to note that Smith is British, and his prose here has absolutely not been sterilised for Leftpondian consumption, even when the story itself is set in the U.S.).
"Hell Hath Enlarged Herself"
"Grey goo" scenarios notwithstanding, nanotech and horror should not be able to fit together this seamlessly.
"Save As…"
By this time in More Tomorrow you're starting to suspect that the fatal car crash which opens this story won't be the worst thing, by far... and you'll be right.
"The Handover"
"What You Make It"
I believe William Gibson said that "The street finds its own uses for things." Well, what if the street is named "Loopy Crescent"?
You'd think they'd eventually recognize the van, at least.
"Maybe Next Time"
Maybe those little moments of absent-mindedness just mean the mind is present somewhere else.
"The Book of Irrational Numbers"
"When God Lived in Kentish Town"
Oh, He doesn't live there now...
"The Man Who Drew Cats"
"A Place To Stay"
NOLA, portrayed as "a playground for suave monsters" (p.179), though not nearly as clichéd as that may sound.
I was amused by a few of the typos in this one—especially the reference to the "Guttenburg Bible" (p.173), as written by Steve, no doubt.
"The Dark Land"
Like falling into someone else's bad dream. This one was not at all my cup of tea—probably my least favorite story in More Tomorrow, in fact.
"To See The Sea"
Sometimes we fear what we most desire. Smith's foray into another man's mythos goes just about as one might expect, once Susan and, erm, wossname reach that remote village on the coast.
"Two Shot"
Sexploitation and a "deep code fault" together mean never having to say you're sorry. I know, that's terribly oblique, but you'll see what I mean, from one perspective or another...
"Last Glance Back"
No, wait, did I just say that?
"They Also Serve"
He doesn't (didn't) write it often, but this story proves that Michael Marshall Smith can write really good science fiction—this one could have come from the "Golden Age" of SF, in fact—that is, the stuff I was reading when I was 13 years old.
"Dear Alison"
A single unfaithful act comes back to bite a sensitive man...
"To Receive Is Better"
Smith turned this into a novel later, but I don't think I want to tell you which one.
Jack lives in tunnels whose walls are all blue.
Maybe that in itself is enough of a clue.
"The Munchies"
Yep, it's about weed. Nick and Howard were very, very stoned... which you wouldn't think would be interesting at all. But... pay attention to the drum. It'll get you there.
"Always"
"Not Waving"
Heh... I think we've all been here—or if not exactly here, certainly in a similar state:
"Everybody Goes"
Remember Stephen King's "The Body" (later turned into the film Stand By Me)?
Yeah, nah—this is not that.
"Dying"
Another science-fictional story—not realistic or even plausible, really, just a cautionary extrapolation... but "if this goes on" is one of the jobs SF is best-equipped to handle.
"Charms"
"Open Doors"
Sometimes sociopathy starts small...
"Later"
"More Bitter Than Death"
"The girl" doesn't get a name in this one—and maybe that's for the best, this time.
"A Long Walk, For The Last Time"
Wistful as its title, this is another story that ends exactly as it ought.
"The Vaccinator"
Although this penultimate tale has a timely title, it's not at all about any Earthly pandemic—this one's more personal, and more exotic.
This one's turned up to 11.
"Enough Pizza"
A lot of Michael Marshall Smith's stories feature characters defiantly smoking cigarettes—enough times that, as in Tim Powers' work, it starts to seem like a personal issue for the author. But this story isn't really about smoking, or about pizza, for that matter. It's more about... being a gracious host at the end of a perfect party.
Which makes "Enough Pizza" a fitting final entry for More Tomorrow.
It's not Smith's last word, though. His final essay, "On Not Writing (An Afterword)", wanders around a bit, but along the way Smith gives us this gem of an answer to the old question, "where do you get your ideas?"—and no, it's not Schenectady:
To conclude, or at least to round this off: more than anything else, More Tomorrow shows that Smith is really good at writing stories which, while they don't often have happy endings, always have satisfying ones. Not all of these are horror, either—and even those that fall into that genre sometimes have more upbeat endings than I expected.
I liked 'em all, pretty much, but... I liked those stories best.
He also wrote a whole host of short stories, 30 of which are collected in More Tomorrow, which was published in 2003.
As Stephen Jones recognizes in his Introduction, though, these shorter works aren't much like the novels Smith was writing at the time. Smith's books—before he switched to writing as Michael Marshall, anyway—are science-fictional (or at least SF-adjacent, after the manner of slipstream authors like Jonathan Lethem).
Some SFnal concepts do creep into More Tomorrow, here and there—several tales involve time travel, for example, sideways as well as back-and-forth—but this collection leans a lot more towards horror—the supernatural third leg of the genre tripod, home of the transgressive, the inexplicable, and the inexorable.
There's some scary stuff here, folks, is what I'm saying. And some wonders, too...
"More Tomorrow"
In the decades since this one was written, we've somehow gone from having to explain what the Internet could be, to being forced to describe what it used to be. Downloading images as fragments from text-only Usenet newsgroups, then stitching them together one by one... most of you reading this, I suspect, have never even heard of such a thing, much less had to do it. And until you had all the parts downloaded and the file all put together, you never knew for sure what it'd show. Things could take a very ugly turn...
"Being Right"
Getting one's wish doesn't have to go wrong. This one does the opposite to "More Tomorrow" (no, not "opposite from"—this seems like a good place to note that Smith is British, and his prose here has absolutely not been sterilised for Leftpondian consumption, even when the story itself is set in the U.S.).
"Hell Hath Enlarged Herself"
"Grey goo" scenarios notwithstanding, nanotech and horror should not be able to fit together this seamlessly.
"Save As…"
By this time in More Tomorrow you're starting to suspect that the fatal car crash which opens this story won't be the worst thing, by far... and you'll be right.
"The Handover"
You fall in love at night, and that's also when people die.A chilly Montana town called Eldorado—no, you haven't heard of it. The laconic prose and quiet ambience of this one reminded me of Jack Cady's fiction.
—p.99
"What You Make It"
I believe William Gibson said that "The street finds its own uses for things." Well, what if the street is named "Loopy Crescent"?
You'd think they'd eventually recognize the van, at least.
"Maybe Next Time"
Maybe those little moments of absent-mindedness just mean the mind is present somewhere else.
"The Book of Irrational Numbers"
They say Pythagoras just pretended irrational numbers didn't exist. Just couldn't handle the idea. Shows how you can be a really bright guy, and still know shit.Speaking of really bright guys who don't know as much as they think they do...
—p.143
"When God Lived in Kentish Town"
Oh, He doesn't live there now...
"The Man Who Drew Cats"
We all just stood and watched, like something out of an old story, the simple folk and the magical stranger.Speaking of really bright guys who might just know more than they let on...
—p.173
"A Place To Stay"
NOLA, portrayed as "a playground for suave monsters" (p.179), though not nearly as clichéd as that may sound.
I was amused by a few of the typos in this one—especially the reference to the "Guttenburg Bible" (p.173), as written by Steve, no doubt.
"The Dark Land"
Like falling into someone else's bad dream. This one was not at all my cup of tea—probably my least favorite story in More Tomorrow, in fact.
"To See The Sea"
Sometimes we fear what we most desire. Smith's foray into another man's mythos goes just about as one might expect, once Susan and, erm, wossname reach that remote village on the coast.
"Two Shot"
Sexploitation and a "deep code fault" together mean never having to say you're sorry. I know, that's terribly oblique, but you'll see what I mean, from one perspective or another...
"Last Glance Back"
What I minded was being emotionally homeless, culturally pointless. Now that I had a home, maybe I was worried about losing space to be by myself, of being constrained.It's only human to second-guess the right decision, even when you know it's right.
—p.265
No, wait, did I just say that?
"They Also Serve"
He doesn't (didn't) write it often, but this story proves that Michael Marshall Smith can write really good science fiction—this one could have come from the "Golden Age" of SF, in fact—that is, the stuff I was reading when I was 13 years old.
"Dear Alison"
A single unfaithful act comes back to bite a sensitive man...
"To Receive Is Better"
Smith turned this into a novel later, but I don't think I want to tell you which one.
Jack lives in tunnels whose walls are all blue.
Maybe that in itself is enough of a clue.
"The Munchies"
Yep, it's about weed. Nick and Howard were very, very stoned... which you wouldn't think would be interesting at all. But... pay attention to the drum. It'll get you there.
"Always"
In three weeks it would be Christmas, and her mother was dead.Another bittersweet ending—the best kind.
—p.318
"Not Waving"
Heh... I think we've all been here—or if not exactly here, certainly in a similar state:
While I had £3000 worth of Macintosh and monitor, what I didn't have was the £15 cable that connected the two together. The manufacturer, it transpired, felt it constituted an optional extra—despite the fact that without it the two system components were little more than bulky white ornaments of a particularly tantalizing and frustrating kind. The cable had to be ordered separately, and there weren't any in the country at the moment. They were all in Belgium.This one went from light to dark rather quickly, though...
—p.325
We looked good together, like a series of stills from a lifestyle magazine.In the end, it's all about sadness. And cats.
—p.336
"Everybody Goes"
Remember Stephen King's "The Body" (later turned into the film Stand By Me)?
Yeah, nah—this is not that.
"Dying"
Another science-fictional story—not realistic or even plausible, really, just a cautionary extrapolation... but "if this goes on" is one of the jobs SF is best-equipped to handle.
"Charms"
By that time her mother was furiously cooking unnecessary brownies, and father was in his study.Very English—words like "sodding" appear throughout—but also universal, another telling indictment (as if we needed another one) of late-stage capitalism.
—p.375
"Open Doors"
Sometimes sociopathy starts small...
"Later"
It's not so very different.We all have to make accommodations, I guess.
—p.398
"More Bitter Than Death"
"The girl" doesn't get a name in this one—and maybe that's for the best, this time.
"A Long Walk, For The Last Time"
Wistful as its title, this is another story that ends exactly as it ought.
"The Vaccinator"
Although this penultimate tale has a timely title, it's not at all about any Earthly pandemic—this one's more personal, and more exotic.
Though it was no longer an exactly recent development, he'd never quite got over the disappointment of finding that he'd somehow become housed in an older man's body, and preferred not to inflict the sight of it upon the world.And funnier, too—only in Florida, man.
—pp.432-433
This one's turned up to 11.
"Enough Pizza"
A lot of Michael Marshall Smith's stories feature characters defiantly smoking cigarettes—enough times that, as in Tim Powers' work, it starts to seem like a personal issue for the author. But this story isn't really about smoking, or about pizza, for that matter. It's more about... being a gracious host at the end of a perfect party.
Which makes "Enough Pizza" a fitting final entry for More Tomorrow.
It's not Smith's last word, though. His final essay, "On Not Writing (An Afterword)", wanders around a bit, but along the way Smith gives us this gem of an answer to the old question, "where do you get your ideas?"—and no, it's not Schenectady:
A short story has arrived. That's the truthful answer to where ideas come from: the bastards come and interrupt you when you're busy trying to not-write.
—p.480
To conclude, or at least to round this off: more than anything else, More Tomorrow shows that Smith is really good at writing stories which, while they don't often have happy endings, always have satisfying ones. Not all of these are horror, either—and even those that fall into that genre sometimes have more upbeat endings than I expected.
I liked 'em all, pretty much, but... I liked those stories best.
July 21, 2019
Not bad but a trifle long
Some standout stories that i really wnjoyed, particularly Dark Land, and the short story which inspired "Spares" (a novel by him). However, either the collection was slightly too long, or else some of the stories were slightly too similar. Towards the end i felt the whole thing was dragging, and I found I also needed breaks from this volume (hence taking forever to finish.)
Fans of MMS would probably enjoy this as it's in his usual voice and style, but I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point for readers who haven't tried his novels. If you are new to MMS, consider picking up "Only Forward" instead, which is fantastic and intriguing novel and a landmark of modern dreamworld fiction.
Some standout stories that i really wnjoyed, particularly Dark Land, and the short story which inspired "Spares" (a novel by him). However, either the collection was slightly too long, or else some of the stories were slightly too similar. Towards the end i felt the whole thing was dragging, and I found I also needed breaks from this volume (hence taking forever to finish.)
Fans of MMS would probably enjoy this as it's in his usual voice and style, but I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point for readers who haven't tried his novels. If you are new to MMS, consider picking up "Only Forward" instead, which is fantastic and intriguing novel and a landmark of modern dreamworld fiction.
February 16, 2008
Wow i loved this book. I love Michael Marshal Smith and i love short stories so this was perfect. There are stories with styles, subject matter and different genres for everyone to enjoy in this book.
I loved all the stories but ones i personally loved were: More tomorrow, Being Right, Always,Hell hath enlarged herself, To see the sea, Everybody goes, The book of irrational numbers, and Charms.
Smith is someone who i aspire to write like or even as good as. Just genius.
I loved all the stories but ones i personally loved were: More tomorrow, Being Right, Always,Hell hath enlarged herself, To see the sea, Everybody goes, The book of irrational numbers, and Charms.
Smith is someone who i aspire to write like or even as good as. Just genius.
June 25, 2020
I first read Michael Marshall Smith about two decades or so ago: I enjoyed his short works, not least because he gets cats. He has a fundamental understanding about the little sods that run some people's lives. I have not read his works in a long time since; my God he has matured well. His writing has a literary quality that speaks of the human condition with a simplicity and clarity that is up there with Attwood and Twain for me. Not over complicated, just the perfect amount of words. He draws you in and then casts off from the story with an exquisite twist that has been building gently or socks you in the jaw like a blow you never saw coming. His writing on writing is also so helpful and rather self deprecating. If his work appears in an anthology next to a King piece or a Ramsay Campbell composition, then know it was placed there to be the spine of the book. The vein of gold that the collection is built around. His name stands with the greats and not in their shadows.
June 28, 2018
Really enjoyed these short stories. Very solid writing from Smith. My personal favorites were “Being Right,” “They Also Serve,” and “Enough Pizza.” I liked the variety of topics, and loved that some were heartfelt and sweet. I look forward to reading more from this author.
October 5, 2019
Buy this book! It’s good.
I normally reserve 5 stars for books that change my life and worldview. Like, you know, 100 Years Of Solitude, or Wind Up Bird Chronicle. But you really mustn’t underestimate how difficult it is to craft ingenious plots, structure them in a suspenseful way, and write the resulting story competently and solidly.
These are not really the life changing sort of literature, but MMS delivers some great yarns on a regular and frequent schedule. This is quite, quite rare. Not only are virtually all these stories entertaining and very well crafted, there are many of them! I am a book devourer, so this is a major plus.
I started reading MMS back in the early 2000s with his novel,the Straw Men (check it out, it is quite good) but it wasn’t til now I really dived into his stories. I have really enjoyed reading the new-to-me ones and even rereading stories I’d read already in anthologies. Buy it!
I normally reserve 5 stars for books that change my life and worldview. Like, you know, 100 Years Of Solitude, or Wind Up Bird Chronicle. But you really mustn’t underestimate how difficult it is to craft ingenious plots, structure them in a suspenseful way, and write the resulting story competently and solidly.
These are not really the life changing sort of literature, but MMS delivers some great yarns on a regular and frequent schedule. This is quite, quite rare. Not only are virtually all these stories entertaining and very well crafted, there are many of them! I am a book devourer, so this is a major plus.
I started reading MMS back in the early 2000s with his novel,the Straw Men (check it out, it is quite good) but it wasn’t til now I really dived into his stories. I have really enjoyed reading the new-to-me ones and even rereading stories I’d read already in anthologies. Buy it!
Read
March 17, 2018*only went through "More Tomorrow"
April 21, 2024
Didn't finish this! Too long and too many stories. Some were very godd. Others not so much!
December 11, 2010
the More Tomorrow story alone makes this worth buying - it sends frozen spoons down your spine come the finish. the rest are readable enough some sparkle and others blur
June 22, 2015
The short story is a different kind of art, and sometimes a much more difficult one. I love Mr Marshall Smith's stories. He has mastered the genre.
December 16, 2008
Superior dark fantasy short stories, including a couple of British Fantasy Award winners.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews