The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

I'm not usually a fan of sci-fi short stories as I don't find them as entertaining as a novel. It's often seemed to me that sci-fi authors can't write succinctly. Short stories in other genres are fine. I've just been reading The Seeds of Time by John Wyndham and it's great. All the stories so far have been good (1 left to read). They are quite cynical and there is one quote that really amused me "We've got two ways of using inventions......One is to kill more people more easily: the other is to enable quick-turnover spivs to make easy money out of suckers." Anyway it's made me wonder if I've been missing out by avoiding short stories and if so any recommendations?

In the 1940s and 50s, the pulp magazines were a major outlet for science fiction writers. They published short stories. Ray Bradbury's famous books The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man are collections of short stories. To get them published in book form, he invented contrivances to tie them together into seemingly connected works.

I once was a great fan of Isaac Asimov. He wrote lots of short stories. I always thought they were his best science fiction. To me, his novels seemed like really extended short stories. I, Robot is, in fact, a collection of short stories.

James Tiptree, Jr. also was a good writer of short stories. Her works seem harder to come by, though.

Buck wrote: "In the 1940s and 50s, the pulp magazines were a major outlet for science fiction writers. They published short stories. Ray Bradbury's famous books The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man ..."

I recently read some Asimov short stories but it was his non-fiction. They were interesting but I do like science. Not read James Tiptree Jr so will look that one up. Thanks!

If you ever manage to find a copy of Tomorrow's Children: 18 Tales Of Fantasy And Science Fiction edited by Isaac Asimov, it's one of my favorite SF anthologies.

currently reading The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol.1 right now, and there are some real gems. The first volume focuses on short stories between 1929-1964, so it does have quite a few historical texts, but I personally enjoy these the most

I'm currently working my way through the complete short fiction of H.G. Wells at the moment. From what I've read so far I would recommend “The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes" and “The Story of The Late Mr Elvesham". “The Door In The Wall" and “The Country of The Blind" are meant to be really good but I haven't quite reached them yet. “The Red Room" is great but it's not science fiction so much as a ghost story.

Joel wrote: "I'm currently working my way through the complete short fiction of H.G. Wells at the moment. From what I've read so far I would recommend “The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes" and “The Story of ..."

There's a lot of H.G.Wells available on Project Gutenburg, i've been meaning to download more so I will look these stories up. We read The War of the Worlds with the group and even though one of the oldest it was one of the best books we have read so far.

i not that keen on short stories but im working my way through Philip K Dick's story collection and im enjoying them.

I will certainly check out The Seeds of Time as ive liked every book of the author's that ive read.

Pickle wrote: "i not that keen on short stories but im working my way through Philip K Dick's story collection and im enjoying them.

I will certainly check out The Seeds of Time as ive liked every b..."

They are definitely worth reading although I'm a big fan of John Wyndham so maybe i'm slightly biased!

Tor publishes a lot of short stories for free. I read Damage by David D. Levine today.
http://www.tor.com/2015/01/21/damage-...

It's an interesting take on an AI space ship in a war between the Belters & Earth. I was wondering who first wrote about this war. It's been used a lot. Heinlein's Between Planets was first published in 1951. Weren't there Belters in that war or was it just Earth-Venus-Mars? Others?

War Stories from the Future edited by August Cole is a free collection of near future SF stories that are short & to some very intriguing points. My 4 star review has the link & a short review of each story.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

There's a lot of old sci-fi magazines on archive.org
http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-entire-run...

https://archive.org/details/ifmagazin...

Wreade1872 wrote: "There's a lot of old sci-fi magazines on archive.org
http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-entire-run...

https://archive.org/details/ifmagazin......"

Those are awesome. Check out the OTR programs there, too. They have "X Minus 1" & others. Many of those are great dramatizations of classic SF stories.

I'm current reading Mortal Engines by Stanisław Lem. It's a collection of short stories about robots. The first few are kind of bizarre fairy tales with robots in. Lem has a fantastic imagination.

The Egg is a very short story by the author of The Martian & is free. It's an interesting little bit about the after life. Well worth the few minutes it takes to read it.

Jim wrote: "The Egg is a very short story by the author of The Martian & is free. It's an interesting little bit about the after life. Well worth the few minutes it takes to read it."

I absolutely love all of Andy Weir's short stories. I read them in two days while it was slow at work. The Egg is my favorite but I'm also fond of Antihypoxiant and Lacero. Definitely worth a read, IMO. You can find all of his shorts here:

http://www.galactanet.com/writing.html

I've took some minutes to read "The Egg", it was worth it.
I haven't had read anything from Andy Weir's writing, until now. I think it's a very good story, even though it's short, the concept of being everyone is something that it's kind of true. We are all made from the same matter, we are all stardust.
This short story made me curious for others from this Author.

Thank you for sharing.

There's a free collection of short stories available in many formats, Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities: A Collection of Space Futures.

Why should we go to space? To learn more about the universe and our place in it? To extract resources and conduct commerce? To demonstrate national primacy and technological prowess? To live and thrive in radically different kinds of human communities? Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities takes on the challenge of imagining new stories at the intersection of public and private—narratives that use the economic and social history of exploration, as well as current technical and scientific research, to inform scenarios for the future of the “new space” era.

Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities provides fresh insights into human activity in Low Earth Orbit, journeys to Mars, capturing and mining asteroids, and exploring strange and uncharted exoplanets. Its stories and essays imagine human expansion into space as a kind of domestication—not in the sense of taming nature but in the sense of creating a space for dwelling, a venue for human life and curiosity to unfurl in all their weirdness and complexity.

The collection is free to download in EPUB and MOBI e-book formats, as a PDF, and through Apple’s iBooks Store.
http://csi.asu.edu/books/vvev/

Burning Chrome by William Gibson countains two very good short stories. Johnny Mnemonic and Burning Chrome. Chrome is master piece when it comes to structure.

"Gernsback Continuum" is a seminal work in that collection. It is Gibson's gauntlet through down against American Optimism in SF.

I just read a short story written by a human & an algorithm. The story about the story is more interesting than the story...
https://www.wired.com/2017/12/when-an...

I'd really like to see the books that this algorithm was based on.

JuniperGreen ~❄Winter is coming❄~ wrote: "I'm currently reading my way through Ted Chiang's short story collection Stories of Your Life and Others. All of these stories explore a different What-if scenario. Some of them shoul..."

I'm reading this collection too. I was surprised to learn that Chiang has written only 15 short stories in about 28 years. His first eight stories are collected in this book although many of them are available for free online, as are most of the seven he published after the ones included in the collection. His Wikipedia entry has the links to all of the free ones. I like his stories and find them very interesting but at the same time there is something about his writing style that I find to be very slow so I'm not "grabbed" by his stories in the same way I am grabbed by others. Reading them, I feel like a neutral observer and not emotionally involved, even when tragic events occur. Not a criticism, just an observation.

Marc-André wrote: "Burning Chrome by William Gibson countains two very good short stories. Johnny Mnemonic and Burning Chrome. Chrome is master piece when it comes to structure."

I really enjoyed this anthology. It's one of my all-time favorites, especially Johnny Mnemonic.

It pretty much is all good.

Those of you who celebrate a "MidWinter Event" may enjoy this short story: 'Tis the Season

It is available online for free, if you don't mind having "socialist review" in your browsing history!

And there is also Miracle and Other Christmas Stories. I read most of those stories a while back and remember liking them.

Ed wrote: "Those of you who celebrate a "MidWinter Event" may enjoy this short story: 'Tis the Season

It is available online for free, if you don't mind having "socialist review" in your brows..."

You might also like The Star by Arthur C. Clarke which is available online here: https://sites.uni.edu/morgans/astro/c...

and it's only 4 pages long.

I like ACC's short stories. His novels tend towards tedium.

Randy wrote: "..."
Yes, "The Star" is a classic story. I've read it before and re-read it just now.

Here's a favorite I recently re-discovered: Understand by Ted Chiang

And it's available for free here: https://web.archive.org/web/201405271...

Randy wrote: "You might also like The Star by Arthur C. Clarke which is available online here: https://sites.uni.edu/morgans/astro/c..."

That was great. Thanks! It's been decades since I last read it, but it seemed familiar at first & I remembered it in full about halfway through. A story has to be powerful to last so well. I agree with you about his short stories & novels.

Ed wrote: "Those of you who celebrate a "MidWinter Event" may enjoy this short story: 'Tis the Season

It is available online for free, if you don't mind having "socialist review" in your brows..."

That link isn't working any more.
http://socialistreview.org.uk/291/tis...
works, though. Thanks for posting it. I just had to do a quick search & it came right up.

I liked the idea behind it, but didn't find the end funny. I think it was supposed to be, but it was a let down.

Randy wrote: "Here's a favorite I recently re-discovered: Understand by Ted Chiang

And it's available for free here: https://web.archive.org/web/201405271......"

That was really good. Reminded me of Flowers for Algernon in many ways. Updated, of course.

Jim wrote: "It's been decades since I last read it, but it seemed familiar at first & I remembered it in full about halfway through."

I don't really want to track short stories individually on this site the way I do with books. So it is really hard to keep track of which short stories I have or have not read.


Jim wrote: "That link [to 'Tis the Season'] isn't working any more."

I linked to the goodreads page. One or more of the reviews links to the actual story.

I'll try to read 'Understand', since Ted Chiang is often very good.

I am tracking short stories if they have an entry here on GR. If they don't, I don't bother. It pads my book count, though. I've read 15 short stories that count as books this year & read 244, so I guess I should count it as 230 if I'm going to get picky. I haven't in past years.

Jim wrote: "Ed wrote: "Those of you who celebrate a "MidWinter Event" may enjoy this short story: 'Tis the Season"

I liked the idea behind it, but didn't find the end funny. I think it was supposed to be, but it was a let down."

I agree completely. A bit cynical for my tastes too.

Ted Chiang's story "Exhalation" can be read here:

http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...

Goodreads shelf for the story here:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Thanks, Ronald. That was an interesting, odd look at entropy.

Short Science Fiction Collection vol. 006 was the best from Librivox yet. It contains stories from Voltaire to H. Beam Piper, including one each by Wells & Verne. It was all over the board, but all save one were very good to excellent & really interesting. Very well narrated. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've been reading The Eye of the Sibyl and Other Classic Stories on and off. In general, I prefer novels to short stories, so when I finish this collection I'll probably go back to reading the PKD novels in chronological order.

Susan wrote: "I'll probably go back to reading the PKD novels in chronological order."

I like PKD very much. But I wouldn't do that! Most people agree that not all of his novels are great.

Are you reading the non-SF ones, too? Those don't get much love. But I did enjoy Confessions of a Crap Artist.

Ed wrote: "I like PKD very much. But...(m)ost people agree that not all of his novels are great."

I agree that not all of his works are great. But I have found some really interesting stuff in all of his books, even the duds. I've often thought about reading his books in chronological order, but I'll probably never get around to it.

Hi Ed, I haven't read any of the non-SF ones. I plan on leaving them until last. I agree that not all of the novels are great. For my first PKD, I chose Ubik because it was going to be my first impression and I wanted it to be something with a reputation for being great. After reading it, I felt confident that I wouldn't lose interest even if the early novels were not that great.

Randy, I think you're right about there being interesting stuff even in the duds. My least favorite so far has been The Man Who Japed. But I still found it worthwhile and after thinking about it a while I developed a greater appreciation for it.

The Phillip K Dick: Reader is perfect. it's a collection of short stories many of which have become major motion pictures. total recall, screamers, minority report

Randy wrote: "I agree that not all of his works are great. But I have found some really interesting stuff in all..."

Yeah, I have, too. There has never been one that I didn't enjoy reading. But there are quite a few of the minor ones where I've completely forgotten what they were about because they just weren't interesting enough or seemed too similar to the others, or something.

Ronald wrote: "Ted Chiang's story Exhalation ....

That was very good. The central character makes about 100 years worth of discoveries and deductions in the span of a few days, which strains belief. But the story still works very well. It could have stopped with just the explanation of consciousness. The further tangent into cosmology was an added bonus.

If you want something short and strange to make you cry and laugh at the same time, but mostly cry, try An Incident in Moderan by David R. Bunch.

Ed wrote: "If you want something short and strange to make you cry and laugh at the same time, but mostly cry, try An Incident in Moderan by David R. Bunch."

Thanks. That was interesting if weird & fairly horrible. I'm not sure if I'd want to read much of that.

ＭＴＢＤ wrote: "The Phillip K Dick: Reader is perfect. it's a collection of short stories many of which have become major motion pictures. total recall, screamers, minority report"

I think sooner or later I'll get to them all. I'm looking forward to comparing those stories to the movie versions.

Short Science Fiction Collection vol. 008 is devoted to Alan E. Nourse. Usually these Librivox collections have as many different authors as stories, so this was a nice change of pace. Nourse had quite the imagination, too. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I read The Bladerunner in my teens and then hunted up a used copy a few years ago to reread. I think it's an underappreciated sci fi classic. I would certainly try some of Nourse's short fiction.

I've discovered a source of audio SF short stories: Mindwebs at archive.org https://archive.org/details/MindWebs_...

Mindwebs is a radio show of "169 half-hour shows which presented 188 short stories from 135 different authors. This series originally aired on WHA Radio in Madison, Wisconsin from the mid 70’s through the mid 90’s"

I just listened to the first listed: Descending by Thomas M Disch. Pretty good, though the ending seem a little abrupt. I know I read Disch in my early years but nothing lately and I don't remember his work.

A complete listing of the Mindwebs recordings is here: https://archive.org/details/MindwebsH...

Thanks, Buck. I love these radio plays from the Internet Archive since I get get the bunch with a torrent download of them all & put a few on my phone at a time since service is terrible out my way.

X-Minus One is another favorite OTR program. They did a lot of classic SF short stories. It's also available on the Internet Archive here:
https://archive.org/details/OTRR_X_Mi...