Science Fiction: The Short Stuff discussion

What SF works of 39,999 words or less do you think the group might enjoy the most? Please feel free to nominate one, or perhaps even two, for October. Please nominate by September 15. I want to run the polls mid-month. Thanks!

I'm a little unsure if these have been suggested, but I have a short story that I think may fit this group nicely.

2 B R 0 2 B (to be or naught to be) is around 15 pages long. It takes place in a future where immortality is real, but the government takes charge of keeping America's population around 40 million. This includes offing people every time a kid is born.

If nobody can find a physical copy, its easily found on Project Gutenberg!!

Thanks for the nomination, Ava.

Okay, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s 2 B R 0 2 B to be included in October's group read nominations. I've never heard of it before, and I used to read a lot of Vonnegut. It sounds like some of the stories I read as a teen in Welcome to the Monkey House, which was assigned reading in my high school Contemporary Lit class. That certainly dates me! (I liked the collection despite it being assigned.)

I see "your" story originally appeared in the January 1962 issue of If. The cover of a different issue is featured in this month's marquis at the group homepage.

As my first nomination for October 2024's group read: Robot Nemesis (1939) by E.E. "Doc" Smith. Much of Smith's writing appeared in magazines of his day, but these were inevitably parts of serials, never short stories. This is the only exception I have found (so far). Smith wrote this to be a short story.

Judy mentioned she is a fan of Robert J. Sawyer. I am too.

In 1997 he published a short story titled "The Hand You're Dealt." I want to nominate this story. It is available for free on his website and it's possible to read it there directly. If there's a way to download it alone to an eReader in English, I couldn't find it. Only in Italian translation. Space contains the story, revised version, not to mention a bunch of other Sawyer stories too. At $3.99 for the eBook, it seems affordable and a good deal.

It was first published in the anthology Free Space, edited by Brad Linaweaver and Edward E. Kramer (Tor, 1997). This first version was the Winner Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award for Best Short Story of the Year, a Finalist Hugo Award for Best Short Story of the Year, a
Finalist Aurora Award for Best English-Language Short Story of the Year, and a Finalist Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story of the Year.

That text is not the author's preferred text, however. He rewrote the story and published a revised version in his 1998 anthology Crossing the Line : Canadian Mysteries With a Fantastic Twist. A copy on the used book market of that runs $15 and up. That's also the version that's readable for free on his website.

So far, we have but three nominations. Get yours in soon unless you really like these three stories and are fine reading them. Up to two nominations per member are welcome.

I see no need to run a poll. With only four nominated works, and only one of those being novella length, we can just make all four next month's group reads.