Science Fiction: The Short Stuff discussion

Oh my goodness! More than an entire week has passed, and I haven't yet created the "Introduce Yourself" topic. Hmm, rather than just say, "Please tell us about yourself," a version of which question I stammered may way through a job interview (phone) at only today, let me propose we do that, but more. Here are a couple questions to get the juices flowing:

1) What was the first aha, I really like this book, SF might just be for me moment you had? How old were you? What were you reading?
2) What part of the world, country, section, or state are you living in? Why?
3) If someone with a time machine came to you and said, "I'm sorry, but you can't stay in this time. I am going to send you 250 years into the future, or 250 years into the past. Choose." Which would be your selection?

I'll start. I am sixty years old, have had many jobs, retired from the military, speak three languages, four if you count the modern Greek I've forgotten so much of, and work as a school bus driver, or hopefully will soon again if that interview went as well as I thought. Bus driving is the perfect pre-retirement job in that it places me somewhat actively outside instead of in front of a computer terminal, and leaves me lots of reading time. I like kids of all ages too.

1) Escape! by Ben Bova. Checked out of my junior high school library in Knoxville, Tennessee. I have never stopped loving SF since reading that one!
2) South Carolina. Great weather. Always enough water. Cost of living is more than reasonable.
3) Back. The year would be 1774, which was not only a very interesting time in the U.S., but I'd like to look up my Cranston ancestors in Rhode Island, warn them how it would be in their best interest to switch sides and choose the rebels. That way, at the end of the war they would not find themselves exiled to Canada. It took about a century for my ancestors to find their way back into the U.S. via Michigan.

I'm a retired teacher, mostly as a substitute, and worked for 19 years after being a stay at home mom. I've got two grandkids, live in Toronto and absolutely love travelling. And I love learning languages. I'm fluent and three and can get along and read in two more.

To answer Question 1: when I met my future husband, he only read science fiction and I read everything but that.
However, I read Dune not that long after it was published and was absolutely blown away. I reread it not that long ago and loved it just as much.
I'm a big fan of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.

Back in time for me. I was born in Germany and lived in a charming small town until we emigrated to Canada when I was six. The walled church in the town in hundreds of years old and it's a very pretty place. And those were peaceful times in Germany.

Very interesting intro, Rosemarie. I am grateful to Germany for two contributions to SF, and no, one is not Fritz Lang's film named after Superman's city of residence. It is for Perry Rhodan--why did that series never really catch on here in the U.S.?--and for current underrated SF author Cora Buhlert. An indie writer from Bremen, everything she writes that I have read so far is brilliant. It's is all short stuff too.

Hi Dan and Rosemary, nice to meet you and thank you for starting the group, Dan.

I’ve always been a huge fan of sci-fi movies (I'll watch almost anything sci-fi), but I wasn’t as into the books, which often seemed like overextended, far-fetched sagas, such as Dune. I also hate it that sci-fi and fantasy is often lumped together.

I am not into bug aliens, Star Wars-style space travel, or stories about kings, queens, and ancient cosmic powers that rule the universe (though I did enjoy what they did with Foundation on Apple TV).

It wasn’t until my forties that I realized what I actually enjoy is called "hard sci-fi."

My first book in the genre was 2001: A Space Odyssey (I had seen the movie, and didn’t even realize there was a book), and since then, I’ve read everything by Arthur C. Clarke, who remains my favorite sci-fi writer. (I even got to visit his house in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which I consider a highlight of my sci-fi life)

I can’t get enough of the genre and am always on the lookout for more. I love Project Hail Mary, Seveneves, The Three-Body Problem among the newer ones.

Dan wrote: "and for current underrated SF author Cora Buhlert. .."

Looking her up... how prolific: https://corabuhlert.com/

Welcoe to SF Short Stuff, Stella!

Cora Buhlert has written tons of science fiction: https://corabuhlert.com/e-books/scien.... I started with Conspirators and was hooked from there. You may not like her work as much as I do. It is even less hard-sf than Perry Rhodan. It's quite the opposite, in fact, which is partly why I like it so much.

I have read four Arthur C. works. Novels, never his short stuff, assuming he has some. The two I read in his Space Odyssey series I gave four stars. His novel of the first installment was even better than Kubrick's film in my opinion. Childhood’s End and Dolphin Island only got my 2-star rating.

Hi all - I'm Judy. I'm retired and live in beautiful San Diego. I'm a statistician and spent much of my career in high tech, in Quality management. I also taught statistics for 8 years at community college after I retired. Now I read, crochet and knit, do yoga, play mah jongg, travel, save democracy, and snack too much.

1) I am not sure of my first aha, but I started reading fantasy in 5th grade, with the Narnia books, I love fantasy (mostly the urban fantasy genre like Charles de Lint) but really love hard sci-fi, the more sci the better. I'd say my first real sci-fi was in middle school, with Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil and Stranger in a Strange Land. I'm not a huge fan of Heinlein, but those two books grabbed me. Favorite authors along with Becky Chambers are Robert J. Sawyer, John Varley, Kim Stanley Robinson.

2) I live in San Diego, since the early 1980's (not long after college) when I moved for a job. And who can leave San Diego? I grew up in Miami.

3) I would definitely pick 250 years into the future. Who would want to go back before antibiotics and vaccines?? But I would wish I had this choice as a younger person to fully take advantage of the future world.

Hi, Stella and Judy!

Rosemarie wrote: "Hi, Stella and Judy!" !! Hello !!

Hi Judy. Two books we have in common are Stranger (I gave it three stars, maybe because I read the earlier edited version) and Wake by Sawyer, which was a strong 4 stars. AI is so cool! Oh, and Robinson's The Ministry for the Future for me was two stars--it was just too much like reading non-fiction for me.

It's nice to have you in the group. I look forward to reading your impressions of this Chambers novella.

Hi. I am Krutartha Chitnis author of The Evitable. I have a keen interest in Scifi and love exploring our world in different settings or sometimes even new ones. I have written a story which I believe is not just words jotted down on papers, but an experience that will take you inside the story. To be honest I am on a journey to find readers that would connect with me, my ideology and we can create new stories together.

Hi, Krutartha!

Welcome to our group, Krutartha. I hope you enjoy reading and discussing some stories here with us.

I read the first part of the free sample Amazon provides of your book. What an interesting starting premise! World resources becoming scarce by 2050, water becoming especially valuable, and a succeeding world government body to the U.N. confiscating nuclear weapons in order to repurpose the nuclear material. Your book reminded me in some respects of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future, a novel that had some good features, but got a little bogged down in its non-fiction aspects. You appear to summarize more to make the scope shorter and stay more firmly rooted in your fictional world though. Good luck with your book. And again, welcome.

Hi guys! My name is Monica, I’m delighted to be part of a group of people who love sci-fi literature.
1. Well, I think it was The Left Hand of Darkness. My memory isn’t serving me well at the moment, but I’ll go with that book. I was maybe 23 when I first read it and I was absolutely blown away about the fact that Ursula Le Guin had put into literature in the 70’s one crucial idea of current society: gender. I love the way it’s written, I love her language and her reflections.
2. I’m Colombian, living in the capital city: Bogota. I decided to stay here and continue with my mom’s legacy: a real state agency after I won a PhD scholarship to study in my dream country, Canada. The reason is quite simple, I will have a much more comfortable life staying here, with my own business, my own hours, etc., than going anywhere else to be an immigrant employee. I love life here even though, I prefer colder weather.
3. It would be the future, no doubt, because I’m homosexual and androgynous-looking. I think the future is very exciting as well as scary, but, in my case it’s better to explore new possibilities as past ones are so horrendous. In any case, I’m not big on surviving no matter what so if it would come to it, I’d die happily by own hand.
Thank you for the group and the discussions! Glad to be here!

Hi, Monica. I'm glad you enjoyed your studies in Canada and great that you have such a good job in your home country.
You can always come up here on a holiday in winter-I live here all year round.

Yeah, that would be amazing! Thanks!

Welcome, Monica. Great to have you in the group. #3. Yeah, I never thought about that before. But if one were homosexual, what would ANY past time have to offer that would be enticing? Trends are somewhat favorable for tolerance. Therefore, I can certainly understand your preference for the future.

I wonder if your favorite author ever wrote short stuff we could consider for a group read here. If she did, I encourage you to nominate the work(s). Best wishes!

Just came across your group and agree there is a lot of shorter works that don't get a look in, in other groups. I am retired and live in the UK. My favourite author is Asimov especially the Foundation books but will give anything a try. Lo.oking forward to reading with you all

Hi, Ian! Welcome to the group.
I'm a big fan of Asimov too.

Welcome, Ian. I have been a fan of Asimov's too, I read most, probably all, of his novels in the Foundation and the Robots series, which you probably know merged at the end. I also last month spent too much (probably) money to acquire his Words from the Exodus, a long-out-of-print non-fiction work. He wrote three or four about the Bible. I needed this one because my Sunday school class was taking up a study of that particular Old Testament book. It's surprisingly good. A lot of what he wrote about where the Hebrews must have fit into known Egyptian history was fascinating. Asimov hits the highlights, but doesn't dwell, as most biblical scholars like to.

Anyway, I've not read that much of Asimov's short stories, mostly the ones that appear in high school anthologies, and his early robots short stories featuring Robby and that secretary (Jane?). If you want to nominate some Asimov short stuff for group read in the nominations topic, I bet it would do well.

Good to have you with the group!

Hey everyone, looking forward to expanding my sci-fi repertoire! Short stories have always intimidated me…they come in book-length collections - and then I feel obligated to read it alllll. Reading a couple stories at a time from different authors sounds much more feasible. :)

I’m a grade 5 French information teacher in Calgary, Alberta. I grew up in beautiful British Columbia and got my bachelors in education at the university of Alberta campus Saint Jean. My favorite sci-fi authors are Jeff Vandermeer and Peter Watts. I also enjoy Adrian Tchaikovsky, HG Wells and Cixin Liu.

My “aha” book was definitely Borne by Jeff Vandermeer. It reminded me of The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, both of which left strong impressions on me when I read them in high school.

I live in Calgary because the school district I work for was very aggressive in hiring French-speaking education students. I was conscripted six months before receiving my degree, with a promised paid position starting the following September. I ended up loving the city, so that worked out for me!

As much as the future worries me (especially as an avid reader of speculative and apocalyptic fiction!) I’d have to say that going to the past would be worse. I’m white, so I would at least be treated as a human being for the most part, but I’m also female and very much jealous of my singlehood. I get the sense that an unattached 30 year old woman would not go far in life in 1775 😅

Welcome to the group, Breanne!
Best wishes in your career as a teacher.

Welcome to the group Rosemarie and happy new year to everyone.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the group, Breanne.

That's quite a list of favorite authors you have. I've read one work by most, not been that impressed, and not gone on with them. Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation is the one I liked the best, though not enough to continue the series, yet! Tchaikovsky's spider culture book was interesting, but long and a bit depressing (for me) in its realism. Cormac McCarthy and Margaret Atwood are good mainstream fiction writers--no doubt--and I read their The Road and Handmaid's Tale respectively. Good works, but genre? Not really, and I like genre conventions.

None of the authors you mention write weird fiction, well VanderMeer does on occasion, I suppose, but when he does, he's in a sub-genre niche of it (new weird). I hope we read enough stuff you might find interesting. I wonder if there are any French writers of weird fiction. Given their love of Poe and good writing, you would think it a natural for them.

Hi, I'm Oleksandr and I'm an addict (addicted to reading, both fiction and non-fic).

It is hard to pinpoint the first SFF book that 'wow'-ed me. It most likely will be a Soviet version of Dorothy of Oz, starting with Чарівник Смарагдового міста, which was when I was around 7 years old. About 10 I've read The War of the Worlds and stories by Ray Bradbury, about 11 - The Caves of Steel...

I'm in Kyiv, Ukraine. Why? Because I was born here (more precisely in the USSR)

Time travel - I'd like to know more on the state of the future (is there still a biological life?) and whether I will be the same (with age, sex, illnesses, etc.) and where in the world I'd end up? If only the info you supplied in the 1st msg is given then future (even if this means death) for I have health issues that weren't researched in 1775

Welcome, Oleksandr!

Hello Oleksandr. Welcome to SFSS (Science Fiction: The Short Stuff). It's good to have you on board. I hope you might be able to nominate some of the good Russian (or Ukrainian, if there is any) SF literature that's been translated and is easily available. We've not yet read any in this group. Maybe this month's Asimov can be considered Russian-adjacent?

There are both Russian and Ukrainian genre short stories, but most of them are not translated. Among some in recent translations, there was an interesting piece in Asimov's Science Fiction, May/June 2024 which is available for free on the translator's website https://alexshvartsman.com/2024/12/03...

I don't think that Asimov, who IIRC left at age of two is in any way Russia-related, from his 'southern USA' image (sideburns, bow tie) to the fact that 99% of so-called Russian Jews are just a consequence of the conquest of the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its division between three empires. His birthplace was as well on the territories annexed by the Russian Empire. Before the division of Poland no Jews were allowed not only to live in the empire but even visit it

This conversation inspired me to do some research. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Isaac Asimov was born Jan. 2, 1920 in Petrovichi, Russia (which Wikipedia informs me is in the Smolensk Oblast). Britannica lists him as a Russian-born U.S. author and biochemist, and state that he arrived in the U.S. at age 3.

Ethnic composition of Smolensk (2010):
Russians: 94.6%
Ukrainians: 1.3%
Belarusians: 1.3%
Armenians: 0.5%
Others: 2.3%

Photos of Isaac Asimov show him without sideburns when he was in his 20s. I figure they were an affectation, an attempt to look different, not a Jewish thing probably, and certainly not an American South thing.

AI says, "Although from a Russian-Jewish family, Isaac never learned Russian. His parents spoke Yiddish and English to him, and they used Russian as a secret language. Despite not speaking Russian, Asimov had a fond appreciation for Soviet science fiction and compiled anthologies of Soviet science fiction in the early 1960s." I wonder if we might find some good Russian SFSS in these?

Thanks for bringing Leonid Kaganov to my attention. He definitely seems like someone to look out for. One other translated (into English) work is his Мне повезёт, "I'm Feeling Lucky," appearing in the July 2021 issue of Clarkesworld.

Dan wrote: "Despite not speaking Russian, Asimov had a fond appreciation for Soviet science fiction and compiled anthologies of Soviet science fiction in the early 1960s."

He was also fond of older SF and compiled the whole series from 1939 to 1962 of Great SF Stories, like this one Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 1: 1939, and this series is way larger than all Soviet SF anthologies compiled by all editors in English, like Path into the Unknown: The Best of Soviet SF, so he was much more fond of older USA (plus sometimes UK) SF by this measure.

As for the city of Smolensk in 2010, the composition was notably different in 1920 of the region. Petrovichi, as can be seen on Google Maps https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pet... are way closer to the Belarussian border than to Smolensk. Moreover, as you can read in wiki https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/... it was a shtetl with population was half Jewish, half Belarusian.

Hey there everyone, I'm Dave. I see some familiar faces here, namely Dan, Rosemarie and Nikolai.

I like to read all types of sci-fi. My fascination with the genre began with things like UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle disappearances, reading The War of the Worlds as a kid (thank you, school librarian), and watching the first black-and-white Frankenstein film on TV (and then, later on, reading Mary Shelley's original). And then I discovered the other side of SF with classics like Brave New World and 1984.

But when it comes to the hard sci-fi classics, I don't know much. I've always wanted to check out the works of writers like Asimov and Clarke, but never got around to it. Philip K. Dick is another author that I've wanted to check out for a while, I've read a couple of his short stories but nothing else.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to discovering new stories here with you all :) See you around.

Welcome Dave. I think you're starting out in a good place with SF. Some good SF to start with if you're under 18 are what is known as the Heinlein juveniles. I think most of them still work reasonably well even some 70 years after they were published. If you're over 18, then Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is the #1 book I'd recommend to someone starting SF. Asimov's Foundation trilogy is a good place too, but more ambitious, frankly. For short SF, last month's "The Cold Equations" is hard to beat. There's also "Flowers for Algernon" in short story or novel; both forms are great.

I think this group is also a great place to start getting into SF. You'll sure get a wide exposure to a lot of different SF authors, and that experience comes much faster than if you only read their novels.

Welcome, Dave!

Thanks for the welcomes and the recommendations, I'll probably start with Asimov (either Foundation or I, Robot) and go from there.

Hi all, I've only recently started getting more into reading and writing short fiction. I usually read and write longer form (i.e., novels), but I've started submitting short stories to sci-fi magazines. I learn by reading, so I'm always open to suggestions. I'm a huge Le Guin fan and a general lover of the dying earth subgenre. Above all, I appreciate solid writing as it helps me refine my own craft.

Welcome to the group, Sheri!