The Short Story Thread

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Unbolted Door" by "Mrs. Belloc Lowndes" (Marie Belloc Lowndes) (1929) -- Years after their son is reported missing in action in the Great War, a married couple receives a ghostly message from him. Notable mostly for the spirit's motivation.

***SPOILER ALERT***

The wife has refused to sleep with her husband after the loss of their only child, and the ghost returns to bring them back together.

"The Buick Saloon" by Mary O'Malley (1931) -- A woman in the European section of Peking hears a woman's voice (presumably that of a ghost, although this is not said directly) in her automobile. (Americans like me may need to know that a "saloon" is what we call a sedan.) Her romantic fantasies about the woman's love affair lead to an ironic discovery. Enjoyable for its sardonic wit, and for lots of local color.

"Shambleau" by C. L. Moore (1933) -- Famous, frequently reprinted science fantasy about the seductive creature in the title. I've reviewed it before, so suffice to note the author's lush, sensual style.

 

[Bick]

I’ve been reading some J.G. Ballard short stories. These have been very good. It took me many years to get to Ballard, but I’m glad I did eventually. He tends toward the dystopian future fantasy kind of story more than anything else, though Anthony Burgess describes him as a great SF writer. An interesting aside is that the only living writers Ballard claimed to admire were William Burroughs and… wait for it… Isaac Asimov. Which is interesting, as the question of Asimov’s writing quality often comes up on these boards. The first stories I’ve read are:

The Concentration City – this is an excellent story about a man who seeks to go beyond the edge of his giant city. Its dystopian and other-worldly. Quite creepy, I liked it a lot. ****

Manhole 69 – A group of men undergo experimental surgery to remove the necessity of sleep. It does not go well… This is top notch short story that stays with you long after you’ve finished. Creepy again. And more SF than some. ****

Chronopolis – The nice idea here is that clocks and watches have become outlawed following a slavish regard for time and its effects on civilisation. The center of the city has been abandoned following its fall and you get a great sense of place in the story. ***½

The Voices of Time – Longer than some of the others, but without the tight storyline. Nonetheless it’s a decent enough tale. The world is descending into a pandemic of narcolepsy, and the protagonist is spending less and less time awake. His days get shorter and he records this as he pens his journal. This technique was rather reminiscent of the journal development in Keye’s Flowers for Algernon, and was also successful, though it’s not overall in the same league. ***

Deep End – Climate change has reduced the Earth’s seas to “Atlantic Lake”. There’s a definite dystopian theme here as you can see. Two men find the last fish. This being Ballard, it won’t spoil things much to hint that it doesn’t end well. I really liked this story. ***½

The Overloaded Man – This is a slighter story to my mind. It’s okay, but not as great as some of the others here. A man is losing his mind (because of all the concentrated dystopian stress around him) with bad consequences. **½

Billenium – Absolute cracker of a story – probably my favourite so far. The world is so populated everyone gets apportioned a 4 sqm space to live in. This sounds a bit silly, but its delivered so well, and the outcome is so tragic, in part because it’s not told in an emotive manner, but rather matter of factly. ****

The Garden of Time – This is a rather strange story. Two lovers can see an army hoard approaching them over the hills but they can send them back in time to further over the hills each morning by picking flowers from their garden. But they only have so many flowers… **½

Thirteen for Centaurus – This is (on the face of it) the most SF story in the book, as it presents a small group on their way to Alpha Centaurus. But is all as it seems? I liked this, and if I came across it in an old Galaxy I’d be thrilled. ***

The Subliminal Man – I don’t know if this is the (or one of the) first subliminal advertising stories written, but I suspect so. It’s pretty darn good. ***½

I’ll read the remaining in the next month or so, and hope to provide a part II.

 

[wam]

I’ve been reading some J.G. Ballard short stories. These have been very good. It took me many years to get to Ballard, but I’m glad I did eventually. He tends toward the dystopian future fantasy kind of story more than anything else, though Anthony Burgess describes him as a great SF writer.

I liked the Vermilion Sands stories. A series set in an artistic colony in an unspecified location. There are bizarre creations and the whole thing seems to have a taste of 60s California or 20s Cote D'Azur. No dystopia at all. Admittedly, it's not typical Ballard but it does show he could do other things.

Thirteen for Centaurus – This is (on the face of it) the most SF story in the book, as it presents a small group on their way to Alpha Centaurus. But is all as it seems? I liked this, and if I came across it in an old Galaxy I’d be thrilled. ***

The Subliminal Man – I don’t know if this is the (or one of the) first subliminal advertising stories written, but I suspect so. It’s pretty darn good. ***½

A year or two back the BBC did a "Ballard night" on BBC3 or 4. They found an old version of Thirteen for Centaurus and filmed a new version of The Enormous Room with Simon Callow.
Some time ago I had a review of The Space Merchants rejected because I didn't say that it was the first time people ever heard of subliminal advertising. So I did a little research. The big fuss over subliminals came after a book called "The Hidden Persuaders" in the late 40s long before either TSM. As far as I can tell, every piece of evidence about subliminal advertising has since been discredited in some way. So it's anybody's guess whether such things work or not.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Another Ballard fan here. I'll admit to being a bit baffled at times by his "condensed novels" (stories in the style of "The Terminal Beach") but they are certainly haunting. I am quite fond of the decadent mood of the Vermillion Sands stories, and the later story "War Fever" was certainly very powerful. (I think I like the allegorical story "The Garden of Time" a bit better than Bick; it almost has the mood of a melancholy fairy tale. Strikingly beautiful art for its first appearance in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, although the author's name does not appear on the cover.)

Onward:

"The Supper at Elsinore" by "Isak Dinesen" (Karen Blixen) (1934) -- Another ghost story, in which the spirit of a dead brother has a conversation with his two sisters, but so beautifully written and with such extraordinary depth of characterization, and so little of the traditional trappings of a haunting, that it is remarkably fresh and original.

"The English Gentleman's Tale -- The Gold Bride" by Christina Stead (1934) -- Apparently one of a series of stories told by various folks in a sort of Canterbury Tales collection; the "English gentleman" never shows up at all in his story. Anyway, this is a strange, darkly romantic tale of a man who adores his wife so much that when she dies he develops a mad passion for the gold statue of her he had made when he almost died from love.

"The Mask of Sacrifice" by Margery Lawrence (1936) -- A man purchases a weird, evil-looking mask that exerts a sinister influence over his household. Effective, plot-driven horror story that would make a good episode of Twilight Zone.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Starting a series of reviews from Victorian Fairy Tales (1987), edited by Jack Zipes.

"Uncle David's Nonsensical Story About Giants and Fairies" by Catherine Sinclair (1839) -- Excerpt from the novel Holiday House, which is apparently about a couple of well-meaning but trouble-making children. This is an obviously a moral lesson disguised as a fairy tale. A lazy boy named Master No-Book chooses to live a life of ease with the fairy Do-nothing instead of a life of meaningful work with the fairy Teach-all, and nearly gets gobbled up by the giant Snap-'em-up before he learns his lesson. That's all very well, and the tale itself is quite jolly and amusing, but the author spoils the fun by devoting the last couple of pages to discussing the point of the story.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers" by John Ruskin (1841) -- Two greedy, cruel brothers abuse their kind-hearted brother. The dwarvish King of the Golden River shows up and offers them a task which carries great risk and great reward, leading to the triumph of Good over Evil. The moral is crystal-clear, and the first part of the story (in which the incarnation of the South West Wind shows up) doesn't have a lot to do with the rest of the story, but it's elegantly written.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Cinderella and the Glass Slipper" by George Cruikshank (1854) -- The author (much better known as an illustrator, whose own finely detailed drawings accompany the text) offers us a pretty straight-forward version of the famous story, if a little more mundane than some (he's careful to tell us that the glass slippers are lined with "an elastic material") and a bit sweeter than some (Cinderella is always very kind to her cruel stepsisters; so much so that they reform by the end.) One odd detail is that Cinderella's father is in debtor's prison (due to the stepmother's spending) instead of Cinderella being an orphan. The fairy godmother restores him to freedom and wealth as an afterthought to the main story; why didn't she do that earlier if she's so eager to help Cinderella? The really weird thing about this story, however, is that it turns into a long lecture on the evils of alcohol near the end. (Apparently the author was a ex-drinker who turned into an extreme teetotaller.)

"Heinrich; or, The Love of Gold" by "Alfred Crowquill" (Alfred Henry Forrester) (1860) -- Allegorical tale of a stonemason who carves a gargoyle which comes to life. In return, the creature agrees to change the fellow's heart to stone so he can concentrate all his attentions on gathering up the hidden gold of the "knomes," thus wasting away his life. OK, but lays the moral lesson on pretty thick.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Bruno's Revenge" by "Lewis Carroll" (Charles Dodgson) (1867) -- Later incorporated in a different form into the very strange, deeply flawed, fascinating two-volume novel Sylvie and Bruno and Sylvie and Bruno Concluded. This version tones down the annoying baby talk used in Bruno's dialogue quite a bit, which makes it much less of an effort to read. Anyway, this is a whimsical tale of the narrator encountering two fairy children. Bruno wants to get revenge on Sylvie for some imagined slight or other, and the narrator manages to convince him that the best way to do this is to make her a beautiful garden. Besides the very light moral lesson, this is a cheerful story, with many of the jokes you'd expect from this author.

. . . you know I am very learned in natural history (for instance, I can always tell kittens from chickens at one glance) . . .

 

[Bick]

That magazine cover is excellent Victoria, thanks for posting it. The artwork for the Ballard definitely captures the story beautifully. What a line up too. As well as Ballard (strange to miss him off the cover!), there's also Matheson and Asimov. The modern magazines just don't seem to attract the big names in the same way. The world has moved on I guess.

Your recent posts on victorian/edwardian stories of fantasy and the supernatural have been very interesting by the way - esp. the women writer collection. I'm tempted to track it down.

 

[Jesse412]

I own a hardcover of The Hugo Winners Edited by Isaac Asimov Volumes I & II and the most moving story in the entire collection is Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It's about a janitor of below average intelligence and a lab rat named Algernon who both undergo experiments to increase their intellect. I can't really say more than that without spoilers but this could be a tearjerker for some and I challenge everyone to read it and not be affected by it in some way. It is both beautifully crafted and highly entertaining.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have often said that "Flowers For Algernon" is the finest science fiction story I have ever read.


Onward:


"The Magic Fishbone" by Charles Dickens (1868) -- Apparently one of a series of stories of various kinds which the author pretended were written by young children. This one is supposedly by "Miss Alice Rainbird, Aged Seven." This pretense allows the author to throw all logic out the window and engage in pure silliness. Buried under a nonsensical plot is a very light moral lesson -- the heroine takes care of various wacky crises herself, and never gets around to making use of the magic fishbone -- but the story is mostly just the author enjoying himself.


"Cinderella" by Anne Isabella Ritchie (1868) -- The author removes all the fantastic elements from the story (the "fairy godmother" is just a rich, eccentric old woman), sets it in her own time (the heroine even goes to visit the Crystal Palace) and transforms it into a social comedy/drama, not unlike something by Jane Austen or Henry James.


"The Ogre Courting" by Juliana Horatia Ewing (1871) -- This brief story is told in the style of a folk tale, as a clever woman defeats the plans of a wicked giant.


"The Prince's Dream" by Jean Ingelow (1872) -- Allegorical fable of a prince, kept away from the world in a tower, who learns about the power of gold from an old man who is brought to his luxurious prison. Has a vaguely "Arabian Knights" flavor to it.


"Charlie Among the Elves" by Edward H. Knatchbull-Hugessen (1871) -- Jolly tale of a young boy having fun with the little people. No moral lesson at all, strictly written to amuse.


"A Toy Princess" by Mary De Morgan (1877) -- Satiric story of a place where the people are so polite that they never show emotions or really communicate. By the end of the story they prefer to keep the robot-like "toy princess" who has taken the place of the real princess, who actually has feelings.


"The Day Boy and the Night Girl" by George MacDonald (1879) -- Richly imaginative, highly original, poetically written tale of a boy raised only in daylight and a girl raised only in darkness who come together to share their strengths and weaknesses. Raises the fairy tale to the level of sophisticated literature.


"All My Doing; or Red Riding-Hood Over Again" by Harriet Louisa Childe-Pemberton (1882) -- This cautionary tale has very little to do with the famous story it makes reference to. There's a red cape, and there's a grandmother, and the basic lesson is "don't talk to strangers." Otherwise it's a realistic story about a young woman who trusts a fellow who turns out to be one of a gang of thieves who rob her grandmother.

 

[Jesse412]

I really enjoyed the Roger Zelazny anthology The Last Defender Of Camelot. This collection includes both science fiction and fantasy stories. Zelazny gives a brief introduction to each short story and there are some great ones including The Stainless Steel Leech, The Engine at Heartspring's Center, Is There a Demon Lover in the House? and The Game Of Blood and Dust among others.

My favorite story is the novelette For A Breath I Tarry. It's set in a future after the extinction of human beings where after contemplating the differences between Man and Machine one of the sentient machines decides he wants to actually become a man. This is an incredible story with a great ending and could make an equally good CGI film.

The novelette Damnation Alley features an ex biker who must go on a cross country ride through radioactive post apocalypse America to deliver a plague cure from California to Boston. Zelazny mentions that he had written this after reading Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels. He also mentions it was later adapted into a book which was adapted into a film. This is one of the best action adventure stories I've read in awhile.

Another of the novelettes featured that I find interesting He Who Shapes about a future where the protagonist, Charles Render, a neuroparticipant therapist has the ability to go into people's consciousness using a machine. It reminded me of Christopher Nolan's Inception. Of course this story was written in the 1960s, 30 years before the film was made.

The short story the collection is named after The Last Defender of Camelot is about Lancelot who has lived for 200 years after the fall of Camelot. After helping to awaken a half mad Merlin he must stop the wizard to save the world. This is a really entertaining story and the reason I picked up this collection in the first place.

In the short A Thing of Terrible Beauty an alien parasite has a conversation with his human host as the world is about to be destroyed. The scene that resonated the most with me is when the man walks over to his record collection pulls out Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain, starts to play the song Saeta and says "I've always maintained that it is music for the last hour of Earth. If Gabriel doesn't show up, this will do."

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Note might also be made of the fact that "The Last Defender of Camelot" was adapted into an episode of the 1985-1986 version of The Twilight Zone, with the adaptation written by none other than George R. R. Martin.


Onward:


"The Princess Nobody" by Andrew Lang (1884) -- The famous collector of fairy tales creates one of his own, as a Princess is forced to disappear into Fairyland in order to escape being captured by a wicked dwarf, and then has to be rescued by a Prince. As you'd expect, this reads very much like a traditional fairy tale.


"The Story of a King's Daughter" by Mary Louisa Molesworth (1884) -- Symbolic story of a kind-hearted Princess, loved by all the animals she cares for, who must go into the Enchanted Forest to rescue a Prince whose cruelty to animals has caused him to be transformed into a horrible beast. An obvious plea for decent treatment of our fellow creatures.


"The Happy Prince" by Oscar Wilde (1888) -- The statue of a dead Prince who knew only luxury in life asks a sparrow to carry his jewels and his gold to the poor to relieve their misery. A fable which manages to be poetic, satiric, and very sad.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Wooden Tony" by Lucy Lane Clifford (1892) -- A dreamy Swiss boy who is useless at any kind of practical work is taken to Geneva because of the mysterious, beautiful song he sings, where he meets a strange fate. The author seems ambivalent about imagination and practicality.

 

[BAYLOR]

The City of The Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith . One of the finest fantasy stories ever written from one of the greatest writers of all time.

 

[Jesse412]

My current favorite collection (and has been for years) is one I feel lucky to own the hardcover of. The Hugo Winners Edited by Isaac Asimov Volumes I & II may be the best science fiction short story collection I've ever read/owned. Along with these wonderful shorts are an intro and anecdotes about each author.

It starts with the novelette The Darfsteller by Walter M. Miller, Jr. about an actor turned theatre janitor in a future where all actors have been replaced by robots. The main character who had refused to 'sell out' schemes to get himself back on stage.

Another story I found particularly moving is Arthur C. Clarke's The Star. Earth explorers led by a astrophysicist/priest, travel to a distant star system that was destroyed by a supernova. They discover a time capsule sealed in a vault that was left by the dead civilization that once lived there. I can't really explain anymore than that without spoiling the ending but it was both shocking and very moving.

Robert Bloch's The Hell-bound Train is classic Bloch if your a fan of the macabre I highly recommend it.

Other stories I recommend Poul Anderson's The Longest Voyage, The Sharing of Flesh and No Truce With Kings, Jack Vance's The Dragon Masters and The Last Castle, and Nightwings by Robert Silverberg.

There are also three Harlan Ellison stories that are must read classics; The Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The World, "Repent, Harlequin!" Said The Ticktockman and I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream. Plus this greatr Asimov anecdote about Ellison always showing up to conventions with a different beautiful woman on his arm.

 

[J-Sun]

SF magazines used to be carried in bookstores, airports, grocery stores, wherever. On the backs were SFBC ads where you could get five books for the price of one plus a dime or a buck or whatever. And that anthology was one of the many great books offered for years. That's the way it oughta be. (Now magazines are almost impossible to find and the SFBC is a pale shadow of what it was and the Hugos aren't much good, either.) There's a third and fourth volume that are similar, as well as a fifth that only covers three years - which became the standard with "The New Hugo Winners" series. Asimov presented the first couple of those, a couple of other folks presented a couple more, and then the series died. Meanwhile, the Nebula annual things carry on. TANJ.

Anyway - agreed - a great and essential anthology. That pic looks better than mine, as my dustjacket is chipped. The Keyes, as mentioned, is extraordinary. The Ellisons and Silverberg also made a strong impression as well as some of the others you mention. One that hasn't been mentioned is Murray Leinster's "Exploration Team" which also got fixed up into Colonial Survey aka The Planet Explorer. It may not be so great in some ways, I guess, but the first reading of it was just definitive SF, whisking me to a strange world with strange creatures and, though I didn't read the book-length work until much later, there's still something pure SF about it that I love.

Welcome to a fellow short fiction lover!

(And, because I like tooting Asimov's horn almost as much as he did and the pic is kind of small, for those who don't have their own copy, the Hugo on the back is for "The 13th Annual Science Fiction Achievement Awards [the official name of the "Hugos"] | Best All-Time Series | "The Foundation Series" | by | Isaac Asimov | 24th World Science Fiction Convention | Cleveland, Ohio September, 1966".)

 

[Jesse412]

One of my favorites is a collection called They Came From Outer Space: 12 Classic Science Fiction Tales That Became Major Motion Pictures which has an introduction by Ray Bradbury. I highly recommend this collection if your a science fiction fan. Bradbury's intro titled The Turkey That Attacked New York describes how his short The Fog Horn was turned into the movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, a film which he personally was not too happy with.

A few other short stories included are Who Goes There by John W. Campbell, Jr. which was turned into The Thing from Another World, remade into John Carpenter's The Thing and more recently the 2011 The Thing. Harry Bates' Farewell to the Master which was filmed originally in 1951 as The Day the Earth Stood Still (I actually prefer this short story to either film versions). The Alien Machine by Raymond F. Jones filmed as This Island Earth and A Boy And His Dog by Harlan Ellison are also featured.

A cool feature to this book is that is shows behind the scenes pictures from movie sets like The Fly with Vincent Price and Death Race 2000 with Sylvester Stallone. My favorite picture features a candid moment between one of my favorite science fiction authors and one of my favorite directors. Arthur C. Clarke's The Sentinel was eventually developed into Stanley Kubrick's2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

[BAYLOR]

Then there was Theodore Sturgeon's 1944 story Killdozer an excellent story made into a very awful , forgettable TV movie in 1974,

 

[Jesse412]

Is anyone familiar with the western short stories by Robert E. Howard? I am having trouble finding the other stories that feature the main character from the short story Meet Cap'n Kidd. It appears in the collection Swordsmen and Supermen along with stories by Jean D'Esme, Darrel Crombie and Arthur D. Howden Smith. My favorite is the last story called How Sargoth Lay Siege to Zaremm by Lin Carter.