The Short Story Thread

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Good points.

One more before I vanish for the night:

"The Being Machine" ("The Mind Bomb," If, October 1969) -- Weird, surreal story about a all-powerful machine that controls the lives of the population, and what happens after it constructs a gigantic tower and allows one man in. Holds the interest, even if it's not always clear what's happening.

 

[Stuart Suffel]

"Pack Rat Planet" (Astounding, December 1954) -- In the far future, Earth is one immense library of information from all the settled planets. A repressive new government threatens to destroy it. The director has to figure out how to preserve it while still obeying the new government. Not bad.

Didn't Futrurama do a version of this? With Fry being the Director, on a scooter.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Seed Stock" (Analog, April 1970) -- Human colonists on a distant planet struggle to survive in their new environment. A quietly effective little story.

"Murder Will In" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1970) -- This requires a bit of explanation. Five authors were given the same few opening paragraphs, describing a man entering a euthanasia center and being injected with the drug that will kill him. The stories were published various places and assembled into the anthology Five Fates. Here, a binary alien being is in possession of the dead man, and has to find a new host quickly. This leads to a confrontation with a repressive future society. Imaginative and fast-moving.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

All of these are from the collection The Book of Frank Herbert (1973)

"Passage for Piano" -- A family about to be sent on a voyage to colonize a distant planet is limited in the amount of weight they can take with them. They have to face the fact that the young son of the family, a blind musical prodigy, may literally die if he is not allowed to take his grandfather's piano with him. An OK heartwarmer.

"Gambling Device" -- A honeymooning couple winds up in a mysterious hotel where they are not allowed to do anything that might be considered "gambling," like having free will. An odd, horror-like, Twilight Zone kind of story.

"Encounter in a Lonely Place" -- The narrator listens to a man tell of his ability to read the mind of one woman, and what results from that power. Just an anecdote, but not bad.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Death of a City" (Future City, 1973) -- Two "city doctors" ponder the problem of a city which seems too perfect for its inhabitants. Brief and only so-so.

"Come to the Party" (Analog, December 1978; with F. M. Busby) -- Aliens with four sexes contend with other aliens who prey on them, as well as the robot left behind by humans. Written in a jumpy style which makes me think the two authors just took turns writing it.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Songs of a Sentient Flute" (Analog, February 1979) -- One of a series of stories set on the shared world Medea, published various places over some years, and eventually collected into the book Medea: Harlan's World (1985.) This story concerns a poet who journeys to the planet to find out about the giant gasbag-like aliens that inhabit it. A pretty good SF story.

"Frogs and Scientists" (Destinies, August/September 1979) -- One-page joke/fable about frogs observing human behavior. Not much to it.

"Feathered Pigs" (Destinies, October-December 1979) -- Another one-page tale, this one about sentient pigs given wings by long-vanished humans. Rather pointless.

"The Daddy Box" (previously unpublished) -- A young boy finds a mysterious object which changes his relationship with his stepfather. I suspect this is an early work, because there's a very minor character named Jimmy Carter and no reference to the ex-President seems to have been intended. Would have been at place in a typical SF/fantasy magazine of the 1950's.

And that's the end of the collection. Onward!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Starting a series of reviews of the stories in this anthology:

"The Stutterer" by R. R. Merliss (Astounding, April 1955) -- One of twenty indestructible humanoid robots evades capture after the war it was designed for ends and heads to Earth with an unexpected purpose. A solid SF story with some interesting concepts. The author never published anything else in the field, as far as I can tell, but a little research reveals that he published a couple of mainstream novels with medical themes in the 1960's. This story is out of copyright, so you can read it here.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Stutterer, by R. R. Merliss

 

[dask]

Love the cover.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Love the cover.

Richard Powers. Typical of his abstract style, which can be seen on a huge number of paperbacks.

"The Golem" by Avram Davidson (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1955) -- Frequently reprinted comic tale of an elderly couple and their encounter with a threatening robot. The author had not yet developed his baroque style, so it's a light, pleasant read.

"Junior" by Robert Abernathy (Galaxy, January 1956) -- No humans at all appear in this wry story of a rebellious youngster and his parents, who happen to be water-dwelling beings who develop from free-swimming polyps to sessile adults. Best described as "cute."

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Cave of Night" by James E. Gunn (Galaxy, February 1955) -- The first man in orbit is trapped in space, and a crash program to rescue him begins. A realistic story of the early days of space travel, with an ironic conclusion. Adapted for both radio and television.

Radio version: X Minus One, February 1, 1956:

X Minus One: Episode - Cave Of Night, 2-1-1956 : X Minus One : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive


"The Hoofer" by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (Fantastic Universe, September 1955) -- A spacer comes back to Earth after one last trip and realizes that he will never fit in. Mostly a character study, with a symbolic ending. Out of copyright, so you can read it here.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Hoofer, by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Bulkhead" by Theodore Sturgeon ("Who?", Galaxy, March 1955) -- A candidate for the position of starship pilot is sent out on a test mission which will last several months, alone except for the person on the other side of a bulkhead, with whom it is only possible to communicate via a push button. The identity of the person turns out to be a surprise. Written in second person, this is an effective psychological story.

 

[J-Sun]

And that's the end of the collection.

So what did you think of it in aggregate? My guesstimate is that it was sort of "meh"? Which is better than I was expecting. Of Herbert collections, I've only read a Byron Preiss edition of Eye and, since it's still on my shelf as a sort of obligatory "Herbert collection," it's almost certainly the worst collection I have. Many of Herbert's novels don't suit me perfectly but I do like some or at least found them interesting, so I was surprised at my dislike of the collection. But perhaps, like many Preiss books, it's not very representative. (This is why, when I wished you luck in reading the book, I joked "You're gonna need it." I was envisioning slogging through a giant Eye, so to speak.)

Starting a series of reviews of the stories in this anthology:

Don't have that but I do have Merril's Best of the Best[1] which draws from the first five annuals and is larger than average. Still, she really liked her first annual: "Golem," "Junior," "Hoofer," and "Bulkhead" are all in the BotB.

[1] This was one out of the first handful of SF books I ever read and is probably responsible for my being able to tolerate as much New Wave-type stuff as I do. It specifically turned me on to at least Carol Emshwiller.)

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Yeah, the Herbert wasn't that great. Mostly middle-of-the-road magazine science fiction. A few good stories, a few turkeys, a lot of fair-to-middling stories.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Sense from Thought Divide" by Mark Clifton (Astounding, March 1955) -- One of a series of stories about a personnel director (the author's own line of work) dealing with psychic phenomena as part of a project to create an antigravity device. Here he deals with a phony medium who doesn't know he has real powers. Very typical of Astounding's psi period. Not so great a story, in my opinion. Out of copyright, so you can read it here:


The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sense from Thought Divide, by Mark Clifton

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Pottage" by Zenna Henderson (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1955) -- One of the famous "People" series. In this one, a schoolteacher confronts the subdued, unhappy, foot-dragging children of a tiny Western town. The author walks a very fine line between genuine emotion and sentimentality, but stays on the right side of it. Later adapted into a pretty good made-for-TV movie, which you can see here:

The People ( 1972) TV Movie : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Nobody Bothers Gus" by Algis Budrys (Astounding, November 1955, as by "Paul Janvier") -- Fine character study of a superhuman with the ability, sometimes unwelcome, to avoid being noticed by normal people.

"The Last Day of Summer" by E. C. Tubb (Science Fantasy, February 1955) -- A man who has had his youth renewed three times now faces the fact that he can no longer be rejuvenated, and will age rapidly. A poetic, introspective tale by the only non-American (British) author in the anthology.

"One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts" by Shirley Jackson (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1955) -- Famous story about a man who goes around doing nice things for people, with a subtle and unexpected conclusion. The best fantasy story I have ever read.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"The Ethicators" by Willard Marsh (If, August 1955) -- Satiric story of aliens who arrive on Earth during the dinosaur days. Horrified by the fact that the animals eat each other, they leave a gizmo which will instill ethics in whatever creature evolves into sentience. Amusing tale from a writer better known for mainstream fiction.

"Birds Can't Count" by Mildred Clingerman (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1955) -- Comedy of undetected aliens who comes to Earth just to make images. Cute, and a little bawdy.

"Of Missing Persons" by Jack Finney (Good Housekeeping, March 1955) -- Given the author, you'd expect this to be a tale of someone trying to escape the modern world into a better place, and that's exactly what it is. Not bad.

"Dreaming is a Private Thing" by Isaac Asimov (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1955) -- Episodic story of a future where certain people can have their daydreams recorded for others to enjoy. (We'd call it virtual reality.) Could be read as an allegory of writing or any other imaginative art form.

"The Country of the Kind" by Damon Knight (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1956) -- In a utopian future where all forms of aggression have bred out of humanity, one atavistic man runs amok, although he is treated so that he cannot do actual physical harm to others. A powerful story.

 

[Caliban]

Danger: Religeon - by Brian Aldiss
I quite liked this one. I often find Aldiss very hit and miss but this was a fun parallel universe story with some neat ideas scattered in. Not the best story in the world but certainly entertaining.

The Green Leaves of Space - by Brian Aldiss
Another hit. This story explores the conflict between those who want to destroy the environment - in this case the environment on another planet - for human gain versus those who would rather study the sentient life on the planet. I quite like the title as well.

 

[S.C.Wood]

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.

I'm reading this for the first time as we speak and I'm confused on the narrative style. It seems like a mix between first and second person? Is that right? The narrator is telling the story from his recollection, yet calls out "you" multiple times.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Finishing up the anthology:

"The Public Hating" by Steve Allen (Blue Book, January 1955) -- In the future year of 1978, criminals convicted of treason are placed in a stadium, to be tortured and killed by the psychic power of the mob surrounding them. A grim and gruesome story. Yes, that's the famous celebrity who wrote it.

"Home There's No Returning" by C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner (No Boundaries, 1955) -- A robot with free will is activated during a war, and wreaks havoc in the underground military base where it's located. It's not until the commanding officer finds out what it wants that it can be controlled. Starts off as a vivid, if melodramatic, account of the giant, super-strong robot destroying things, but eventually turns on a philosophical point.

Up next:

Another entry in Merril's annual anthology: