The Short Story Thread

[Fried Egg]

I just read "The Sentinels" by Ramsey Campbell in the collection entitled "Demons by Daylight".

It's my favourite story so far in this collection. A really haunting tale with very effective imagery conveying a real sense of horror.

 

[jojajihisc]

DP! by Jack Vance - Hairless, pigment challenged "troglodytes" emerge from the ground in Europe in large numbers.

The Confession of Brother Blaise by Jane Yolen - Medieval monk relates a story of a not-so immaculate conception.

 

[Fried Egg]

Some of these stories in the Ramsey Campbell collection are incomprehensible to me. Take "The Stocking" for instance. What the hell was going on there? Great imagery and atmosphere but I just don't get what was going on. Anyone who can enlighten me...

 

[Connavar]

The Enchantress of Venus by Leigh Brackett in The Best of Leigh Brackett collection.

My first story with her famous hero Stark. The level of her writing,prose rose a lot from the earlier stories i had read in Halfling and other Stories compared to Stark's story. I like,respect her writing much more now.

 

[dask]

Finished Fritz Leiber's short novel, "The Night Of The Long Knives" in the January 1960 issue of Amazing. Bizarre take on an "extremely savage" (SF Encyclopedia) post-holocaust future. Hope and pray, everyone, it isn't like this if and when it ever happens. Then, in the same issue, read an interesting tale of corporate colonization in "Impact" by Irving E. Cox, Jr., a name I've seen floating around the table of contents of various sf mags but isn't listed in the Clute/Nicholls SF Encyclopedia. Pity, the guy tells a good story. Now reading "Control Group" by Roger Dee, another skillful storyteller and frequent guest in the sf mags of the period.

 

[j d worthington]

Some of these stories in the Ramsey Campbell collection are incomprehensible to me. Take "The Stocking" for instance. What the hell was going on there? Great imagery and atmosphere but I just don't get what was going on. Anyone who can enlighten me...

I've given you my take on it in the Ramsey Campbell thread, if that helps....

 

[Connavar]

I got SF Hall of Fame volume 3, the novella length collection.

Looking specially forward to reading new authors for me like Simak,Blish

I dont know the other names except Vance,Asimov,Pohl.

 

[j d worthington]

I got SF Hall of Fame volume 3, the novella length collection.

Looking specially forward to reading new authors for me like Simak,Blish

I dont know the other names except Vance,Asimov,Pohl.

I think you'll find quite a bit to like there, Connavar....

I just finished reading Poe's "Ligeia" and "How to Write a Blackwood Article"/"A Predicament" in T. O. Mabbott's edition. These have always been among my favorites of Poe's tales in the weird/horror and humor/satire categories, respectively; but this is even more the case after this recent reading, with all the annotations. The absurdities of the protagonist in the latter show Poe quite capable of writing pure farce.... (Though I still find myself rather bothered by people -- not, I hasten to add, Prof. Mabbott -- insisting on classifying Ligeia as a vampire. Where on earth do they get that....?)

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

The Sukey Snobbs stories are my favourites among Poe's satire too (although X-ing A Paragrab has had me in splits many a time). I had no idea Poe had ever written satire when my mother presented me with the more-or-less collected edition of his works that I've recently had to retire and while I was initially a little aghast at the thought I have to say that I've come to relish this side of his output more and more over the years.

What do you think of his metaphysical dialogues?

I should re-read Ligeia. I never thought too much of it either way - my own favourite has always been The Masque Of The Red Death , followed by The Fall Of The House Of Usher.

 

[j d worthington]

The Sukey Snobbs stories are my favourites among Poe's satire too (although X-ing A Paragrab has had me in splits many a time). I had no idea Poe had ever written satire when my mother presented me with the more-or-less collected edition of his works that I've recently had to retire and while I was initially a little aghast at the thought I have to say that I've come to relish this side of his output more and more over the years.

Yes, Poe isn't as well known for his satires as he deserves to be. Granted, at times they are heavy and labored, but quite a few of them are brilliant things of their kind; and at his best, Poe could be incredibly sharp-tongued and uproariously funny (albeit often quite grotesque).

What do you think of his metaphysical dialogues?

I'm assuming you mean such things as "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion", "The Colloquy of Monos and Una", and the like? Actually, I rather like them. There is a wistfulness and pathos to them which heightens some of the metaphysical ponderings and makes the whole echo with a fair amount of the beauty of his poetry. They make me think at times of such pieces by CAS as "Sadastor", "The Shadows", "From the Crypts of Memory" and the like, which have always been among my favorites of Smith's works....

I should re-read Ligeia. I never thought too much of it either way - my own favourite has always been The Masque Of The Red Death , followed by The Fall Of The House Of Usher.

Well, I will concede that it falls below that pair, certainly; but I also think it is a very close second, both in the delicacy of handling and the exquisite use of language -- something which I have always appreciated, but now appreciate even more given Mabbot's inclusion of variations in the different versions of the text (he chose to use this as an example of all the changes Poe made in a tale, to "show the artist at work", as it were... and it does indeed). I also quite like the indefiniteness of certain aspects of the tale, and the resolution that even the will of Ligeia, strong as it is, but confirms the motto of the tale, albeit in an unexpected and quite chilling way....

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I'm assuming you mean such things as "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion", "The Colloquy of Monos and Una", and the like? Actually, I rather like them. There is a wistfulness and pathos to them which heightens some of the metaphysical ponderings and makes the whole echo with a fair amount of the beauty of his poetry. They make me think at times of such pieces by CAS as "Sadastor", "The Shadows", "From the Crypts of Memory" and the like, which have always been among my favorites of Smith's works....

Yes, that's precisely what I feel about these pieces as well, and I've noted the parallels with some of CAS' works as well.

Some of the best passages in Poe's rather odd cosmological work, Eureka seem to me to come from a similar vein, despite the (not always accurate) scientific trappings of that work.

 

[j d worthington]

Well, Smith certainly owned Poe as one of his great models (along with Baudelaire and the other French Decadents), so that isn't terribly surprising... but his work, while showing the Poe influence, is very much his own; yet I venture to say it would do Poe proud to have such works to his credit....

Believe it or not, despite years of meaning to, I have yet to read "Eureka". I intend for it to be among those things read in my current program of Poe, and I very much look forward to it, given the things I've read about it over those years....

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

It's not easy going, and to a large extent I forged ahead with it because I happened upon it at a time when I could afford very few new books and was determined to make good on the investment, as it were.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Well, Smith certainly owned Poe as one of his great models (along with Baudelaire and the other French Decadents), so that isn't terribly surprising... but his work, while showing the Poe influence, is very much his own; yet I venture to say it would do Poe proud to have such works to his credit....

Yes, it's something of a stating of the obvious to mention such a link. I only meant that I'd noticed the parallels between Poe's metaphysical pieces and the CAS stories you'd named, specifically 'Sadastor'.

 

[j d worthington]

No criticism intended. But for those who haven't read much (or anything) by either and might be curious, it never hurts to bring such observations to the discussion....

 

[GOLLUM]

The Enchantress of Venus by Leigh Brackett in The Best of Leigh Brackett collection.

where did you buy that one from? Can I have a link please...

 

[Connavar]

where did you buy that one from? Can I have a link please...

I didnt buy it a fellow Jack Vance fan sent me it as a bonus with two Vance books i got from him. I didnt even ask for it. It was a lucky thing that turned out really well for me.

Its from 1977 and its a Double Day version.

You dont need it these days. Paizo/Planet Stories are reprinting Stark books, collected that story,other early stories of John Eric Stark in the first book.

I wont need another second hand book of hers. There are other publisher who is reprinting every short story of hers too

 

[GOLLUM]

OK then, thanks for the update. I have some of the Planet books by other authors, they're quite good publications.

 

[jojajihisc]

Oceanic by Greg Egan - A futuristic, alien and low-tech world filled with "freelanders" and "firmlanders" both of which seem to be equally devout. Martin is a "freelander" who develops a belief system very much in line with traditional orthodoxy during his early teens. A series of events, a challenging girlfriend and a scientific breakthrough does a lot to challenge and reestablish his beliefs. Hugo winner for best novella in 1999.

The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang - A linguist is asked to learn how to communicate with aliens on earth, and as she learns how to communicate in an entirely new way both verbally and written, she also recounts her daughter's life in past, present and future tense all at once. Hugo nominee for best novella in 1999.

The first a religious/scientific transformation, the second a first contact story in which a person learns to think and communicate in a way wholly alien. Both great.

 

[Fried Egg]

The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang - A linguist is asked to learn how to communicate with aliens on earth, and as she learns how to communicate in an entirely new way both verbally and written, she also recounts her daughter's life in past, present and future tense all at once. Hugo nominee for best novella in 1999.

I read that in a collection a while back (I think it was the Science Fiction Omnibus by Brian Aldiss) and it is a great story.

I just read my first Alistair Reynolds story, "The Fixation" and it was really good.