The Short Story Thread

[Simbelmynë]

D. A. Xiaolin Spires is a relatively recent member of SFF Chrons (joined in 2017, I see) who has been entering our Writing Challenges. She has been very successful lately selling excellent stories to various publications and has been getting many great reviews. I agree "But, Still, I Smile" is a beautiful story.

I did recognise the name, but thought I’d seen it in a reviews article somewhere. A talented writer.

 

[johnnyjet]

We're talking about you, @D.A. Xiaolin Spires. Hope you don't mind.

 

[Hummus]

I listen to The Other Stories. Podcast with 20-30 minute stories, usually a blend of sci-fi and horror. Narration is good too (which many shorts in audio format falter on I find).

If you want a place to start I recommend 'Cardboard', written by Luke Kondor.

 

[BAYLOR]

Here 'tis. Let it slip by in 1975 but caught it the second time around in March, 1979. Dean Ellis, artist.

Ive seen that book.

 

[BAYLOR]

And my one Maine hb if Mr. Thead allows me.

I have that book but not that edition.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

Go here and click on Number Four (which is the sixth issue; a few are missing) and look inside the issue to find the story.

Help! Warren archive : Warren Publishing : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This is amazing, thank you! I've read Kurtzman's MAD, naturally, and HUMBUG and, um, TRUMP, but very little of HELP!

 

[Grendel]

Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs.

 

[Bick]

Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs.

What about it Grendel?

 

[BigBadBob141]

Classic horror short story, one of the best!

 

[Finch]

I love short stories and this is one of my favourites .
Gene Wolfe's Seven American Nights
It is actuly a bit long to be classified as a short story , but is still worth reading . It is about a young Iranian boy, Nadan , visiting a rundown and degraded America . Wolfe likes the unreliable narrator, and he achieves this by having Nadan take an hallucinogenic drug . Exactly what the story is about and what happens is a mystery to everybody that reads it.

 

[Guttersnipe]

"That Hell-Bound Train" by Robert Bloch
"The Fertility of Dalrymple Todd" by Nelson S. Bond
"The Geezenstacks" by Fredric Brown
"The Ruum" by Arthur Porges
"The Yellow Pill" by Rog Phillips
"Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison
"Jeffty is Five" by Harlan Ellison

 

[BigBadBob141]

I remember reading "The Ruum" when I was a schoolboy, it was in one of the Faber&Faber Best SF.... series edited by Edmund Crispin, either 1,2,3 or 4, very good story , has stuck with me to this day.
I think the BBC did "The Yellow Pill" in Out Of The Unknown, as for "The Hell-Bound Train" I'll never know how this won a Hugo Award as it's not SF at all, it's pure fantasy, not a bad story but in the wrong category to win a Hugo surely!!!

 

[Guttersnipe]

"The Blue Tower" by Evelyn E. Smith. Aliens serve humans seemingly out of compassion. The twist ending is great.

 

[Vince W]

Just reread the Shaper/Mechanist stories by Bruce Sterling. "Swarm", "Spider Rose", "Cicada Queen", "Sunken Gardens", and "Twenty Evocations". This is a universe I would love to see expanded further.

 

[radcasby]

Give me horror books, will definitely read it

 

[Randy M.]

Hi, Radcasby, and welcome.

Check the Horror forum and you'll find lots of recommendations.

Randy M.

 

[BAYLOR]

Give me horror books, will definitely read it

Here are a few I could suggest

Nightshade and Damnations by Gerald Kersh
The Manitou by Graham Masterton
Burn't Offerings by Robert Marsco
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
Donovan's Brain By Curt Siodmak
Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
The Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell
In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
The 37th Mandala by Mark Laidlaw
The Complete Tales of Jules De Grandin by Seabury Quinn
The House on the Borderland By William Hope Hodgson
Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
The Abyss by Jeremy Cunningham
Stinger by Robert McCammeron

Most of those are novels.

 

[J-Sun]

Just reread the Shaper/Mechanist stories by Bruce Sterling. "Swarm", "Spider Rose", "Cicada Queen", "Sunken Gardens", and "Twenty Evocations". This is a universe I would love to see expanded further.

Love those stories! Sterling's novel, Schismatrix, is set in that universe. He's never done a book series but has stories in at least a couple of series and has done a novel related to each of those.

 

[dask]

Here are a few I could suggest

Nightshade and Damnations by Gerald Kersh
The Manitou by Graham Masterton
Burn't Offerings by Robert Marsco
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
Donovan's Brain By Curt Siodmak
Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
The Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell
In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
The 37th Mandala by Mark Laidlaw
The Complete Tales of Jules De Grandin by Seabury Quinn
The House on the Borderland By William Hope Hodgson
Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
The Abyss by Jeremy Cunningham
Stinger by Robert McCammeron

Most of those are novels.

Is Johnny Got His Gun an actual novel or one of those scripts published in book form?

 

[Vince W]

Johnny Got His Gun was a novel published in 1939. Not horror in the supernatural sense, but it does highlight the horror that is war extremely well.