Fifty re-readable SFFH stories: your recommendations.

31 . The City of the Signing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith
32. . Resurrection by A E Van Vogt
33. Born of the Sun by Jack Williamson
34 . The Sombrus Tower by Tanith Lee
35 . The Devil in Iron by Robert E Howard
36. The Horror on the Links by Seabury Quinn
37 A Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson
38 Camera Obscure by Base Copper
39 Men Without Bones by Gerald Kersh
40 Fishhead by Irving Cobb
 
Extollager said:
FIFTY REREADABLE SFFH STORIES: YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS

Participants would, then, submit, in one posting or several, titles of fifty short works (up to 40,000 words) in our genres that they believe readers owe it to themselves to try, according to the criteria specified in the first posting above. If someone else listed the same stories that would not be a problem, although some people posting might prefer to avoid repeating what others listed.
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Okay. 50 stories. Here goes ...

1. “Fondly Fahrenheit” – Alfred Bester (sf/horror)
Star Light: The Great Short Fiction of Alfred Bester; The Road to Science Fiction #3; The Science Fiction Hall of Fame

2. “Shambleu” by C. L. Moore (sf/horror)
The Best of C. L. Moore; Scarlet Dream; The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction

3. “The Star” by Sir Arthur C. Clarke (sf)
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke; The Big Book of Science Fiction; Ascent of Wonder

4. “Angel’s Egg” (sf)
5. “Longtooth” by Edgar Pangborn (horror)
Good Neighbors and Other Strangers; “A.E.” also in The Great SF Stories #13; “Longtooth” also in Foundations of Fear

6. “Sticks” (horror)
7. “The River of Night’s Dreaming” by Karl Edward Wagner (fantasy/horror)
In a Lonely Place; Where the Summer Ends

8. “The Willows” by Algernon Blackwood (horror)
Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood; The Dark Descent

9. “The Damned Thing” by Ambrose Bierce (horror)
Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce; The Dark Descent

10. “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen (horror/ghost story)
The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen

11. “Homecoming” by Ray Bradbury (fantasy)
The October Country

12. “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler (sf/horror)
Bloodchild and Other Stories

13. “The Sadness of Detail” (fantasy/horror)
14. “The Panic Hand” by Jonathan Carroll (horror)
The Panic Hand

15. “The Repairer of Reputations” by Robert W. Chambers (horror)
The King in Yellow

16. “The Great God Pan” (horror)
17. “The Terror” (horror)
18. “The Novel of the Black Seal” by Arthur Machen (horror)
Tales of Horror and the Supernatural

19. “Amour Dure” by Vernon Lee (horror/ghost story)
Hauntings

20. “Green Tea” (horror/ghost story)
21. “Carmilla” by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (horror)
Best Ghost Stories of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

22. “Smoke Ghost” by Fritz Leiber (horror)
Night’s Black Agents; Smoke Ghost and Other Apparitions; The Weird

Stay tuned for more ... oh, nevermind. I'll just send a second message presently.
 
23. “The Colour Out of Space” (sf/horror)
24. “The Shadow Out of Innsmouth” (horror)
25. “The Music of Erich Zann” by H. P. Lovecraft (fantasy)
H. P. Lovecraft: The Fiction

26. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jakson (horror)
The Lottery and Other Stories

27. “Mr. Big” by Woody Allen (fantasy)
Getting Even

28. “Lila the Werewolf” by Peter Beagle (fantasy)
The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche; The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle

29. “The Howling Man” by Charles Beaumont (horror)
Perchance to Dream; The Weird

30. “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag” by Robert A. Heinlein (fantasy)
The Fantasy Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein

31. “Afterward” (horror/ghost story)
32. “Pomegranate Seed” by Edith Wharton (horror/ghost story)
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton

33. “The Desrick on Yandro” by Manly Wade Wellman (fantasy/horror)
Who Fears the Devil?; The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories

34. “The Visitor from Down Under” by L. P. Hartley (horror/ghost story)
The Traveling Grave and Other Stories

35. “The Body Snatcher” by Robert Louis Stevenson (horror)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Terrifying Tales; Some Things Weird and Wicked

36. “The Portobello Road” by Muriel Spark (horror/ghost story)
The Ghost Stories of Muriel Spark

37. “The Little Black Bag” (sf)
38. “Mindworm” by C. M. Kornbluth (sf/horror)
The Best of C. M. Kornbluth; His Share of Glory

39. “The Autopsy” by Michael Shea (horror/sf)
Polyphemus; The Dark Descent

40. “Slredni Vashtar” by Saki (horror)
The Short Stories of Saki; The Weird

41. “Sardonicus” by Ray Russell (horror)
Haunted Castles;

42. “The Fall of the House of Usher”
43. “The Tell-Tale Heart”
44. “The Masque of Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe (horror)
Darn near anywhere

45. “The Beckoning Fair One” by Oliver Onions
Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural

46. “The Bureau d’Echange de Maux” by Lord Dunsany (fantasy/horror)
Wonder Tales

47. “Window” (sf/horror)
48. “Instructions” by Bob Leman (horror)
The Feesters in the Lake and Other Stories

49. “The Wife’s Story” by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Compass Rose

50. “Struwwelpeter” by Glen Hirshberg (horror/ghost story)
The Two Sams
 
How about an honorable mention: “The Dying Night“ by Isaac Asimov (F&SF, July 1956, also collected in Nine Tomorrows (1959). For those who think the good doctor was on the shallow side of characterization should look no further than this beautifully crafted “murder” mystery (or was it murder?) where characters are delineated and distinguished with the polished ease of a master at his craft. Read it twice, should be studied for how to do something right.

Glad to see Bob Leman’s truly frightening “Windows“ slipping in at #47.
 
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Couldn't possibly give you 50 as I don't read many short stories but The Overloaded Man and The Subliminal Man by J G Ballard are my two favourites. Available in The Complete Short Stories Vol 1 as well as other J G Ballard compilations.
 
For what it's worth, I didn't really put them in any specific order. It's frustrating that Leman's Feesters in the Lake collection isn't more available. There seems to be a .pdf version on the net but whether it's legal or not, I don't know. At the very least an e-version should be out there for readers to enjoy.

Randy M.
 
Randy, what an array of stories! I've read about 3/5 of them & there are some personal favorites there. Many of them are available online, I'm sure, for those who want to look them up.

I'll have to post 20 more for my 50.
 
Assuming that Randy M. has supplied us with an entirely separate list of 50, I will continue with the counting.

41. "The Women Men Don't See" by "James Tiptree, Jr." (Alice Sheldon)

http://valerie.debill.org/Hosting/The_Women_Men_Dont_See.pdf

42. "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison


(This link has the title wrong.)

43. "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick


44. "Souls" by Joanna Russ

No direct link to the text I can find, but it has appeared many places.

Title: Souls

www.isfdb.org www.isfdb.org

45. "To See the Invisible Man" by Robert Silverberg

No direct link, has appeared many places.

Title: To See the Invisible Man

www.isfdb.org www.isfdb.org

I could go on for a while, but this will do. I am limiting myself to one story per author; all of the great writers listed above could have multiple nominations.
 
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dask said:
Muriel Spark wrote ghost stories? Is that collection mentioned in #36 worth seeking out?
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Absolutely, but you might as well get the Complete Stories. All the ghost ones are included, and there are many other incredible ones besides. Even some SFF-ish ones not included in the Ghost Stories book.
 
Extollager said:
9.Kuttner and Moore, “Vintage Season” (sf)
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Most of the titles mentioned by everyone thus far are among my favorite shorts. "Vintage Season" happens to be my thread favorite, at least for tonight. Probably due to its Hollywood treatment. We'll return to the treatment in a moment.

Meanwhile, there's an Old Time Radio (OTR) production of "Vintage Season" and other stories mentioned in this thread available at: Sci-Fi Radio : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive The OTR shows have high production values. Besides OTR, you'll find productions of other stories mentioned in this thread at X Minus One - Single Episodes : Old Time Radio Researchers Group : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive, which also has high production values.

Now, about the treatment. It's known as Grand Tour: Disaster in Time to me but Wikipedia calls it Timescape. Although the treatment's theme remains the same as the Kuttner and Moore, the plot varies considerably.

Timescape (disambiguation) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
41. "The Women Men Don't See" by "James Tiptree, Jr." (Alice Sheldon)

http://valerie.debill.org/Hosting/The_Women_Men_Dont_See.pdf
Click to expand...

One of the best things about the Inet is how it helps my mind's eye visualize a setting when an author uses an exotic location, in this case, Quintana Roo:
quintana-roo.png
 
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46. "Talent" by Robert Bloch (sci-fi horror)

47. "Dearest" by H. Beam Piper (fantasy)

48. "The Streets of Ashkelon" by Harry Harrison (sci-fi)
www.lightspeedmagazine.com

The Streets of Ashkelon - Lightspeed Magazine

Somewhere above, hidden by the eternal clouds of Wesker’s World, a thunder rumbled and grew. Trader Garth stopped suddenly when he heard it, his boots sinking slowly into the muck, and cupped his good ear to catch the sound. It swelled and waned in the thick atmosphere, growing louder.
www.lightspeedmagazine.com www.lightspeedmagazine.com

49. "Dream Town" by Henry Slesar (horror)

50. "Trouble With Water" by H. L. Gold (fantasy)
Internet Archive Search: Unknown 1939 (top left)
 
Thanks, all. For me, a combination of the familiar and even the never-heard-of!
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
Assuming that Randy M. has supplied us with an entirely separate list of 50, I will continue with the counting.
Click to expand...

I thought Extollager meant each of us supply 50. My goof.

Guttersnipe said:
46. "Talent" by Robert Bloch (sci-fi horror)
- <b>Talent</b>
Click to expand...

Now, if you'd asked for a top 50 horror-only, this one would have been in there for me, too. A few Bloch stories get a lot more attention, but since first reading this maybe 40+ years ago, I've admired the audacity of it.

Randy M.
 
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