A Long List of Short SF Stories I Have Liked
- THE EXPENSIVE DELICATE SHIP Brian W.Aldiss [Can be found in 21 below]
- JOURNEY TO THE HEARTLAND Brian W.Aldiss [Can be found in 21 below]
- KYRIE Poul Anderson [Can be found in 1 below]
- THE BICENTENNIAL MAN Isaac Asimov [Can be found in 22 below :-]
- GOOD TASTE Isaac Asimov [Can be found in 23 below]
- WATERCLAP Isaac Asimov [Can be found in 2 and 22 below]
- THE ULTIMATE CITY J.G.Ballard [Can be found in 24 below]
- THE QUEST FOR SAINT AQUIN Anthony Boucher [Can be found in 3 below]
- WHO GOES THERE? John W.Campbell Jr [Can be found in 25 below]
- SECOND CHANCE Orson Scott Card [Can be found in 4 below]
- THE CUSTODIANS Richard Cowper [Can be found in 26 below :-]
- ADRIFT ON THE POLICY LEVEL Chandler Davis [Can be found in 5 below]
- AYE, AND GOMORRAH Samuel R.Delany [Can be found in 1 and 6 and 27 below]
- THE PLANET ARCADIA Thomas M.Disch [Can be found in 28 below]
- A KINGDOM BY THE SEA Gardner K.Dozois [Can be found in 29 below]
- THE RESTLESS TIDE Raymond Z.Gallun [Can be found in 30 below]
- SEEDS OF THE DUSK Raymond Z.Gallun [Can be found in 7 and 30 below]
- BEYOND BEDLAM Wyman Guin [Can be found in 8 and 31 below :-]
- ALIEN EARTH Edmund Hamilton [Can be fopund in 32 below]
- '-ALL YOU ZOMBIES-' Robert Heinlein [Can be found in 1 and 33 below]
- NOTES FROM THE ANDROID UNDERGROUND M.Jakober [Can be found in 9 below]
- NOISE LEVEL Raymond F.Jones [Can be found in 10 below]
- FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON Daniel Keyes [Can be found in 11 below]
- SUR Ursula K.LeGuin [Can be found in 34 below]
- THINGS [a.k.a. THE END] Ursula K.LeGuin [Can be found in 35 below]
- A PAIL OF AIR Fritz Leiber [Can be found in 7 and 36 and 37 below]
- '...FOR A SINGLE YESTERDAY' George R.R.Martin [Can be found in 38 below]
- FLASH CROWD Larry Niven [Can be found in 39 below]
- FLATLANDER Larry Niven [Can be found in 40 below]
- HOW THE HEROES DIE Larry Niven [Can be found in 41 below]
- INCONSTANT MOON Larry Niven [Can be found in 41 below :-]
- DAY MILLION Frederik Pohl [Can be found in 1 and 12 and 42 below]
- THE FACE OF THE DEEP Fred Saberhagen [Can be found in 43 below]
- SOME EVENTS AT THE TEMPLAR RADIANT Fred Saberhagen [Can be found in 13 below]
- PILGRIMAGE TO EARTH Robert Sheckley [Can be found in 1 and 14 below]
- A TICKET TO TRANAI Robert Sheckley [Can be found in 44 below]
- THE TREASURE OF ODIREX Charles Sheffield [Can be found in 45 below]
- CAPRICORN GAMES Robert Silverberg [Can be found in 46 below :-]
- THE SIXTH PALACE Robert Silverberg [Can be found in 47 below]
- LIMITING FACTOR Clifford D.Simak [Can be found in 14 below]
- THE LOST CONTINENT Norman Spinrad [Can be found in 48 below]
- A THING OF BEAUTY Norman Spinrad [Can be found in 15 and 48 below]
- THE OTHER CELIA Theodore Sturgeon [Can be found in 16 below]
- THE POD AND THE BARRIER Theodore Sturgeon [Can be found in 49 below]
- AFTER IXMAL Jeff Sutton [Can be found in 17 below]
- THE LAST BOUNCE Willian Tenn [Can be found in 50 below]
- THE SERVANT PROBLEM William Tenn [Can be found in 18 and 51 below]
- HOUSTON, HOUSTON, DO YOU READ? James Tiptree Jr [Can be found in 52 below]
- PAINWISE James Tiptree Jr [Can be found in 53 below]
- FAR CENTAURUS A.E. Van Vogt [Can be found in 54 below]
- THE MONSTER A.E. Van Vogt [Can be found in 54 below]
- AIR RAID John Varley [Can be found in 55 below]
- OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK John Varley [Can be found in 55 below]
- GRIMM'S STORY Vernor Vinge [Can be found in 19 below]
- SLOW BIRDS Ian Watson [Can be found in 56 below :-]
- THE LOTUS EATERS Stanley G.Weinbaum [Can be found in 57 below]
- SUNOUT Eric C.Williams [Can be found in 20 below]
- THROUGH THE PURPLE CLOUD Jack Williamson [Can be found in 58 below]
The trouble with recommending short stories is that they can be very hard to find. So for each story I have indicated at least one book where it can be found.
The Campbell story, WHO GOES THERE?, is source of both movies titled THE THING.
1. The Road To Science Fiction: From Heinlein to Here / ed. James Gunn
2. The Science Fictional Solar System / ed. I.Asimov, M.H.Greenberg, C.G.Waugh
3. Other Worlds, Other Gods / ed. M.Mohs
4. Destinies 2 / ed. J.Baen
5. The Expert Dreamers / ed. F.Pohl
6. Dangerous Visions 3 / ed. H.Ellison
7. Catastrophes / ed. I.Asimov, M.H.Greenberg, C.G.Waugh
8. Great Short Novels of Science Fiction / ed. R.Silverberg
9. New Writings in SF 30 / ed. K.Bulmer
10. Spectrum 5 / ed. K.Amis and R.Conquest
11. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol.1 / ed. R.Silverberg
12. Nebula Award Stories 2 / ed. B.W.Aldiss and H.Harrison
13. Destinies 4 / ed. J.Baen
14. Spectrum 1 / ed. K.Amis and R.Conquest
15. Nebula Award Stories 9 / ed. K.Wilhelm
16. 100 Years of Science Fiction, Book One / ed. D.Knight
17. Space Opera / ed. B.Aldiss
18. Seven Come Infinity / ed. G.Conklin
19. Orbit 4 / ed. D.Knight
20. New Writings in SF 5 / ed. J.Carnell
21. Last Orders / B.W.Aldiss
22. The Bicentennial Man / I.Asimov
23. The Winds of Change / I.Asimov
24. Low-Flying Aircraft / J.G.Ballard
25. The Best of John W.Campbell / ed. G.Hay
26. The Custodians / R.Cowper
27. Driftglass / S.R.Delany
28. Getting Into Death, and Other Stories / T.M.Disch
29. The Visible Man / G.K.Dozois
30. The Best of Raymond Z. Gallun / ed. J.J.Pierce
31. Beyond Bedlam / W.Guin
32. The Best of Edmund Hamilton / ed. L.Brackett
33. The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag / R.A.Heinlein
34. The Compass Rose / U.K.LeGuin
35. The Wind's Twelve Quarters / U.K.LeGuin
36. The Secret Songs / F.Leiber
37. The Best of Fritz Leiber / F.Leiber
38. Songs of Stars and Shadows / G.R.R.Martin
39. The Flight of the Horse / L.Niven
40. Neutron Star / L.Niven
41. Inconstant Moon / L.Niven
42. Day Million / F.Pohl
43. Berserker / F.Saberhagen
44. Citizen in Space / R.Sheckley
45. Vectors / C.Sheffield
46. Capricorn Games / R.Silverberg
47. Needle in a Timestack / R.Silverberg
48. No Direction Home / N.Spinrad
49. Starshine / T.Sturgeon
50. The Square Root of Man / W.Tenn
51. The Human Angle / W.Tenn
52. Star Songs of an Old Primate / J.Tiptree Jr
53. Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home / J.Tiptree Jr
54. Destination: Universe / A.E.VanVogt
55. In the Hall of the Martian Kings / J.Varley
56. Slow Birds / I.Watson
57. The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum / ed. ?
58. The Early Williamson / J.Williamson
"The Weapons Shop" by A.E. Van Vogt and "The Little Black Bag" by C.M. Kornbluth are a couple of my favorites.
Yes, these are both excellent stories. Kornbluth's early death was a huge loss to sf. His SHARK SHIP is excellent too. His most famous story, THE MARCHING MORONS, is overrated, I think.
I'll check out SHARK SHIP. One story I neglected to mention was was ARENA by Pohl (I think). It was adapted later as a STAR TREK episode although the short story had a nastier (and of course) more believable ending. Even though his stories are somewhat dated (he wrote about aliens in our solar system), Stanley J. Wienbaum was the first to make alien beings truly alien. MARTIAN ODYSSEY is my favorite.
Hope you don't mind me correcting you, but if we're thinking about the same ARENA it is by F.Brown, not F.Pohl. Also, I believe you'll find it's Stanley G.Weinbaum.
Am I correct in deducing that you have a copy of THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME (vol.1, ed. R.Silverberg)? All of the stories you've mentioned are in it. It's a superb one-volume introduction to classic short sf. I can also recommend THE ROAD TO SCIENCE FICTION (3 vol.s, ed. James Gunn) - though that includes several extracts from novels.
No offense on the corrections. I was working solely from memory (which is more clouded than once imagined). I at one time owned the collection edited by Robert Silverberg. AS near as I can recall the last time I saw my copy was around 1974. I also owned a collection of Weinbaum stories. It too, is long gone. Thanks for the heads up on the other anthology. I'll check it out. Some of these stories show up in ANALOG'S BEST OF SCI FI and in other anthologies I own. I miss the Weinbaum book though.
Yes, Weinbaum was another, like Kornbluth, who showed great promise but died tragically young.
All I have of his is a posthumous collection, THE BEST OF... If you like 'golden age' sf, there's another good anthology, titled GOSH! WOW! SENSE OF WONDER and edited by Forrest J.Ackerman.
Thanks I'll look for it.
D'oh! My library has neither anthology.
Are there any collections of Sci-Fi Short Stories that you could recommend (perhaps, some that contain many of the stories you listed here)?
As I say in my 'author comment' above, many of the stories can probably most easily be found in collections by their authors. Several good anthologies are mentioned in my conversation with sk above. However, your question has persuaded me that I should indicate at least one source where each story can be found. I will do this by creating a numbered list of books in my 'author comment' section and then adding the appropriate number to a 'Can be found in...' after each title on the short story list. This project will take several days, perhaps weeks, so keep checking back until I've finished it.
Hell, nearly finished already. How do I do it?
Wow. Didn't expect that. Very nicely done.
What an amazing list! Don't know how I didn't spot it earlier.
You've given me plenty of reading ideas.
I love Who Goes There?, a tiny virtuoso story that's better than both film adaptations. The 50's version being the better of the two.
Tallyho
:?)
Nah, I liked the remake better :-)