# Your Favorite Short Stories



## Philip Overby (Mar 14, 2013)

I know not everyone is as big a fan of short stories as they are books, but just wondered if anyone had some suggestions.  They don't have to be fantasy (any other genre is fine) although that would be my preference.  

Any short stories that really blew you away?


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## Feo Takahari (Mar 14, 2013)

I Hold My Father's Paws, I Saw the Light by Terry Bisson (no copy available online), and, outside spec-fic, Lather and Nothing Else. (Also, We Don't Know Why by Nancy Springer, but that one's really hard to track down--I've only found it in one anthology, A Starfarer's Dozen.)


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## Philip Overby (Mar 14, 2013)

I was hoping for stories that I could find online, but I can try to check out some of these also if they're in anthologies or something.


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## Sparkie (Mar 14, 2013)

I've been on a kick reading some of the Elder Scrolls "books."  You can find them online at a handful of sites.  Also, try _Smoke and Mirrors_ and _Fragile Things,_ compilations by Neil Gaiman.


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## CupofJoe (Mar 14, 2013)

"The Ruum" by Arthur Porges blew me away as a kid. Since then I've read a few anthologies but not really been hooked on anything new [I liked stories by the authors I already liked]. Most of these have been crime fiction; there seems to be more of that available in short story format...


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## kayd_mon (Mar 14, 2013)

Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham is great. Most of the short stories I've read are ones often found in literature anthologies, and they are usually good.


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## Butterfly (Mar 14, 2013)

A Sound of Thunder - Ray Bradbury

Came across whilst at school long ago. I still remember it, so it must have a good one. They've more recently turned it into a film now.


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## Steerpike (Mar 14, 2013)

Angela Carter's book of short stories called _The Bloody Chamber_.


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## Ophiucha (Mar 14, 2013)

_The Courtship of the Queen_ by Bruce McAllister was one I read on a whim, but I ended up falling in love with it. I ended up buying this one for my Kindle so I could read it wherever I was, just because I'd get an itch to go through it again. _-All You Zombies-_ by Robert A. Heinlein was the first short story I read that made me realize the potential for speculative short stories; I've always liked short stories, but I'd never read a good SFF one until that.


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## Nebuchadnezzar (Mar 14, 2013)

Farmer Giles of Ham -- good call kayd_mon.

In fantasy, I'd throw in Andrew J Offutt's Shadowspawn stories from the Thieves' World series.  Outside fantasy, The Things We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver.  Actually most of Carver's stories are pretty great.


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## Feo Takahari (Mar 14, 2013)

Forgot to mention this earlier, but Orson Scott Card wrote some great short fiction before he went bonkers. I particularly remember Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory, for an ending few authors would have the guts for.

EUMENIDES IN THE FOURTH FLOOR LAVATORY - 27 Short Stories


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## Penpilot (Mar 16, 2013)

Paolo Bacigalupi's short story collection Pump Six and Other Stories. He's currently one of my favorite authors.


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## Ghost (Mar 21, 2013)

"Mateo Falcone" by Prosper MÃ©rimÃ©e
"The Repairer of Reputations" by Robert W. Chambers
"The Derelict" by William Hope Hodgson
"The Lady or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton
"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"A Coup d'Ã‰tat" by Guy de Maupassant
"The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter
"The Terrapin" by Patricia Highsmith
"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
"The School" by Donald Barthelme
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates

I remember the first time I read "The School." I was stunned a story could do that. It was the same with "The Lady or the Tiger?" and "Flowers for Algernon." Robert W. Chambers is one of my favorites. Guy de Maupassant and Edgar Allan Poe wrote many great stories, and you can easily access their work online.


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## Steerpike (Mar 21, 2013)

Good picks, Ghost, and a +1 for having Angela Carter on the list!


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## Nebuchadnezzar (Mar 22, 2013)

Did Orson Scott Card go bonkers?  Have I missed something?  For the avoidance of doubt, I know he's a Mormon but he's always been a Mormon (not that I think being a Mormon = going bonkers).


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## Ophiucha (Mar 22, 2013)

Nebuchadnezzar said:


> Did Orson Scott Card go bonkers?  Have I missed something?  For the avoidance of doubt, I know he's a Mormon but he's always been a Mormon (not that I think being a Mormon = going bonkers).



To put it mildly and politely, he's become a _little _heavy-handed about putting his political beliefs into his work.


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## Nebuchadnezzar (Mar 23, 2013)

Ah, bummer.  I don't mind a little (very little) subtext or editorializing, but it boggles me why writers on either the left or right would choose to alienate half of their potential fanbase.  I guess since Ender's Game went Hollywood he figures he doesn't need the money anymore.


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## James Lecky (Mar 23, 2013)

I've always had a tremendous affection for the Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus, which I first read many, many years ago, and was recently updated and reissued. Both the original and the reissue are well worth getting (the new version omits some stories and replaces them with newer materail). Among my personal favourites are The Liberation of Earth and Eastward Ho! by William Tenn, Lot by Ward Moore, Poor Little Warrior by Brian Aldiss and Skirmish by Cllifford Simak.

In terms of other short stories, I've always been a huge fan of Poe, Graham Green, Robert E. Howard, Angela Carter and James Tiptree Jr. Of late I've been reading The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien which is a sort of short story collection/ thematic novel about his experiences in the Vietnam War, the title story in particular is wonderfull.


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## Steerpike (Mar 23, 2013)

I





Nebuchadnezzar said:


> Ah, bummer.  I don't mind a little (very little) subtext or editorializing, but it boggles me why writers on either the left or right would choose to alienate half of their potential fanbase.  I guess since Ender's Game went Hollywood he figures he doesn't need the money anymore.



It predates that. He is also very active lobbying and using his money to try to influence public policy in accordance with his religious views - far more so than most authors. So when you buy his work you are also funding his political activities. Of course, he has every right to act as his conscience dictates, but it is a major factor in why I avoid his work now. Having the beliefs set forth in the work itself doesn't necessarily bother me.


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## Philip Overby (Mar 23, 2013)

Ghost said:


> "Mateo Falcone" by Prosper MÃ©rimÃ©e
> "The Repairer of Reputations" by Robert W. Chambers
> "The Derelict" by William Hope Hodgson
> "The Lady or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton
> ...



Thanks, Ghost.  These are the kind of things I'm looking for.   Some stories I can read online mostly instead of buying multiple collections.  If there is a really good collection or anthology with multiple authors though, I'd be willing to get one or two.

Thank you others who have posted as well!


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## Ophiucha (Mar 24, 2013)

Steerpike said:


> Having the beliefs set forth in the work itself doesn't necessarily bother me.



I find his to be a bit too heavy-handed to get past. I read a lot of political SFF, from all sides of the political spectrum (one of my favourite authors is an anarchist, which I'm not), but they don't tend to make the villains such blatant and cartoonish strawmen like in _Empire_. And let's not get into the atrocity that is _Hamlet's Father_... even his most dedicated supporters couldn't defend that one. I definitely avoid buying his work because of his political actions in real life, but let it be said that his recent dip into political activism has also had a _dreadful _effect on his writing. Which is a shame, because despite how little I like his politics, _Ender's Game_ is still a pretty good book and it's a shame he's not writing things of that calibre any more.

On the interest of staying on topic, some other short stories:

The Birthmark, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I love everything by Hawthorne, be it science fiction or novels about red alphabetic symbols, but this one is probably my favourite. I love Georgina and I like how Hawthorne presented the main character's desire for perfection. I feel like he was speaking from a personal place with a few of those lines, as I feel the same way as the main character sometimes about my writing.

_The Wife's Story_ by Ursula K. LeGuin. I can't describe it too much without giving away the ending, but it's about a wife who begins to suspect that something is amiss with her husband. Short and sweet, but the twist works well with how short the story is. Any longer and you'd catch on, so I think it really illustrates how the shorter medium can be used for a good fantasy story.


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## Feo Takahari (Mar 24, 2013)

Ah yes, "The Wife's Story"--the quintessential story of the "Jar of Tang" style. I had to read it and respond to it for a test in high school, answering various questions to demonstrate that I'd understood the twist. At the time, I considered it the perfect test of reading comprehension--at what point do you sit up and go "Bwuh?", and can you piece it together from there?


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## Ophiucha (Mar 25, 2013)

I think _The Wife's Story_ works almost entirely because it doesn't drag it out. I don't have it with me, but it couldn't be more than a couple pages long. Enough time to take the bait and get suspicious, but the switch comes like a paragraph after the suspicion. It's not quite enough time to over-analyse it, unless you stop and think, so the ending still hits hard enough for a decent 'gotcha!'. Which is really all I ask for these days; 15 years of English class and you can see a twist from the cover and the title.


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## Lancelot (Apr 26, 2013)

Phil the Drill said:


> They don't have to be fantasy (any other genre is fine) although that would be my preference.
> 
> Any short stories that really blew you away?



Just fiction, not fantasy but by a fantasy writer Ursula K Le Guin.  She wrote a short story called "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"

I can't read that story without crying and simultaneously becoming enraged with the characters. It is a very powerful story. It is probably more-so if you have a child or more as I do.

Read it and let me know. It is available free, I am sure.


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