Short Stories--What have you read that's good?

ChoChiyo · Post by **ChoChiyo** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 2:46 pm

I've been filling in "waiting time" (at the hospital with my mom, most recently and during other times when I have to cool my heels until the powers that be have time to deal with me) with collections of short stories because they can be read in a relatively short period of time.

I'm just wondering what others have read that have struck them as excellent examples of short stories.

I pulled out my old copy of Night Shift by Stephen King and reread the story "Quitters Incorporated."

It is the story of smoker Dick Morrison's attempt to quit the nasty habit of smoking through an organization called "Quitters Inc.," which spreads word of its successful treatment program by word-of-mouth only. They guarantee you will quit smoking, and you make no payment to them until you have been smoke free for one full year.

The lovely people at Quitters Inc. are pragmatists. You will stop smoking. Yes. One way or another.

*insert cold chill here.*

If you haven't read this story, you should. Especially if you are a smoker. I personally am not and never have been a smoker, but I kinda wish they had a branch committed to diet/exercise. And I am also kinda really glad they don't.

Post by **Darb** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 3:01 pm

Just about anything by Harlan Ellison is fabulous ... short stories are his speciality.

jweb · Post by **jweb** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 3:11 pm

Roger Zelazny had lots of great short stories.

Kahrey · Post by **Kahrey** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 3:19 pm

H. P. Lovecraft is good (if you like horror) along with Stephen Crane.

Some short stories I have read and liked were Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, The Catbird Seat by James Thurber, and Unlighted Lamps by Sherwood Anderson.

* Young Goodman Brown is very allegorical and is set back with the Quakers.
* The Fall of the House of Usher is more along the lines of a horror I believe, though it is not the least bit scary.
* Bartelby the Scrivener is kind of a sad story. I absolutely fell in love with Bartelby, I guess it's because I feel like I can relate to him a little.
* The Catbird Seat was quite amusing. I laughed through that one.
* Unlighted Lamps is kind of sad too. It wasn't really great, but it wasn't as bad as some.

Those are a few good ones, ones that I liked anyways.

Edge · Post by **Edge** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 3:51 pm

Stephen Donaldson (author of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever) has two collections of short stories - 'Daughter Of Regals' and 'Reave The Just' - which contain possibly the best short stories I have ever read.

Post by **wolfspirit** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 3:53 pm

I personally love Ray Bradbury's short stories. Many of them are soo funny, while carring great impacts and meanig (and all of that good stuff

)

magicfan241

felonius · Post by **felonius** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 5:44 pm

Alice Munro, Mavis Gallant, Roald Dahl, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver, just off the top of my head.

Munro only puts out about two a year these days - but believe me, they're works of art. People compare her to Chekov.

Superenigmatix · Post by **Superenigmatix** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 8:03 pm

Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors - very good collection

Alexei Sayle - writes very good short stories and yes it is THAT Alexei Sayle (the UK stand up comedian)

SF - Arthur C.Clarke, Asimov, Larry Niven, Frederick Brown all write wonderful short stories. Freserick Brown writes the shortest, sometimes only a page long!

sE

Hunter B · Post by **Hunter B** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 8:09 pm

I Have No Mouth and Yet I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison.

Sorry if I got hte name wrong but it's as close as I can get without looking it up, and it's in storage right now

Post by **laurie** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 11:23 pm

James Joyce will always top my list for short stories. I could read Dubliners every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. Especially "The Dead", "Araby" and "Ivy Day in the Committee Room".

Kahrey: The characters in "Young Goodman Brown" were Puritans, not Quakers. They were based on the original English settlers of Massachusetts, the ones we usually call the Pilgrims. I liked that story a lot, too. You might enjoy Hawthorne's collection, Twice-Told Tales - many other good ones in that.

Post by **Kvetch** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 5:40 am

I know that while they are generally novel writers, it is worth looking up Anne McCaffrey [sp?] and Terry Pratchett (Theatre of Cruelty ROCKS)

mrdude · Post by **mrdude** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 10:25 am

Larry Niven has a collection thats really good. I read quite a few out of Tales of known space. My favorite short stories come from two compelations of short stories entitled Galactic Empires Voume 1 and there is also a volume 2. They are quite great and have such authors as Issac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Harry Harrison. Great books! Sadly both are only avaible through amazon UK or barnes and noble.

Kahrey · Post by **Kahrey** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 7:10 pm

I just read Lord Dunsany's The Kith of the Elf-folk last night, it was good, I liked it. It was about a Wild Thing who wanted a soul so that she could praise God and understand music.

ChoChiyo · Post by **ChoChiyo** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 7:25 pm

That sounds like an excellent story. I'll have to look for that.

Edge · Post by **Edge** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 11:24 am

Can't believe I didn't think of this before: "Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy", vols 1, 2 & 3.

Features short stories by some of the best fantasy authors, based on well-known series of theirs. Robert Jordan, Raymond E Feist, Stephen King, Urula K LeGuinn, George RR Martin, etc.

Post by **clong** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:36 pm

George R.R. Martin's early short story collections are great. I recently read the "Sandkings" collection which had several strong stories (with the title story probably being the most famous).

If you have never read Dangerous Visions, a 1967 anthology edited by Harlan Ellison, I recommend it--not only does it have several memorable stories, but it also provides a lot of perspective on the evolution of sci fi writing through the sixties.

Another recommendation is a Lois McMaster Bujold story called Mountains of Mourning (or something like that) that is available free at http://www.baen.com/library (although it's a little long, probably would be considered a novella).

I second the recommendation for Joyce's Dubliners. I thought the Legends stories were pretty much a mixed bag.

Evaine · Post by **Evaine** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 6:48 am

There's also Again - Dangerous Visions, which I didn't think was so good.

Post by **clong** » Mon Nov 22, 2004 10:34 am

Tristan Cooke's Internet Top 100 site (which hasn't been updated in forever), has a pretty good list of top rated science fiction and fantasy short stories. You can find it at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/6113/short2.txt

Michael · Post by **Michael** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 9:07 pm

As a teacher during the school year, other than professional books and magazines, I do not have a lot of time to set aside for novels (those I save for the summer; I'm the type who has to go through an entire book and not go through cycles of picking it up and setting it down).

During the school year, I've found short stories to be essential. In particular I will pick up Bradbury, Poe (nobody wrote like him; I've read many of his stories over and over) and the "Best American Series". For the past few years I've bought "The Best American Short Stories"

If you haven't read this series, I would recommend it. From every conceivable source, the editors choose 50 or so short stories from the year and submit them to a quest editor who winnows them to 20. Two recent guest editors, for instance, were Joyce Carol Oats and Garrison Keillor.

Other than Poe and some Sherlock Holmes stories, I not been a mystery fan, but this month I picked up "The Best American Mystery Stories" (the quest editor was Nelson DeMille). Although I've not read all of the stories, so far they're all excellent as one would expect from this series. Jeff Abbott's "Bet on Red" was particularly good.

Mike

Post by **Darb** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 9:12 pm

MICHAEL: Welcome to the IBDoF.

I'm a fan of Garrison Keillor too.

If you're a fan of short stories, I can highly recommend Harlan Ellison, who is not only acknowledged by many as one of the greatest short story writers alive today, but also one of the most prolific.

I've met the man - he's a whipsmart take-no-prisoners ex army ranger, a deadly wit, and a brilliant writer and public speaker to boot.

Kahrey · Post by **Kahrey** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 10:13 pm

Welcome to the IBDoF, Michael!

Where insanity reigns supreme!

Post by **clong** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:29 am

I just read The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and enjoyed it very much. A nice range of early Zelazny scifi stories, including two of his most famous, the title story and "A Rose for Ecclesiastes".

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:44 pm

I'm a big fan of Stephen King's short stories, Edgar Allan Poe, anything Sherlock Holmes (loved The Confidential Casebook of Sherlock Holmes), I also liked Sword of Ice although there were a few crappy stories in it. Elf Fantastic and Sisters in Fantasy are on my bookshelf as well, I have a HUGE number of old AHMM, EQMM and Isaac Asimov magazines... Any kind of crime, sci-fi, fantasy or horror anthology are usually pretty popular with me too.

Don't Open This Book is probably my favorite anthology of all time (and I've just realized it's not even entered in the database! *GASP* I *must* find my copy!!!).

I basically just *really* like short stories LOL

Gil galad · Post by **Gil galad** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 4:16 pm

Edge wrote:Stephen Donaldson (author of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever) has two collections of short stories - 'Daughter Of Regals' and 'Reave The Just' - which contain possibly the best short stories I have ever read.

I cant agree more, In the collection Reave the Just, the story 'The Killing Stroke' is the best short story ive ever read. And who could forget The Woman who loved Pigs

Post by **clong** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:01 am

[WARNING - Unabashed plug for iblist database to follow]

If you want to find, rate, and or review individual short stories you can do so at iblist.com!

(Of course it would be easier if you could actually search by type or review list-by-ratings by type . . . someday we'll get those features added.)

I see that we have the two Donaldson collections entered, and I have now entered the individual short stories. If someone who has read these books is willing to pm me short synopses for the stories that are not described on the back covers, I'd appreciate it.