The Gamer's Quarter

wourme · . Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia

This is sort of a spinoff of the reading thread. But instead of what you've read recently, I'd like to hear about some really good short stories.

I find that it's harder to learn about good short stories than about novels. Here are a few of my favorites--ones that come to mind immediately, at least.

The Outsider by H.P. Lovecraft
The Colour out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft
Faith of Our Fathers by Philip K. Dick
Paycheck by Philip K. Dick
Sandkings by George R.R. Martin
House of the Worm by George R.R. Martin
Chance by Connie Willis
Leningen versus the Ants by Carl Stephenson
The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges
Funes, the Memorious by Jorge Luis Borges
The Jaunt by Stephen King
Mrs. Todd's Shortcut by Stephen King

dark steve · . Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110

I mostly don't like short stories.

I like Tim O'Brien, though.

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

I should be sleeping by now, so for the moment I'll simply suggest you pick up a Jorge Luis Borges collection. I personally recommend Labyrinth.
_________________
"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

wourme · . Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia

friedchicken · . Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Posts: 496 Location: Port Land, OR

I didn't participate in the reading thread since I'm not much of a novel reader, but short shories-- well!

I see you've got some Lovecraft-- let me recommend some more. Hopefully I'm not recommending a bunch that you're read but didn't care for.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Pickman's Model
The Dunwich Horror

Look, just pick up the lot. I'm in my 30's, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth still made me get up and turn on the big bright overhead light the last time I read it.

EDIT: Oh, and Bruce Sterling has written some good short fiction. Globalhead is one collection.

wourme · . Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia

dessgeega · Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:15 pm Post subject:

astarion is my favorite borges story.

angela carter writes a mean short story, and sandra cisneros and michelle tea do the "series of short stories as a larger narrative" thing very well. the house on mango street and rent girl are highly recommended.

i like short stories better than novels. novels typically bore me.

edward plunkett (lord dunsany) is quite good too, especially if you like h.p. lovecraft, whose dreamlands cycle was largely inspired by dunsany's work. the book of wonder is amazing if you are interested at all in modern fairy tales.
_________________

GSL · Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:36 pm Post subject:

I'm not going to list any Lovecraft stories because I think to do so would be slightly redundant; I have yet to read anything by him I didn't like.

Some of my favorites are:

"The Killers" - Ernest Hemingway
"Burning Chrome" and "The Gernsback Continuum" - William Gibson
"UFO in Kushiro", "The Second Bakery Attack" and "Year of Spaghetti" by Haruki Murakami
"Newlywed" by Banana Yoshimoto
"Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King
"Roadside Picnic" by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky

dessgeega · Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:53 pm Post subject:

dhex · Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 9:00 pm Post subject:

"the priest they called him" - burroughs. actually all of exterminator is good.
_________________

seryogin · Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 9:38 pm Post subject:

"Roadside Picnic" is a novel, or novella, if you will. I can't believe you actually read it, Chris. Did my lecture inspire you to do so?

And those two Gibson stories... I actually consider those to be the best things he's ever written ( I also like "Dogfight" as well). The only thing that comes close to them is Chiba City Blues; before Case meets Armitage. I have never finished Neuromancer, but I've reread that portion five times now.
_________________

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Yeah, all of the Burning Chrome collection is pretty good. Dogfight is probably my favorite. I think I've rambled about this is the regular reading thread.

Murakami's After the Quake collection has a bunch of good pieces in it. I recently sent a copy to dhex as kind of a Murakami barometer experiment; we'll see how that goes.

And Dick of course. I have more of his short story collections than his actual novels.

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

'The Diamond As Big As The Ritz' by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a personal favorite.

GSL · Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:28 am Post subject:

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

"The Vane Sisters" - Vladimir Nabokov
"Gooseberries" - Anton Chekhov
"The Overcoat" - Nikolai Gogol
"Nevsky Prospekt" - Nikolai Gogol
anything from The Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
anything from Lost in the City - Edward P. Jones

And as far as a good novella is concerned, Benito Cereno by Herman Melville is top-notch.

Give me a couple weeks and I can tell you whether William Faulkner's short fiction is as worth reading as his long fiction.
_________________
Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I just read the Laughing Man by J.D. Salinger! It's good!

Are we talking about the books in this thread or just listing them?

TheRumblefish · . Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 258 Location: Florida

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

Short stories, let's see.

Teddy and For Esme, with Love and Squalor are both really good J. D. Salinger stories, to go along with Laughing Man, mentioned above. Speaking of which, you can find both at this link, along with pretty much everything else he ever got published.

There are a lot of short stories by Larry Niven that I think are really good. Bordered in Black, All the Myriad Ways, For a Foggy Night, Passerby, The Fourth Profession, Cloak of Anarchy, The Hole Man, and The Locusts are all stories I've read of his recently in the collection called N-Space.

To keep with the sci-fi theme Philip K. Dick has a ton of short stories that are pretty good or interesting in their own ways. Just off the top of my head I can recall The Golden Man, The Hanging Stranger, and Strange Eden as being particularly good or clever.

I think there some stories by Richard Matheson that I remember reading once and liking but I can't remember what they were.

Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

My favorite author for the past few years was Murakami, and while his short stories are in general very, very weird, I always liked "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning"

JetFry · . Joined: 05 Sep 2006 Posts: 4

Some great short stories have been written by Harlan Ellison. I would definitely recommend him, though some of his stories can be a bit dark and unsettling.

Right off the bat, I'd recommend
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman
and
Mephisto in Onyx

elvis.shrugged · . Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 108 Location: Stratford, CT

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. Obvious, but still a really good tale. Seconding "Repent Harlequin!" as well. Soldier is interesting too.
If you happen to enjoy A Boy and His Dog, you might be interested to know that the most complete collection of all the related shorts is the graphic novel Vic and Blood: The Continuing Adventure of a Boy and His Dog, illustrated by the always brilliant Richard Corben. It contains all three short stories, that's including the proposed sequel Blood's a Rover that never panned out completely, being instead written as an ending for the comic adaptation, preceded by each written piece brought to life, plus a few added witticisms on Ellison's part as well as his own introduction.

I'm quite the fan of Roald Dahl's shorts. It's always funny when people consider him as a children's writer (though he writes children's books well), only to syumble upon a copy of Switch Bitch or even Tales of the Unexpected (The four stories that stick the most in my mind, for no other reason than being exposed to them as a child, are Lamb to the Slaughter, Neck, Genesis and Catastrophe and William and Mary).

I haven't read a Jorge Luis Borges story I haven't liked in some way or other. It's truly captivating material and really manages to inspire me with awe. Perfect for reading in the woods alone.

Can we do poetry too? Because I really like Charles Baudelaire, William Blake, Seamus Heaney and e.e. cummings, though I confess I've never much delved into poetry unless needed academically. Suggestions would be appreciated, actually. How about comic book one-shots?
_________________
"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

JetFry · . Joined: 05 Sep 2006 Posts: 4

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Ellison hates the movie because he feels it came off as far more misogynist than the tale actually is (He argues, quite rightfully, that in a post-apocalyptic world, there wouldn't be much in the ways of moral concern so far as food foraging or indeed sexual intercourse would be concerned), and he's been getting flak because of it. It's still a cult film as I understand it, but I haven't seen it.

But yes, the graphic novel is the most complete collection you could hope to find as far as those stories go. Ellison admits to this, and is actually a huge comic book fan himself; he's written the odd superhero comic and a collection of his adapted shorts have been released by Dark Horse under the title Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, which boasts a wide variety of artists and writers. It's a thing of beauty.
_________________
"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

JetFry · . Joined: 05 Sep 2006 Posts: 4

Woah! That's amazing. This is definitely something I'll be picking up. Thanks for letting me know this collection exists.

wourme · . Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia

I've already ordered some books based on recommendations in this thread. It's nice that used books are so much cheaper than video games.

elvis.shrugged · . Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 108 Location: Stratford, CT

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

dark steve · . Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110

Mignola's Screw-On Head is utterly fantastic.

There's a pilot for an animated version floating around somewhere.

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Right here.
_________________
"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

xvs07 · . Joined: 22 Sep 2005 Posts: 160

Recently finished a collection of Fritz Leiber's shorts entitled simply "The Best of Fritz Leiber". Leiber contributed deeply to the definition of sword and sorcery as well as proving that shorts could be tight and fast-paced while also having character depth and immersive backdrops; I doubt Gibson would be half the writer he is without Leiber's influence. Also, his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser shorts inspired the creation of Dungeons and Dragons to a large degree. Anyhow, my favorite short from that collection is "A Pail of Air" and can be found in its entirety here.

Richard Matheson was another great of the same time period. His novella "I Am Legend" spawned modern day zombie fiction and film just about single-handedly, and I'm of the opinion that the original is deeper than anything that came after. It's psychologically horrifying, where everything else just rests on crutches of gore and suspense. His shorts are damn fine, too. I particularly liked "The Funeral", a comedy involving the horror archetypes of the day.

Wilkes · milky wilkie Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 256

GSL · Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 12:18 am Post subject:

Crap, how could I forget Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" or "The Gold Bug"?

Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

dessgeega · Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 2:08 am Post subject:

i miss my copy of macho sluts.

i really need to get around to buying a new one.
_________________

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Dracko, consider yourself seconded on Heaney, Baudelaire, and cummings.

To the short poetry list I would add:

"Leaves of Grass" by Whitman and "Howl" by Ginsberg are both manic and wonderful. I tend to think of them as companion pieces.

Joseph Brodsky is wonderful in Russian and English; Alexander Pushkin has a grasp of rhythm that few can match.

I read a very recent brilliant collection by Mark Strand called Blizzard of One.

Finally, although both of these are plays, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral showcase much of the best verse I have ever read.
_________________
Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

chompers po pable · . Joined: 10 Nov 2005 Posts: 142

"Flowers" by Alice Walker is good. (by good I mean fantastic)
"Red Convertible" by Louise Erdrich is a solid one.
"The Judgement" by Kafka is sexy.
"Signs and Symbols" by Nabokov is &^^*_/?
"Going to Meet the Man" by James Baldwin is visceral.

sup wourme, i liked the "Library" by Borges as well.

the cool thing about short stories (aside from their focus, polish, and superiority in so many ways to novels) is that you can usually find them for free on the internet.

boojiboy7 · Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 10:54 pm Post subject:

The Harvest by Amy Hempel is my all time favorite short story, though almost all fo the Ellison and Dick on this list are good stuff. Borges is the master.

I hadn't heard any word on Murakami's short stuff, so I will have to check it out.

Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

I've been reading the (relatively) new (in English) Murakami short story collection and I like it a lot more than the last two.

Hot Stott Bot · . Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 366 Location: Boston

Guys...

They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson.

...for real!

Sync Swim · . Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 19

If you're at all interested in sci-fi, it would be worth tracking down a copy of the New Worlds anthology edited by Michael Moorcock. It's a brilliant document of probably the most simultaneously beloved and reviled movement in SF. There's an excellent variety of both the big shots and the names that published maybe one or two things in the only magazine that would accept them and disappeared without a trace.

In any case, you get a short story collection that includes work from Moorcock, Mervyn Peake, M John Harrison, Brian Aldiss, J.G. Ballard, Langdon Jones, Norman Spinrad and John Sladek.

Can Xue's Blue Light In the Sky & Other Stories is worth a gander if you're into Borges.
_________________

shrug · . Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 10

Ah hell.

Gene Wolfe's Seven American Nights and The Death of Dr. Island.

wourme · . Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

I really wish George R.R. Martin would get back to doing sci-fi.

Machine Gun Heart · . Joined: 02 Dec 2006 Posts: 5