Hi, all.
Among the recommendations lists is a fairly thin thread on anthologies, and just a short while back we compiled a more impressive thread of single-author story collections (HEY ROB! think that one should be added to the recommendations lists sticky?), so maybe it's about time to discuss individual short stories.
I know this genre has moved more toward novels in the last 30 or so years, but what are your favorite small bites of fictiony goodness, past or present?
Here's a quick list. I'll add more later.
Ambrose Bierce: "An Inhabitant of Carcosa"
H. G. Wells: "The Man Who Could Work Miracles"
Lord Dunsany: "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth"; "The Bureau d'Echange du Maux"
Clark Ashton Smith: “The Empire of the Necromancers”; "The Dark Eidolon"
H. P. Lovecraft: "The Doom that Came to Sarnoth"; "The Rats in the Walls" (arguably a horror story)
C.L. Moore: "Black God's Kiss "; "Shambleau"
Ray Bradbury: "Homecoming"; "The Fog Horn"; "Uncle Einar"
James Blish: "There Shall Be No Darkness"
Robert Bloch: "That Hell-Bound Train"
Jorge Luis Borges: "The Library of Babel"
Shirley Jackson: "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts"
Fritz Leiber: "Belsen Express"; "Four Ghosts in Hamlet"; "Smoke Ghost"
Peter Beagle: "Lila The Werewolf"; "Come Lady Death"; "The Tragical Historie of the Jiril's Players"
Avram Davidson: "Or All the Seas With Oysters"
Ursula K. Le Guin: "Those Who Walk Away from Omelas"; "Darkness Box"; "The Rule of Names"
Edgar Pangborn: "Longtooth"
Suzy McKee Charnas: "Unicorn Tapestry"
Stephen King: "Do the Dead Sing?" [aka "The Reach"]; "The Mist"
T. E. D. Klein: "Nadelman's God"
Tanith Lee: "The Gorgon"
Patricia MacKillop: "Lady of the Skulls"
Thomas Ligotti: "Les Fleurs"
Jonathan Carroll: "The Sadness of Detail"; "Black Cocktail"
Fred Chappell: "Linneas Forgets"
Others?
Randy M.
(some of my additions are probably debatable, hewing closer to horror [i.e. "The Mist"], but I still think they fall into fantasy, as well)
Among the recommendations lists is a fairly thin thread on anthologies, and just a short while back we compiled a more impressive thread of single-author story collections (HEY ROB! think that one should be added to the recommendations lists sticky?), so maybe it's about time to discuss individual short stories.
I know this genre has moved more toward novels in the last 30 or so years, but what are your favorite small bites of fictiony goodness, past or present?
Here's a quick list. I'll add more later.
Ambrose Bierce: "An Inhabitant of Carcosa"
H. G. Wells: "The Man Who Could Work Miracles"
Lord Dunsany: "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth"; "The Bureau d'Echange du Maux"
Clark Ashton Smith: “The Empire of the Necromancers”; "The Dark Eidolon"
H. P. Lovecraft: "The Doom that Came to Sarnoth"; "The Rats in the Walls" (arguably a horror story)
C.L. Moore: "Black God's Kiss "; "Shambleau"
Ray Bradbury: "Homecoming"; "The Fog Horn"; "Uncle Einar"
James Blish: "There Shall Be No Darkness"
Robert Bloch: "That Hell-Bound Train"
Jorge Luis Borges: "The Library of Babel"
Shirley Jackson: "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts"
Fritz Leiber: "Belsen Express"; "Four Ghosts in Hamlet"; "Smoke Ghost"
Peter Beagle: "Lila The Werewolf"; "Come Lady Death"; "The Tragical Historie of the Jiril's Players"
Avram Davidson: "Or All the Seas With Oysters"
Ursula K. Le Guin: "Those Who Walk Away from Omelas"; "Darkness Box"; "The Rule of Names"
Edgar Pangborn: "Longtooth"
Suzy McKee Charnas: "Unicorn Tapestry"
Stephen King: "Do the Dead Sing?" [aka "The Reach"]; "The Mist"
T. E. D. Klein: "Nadelman's God"
Tanith Lee: "The Gorgon"
Patricia MacKillop: "Lady of the Skulls"
Thomas Ligotti: "Les Fleurs"
Jonathan Carroll: "The Sadness of Detail"; "Black Cocktail"
Fred Chappell: "Linneas Forgets"
Others?
Randy M.
(some of my additions are probably debatable, hewing closer to horror [i.e. "The Mist"], but I still think they fall into fantasy, as well)
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