From a Hangman to Alien Rescuers... more short story recommendations

Continuing on from last week's post, I've got more great short story recommendations, most of which you can read and/or listen to online. If you didn't catch last week's post, you can read it here. I've been reading mostly science fiction short stories, but have picked one or two non sci-fi stories that I've enjoyed recently too.

'Light of Other Days' by Bob Shaw. This was written in the 1960s, and I'd not heard of the story before and only barely heard of the author however I came across a Youtube video suggesting this was the best SF short story ever. I don't know I'd agree with that, but it is a really great story. It's only short, so you can easily read in about fifteen minutes. It's got a great science fiction concept (slow glass), but it is a story about people with the concept just part of the backdrop. Definitely worth a read.

'New Folks Home' by Clifford D Simak. This is my first short story by Simak, and I've previously only read one novel of his (Way Station - you can read my review here), but I really like this author. He had a long career, with his first story being published in 1931, and his last in the 1980s shortly before his death. He wrote what has been described as 'Pastoral SF', linking galaxy spanning science fiction concepts with a simple, rural backdrop. The link to this story is to an audio version of the story, from the great folks at Escape Pod. I'm not always a fan of audio stories over reading them on the page (or screen), but I thought the narration on this really good and fit well with the story.

'Item Not as Described' by J.W. Alden. While I've been reading a lot of older 'golden age' science fiction, I've also been reading quite a few new short stories. There's lots of places to read new stuff online, including quite a few 'pro' websites which publish short stories by some of the best modern SF writers (websites/e-zines like Clarkesworld, Lightspeed Magazine, Strange Horizons etc) but there's also a lot of semi-pro and small press websites and e-zines and there's some really good stuff on these too. This one was published in Kasma Magazine and is quite an amusing story, taking the form of a thread of email exchanges between someone who has bought an item on an online auction site which wasn't as described, the seller of said item and the customer service department of the auction site. However the auction site is something of a darker alternative to eBay! It's only short, but is a fun and amusing read.

'Rescue Party' by Arthur C Clarke. This is a true golden age SF story, from one of the masters of science fiction. An alien starship comes to the rescue of Earth when it is discovered that Earth's sun is about to explode, destroying all of the solar system. But where are all the people? Thanks to +Kenny Chaffin from Google Plus for this excellent recommendation.

And now for a couple of non-science fiction recommendations. As I mentioned in last week's post, despite enjoying a wide variety of novels in most genres, I'm struggling to find non-SF stories which I've really enjoyed. Possibly because the stories are either trash, trying to be too literary, or concentrating on the 'dark side of the human psyche' or similar, which most of the time just bores me.

Anyway the first of these is 'The Three Strangers' by Thomas Hardy. For anyone who doesn't know, Hardy was a classic English author of the Victorian era (19th century) who wrote rural English stories such as 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' and 'Jude the Obscure'. I've not read any of his books, but his short stories were recommended to me, in particular an anthology called 'Wessex Tales'. I've read several of these so far, and particularly enjoyed The Three Strangers, which is a country tale about a hangman. It is the sort you could imagine an old man telling his grandchildren while sat round the fire of a thatched cottage, deep in the woods.

The second of these is 'The Blue Girl' by Alex Grecian. This is a short story set in late 19th century London, a crime-mystery featuring Constable Colin Pringle. By his own frank admission, Pringle isn't a very hard working or dedicated policeman - he only joined the police force because he thought the uniform might attract pretty young girls. He isn't even a detective, however the sight of the blue girl floating in the canal makes him feel compelled  to do some investigating, because if he doesn't, no one else will. This short story is based on the author's Murder Squad books of Victorian detective fiction. I haven't read any of them, and only read this story as it was recommended to me by my lovely wife who is a fan of Grecian's books. I really enjoyed it however, and it is doing a good job of making me want to read his books. This isn't available free online as far as I can see, but is only 49 pence in the UK Kindle store.

Reading Short Stories

Unfortunately it has been a long, long time since I've managed a blog post - over two months - and that's after a very promising start throughout January. I haven't been idle however, I've picked up the writing bug and started writing short stories. Why short stories? Well partly at least because they are just that - short! I've always got lots of ideas, and short stories allow me to get more of my ideas onto the page. I may work my way up to something longer, but for now I'm really enjoying writing short stories.

As well as writing short stories I've also been reading them too. I've never been a big reader of short stories, always preferring novels, and I don't think that is going to change anytime soon, but I have been surprised how much I've enjoyed some of the stories I've read. There's also quite a lot that left my cold (and bored and at times confused). In this and more posts over the next few weeks I'll be talking about my findings and reviewing some of the stories I've read, particularly ones I've really enjoyed. Where these are available free online I'll include a link too (and so many stories are available on the internet). I've been reading quite a wide mix of stories, there's a lot of science fiction and fantasy short stories, but quite a few others too. The great thing is that you can easily read a big variety in a short space of time, no getting stuck in a book for weeks or months on end.

I'm going to start off with some science fiction & fantasy stories this time.

'Nightfall' by Isaac Asimov (available as an audio story here or as a pdf here). This was written in 1941 but has not aged at all, and is everything a science fiction story should be. The story is about a solar eclipse, but also is a story about superstition and ignorance versus knowledge and science. At least I think it is, it is a while since I've read this one.

'Fermi and Frost' by Frederick Pohl. (available online here). A story about the end of the world and nuclear winter. A bit dated now, but I thought this was a fabulous story. I talked about it a bit more in this blog post from a couple of years ago.

'The Paper Menagerie' by Ken Liu. (available here) If you don't read science fiction short stories, you've probably never heard of Ken Liu, but in science fiction circles he's considered one of the finest modern short story writers (modern as in the last 10 years). I suppose this is technically a fantasy story, but really there's just the smallest touch of magic in it, other than which it is a normal contemporary short story and a very good one too. It is about family, parenthood and the problems that can come when different cultures collide. This story won the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award.

Talking about good modern authors, Ted Chiang is another name most people won't have heard of, not surprisingly as he's not written any novels, and has only published 14 short stories in a 20 year career although many of them have won science fiction's top awards. You don't get many science fiction short story writers being written about in The Economist, but you can read this excellent article about him here. I've only read a couple of his stories so far, including 'Exhalation' about a strange universe inhabited by sentient mechanical beings. I read this online, but can't seem to find it now. There is a free audio version though. Chiang's stories can be quite philosophical, and really make you think.

There's many online magazines and websites which publish new short stories every month, week or even day. I'll maybe talk about some of these in a later post, but for now I thought I'd pick one I'd read recently. It isn't a classic or famous story (though it was nominated for the Nebula award in 2013), but is one I enjoyed a lot. It is 'The Sounds of Old Earth' by Matthew Kressel published online in Lightspeed Magazine. It is about a future polluted Earth, which is to be evacuated and and everyone shipped off to New Earth. It's about an old man who has too many memories and doesn't want to leave. It is also about frogs.

So there you go, five stories all available online. If you are after classic sci-fi, go for Nightfall, if you fancy a bit of nostalgia, go for the Sounds of Old Earth, and if you aren't much into science fiction or fantasy, have a read of The Paper Menagerie. Or just read them all.

If you read (or have already read) any of the stories, do comment and let me know what you think, or if you've got any short stories you really recommend - in any genre - then tell me, I'm always on the look out for good short fiction to read.

Next time I'll probably talk about some more mainstream, non science fiction/fantasy short stories, but despite reading some supposed classics I am struggling for stories I really love. Anyway, that's for next time.

'The Final Empire' by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn Book One)

First book of the New Year was 'The Final Empire', the first book in the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. As with many people I suspect, I first heard about Brandon Sanderson when it was announced he had been chosen by Robert Jordan to finish off his Wheel of Time series, and have what I've heard he's done a good job of it. I haven't read those books yet, I gave up on The Wheel of Time many years ago. I promised myself that one day when it was complete I'd go back to it, but not got around to it yet.

Anyway, I picked up 'The Final Empire' and decided to have a go, despite the fact that I've read and enjoyed relatively few fantasy books in recent years, I've tended to go more for science fiction and other genres. I was pleasantly very surprised. I'll come on to why in a minute, but first a bit of a synopsis.

The book follows Vin, a street urchin in the Empire capital of Luthadel (I know, I know it's always either a street urchin or a farm/kitchen boy but it just works so well...). It's a rather grim sort of place, ruled over by the evil Lord Ruler, who is basically a god. He encourages the nobles to oppress and kill the poor (the "skaa") at every opportunity. She falls in with a rebel crew looking to overthrow the Lord Ruler. No one has even come close in over a thousand years, after all you can't kill a god, but then there's never been anyone like Kelsier before. A mistborn, the only person to ever survive the Pits of Hathsin, he believes he has found the key to defeating the Lord Ruler, and Vin has an important part to play in that.

For me, there are two things that really make this book stand out as different from other fantasy books that I've read. The first is that in this book, there isn't a looming threat of an evil overlord - he's already won and been in power for over a thousand years. The second is that the author has come up with a really interesting, unusual type of magic. Rather than wave a wand, cast an incantation or gather your will, focus etc, in this book all magic stems from metals. There are ten metals which you swallow and then 'burn' in your stomach to give yourself power. Each metal does something different. Really unusual, found this aspect fascinating.

The book isn't incredibly dense and is an easy read, but at the same time it isn't 'fantasy-lite' as some books I've read have been. There's meat on the bones, and a deep back-story that only starts being revealed in this first book.

A really good read and an excellent introduction to this talented fantasy author. I'll be reading more from this author in 2015, starting with the rest of this trilogy and moving on from there. 9/10.

Dust by Hugh Howey - Book Review

This is the third book in the Silo trilogy, following 'Wool' and then 'Shift'. In many ways though, it is more of a direct sequel to Wool, as Shift is -mostly anyway - a prequel. However don't try reading Wool and then Dust, there are several chapters of Shift that move the story along.

*spoilers for the first two books*

Dust starts off after Juliette has returned to her Silo, the only person ever to come back alive after being sent out to Clean. She comes back with stories of other Silos, and has a crazy plan to dig to the (almost empty) neighbouring silo. She has been elected Mayor, but not many people trust in her. Meanwhile, in Silo One Donald continues impersonating Thurman while trying to help Juliette, and also trying to keep his newly awakened sister a secret.

To me, this is the weakest of the three books in the trilogy. Book One was extremely novel, an introduction to a fascinating world. Book Two explored how the world of the silos came about and is really gripping stuff. Book Three though was a bit flat, there were no big surprises or new problems to overcome. That said, the ending is good, and fitting of the overall series as a hole. I'd give it 7/10.