Reading


Recommended by

Paul Bryant


Short Stories
1939-1970 		Comment
Brian W. Aldiss
  • "The Failed Men" (1957)
    in Best SF Stories of Brian W. Aldiss
    		• People from the year 3000 and something organize an Intertemporal Red Cross mission to save the poor creatures from the far distant future who all attempted a collective suicide. I don't pretend to understand this one, but once read, never forgotten.
    Poul Anderson
  • "Kyrie" (1968)
    in Ascent of Wonder
    ed. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer
    		• Black hole story -- harrowing.
    J. G. Ballard
  • "The Voices of Time" (1962)
    in Collected Short Stories of J. G. Ballard
    		• JG at his craziest. Full of wonderful, creepy ideas.
    Jerome Bixby
  • "It's a Good Life" (1953)
    in Black Water 2
    ed. Alberto Manguel
    		• A true horror story about psi powers and little children.
    Anthony Boucher
  • "The Quest for St Aquin" (1950)
    in Sacred Visions
    ed. Andrew M. Greeley &
    Michael Cassutt
    		• The best robot donkey ever (okay, I haven't read every robot donkey story).
    Algis Budrys
  • "For Love" (1959)
    in Galaxy Reader 7 *
    ed. Frederik Pohl
    		• Breathtakingly grim tale of resistance against alien invasion
    L. Sprague de Camp
  • "The Gnarly Man" (1939)
    in Modern Classics of Fantasy,
    ed. Gardner Dozois
    		• If you were the only immortal man, it might be better to keep a low profile.
    Philip K. Dick
  • "Foster, You're Dead" (1954)
    in Collected Stories of Philip K.Dick
    Vol. 3: The Father-Thing
    		• Another nuclear horror story, but this is about the damage done before any bombs have exploded.
    Howard Fast
  • "The First Men" (1960)
    in Other Worlds
    ed. Tim Stringer
    		• The first children to be brought up free of the distortions imposed by conventional society become prodigies. Among other things they discover telepathy and love. Extremely poignant.
    H. B. Fyfe
  • "Protected Species" (1950)
    in Yet More Penguin SF *
    ed. Brian Aldiss
    		• Fantastic shock ending.
    Damon Knight
  • "Masks" (1968)
    in Playboy Book of SF
    ed. Alice Turner
    		• Nasty bio-engineering story. From the Moon, the earth looks like a ripe rotten fruit and you get the idea so does this guy’s face.
    Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore
  • "Mimsy Were the Borogroves" (1943)
    in Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner
    		• Children's toys fall out of the future.
    Fritz Leiber
  • "Coming Attraction" (1950)
    in The Road to SF
    ed. James Gunn
  • "Space-Time for Springers"
    in Modern Classics of Fantasy
    ed. Gardner Dozois
    		•  Marvelous evocation of the paranoid future as seen from the paranoid early 50s -- fine steampunk atmosphere 35 years before steampunk, and women wearing masks all the time!

    Cats. But no singing or dancing. A contender for Most Delightful Story Ever.
    Katherine Maclean
  • "The Snowball Effect" (1952)
    in Ascent of Wonder
    ed. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer
    		• In which the author invents pyramid selling and causes civilisation to crumble.
    David Masson
  • "A Two Timer" (1966)
    in Best of New Worlds *
    ed. Michael Moorcock
    		• A time machine accidentally propels a man from the 17th century into the 20th. Huge fun as he tries to wrestle with phones, cars, money, food, small dogs, etc.
    Walter M. MIller, Jr.
  • "Dumb Waiter" (1952)
    in The Best of Walter M. Miller
    		• The computer-controlled city does not realise the people have long since fled. Amazingly sexist, but this rattles along like an express train with no brakes.
    Ward Moore
  • "Lot" (1953)
    in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 15
    ed. Isaac Asimov &
    Martin H. Greenberg
    		• The morning the third world war begins. Wonderful dissection of the nuclear (!) family. Another great shock ending.
    Howard Schoenfeld
  • "Build Up Logically" (1950)
    in More Penguin SF *
    ed. Brian Aldiss
    		• Very weird indeed. Indescribable.
    Cordwainer Smith
  • "A Planet Named Shayol" (1959)
    in The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith
    		• The planet where all the worst criminals are sent. Very gruesome.
    William Tenn
  • "Brooklyn Project" (1948)
    in Great SF of the 20th Century
    ed. Robert Silverberg &
    Martin H. Greenburg
    		• Great time travel spoof which pulls the rug from under every other time-travel-paradox story ever written.

    * Out of print. Click here for a list of bookstores that stock used copies of older SF.

     

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