Kevin's Watch

Story Award are:-

Just picked up Kingsley Amis's "The Golden Age of Science Fiction" again for the first time in 20ish years and realise just how good some of those stories I read all those years ago were. I always remember Donaldson saying that short stories were the true 'acme' of the writers art, since every word had to much more carefully placed for maximum effect (as opposed to a novel where the 'if you throw enough mud at a wall...' principle could to a certain extent be used.

I remember an anthology that Penguin published many years ago that began with a story entitled 'Sole Survivor'; a fantastic start to a collection of some of the best fiction I have ever read.

However the story I will choose to nominate is 'The Nine Billion Names of God' by Issac Asimov. The reason is not really that I think it is the best sci-fi short story ever written, but that the story has stayed with me for all those years such that instantly I saw the title in the Amis anthology mentioned above I remembered the story in full. With my memory that is an achievement not to be sniffed at.

Of course it 'aint possible to come up with 'the Best Ever....' but I'm damn sure you guys can throw up some cracking stuff that I might otherwise miss.

"The Nine Billion Names of God" is an Arthur C. Clarke short story

It's hard to choose a best science fiction short story, there are so many good ones out there! And to tell you the truth, I think they are superior in quality, content, and art form than the vast majority of non-scifi short stories.

"Twilight" by John W Campbell Jr. is an excellent short story... but I also have a soft spot for "Breeds There a Man?", "Jokester", and "Eyes Do More Than See" by Issac Asimov. All these were in his anthology "Robot Dreams" which got me into science fiction and science fiction short stories to begin with... an excellent anthology of Issac Asimov!

There was also one by Jack Vance that I read recently where the Earth was trapped in a pocket of 'non-causality', that was entertaining!

One of my favorite compilations of sci-fi short stories is Future on Ice edited by Orson Scott Card back in '98. Not only because it features Shanidar by David Zindell: the story that inspired Neverness and The Broken God, but, I mean, look at this rundown:
Robot Dreams-Issac Assimov
Portrait of His Children-George R. R. Martin
Dinosaur-Walter Jon Williams (Aristoi, Hardwired, The Rift, Dread Empire)
Blood Music-Greg Bear
Time's Rub-Gregory Benford (who co-authored the great Heart of the Comet)
Speech Sounds- Octavia E. Butler
The Fringe-OSC
as well as offerings from:
John Varley, John Crowley, Andew Weiner, C. J. Cherryh and Nancy Kress
(that's an all star line up folks-there's not a story that dissapoints)

Orlion wrote:All these were in his anthology "Robot Dreams" which got me into science fiction and science fiction short stories to begin with... an excellent anthology of Issac Asimov!

Among the first Asimov, and indeed, the first sci-fi, that I read.

--A

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes as published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

My daddy was a charter member and saved every issue until his passing in 1987 (yes, I read the serial version of King's The Gunslinger as it was published in the pulp throughout my teens). My reading fodder as a kid consisted of reading his issues of National Georgraphic and TMoFaSF.

But of all the stories I read in those crumbling pulp pages, Flowers for Algernon stayed with me the most. I think I got to it when I was 12, in 1972. The story still does not seem really dated in anyway.

Orlion wrote:"The Nine Billion Names of God" is an Arthur C. Clarke short story ;)There was also one by Jack Vance that I read recently where the Earth was trapped in a pocket of 'non-causality', that was entertaining!

Damn - so much for my perfect retention of the story over 30 years; I couldn't even remember the authors name between the bedroom and the living roon. Oh well, I never was much good with names anyway!

Seriously guys - thanks for the response on this one. You've definitely brought some anthologies and stories to my attention that would otherwise have passed me by. Orlion - do you remember the name/scource of the Vance story you refer to. Vance has to be one of my favorite sf/fantasy authors - Trullion, Alastor 2262 was one of the first sf books I read and Cugels Saga is .....well, what can you say about Cugels Saga.

(Actualy - I think I read 'Wolfbane' by Pohl and Kornbluth before 'Trullion', but we have already established the reliability (not) of my traplike memory above )

Let's see here... the short story is called "The Men Return" an I got it in a collection called The Jack Vance Treasury edited by Terry Dowling & Jonathan Strahan.

Menolly wrote:Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes as published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

I saw a very good play version of this story...I heard there's also a musical, but I'll never try to see that.

I'm pretty sure...but it's been a long time...that the Ellison story "jeffty is five" got me into short stories...I'd already read some, but I think this one started me liking SF short stories for what they are, not just to read when I only had a little time.

But one of my "always on the short list" stories [as I've surely said elsewhere] is:

www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html

How do you guys react to Kingsly Amis contention that the 'Golden Age' of science fiction was between 1949 and 1962. I must admit - when you look at the list of names who were writing then it seems awsomely good. Why is the genre not generating the same interest/quality now - or is it? (In fairness, I have not kept up to speed with what is currently going on in the world of fictional books, exept where it has been forced down my throat eg Dan Brown - some years back I found non-fiction works were doing it much better for me and pretty much stuck with them henceforth.)

Isaac Asimov once wrote that the Golden Age ended because the sense of wonder was lost. During the golden age, what sci-fi writers wrote about was awe-inspiring, what could happen, and in that world, paradoxically, magical. However, technology advanced, and those things these writers wrote about became very possible (or impossible). The sense of wonder was lost and was instead replaced with a sense of arrogance (That couldn't happen based on this 75th year physics course equation) and the overly contrived metaphorical crap (keeping in mind that this is my opinion, I'm thinking specifically of things like Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind).

I actually think the writing/stories are better than in the "golden age." As an average.
Some of the wonder is gone among the citizenry, I think...but not so much among fans, or among the good writers...and it's interesting to watch breakthroughs cause a surge in cool/interesting stories...for instance, when "Chaos" first caught on in a big/important way [the fundamentals have been around for a very long time] shortly after was cluster of good SF that lasted a few years.

clarkesworldmagazine.com/
(clarkesworldmagazine.com/bear_01_07/)

subterraneanpress.com/magazine/

I can start digging up individual stories also available online if you want more evidence that good short fiction is still being produced in the SF genre.

One thing I have noticed is that if you look at the sci-fi/fantasy shelves in the major bookstore's now fantasy by and large rules the roost in terms of numbers of titles. This was not the case in my youth, where the situation was reversed with fantasy occupying only limited space in respect to sci-fi's absolute dominance. Now I love (good) fantasy - no doubt more than sci-fi, hell I'm a member of the Watch aren't I - but I would be the first to admit that I don't believe the genre to be nearly as demanding or (dare I say it) mature as sci-fi. Sci-fi produces great literature or did so at least, on a regular basis where fantasy produces great poular reads (and nothing wrong with that) but not at the same level of imaginative achievement.

Well, I disagree with that. There's plenty of fantasy that can stand up with the best scifi.

But I've also noticed lots more fantasy than scifi. AND, I'd guess half the books on the shelves are written by women. That's a big increase.

Fist and Faith wrote:Well, I disagree with that. There's plenty of fantasy that can stand up with the best scifi.

Had a feeling that might not be taken too well, but honestly FOF, it's just what I think - I'm not trolling, honest (well OK - perhaps just a little!)
Does the increase in women writers apply to sci-fi as well as fantasy. I've certainly seen a big increase in female fantasy writers but as I say, sci-fi seems nearly to have dissapeared off the shelves in my town!