Short Stories Online

[tamaranth]

I'm discussing the merit of the short story form with a friend, and am trying to persuade her that there is excellent short fiction both within the SF genre and outside it. To this end, I'm trying to rec a story every day. Have started with Kelly Link.

What next? SF, horror, fantasy, mainstream, historical ... I suspect the Interweb has a bias t'wards SF/fantasy, because of early adoption in the fan community, but the more variety the better! (Was just reading Emma Donoghue's fabulous anthology of historical short stories, The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits: that's the sort of thing I'm after.)

And if anyone knows where, online, I can find older stories -- the example that springs to mind is Zelazny, especially early Zelazny -- that would also be much appreciated.

Possibly quietly appreciated as internet access will be very patchy for the next few days!

So, please, recommend a story, give the link and a brief description, and your reward will come in Heaven cyberspace.

Comments

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

Harlan Ellison? Paladin of the Lost Hour. (http://harlanellison.com/iwrite/paladin.htm) I love this story.

[nwhyte]

BestSF is a great resource for on-line short sf. There are unfortunately only three Zelazny stories, and I think the only good one is "The Man Who Loved the Faioli" - and even that is not very good.

FictionWise has several Zelazny books but no (separate) short fiction by him.

[mike-harre.livejournal.com]

Strange Horizons is a good resource as well. The stories can be a bit patchy IMHO, but there are some gems.

Bearing Witness (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2005/20051114/reed-f.shtml) by Margarite Reed is one of them.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

The SCIFICTION archive (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/archive.html), of course, has all sorts of good stuff in it, old and new. A few picks:

'The Empire of Ice-Cream (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/ford4/)' by Jeffrey Ford

'The Screwfly Solution (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/sheldon/)' by Raccoona Sheldon

'The Women Men Don't See (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/tiptree2/)' by Tiptree vs 'What I Didn't See (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/fowler/)' by Karen Joy Fowler

'Over Yonder (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/shepard2/)' by Lucius Shepard

'The Heat Death of the Universe (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/zoline/)' by Pamela Zoline vs 'Anyway (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/rickert/index.html)' by M. Rickert

'Light of Other Days (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/shaw/)' by Bob Shaw

'When it Changed (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/russ/)' by Joanna Russ

'New Light on the Drake Equation (http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/macleod/)' by Ian R Macleod

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I suspect the Interweb has a bias t'wards SF/fantasy, because of early adoption in the fan community,

Early adoption by techies and the technologically minded, who have a bias towards SF/fantasy.

It certainly stands to reason that the fan sommunity would quickly cotton on to the potential power of online social networks.

possible egg suckage

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

Free sf online (http://www.freesfonline.de/index.html) list three Zelazny shorts (http://www.freesfonline.de/authors/zelazny.html); it's a useful resource.

Re: possible egg suckage

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

not egg-suckage at all! but the same three as listed at BestSF ...
Would love to find some early LeGuin, too.
That site looks handy -- thanks for link!

Re: possible egg suckage

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

freesfonline is a feed of new entries on the site.