The short story recommendations are back. Well, maybe… sort of.
Thing is, I’ve just come out of something of a writing slump that has lasted most of the fall. And it’s been even longer than that since I’ve read short stories on a regular basis, focusing more on novels instead. But I do still love short stories, and whenever I read a particularly good one or is pleasantly surprised with something novel the author managed to pull of, I want to share that with someone.
I’m pretty certain I won’t be able to do short story recommendations every month, at least not for a while yet. Basically, that would require me to read almost nothing but short stories, and there is so much else out there I want to read. I do hope to get back into the habit of reading, and posting about, short stories more regularly again, though.
Also, I’m dropping the part of the concept where I would only recommend new-ish short stories. Because, dammit, there are a lot of older stories that do not deserve to be forgotten.
Right here goes.
Hazards of Being Related to The Chosen One by Emmie Christie (Flash Fiction Online):
It’s not exactly a secret that I love the flash fiction format (I mean, almost everything I’ve published is flash fiction, and I used to be part of the editorial team over at FFO). I love how much some authors can manage with such a short word count. I love how novel ideas can be explored, even ones that might not be enough to carry a longer story. Also, I really love stories that twist common plots or SF&F tropes (whether they are flash fiction or not). And “Hazards of Being Related to The Chosen One” does all of that.
The title says it all. It’s a story about “The Chosen One’s” sister. And seeing the title, I was expecting comedy if not straight out silly. And the story is quite funny at times. For example, when the narrator describes how she manages to escape the villains that constantly kidnap her simply by being extremely annoying.
But it’s more than that. It’s also a surprisingly deep story about being limited by the cards we’re dealt at birth and about living in the shadow of someone else, someone dear to you.
I think I would’ve liked the story just for it’s premise alone, the twist to the “Chosen One” trope, along with the humor. But the author really manages to take up another level at the end.
The First Contact with the Gorgonids by Ursula K. Le Guin (Omni):
This is one of those older stories (from 1992) which I think deserves to be brought out and shared with other readers.
Like “Hazards of Being Related to The Chosen One“, this is a very short piece that relies partly on humor and parly on it’s original premise. And it’s also another story where the title really gives away a lot about the story.
We follow an American couple on a trip to Australia that is starting to go wrong. In an attempt to outdo his colleague and film some “natives”, the husband has gotten them completely lost. As you might guess from the title, they end up stumbling upon someone who are definitely not Australian aboriginals.
All that makes for an entertaining story, but once again, there is more to it than that. IMO, the characterization in “The First Contact with the Gorgonids” is amazing.
To begin with, the main characters are very much clichés. The overconfident and verbally abusive husband whose behavior leads them into trouble, and his “dumb blond” trophy wife who is just there to follow her husband’s every whim. Of course, the latter clearly isn’t true, because the wife is the POV character.
In span of just a few pages, Le Guin manages to flesh out the husband, show the root of some his jealously and just how much of a jerk he is. But, more importantly, she also shows how much more there is to the wife. She might live up to some of the clichés of a trophee wife, but while she is quiet about it (because of her husband’s outbursts), she is quite smart.
She manipulates her husband, trying to keep him out of the worst trouble. And she questions her husband’s assumptions about the world, even if she is too afraid to do so out loud.
Really, it’s incredible how deep a protagonist Le Guin managed to create in such a short story.
Lige Under Overfladen 19, Mere end Overlevelse (Just Beneath The Surface 19, More than Survival) by various authors (Science Fiction Cirklen):
This last one is maybe a bit of an odd addition. Firstly, it’s not a short story but an anthology. Secondly, it’s in Danish, so most of you out there will never have the chance to read it. But to the few Danes stopping by once in a while, I hope you’re reading along.
Also, just a caveat: I have a story in this anthology, but that is not why I’m recommending it.
If I’m being completely honest, the quality of the Just Beneath The Surface series has been bit… eh, inconsistent, in my experience. And, really, that isn’t too surprising. It’s published by a small publisher run solely by volunteers, and they publish to a small market (Danish SF&F) where there are next to no money to be made. That also means the authors aren’t getting paid anything, which likely removes the incetive for any established authors to contribute. And the Danish SF&F author pool was never big to begin with, especially not compared to something like English language SF&F. So, yeah, it is what it is.
But my point here is not to drag the anthology series down. My point is that issue 19, More than Survival, was surprisingly good.
Sure, there a some stories (probably including my own) that fell through for various reasons. But where the previous instalments in the series usually had one or two stronger stories that really stood out, issue 19 had several.
Stories in the anthology I especially enjoyed include:
J.L Eriksen’s “Et ubekvemt venskab” about a group of people being send back to an all but dead Earth to gather ressources for the new home at Mars. Meanwhile, something has gone terribly wrong at one of the other resource gathering camps down south. And gradually, the MC starts to realize that their mission might not be all that it was made out to be.
The characters could’ve been stronger, but I really enjoyed the mystery and the thriller-like plot.
Jakob Emiliussen’s “Huskekunstneren” where the MC erases/alters people memory for money. It’s not a new idea, but I enjoyed the twist that this memory alteration was something that had to be repeated regularly in order to work. That twist also had major implications on the plot.
At the very start of the scene, things go absolutely wrong for the MC. He accidentally kills one of his regulars and has to flee the police.
Once again, it was the mystery and thriller plot that kept me hooked. But the twist to a common trope, solid prose, and great reveal at the end made this my favorite story in the anthology.
Brine Aggerbeck Iversen’s “Reguleringsjagt” where a young girl travels with the with private detective her parents has hired to find her missing brother.
Once again, there’s a basic mystery that kept me hooked, but there also much more than that.
The prose was excellent, and the characters were very well fleshed out considering the lenght of the story. Also, Iversen does really well when it comes to interweaving the main mystery with the science fiction elements of the story.
In the story world, eating meat has become a thing of the past, and people’s skill and potential are evaluated yearly in a way that basically determines their future careers. Interesting but not necessarily super original ideas in themselves, but again, the way the SF elements affect the mystery plot that drives the story made them really interesting.
J.B. Andersen’s “Stol på mennesker” about an employee at city hall in a small Danish town where time travellers are starting to appear. Only, no one can communicate with the time travellers, and every time they arrive, they cause a small nuclear disaster. Yet, somehow, the people in city hall have managed to turn it into a sort of tourist attraction, creating a love-hate relationship with the time travellers.
Once again, there’s an interesting mystery regarding the time travellers, but it’s the prose, the way everyday life and the workings of city hall was captured that made this story work so well for me.
And there were other stories I really enjoyed. Stories where the plot or characters dragged it down a bit but where the prose in itself made it worth reading, and vice versa.
So, to any Danish SF&F fans out there. You should definitely consider Lige Under Overfladen 19, Mere end Overlevelse.
To all of you. Thanks for reading along and see you soon.
Toby Backman 