Comments on: The Greatest Classic Science Fiction Short Stories of All Time

By: Terry

Terry — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 21:25:39 +0000

Looking for the name of a short story I read many years ago while in high school. Story has a child that finds(?) a box with a small hole in it. When he/she looks in the hole there is a spinning ball in the center. Child is fascinated by the spinning ball and frequently looks in the box observing the ball. After several days child sees a small spark from the ball and something is shot into the child’s eye that causes intense burning and blinds the eye. Furious, the child grabs a pencil and shoves it into the hole in the box to destroy the spinning ball. Story shifts to suddenly a giant eye appears in the shy above earth…

LOVED the story when I read it and would love to read it once more but have no idea the name of the story or the author. Any ideas what this story may be? TIA

By: webbles

webbles — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 12:20:44 +0000

short story or novel about house that changes in some way. the surrounds change or it floats out to sea. canot recall more

By: Mark Kennedy

Mark Kennedy — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 15:43:52 +0000

Even taking into account the somewhat elastic criteria employed for defining ‘science fiction,’ Ray Bradbury’s sf writer status is somewhat equivocal, as anyone will know who’s read him. I sometimes think he qualifies because people are otherwise at a loss how to classify him. In style and sensibility he more closely resembles Sherwood Anderson than he does Wells, Verne, Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Dick, Zelazny, etc. (anyone who picks up Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio after having first read Bradbury will be astonished and wonder if he/she is reading Bradbury).

I say this because my favourite short story of all time is Bradbury’s The Shoreline at Sunset, though it has little chance of making this list because it would connote what most of us regard as science fiction to almost no one (certainly it doesn’t to me). Nevertheless, it features an improbable (impossible?) happening, and I highly recommend the story to anyone here.

By: Dennis D'Asaro

Dennis D'Asaro — Tue, 24 May 2022 02:20:31 +0000

Right offa the top o’ me head:

Who Goes There? John Campbell —- Existential horror story in a gritty nuts ‘n’ bolts reality at a South Pole base. It spawned “The Thing from Another World,” a really fun 50’s movie barely similar to the story. And the over-the-top shape-shifting later movies.

Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes —Such a sensitive, painful, sweet tale; tour de force telling by a changing first person.

E for Effort, T.L. Sherred —-I admit I read it decades ago and don’t remember the story ‘cept it’s about trying to save the world and failing. I remember the feeling it engendered and that in my memory it was well written and caught my emotions.

Algernon and WGT have topped other lists; I seem to be alone in EfE!

I think there ought to be more Bradbury and at least a Heinlein, but I’d have to look over and remember a bunch of stories.

By: Jim Nolan

Jim Nolan — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 17:46:47 +0000

Rachael, until I read my first Philip K. Dick short story, I’d named JG Ballard, Jorge Luis Borges and Isaac Bashevis Singer as my favourite short story writers (Ballard, of course, being the only sci-fi author among them).
Having now read 4 Dick short stories, I’m already considering him a contender.

Incidentally, I recently acquired an anthology of Arthur C Clarke short stories and, while I LOVE his novel ‘Childhood’s End’, scanning the pages of the anthology suggested he might not be a major rival to Ballard/Dick
(I’ve yet to read any of the chosen stories.)

By: Vishweshwer Mangalapalli

Vishweshwer Mangalapalli — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 08:20:07 +0000

In reply to Odessa Wood.

There is a Asimov story called “All The Fun They Had”…. Very similar. We read it in our reading club…

By: Connie Flint

Connie Flint — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 18:27:22 +0000

Your list has given me something to read, watch and discuss with my husband, who loves sci-fi. Generally, I am not a fan of science fiction, but there was a short story that I read in a high school class called “Literature of the Mysterious.” I can’t remember the author or the title, but I would like to read it again, because it seems that it might be applicable to contemporary times. It was set in a boarding school (I think), and the students were not allowed to think. When they caught themselves in thought, they were to chant to themselves “mind blank, mind blank.” Have you (or your father) read this, or know the title and author?

Thank you!

By: Gary Hartman

Gary Hartman — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 05:09:28 +0000

“The Sands of Time ” is also a time travel story by P Schuyler Miller from the late 30’s I believe. A story I always thought could make a great movie.

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 12:23:32 +0000

In reply to Rick Badman. Yes fascinating

By: Rachael

Rachael — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 14:42:23 +0000

In reply to Rich. Thanks!