Questions tagged [short-stories]
For about a fictional work too small to be called a [novel] or [novella] - usually less than 10-20 thousand words and no chapters. Use to either identify the media on a [story-identification] question or disambiguate works where the tag covers the short story and its form in other media.. If you are looking for a particular anthology of short stories, use the [anthology-book] tag instead.
5,051
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Old story about the shape of a robot and its ability to not break down
This story is from back in the day. It's not modern at all because I've been reading it my whole life and I'm in my 50s. It may have even been from one of the absolute best authors. I'm not sure but ...
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22
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1
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On a stopover, a space tourist who is in fact a gamesharp joins what looks like a casino game
I read it in an anthology a long time ago, maybe 40yrs. The anthology was in book form, not e. g. a special issue in a magazine. Probably published in English originally, if I read a French ...
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10
votes
1
answer
258
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A horror short story where an almost-human woman gives birth to dozens of homunculi
I read this short story (or perhaps novelette) at least 20 years ago, probably more. I suppose it was in a collection, since I very rarely read magazines. I don't remember if I read it in French or in ...
- 22.1k
7
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0
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126
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Trying to remember a short involving an impenetrable barrier inside a tower
The story involved a tower on earth which might have been called the "pen" or "umbra" (penumbra?), and there was some sort of anomaly inside it. Humanity was trying to penetrate a ...
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1
vote
1
answer
88
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Webcomic where the main character crashes on a planet and communicates with someone on Earth from the past
It's been a couple years but from what I can remember the main character crashes on a planet and tries to call for help with her radio but the radio picks up a signal from some guy from the past on ...
- 27
15
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0
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124
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Help finding a short story about a man who goes to a psychiatrist, who then acquires his delusion (or reality; the story isn't clear on that point)
I read a short story in the 1960's about a man who went to a psychiatrist or psychologist because of a recurring delusion. The delusion was that he has a secret room where women adore him and get him ...
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26
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2
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4k
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Short story where only women are able to do intergalactic travel
Read this short story as a sophomore in 1983-1984. I am now a freshmen English teacher and want to include it into my class. The plot involves around the idea that, because of some quirk with biology ...
- 457
13
votes
1
answer
722
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Short story about food called something like "Standard Fare" [duplicate]
I read this short story as a kid in one of those Fantasy and Horror Anthologies, but I can only vaguely remember the plot and I've been trying to find it for days. I think the main character is ...
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7
votes
1
answer
125
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Early 80s story about unethical private doctor of rich old woman
In the early 1980s there was a magazine short story, probably in Asimov's or Analog where a private doctor and the rich old woman he works for try unethical, because untested, treatments on her, ...
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6
votes
1
answer
136
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Short story about an alien form no one can communicate with
My mom remembers reading this when she was young, in the 80s. The ending describes the alien making contact with a blind man, telling him it will be his eyes.
11
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2
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Short story where a scientist develops a virus that renders everyone on Earth sterile
I read this story as part of a book of science fiction short stories back in the eighties.
A scientist develops a virus that renders people sterile and spreads it through sexual contact. Within a few ...
- 187
10
votes
1
answer
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Short story about a boy who meets a dwarf in his garden, travels to a parallel world where people become mist and rescues his mom
I am trying to find a science fiction short story I read a few years ago. It would likely have been in a sci-fi anthology (multiple authors) or in a "Best of Phillip K Dick" book, but from ...
- 191
7
votes
0
answers
70
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Looking for title of story where man meets space station garbage alien
I read this story somewhere between 5-10 years ago (2014-2019) either as a stand-alone short story or in one of those "year's best sci-fi" anthologies, so it was likely published 2005-2013. ...
- 71
4
votes
1
answer
76
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Looking for the title of a short ghost story set in Scotland in the 1920s
The story features a young electrician wiring an old remote house in Scotland. He sees the wife of the owner sitting still in a darkened room. He thinks that it is a ghost. It's related in the first ...
- 49
6
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0
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73
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Short SF story with a 'post-form' society, where people can choose their human form and reform whenever, leading to more nuance in identity
I'm looking for the title of a short SF story with a 'post-form' society, where people can choose their human form and reform whenever, leading to more nuance in identity.
I read it in 2004, unsure of ...
- 61
7
votes
1
answer
72
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Short story where a captive spirit entity was used to defeat other spirit-realm entities
There was a story in a collection by a Japanese writer 90% sure. A “spirit” entity was being held captive and used to defeat other spirit-realm entities. Maybe captor was descendant of Nazis or some ...
17
votes
1
answer
3k
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Short story: typical 'time machine and kill Hitler' tactic backfires when the world is made peaceful and thus totally unprepared for alien invasion
I've googled this a few times and can't find it. Short story, 3k-5k words I suppose, likely published in the 70s-90s. I read it in the 80s or 90s.
Someone sees another human with a time machine ...
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10
votes
1
answer
603
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Improved memory leads to writing success
I'm looking for a short story probably from the 1950s or 60s (I probably read it on Project Gutenberg). I think the person telling the story is a TV producer. He gets a script from a newcomer, which ...
- 56.3k
19
votes
1
answer
3k
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A short story where all humans deliberately evacuate Earth to allow its ecology to recover
I don't even remember when I read this short story, except it was very long ago, nor whether I read it in French or English.
After my question on the last zoo on Earth was answered, Jason Patterson ...
- 22.1k
9
votes
0
answers
112
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What was the short story about a woman stealing aluminum items and putting in a seemingly bottomless shopping bag?
This story came from an anthology, I'm pretty sure. I read it about 30 years ago. A lady ... in somewhat of a trance ... gets caught shoplifting and all she is stealing is aluminum items. The stuff ...
- 705
10
votes
1
answer
690
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Very old horror short story about a dead man waking up
A dead man wakes up because his cemetery is being plowed up so they can build something there (apartments, houses, a parking lot?). I think the man kills the person running the bulldozer or backhoe? ...
- 109
16
votes
1
answer
2k
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The human population on Earth reached its maximum with the end of the last zoo
I read this short story at least 30 years ago. I suppose it was in a collection, since I rarely read magazines. I don't remember if I read it in English or in French, but it might have been a ...
- 22.1k
9
votes
0
answers
117
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A short fiction about a contraption not called a "time machine", driven by the "forty-year-old itch", but that did something in the past
I read this SF short fiction about 30 years ago. I'm pretty sure I read it in English, in a collection. I write "short fiction" because it was definitely not a novel. But much too long to ...
- 22.1k
10
votes
1
answer
195
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Looking For story - Artist Forced to be a Miner [duplicate]
I am looking for a story that I remember from ages ago.
I want to point to a similar query here:
Story about person assigned by test to be a miner when he wants to be an artist
Mark, the original ...
- 101
19
votes
3
answers
3k
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Identify the story about an author whose work-in-progress is completed by a computer [duplicate]
The protagonist's collected works having been fed in as a database, the machine projects the ending of his current work (I remember that it does a scene break with asterisks), at which point the ...
user179439
1
vote
0
answers
45
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Monster themed universe book series with a woman on the cover in blue with three mini-stories inside all connected to each other
It was a bit of a larger book, it had three separate stories with a connecting universe, this would have been volume 2 of that series. The cover had a woman on the front in black and white with blue ...
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8
votes
1
answer
2k
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Short story about a traveler who receives shelter, but after some dialogue, the traveler turns out to be a ghost or maybe Odin
It was told from the point of the view of the ghost traveler at first. It felt like folklore, and I think there was some sort of test that was failed during the dialogue where the true nature of the ...
- 81
18
votes
1
answer
2k
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Looking for the title of a short story for my students to read about a woman searching for the last man alive
Read this short story as a sophomore in 1983-1984. I am now a freshmen English teacher and want to include it into my class. The plot involves a woman searching for the last man alive. She thinks it ...
- 457
13
votes
0
answers
112
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Short story with a house in a suburban neighborhood that was dangerous only at certain times of day
I remember the feeling of impending terror I got reading this story more than the storyline. I know it was in an anthology, whether sci-fi, fantasy or horror. There's nothing that I can remember in ...
- 131
8
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0
answers
99
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What short story from sometime before March 2011 has a husband eventually trapping his abusive wife in a magic painting?
First seen here on TVTropes:
More remembered details are:
A short story [...] dealt with a man who was a painter and was married to a woman who constantly verbally abused him, constantly belittling ...
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3
votes
0
answers
93
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A probably Asimov short story about preventing and then allowing a nuclear holocaust [duplicate]
I read this SF of maybe Fantasy story many decades ago. It was in a collection and the "taste" is Asimovian but he wrote so many stories, so many collections...
Two extremely powerful ...
- 22.1k
6
votes
0
answers
80
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Short story about a decades-long mission to collect a soil/rock sample from a far away planet. There are multiple generations of astronaut children
I read a short story excerpt from a textbook in high school. I would love to continue the story.
The story starts with astronauts beginning a deep space mission to collect a soil sample. I remember ...
- 61
9
votes
0
answers
102
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Short story about very young aliens (toddlers) invading a starship to play; they like the crew; removed by an adult alien but they want to visit again
Humorous short story written by a woman science fiction writer, I've forgotten who. The little aliens suddenly appear inside a spaceship They have teleported into various parts of the ship from their ...
- 839
7
votes
1
answer
2k
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Old SF story about someone who detonated an atomic bomb, sacrificing self to save society from an evil government
I think it was a short story in a 1950s-era anthology. All I remember was that a young woman was tortured (her hands crippled) for information, and someone (maybe a different person) was able to ...
- 87
13
votes
0
answers
221
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Story about dense beings that live in the earth and earth surface is like clouds to them
What is the name and author of the science fiction story about beings who live in the center of the earth, are very dense and find our kind of life to be like clouds and ephemeral? These dense beings ...
- 131
12
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0
answers
162
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Short story about a sentient flower on a barren planet asking for water
I read the story in a collection of stories in a book about 25 years ago.
It takes place on a dry world.
The flower keeps asking to be watered, it may have been using telepathy.
I'm not sure if the ...
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5
votes
1
answer
126
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Looking for an old short story, furry alien traveller crash lands on Earth "The Star Beast". The traveller is cruelly treated [duplicate]
I read this novella or long short story "The Star Beast" perhaps 40 years ago, perhaps longer than that. I think I read it in an anthology. It is not one of Robert Heinlein's "juvenile&...
- 839
14
votes
1
answer
161
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Short story about a boy and a modular steampunk factory
I read a short story online a few years ago, in late 2022, that I can't seem to find again. The closest I seem to get when I search various terms is "Autofac" by Philip K. Dick, but it ...
- 700
3
votes
0
answers
43
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A kids book, there were 3 or 4 kids being main characters and each had a wand that controls an element
I don't remember much about it. But these 3 or 4 kids get a wand, and when they split the wand, each piece controlled an element. I also remember that an antagonist was a giant with 3 pairs of eyes, 3 ...
7
votes
1
answer
247
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Short story where at the end, Satan says "let there be light."
There's a short story I am trying to remember that appeared in a science fiction/fantasy collection. I can't think of the title or the author.
Basically, the universe has come to an end of nothingness ...
- 71
13
votes
1
answer
2k
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Short story about a boy living on a fake tropical island / paradise planet, who was actually an adult CEO but didn't remember it
I've come to my wits end. I read a sci-fi short story back in the 90's as a part of anthology. Unfortunately I can't remember the author, the title, or the collection.
It was about a boy living on a ...
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12
votes
1
answer
3k
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Short story about soldiers who are fighting against an enemy which turns out to be themselves [duplicate]
The closer they get to a boundary which returns their own fire, the shorter their names get. The soldier in question goes by H, Had, Hadolaris, and Hadolaristan (this last when he's on leave). As he ...
- 865
4
votes
1
answer
126
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Short story, no later than early 60s, alien (unthahorst?) finishes/abandons project, children disappear after figuring out how to manipulate toy [duplicate]
Read this story in at least one anthology back in the 60s. I want to say it was called The Children's Hour, but that title has been way over used so it's probably just something similar.
- 41
3
votes
1
answer
80
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Short story: possibly titled "Snatch Me Another" from a Crave anthology
I read this short story in a Crave anthology in a used bookstore. I'm almost certain the title was "Snatch Me Another", and the story revolved around a black-market machine common in every ...
0
votes
1
answer
114
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Asimov short (I think) - What story is told via letters, where a couple need a look-a-like robot when the couple (or the husband) goes away?
Asimov short (I think) - What story is told via letters from the family to the robot manufacturer, where a couple hired a look-a-like robot when the couple (or the husband) goes away?
14
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2
answers
2k
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Tiny book about a planet full of man-eating sunflowers
I'm trying to find information on a book I have read in my youth, or at least on the story it contained. I bought this book in a German bookstore somewhere around 1985-1995. It was one of several &...
- 143
24
votes
2
answers
5k
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Looking for a caveman-discovers-fire short story that is a pun on "nuclear" power
I read this story online years ago but can no longer find it.
It was written by a scientist in the early 1950s, (it was actually written by an engineer in 1980, please see user14111's response) I ...
- 839
19
votes
1
answer
2k
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Short story about a group of astronauts/scientist that find a sentient planet that seems friendly but is not
What I remember of this short story is that the astronauts/scientists landed on an unknown planet and discovered that it catered to their every whim.
If they were hungry, it provided food. If they ...
- 193
6
votes
0
answers
92
views
SF/horror short story about a man who is chosen in a government lottery to look after a prison silo
I read a short story some time ago, and I can't recall the title or the author. I've asked AI, but it... Isn't helpful. (But I'm grateful to our robot overlords for their attempts. Honestly.)
The ...
- 61
18
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Semi-humorous told-by-lawyer short story, set in the mid-1940s or in 1950s; desert town casino & a roulette "fix" with Psi "lucky charm"
Looking for an old told-by-lawyer short story told in a semi-humorous tone.
It's a similar kind of author-voice to "The Curious Profession" by pen-name Leonard Lockhard.
I think the story is ...
- 839