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.

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11 votes
2 answers
493 views

Story about aliens with a good sense of smell

This (they?) would have been in a major magazine like Analog or Asimov’s, I think. Though it’s possible I read it in an anthology or collection. The alien planet had humanoid beings that were fur ...
JDługosz's user avatar
  • 2,656
13 votes
1 answer
499 views

40s/50s short story about a mutant family with psi powers

I'm trying to recall a story I read in the 1960s or 1970s, but which I suspect was older than that. It was about a quasi-immortal family in the twentieth century who lived in a rural area and kept a ...
rosesunhill's user avatar
  • 4,721
14 votes
1 answer
431 views

Trying to find a story about an unborn telepathic baby who can save a spaceship from doom

There's a spaceship, nearing the end of its journey. Everybody on board is in cryosleep. For some reason the wake-up system malfunctions, and the ship will fly on indefinitely. The people at the space ...
tula's user avatar
  • 283
10 votes
1 answer
608 views

Short story: Man figures out how to travel faster than the speed of light, things go awry due to mass increase

I think this may have been featured on Escape Pod or The Drabblecast. Main plot of the story that I remember is that someone figures out how to go faster than the speed of light, but because when you ...
AndyD273's user avatar
  • 866
7 votes
1 answer
789 views

Find a (short?) story about time travel and wasted talent

I seem to recall that the story was in a book with a blue cover and something clever was done with the way the author's name was written. The style of writing seemed a bit abrupt to me. In the story,...
Lianne Caranthir's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
882 views

Funny short story on man and insect that land on new planet and irritate war-loving inhabitants

I read the really funny story about 30-40 years ago, probably around the 1970's to 1980's. It was a short that tells how 3 races (one human, one insect-like and one ???) land together on a new planet ...
Richard's user avatar
  • 213
7 votes
1 answer
407 views

Short story about aliens who use technology to surpass psychic abilities

I seem to remember the story being named "Limiting Factor", but the descriptions do not match. Earth explorers find a planet where here are crocodile-like beings lazing in a sunny swamp. Suddenly a ...
Zack Bass's user avatar
  • 479
21 votes
1 answer
786 views

Creepy short story: sinister alien dolls, invasion of Earth

I'm looking for a short story that creeped me out as a kid. It involves alien dolls, which are sold to humans as souvenirs but are designed to inject a deadly virus into any nearby human, allowing the ...
Luna Lovegood's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
258 views

Trying to find story from magazine between 1976 and - cee-pee guns

When I was too young, my mother got me a subscription to Analog or Asimov or another main sci-fi fantasy magazine - a little too advanced for her nerdy son at the time. But there was a story (after ...
Myles Hildebrand's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
923 views

Short story about racism and green skin

I recall a short story, presumably written at the time of the US civil rights movement or the battle against South Africa's apartheid, about racism. One day, it started raining. The rain turned ...
Ian K.'s user avatar
  • 61
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Sci-fi/horror short story (anthology) with cannibalism and NSFW elements

When I was younger, perhaps 15-20 years ago, I read a science fiction short story anthology. The anthology might have been in Norwegian, but I'm not sure if the stories were translated, or if they (or ...
tobiasvl's user avatar
  • 16.3k
5 votes
3 answers
519 views

Story Identification : Society where children are divided into groups / gangs

I don't think I actually read this, just a summary of it. There's a story where either children or teenagers are assigned to groups / gangs / cliques. I think the idea was to reduce violence or ...
justforplaylists's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
256 views

Anyone running for office declared insane so leaders were selected by some other method

I seem to recall reading, around 45 to 50 years ago, a science fiction short story or novel where one of the plot mechanisms was that anyone who wanted to run for political office was automatically ...
hotpaw2's user avatar
  • 179
6 votes
1 answer
678 views

ID short story about aliens blockading Earth and a drunk pilot evading the blockade

This is an old one I read around 1990 (give or take 2-3 years). I most likely read it in a bundle of short-stories in Dutch translation. The original is most likely English. It was quite short (...
Tonny's user avatar
  • 3,344
4 votes
1 answer
526 views

What is the name of this horror story about apocalypse? (Could it be from Stephen King?)

I remember a story about a guy that had a little brother. This brother was a genius and somehow he managed to find a "formula" that managed to put bees in a non-aggressive state. The older brother ...
stack man's user avatar
  • 151
8 votes
0 answers
130 views

Short story featuring a teenager on an extraterrestrial base, who inadvertently kills an alien mushroom-like creature?

Can anyone identify a short story, which I read in the 1990s but can't find any reference to anywhere? The story features a teenage protagonist who is based in a scientific exploration base on an ...
Luna's user avatar
  • 81
11 votes
1 answer
699 views

Short story where aliens threaten to kill humans because we do not share a group mind

The plot is pretty simple. A group-mind race of aliens arrive and threaten to kill the humans because we do not share a group mind. The humans agree to let the aliens modify them so they can form a ...
Alex Brown's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
433 views

The barbarians always win

Many years ago I read a story about a university class dealing w/ a saga about how an empire was overthrown. Details of the saga were discussed such as how it said the defenders had empty bellies but ...
R. Turoine's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
133 views

Sci-fi / horror / weird story collection - opal miner loses his pupils - man goes astral projecting comes back to corpse - doppelganger story also

trying to find a (weird fiction / science fiction / horror) short story collection I read as a child - seem to remember it being hardcover, quite large and square-ish - some of the stories I remember: ...
Paul's user avatar
  • 359
23 votes
1 answer
3k views

Sci fi story about the universe shrinking and it all goes dark (because of mu?)

Looking for the title of a story astronomers on Earth think something is up with the universe as a radio or light signal takes less time to get from Jupiter than it should this makes them realise ...
Paul's user avatar
  • 359
11 votes
1 answer
637 views

Short story about a human entering a large alien creature, inside of which is a whole ecosystem

I read this short story in a science fiction anthology/collection some time before 2004. It involved what I remember to be a female "space veterinarian" needing to enter into the body of a large (worm-...
Dee's user avatar
  • 127
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can't remember short story, post-apocalyptic retaliation

In the story, there has been a war, and 'the other side' has won it decisively. There's some kind of long-term consequence for the losing side, disease or nuclear fallout, and it's implied that the ...
Poddy's user avatar
  • 119
5 votes
2 answers
566 views

Sci-fi collection: duel between blaster and crossbow, slug eaten alive by butterflies, boy who doesn't want to be teleported

I remember reading a book as a young boy and I'd like to get some help in finding it again. As I recall it was a collection of short stories. One of the stories involved a duel between two people. One ...
Tomedl01's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
339 views

Short story where protagonist tries to select wife based on predictions of automated system

There is a short story, most probably by an American science fiction author, not sure about the year (can be anything between 1960s and 1990s, most probably 1980s). The main idea is that there is ...
Ilya V. Schurov's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

Short story about road rage arms race

I read a short story at least 20 years ago, in which a man gets news that his son was killed on the highway while driving a starter car and responds by getting into his own tricked out car to duel the ...
Haniy's user avatar
  • 101
11 votes
1 answer
233 views

Old SF story about the need to destroy an out-of-control cargo ship with manned interceptors before it crashes?

I read this back in the 1980s-1990s in an anthology. It was a short story. An unmanned cargo spaceship malfunctions and is on a collision course with Earth. Due to the relative velocity the collision ...
Winchell Chung's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
556 views

The short story about self-aware appliances that link together and cause mayhem?

This is a story about the 'Internet of Things gone wrong'. If I recall correctly, the protagonist's girlfriend decides she'd rather be with a ball of appliances than the dude, who has tried and ...
RobertLeachman's user avatar
44 votes
1 answer
10k views

Short story about alien invasion with a twist.

I am looking for identification of a short story I read as part of an anthology around twenty years ago, and I think it might have been written by Harry Harrison but I am not certain. Plot line goes ...
Broklynite's user avatar
  • 22.6k
41 votes
2 answers
4k views

Identify a short story about post-apocalyptic household robots

Media: Short story collection When I read it: 2011 but the story itself was much older (unsure how much) so this information only serves to clarify that it is by no means new. Plot summary: A ...
Ghoti and Chips's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
611 views

Sci-Fi tale with a TV sensational concept artist. Problem: His props were too prophetic

Background: Science fiction short story (pulp, 3 pages?) circa mid-1950s/early-1960s. This is NOT a television episode. It is a paper and ink tale with a TV art designer protagonist. When I was a boy,...
Tom Zmudzinski's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
487 views

Short story that might be the basis of the Humans TV show

Years ago I read a book of sci fi short stories. In it was a story about a woman who was not coping well following the birth of her first child. Her husband brought home a robot servant to help her. ...
Hester's user avatar
  • 91
10 votes
1 answer
233 views

Living fog on alien planet captures space traveler's friend

I read this story quite a few years ago in my literature class and I haven't been able to find it since. Apparently, it had been banned by college professors so of course there was an uproar among the ...
Emmy1959's user avatar
  • 101
12 votes
1 answer
377 views

Searching for an old SF short story that ends, "Here's looking at you down the barrel of a rifle."

This is a short story written prior to 1985, and I think included in an anthology or SS collection. It is written as a first-person letter to a congressman, complaining about deplorable social ...
James Stogner's user avatar
28 votes
1 answer
2k views

'Last Man in the World' short Story

The story opens with the protagonist as the 'Mayor' of a town, engaging in some standard actions (cutting ribbons to open a mall or some such.) It turns out he's traveling around and taking whatever ...
K-H-W's user avatar
  • 58.9k
8 votes
1 answer
269 views

Advanced civilization chair of power short story

Sci fi story in older book collection of short stories. Paperback. Advanced civilization with a ruler who has to pass a test to continue to be ruler. As the person walks to the platform in front of a ...
Johanna's user avatar
  • 97
2 votes
1 answer
588 views

"Placet is a Crazy Place" translation question

I've just the read the short story "Placet is a Crazy Place" by Fredric Brown, but living outside English-speaking world I only managed to get a translation version, which despite the best effort of ...
Oleksii's user avatar
  • 39
5 votes
1 answer
310 views

Looking for a short story about a woman who is the keeper for a "witch" man

This was in the alternate universe/fantasy/horror genre. It was set in somewhere like Appalachia. The premise was that there were men with supernatural powers who were essentially sociopathic and ...
Patrick M's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
420 views

Story about a man who thinks he sees a face on a piece of trash while driving to work

I'm looking for a short story about a man who thinks he sees a face on a piece of trash while driving to work.I think it looked like a bag or a piece of cardboard blown about by the wind.Seems like it ...
Cherie's user avatar
  • 87
23 votes
2 answers
4k views

Story about crystal flowers that stop time?

There’s a sci-fi story whose title and author escape me. Two beings, not human but not inhuman, clearly a couple, not young, are living contentedly in a splendid but not ostentatious (I’m just trying ...
RickL's user avatar
  • 239
5 votes
1 answer
449 views

Living world ship short story

I read a short story years ago and would like to find it again. It was about a world ship of mysterious origin traveling for millions of years. There was a group of (presumably) humans living near the ...
posfan12's user avatar
  • 243
11 votes
1 answer
654 views

Trying to find the name of a sci fi anthology book, or just the titles of one or more stories

Okay, so here it goes. Over a decade ago I read a sci fi anthology book from my grade school's library. I would guess it was written in the 50's or early 60's but I could be wrong. There are 3 stories ...
Tyler Wood's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
531 views

Short story about group is paid to misremember false things until they become part of history

I read this story a couple of years ago and I cannot remember / find it at all. Some background: It is a very short story (a couple of pages). On a 'dailysciencefiction.com' where you can browse / ...
amp's user avatar
  • 281
5 votes
0 answers
214 views

Looking for an old fantasy short story, and the anthology it was in

It is a short story in an anthology (fantasy/science fiction) about a girl who lived in a village by the sea, who rescued a man who had been in a shipwreck, of a ship used by invaders. He had the ...
Laurel's user avatar
  • 59
29 votes
2 answers
3k views

Short story about a moon of Mars whose orbit is only a few feet up

A spaceship arrives on Mars and begins exploring. The crew notices a shallow semicircular trench that runs arrow-straight across the landscape, turning into a complete circle and boring right through ...
Maury Markowitz's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
792 views

Coming of age short story with a boy at a summer place with his parents, implication of time travelers

I know that I read this recently, so there's a decent chance I'll comb through my reading history at the library and eventually pin this one down. It was a short story in a book of them (I don't ...
FuzzyBoots's user avatar
  • 223k
14 votes
1 answer
1k views

Short story with a scientist going into the future he looked at with a drone, and returning with a humanity-killing creature on him

I remember reading (maybe half a decade ago) a short story in an anthology featuring time travel. The story followed a group of scientists sending a drone to the future and watching the video of the ...
XGouchet's user avatar
  • 751
4 votes
1 answer
405 views

Alien creature ends up taking over its whole planet. Starts small and takes over slowly [duplicate]

I've been trying to remember the title of this short SF story for ages now. There is a creature (I think its actually immobile) that has a small plot of land on a planet. It starts growing and there ...
Glenn Williams's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
236 views

Story identification: Short story from late 70s re simultaneous past/present/future [duplicate]

Trying to identify a short story (possibly read in Asimov's SF magazine) from the late 70s. A man - possibly a professor or scientist - is working or somehow involved with a young man and young woman. ...
elizabeth's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
922 views

SF story about women being eliminated from Earth by men

I'm pretty sure this sci-fi short story was in an anthology of SF by women A female scientist is in South America(?) conducting research, when she finds out that women are slowly "disappearing" in ...
Snappy's user avatar
  • 119
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can you identify a time travel story in which every attendant of the passion of Jesus Christ turns out to be a time traveller? [duplicate]

I've read twice now about a short story in which time travel is a vacation thing, with destinations offered at the travelers's choice. The protagonist realizes that he could attend the passion of ...
HumanInDisguise's user avatar

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