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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Short story about village girl who accidentally enters a dragon and lives inside it for many years
About five years ago, I read a longer short story in an anthology about a village with a giant village-sized dragon. A girl wanders inside the dragon, gets lost, and ends up living inside the dragon ...
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1
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Was the third riddle from "Little Dot" supposed to reference another story?
Recently I was rereading Diana Wynne-Jones's short story, "Little Dot", and as I was reading, I began wondering about the third riddle - I thought I had read something similar elsewhere.
The riddle ...
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Did CS Lewis ever write other Narnia works?
Did C.S. Lewis ever write (or authorise) any other works that are canonicaly set in the Chronicles of Narnia universe?
To clarify, I'm asking about works (of any length) besides for the main seven ...
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First contact story where aliens are (discovered at the very end to be) anti-matter
Does anyone recall the name of a SF first contact story where humans encounter an alien ship, and use the weak force to define left and right. At the very end, as the human and alien space walk out to ...
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1
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Help find name and author of science fiction story about robots taking over all aspects of war
I read this short story a while ago. It described a futuristic war fought by robots.
It featured a team of some sort of military elite going in an underground train (which broke on the way) to their ...
9
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1
answer
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Short story about Earth freezing over and the appeal of a frostbitten dancer
This is a short story that I probably read about five years ago, certainly within the 21st century, as part of a collection. I think the setting was somewhere in the UK. Earth had frozen over, ...
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1
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Short story with an intergalactic zoo [duplicate]
I'm trying to identify a short story that I once read. Possibly in a collection by Bruce Coville.
A traveling intergalactic zoo stops at earth and everyone pays money to see the aliens on board. At ...
6
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1
answer
336
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Short story about a primitive warrior in a microcosm
I read this story in the 80s. It was about a primitive hunter or warrior engaged in some primal struggle with a foe. He defeats his enemy and feels like he is master of his domain, only to have the ...
13
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1
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Short story about creating a math of facial expressions
I'm looking for a short story I read either in Asimov's or Analog, probably in the late 90's. It starts with a bag of frozen peas spilling all over the floor in a world where everyone instinctually ...
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1
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Short story about elections being determined by one vote
I'm looking for a short story that I read a while ago, about a future where one person in the US is asked a couple of questions, and based on that, a supercomputer determines the results of all of the ...
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Short story: man stranded on Mars, hears clacking sound [duplicate]
I would like to recall the name of a story I read long back, it goes like:
On a Martian mission a man gets stranded somewhat far from the base as his vehicle breaks down. He decides to walk back he ...
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1
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A bad pun short story
I'm looking for a feghoot or shaggy dog story, either by Isaac Asimov or in an collection edited by Asimov, about the poor dependability of inter-dimensional mail.
The story ends with a guy having a "...
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0
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Short story about the rediscovery of math [duplicate]
I recall a science fiction short story where computers are so integrated that people have forgotten how to do basic math, until someone "rediscovers" it. The government then makes plans to put humans ...
3
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1
answer
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Story about a character named Sargon who sequesters beautiful women in his trapezoidal castle
My brother wants to reread a science fiction short story from the 1960s or before:
A character named Sargon (does not appear in the story) sequesters maddeningly beautiful women in his truncated ...
15
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1
answer
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Undiplomatic planetary ambassador returns home in disgrace
Asking for my brother, who asks me every three years or so:
A planetary ambassador whose planet is considering joining a federation deliberately insults the entrance committee so that his planet is ...
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2
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What is short story of man stranded on planet with a musical alien
Man is stranded on planet and there is an alien that makes noises with its body he starts doing improv music with. Becomes a dream life of pleasant duo music. Rescuers come and kill the scary ...
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1
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Short story about genetically-modified cockroach automobiles
It is from Isaac Asimov's science fiction magazine from the eighties. They also grow houses from G.M.O. carrots. The punchline is that some cars escape, become feralized, and are rounded up and used ...
9
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1
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What story involved a man awakened from a long suspended animation with a new body, and a brain implant with eye interface?
I think it's been 15+ years since I originally read the story, and I believe it was either a short story or a fairly short novel. I recall certain tidbits like:
The man's brain is put into a new "...
6
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1
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Searching for an old SF short story that features a plot twist involving white genocide
It is a short story, included in a collection, that I read a long while ago (at least 10 years ago). Set in Central(?) Africa and features some sort of lake/dam super building/engineering project.
...
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1
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Identify this SciFi short story from the 80's or earlier
I'm going crazy trying to find a story I once read.
In it, a wealthy futuristic family live in separate rooms in a sterile pod like house. They communicate through video screens, and take different ...
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0
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Short story about reincarnation and god
I'm looking for a short story (similar to Harlan Ellison, maybe even by him). When people die, their souls go into this universal god/spirit/whatever, and when a new person (or alien) is born, a bit ...
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What short story published in Analog has a genetically-engineered “null” protect a soldier from death?
Please help if you can... I think this might be the best story I ever read but it has been so long since I first read it. I have thought of it often over the years. I hope that someone out there may ...
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Trying to find an old old short story about an immortal woman [duplicate]
I am 56 and read (as a teen in the 70's) a short story about a woman who has no idea why she is immortal, but is now desperate and lonely and wants to die. She tries to die, but she keeps waking up ...
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Time Travel Not Far Enough
A sci fi anthology had a short story about a time traveler who invented a machine that may have caused a catastrophic event by its use. The traveler from the future showed up to the front porch of ...
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1
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Short story: brain chip for anger management
What I remember from the plot:
In this short story, a man who suffers of anger management problems (probably on criminal levels, or in order to prevent them) gets an advanced, experimental treatment ...
8
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1
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What is the title of a short story about boy who becomes a tree? [duplicate]
This sci-fi short story was written by a female in the 60s. A missionary persuades a roly-poly young boy to skip a coming of age ritual where the teenagers (all roly-poly and energetic) are hung from ...
9
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1
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Title/author of a short story about time travel/teleportation, ethics, death, washed out bridge
Likely I read this story in OMNI Magazine or Isaac Asimov magazine in high school (1981-1985). I remember it involved people either travelling through time or teleporting but ethically they were not ...
8
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1
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Science Fiction Stories - included story about miniature civilization on brink of extinction
Read a book called "Science Fiction Stories" as a kid in the early 80's. It was anthology of short stories, roughly 8x11 in size, paperback cover, and I don't remember much else from the cover other ...
14
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1
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Science fiction short story taking place in a universe with a higher gravitational constant
I read this story online, maybe 2 years ago. It was about a group of people (the size of a village IIRC) who somehow got transported to another universe, where the gravitational constant was orders of ...
3
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0
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Collection of scary children 's stories- Ember escapes a fire
I remember a hardback collection of children 's scary stories that I had in the 1980's. The stories may have had European roots. One story I remember in particular was about an ember that escaped a ...
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3
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Science Fiction story where the planetary conquerers are assimilated into the local culture.
Ok, I can't remember the name of this story, but I remember some of the plot. Humans, or the species the main character's from, take over a planet, but the locals are pretty chill about it and just ...
9
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1
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Looking for story about the structure and geometry of stories that is itself a Möbius strip
I'm pretty sure I read this short story in Analog SF, probably before 2010 and possibly much earlier.
The story is structured as several interwoven subplot lines, the initial one (as I recall) being ...
8
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0
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Story ID - trying to communicate with alien spaceship using patterns, but breaking patterns works
I'm looking to identify a science fiction short story I must have read, maybe ten years ago or a bit less. It must have been in an anthology, though I don't recall what other kinds of stories were ...
4
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1
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A short story about an old earthling and a visiting alien dignitary
This story was told from the point of view of an old man, one of the last of the "old fashioned" earthlings. The "new breed" of Earthling (I forget what the distinction is, but it is supposed to show ...
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1
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Is there a connection between the Stephen King short story 1408 and the novel Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami?
I recently read the novel Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami which features a horror/fantasy element in the form of recurrent dream sequences involving an man who is half sheep and offers the ...
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Short-story about a boy's obsession with a video game about war
I have been searching for so long now for the title of a short-story I read in the late 1990s, I think. Possibly early 2000s. The plot goes along something like this. There is a boy, I think he may ...
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2
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Looking for story about genius traveling for training at space station
Story is about a man who possesses a very high IQ and is accepted to a space station (planet?) where others like him also live. He is able to travel back in time and watch the battle of Hastings. He ...
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1
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Man sheds skin like a snake, due to snake-bite; makes face-masks
I'm looking for a short story I read a long time ago (maybe 12 or 15 years). In the story, the main character (a man, I think) gets some disease that has him shed his skin periodically, like a snake. ...
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1
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Short story, human convicted of a crime on an alien planet is killed by machine
I read this short story in a periodical, I want to say more fantasy than science fiction. A very short story, only a few pages?, and hard for a (then) teenager to read and understand (I read this ...
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2
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Help me identify a sci-fi teleporter story
Not sure if this was a book or a short-story. I read it in the late 80s. Teleportation devices had been built, but you needed both a send-unit and receiver-unit to transport something. So the two or ...
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Need help identifying a fantasy short story about a woman turning into a cat
The story is about a young woman turning into a cat. I read it (in German) about twenty years ago. It was published in a collection of cat stories; I remember Poe's 'The Black Cat' being among them.
...
18
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1
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Short story about a man who desperately needs a dime; ending reveals coin slot in his back
I'm looking for a short story published before 1985 (I think) and likely included in an anthology (Hugo, Nebula, Sci-Fi Oddities).
From what I recall, the story is about a a man who is desperately ...
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1
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Looking for a short story with time-loop plot
I remember the plot as follows: a guy is almost done building time-machine, then on some day he sees his girlfriend die in an accident, so he rushes to the machine and sends himself couple of hours to ...
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1
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Military sf short story: something like super-infantry on a raid
Maybe 20 or 30 years ago I read a short story recounting a futuristic raid (I suspect on another planet) on an enemy settlement by (I think) a handful of soldiers. I think that they more or less run ...
14
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1
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Short story about a three eyed being in a two eyed world
I am trying to identify a short story I read years ago in an anthology.
From what I remember, it dealt with frog like creatures. They are naturally born one-eyed but the breeding process can be ...
8
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1
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Identify this collection of SF short stores divided by era
The first book of science fiction that I read when I was little was a collection of short stories that were divided by Eras: the Atomic Era, the Delphic Era, etc. This book had great and powerful ...
12
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1
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Looking for the name of a short story about a fake alien autopsy used to change man's abuse of the earth
I am trying to find a short sci-fi story I read 30 plus years ago, but cannot recall the title or author. Near the conclusion of the story a scientist arranges for wealthy business men (or a man) to ...
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Short story where humans on a colony ship from Earth are overtaken by advanced Earthlings?
I read this story some time around 2001-2005 or so. I believe I read it online, however it was certainly of the variety that could be found in an anthology. I don’t remember many details other than ...
11
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1
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Short story where a devil helps an artist escape his madness?
This story was from a short story anthology that I lost and whose title I no longer remember.
It centers around a young artist who accidently sees the true face of a devil and goes mad because of it. ...
6
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1
answer
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Science fiction story(-ies?) about aliens who made historical video available [duplicate]
I was discussing a story I had read with my sister-in-law that she may have also read. The story may have been a short story and, if so, appeared at the front of the book that I read. I would have ...