SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club discussion

Hi there,

a few weeks ago a friend and I discussed two things - short stories in general and sf short stories. What struck us was that there are many stories available that are short in terms of number of pages and words etc. But we wondered if such stories would still be "short stories" as a category in literature.

I did some research and realized that the category in literature called "short stories" - although pretty challenging to grab it - basically has some re-ocurring features - like one perspective, fragmentation of the plot, open beginning and ending, no adherence to the basic story concept of exposition-turning point-climax/conflict-solution, a certain kind of economical language (like lack of metaphors, deep symbolism, colorful language and stuff ...). But the size of the language in pages or number of words is secondary and does not matter after all for this category.

Now I wonder: As you know I asked for recommendations regarding sf short stories. And I am curious, if there are certain elements required that would change a short story into a sf short story ... Is it 'only' the same means of distinction between sf and other genres? Or do sf short stories have something special in common which even allow a distinction between them and sf novels and narrations?

All the best!
Liam

I for one don't lose much sleep over such things -- but then I'm approaching it from a reader's viewpoint. I don't really care all that much whether it's a short story or a novella or "short fiction" -- all I care is whether I enjoyed it and it was long enough to tell it's story and not too long and feeling like it was padded to achieve some "mandatory" word length. For that matter, I don't really care much as to what sub-genre it is (or if it crosses main genres, for that matter) -- again, it just needs to work. :-)

I think science-fiction short stories are about ideas, whereas tales in other genres tend to be event-driven. For example, a detective short story is about the unveiling of a crime, a romance is about the moment the protagonists find love, etc. The sci-fi shorts I've come across are more likely to be 'what if...' -type affairs. There's always exceptions, of course...!

Looks like I killed this discussion...

Steph wrote: "Looks like I killed this discussion..."

Hi.

No worries. At the moment I am very busy with learning for my final exams. Therefore I rarely visit 'ze innternets'.

I like what you write there - the "what if" makes at least some sense. At the moment I read "The Sentinel", the short story anthology by Clarke.
Based on what I read so far I would agree with you.

Considering the robot-titles by Lem and Asimov this opinion might be tested to some degree, wouldn't you agree?

All the best!
Liam