Ethan Heidrich: "Dear Michael Damian and Lynne Thomas: Why Short SF Stories Are Great"

Dear Michael Damian and Lynne Thomas: Why Short SF Stories are Great

By

Ethan Heidrich

Speculative fiction is a weird and wacky genre. It’s certainly very different from many other forms of literature of which the general public is much more familiar. As such, it can be a daunting task to truly get into speculative fiction from other genres. Here is one place where I believe short stories can be quite effective. Before my recent adventures into short speculative fiction stories, I was quite unfamiliar with the genre, and the short stories helped to get me interested in exploring SF more. Short stories are not just for beginners, however. There are many redeeming values in short stories that prove them an essential part of the speculative fiction genre.

First off, short stories are short. I’m not saying this to state obvious facts; rather, I think that the shortness of these stories is a major strength. Short stories can provide a great taste of what’s to come in speculative fiction novels, and they can also serve as a transition between not reading at all and reading a gigantic book. A short story can be read quickly while still containing many of the features that make speculative fiction a great genre.

Many essential elements of speculative fiction can be represented easily with short stories. For instance, there is a lot of diversity and options available when writing in speculative fiction, from the horror elements in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space” to the cyberpunk of William Gibson’s “Johnny Mnemonic” to the fantasy of Kij Johnson’s “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss.” Short stories allow for one to be able to experience all of these options present in speculative fiction and truly receive a diverse palette. Longer stories either focus on one of these subtypes of speculative fiction, or try to blend a few together. Short stories allow for a distinctive look at the many different types of speculative fiction.

Short stories are also a great way to explore the metatext found so often throughout science fiction. For example, in Isaac Asimov’s “Reason,” Asimov mentions the “three laws of robotics,” which play prominently into the role of the story. These three laws of robotics also play prominent roles in many other science fiction tales, and their presence here is a prime example of speculative fiction metatext.

Aside from that, however, short stories allow for some truly amazing writing to happen. Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations,” for instance, is a fantastic example of driving lots of emotion into what could be quite an emotionless story. Godwin tells the story of a pilot delivering equipment necessary for survival who must deal with a human stowaway, a girl who needed to see her brother. In the end, the pilot tries all he can, but the girl has to die, and her repeated cries of “I didn’t do anything to die for” can make this quite an emotionally intense read. First of all, this is a saddening story, and it’s extremely saddening for anyone living outside of the speculative fiction world that could never imagine an SF story with this much emotion. It’s also, however, a real challenge to keep this emotional intensity up throughout a longer story. This is yet another great advantage of short speculative fiction stories. They can tell these kinds of tales in whatever sort of amazing writing style, making great short SF stories excellent reads.

So where do I go from here? Short stories are great to read, but will I continue to explore the SF genre at all? The answer to that is yes, as I have definitely learned a lot and enjoyed several short speculative fiction tales. These short stories have served as the best introduction possible to speculative fiction, and I think that the same applies for many others who are interested in exploring the genre but are encountering trouble in finding a solid starting point. I have loved nearly all of the short stories that I have read, and it has been the many points mentioned above that have caused this admiration. These same reasons will keep me reading more speculative fiction in the near future. I can’t wait to read not just more speculative fiction, but more books and stories in general, as reading these stories has triggered a new enjoyment in reading that I had not experienced in a long time, making these Short SF stories truly great.