Inconstant Moon is damn good, and would be on my short list.
Others on that list (and which I haven’t seen mentioned) are: Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester The Man Who Lost the Sea by Theodore Sturgeon Second Variety by Philip K. Dick Oceanic by Greg Egan Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson The Man Who Walked Home by James Tiptree, Jr. We See Things Differently by Bruce Sterling Prayers on the Wind by Walter Jon Williams Born With the Dead by Robert Silverberg
But if I had to pick one, and only one, very best SF story, I think I’d have to go with By His Bootstraps by Heinlein, which very nearly exhausts its subject and whish is still breathtaking today.
Folks! Folks! Folks! I was always taught that the titles of books are italicized; the titles of short stories are placed in quotation marks.
This may have added to the confusion over Flowers for Algernon being a novel.
“I Have No Mouth…” - Harlan Ellison (although my favorite stories of his are more Horror than SF…“Flop Sweat”, “All The Birds Come Home To Roost”, etc.)
"If This Goes On - " - RAH
I’m very much a classicist in my tastes. Dick and Gibson, for example, leave me totally cold.
I agree. I’ll have to see if the novel came out before or after the movie - it is not a novelization. I am happy to report that the story showed up in my kid’s English book, so maybe people will remember the good version.
BTW. it first appeared in F&SF, a digest not a pulp.
Good choices. I’ll add
“Them:” by Heinlein
“The Star” by Clarke
“The Sound of Thunder” and “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Bradbury.
Chicago still advises this, yes. But I know the New York Times, at least, puts the names of books in quotation marks. (Do they have their own manual of style?)
I will third Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.” Even though it always resonated to me as more a straight horror story.
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin
“Unaccompanied Sonata” by Orson Scott Card
Two suggestions:
“A Boy and His Dog” by Harlan Ellison (best ending line ever: “That girl of yours sure had good taste” hee!)
“Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes” By Harlan Ellison - for the lyricism and characterization.
Most of my SF short story exposure has been limited to Bradbury, so I can’t really comment, but I like nearly all of his stories (except the weird pseudo-preachy ones where he has the authors of the past moan about their literature being unappreciated).
The novel version of Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (nobody’s even mentioned his name yet!) appeared in 1966. The movie, Charly came out in 1968.
Lots of stories not yet mentioned. Many of them are novellas, which many say is the best length for science fiction.
Samuel R. Delany - “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones” and “The Star Pit”
Roger Zelazny - “A Rose for Ecclesiates”
Harlan Ellison - “Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman”
Kate Wilhelm - “The Infintiy Box” and “April Fool’s Day Forever”
Michael Moorcock - “Behold the Man” (not the novel)
Frederic Pohl - “Day Million”
Ray Bradbury - “All Summer in a Day” and “Way in the Middle of the Air” (which is being left out of new editions of The Martian Chronicles, a crime against humanity)
Ursula K. LeGuin - “Vaster Than Empires, and More Slow”
Gene Wolfe - “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories” (not a collection: The collection is titled The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories
Yes, I should have made a distinction. Yes, “Flowers for Algernon” was a short story before it was a novel. It is the short story I was referring to. I have the original in my book “The Science Fiction Hall of Fame” (1970). I also have the novel, and I’ve seen Charley. While all are entertaining, IMHO only the original story deserves “greatness” status.
Hmm… I hadn’t heard of that one before. Title struck me as very “Hawking-esque”
