ORBIT – Otherworldly Reads, Bold Ideas, and Tales. SF & F Short Stories and Novelettes discussion

Hi!
This is an introduction thread, where users can say hello, speak about themselves and their tastes, what they hope to get out of this group and mention what authors and/or stories they love (or hate).

Hello - Allan, member of the affiliated Hugo/Nebula group, the New Releases & Evolution groups. I used to read lots of short stories but over the years have moved away from them, concentrating mainly on novels. But I was intrigued by Oleksandr's proposal to read the early H/N short stories, as well as my recent finding of several interesting anthologies & collections. Not to mention a bunch that I have on my shelf at home that I would like to read & get rid of.

I would ask question: what should the bookshelf in this group be? Should we build it from those collections & anthologies we each own? Or should it be short stories, keeping in mind that many of them might not be in GR individually? I for one would like the former, as it would be a way of identifying future reading. We should probably have a moderator who would qualify them, maybe focusing on classic authors at first, bringing in more contemporary authors.

I also think that perhaps if someone finds a story they absolutely love, they should have a discussion group that lets them post the link. Like "What are you reading now"

I do agree that actual moderation of "assigned" reading is gonna be necessary

I guess we can add to the bookshelf some story collections, but this is more at 'ad hoc' basis. For example, there are several books like Nebula Awards Showcase 2018 which contain all or most shorter fiction nominated in a given year or Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 1: 1939 that contains a lot of Retro Hugo nominees for a given year. We can add them, but because a lot of newer nominees will be mainly in magazines or anthologies, linking a whole issue or a book isn't very useful

I definitely think those anthologies should be in the bookshelf, since we are focusing at first on H/N material. We'll just need to be judicious on what we add, there are so many of varying quality. I'm thinking of authors like Bradbury, perhaps less known for novels but for multiple collections of high quality short stories; Damon Knight, best known as an editor, but his own collections like those here: Damon Knight SF Gateway Omnibus: Far Out, In Deep, Off Centre, Turning On, Harlan Ellison, Dangerous Visions, etc.

All that said, I'm very excited about this new group & the adventures we will undertake!

There are lots of really cheap anthologys of old authors, though. I can search Amazon and do posts for cheap kindle books.

I have (I think) all of Frederic Brown's short stuff. Most is in two anthologies that were really cheap. One of them is where I got that one from 1945, which I have read any of 1945, I just found them all except for the Bradbury one you found, Acorn.

I just cut down an answer to you that I made in MacHalo where I promoted this new group.

I promoted in one other group, also, one you are not a member of. They mostly read series, though, so don't know if they are interested in the short stuff.

Do you want me to paste this into those groups that I am a member of with you but that I don't participate in?

Checking and I see the Frederic Brown megapacks are still only 99 cents each. Wow!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...

I will check for more by searching for "megapack"

the problem is, Amazon does not allow decent searches. It should give me all these old megapacks in a row but NO. I typed in Golden Age of Science Fiction MEGAPACK as suggested somewhere, and I got some, but they were intermixed with the stuff Amazon wants to sell you.

By doing this, though, I have discovered that these old megapacks are either 43 cents of 99 cents at Amazon. So possibly our people can just buy the ones that they want.

Here's the website of the publisher, a much easier place to search, and I think you can buy there (there's a shopping cart), or go back and buy at Amazon.
https://wildsidepress.com/. There's lots of other old short fiction, too, like cowboy story megapacks. The guy in charge seems to be John Betancourt, a name I have heard before.

On the leftside menu, there are two main selections of interest, I think. One is "megapacks," which does not include my old Fredric Brown ones. Instead, they are "golden age" megapacks, by specific authors. Some I have heard of and some not. At Amazon, I read the intro to one that John Betancourt wrote about Carl Jacobi. He made me want to read all Jacobi's stuff.

The other selection of interest is to look for your specific author. I found my two Fredric Brown books there, plus another one.

I think these books will be great resources for us.

I just tried to buy a free book from Wildside Press and it refers back to your Amazon account and then you download from Wildside Press. It was a free book, so I am unsure what it will charge or where it might reside out on the net if you are paying

https://wildsidepress.com/freebies/

Kateblue wrote: "Do you want me to paste this into those groups that I am a member of with you but that I don't participate in?."

I guess better not right now but later, when actual fiction-related discussions start - potential should see the activities they can jump in I think

Works for me to wait to invite your other groups' members

I just doctored up 1945 with where to find the stories. I know you are referring them to the H/N pages, but maybe move the links to stories as I did???? If you don't want to do this let me know.

Are there any particular years you want me to work on? We don't want to be both working on the same years

Also, I think this welcome thread is not the place to be discussing all this moderator stuff. Maybe it should get moved to the Moderator's group and then erased here. But up to you. I don't care if people read them, they just don't really fit here.

And I realize I never introduced myself. I'm Kate and I started reading Heinlein in 7th grade when the other girls started reading books about high school girls and nursing. I specifically remember Trudy Phillips, New Girl - not a bad book, but I decided I needed something different, So I started reading what the boys were reading.

I really like Urban Fantasy the best, although the genre doesn't come up too often in Hugo and Nebula award winners. I'm always up for a great Urban Fantasy.

Also, I think we should eventually close all the threads in Hugo Nebula group with a last post sending everyone here.

Let me know if you want me to help with that

OK, I will SHUT UP now

I haven't introduced myself either.

I'm Oleksandr Zholud a.k.a. Acorn (a literal translation of my surname), I'm from Kyiv, Ukraine. I'm an economist by profession and and avid SFF reader since like 3rd grade. When I grew up in the last years of the USSR there was a flood of (often bad) translations of SFF published before 1972 (the year the Union joined copyright agreement with a clause that all earlier works are 'free'). Therefore, I'm more versed in old SF than your average SFF reader of my age

Stephen Burridge, retired guy in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I’ve been discussing books in the “affiliated” groups mentioned above with Oleksandr, Allan, Kate and others for several years. I’ve been a reader all my life. I read a lot of science fiction until my mid-20s, i.e. the early 1980s, then relatively little until around 2010. So I’ve been reading the stuff from the late 1960s until now, but with a gap of decades in the middle of that period.

A lot of great science fiction has been published at shorter than novel-length, and I like short fiction anyway, so I’m all for this group.

I said hello up at the top, but I didn't talk about how I found SF. My dad was a voracious reader born in 1927, so he was an early fan of Golden Age SF. He subscribed to Ellery Queen and F&SF, so those were always around. He was also a psychologist & Air Force officer, so our house was full of books of all sorts. I was not restricted from any of it. I discovered Heinlein in my teens (70s), then expanded from there. Prior to joining GR in 2018, I'd been reading mainly Hugo winners and epic trilogies (Jordan, GoT, Hamilton, etc.). That's when I created my master reading list & shortly after found these groups. That's encouraged me to stay focused and has broadened my horizons tremendously.

I joined GR because I was bored with what I was reading. I used to only read books Mom bought and a few SF and F that I randomly found at the library. But that wasn't enough anymore..

And except for a few hugo/nebula nominees that have bored me out of my mind (I'm looking at you right now A Canticle for Leibowitz), I am sure not bored now.

My GR friends have introduced me to classic science fiction/fantasy I love that I would never have read otherwise The Black Company, and some more frivolous stuff that is really fun Dungeon Crawler Carl. Thanks to you all

Since we are only 5 members, do we want to solicit others? We can do that in a few ways:

1) Send a blast message to all members of the affiliated groups
2) Be selective, inviting individuals who have been active
3) Recruit from other groups & friends, i.e. the small short story group we found

I have a already told a couple of groups that I am in. I think telling those related groups that Acorn is in would be good also, but he said we should wait until we were up and running before we did it.

Acorn--is it time yet?

Allan wrote: "Since we are only 5 members, do we want to solicit others? "

I guess that we should fill the group a bit more and make not massive group mailings but individual invites to people you think may be interested in such a group. For unlike the 'usual' GR group, we (at least currently) don't plan monthly reads. Instead, I plan to have a place for people to enjoy both old and new short fiction.

I'm afraid that if we actively advertise now, new members register, check that there is nothing that instantly captures their interest and leave. So to have more active members we need already notable activity n the group :)

I may err of course, if you think so - do not hesitate to tell!

Well, I thought maybe Ed's group. You are in that one, and then there is speculative fiction in translation. Those were the only two I was thinking of right now

Kateblue wrote: "Well, I thought maybe Ed's group. You are in that one, and then there is speculative fiction in translation. Those were the only two I was thinking of right now"

I am afraid that if I, as a new member, start advertising my group in Ed's one, it can be viewed as if I joined it just to do that. I guess I'll write a spec fiction mod, maybe she'll include mentioning us in her monthly group letter

I thought you were in Ed's group?? If not, then just the "Translation" group?

Kateblue wrote: "I thought you were in Ed's group?? If not, then just the "Translation" group?"

Yes, I'm there but I only joined it when we started discussing the creation of this group. I'll write ads soon

What is Ed’s group?

Stephen wrote: "What is Ed’s group?"

This one https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Oleksandr wrote: "Stephen wrote: "What is Ed’s group?"

This one https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/..."

Thanks, I’ll check it out.

My understanding of the raison d’etre for this group is that the Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group is about novels, so the project of reading nominated short stories needed to go elsewhere. Perhaps we could formalize that a bit more. I mean, adopt a group purpose of reading nominated stories, or famous anthologies, or something. Just a thought.

Stephen wrote: "Perhaps we could formalize that a bit more. I mean, adopt a group purpose of reading nominated stories, or famous anthologies, or something. Just a thought."

I think that it definitely might be helpful. My current view is that this group is a kind of platform to discuss genre's short fiction. Yes, it grew from H&N short stories and right now it most likely will concentrate on them, but I think that there are good stories that were never nominated and we should have a place for them too.

I have a proposal: it seems that you're interested in developing this group. Wouldn't you mind to become a co-moderator here, including a better formalization of the objectives?

Stephen wrote: "My understanding of the raison d’etre for this group is that the Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group is about novels, so the project of reading nominated short stories needed to go elsewhere. Perhaps we could formalize that a bit more. I mean, adopt a group purpose of reading nominated stories, or famous anthologies, or something. Just a thought...."

Totally agree. There are so many cobbled-together collections & anthologies out there, and we need to focus on higher quality works:
a) Hugo & Nebula nominated stories
b) Possibly stories nominated for other awards
c) Anthologies & collections or authors that are well-known, famous or considered "classic", i.e. Dangerous Visions, Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 1: 1939, The Best of L. Sprague de Camp.

This is kind of where I was going when I suggested building a bookshelf. I think we should have a process of proposing books to add to a review committee (the mods) & let them decide if it's worthy. That should filter out the trashy rehashes. I don't think anything should be added to the bookshelves without being reviewed by at least three members.

If you like that idea, I volunteer to create a list of books to start with & we can get that up for approval. I can work with the shelves as well, that's the kind of stuff I like to do. I think WWE could be a great resource in accomplishing this.

Allan wrote: "If you like that idea, I volunteer to create a list of books to start with & we can get that up for approval. I can work with the shelves as well, that's the kind of stuff I like to do. I think WWE could be a great resource in accomplishing this.."

Yes, I like the idea

Oleksandr wrote: "… Wuldn't you mind to become a co-moderator here, including a better formalization of the objectives.."

Sure, I would like that.

I agree that Allan’s idea is a good one.

Ok, cool, I'll start compiling! Feel free to send me suggestions via personal message.

I would like to add a couple of things. One is that we should have a thread where people can talk about short pieces they have read that they love. And hopefully offer links or other ways to get to those stories.

Also, there should be a thread where people could describe stories that they loved but have never been able to find again. I finally found an Avram Davidson story that I loved years ago and I wish I had had someone to help me find it.

If they turn out to be stories that we have been reading, so much the better.

However, I do hope we can dissuade people from talking about novels here, except perhaps, "This was later made into a novel" discussions.

Allan did you see where I was talking about some anthologies that only cost 99 cents? Check out https://wildsidepress.com/

You pay through Amazon, but I think you download from Wildside, so hopefully that should stop all this stupid Amazon "you cannot download and tranfer" idea

Up in message 34, I can make those threads if you want them. But if you don't, that's fine, also. Just let me know if I should make them

Also, I can ask Ed if he minds if we tout this group in his group, Evolution of Science Fiction. https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

I am a member even though I have no time to participate.