First time here? We find, review and link to science fiction short stories. Learn more on our Welcome page.

A Human Stain by Kelly Robson

Rusty Leave a comment

Hi all! Sorry I’ve been out of action for the past little while – I was finishing up the last bit of work on my master’s degree. I am done with that now, so back to reading and reviewing short stories!

This week I read a horror story at Tor.com – one which was featured on their site about a year ago, but which I had only recently discovered: “A Human Stain” by Kelly Robson.

Tor.com gives this description of the story:

“A Human Stain” by Kelly Robson is a disturbing horror novelette about a British expatriate at loose ends who is hired by her friend to temporarily care for his young, orphaned nephew in a remote castle-like structure in Germany.

Let’s see how it holds up, shall we?
Read More

The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison

Rusty 2 Comments

“The Stainless Steel Rat” is a 1957 science fiction short story by Harry Harrison. It is about a futuristic con-man and thief who is looking for another high paying job in a galaxy where there is almost no crime.

Caves of Stainless Steel Rats?
I am a big Isaac Asimov fan. The first time I read The Caves of Steel, thirty years ago, I was fascinated by R. Daneel Olivaw as the robot policeman and detective. I loved that novel and series, but you know, you don’t have quite the same feeling when you re-read them. Oh they are still good, but some of the magic of first discovery is lost. So it was with great joy that I read this story and discovered a similar feel as Asimov’s novels – only this time the main character is a mischievous thief who relishes confounding and destroying robotic policemen!
Read More

Fandom for Robots by Vina Jie-Min Prasad

Rusty

“Fandom for Robots” is a 2017 science fiction short story by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. It is about an old-school, sentient robot that becomes caught up in the online scene for a Japanese anime series. It was nominated for the 2018 Nebula Award for best short story.

Vintage Computers
I have been programming computers for nearly my entire life. It started when I was in 5th grade and got a Commodore 64 for Christmas, and continues to this day because I now work as a software engineer for a large university. I have fond memories of the days before modern PCs (which roughly began with Windows 95) when there were many different types of personal computers and operating systems. That sure was enjoyable, and now I sometimes like to use older computers just for fun. One problem with using older computers now is that it is difficult to do anything relevant with them. You can’t surf the web, or watch movies, or listen to music or do many other tasks that we take for granted now. This short story shows us a robot in the same situation, but I am glad to say that this robot eventually figures out a very cool and clever way to make himself useful in the modern world! Woo-hoo, go vintage things!
Read More

Science Fiction News and Links for March 1, 2018

Rusty

March is upon us! It is coming in like a lion where I live. But at least I am cozy and warm knowing you can read this post that contains the best short science fiction links I could find this week! I hope you like it!

News & Articles

Read More

The Gentle Earth by Christopher Anvil

Rusty

“The Gentle Earth” is a 1957 science fiction short story by Christopher Anvil. It is about an alien invasion force that has a lot of trouble with all of Earth’s peculiarities!

Crazy Mother Earth
I live in the western United States, and all my life I have been “trained” to recognize hypothermia, earthquakes, frostbite, avalanche danger and other potential hazards that are common to this area. But I have been to other parts of this big, wonderful planet and found that I don’t always know what to do when natural disasters strike there. Do you know what to do during a typhoon? A forest fire? A tornado? A flash flood? Now, imagine you went to a different planet – how would you deal with disasters there, especially if you don’t know what they will be, or worse, don’t believe they are real? Well, here is a fun, clever story that addresses those very problems!
Read More

Science Fiction News and Links for February 22, 2018

Rusty

Alright, I am back again with another edition of news and links. This time around I tried to be more picky – meaning fewer links, but higher quality ones. There were quite a few good looking flash fiction stories, however!

News & Articles

Read More

Sour Milk Girls by Erin Roberts

Rusty

“Sour Milk Girls” is a 2018 science fiction short story by Erin Roberts. It is about four teenaged girls in an orphanage… girls who’ve had their memories altered! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

Memory Manipulation
The idea of manipulating someone’s memories – adding false ones, removing real ones, or just altering them slightly – is super fascinating! I remember first becoming aware of this splendid idea when I came across Philip K. Dick’s story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.” That one is loads of fun to read, and the movie adaptations are pretty good too! Since then I have read several stories involving memory manipulation in one way or another. Here is another one, but this one has its own special twist that keeps it from being just another run-of-the-mill memory story.
Read More

Science Fiction News and Links for February 15, 2018

Rusty

Plenty of links and stories in today’s post, however I am condensing some of them so that this page doesn’t get too long. So rather than listing every story and link from some magazines, I am just linking to the main page or TOC instead. As always, let me know what you think of the format. Thanks!

News & Articles

Read More

The Ambulance Made Two Trips by Murray Leinster

Rusty

“The Ambulance Made Two Trips” is a 1960 science fiction short story by Murray Leinster. It is about a detective who discovers a man with unbelievably good luck.

New Psi-tech
Ugh, technology moves so fast now-a-days. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for new tech and gadgets, but it sometimes seems like new stuff comes out too fast – you know, before the last version has really had a chance to get going. I do find this fascinating, though. In fact, I am currently working on my Masters thesis which is about why some people might adopt new technology before others. Is there some benefit to being an early adopter? It can be hard to tell. But the guy in this story has definitely found a benefit to being an early adopter, that’s for sure! And, it is refreshing to see a new, science-fictiony, technology that I haven’t seen before too. Read More

Science Fiction News and Links for February 8, 2018

Rusty

Welcome back, everyone, to the 2nd edition of News and Links! This week brings a nice smattering of stories and interesting items from around the web:

News

Read More

Science Fiction News and Links for February 1, 2018

Rusty 3 Comments

I am starting something new here on BestScienceFictionStories.com: a weekly news and link post. The idea for this came from the old SF Signal site – they would do a daily link post, and it was really cool. I miss that, so I decided to start my own. My link post, however, will focus on news and links that are related to science fiction short stories and authors of such. This will include news items, articles, links to free stories and podcasts, reviews, interesting web sites and what not. Feel free to let me know what you think, and we’ll see how it all goes! Read More