Anyone else enjoy short fiction?

[Reverend Conehead]

Short fiction used to be huge before television. Back in the 50s and earlier there were a huge number of pulp fiction magazines. You could go to a bookstore and a big long rack would be nothing but magazines dedicated to short fiction. With the rise of TV, these mags started to sell less and less, putting most of them out of business. I'm too young to remember the pulp fiction hey days, but a few of the mags survived. Back in the 80s and 90s, I used to read Analog Science Fiction and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I've started to read them again with a new Analog subscription and back issues of F&SF. There's also Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction, but I don't have any of those. I also sent off for a value pack of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queens. I had not read crime fiction before, but I'm liking these so far. The biggest surprise has been the stories are not all tension and gore. Some of them are pretty funny.

Some other magazines also publish some fiction without the mag being dedicated to that. Playboy and Cosmopolitan do, though I haven't read any of that in ages.

Book-length fiction is still big in the US. People still buy and read novels. Given how busy most people are, it surprises me that short fiction isn't more popular. It takes a lot less time to read a short story than it does a novel.

I'm curious if other people here read short fiction.

 

[Future]

The problem with short fiction is that it's hard to make any sort of investment to it. Once you start to get comfortable with the characters...understanding their motives and that sort of thing...the story ends.

Having said that, the only reason it isn't as popular today is because companies can make more selling 500 page novels than they can collections of 50 page short stories.

 

[joseephuss]

I've never read a Stephen King novel. I have read his short story collections and novellas. They are fantastic.

 

[Denim Chicken]

I know many of the Sci-Fi novels I enjoy started as shorts in Sci Fi periodicals. The Foundation series, for example, stared in Astounding Magazine. I think I would like to subscribe to one of these journals. Any advise on a good one?

 

[Reverend Conehead]

I know many of the Sci-Fi novels I enjoy started as shorts in Sci Fi periodicals. The Foundation series, for example, stared in Astounding Magazine. I think I would like to subscribe to one of these journals. Any advise on a good one?

I know many of the Sci-Fi novels I enjoy started as shorts in Sci Fi periodicals. The Foundation series, for example, stared in Astounding Magazine. I think I would like to subscribe to one of these journals. Any advise on a good one?

Astounding was later renamed Analog. It's the one I subscribe to. It's what's known as "hard science fiction." It goes for compelling stories that strive for scientific accuracy. If that's your cup of tea, it's a good one. Another one is the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. As its title suggests, it contains both SF &fantasy stories. In other words, it has the flexibility to publish stories that hard SF like Analog or fantasy ones that are compelling and strange, but aren't chained to scientific accuracy (like some Twilight Zone episodes). Finally, there's Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine. That's the one I haven't read as much, but I've heard it's somewhere between Analog and SF&F, with SF stories, both hard and soft, but no fantasy ones. I would suggest maybe getting an issue of each mag and see which one you like the best. That's what I've done for mystery/crime fiction. I sent off for a value pack of 4 issues of Alfred Hitchcock's and 4 of Ellery Queens. I did that because I had honestly no clue which one I would like better. Analog also publishes "best of" anthologies for a time period. In a used bookstore I found their best-of anthology of the years 1929 through 1979. They're all old stories, but they kick butt by virtue of being the editor's choice of the very best that they published during those years.

A lot of people do feel that short fiction is frustrating because you give up characters after a short time with them. I get that. I like reading novels also. I do like getting to know people and then having the plot build over a lot of time. Each form has its advantages. A well-written short-story can kick your butt with amazement. It has to be streamlined and tight. The SF and mystery mags also publish somewhat longer works known as novelettes and even longer ones called novellas. They also sometimes serialize stories, so the same characters come back.

In Analog thus far many stories have blown my mind. Others have been okay. A few have bored me. It's doubtful that any one story can please everyone. I tend to like stories in which the main characters have attitude and their wills clash and the plot starts off right away letting you know what the story's about. I dislike ones that take too much time setting up the situation and that don't let you know quickly enough what the story's about. I read part of one story about a future dystopia in which the member of one tribe visits another one that's at war with someone else. I couldn't get into the story because I kept wondering, "Why is he visiting these people? Why should he care about them and why should I care about him?" I finally got frustrated and quit reading.

 

[Bill Wooten]

I remember getting the Isaac Asimov mags as a kid and always enjoyed them. Thanks for posting this. I'm going to check them out for some quick reading.

FYI, you can get digital versions for your tablet of choice if you prefer.