Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Yes, I find myself turning to the short-story format more and more. Mostly because I'm tired of the "franchise first" mentality of my favorite genres.
|
Personally, I like standalone novels that can be read on their own (in terms of the main storyline starting and wrapping up with plot/character closure within a single volume) but also tie into an established universe which have more and different stories in that setting in other similarly standalone but not directly connected novels (not necessarily with the same main characters, though bonus points if they're ones that I like).
I think those are technically termed "sidequels".
But it's rather rare to find authors who can resist the temptation to tell the umpteen tales of this one very special group who has all the good adventures which are to be continued in the next and the next and the next (and even rarer to find an author who's good at it). And so all the little character quirks and plot contrivances pile up until you can practically make a drinking game.
As for short stories, I think I've found 80% of my favourite sf/fantasy writers* by reading the shorts in various anthologies (especially those big Year's Best collections by Dozois and Windling/Datlow which the library has been pretty good about getting).
They're a great way to get acquainted with the works and skill sets of many authors without having to invest too much time (or money) in finding out that someone who wrote a zillion-page doorstopper novel happens to be a dud at long lengths†.
Anyway, currently flipping between the short story collection
The Best of Frederik Pohl by
Frederik Pohl, naturally, whose name it turns out I've been misspelling all this time on the impression that it included a "C", and his non-fiction memoir
The Way the Future Was, which are both part of the 1st
10-book Frederik Pohl bundle which I went and bought from Baen this morning.
I've read about 20% into each one, and so far they're pretty good, even though I find I'm having to space out the short stories a bit since that old-school prose style takes some getting used to and the memoir is a bit more engaging.
But there were some pretty good stories in the collection, and I really liked the satire of how brand-name commercialism and advertising have taken over the futuristic worlds Pohl imagined in the pre-70s. Hilariously (and depressingly) prescient.
Well worth my $4 per book special-bundle-pricing-for-a-limited-time.
* The other 20% were mostly found via novel-length works from the library having pictures of dragons on the cover or mentioned prominently in the title. My shelf-appeal tastes are very predictable sometimes.
† Mind you, some of my favourite sf writers who write excellent short stories and novellas have turned out to be far less impressive at novel length, and vice versa, so you can't really gauge overall quality this way. But at least it helps weed out the ones who are totally unappealing a lot faster.