Reading club, that is. As mooted when we finished the Hugo short fiction discussions, I think I’m going to continue reading and inviting discussion about a story a week, at least for a while. The format remains the same: I’ll post a reminder on Friday, and a discussion post on Sunday that rounds up as much comment as I can find — which will probably be less than for the Hugo nominees, since I plan to focus on stories published for the first time in English this year.
Here’s my current list of things that have either caught my eye, or are by authors I already know I’m interested in, or have cropped up as recommendations somewhere (notably Rich Horton’s short fiction reviews in Locus), with discussion dates:
- “The Best Monkey” by Daniel Abraham [discussion]
- “A Tiny Feast” by Chris Adrian [discussion]
- “This Must Be The Place” by Elliott Bangs [discussion]
- “The Rising Waters” by Benjamin Crowell [discussion]
- “The Puma” by Theodora Goss [discussion]
- “The Slows” by Gail Hareven [discussion]
- “Oh He Is” by Karen Heuler [discussion]
- “Trembling Blue Stars” by Richard Kadrey [discussion]
- “A Tulip for Lucretius” by Ken MacLeod [discussion]
- “From the Lost Diary of TreeFrog7” by Nnedi Okorafor [Discussion]
- “Thieves of Silence” by Holly Phillips [discussion]
- “The Shangri-La Affair” by Lavie Tidhar [discussion]
- “A Weeping Czar Beholds the Fallen Moon” by Ken Scholes [discussion]
- “Unrest” by Grace Seybold [discussion]
- “Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky [discussion]
- “The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew” by Catherynne M Valente [discussion]
I think there’s a pretty good variety of styles and content in there, but of course the proof will be in the reading.
August 19, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Excellent! I really enjoyed the ones in the spring, even when I couldn’t chime in. I hope I’ll be a more active participant in the fall. Thanks for continuing this!
August 19, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Good!
I’ve just realised my alphabetical order is not as alphabetical as it could be. Ah well.
August 19, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Glad to hear of this. I followed the Hugo reading and discussion without posting, and look forward to this venue continuing. Plus I haven’t read stuff from most of the listed authors, so this might be a good motivator to widen my interests. Count me in.
August 19, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Excellent. Good to have you on board!
August 20, 2009 at 5:19 am
I’m planning to read along this time.
August 20, 2009 at 9:32 am
[...] Abraham, science fiction, short fiction, The Best Monkey | Niall Harrison of Torque Control has announced that, starting this weekend, he’ll be hosting weekly discussions of short fiction. In an attempt [...]
August 20, 2009 at 2:19 pm
[...] short fiction | This post is about the second story to be discussed in Torque Control’s weekly discussion schedule. It’s not actually due for discussion until the 30th of this month; but, as noted in a previous [...]
August 20, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I’m glad to see this continued. I didn’t end up commenting on the Hugo posts, but I will at the very least be reading the stories and discussion, and hopefully chiming in now and then, too.
August 20, 2009 at 8:09 pm
The more the merrier. :-)
August 28, 2009 at 11:52 am
[...] Short Story Club [...]
August 30, 2009 at 7:45 pm
[...] Short Story Club [...]
September 8, 2009 at 5:50 am
Nifty project; thanks for putting it together!
I don’t know whether you can (or want to) edit posts over time, but if you can, would it be possible to add links from this entry to the discussions themselves as they happen? That way, this page could become a sort of table of contents for all the discussions.
September 8, 2009 at 7:43 am
Jed, I had been thinking of putting together a “table of contents” post when we were all done; but now that you say it, of course, there’s no reason why I couldn’t use this one and update as we go. So I will.
September 8, 2009 at 10:17 am
[...] Comments Short Story Club … on Short Story Club: “The B…Niall on Short Story ClubJed on Short Story Club: [...]
September 18, 2009 at 2:24 pm
[...] Schedule and discussions so far [...]
September 20, 2009 at 3:51 pm
[...] fiction floating about the place is of a shockingly low standard. Torque Control has been staging a series of intriguing discussion of works of short fiction but I don’t think that they have come [...]
October 1, 2009 at 8:30 am
[...] a comment » I’ve been enjoying taking part in Niall Harrison’s short story club over at Torque Control. This week’s story is ‘Oh He Is’ by Karen Heuler which I [...]
October 16, 2009 at 2:19 pm
[...] Comments Short Story Club … on Short Story Club: “The…James on A Little Less Conversatio…Nick H. on [...]
November 6, 2009 at 3:39 pm
[...] Story Club Reminder: “The Shangri-La Affair” November 6, 2009 — Niall This week’s story is “The Shangri-La Affair“, by Lavie Tidhar. I’m going to try to start the [...]
December 4, 2009 at 3:39 pm
[...] Hilliard on “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist…Niall on “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist…Short Story Club … on Short Story Club: “Eros,…Short Story Club … on Short [...]
December 8, 2009 at 9:31 am
[...] published online (though you wouldn’t know it by the ones Niall Harrison keeps inflicting on the Torque Control Short Story Club). ObGBC: five women (36%), nine [...]
December 8, 2009 at 3:45 pm
[...] by Ne…David Moles on “Memory Dust” by G…Genreville » B… on Short Story ClubPeter Hollo on “Memory Dust” by [...]
January 4, 2010 at 12:18 pm
[...] more round-table discussions of new books, of course (any suggestions?), and another run of short story club, independent of discussion of award-shortlisted [...]
January 10, 2010 at 1:04 pm
[...] the short story club selections seem to be doing pretty well; be interesting to see if any of them make the final ballot. Surprised [...]
April 17, 2010 at 5:00 pm
[...] Niall Not here, or at least not here yet; but anyone who participated in the discussions here last autumn may be interested to know that io9 is kicking off a weekend short story club, including both new [...]
April 20, 2010 at 12:14 pm
[...] is best when it is a conversation, as was proved by the success of last year’s Torque Control short story club. However, one of the things most reviewers like to see (but rarely get) is engagement with their [...]
August 9, 2010 at 12:41 pm
[...] 9, 2010 — Niall Yes, by popular demand — or at least occasional request — the short story club will return this autumn. I’m thinking of a slightly shorter run (10 weeks?), and perhaps [...]
August 27, 2010 at 10:24 pm
[...] Story Club for the next few months at Torque Control. I participated in most of the discussions in the first one, so I was happy to see it return. Unfortunately I am usually the bad cop when it comes to short [...]
August 29, 2011 at 1:00 pm
[...] been following the Short Story Club over at Torque Control, if not always taking part, and I’ve realised that one of the things [...]
October 19, 2011 at 2:29 am
Hi, I am part of a short story writer’s group that regularly posts fiction stuff on litizen.wordpress.com. Your group is welcome to read short fiction by budding writers and we could also benefit from your suggestions.
Thanks
July 12, 2012 at 10:11 am
[...] anticipate starting with six to see how it goes. (EDIT: The model I’m looking at is what Torque Control did a few years ago, but with multiple [...]