Oct 2021 - "Best-Laid Plans" by David D. Levine

[Jim]

Oct 2021 short story is "Best-Laid Plans" by David D. Levine. It was published in Clarke's World magazine Issue 176 – May 2021 & is available to read or listen to online for free here:
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/levi...

[Papaphilly]

This one was fun. I enjoyed it.

[Sabri]

Agreed! Didn't blow my mind but was pleasant enough.

[Jim]

What is your selection criteria for short story of the month? Short stories were by far the main form of Sf during the pulp magazine decades and I'm sure there would be plenty of great stories to choose from by authors like Simak, Sturgeon, Sheckley, Kuttner, Fredric Brown, Philip K. Dick and many others.

[Jim]

Jim wrote: "What is your selection criteria for short story of the month? Short stories were by far the main form of Sf during the pulp magazine decades and I'm sure there would be plenty of great stories to c..."

I pick what I find at the time making sure they're free. You can PM suggestions to me. I think we've read stories by most you listed. Their topics are all still open in this folder & go back over 3 years when I started doing it. You can read which ones we've read in the "What's this folder for?" topic which has a link to each discussion topic. It is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Jim]

I checked the list. Good cross selection of stories and authors. I would like to suggest "The Things" by Peter Watts. I am a fan of the 1982 movie "The Thing" and the 1938 novella "Who Goes There" by John W. Campbell. It is a how the alien "thing" views the situation from his POV. I didn't see it on the discussion topic list.

The Things

[Jim]

Jim wrote: "I checked the list. Good cross selection of stories and authors. I would like to suggest "The Things" by Peter Watts. I am a fan of the 1982 movie "The Thing" and the 1938 novella "Who Goes There" ..."

Good suggestion, but this isn't the place to post it. Please message me (PM) with a link to where I can find the story for free.

I'm a fan of the story & movies too. I think Peter mentioned this once, but there wasn't a free version or perhaps we discussed it in the main short story topic which is here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Ryan]

Fun little story. I liked the resourcefulness of the protag and the world-building, while minimal, was good enough for the story and really well done.

Just by chance I was also reading Flowers for Algernon which is also a story that involves intelligent mice.

[Jim]

Were you reading the short story or the novel of Flowers for Algernon? Both are good, but I can't recall which I prefer any more. "Charly" (1968) was the movie & it's really good, too. I rewatched it earlier this year.

[Ryan]

The novel. I haven't read the short story, but I imagine that having read the novel there's no reason to read the short.

[Jim]

Ryan wrote: "The novel. I haven't read the short story, but I imagine that having read the novel there's no reason to read the short."

No, there isn't, but it's something to think about for a reread or if you just want to compare styles/stories. I find it interesting. Ender's Game & This Immortal were also short stories before they became novels. All of them are 5 star reads in either length. The additional words don't help the story too much. In the case of the last, a paragraph was left out of the novel that shouldn't have been, IMO.

[Ed]

I enjoyed this story. The technology and characters were plausible for a near future. I like the way the mouse researcher made the humans have a taste of being experimented on.