dgaughran
Banned
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2009
- Messages
- 1,256
- Reaction score
- 100
- Location
- Stuck in Sweden
- Website
- davidgaughran.wordpress.com
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Conner,
I know, its my own. But its reasonably good
His first published book was Dark Carnival, a collection of short stories. It was reprinted later, with some of the stories left out as The October Country.
A writer of immense talent, and every story in that book is a gem. Reps to anyone who can identify the story whose last line is "But when the jellyfish calls you by name. . ." (Or something close -- it's been a while.)
I can't see us coming to a consensus on this. My answer will no doubt change six times before bedtime tonight, but some of the stories that are consistently among my favorites: Thomas Ligotti's Gas Station Carnivals, HP Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space, Leonid Andreyev's The Seven Who Were Hanged, Joe Hill's Pop Art, George RR Martin's With Morning Comes Mistfall, and Jeff VanderMeer's The Transformation of Martin Lake. No doubt forgetting at least a dozen tales on that superb level.
Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. The original short story was probably one of the most important pieces of science fiction literature. And it's a fantastic story.
Oh yeah. That one.I know this was posted over a month ago, but Ray Bradbury used to paint his own cover art even though it usually got rejected. I have a rejected painting he did for Dark Carnival and at San Diego's Comic-Con got his autograph on it.
Very proud of that.
Anyway, I would nominate Nightfall by Isaac Asimov. The original short story was probably one of the most important pieces of science fiction literature. And it's a fantastic story.
I'm reminded of perhaps his most infamous, "The Nine Billion Names of God." Not sure if that would even be called SF.Yes, a fantasic story. If we did the different genres, this might well be #1 in SF.
Or maybe one of Arthur C Clarkes' stories?