Some tales and ideas require less room than a complete novel. Short stories, novelettes, and novellas each have very different styles, rhythms and artistic flavor. Many of mine are gathered into collections that can be purchased online. The most recent will eventually be gathered into a future collection. A few of the best are already available to be purchased on Amazon Kindle, while some others are posted on this site for free.
Several stories are available on Kindle. Stay tuned for more stories and more reader formats.
The Crystal Spheres: In a universe filled with habitable worlds why have we had no contact with extraterrestrial intelligence? "The Crystal Spheres" offers a fantastic explanation for the Great Silence. Instead of being late-comers -- might humanity have come upon the scene too early? This haunting tale was voted one of the "most beautiful of the eighties." Winner of the 1985 Hugo Award.
The Loom of Thessaly: Who guides our fate? And can we ever hope to wrest control for ourselves? In this novella, "The Loom of Thessaly," I merge classical mythology with impudent modern spirit in a science fiction legend that speculates upon the nature of reality.
Tank Farm Dynamo: Can a sci fi story alter the course of something ponderous, like the space program? Perhaps. "Tank Farm Dynamo" sure tried! What if we found the nerve, the spirit and daring to use every resource -- including those that NASA simply threw away? An unabashedly old-fashioned hard SF story with science and technology as central, problem-solving players... plus a real twist.
Stones of Significance: The Singularity -- when our skill & knowledge & immense computing power transform us into... well... godlike beings. From a writer's perspective, it presents a problem. One can write stories leading up to the Singularity, about problems like rebellious AI. But how do you write a tale set AFTER the singularity has happened? That's the topic of Stones of Significance.
Thor Meets Captain America: Nominated for a Hugo Award in 1987, Thor Meets Captain America offers an alternate history exploring a chilling scenario behind the Holocaust. In this parallel world, the Nazis narrowly avoid defeat in World War II when they are championed by the gods of the Norse Pantheon. At a dramatic turn, Loki joins the Allies and they prepare a last-ditch raid to blow up Valhalla. With an afterword by the author. This novella was later expanded into an award winning graphic novel The Life Eaters, with artwork by Scott Hampton.
I have always published short stories, and have collected many into story collections. I also offer free short stories for you to read!
Announcing the arrival of my third -- and newest -- collection, Tomorrow Happens. This special edition by NESFA Press contains nearly all of my stories that have appeared in magazines since Otherness, including Aficionado (which details the very beginnings of Uplift), plus a number of provocative essays. Also, several items never-before-seen, including a little tale about Galileo, written just for the occasion. This edition of Tomorrow Happens is unique, limited, and collectable!
CONTENTS:
Introduction by Vernor Vinge
Aficionado
Probing the Near Future
Stones of Significance (now sold for Amazon Kindle)
Go Ahead, Stand on My Shoulders!
Reality Check
Do We Really Want Immortality?
Paris Conquers All (with Gregory Benford)
The Self-Preventing Prophecy
Fortitude
The Future Keeps Surprising Us
The Diplomacy Guild
Goodbye, Mir! (Sniff!)
The Open-Ended Science Fiction Story
News from 2025
Seeking a New Fulcrum
A Professor at Harvard
The Robots and Foundation Universe
An Ever-Reddening Glow
We Hobbits Are a Merry Folk
The Other Side of the Hill
In Otherness (WINNER: LOCUS Award for Best Collection 1995), humans and aliens encounter the secrets of the cosmos -- and of their own existence. In "The Giving Plague" (SECOND PLACE: 1989 Hugo Award for Best Short Story), a scientist discovers the horror of a new strain of virus. In "Dr. Pak's Preschool" a woman discovers that her baby has been called upon to work while still in the womb. In "NatuLife" a married couple finds their relationship threatened by the wonders of sex by simulation. In "Sshhh..." the arrival of benevolent aliens on Earth leads to frenzy, madness... and unimaginable joy. In "Bubbles" a sentient starcraft reaches the limits of the universe -- and dares to go beyond.
CONTENTS:
TRANSITIONS
The Giving Plague
Myth Number 21
Story Notes
Dr. Pak's Preschool
Detritus Affected
The Dogma of OthernessCONTACT
Sshhh...
Story Notes
Those Eyes
What to Say to a UFO
Bonding to Genji
The Warm Space
Whose MiLLennium?CONTINUITY
NatuLife ®
Piecework
Science versus MagicCOSMOS
Bubbles
Story Notes
Ambiguity
What Continues... and What Fails...OTHERNESS
The Commonwealth of Wonder
The River of Time brings together eleven short stories, including "The Crystal Spheres" (WINNER: Hugo Award Best SF Short Story 1985), and four new stories published here for the first time.
Here are powerful tales of heroism and humanity, playful excursions into realms of fancy, and profound meditations on time, memory, and our place in the universe.
CONTENTS:
DESTINY
The Crystal Spheres (now sold for Amazon Kindle)
The Loom of Thessaly (now sold for Amazon Kindle)
The Fourth Vocation of George GustafRECOLLECTON
Senses Three and Six
Toujours Voir
A Stage of MemorySPECULATION
Just a Hint
Tank Farm Dynamo (now sold for Amazon Kindle)
Thor Meets Captain America(now sold for Amazon Kindle)PROPAGATION
Lungfish
The River of Time
Some of the following stories, collected here for your online pleasure, have been published in one of my story collections -- Tomorrow Happens, The River of Time or Otherness. Others have appeared exclusively in "outside" publications.
If you are a student or teacher, some of these stories have been used to illustrate or express ideas that are discussed in modern classes, ranging from physics to history. To find out more, click to a page of information about stories that teach.
Here's a preview/pdf version of my comic book about American industry.
Completists eager for more in the Uplift Universe may be interested in reading the novella "Temptation," which appeared in Robert Silverberg's anthology Far Horizons: All New Tales from the Greatest Worlds of Science Fiction. This work features the adventures of a female dolphin on the faraway world, Jijo, who must escape from two of her own kind and then penetrate a deeply dangerous ancient secret. This novella will be a core element of the next Uplift novel... when I get around to it (!)... and answers several unresolved riddles left over from Heaven's Reach.
Another story, "Aficionado" (which first appeared in Popular Science and now appears in my story collection Tomorrow Happens), details the very beginnings of Uplift.
"Lungfish" has only appeared in The River of Time. It's an in-depth exploration of the concept that civilizations might send robot probes between the stars, and how many different agendas those robots might have.
"Those Eyes," (which appeared in Otherness), takes you on a ride through the notion of UFOs following the tough gaze of a radio talk show host who defies the nasty, skulking 'visitors' to come into the open and face us, eye to eye!
Both "Lungfish" and "Those Eyes" go directly to one of my longstanding interests, spanning both fiction and my other life as a scientist -- the deep question of whether alien life may exist, and if so how it could manifest in both strange and familiar ways. For some of my more scientific and technical approaches to this issue, look elsewhere in this site under the category About Science.
"The Giving Plague," (which appeared in Otherness), came in second for a Hugo. It plunges into our modern fear -- even deeper than nuclear war -- of a virus that might wreak ruin on us all... or else change us immeasurably... and the moral quandaries facing a brilliant researcher....
...Or you can listen to this reading-podcast audiobook version (republished by Interzone Online).
A different take on a similar subject, "Reality Check" appeared in the March 16, 2000, issue of the science journal Nature and was selected for the Year's Best SF 6 Anthology, edited by David G. Hartwell. It also appears in Tomorrow Happens.
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