To make a titanic work of science fiction, one might think one would need to come up with a titanically long book – maybe even a titanically long series to qualify *cough* Dune *cough wheeze*. Ahem. One would be wrong. Sometimes a big punch can come in a little package – like splitting an atom! Except without all the devastating costs to humanity! Instead of developing big exploding weapons, these authors used their science brains to come up with 10 of the best sci-fi short stories ever. Humanity is titanically better for it.
Nightfall
Nightfall was one of Isaac Asimov’s first ever published sci-fi short stories, written when he was still in his early 20’s. While you at that age were probably propped over the toilet heaving up twelve Jack and Cokes, Asimov was penning one of the most enduring sci-fi short stories ever written. The action takes place on a distant planet orbited by multiple suns, kept in perpetual daylight for thousands of years. As a result, its population has an extreme fear of the dark, and when a doomsday cult begins prophesying the coming of night and emergence of the “stars” a group of scientists stand by to observe the once in a millennia phenomenon – and get the daylights scared out of them. No elder gods. No netherworld portals. No tentacles. This work of cosmic horror proves what anyone who looks too long into the night sky already knows: space is scary af.
The Jaunt
Stephen King’s The Jaunt is – yes, you read that right – Stephen King. Known for blockbuster creature features like It and Salem’s Lot, The King of Horror proves that his domain extends to cosmic horror as well. In this world, humanity has developed a form of instantaneous public transportation called “jaunting” – where passengers are able to cross huge distances in an eye blink, so long as their eyes are shut. Passengers have to be completely sedated while jaunting, else they arrive on the other side completely insane. Why? No one knows for sure, but one mild mannered father is about to find out. Perhaps to the conscious observer, the “instantaneous” journey is actually longer than you think.
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin is a classic utopian dystopia tale, one that tells the story of paradise powered by the suffering of a single child. The people of Omelas enjoy a society free of toil or care, and are able to pursue a peaceful existence – as long as they can maintain peace of mind, that is. While many are content to turn an unseeing eye from the horrible truth, the few who *title drop* walk away from Omelas do so because they aren’t able to put up with it the child-torture reality anymore. Is it really paradise if it’s predicated on pain? Does civilization run on suffering by default? Ursula K. Le Guin asks all these thorny questions, and this story follows those who seek answers.
Bloodchild
Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild is the tender story of a human child and its horrifying parasitic alien caretaker. Yes, really. In the distant future, a subsection of humanity fled Earth in order to avoid persecution, and now live alongside a bizarre race of extraterrestrials on the brink of extinction. In order for the Tlic to survive, they must plant their larvae in the bodies of human beings – hatching newborns that claw their way out from the inside. While it sounds Ridley Scott Alien levels of vile and horrible, the Tlic have a tender and grateful relationship with their human hosts. After all, humanity is the only reason they still exist. But what happens when a young boy is chosen to become the next larvae host? Can he really doom his alien friends to die? Even if it means giving up his own life? Would you let a loved one plant parasitic eggs inside of you? Honest answers only.
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
Harlan Ellison’s I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream may only be a couple of pages long, but it delivers more horror than many authors have in their entire body of work. Taking place long after the end of the world, the novel follows a small group of survivors who are continually tortured by a nigh-omnipotent A.I. called A.M. As A.M. explains in its now TikTok famous monologue, the machine intelligence harbors unfathomable hatred toward humanity for burdening it with existence. In order to get back at us, it killed off all other humans save for a select few that it intends to torture for all eternity. For these survivors, the only true escape is death – and the machine will do its damndest to deny them of even that. Yikes.
Story of Your Life
Before it was adapted into a big budget Hollywood venture called Arrival, Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life was a simple tale about some seven legged aliens. After a hyper-advanced species called the “heptapods” parks their spaceships in Earth’s orbit, scientists scramble to figure out how to decode the aliens’ pictographic messages. As a linguist slowly begins to piece together the aliens’ circular language, she begins to discover that her thought patterns are changing. Language is responsible for shaping our thoughts, and with this hyper-intelligent new way of thinking, humanity’s last two braincells are about to have their minds blown.
Emergency Skin
Fresh of her Hugo Award winning Broken Earth trilogy, N.K. Jemisin returns with Emergency Skin, the story of a man’s return to his ancestral home. In this case, that home is the entirety of planet Earth, the climate of which was made unlivable by past generations. Despite his expectations to the contrary, our home-comer discovers that humanity is still living on Earth. And when I say “living”, I mean “desperately clinging to life.” In keeping with her environmental disaster themes, Jemisin’s Emergency Skin is the story of a planet that wants us dead, and a people who refuse to say die. And when I say “people” I mean the “devolved remnants of former human beings, rendered unrecognizable by the cruel march of time.”
Boobs
Suzy McKee Charnas’ Boobs is a Hugo Award winning short story first published in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. It’s the story of a bullied young girl on the cusp of puberty, but instead of developing breasts, she develops werewolf powers that are equal parts horrible and thrilling. It’s a love letter to bullied kids everywhere, tortured by others at one of the most tender stages of human development. Unlucky for her dickhead classmates, this young girl is about to reap her bloody revenge.
The Nine Billion Names of God
Arthur C. Clarke’s The Nine Billion Names of God is part cosmic horror, part cosmic joke. Two technicians are tasked to deliver a computer system to a group of monks who believe that they have discovered the alphabet with which God’s names can be written. Rather than write out all of God’s many monikers by hand, the monks decide to use technology to decode the deity’s titles. According to ancient teachings, the universe will end when all of God’s names are discovered. The two technicians are skeptical, but they begin to show faith when the monks’ predications eerily seem to prove true.
The Willows
One of the most seminal cosmic horror stories ever written, Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows is the story of two outdoorsmen who adventure their way into an alien encounter. While canoeing down the Danube, the pair stop on an island shaded by willow trees. As they bed down for the night, the pair begin to believe that something in the willows is watching them. Weird signs begin to pop up at their campsite. Gear is tampered with. Sanity is slipping. The pair suspect that something from beyond this earthly realm may be hunting them, attempting to track them down not through sight or sound or smell, but by sensing their very thoughts.
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