I would like to hear peoples thoughts on short stories. Is it something you read, occasionally or often?

Most other readers I know read mostly novels - and often long series with recurring characters or same universe. I have been there myself, mostly in the science fiction genre, but in the last couple of years I have switched to mostly reading short stories. I found many novels that had decent stories, but they were simply too long and felt padded. Many 600 pages novels that could have been 200 pages - or even less. With short stories I can get the joys of several good stories in a week and the bad ones doesn’t feel like a huge time waste.

However it seems like the trend with many forms of cultural consumption these days are familiarity. Season after season of the same tv series. Series of movies in same universe. Book series with recurring characters and many seem to think the longer the better. Especially in fantasy.

Many writers start with short stories before their first novel and many readers will try a short story as a sort of sample of that author. Nothing wrong with that, but short stories deserves recognition on its own merit and I love when otherwise well established authors are still publishing short stories.

A novel is usually better for longer character developments or grand world building, but for me there is great value in “less is more”. Don’t always need the entire backstory or have every loose end tied up neatly. Focus on one thing. Especially in a genre like science fiction where a short story can be a great way to explore a concept or an idea, limited to some thousands words and get to the core of what the authors wants to tell.

  • GreyShuck@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    Yes, I thoroughly enjoy short stories, for all the reasons that you give.

    I grew up on the classic fantasy tales: Conan, Fafhred and the Grey Mouser, the Dying Earth tales, and all of Dunsany, Clarke Ashton Smith etc etc as well as Lovecraft, Poe and M R James and the rest.

    As well as focusing on a single mood or concept, as you suggest, short stories - particularly the more literary ones - are great as single character studies, or dealing with particular interactions in a way that isolates and brings them to the forefront simply by being given a beginning and end.