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| TOUCHPAPER ARCHIVE... |
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A Top 5 Genre Short Stories by Tony Lee I have been a science fiction fan for nearly 30 years, and a hard-SF addict since leaving school. This list is a 'best of' the remarkable fiction which got me hooked on the drug of fantastic literature as a teenager. Baby Is Three by Theodore Sturgeon This, the genesis of Sturgeon's masterly novel, More Than Human, is a memorable examination of 'gestalt being'. The ultimate expression of a family of five (apparently disabled or mentally abnormal) individuals, coming together to form a powerful group mind/body with capabilities greater than the proverbial sum of its parts. An intensely emotional, deeply moving story that stayed in my memory and never went away. Nerves by Lester del Rey For many years I would wrongly credit this one to Larry Niven! But once rediscovered while researching a post-Chernobyl article about the fallacies of atomic power it formed the heart of my argument. Written in 1956 a dozen years before quarks were discovered, it predated cinema drama like The China Syndrome and is far more exciting than any other similar piece I've read since. Back in the 1980s, John Carpenter said he intended to make this into a film. Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr Written under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart (derived from his wife's maiden name), this stirring tale of man's first contact with an utterly alien life form was filmed twice. I much prefer John Carpenter's remake which remained faithful to the plot and gave us some imaginative special effects depicting a shape-changing creature. Those gory scenes have a tendency to reinforce the brutality of the original story in many ways. With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson Humble apologies to the great Isaac Asimov, but for my money this disquieting tale from the 1940s is the ultimate robot story. Humanoids created as slaves leave us with nothing to do for ourselves, turning men into impotent idols protected from hard work, creative thought and (of course) prevented from doing harm to one another or themselves. The narrative draws immense strength from Williamson's straightforward writing so when the full implications of robotic rulers hit home in the downbeat ending, to reveal the message of the story's subtle title, the effect is totally devastating. The Sensitive Man by Poul Anderson Not one of this author's better known tales, admittedly. I include this purely because of its merit as a good old-fashioned 'secret agent' adventure. Basically a comicbook hero with biofeedback training and virtual ESP powers, the central character demonstrates a wide range of mental/physical abilities wholly identical to those of TV trio, The Champions, first shown at the same time I read this. Unlike Anderson's flawed superman, though, the soon-to-be cult-TV heroes are glamorous and perfect. Anderson turns a bland idea into a gritty thriller that's surprisingly convincing.
Originally published in TOUCHPAPER #10 ©1999
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