Short Science Fiction Stories For When Youre Bored

Housecats are aliens who have succeeded in their plan to rule the world.

20 Sci-Fi Story Ideas

Write the beginning of the essay. Write from the perspective of someone who chooses to go back in time, knowing they can never return. Where do they go and why? Write from the perspective of the tourist who accidentally turns one on.

The remarkable San people of South Africa are widely considered the most ancient race of human beings on the planet. Write a story in which their unique genetic structure has been preserved by the thousands-of-years-ago creation of nanobots. Ten years from now, scientists figure out how to stop human aging and extend life indefinitely—but every time someone qualifies for that boost, someone else has to die to keep the surplus population in check. Our planet was wrecked in the great Crisis of , and remaining human civilization survives only in a half dozen giant domed cities.

There are two unbreakable rules: Write a story from the perspective of an annoyed, minimum-wage employee whose job is traveling back in time to obtain otherwise unobtainable artifacts, then has to bring them back to the present the s, that is and artificially age them before they will sell. Human genetic modification has gone too far, and the biggest trend for teenagers is to BECOME their favorite fictional character.

The reason, however, is not to eschew Western culture, but instead to protect the aliens that landed in the middle of Kyoto and are trying desperately to repair their ship and get home. Write from the perspective of one of the few remaining Samurai assigned to protect and keep these aliens a secret. Frothy, according to Kirkus Reviews. Thrives on regular servings of good books and cute cats. Rereading it now, I find the many of the ideas limited, and relying on the set-up of a fairly crappy pun. A fair few dated attitudes, too.

Apr 06, Gisele rated it it was amazing Shelves: The title is a bit misleading. The included short stories are "short short" in length, but few are actually great. Coming from a host of major and minor science fiction and fantasy writers there are many themes exercised throughout the work and co-editor Isaac Asimov himself includes four of his short stories.

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For one, George R. Martin's "FTA," a short involving interstellar travel, is surprisingly good considering The title is a bit misleading. Martin's "FTA," a short involving interstellar travel, is surprisingly good considering that he is known for his fantasy work "A Song of Ice and Fire. Although a prolific mathematician and science writer, his stories, like most of the shorts in this work of , are dull. For each story, Azimov includes a one phrase introduction to the story in attempt to provide a comedic summary of the upcoming story.

Sadly, these quips are more distracting then they are helpful and coupled with the large amount of disposable short stories, this work largely disappoints. Only short stories from George R. Nolan, R Sheckley, H.

Plachta save this collection from complete failure. Oct 02, Michael Tildsley rated it liked it. This is a collection that, for the most part, doesn't take itself too seriously. It seems that most of the time short-short stories only ever really have time to convey one emotion, and the easiest emotion to send out in a short amount of time is humor. I don't dislike that, and many of the funny stories in this collection are memorable, but so too are the ones that end in tragedy.

Here are the stories I thought were worthy of five stars in and of themselves: Hoch "The Destiny o This is a collection that, for the most part, doesn't take itself too seriously. Aug 30, Cheri Arbuckle rated it really liked it. I love good flash fiction. This book is a great combination of both. In here are stories from the biggest names in SF prior to Some stories are better than others, as to be expected with any short story collection, but particularly one this size.

Keep in mind the age of these stories while reading them. They were all first published between and and they show the customs and mores of their times. There are only a small number of female voices here, but I love good flash fiction. There are only a small number of female voices here, but that again is a product of the time.

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Inside you'll find stories from all the greats: And if you don't know those names, get thyself to the library and start reading. Feb 06, Michael rated it liked it. Some of these extremely short stories were quite good, some were hilarious but overall, I found the collection to be disorientating and disappointing. There's something very frustrating about reading a sci-fi short story that lasts 3 pages and then starting another one that lasts 3 pages and on and on. As soon as you get your bearings in the story, it's over.

In addition, a lot of the stories seemed just to be built around one punchline. Kind of a waste of time. Toward the end, I just skipped th Some of these extremely short stories were quite good, some were hilarious but overall, I found the collection to be disorientating and disappointing. Toward the end, I just skipped the ones that didn't have a good opening paragraph. Sep 23, lauren rated it it was amazing.

There aren't enough compilations like this. Seeing into the future, as science fiction writers i. I've owned this book since my father gave it to me as a child, and though I haven't picked it up in years, some of the stories within remain my favorites. May 12, Skye Cardoz rated it it was ok. I do not usually read science-fiction, but I thought I'd take a chance with this. Maybe because this isn't my genre, I didn't like this book so much.

Some of the stories in here were really good and blew my mind. Some of the stories scored points for imagination.

20 Sci-fi Story Ideas

However, the rest were just boring. I didn't even understand it. This compilation of post-Golden-Age and Golden Age science fiction is a requirement for anyone who takes the genre seriously. It contains stories by Asimov, Sheckley, Blish, Bester and many others, a large number of which are not available anywhere else.

Thirty five years after its publication, this book represents a fascinating window into the history of science fiction in the '60s and '70s. Aug 10, Dean Deters rated it really liked it. Many of the stories are a bit dated, but that is part of the fun, to see what was considered futuristic. Several stories are based on puns, and are groan inducing.

Twenty Out of this World Story Ideas

A definite recommendation for true fans of the genre. Nov 05, JW added it. This gem helped me complete a short-story-a-day challenge in Some good, some great, and some garbage, but the experience of reading them was largely painless and mostly fun. You're a rare breed if all are to your liking, though. Aug 12, mary rated it really liked it Shelves: Will use several along with the ones in my text for the pairs-lessons.

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Oct 12, Chris Gregory rated it really liked it. I liked this much more than I expected. Not usually a fan of short stories. But, this is a good collection, and they work well together and are in an order that makes them seem somehow related. Nov 27, Andrew rated it really liked it. Not ALL are first rate, hence the 4 stars, but a lot are. Jan 25, Michael rated it really liked it. It was a fun, light read.

Apr 05, Adam rated it really liked it Shelves: The set-up, the twist, the end. Who needs that pesky "middle", anyway? Nov 06, AndrewP rated it liked it Shelves: Apr 23, Justin rated it liked it. Some of the stories were good, some weren't so great. I recommend it as a book you read in between books or you just have so if you get bored of your current book, you read it.