What is Your Favorite Science Fiction Story?

Well, it has been a fun week reading about the favorite science fiction stories of other bloggers and authors. I have discovered many new stories and web sites to try out. Hopefully you found something interesting too.

Which Story is Your Favorite?

Although it has been a lot of work, I plan on doing another series of “My Favorite Science Fiction Story” again in the future. I’ll ask several more bloggers and authors to share their favorite stories with us. (If you’re interested in participating then send me an email.) But that won’t be for a while. In the mean time why don’t you share your favorite science fiction short story with us? Yes, you! Here are the rules:

1. Leave a comment that answers the question: “What is your favorite science fiction short story and why?”
2. If you don’t have an absolute favorite that is ok, just pick one that you really like.
3. I’m looking for short fiction here – so it can be a short story, novelette or novella – as long as it is a science fiction piece!
4. If you know where we can go to read the story that would be nice to know too.

Rusty’s Favorite Science Fiction Story:

To get the ball rolling I’ll go first: My favorite science fiction short story is Ted Chiang’s 1998 award winning novella “Story of Your Life.” One of the reasons that I connected so well with this story is that all the times I watched Star Trek (or any science fiction show really) I always felt cheated somehow by the fact that the aliens either a) spoke perfect English or b) there was some sort of “universal translator” that made conversation super easy. I figured if we ever came across a truly alien race that talking to them would probably be the most difficult part. That is where “Story of Your Life” comes in. It is a story of a linguist who is called in by the U.S. government to help decipher an alien language – only it is anything but easy. Along with her physicist partner, the linguist tackles the written form of the aliens’ language, and eventually discovers a really amazing side effect of their “non-causal” way of thinking. Ted Chiang’s story and story telling style come together perfectly to make “Story of Your Life” one truly amazing read.

Now it’s your turn – tell us what your favorite science fiction story is.

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