The End of the Whole Mess is a post-apocalyptic short story by Stephen King, as told from the view point of Howard Fonroy, the older brother of one of the smartest (and few remaining) men on the planet.

Non-Spoiler version in a jiffy:

Howard Fonroy is a moderately successful writer, who has lived his entire life in awe (and fear) of his Lex Luthory-type genius of his brother, Robert. During his talks with Robert, the reader realizes that things have indeed taken a turn for the worse and that the world is teetering at the edge. Drastic measures are required, or else mankind will end up destroying itself pretty soon. Thus, Robert dedicates his life to finding a way out of this, convincing his brother to follow along with a madcap plan that actually works. In a surprising twist, not only does he make it, but everyone also lives happily ever after with nobody dying.

Hahahahaha…no. That’s not what happens at all.

My thoughts on the story:

Say what you will about Stephen King, but the man can write a wicked backstory for his characters. In the story’s few pages, you actually get emotionally invested in both characters and you end up loving the infuriatingly intelligent Robert. However, the story does seem to suffer from comic book logic syndrome, with an oversimplified solution and execution, which might put some of you hard scifi guys out there off. As for me, I absolutely loved this story and its ending sent chills up my spine.

Specs:

• Word count: 10,000 words
• The story was first published in Omni Magazine in 1986, and later published in the Nightmares & Dreamscapes collection (1993) and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (2008).
• Stephen King is a world-renowned author. You’ve probably seen at least one movie version of his book. If you’ve never heard of him before, then welcome to earth, ye mighty alien overlords!

Where you can find this little gem:

• In the short story collection Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (2008), which I highly recommend
• And here (http://www.scribd.com/doc/17129794/The-End-of-the-Whole-Mess) for free.

Konstantine Paradias is a short story science fiction and fantasy writer, who has his own blog, called Shapescapes (shapescapes). For comments or plain old contact, you can find him at kosparadias@gmail.com

Being Stranded Sucks!

Have you ever been stranded in the middle of no where? I have, and although it was interesting it wasn’t very much fun trying to get back to where I belonged. I ended up walking 20+ miles through the night just to get to a telephone where I could call my family! Whew, I’m glad that is over, but here is a story of a traveller who gets so stranded that even mundane little statistics become in-proportionately important.

Non-Spoiler Summary

Serena is a Grand Voyageur – a gigantic, robotic explorer / trader that travels between galaxies shuttling goods from one civilization to another. It is an interesting and fascinating life, and every once in a while she gets to meet up with others of her kind to swap stories. Now, however, she is truly and sincerely stuck. You see there was a malfunction and she has been deposited in the space between galaxies. She is so far away from anything that she can’t even tell if she is moving. She finally determines that she is closer to the center of the “bubble” between galaxies than she is to any one galaxy, and as she moves towards this mystical point she is extremely surprised by what she finds!

Some Interesting Tidbits

• Word count: 4,403 (9 pages)
• Did you know that David Brin has a Ph.D. in Space Physics? Yep. You can learn more about this talented and brilliant author on his web site.
• Want to learn more about galaxies and the relationship between their sizes and the distances between them? Then check out this excellent page by the Hong Kong University’s department of physics.

Where To Find Bubbles

• This short story was first published in the 1987 anthology The Universe.
• You can read "Bubbles" for free online at Lightspeed Magazine.
• It is also included in Brin’s short story collection Otherness.

Craving More SF Stories Like This One?

If you liked "Bubbles" then you may also enjoy “Little Lost Robot” by Paul McAuley – about a huge robotic war machine that cruises the galaxy destroying all intelligent life forms it finds.

"Blood Child" by Octavia E. Butler is a science fiction short story based around an alien world run by a race of insect like creatures called the Tlic who use humans as hosts to lay eggs inside them to reproduce. The story focuses on the relationship a young man named Gan, whose family has been “adopted”, has with T’Gatoi a high ranking female with the Tlic government.

NON-SPOILER STORY

An alien world in the near future that human’s fled to is the backdrop of the story. T’Gatoi has adopted Gan’s family in the hopes of using him as host for her eggs in the near future. The story focus on Gan, who also narrates, as he comes to terms with the relationship between him and T’Gatoi as well as the political and social implications of using humans as host for interspecies breeding. Themes such as slavery, male pregnancy and interspecies love are some of the topics touched on in the story. The vivid descriptions of the actual breeding process are graphic yet informative giving intricate detail of the physical and emotional effects this cycle has on their human host.

THEMES OF THE STORY

There are different viewpoints one could develop after reading this story; is it about slavery? The Tlic are the higher beings in the story however humans are essential for their breeding habits and the survival of their race. Gan admits T’Gatoi “protects” his family from being exploited by the Tlic government which shows readers that not all adopted families might be treated as respectfully as his. Is this an interspecies love story, quite possibly? The relationship Gan describes with T’Gatoi borders around admiration, affection and closeness. Despite Gan witnessing the violent horrors of hatched larva being birthed from a host’s stomach he still questions whether he wants that fate or not with T’Gatoi. However, to the common eye this story might simply carry the theme of male pregnancy. Men are the primary host of the Tlic’s eggs for political reasoning so women can be left to birth more humans for the Tlic’s to reproduce with.

STORY INFORMATION

• Pages: 12
• Word Count: 7,064
• Published: 1985
• Octavia E. Butler was one of the few successful African-American women authors in the Science Fiction genre. "Blood Child" won Butler a 1985 Hugo Award, 1985 Locus Award, 1984 Nebula Award for Best Novelette and a 1985 Science Fiction Chronicle Award for Best Novellete.

WHERE TO FIND THIS STORY

• Bloodchild and Other Stories: Second Edition
• Read the short story "Blood Child" for free at the Washington Post web site.

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction that began to evolve in the eighties, when computers were just starting to enter into the realm of the personal, when the Internet was in its infancy. Although many early cyberpunk stories seem quaint to us now in our hyper-technological world, I still love re-reading these pioneering narratives to get a sense of how far we’ve come with our ever-faster, ever-smaller gizmos and gadgets.

One of my favorite cyberpunk short stories happens to be the story that coined the term “cyberpunk” to begin with. Bruce Bethke wrote "Cyberpunk" in 1980 and finally found someone to publish it in 1982. One of the original objections to the story by editors was that readers wouldn’t buy the fact that the characters used small, personal, portable computers that folded much the way notebooks do. Considering I’m writing this review on my laptop right now, that little tidbit of background story is especially ironic and delightful.

"Cyberpunk" tells the tale of a kid named Mike, who is presumably a teenager, although we don’t really know what grade he’s in. Just like all teenagers, Mike feels oppressed by the authority of his parents, who have to force him to go to school. While many teenagers get caught up in the peer pressure of drug and sex experimentation, Mike’s rebellion is a cyber one. Skipping school and teaming up with a rag-tag group of adolescent hackers, their little clique gets online and finds ways to get back at their Olders–parents and other adults who simply don’t understand the allure of computers or how they work.

The kids, led by a the leader misfit Rayno, a punk of the highest order who incidentally sports a Mohawk, take joy rides in a cab after hacking into a law firm’s bank account. They mess with air flight time tables and take liberties with other sensitive information they tinker with during their hacking activities. At the end of the story, Mike has a face-off with his parents, in which he tests their ability to control him by using his hacking talents.

What I particularly enjoyed about this story is its interesting use of language. The “cyberpunks” use a very specialized slang that is informed by their intimate knowledge of computers. Although they use many shortened computer terms to talk about their hacking like opsys for operating system, they also carry this terminology over into their non-computer worlds to refer to objects in their daily experience. So you get words like transys for public transportation. Another thing that I found interesting about this story is that it’s very indicative of the kind of world we live in. Even though it’s a fictional story, it serves as microcosm of realities that are all around us–computer nerds challenging the established order, the immense power of technology that is directly accompanied by the desire to abuse it. Great stuff for sci-fi fans who are interested in the cyperpunk genre specifically, or for those who are really into computers in general.

You can find a full-text version of the story, along with a foreword by the author here.

This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes on the topics of online universities. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katherynrivas87@gmail.com.

I Must Visit Italy

My wife has been to Venice, Italy, but I never have. That doesn’t stop me from dreaming about it though – it seems like such an amazing place! This story plays on a certain fear of mine however – that Venice will be ruined before I can ever get there to see it. I guess that is sufficient motivation to make plans right?

Non-spoiler Summary in a Nutshell

In the year 2040 a great storm raised the ocean level several meters, and that was bad news for the people living in Venice. Now that most of it is underwater, and the residents live on the top floors of the tallest buildings, the tourist industry has been reduced to scuba divers who retrieve ancient treasures. Carlo is a guide for many of those divers, but when he takes a pair of Japanese men to remove a precious tile mosaic he learns that he can’t watch his city be dismantled anymore. And that is a decision that may just cost him his life.

My Two Cents…

• I thought the setting of this story was the best part – a dive-able Venice would be both sad and very cool at the same time.
• Carlo was a great character. It was nice to see that the human will persevered, and even took pride in living among the remains of a once great and beautiful city.
• I very much enjoyed all the descriptions of the ocean. Although I live nowhere near the ocean, and I’m not really the sailor type, I am still fascinated by the water and the stories of those who traverse it.

Interesting Tidbits About This Story:

• Page Count: 12
• Word Count: 8,276
• Did you know that Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ph.D. doctoral thesis was entitled The Novels of Philip K. Dick? Pretty cool huh! You can learn more about this fascinating science fiction author at Wikipedia.
• This story was nominated for:
  • the 1982 Nebula Award for Best Short Story
  • the 1982 Locus Poll Award for Best Short Story
• Special thanks to Free SF Reader for pointing out this great story.

Where You Can Find Venice Drowned:

• This story was originally published in the 1983 Terry Carr anthology Universe 11.
• You can read a free online version of “Venice Drowned” at the wonderful Webscription web site!
• This novelette is also the lead story in the new 2010 anthology The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson.

Craving More Science Fiction Short Stories?

If you liked “Venice Drowned” then you may also enjoy these 5 other science fiction stories that are set on the ocean.

Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell:

Seven lucky scientists have been chosen to make the long trip to Iapetus, and now that they are there they have discovered something amazing – a statue of… something. It is alien for sure – what with its long limbs and nightmarish talons – and it is most likely female too. But most disturbing is the fact that the millenia-old snow around the statue shows no signs of how it was constructed! As the group searches for clues they make some bizarre discoveries, and one of them figures out exactly how it all happened!

The thing was carved of rock and covered with ice. It stood serenely on that bleak, snow-covered plain, a nightmare figure of curving claws, surreal eyes, and lean fluidity. The lips were parted, rounded, almost sexual. I wasn’t sure why it was so disquieting. It was more than simply the talons, or the disproportionately long lower limbs. It was more even than the suggestion of philosophical ferocity stamped on those crystalline features. There was something—terrifying—bound up in the tension between its suggestive geometry and the wide plain on which it stood.

My Two Cents:

• The good:

• Jack McDevitt is a great writer, and that shows in this story. The tone, story telling style and detailed descriptions all make for a beautiful story.
• I am intrigued with stories that are about mysterious ancient races that leave artifacts in our solar system – so I quite enjoyed “Melville on Iapetus”.
• I found the discussions about Melville’s writings to be interesting – and how that was worked into the ending was really cool!

• The bad:

• It did have a bit of an abrupt ending – I would have liked to learn more about the statue and its creator. Sigh… oh well.

Fact Sheet:
• Page Count: 13
• Word Count: 5,625

Where you can find “Melville on Iapetus”:

• This short story first appeared in the November 1983 issue of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction.
• “Melville on Iapetus” is included in Cryptic: The Best Short Fiction of Jack McDevitt. Be sure to check out the cool cover art – which features a scene from this story!
• You can read a free online version of this story at Webscription.net.

Some Interesting Links:

• Did you know that science fiction author Michael Swanwick refers to Jack McDevitt as a “Philadelphia boy?” Yep. You can learn more about Jack by reading Michael’s touching profile of him.
• Special thanks to Free SF Reader for pointing out this great story!

Craving More Stories?
If you enjoyed this story then you might also like The Sentinel, about an ancient monument discovered on the moon (and also the basis for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey), by Arthur C. Clarke.

Robinson usually takes a broad, back-seat view of things. He also likes to inform his characters with Buddhist influenced perspectives, and in this story he does both. I had a few problems with the story, but in my opinion it is one of the very few great legal SF stories that are out there.

Here is a link to the text of the story itself:

http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200011/0671319744___1.htm

Here is a link to a write up of this story on my own Law and Science Fiction blog:

http://thelawandsciencefiction.solahpmo.com/?p=50

And finally here is a link to a review of Isaac Asimov’s anthology, The New Hugo Winners, where the story appears:

http://www.omphalosbookreviews.com/index.php/reviews/info/281

Special thanks to Omphalos for providing today’s guest post! He runs a couple of science fiction web sites, and my first contact with him was the excellent Omphalos’ Book Reviews, where he reviews great science fiction books. And since he is a lawyer, he also runs a blog (or “blawg”!) which talks about the relationships between science fiction and the law – be sure to visit it at The Law and Science Fiction.

Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell:

In a far distant future where mankind has learned that unbreakable crystal spheres surround each star system in the galaxy, Joshua is awakened from his deep cryogenic sleep only to learn about a very exciting discovery. Now, centuries after humans first broke through the shell surrounding their own system, another star system has been discovered with a broken – and therefore penetrable – crystal sphere. Joshua and several other deep space explorers are called upon to lead a ship full of scientists and cryogenically frozen humans to investigate. Upon arrival they begin a cautious exploration of the broken sphere, the engineered planets inside it and the abandoned alien cities. That is until they find information about something even more amazing than the crystal spheres!

“Alice,” I breathed after a long moment. “Is it true at last?”

She came forward and took my hand. She must have known how weak and tense I felt.

“Yes, Joshua. One of the probes has found another cracked shell.”

“There is no mistake? It’s a goodstar?”

She shook her head, saying yes with her eyes.

My Two Cents:

• The good:

• The idea of the crystal spheres is totally unique! This made for fun reading, left me pondering the implications of such spheres, and made me think more deeply about why we haven’t already encountered alien conquerors.
• David Brin is a great writer, and it is easy to see why “The Crystal Spheres” won the Hugo award. Not only does it contain an absolutely amazing idea, but the writing is excellent with great descriptions of events and places.
• A sure sign of a great story (for me anyway) is when I really, really wish I could take part in the things I am reading about. That’s what happened when I read about the explorations of the Nataral civilization – how cool would it be to experience something like that? Aah – I can only dream… and read more science fiction stories!

• The bad:

• Honestly, the only downfall of this story was the fact that I wanted it to continue! I yearned to learn more about the crystal spheres and the Nataral. Sigh.

Fact Sheet:
• Page Count: 15
• Word Count: 6,754
• “The Crystal Spheres” garnered the following awards:

• It won the 1985 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
• It placed 2nd in the 1985 Locus Poll.
• It also won the 1985 AnLab award.

Where you can find “The Crystal Spheres”:

• This short story first appeared in the January 1984 issue of Analog.
• “The Crystal Spheres” is included in David Brin’s book River of Time.
• You can listen to an excellent MP3 audio version of this story at Starhip Sofa. It is 47 minutes long and starts at time index 2:14.

Some Interesting Links:

• Did you know that David Brin has a masters degree in applied physics? Yep. You can learn more about this fantastic author on Wikipedia.

Craving More Stories?
If you enjoyed this story then you might also like The 43 Antarean Dynasties, about a proud tour guide showing three humans the remains of his planet’s once great culture, by Mike Resnick.

Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell:

Forry is an American microbiologist working in the UK as a member of Les Adgeson’s research team. Forry is very good in his own right, but Les is considered a “Boy Wonder” by his colleagues, and that is something that makes Forry both jealous and eager to attach his name to Les’s research. So when Les confides in Forry about a newly discovered virus with a potentially beneficial mode of transmission, Forry starts to make plans about taking all the credit. There is a little problem though, and that is the fact that viruses are very tricky and dangerous things – especially when research doesn’t always go in the direction one would like it to go!

Our Boy Genius was plenty savvy about the funding agencies. He knew they weren’t interested in paying us to prove we’re all partly descended from viruses. They wanted, and wanted badly, progress on ways to fight viral infections themselves.

So Les concentrated his team on vectors.

Yeah, you viruses need vectors, don’t you. I mean, if you kill a guy, you’ve got to have a life raft, so you can desert the ship you’ve sunk, so you can cross over to some new hapless victim. Same applies if the host proves tough, and fights you off — gotta move on. Always movin’ on.

Hell, even if you’ve made peace with a human body, like Les suggested, you still want to spread, don’t you? Big-time colonizers, you tiny beasties.

My Two Cents:

• The good:

• Personally I enjoyed all the talk about and descriptions of various viruses because I find microbiology topics to be fascinating – almost like a tiny alien world right here on Earth!
• David Brin is a good writer, and even though he wrote “The Giving Plague” several years ago I still found the plot and dialog very engaging.
• Another very cool thing about this story was its similarity to one of my favorite classic novels: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Even though the story lines are completely different, the method of narration and tone of the stories were quite similar. I enjoyed that “feel” very much.

• The bad:

• There are a few instances of strong language to watch out for.
• This is not an action story, so if you are the kind of person who doesn’t like long discussions about scientific research, then you may want to stay away from “The Giving Plague”.

Fact Sheet:
• Page Count: 10
• Word Count: 7,031
• “The Giving Plague” garnered the following awards:

• It won the 1989 Interzone Poll.
• It placed 4th in the 1989 Locus Poll for short story.
• It was nominated for the 1989 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

Where you can find “The Giving Plague”:

• This short story first appeared in the Spring 1988 issue of Interzone (#23).
• “The Giving Plague” is included in David Brin’s excellent collection of short stories called Otherness.
• You can read a free online version of “The Giving Plague” at David Brin’s website.

Some Interesting Links:

• I recently took a microbiology course at the local university – and I’m glad I did because understanding the concept of vectors helped me to enjoy “The Giving Plague” more.
• In case you don’t know, the constant references to “Stockholm” in this story are referring to the Nobel Prize award ceremony which takes place each December in that city.
• David Brin is a famous contemporary author of science fiction. You can learn more about him by reading the biography page on his website.

Craving More Stories?
If you enjoyed this story then you might also like The Green Leopard Plague, about a genetically altered mermaid who is researching why the founder of her modern society went missing for three weeks, by Walter Jon Williams.

Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell:

The story follows Johnny, a man who stores secret electronic information inside his head – for a price. When one of his clients is killed he has no way of retrieving the information, so he relies on Molly – one super bad chick with mirrored implant eyes. She doesn’t let him down either as she takes him first to see a cyborg dolphin, and then high up into the dome to meet low tech people with canine implants – all in an effort to escape the Yakuza’s brutally efficient hit man.

The Drome is a single narrow space with a bar down one side and tables along the other, thick with pimps and handlers and an arcane array of dealers. The Magnetic Dog Sisters were on the door that night, and I didn’t relish trying to get out past them if things didn’t work out. They were two meters tall and thin as greyhounds. One was black and the other white, but aside from that they were as nearly identical as cosmetic surgery could make them. They’d been lovers for years and were bad news in a tussle. I was never quite sure which one had originally been male.

Ralfi was sitting at his usual table. Owing me a lot of money. I had hundreds of megabytes stashed in my head on an idiot/savant basis, information I had no conscious access to. Ralfi had left it there. He hadn’t, however, come back for it. Only Ralfi could retrieve the data, with a code phrase of his own invention. I’m not cheap to begin with, but my overtime on storage is astronomical. And Ralfi had been very scarce.

My Two Cents:

• The good:

• This fast paced and gritty piece is an early William Gibson story – predating his famous novel Neuromancer by three years. If you like classic cyberpunk then you’ll love this one.
• Molly. Yep, the famous chick from Neuromancer shows up in “Johnny Mnemonic” – and she’s just as awesome as she is in the novel!
• William Gibson’s style is amazing! The words and descriptions he uses may seem bizarre – but they leave little doubt about what the setting looks and feels like.

• The bad:

• This isn’t a story for kids – there is lots of strong language, violence and adult situations, so be careful.
• You may not be able to get Keanu Reeves’ image out of your mind – being that he was the title character in the 1995 movie version of “Johnny Mnemonic”. But don’t let that stop you from reading it – just focus on Molly!

Fact Sheet:
• Page Count: 10
• Word Count: 6,526
• “Johnny Mnemonic” garnered the following awards:

• It was nominated for the 1982 Nebula Award for Best Short Story.
• “Johnny Mnemonic” also placed 20th in the 1982 Locus Poll for best novelette.

Where you can find “Johnny Mnemonic”:

• This short story first appeared in the May 1981 issue of Omni.
• “Johnny Mnemonic” is included in William Gibson’s brilliant collection of 10 futuristic short stories Burning Chrome.
• You can read a free online version at WinterMute #10′s website.

Some Interesting Links:

• Did you know that William Gibson coined the term “cyberspace?” Yep. You can learn more about this amazing science fiction author on Wikipedia.
• Yes, its true – this short story was made into a movie in 1995 starting Keanu Reeves. It wasn’t too popular however. You can learn more about the movie at IMDB.

Craving More Stories?
If you enjoyed this story then you might also like A Dry, Quiet War, about a hero from the war at the end of time who returns to his home planet only to find more trouble, by Tony Daniel.