I re-read John Brunners books "the long result" yesterday. Its only about 160 pages long, maybe 40,000 words. I have a lot of older books like that, SF and one or two F, which are short, easy to read in one sitting. But nowadays, it seems to be compulsortyto produce 200 to 500 page tomes, often related to one another. But it seems to me that in the good old days a lot fo the good Sf authors wrote book after book that explored different worlds and scenarios, all in easily digestable form, far more than modern authors do. I guess its partly the prevalence of fantasy, and space opera, that need lots of space to be sorted out, but even so, it seems a shame.
So the purpose of this thread is to post things like short story titles, wee books, etc, that you think are good examples of their kind. For example the long result isnt brilliant in any special deparment, but it works as a whole, as an exampel of Brunners work, and as a short novel to set you thinking.

Then tehres kinds of book formats taht are less common these days, and some that are more common, ie oddly shaped books, Im finding a few now, as well as those extra tall oens, hardback sized by paperback, I think theyre a waste of space. Comments please.

Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress.
Out of print, but the ebook is available at Fictionwise.com (http://www.fictionwise.com/).

:m: Peace.

I re-read John Brunners books "the long result" yesterday. Its only about 160 pages long, maybe 40,000 words. I have a lot of older books like that, SF and one or two F, which are short, easy to read in one sitting. But nowadays, it seems to be compulsortyto produce 200 to 500 page tomes, often related to one another. But it seems to me that in the good old days a lot fo the good Sf authors wrote book after book that explored different worlds and scenarios, all in easily digestable form, far more than modern authors do. I guess its partly the prevalence of fantasy, and space opera, that need lots of space to be sorted out, but even so, it seems a shame.
So the purpose of this thread is to post things like short story titles, wee books, etc, that you think are good examples of their kind. For example the long result isnt brilliant in any special deparment, but it works as a whole, as an exampel of Brunners work, and as a short novel to set you thinking.

Then tehres kinds of book formats taht are less common these days, and some that are more common, ie oddly shaped books, Im finding a few now, as well as those extra tall oens, hardback sized by paperback, I think theyre a waste of space. Comments please.


Are you ever going to use Word to write your comments then copy and paste them here? t would be better if you did because your spelling is worse than mine!

Ja, Beggars in Spain was a dang good book, except for that part with the little redheaded kid. It's unusual for me to have strong feelings about characters in books, but I hated that guy.

Sorry, it depends on how much of a hurry i am in whether i can skip back and check the spelling. in real life i was always one fo the top spellers at school, its just this damned typing.
Another small book i remembered is "whipping star" by frank herbert. its short, but punchy. and very confusing first time round.

Look for Lila the Werewolf by Peter S. Beagle. The chapbook version of this short story is pretty rare, or was the last time I checked. It can be found in his collected works, but the tiny volume is coolest.

More readily available is The Word for World is Forest by Ursula LeGuin. It's a nice little volume, but not as much fun as the Beagle book.

Other than that, classic sci-fi (like E. E. Doc Smith) might be your best bet. Back in the day, as pointed out, 200 pages was a book, fewer if you were already popular. Now, you rarely see anything less than 300 pages. Personally, I blame word processors for book inflation, but it has been explained to me that people don't want to shell out $8 for a skimpy book. Gots to have enough pages to stop a bullet or nobody will buy it.

As yes, "word for world is forest" is pretty good.
I also have almost all Dr SMith wrote, except the gamily D'alembert series. Not a great deal of cahracter development, but fun all the same.
I dont understand exactly how the prices can be so inflated, unless the price of the actual paper and printing is such a minicule part of the overall price, that it doesnt matter.
Its nice to see someone agree with me about it all anyhow. :)

E.E 'Doc' Smith is a good author and I'm one of those people who hates to shell out £6 for a thin book, also I read very quickly so the longer the book the better, as long as the author has enough material to fill it and is not just prattling on.

That said second hand I look at the description of the story first if I don't already know that I like the authors work, or the series.

I love good books whether fat or thin.