Top 50 Classic Short Stories

I'm convinced that I'm in direct-voice communication with the spirit of a young girl who was killed by Indians in this section about a hundred and seventy-five years ago.

An old veteran walks to the wall of remembrance and remembers. --- A short little piece that I had to get down tonight so it may be a bit rough but I hope people see it for what it says.

SF writer and editor Harry Harrison explores a not too distant future where robots--particularly specialist robots who don't know their place--have quite a rough time of it. True, the Robot Equality Act had been passed--but so what?

A masters student does some research into the Apollo 11 moon landing and the claimed hoax. He has some startling discoveries to announce when he delivers his final paper in an Australian university.

Once again it is up to Jamie Retief to save another diplomatic mission. Terra has recently signed a treaty with the planet Petreac. But revolution threatens and the Terrans must save the Nenni cast or their mission will end in abject failure.

A thieft was framed. He needed to clear his name or die. It's a fight for life.

A girl goes for a walk in the woods and gets lost, the searchers can't find her, but her destiny does. Some codes have been omitted so as not to give away too much, I promise there's nothing that should upset anyone as this is more a drama with some sex and not a stroke story.

The best way to keep a secret is to publish it in a quite unbelievable form--and insist that it is the truth.

What is desirable is not always necessary, while that which is necessary may be most undesirable. Perhaps the measure of a man is the ability to tell one from the other. and act on it.

Captain Brandon was a pioneer. He explored the far reaches of space and reported back on how things were out there. So it was pretty disquieting to find out that the "far reaches of space" knew more about what went on at home than he did.

At one time,this was before the Robot Restriction Laws they'd even allowed them to make their own decisions It was a big, coffin shaped plywood box that looked like it weighed a ton. This brawny type just dumped it through the door of the police station and started away. I looked up from the blotter and shouted at the trucker. "What the hell is that?" "How should I know?" he said as he swung up into the cab. "I just deliver, I don't X-ray 'em. It came on the morning rocket from is all I know."

It's hard to ferret out a gang of fanatics; it would, obviously, be even harder to spot a genetic line of dedicated men. But the problem Orne had was one step tougher than that!

Suddenly the biggest thing in the universe was the very tiniest.

The space ships were miracles of power and precision; the men who manned them, rich in endurance and courage. Every detail had been checked and double checked; every detail except--

Under normal conditions a whole person has a decided advantage over a handicapped one. But out in deep space the normal may be reversed--for humans at any rate.

A Tale of revenge in the old west

Ordinarily the military least wants to have the others know the final details of their war plans. But, logically, there would be times.

There are times when a broken tool is better than a sound one, or a twisted personality more useful than a whole one. For instance, a whole beer bottle isn't half the weapon that half a beer bottle is.

There were but three days in which to decipher the most cryptic message ever delivered to earth.

Was it a wild talent that MacReedy had, or was it just prophetic genius that led him to figure out new, improved ordnance weapons and make models of them--before the armed forces had them? Whichever it was, MacReedy was both valuable and dangerous--and when the general saw MacReedy's final figure, the weapons following the mobile rocket A-missile launcher....

Was this ill-fated expedition the end of a proud, old race--or the beginning of a new one? There are strange gaps in our records of the past. We find traces of man-like things--but, suddenly, man appears, far too much developed to be the "next step" in a well-linked chain of evolutionary evidence. Perhaps something like the events of this story furnishes the answer to the riddle.

The son of one of the first Ashtear and a sidhe queen clone hunts ancient realm gates. When he finds one lost and forgotten he opens a gate. The realm holds dark sidhe and he scouts it until he feels a need to act and help a female slave. After that he discovers their plan to open a gate onto his world to attack.

Being a minor mage and a constable in one of the most difficult zones on the planet means I see a lot. There are no other mages with the constables so I get called for many cases. Sometimes to recreate a crime and others to help with surveillance. Just being a constable on the King's Walk is dangerous. Being a mage constable means everyone knows me and I am always a target for those that hunt us.

I smelled the trouble the moment I stepped on the lift and took the long ride up the side of the "Lachesis." There was something wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it but

A little known species defends the Galaxy with an ultimate weapon.

If you should set a thief to catch a thief, what does it take to stop a racketeer...?

Some smart people invent a way to dispose of rubbish, and a few other things. The CIA want their technology, and they won't hand it over. Things heat up. Set in Australia.

How far would you go for a lost loved one?

Suppose a strictly one hundred per cent American plague showed up.... One that attacked only people within the political borders of the United States!

This is about the best-hated author on Earth. Who was necessarily pampered and petted because of his crime against humanity....

When the lies outweigh the truth can revenge and death not follow far behind?

The remarkable thing about Atummyc Afterbath Dusting Powder was that it gave you that lovely, radiant, atomic look--just the way the advertisements said it would. In fact, it also gave you a little something more!

To Thad Allen, meteor miner, comes the dangerous bonanza of a derelict rocket-flier manned by death invisible.

He said he wasn't immortal--but nothing could kill him. Still, if the Earth was to live as a free world, he had to die.

Something of the wonder that must have come to men seeking magic in the sky in days long vanished.

In the not-so-far future, an AI Engine struggles with its own existence, while a famous Law Master finally gets his heart's desire.

So the baby had a pet monster. And so nobody but baby could see it. And so a couple of men dropped out of thin air to check and see if the monster was licensed or not. So what's strange about that?

If Ollie knew the work he was doing, he would have resigned--if resigning were possible!

Nothing in the world could be happier and mere serene than a man who loves his work--but what happens when it loves him back?

Varta, the last of the virgin Maiden of Asti, is watching her world die. The barbarians of Klem have hunted Memphir to its death and even here, in the forgotten mountain retreat of Asti, Varta can smell the stench of the fires of their destruction. It's time to leave.

Once, wars were won by maneuvering hired fighting men; now wars are different--and the hired experts are different. But the human problems remain!

My family taken and being bitten by a blood drinker changes my life. Now I walk the night to enforce the laws and convents of the kingdom and the councils. Some times it is just to show my presences and others it is my judgement dark creatures seek. And then there are those that would bring chaos and I must take a life to make a final judgement.

The gadget was strictly, beyond any question, a toy. Not a real, workable device. Except for the way it could work under a man's mental skin....

Jason started out as a farm boy and ends up owning a fleet of spaceships. This is his story.

No wonder he'd been so interested in the talk of whether our people accepted these theories!

A story in the Asteroid Hunters Universe
In the not to distant future.

To upset the stable, mighty stream of time would probably take an enormous concentration of energy. And it's not to be expected that a man would get a second chance at life. But an atomic might accomplish both--

Stories of the old West were filled with bad men who lived by the speed of their gun hand. Well, meet Buck Tarrant, who could outdraw them all. His secret: he didn't even have to reach for his weapon....

Neal ("Storm") Cloud, nucleonic genius, set out in his spaceship *Vortex Blaster* to track and destroy the vortices. What he finds extends far beyond any threat of nature.

Invading Earth was going to be a cinch, the Triomed scout decided. But to make certain he must study its inhabitants--as one of them!