Science Fiction trial balloons

 kw: book reviews, science fiction, short stories, triple review

Hunting among e-books for science fiction short stories I came across a low-cost set of three small books by Celesta Thiessen. I got them and I thoroughly enjoyed them. First, some stats:

A "page" comes to about four screens on my phone. With all but four stories in the one-to-three page range, these are "short shorts"; most "short stories" exceed 10 pages.

The three books, all self-published by the author in 2013, are Science Fiction Short Stories (8 stories, including the 7- and 10-page stories), Sci Fi Short Stories (8 stories, including the 16-page story), and Apocalyptic and Dystopian Tales (14 stories, including four of the six one-pagers).

The range of ideas is impressive. There is an unusual take on the invention of a Faster-than-Light spacecraft, a vampire (this is implied) seeking life "in the light", stories of research gone awry or going right, one that ends in nuclear incineration, and several either about or from the viewpoint of Christians and other religious minorities under persecution. Many stories feature acceptance or forgiveness. One story ends with a quotation from Revelation. From a quick look at her website I see that the author is an ardent Christian. Her stories reveal that she is pessimistic about the future of liberty on Earth. But then, so was the Apostle John when he wrote Revelation.

The shorter pieces take the notion of High Concept to a new level, being intensely focused on outlining a new idea. I re-read most of them to firm up my impression that they are test projects for material to work into longer stories or books. Indeed, one story, "Research" in Apocalyptic and Dystopian Tales, is followed by the suggestion to get the novel Hope & Shiny Things (It's out of print and I find no e-book. I'll put it on a want list). I like Ms Thiessen's writing: straightforward, unpretentious narratives that either pose a problem and solve it (John Campbell's dictum) or show why not.