http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ F&SF Forum » Recent Posts en Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:57:36 +0000 http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=444#post-5430 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:35:26 +0000 dtruesdale 5430@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon," which is also my all-time favorite piece of short SF. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=444#post-5429 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:58:46 +0000 GusG 5429@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Jessie Thompson's "Snowfall" jumps to mind right away. I'll think of others... </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5428 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:06:10 +0000 JohnWThiel 5428@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>I will in fact look for the Hodgson volumes de Lint recommends, and one thing I'll look for is for them to be sold at lower prices than these, so I can buy them for less money than a privately-sold used car would have cost me in earlier days. Hopefully the SF Book Club reads F&amp;SF and will one day be selling the Hodgson books. Meantime I have the three big ones. Certainly the man was a major writer and should have major attention in the fantasy realm. Also I found it refreshing that de Lint mentions fandom. I used to read The Alien Critic from time to time too. Geis has been putting out Taboo Opinions at efanzines dot com, but I don't know how long he'll keep that up.</p> <p>James Sallis is agreeable to me when he says the concept of genre is fictional--but I'm glad to see him getting into an existential perspective in considering things and recommending this investigative mode.</p> <p>Existentialism, I see, is also taken up by Kathi Maio, but what she's recommending is rather obscure; I've always wondered if Samuel Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT and Luigi Pirandello's SEVEN (or whatever the number is) CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR might not be interesting to readers of fantasy, if not science fiction. Certainly science provides good tools with which to study existence; they've got it, but they don't use it. Not much, anyway...but is it coming about that there will be a real existential interest occuring in science fiction? There are signs of this, reflected by at least two of your reviewers.</p> <p>As she mentions walking through the streets of Boston, I'd say she writes from the perspective of a city that is indeed one with a troubled past, an anxious present and an uncertain future---you've published a story where that troubled past is part of the theme, just at the ending of last year. From "One if by land, two if by sea" to airplanes and a future full of space ships. That must be their existentialist setting, out there. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5427 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:30:50 +0000 JohnWThiel 5427@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>I remember Kit Reed's entrance into SF (no great difficulty; I'm the same age now as I was then), and I thought at the time that it was pretty clear that she would be with us a long time and have no trouble getting any further stories she wrote published. Now she writes one describing a youth culture phenomenon, which perhaps she may have been in her time. Also the story makes it clear that we will be finding rock music and the like everywhere we look in science fiction, in F&amp;SF as well as Asimov's. She seems to be hinting that a Kent Bash cover would suit her story, like Bisson was doing, if he had Bash in mind. I think her use of the language talked by these people qualifies her as an expert. Also the story is one further example of cultures becoming a major part of present sf thought, again as asserted by Tom Ligon.</p> <p>So did the story "Bad Matter", which portrays a flying anthropology in a manner that is indeed reminiscent of Ursula LeGuin. I wondered if there might be some similarity to Klingons in the space-culture portrayed, if maybe the story satisfied the urge to apply some anthropological perspective to the problems posed by Klingons. Burying one's dead is part of the Ancient Curse of Mankind, well-considered in this story. The author has probably found the right place for the report to be studied, right there in F&amp;SF.</p> <p>Now's the time to point out that four of the short stories are by women, and six of the short stories have women as the main characters, while the seventh short story has a man who keeps to himself and works for Max pitted against a woman who is invading. This is not very relevant to anything, but that's the kind of thing that needs pointing out, something that doesn't matter too much but is quite a coincidence. Nothing significant, in fact I think it makes the short stories rather nice. Perhaps a woman's touch is what's needed in something as rugged as sf. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=442#post-5426 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:36:34 +0000 MattHughes 5426@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>"...most suggestions in the contest were wildly optimistic, such as World government!!!??? Please don't tell me that is considered an optimistic concept.....?????"</p> <p>It would be pretty optimistic today. In 1979, it was out to lunch. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=442#post-5425 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:17:44 +0000 Kyte 5425@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Yes, this was fun to read. Does anyone know how to get one of the national news agencies to pick up on the story? It's the sort of thing that they often put in the last 40 seconds of the evening news. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=442#post-5424 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:56:23 +0000 BrianCrowley 5424@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Dave T - Well said !</p> <p>Gordon - Well done ! How about a similar 10 or 15 year contest that could be entered with a subscription of a similar length ? Just a thought. Given the rate of technology growth, &amp; the state of the world economy, the next 10-15 years may see as much change as the last 30. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=444#post-5423 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:43:45 +0000 BrianCrowley 5423@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Saw this on another board &amp; thought it such a good question that I would ask here pretty much verbatim:</p> <p>Any story in F&amp;SF ever make you cry? Ever make you feel despair about life, the Universe, and Everything? Make you lose all hope, at least for five minutes? </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=442#post-5422 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:29:47 +0000 JohnWThiel 5422@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>If you ask me, I'd say the editorial staff were making that contest a challenge to themselves to follow through on it. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=442#post-5421 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:44:08 +0000 dtruesdale 5421@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>I've been meaning to comment on this *thirty-year* contest for some time now, but just now feel the urge to actually post.</p> <p>I'm absolutely amazed, to say the least. This is truly mind-boggling, and as far as I can tell, one of a kind; a unique event in all of SF history.</p> <p>There are so many variables involved. Given the history of SF magazines in general, most of which don't even -last- anywhere -near- thirty issues, much less thirty years, is just for one macro variable. Much less the contestant still being around, and then to have The Magazine actually -remember- the contest and be -able- to acknowledge the winner? </p> <p>I've never heard of a bloody "time capsule" winner for an SF magazine contest before, have you? (Much less for one with a *thirty year* time span.) This is truly remarkable, and surely to be remembered at -least- as a memorable footnote in some SF history or encyclopedia to come.</p> <p>Good show for all those involved at F&amp;SF, past and present.</p> <p>I'm still shaking my head and chuckling at this one-off landmark achievement with regard to a generational contest winner. "Generational" in that the winner could easily have had children by now, and, depending on his age when he entered the contest, his children could have children by now.</p> <p>I can't help but think of the late Alex Haley's ROOTS, and the generational storyline used to tell -his- story. This relatively fun/goofy (compared to the serious subject matter in ROOTS) F&amp;SF contest I can well imagine, in a flight of fancy, could be portrayed as the light-hearted SF equivalent of ROOTS, could it not?</p> <p>There's a humorous story in here somewhere, for the right humorist to take advantage of in the proper manner. Twould make for a great SF fanzine/semi-prozine piece (for those of us who remember these sorts of pieces, and those few pieces done -right-, who are now ensconced in fandom history). </p> <p>Anyway, my hat is off to F&amp;SF. Another first for this--(as it was once widely, in days gone by, known as)--the "Silent but Golden" SF magazine.</p> <p>--Dave </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=443#post-5420 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:47:17 +0000 Gordon Van Gelder 5420@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Can anyone identify this book?</p> <p>I recently accessed your website trying to find details of a particular science fiction novel dating I believe from either the late sixties or early seventies. Having had a copy and which has now sadly been thrown out in a massive clearout we undertook at home in recent years I'm desperately trying to replace it.</p> <p>I can remember the cover being predominantly red with a spaceman on it floating in space with if I remember rightly a planet in the background. The spaceman was wearing a suit and helmet very similar to the ones worn in 2001 A Space Odyssey.</p> <p>Would you happen to know of this novel's name and author? I thought it might have been Michael Moorcock. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=434#post-5419 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:30:12 +0000 rowsdower 5419@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Mine arrived on the 17th in pretty good shape. I thought I set it up (and paid) for my issues to arrive in an enevelope so they'd be protected better and not have the mailing label on them but I guess I was mistaken since it arrived as is, no enevelope, with the damned label slapped across the middle of the cover. I was able to remove the label carefully with no glue left behind but it was tricky.</p> <p>Oh well.</p> <p>I subscribe to Rolling Stone and their labels are how it should be done. It is just a small, glossy rectangle that peels off easily, just like peeling off a stamp, and there is no glue left behind at all. It looks like you bought it right off the newsstand.</p> <p>It is annoying that Borders doesn't carry F&amp;SF because I have one that's walking distnce from my house and I'd have an excuse to go in there once in a while.... </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=434#post-5418 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:27:22 +0000 eholst 5418@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Mine arrived yesterday in Eugene. While I'm sure the real reason for the late subscription mailout is technical and boring, I prefer to believe that it's simply because it takes my mail carrier longer to get through these thicker issues! </p> <p>As it appears it will be another crap rainy weekend over here its arrival couldn't be better timed. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5417 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:57:25 +0000 JohnWThiel 5417@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Magister has also noticed that the stories about the Moon are very bleak ones---I don't read comments about stories until I've read them, or I wouldn't have sounded so all alone in speaking of these stories.</p> <p>I see there's an edit button which, my guess is its duration is until another person has posted, so that something can't be changed after it has possibly evoked a response. Very wise, and I also note that if that is the procedure being followed, it also recognizes a poster, because the edit buttons do outlast my own follow-ups. </p> <p>Thought I'd use the edit enablement at least once--I've just noticed its presence.</p> <p>Using it twice to state that unlike the Dell forums, it doesn't notate that a message has been edited. No need to--it doesn't pre-empt or whatnot any other postings. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5416 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:50:24 +0000 JohnWThiel 5416@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Shall I cheer myself up with "Farewell Atlantis?" Well, these Atlanteans come off as naught but spooks as they enter into the modern world, reminding one of the end of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, and they are similarly vacuous due to lack of contact with any culture, now raised to importance by Tom Ligon in the Analog forum. I cannot but think that the author's main purpose is to show how poor in spirit they have become, and raise speculations about what there is about life in its more normal aspects that would have put them in this position---well, such as submergence under the sea by an early tsunami. But Noah did better with a submergence than these folks, aside from the advanced technology which is doubtless considered cold and lifeless by the author. Oh, yeah, I noticed this is the story the jape ad is about.</p> <p>Is there no surcease from sorrow and suffering? Well, Harvey Jacobs' story might have provided it, due to its not having to be taken seriously, but it's kind of nihilistic, moreso I think than surreal. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5415 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:38:20 +0000 JohnWThiel 5415@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Speaking of the death of a lady, the first moonwalk I read, "The Economy of Vacuum", again by a lady and essentially about a lady, was an even harder reading experience, though I would stress that it was female existentialism, which is somewhat of a rarity. You have a basically very short life, such as is had by human beings, lived as well as it may be in a place where it is placed starkly before infinitude, with people always aware of how far they are away from standard human culture. Then the people there watch the doom of man played out upon a mortal stage, viewed from afar. The life support systems of nature fail and the lady, once considered so special that she is visited by the President, shrivels into a mummy and a team comes to the moon to lobotomize her, and she ends up almost mindless, babbling in her senility. I don't know whether the story is more like Mickey Spillane or Nineteen Eighty Four, but it sure doesn't present a very good picture of life. Anybody out there have any idea what elements life would have if it were something one could consider good? (*Checks the cover out* Zere is too much Death in the issue!)</p> <p>Taking my cue from the blurb, I proceed next to Brendan DuBois' story about the Moon and find a sting operation and the badger game in full progress there, and a similarly soul-starved female individual ekeing out her life there, doesn't take a female to write about such an one. An over-commercialized, outre, disengaged concentration camp existence. But who can ask for more? Imagine greater. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=442#post-5414 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:14:48 +0000 alnico5 5414@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Since the editorial has been brought up: Editor Van Gelder mentioned that most suggestions in the contest were wildly optimistic, such as World government!!!??? Please don't tell me that is considered an optimistic concept.....????? </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5413 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:35:03 +0000 Gordon Van Gelder 5413@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Another blogger's thoughts: <a href="http://dwarzel.livejournal.com/6378.html" rel="nofollow">http://dwarzel.livejournal.com/6378.html</a> </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=433#post-5412 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:31:15 +0000 SHamm 5412@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Actually, F&amp;SF ran occasional story illos (by Solvioff, Freas, Kirberger, et al) for a brief stretch in the mid-fifties. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5411 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:56:17 +0000 Gordon Van Gelder 5411@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Another blogger's thoughts on this issue: <a href="http://www.dedzone.net/blog/2009/11/december-2009-issue-of-magazine-of.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dedzone.net/blog/2009/11/december-2009-issue-of-magazine-of.html</a> </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=434#post-5410 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:07:44 +0000 mthornburg 5410@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Mine got to Bozeman, just east of the Divide, today (November 19), and looked like it had a hell of a time doing it -- one-third of one page was gone, some of the rest hanging on by sheer force of will. Maybe the mules stomped on it.... </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=434#post-5409 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:47:28 +0000 MarcL 5409@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Mine arrived yesterday in Washington. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5408 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:59:56 +0000 JohnWThiel 5408@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Just got the issue, by Jar! Don't care for the cover much but knowing Matt Hughes does--an authentic Bash cover to illustrate his story!</p> <p>I remember that contest, and here it is after all those years. I was not certain F&amp;SF would make it to the other end of the contest and wondered if there was not a trace of hubris in proposing a contest as long in the completion as this. I'm surprised in reading out the editorial that no one predicted the Hedron Collider. Anyway, congratulations for pulling the grand contest off. I see a book of F&amp;SF contests is offered in the marketplace.</p> <p>I've only read Nancy Springer's story as yet. It recalls to mind the time the play STILL LIFE WITH IRIS was put on locally at the Civic Theater. I went to see it because it reminded me of Gertrude Stein's work. The theater was packed, over a hundred people knee to knee in a room the size of a living room where you could hit the performers with a paper airplane, but nobody ever did. The play was somewhat like this story, not just the title. I remember thinking "The people in this play are a whole lot like the people in the audience"--many of whom had come from across the street and a few blocks away. At any rate, I like how the lady in the story foxes everyone with her collection of knick-knacks and inscribes runics about her existence before the heedless heavens. Something like that is like to cause quite a stir. True, people fear death as it comes upon them considerably without saying much about it, but I would say that death might be considered God's test to see how people will measure up to things---that consideration might be just what is needed to cheer up the lady in the story, who is experiencing the spiritual perceptions that come before death by old age, mistakenly considered "senility" by many. Hey, people that age have other things to think and worry about than passing a driver's test---that lady in the story has it just right.</p> <p>I'm guessing the hoax item in the marketplace is the casting call one and that it's in reference to this story--the best guess I can come up with, as it's the only story I've thus far read. The one about Maddy Exotica looks like it might be a hoax item, too, and it gives no address but Amazon as a search place...I'll let Den Maddy know about this ad.</p> <p>I've bought the very best anthology, your full-page ad is as of this month wasted on me.</p> <p>Will keep reading---see what else is in the issue. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=442#post-5407 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:07:51 +0000 BrianCrowley 5407@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>I really enjoyed the editoral about the 2010 award. That was a great idea for a contest and it is awesome that the magazine kept this on their radar for 30 years. Gordon's closing lines were awesome too.</p> <p>For those who don't have access to the paper copy yet, it is avaialable online -</p> <p><a href="http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2009/gvg0912.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2009/gvg0912.htm</a> </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=441#post-5406 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:08:28 +0000 Gordon Van Gelder 5406@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Andy---</p> <p>I hope this link will help remind you of some of the best of 'em:</p> <p><a href="http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/anthfourth.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/anthfourth.htm</a></p> <p>---Gordon V.G. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=433#post-5405 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:48:08 +0000 AndrewPorter 5405@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>George Salter was noted for designing F&amp;SF's original logo, for his many dustjackets starting in the 1930s, and for much other artwork and design work over the years, not just artwork, but I believe in architecture as well.</p> <p>F&amp;SF never had interior artwork, but it did have little b&amp;w design elements at the end of some of the stories, most by Ed Emshwiller. These appeared primarily in the 1950s.</p> <p>Its covers were always memorable. I reprinted several on the cover of my SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE in the 1990s; blown up, they're even more impressive. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=441#post-5404 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:42:00 +0000 AndrewPorter 5404@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Does Mars still need women? Lotsa good Mars stories in F&amp;SF over the decades. Wish my brain still worked so I could remember the titles of some. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=434#post-5403 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:40:12 +0000 AndrewPorter 5403@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Back in my day you could blame it on the mules getting stuck in the mountains outside the printing plant, but nowadays.... </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5402 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:29:49 +0000 Gordon Van Gelder 5402@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Another blogger posts about this issue: <a href="http://fantasyandfaith.com/2009/11/19/fantasy-science-fiction-december-issue/" rel="nofollow">http://fantasyandfaith.com/2009/11/19/fantasy-science-fiction-december-issue/</a> </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5401 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:03:29 +0000 Magister 5401@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Another bleak moon story in Sarah Thomas's "The Economy of Vacuum." Just bleaker than DuBois's story. I couldn't help being moved by this incredibly sad story, but something's been nagging me ever since I started reading the story: </p> <p>[--------------------POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOLLOWING--------------------------------] why does the government decide to put only one person up on the moon base, even if it isn't intended for scientific research anymore? I think that a lot of sci-fi stories I've read have had to deal with the problem of isolation in long space missions (usually solved by sending a small *group* of people, or simply by putting the person in a long cold sleep). This one assumes that there will be absolute isolation, and that there is no solution. Anyway, I suppose Ms. Thomas's point is that, at least for the protagonist of this story, there's no solution to isolation even when other people are around, except for the echoes of one's own thoughts.<br /> [-------END SPOILERS--------]</p> <p>Anyway, besides the plausibility issue, the story was effective. One part I particularly enjoyed was the description of the Moon's surface at the beginning of Part II: it reminded me of the New Space Opera's fondness for baroque landscapes (except this one turns out to be a kind of reflection of the protagonist's inner landscape). </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=434#post-5400 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:31:13 +0000 TimSkarda 5400@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>The December issue arrived in Minneapolis November 18th. A treat, since the Oct./Nov. issue never arrived. </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=438#post-5399 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:04:56 +0000 C.C. Finlay 5399@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Eleanor Arnason, "Moby Quilt". </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=416&page=2#post-5398 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:48:48 +0000 mmray31 5398@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>well, i must say that you got a great line up for this December issue!<br /> nice one!<br /> keep it up!<br /> i will look forward seeing that very interesting issue!<br /> :) </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=434#post-5397 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:00:08 +0000 eholst 5397@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Yes, we're still "Issueless in Oregon". Well, I am at any rate.. On the plus side, with all this free time, I've been raiding the back issues and enjoying all the sea stories being posted in another thread. If, in the course of going through this exercise, I come across any stories involving a blind archaeologist it will be duly reported to GVG.</p> <p>Maybe the mystery person who wrote "Holo Victory" stole my December issue? </p> http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/topic.php?id=438#post-5396 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:14:31 +0000 ErikOlson 5396@http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/blog/forum/ <p>Ayuh, Clawdius by Al Michaud. Apr 2005. More of a coastal story. </p> <p>My favorite underwater story is from Galaxy: Surface Tension by James Blish. The ocean is a perfect setting for stories with alien characters. In this case they are also microscopic. </p>