WhatWe get together every other Tuesday and discuss a short science fiction story. |
![]() |
WhenEvery other week - schedule belowTuesday Evenings, 7:00 pm Pacific Time USA | |
WhereSama Coffee Shop downtown San Mateo google map link Email me for the details or join discord!: ernestfrench@gmail.com | |
WhyScience fiction explores the effect of technology (scientific, social, economic, political) on the human condition. |
Date | Story | Author | Year | Link | Length (words) | Number |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Future | Luminous & Dark Integers | Greg Egan | 1995, 2007 | |||
Future | The Lifecycle of Software Objects | Ted Chiang | 2010 | |||
Future | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe | Douglas Adams | 1979 | |||
Future | The Use of Weapons | Iain Banks | 1990 | |||
October 3 2023 | The Last of the Winnebagos | Connie Willis | 1988 | HTML | 20000 | 183 |
September 19 2023 | A Boy and His Dog | Harlan Ellison | 1969 | Goodreads - review this first to see if you're willing to be offended by the story 15:00 interview w/author from 1970 - get a sense of how he was interpreted at the time Short Bio - The Splendid Rage of Harlan Ellison The Story - HTML | 15200 | 182 |
September 5 2023 | Call Me Joe | Poul Anderson | 1957 | HTML | 15200 | 181 |
August 22 2023 | Black Air | Kim Stanley Robinson | 1983 | HTML New location! Downtown San Mateo, see above | 12000 | 180 |
August 8 2023 | Oceanic | Greg Egan | 1998 | HTML | 20000 | 179 |
July 25 | Out of All Them Bright Stars The Wife's Story | Nancy Kress Ursula K Le Guin | 1985 2013 | HTML HTML | 3000 2000 | 178 |
July 11 | We Built This City | Marie Vibbert | 2022 | HTML | 8400 | 177 |
June 20 | Dark Fall | David Weber | 2018 | HTML | 16600 | 176 |
June 6 | Recruiting Exercise | David Weber | 2019 | HTML | 8200 | 175 |
May 23 | The Puce Whale: A Lucifer Jones Story by Mike Resnick | Mike Resnick | 2014 | HTML | 5800 | 174 |
May 9 | Conversations in the Dark | Robert Reed | 2020 | HTML | 13900 | 173 |
April 25 | Defending Elysium | Brandon Sanderson | 2009 | HTML | 14300 | 172 |
April 11 | The Great Automatic Grammatizator | Roald Dahl | 1954 | HTML | 3700 | 171 |
March 28 | The Robot and the Baby | John McCarthy | 2001 | HTML | 4600 | 170 |
March 14, 2023 | Air Raid | John Varley | 1976 | HTML | 5300 | 169 |
February 28, 2023 | The Shadow Over Innsmouth | HP Lovecraft | 1931 | Youtube Audio | 3:05 | 168 |
January 31, 2023 | Dream Factory | Greg Egan | 2021 | HTML | 10000 | 167 |
January 17, 2023 | The Ghost Eaters | Spencer Ellsworth | 2021 | HTML | 4000 | 166 |
January 3, 2023 | They're Made out of Meat Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0 | Terry Bisson Caroline M. Yoachim | 1991 2016 | HTML HTML | Both Short | 165 |
December 20, 2022 | Overtime | Charles Stross | 2009 | HTML | 8000 words | 164 |
December 6, 2022 | Speech Sounds | Octavia Butler | 1983 | 5100 words | 163 | |
November 22, 2022 | Suzanne Delage | Gene Wolfe | 1980 | HTML | 2300 words | 162 |
November 8, 2022 | The Library of Babel Timekeepers' Symphony | Jorge Luis Borges Ken Liu | 1941 2022 | PDF
HTML | 3200 words 6300 word | 161 |
September 27, 2022 | The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas | Ursula Le Guin | 1973 | HTML | 4000 words | 160 |
September 13, 2022 | Eager Readers in Your Area! | Alexander Wales | 2022 | HTML | 3400 words | 159 |
August 30, 2022 | Last Shot | Angela Makholwa | 2021 | HTML | 4400 words | 158 |
August 16, 2022 | The Coffin Cure | Alan E Nourse | 1957 | HTML | 40:56 | 157 |
August 2, 2022 | Rat Catcher's Yellows | Charlie Jane Anders | 2022 | HTML | 4300 | 156 |
July 5, 2022 | To Build a fire | Jack London | 1902 | HTML | 12500 | 155 |
June 28, 2022 | Snow Crash (chapter 21-end) | Neal Stephenson | 1992 | Ernie can lend one | ~300 more pages | 154 |
June 7, 2022 | Snow Crash (Chapter 6-20) | Neal Stephenson | 1992 | Ernie can lend one | ~200 more pages | 153 |
May 24, 2022 | Snow Crash (Chapter 1-5) | Neal Stephenson | 1992 | Ernie can lend one | ~50 pages | 152 |
May 10, 2022 | Everything Everywhere All At Once | Daniels | 2022 | Movie Theater | 140min | 151 |
April 26, 2022 | Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom | Ted Chiang | 2019 | HTML | 20500 | 150 |
April 12, 2022 | Divided by Infinity | Robert Charles Wilson | 1998 | HTML | 8800 | 149 |
March 15, 2022 | Sandkings | George R.R. Martin | 1979 | Pdf Youtube Audio | 15000 2h 4m | 148 |
February 15, 2022 | Staying Behind | Ken Liu | 2011 | HTML | 5000 | 147 |
February 1, 2022 | Neopastorialism Pipes | Unknown Robert Reed | 2022 1992 | PasteBin HTML | 1600 5300 | 146 |
January 18, 2022 | #IFDEFDEBUG + 'WORLD/ENOUGH' + 'TIME' | Terry Pratchett | 1990 | Epub | 5300 | 145 |
January 4, 2022 | Writing event | US! | 2021 | 144 | ||
December 21, 2021 | The Machine Stops SFSFSS Awards Ceremony | EM Forster | 1909 2021 | PDF email for link | 12000 | 143 |
December 7, 2021 | Predictions for 2025! Monster | Naomi Kritzer | 2021 | Email for link HTML | 10000 | 142 |
November 23, 2021 | MMAcavedo God Mode The Last But One Question | qntm | 2021 2003 2006 | HTML HTML HTML | 1900 1400 900 | 141 |
November 9, 2021 | Softlight Sins | Peter F Hamilton | 1997 | HTML | 5700 | 140 |
October 26, 2021 | Dune Movie Discussion | Denis Villeneuve | 2021 | Theater | 155 min | 138 |
October 19, 2021 | Blood Wedding | Robert Reed | 2017 | HTML | 10000 | 137 |
September 28, 2021 | Slow Life | Michael Swanwick | 2002 | HTML | 8500 | 136 |
September 14, 2021 | The People of Sand and Slag | Paolo Bacigalupi | 2004 | HTML | 7500 | 135 |
August 31, 2021 | Creator | David Lake | 1979 | HTML | 10100 | 134 |
August 17, 2021 | The Call of Cthulhu | HP Lovecraft | 1926 | HTML Audio | 11900 80 minutes | 133 |
July 20, 2021 | All Tomorrows | AltShiftX & CM Kösemen | 2012 | Video | 40 minutes | 132 |
July 13, 2021 | Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death | James Tiptree, Jr. | 1973 | HTML | 6600 | 131 |
June 22, 2021 | The Trojan Girl | N. K. Jemisin | 2011 | HTML | 6500 | 130 |
June 8, 2021 | Mountain Ways | Ursula K Le Guin | 1996 | HTML | 9500 | 129 |
May 25, 2021 combined in-person and online meetup! | Dave Scum | Ian Duncan | 2019 | GDoc Complete | 16000 | 128 |
May 11, 2021 | Dave Scum | Ian Duncan | 2019 | GDoc (Through chapter 10) | 26000 | 127 |
April 27, 2021 | Dave Scum | Ian Duncan | 2019 | GDoc (First 3 chapters) | 10000 | 126 |
April 13, 2021 | Truth Plus Own Goal | Jamie Wahls Dennard Dayle | 2019 2020 | HTML HTML | 4500 3600 | 125 |
March 16, 2021 | Time In Advance | William Tenn | 1956 | HTML | 12500 | 124 |
March 2, 2021 | The Dying Man | Damon Knight | 1957 | HTML | 14500 | 123 |
February 16, 2021 | The Way of Cross and Dragon | George R R Martin | 1979 | Youtube Audio | 59 minutes | 122 |
February 2, 2021 | Madness Has Its Place | Larry Niven | 1990 | HTML | 9500 | 121 |
January 19, 2021 | Writing Event 3 | US | 2021 | Write one short story and share | 120 | |
January 5, 2021 | Permutation City extract | Greg Egan | 1994 | HTML | 4700 | 119 |
December 22, 2020 | Predictions for 2040 | US | Email for link | 118 | ||
December 8, 2020 | Stream of Consciousness | Robert J Sawyer | 1997 | Html | 4000 | 117 |
November 24, 2020 | The Crystal Spheres | David Brin | 2018 | Html | 6700 | 116 |
November 10, 2020 | A Walk In The Sun | Geoffrey A. Landis | 1995 | Html | 6600 | 115 |
October 27, 2020 | The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi | Pat Cadigan | 2012 | Html | 8800 | 114 |
October 13, 2020 | Lighthouse Cool Neighbor (Bonus Story) | Michael Shara & Jack Mcdevitt Michael Shara & Jack Mcdevitt | 2006 2007 | Html | 6500 7200 | 113 |
September 29, 2020 | Arena | Frederic Brown | 1944 | Youtube Audio | 67 Minutes 9500 | 112 |
September 15, 2020 | The Evening and the Morning and the Night | Octavia Butler | 1987 | 8500 | 111 | |
September 1, 2020 | The Passage Home | Localroger | 2013 | HTML | 7200 | 110 |
August 18, 2020 | Manifest Logic | Crispin Cooper | 2019 | HTML | 5900 | 109 |
August 3, 2020 | Bitterblooms | George R R Martin | 1977 | Youtube Audio | 80 minutes | 108 |
July 21, 2020 | Brooklyn Project | William Tenn | 1947 | HTML | 4100 | 107 |
July 7, 2020 | The Phantom of Kansas | John Varley | 1976 | HTML | 15000 | 106 |
June 23, 2020 | We Can Remember It For You Wholesale | Philip K Dick | 1966 | Youtube Audio | 51 minutes | 105 |
June 9, 2020 | Zima Blue | Alistair Reynolds | 2006 | 7500 | 104 | |
May 26, 2020 | The Face of the Deep | Fred Saberhagen | 1966 | HTML | 3400 | 103 |
May 12, 2020 | The Fermi Paradox is Our Business Model | Charlie Jane Anders | 2010 | HTML | 4000 | 102 |
April 28, 2020 | CORDYCEPS: Too clever for their own good (Chapter 11-26) | Benedict_SC | 2016 | HTML | 16100 | 101 |
April 14, 2020 | CORDYCEPS: Too clever for their own good (Chapter 1-10) | Benedict_SC | 2016 | HTML | 14000 | 100 |
March 31, 2020 | And Seven Times Never Kill Man | George R. R. Martin | 1975 | 9000 | 99 | |
March 17, 2020 | Out of All Them Bright Stars | Nancy Kress | 1985 | HTML | 7000 | 98 |
March 3, 2020 | The Giving Plague | David Brin | 1987 | HTML | 7000 | 97 |
Feb 18, 2020 | The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family | Usman T. Malik | 2014 | HTML | 6000 | 96 |
Feb 4, 2020 | The Veldt | Ray Bradbury | 1950 | 5600 | 95 | |
Jan 21, 2020 | At Any Price | Donald S. Crankshaw and Matthew Bailey | 2019 | HTML | 5600 | 94 |
Jan 7, 2020 | Collateral And finishing up discussing predictions! | Peter Watts | 2019 | HTML | 9300 | 93 |
Dec 17, 2019 | We write stories Round 3! | US | 2019 | 92 | ||
Dec 10, 2019 | Predictions Night! How well can you predict the scientific and technological future? | |||||
Dec 10, 2019 | Sunken Garden | Bruce Sterling | 1985 | 5700 | 91 | |
November 26, 2019 | Exhalation | Ted Chiang | 2008 | HTML | 6500 | 90 |
November 26, 2019 | Awards Ceremony for 2019! Pick the best and worst story of 2019. Custom awards too! | |||||
November 19, 2019 | In the House of the Worm | George R R Martin | 1976 | Youtube Audio | 116 minutes | 89 |
November 5, 2019 | Ad Astra | James Gray | 2019 | Movie Theater | 124 minutes | 88 |
October 22, 2019 | Zeitgeber | Greg Egan | 2019 | HTML | 10400 | 87 |
October 8, 2019 | The Children's Crusade | Robert Reed | 2002 | HTML | 10800 | 86 |
September 24, 2019 | The Voice of the Dolphins | Leo Szilard | 1961 | HTML (click html) | 16000 | 85 |
September 10, 2019 | The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar | Roald Dahl | 1977 | HTML (6 parts) | ~14000 | 84 |
August 27, 2019 | Twilight Zone Season 1 episode 8 - Time Enough At Last Season 3 episode 24 - To Serve Man season 5 episode 3 - Nightmare at 20,000 feet | Rod Sterling | 1960 | (Netflix) | 1:30 | 83 |
August 6, 2019 | The Jaguar Hunter | Lucius Shepard | 1985 | HTML | 10400 | 82 |
July 23, 2019 | Ziggarut | Gene Wolfe | 1995 | HTML | 27000 | 81 |
July 9, 2019 | The Matter of Seggri | Ursula K. Le Guin | 1994 | HTML | 16000 | 80 |
June 25, 2019 | The Gold at the Starbow's End | Frederik Pohl | 1972 | HTML | 21300 | 79 |
June 11, 2019 | The Woman Who Destroyed Us | S. L. Huang | 2018 | HTML | 11200 | 78 |
May 28, 2019 | Song for Lya | George R.R. Martin | 1976 | HTML | 24100 | 77 |
May 14, 2019 | Taklaman | Bruce Sterling | 1999 | HTML | 15600 | 76 |
April 30, 2019 | Meat And Salt And Sparks | Rich Larson | 2018 | HTML | 7400 | 75 |
April 18, 2019 | Dune, third chapter: The Prophet | Frank Herbert | 1965 | Audible | 5:20 hours | 74 |
April 9, 2019 | Dune, second chapter: Maud'dib | Frank Herbert | 1965 | Audible | 7:00 hours | 73 |
April 2, 2019 | Dune, first chapter: Dune | Frank Herbert | 1965 | Audible | 7:03 hours | 72 |
March 19, 2019 | Blood, Bone, Seed, Spark | Aimee Ogden | 2018 | Html | 9700 | 71 |
March 5, 2019 | Solution Unsatisfactory | Robert Heinlein | 1941 | Html | 16000 | 70 |
February 19, 2019 | Mika Model | Paolo Bacigalupi | 2016 | Html | 4300 | 69 |
February 5, 2019 | The Door in the Wall | HG Wells | 1910 | Html | 6900 | 68 |
January 22, 2019 | The Library of Babel | Jorge Luis Borges | 1941 | Html | 3000 | 67 |
January 8, 2019 | Beyond the Black River | Robert Howard | 1935 | Html | 21900 | 66 |
December 18, 2018 | We need to talk about fifty-five SCP-55 Introductory Antimemetics | The Internet | 2010s | Html
Html Html | 2600
900 3400 | 65 |
December 4, 2018 | When We Were Starless | Simone Heller | 2018 | Html | 13200 | 64 |
November 20, 2018 | Beyond Bedlam | Wyman Guin | 1951 | Html | 21500 | 63 |
November 6, 2018 | Second Variety | Philip K Dick | 1953 | Html | 15300 | 62 |
October 23, 2018 | Flowers for Algernon | Daniel Keyes | 1959 | Html | 12000 | 61 |
October 9, 2018 | Guest Law | John C Wright | 1997 | Youtube Audio
| 45:00 7700 | 60 |
October 2, 2018 | Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand | Vonda McIntyre | 1973 | Html | 7400 | 59 |
September 25, 2018 | Sandkings | George R.R. Martin | 1979 | Pdf Youtube Audio | 15000 2h 4m | 58 |
September 18, 2018 | Fondly Fahrenheit | Alfred Bester | 1954 | Html | 6800 | 57 |
September 11, 2018 | On the Orion Line | Stephen Baxter | 2007 | Html | 13000 | 56 |
September 4, 2018 | The State of the Art | Iain M Banks | 1991 | Youtube Audio | 45 minutes | 56 |
August 28, 2018 | Legions in Time | Michael Swanwick | 2004 | Html | 9300 | 54 |
August 21, 2018 | Steve Fever | Greg Egan | 2006 | Html | 6200 | 53 |
August 14, 2018 | Houston, Houston, Do You Read? | James Tiptree, Jr. aka Alice Sheldon | 1969 | Html | 21900 | 52 |
August 7, 2018 | Stories by group members - come if you've written one | Us! | 2018 | One day's worth! | 51 | |
July 31, 2018 | Johnny Mnemonic | William Gibson | 1982 | Html | 5700 | 50 |
July 24, 2018 | Planning our next writing event | Us! | 2018 | 49 | ||
July 17, 2018 | Wings The Mountains Of Sunset, The Mountains Of Dawn | Vonda McIntyre Vonda McIntyre | 1974 1974 | Html | 5600 5000 | 48 |
July 10, 2018 | By His Bootstraps | Robert Heinlein | 1941 | Html | 20500 | 46 |
July 3, 2018 | Tower of Babel | Ted Chiang | 1990 | Html | 8145 | 45 |
June 26, 2018 | Yellow Card Man | Paolo Bacigalupi | 2007 | Html | 14500 | 44 |
June 19, 2018 | Weaponized Math | Jonathan Brazee | 2017 | Docx | 10000 | 43 |
June 12, 2018 | Swarm | Bruce Sterling | 1983 | Html | 9700 | 42 |
June 5, 2018 | Wind Will Rove | Sarah Pinkster | 2017 | 14600 | 41 | |
May 29, 2018 | Glimwarden prologue & chapters 1-2 | Alexander Wales | 2016 | Html | 12600 | 40 |
May 22, 2018 | Blood Child | Octavia Butler | 1995 | Html | 7600 | 39 |
May 15, 2018 | Melancholy Elephants | Spider Robinson | 1982 | 10 pages | 38 | |
May 8, 2018 | The Night Whiskey | Jeffrey Ford | 2007 | Html | 10000 | 37 |
May 1, 2018 | Incarnation Day | Walter John Williams | 2007 | Html | 15800 | 36 |
April 25, 2018 | The Martian Obelisk | Linda Nagata | 2017 | Html | 5900 | 35 |
April 18, 2018 | We write stories! (time limit 1 day) | Us! | 2018 | Journal 4, Upper Reaches, Rat Race, Artificial Selection | 34 | |
April 11, 2018 | The Seventh Voyage | Stanislaw Lem | 1957 | Html - Youtube Audio | 7000 / 31 minutes | 33 |
April 4, 2018 | For Want of a Nail | Mary Robinette Kowal | 2011 | Html | 7300 | 32 |
March 28, 2018 | Tk'tk'tk | David D Levine | 2006 | Html | 6600 | 31 |
March 21, 2018 | The Tenth Muse | Tad Williams | 2009 | Audio | 60 minutes | 30 |
March 14, 2018 | Annihilation | Alex Garland | 2018 | Movie | 120 minutes | 29 |
March 7, 2018 | Utopia, LOL? | Jamie Wahls | 2017 | Html | 5000 | 28 |
February 28, 2018 | Birthdays | Fred Saberhagen | 1976 | Html | 15500 | 27 |
February 21, 2018 | Forgetfulness | Don A Stuart | 1937 | Html | 10700 | 26 |
February 14, 2018 | The Tale of the Wicked | John Scalzi | 2013 | Html | 7800 | 25 |
February 7, 2018 | What Have I Done | Mark Clifton | 1952 | Html | 6800 | 24 |
January 31, 2018 | Nine Lives | Ursula K. Le Guin | 1969 | Html | 10700 | 23 |
January 24, 2018 | Colosseum | Blake Stone-Banks | 2017 | Html | 8500 / 35m | 22 |
January 17, 2018 | Blood Music | Greg Bear | 1983 | Html | 9000 | 21 |
January 10, 2018 | A Billion Eves | Robert Reed | 2006 | Html | 22900 | 20 |
January 3, 2018 | The Persistence of Vision | John Varley | 1978 | Html | 20000 | 19 |
December 13, 2018 | Second Game | Katherine MacLean & Charles V De Vet | 1958 | Html | 16200 | 18 |
December 6, 2017 | Videostar | Walter John Williams | 1986 | Html | 12400 | 17 |
November 29, 2017 | All the Birds of Hell | Tanith Lee | 1998 | Html | 8300 | 16 |
November 22, 2017 | Take Your Time The War on Yourself | Nicky Case Nicky Case | 2017 2017 | Html Html | 3100 2400 | 15 |
November 15, 2017 | The Things | Peter Watts | 2010 | Html - mp3 | 6800 - 53 minutes | 14 |
November 8, 2017 | Little Faces | Vonda N. McIntyre | 2010 | Html - Mp3 | 15300 - 93 minutes | 13 |
October 31, 2017 (First Contact) | Ambassador The Game of Rat and Dragon | Peter Watts Cordwaiter Smith | 1954 2000 | Pdf Html | 3500 5700 | 12 |
October 24, 2017 | Understand | Ted Chiang | 1991 | Audio | 109 minutes | 11 |
October 17, 2017 | I, Robot | Cory Doctorow | 2005 | Html | 15400 | 10 |
October 10, 2017 | The Exterminator's Want Ad | Bruce Sterling | 2010 | Html | 4300 | 9 |
October 3, 2017
(Two internet stories) |
And I Show you how Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes
The Egg | Scott Alexander Andy Weir | 2015 2009 | Html Html | 6500 1000 | 8 |
September 26, 2017 | Equinoctal | John Varley | 1977 | Html | 18000 | 7 |
September 19, 2017 | Maneki Neko | Bruce Sterling | 2011 | Html | 5600 | 6 |
September 12, 2017 | Palimpsest | Charles Stross | 2009 | Html | 27500 | 5 |
September 5, 2017 | The Last Answer | Isaac Asimov | 1980 | Html | 2600 | 4 |
August 22, 2017 | The Last Question | Isaac Asimov | 1956 | Html | 4500 | 3 |
August 8, 2017 | Blessed by an Angel | Peter F Hamilton | 2007 | Html | 6500 | 2 |
July 25, 2017 | Glory | Greg Egan | 2007 | 10500 | 1 | |
Group calendar in ICS format
Direct google calendar link - click "+" in lower right to follow it | ||||||
Send me your suggestions for group readings! |
Last modified November 28, 2021