The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh (2004)

The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories, novelettes and novella written by American author C. J. Cherryh between 1977 and 2004. It was first published by DAW Books in 2004. This collection includes the contents of two previous Cherryh collections, Sunfall (1981) and Visible Light (1986), all of the stories from Glass and Amber (1987), stories originally published in other collections and magazines, and one story written specifically for this collection ("MasKs"). Cherryh's 1978 Hugo Award winning story "Cassandra" is also included.

The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh was voted the second best collection in the 2005 Locus Awards.

Background

Cherryh is best known for her science fiction and fantasy novels. Short story writing is an art she never considered until she had several novels published. The compactness and limited characterisation of the short story form did not lend itself well to Cherryh's precise and complex novel construction.

In spite of this, she has proved herself quite capable of working in this medium and this collection as a whole has been well received by critics. "Cassandra" won her a Hugo Award, was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story and the Locus Award for best short story, and in 1999 was named as one of Locus magazine's 50 best science fiction short stories of all time. "A Thief in Korianth" won the 1982 Balrog Award for best short fiction, "The Scapegoat" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella and "Gwydion and the Dragon" was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella. While novels are still her preferred medium, she does enjoy the chance to write short stories, doing so mostly when requested or between other works when a given idea does not lend itself to a novel.

The collection contains almost all the short stories she had published through 2004, with the exception of those published in the various shared world anthologies to which she has contributed.

Contents

This collection is divided into three sections: Sunfall (stories from Cherryh's Sunfall collection plus a new story, "MasKs"), Visible Light (stories from Cherryh's Visible Light collection) and Other Stories (stories from other collections and magazines). The story titles, showing where and when they were originally published, follow.

Sunfall

"Prologue" (Sunfall, C. J. Cherryh, 1981)

"The Only Death in the City (Paris)" – short story (Sunfall, C. J. Cherryh, 1981)

"The Haunted Tower (London)" – novelette (Sunfall, C. J. Cherryh, 1981)

"Ice (Moscow)" – novelette (Sunfall, C. J. Cherryh, 1981)

"Nightgame (Rome)" – short story (Sunfall, C. J. Cherryh, 1981)

"Highliner (New York)" – novelette (Sunfall, C. J. Cherryh, 1981)

"The General (Peking)" – novelette (Sunfall, C. J. Cherryh, 1981)

"MasKs (Venice)" – novelette (2004)

Visible Light

"Frontpiece" (Visible Light, C. J. Cherryh, 1986)

"Cassandra" – short story (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1978)

"Threads of Time" – short story (Darkover Grand Council Program Book IV, 1981)

"Companions" – novella (John W. Campbell Memorial Awards Vol V, ed. George R. R. Martin, 1984)

"A Thief in Korianth" – novelette (Flashing Swords! No 5: Demons and Daggers, ed. Lin Carter, 1981)

"The Last Tower" – short story (Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Winter 1982)

"The Brothers" – novella (Visible Light, C. J. Cherryh, 1986)

"Endpiece" (Visible Light, C. J. Cherryh, 1986)

Other stories

"The Dark King" – short story (The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 3, ed. Lin Carter, 1977)

"Homecoming" – short story (Shayol, Summer 1979)

"The Dreamstone" – short story (Amazons!, ed. Jessica Amanda Salmonson, 1979)

"Sea Change" – short story (Elsewhere, ed. Terri Winding & Mark Alan Arnold, 1981)

"Willow" – novelette (Hecate’s Cauldron, ed. Susan Shwartz, 1982)

"Of Law and Magic" – novelette (Moonsinger’s Friends, ed. Susan Shwartz, 1985)

"The Unshadowed Land" – short story (Sword and Sorceress II, ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1985)

"Pots" – novelette (Afterwar, ed. Janet Morris, 1985)

"The Scapegoat" – novella (Alien Stars, ed. Betsy Mitchell, 1985)

"A Gift of Prophecy" – short story (Glass and Amber, 1987)

"Wings" – short story (Carmen Miranda’s Ghost Is Haunting Space Station Three, ed. Don Sakers, 1989)

"A Much Briefer History of Time" – short story (Drabble II: Double Century, ed. Rob Meades & David B. Wake, 1990)

"Gwydion and the Dragon" – novelette (Once Upon a Time, ed. Lester del Rey & Risa Kessler, 1991)

"Mech" – short story (FutureCrime, ed. Cynthia Manson & Charles Ardai, 1992)

"The Sandman, the Tinman, and the BettyB" – novelette (DAW 30th Anniversary: Science Fiction, ed. Elizabeth R. Wollheim & Sheila E. Gilbert, 2002)

Story plots

The stories in this collection cover a broad range of genres from science fiction and space opera through to fantasy and magic.

Sunfall is a collection of stories set in the far future on an ancient Earth under a dying Sun that is emitting dangerous levels of radiation. Each story deals with a city and how it has evolved to cope with the fading Sun. Paris and New York City have become single self-contained structures with no "outside". In "The Only Death in the City (Paris)" this closed biosphere has resulted in no "new births": everyone who dies is reincarnated again in the city with all the memories of their previous lives. In "Nightgame (Rome)" the nobles wile away their boredom by dreaming dreams captured from less fortunates using an apparatus no one knows the origin of.