Octavia Butler is SCARY Good [Battle of the Shorts: Week 7]

WEEK SEVEN IS UPON US.

Samuel R. Delany's Nebula-winning "Aye, and Gamorrah" faces off with Robert Sheckley's "A Suppliant in Space," while Octavia Butler's Hugo-winning "Bloodchild" battles Laurence Janifer's obscure short story, "Amfortas."

This week's shoutout:
Follow Tim at @secretfirebooks7894

Tune in every Saturday morning at 9 am CT for a new episode of The Battle of the Shorts!

Week 1
???? Connie Willis – Firewatch VS ❌ Keith Laumer – The Devil You Don’t
???? Robert Bloch – That Hell-Bound Train VS ❌ Ian Watson – Ghost Lecturer

Week 2
❌ Alfred Bester – Adam and No Eve VS ???? Tanith Lee – The Gorgon
❌ Barrington J. Bayley – The Cabinet of Oliver Naylor VS ???? Jack Williamson – With Folded Hands

Week 3
❌ Pat Cadigan – Rock On VS ???? Jack Vance – The Moon Moth
???? Vernor Vinge – Long Shot VS ❌ Avram Davidson – Or All the Seas with Oysters

Week 4
???? Margaret St. Clair – Change the Sky VS ❌ Thomas M. Disch – Descending
???? Roger Zelazny – The Doors of His Face... VS ❌ Barry Malzberg – Leviticus: In the Ark

Week 5
???? Robert Silverberg – Passengers VS ❌ Michael Bishop – The Windows in Dante’s Hell
???? Ursula K. Le Guin – The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas VS ❌ Lewis Shiner – Till Human Voices Wake Us

Week 6
❌ James Blish– The Box VS ???? Frank Herbert – Seed Stock
???? Zenna Henderson – The Anything Box VS ❌ Anne McCaffrey – Weyr Search

Week 7
Samuel R. Delany – Aye, and Gamorrah VS Robert Sheckley – A Suppliant in Space
Octavia Butler – Bloodchild VS Laurence Janifer – Amfortas

Week 8
Norman Spinrad – Carcinoma Angels VS Gregory Benford – In Alien Flesh
Richard Cowper – Out Where the Big Ships Go VS James Gunn – Child of the Sun

Week 9
Dean R. Koontz – A Mouse in the Walls… VS Harry Harrison – The Toy Shop
J.G. Ballard – The Terminal Beach VS Bruce Sterling – Swarm

Week 10
Poul Anderson – Goat Song VS Clifford Simak – The Big Front Yard
A.E. Van Vogt – The Rull VS Andre Norton – The Gifts of Asti

Week 11
Lester Del Rey – Into Thy Hands VS James Tiptree Jr. – The Screwfly Solution (as Racoona Sheldon)
Arthur C. Clarke – The Fires Within VS Kim Stanley Robinson – The Disguise

Week 12
John Varley – Retrograde Summer VS Brian M. Stableford – The Sun’s Tears
Philip Jose Farmer – After King Kong Fell VS R.A. Lafferty – Eurema’s Dream

Week 13
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. – Harrison Bergeron VS Ray Bradbury – There Will Come Soft Rains
C.M. Kornbluth – The Little Black Bag VS A. Merritt – The Women of the Wood

Week 14
Michael Moorcock – Kings in Darkness VS Vonda McIntyre – Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand
Gene Wolfe – The Death of Doctor Island VS Frederic Brown – Arena

Week 15
Tom Reamy – San Diego Lightfoot Sue VS Bob Shaw – The Light of Other Days
George R.R. Martin – A Song for Lya VS Rudy Rucker – Peg-Man

Week 16
Damon Knight – Masks VS William Gibson – Burning Chrome
Kate Wilhelm – Baby You Were Great VS Walter M. Miller Jr. – Crucifix Etiam

Week 17
Harlan Ellison – The Deathbird VS Cordwainer Smith – Scanners Live in Vain
C.L. Moore – No Woman Born VS Christopher Priest – Real-Time World

Week 18
Robert E. Howard – The Temple of Abomination VS William Tenn – Bernie the Faust
C.J. Cherryh – Cassandra VS Isaac Asimov – Nightfall

Week 19
Philip K Dick – Paycheck VS L. Sprague de Camp - The Incorrigible
Judith Merril – That Only a Mother VS James Schmitz – Balanced Ecology

Week 20
John Brunner – The Last Lonely Man VS Leigh Brackett – The Jewel of Bas
Terry Carr – Ozymandias VS Pamela Sargent – Matthew

Week 21
Ron Goulart – The Sword Swallower VS Fritz Leiber – Gonna Roll the Bones
Joan D. Vinge – Tin Soldier VS John Shirley – Uneasy Chrysalids, Our Memories

Week 22
Joe Haldeman – A Time to Live VS Alan Dean Foster – With Friends Like These
Theodore Sturgeon – Thunder and Roses VS Edgar Pangborn – The Golden Horn

Week 23
George Alec Effinger – Schroedinger's Kitten VS Henry Kuttner – Two Handed Engine
Jack Chalker – Dance Band on the Titanic VS Frederik Pohl – Tunnel Under the World

Week 24
Dorris Piserchia – Half the Kingdom VS Gordon Dickson – Call Him Lord
Eric Frank Russell – Allamagoosa VS Joanna Russ – When It Changed

Week 25
Larry Niven – All the Myriad Ways VS John W. Campbell – Who Goes There?
Brian Aldiss – Comic Inferno VS Robert Heinlein – Requiem

Week 26
CHAMPIONSHIP

#sciencefiction #horror #shortstory

0:00 Intro
0:47 Samuel R. Delany - Aye, and Gamorrah
5:17 Robert Sheckley - A Suppliant in Space
10:19 Who Won Matchup 1?!
10:45 Octavia Butler - Bloodchild
16:39 Laurence Janifer - Amfortas
20:16 Who Won Matchup 2?!
20:43 Shoutout TIMMMMMM
21:06 See ya next week!
19:00 See ya next week