26Shorts2026: prompt --- set in space

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                  🔷     26 Shorts for 2026
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                  🔷      prompt: SET IN SPACE
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Discuss and share - topic: set in space.

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Completed prompt / 🎉
"set in space" read January 22

Green Hills of Earth" Robert A. Heinlein, 1947 5 stars

Nothing could be more "set in space" than this story set in space. I've always thought I should read some Heinlein. I was right.

This is a short space opera, a ballad, and a touch of adventuring space cowboy.

The main character is hero Rhysling, nicknamed "Noisy Rhysling." He is an old school "jetman" second class, flying all over the Spaceways and in between flights stopping in at all the bars where he would belt out his original verses to the ruckus joy of his fellow imbibers, especially made ruckus by the bawdy ones.

The Rhysling's legend begins in earnest when he is blinded after being blasted by radiation. It is then his most famous work--the one that every Terra's son and daughter knows, even those that have never set foot on their home planet--is finalized, the ballad "Green Hills of Earth."

A really excellent story. You yourself will even feel a little pride in Terra's most famous space bard.

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I read online here https://www.sjsu.edu/people/edwin.sams/courses/English22/s1/GreenHillsOfEarthByR... back when a 200 plus page collection The Saturday Evening Post Reader of Fantasy and Science Fiction would set you back only 25 cents.
My full 26Shorts2026 log is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/376315

This is one of the 8 stories I am reading for this prompt, 7 will be from Science Fiction Collection published by Golden Quill Classicsl.

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Finished Reading /📘

                                                      ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 Night Call, Collect by Ray Bradbury ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗
                                                                   ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 12th April 2026, 3.5* ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗

This is an eerie tale of isolation and loneliness compounded by youthful naivety and holding on to hope. Barton, stuck on Mars has been wanting to go back homer for decades.




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here's a rundown of how I'm getting on with this challenge so far:

My ShortRead log tracks my challenge and comments on how I found those reads, message 3 also summarises in table form my progress.

So far I've completed 9 prompts, I'm going for 32 and aiming to complete 3 prompts per month.

My experience of reading short stories is in my journal, and random jots and quotes as I read short stories can be found in my short story workbook .

the first from Science Fiction Collection published by Golden Quill Classicsl.

                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Finished Reading /📘

                                                                                           
                                                     
                                                      ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 Death Traps of FX-31 by Sewell Wright read from The Science Fiction Collection ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗
                                                                   ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 21st April 2026, 3* ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗

This is first of the 8 stories I’m reading before reading to the shorts in The Big Book of Cyberpunk vol 1.

John Hanson, recalls when he was a commander of a space ship is basically told he will take 3 scientists to a planet where they are to protect them as they investigate unknown life-form in the shape of big spiders. There’s a couple of twists, and some action against those big spiders. I won’t give away how it ends but it was a fun read.

I was looking into this story to discover that John Hansion is a series, other stories by Sewell Wright of John Hansion adventures are:

• Vampires of Space (1932)
• Priestess of the Flame (1932)
• The Terror from the Depths (1931)

Second story from Science Fiction Collection published by Golden Quill Classicsl.

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                                                      ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 Death Wish by Ned Lang read from The Science Fiction Collection ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗
                                                                   ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 28th April 2026, 4.5* ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗

This is second of the 8 stories I’m reading before reading to the shorts in The Big Book of Cyberpunk vol 1.

This is hilarious, a fun entertaining read, a touch dark and ahead of its time with proto-AI. The 3-space crew find themselves in a difficult situation unsolvable by humans, when the computer on board has the answer, it’s not the one they are looking for.

third story from Science Fiction Collection published by Golden Quill Classicsl.

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                                                      ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 What is POSAT? by Phyllis Sterling-Smith read from The Science Fiction Collection ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗
                                                                   ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 2nd May 2026, 3* ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗

An intriguing read with its mystery with a quest driven my curiosity and paranoia to learn the truth about an ancient cult, but what transpires left me with a mixture of surprise and a bit of a letdown, having said that it was good to come across a science fiction by a woman author from the 1950s.

fourth story from Science Fiction Collection published by Golden Quill Classicsl.

                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                                                                                                                   
                                                      ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 The Celestial Hammerlock by Donald Colvin read from The Science Fiction Collection ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗
                                                                   ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 8th May 2026, 3* ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗

Light in tone, and a battle of upmanship between employee and employer, what it was suggesting was a touch troubling for me but I think like What is POSAT?, it another story in this collection that was making a petition for peace, both were written in 1951.

My favourite part was the opening, just what I needed after a few heavyish reads, the lightness of this made me laugh:

SPACEGRAM

From: Jed Michaels,
Ryttuk, Eros

To: H. E. Horrocks,
Interplanetary Amusement Corp.,
Cosmopolis, Earth

I QUIT, YOU BALLOON BRAIN.

JED

fifth story from Science Fiction Collection published by Golden Quill Classicsl.

                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                                                                                                                   
                                                      ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 The One Martian Afternoon by Tom Leahy read from The Science Fiction Collection ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗
                                                                   ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 8th May 2026, 3* ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗

The writing is a touch dated but creepy, the sweet old lady is not all that she seems, reminding me of Hansel and Gretel and the danger they could have been in.

sixth story from Science Fiction Collection published by Golden Quill Classicsl.

                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                                                                                                                   
                                                      ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 Blind Spot by Bascom Jones read from The Science Fiction Collection ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗
                                                                   ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 9th May 2026, 4* ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗

Compared to some of the others in this collection this story had a more contemporary feel. A poignant read of how things can change quickly from good to really bad, here the trigger is being in love in a dystopian world where Martians are the underlings with little rights after being colonised by Earth.

seventh story from Science Fiction Collection published by Golden Quill Classicsl.

                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                                                                                                                   
                                                      ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 Show Business by Boyd Ellanby read from The Science Fiction Collection ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗
                                                                   ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 11th May 2026, 3.5* ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗

The story didn’t build-up enough for me to find the yarn being spun about Martians credible but I enjoyed the writing of this one.

Completed prompt / 🎉

eigth story from Science Fiction Collection published by Golden Quill Classicsl.

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                                                      ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 Vital Ingredient by Charles De Vet read from The Science Fiction Collection✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗
                                                                   ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗 11th May 2026, 3.5* ✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗✔️📗

This is another story I’ve read from this collection that philosophised on problems arising when assumptions of another culture are made from guess-work than knowledge, here it’s a race of Martians. And what a disaster, this is the kind of story that reminds me to have competent doctors when going in for surgery.

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here's a rundown of how I'm getting on with this challenge so far:

My ShortRead log tracks my challenge and comments on how I found those reads, message 3 also summarises in table form my progress.

So far I've completed 12 prompts, I'm going for 32 and aiming to complete 3 prompts per month.

My experience of reading short stories is in my journal, and random jots and quotes as I read short stories can be found in my short story workbook .