Have you seen this obscure SF collection?

November 23, 2008 9:52 PM

Does anybody remember seeing an online collection of 100 very short science fiction stories?

A while back (probably at least a year or so ago) I came across a site that had 100 microfiction SF stories of 100 words each. The main page was a 10 by 10 grid of the numbers from 1 to 100, each linking to a story. Vague, fuzzily-remembered clues follow:

• The layout was extremely minimalistic, with a black-on-white monospace font and no graphics.
• The writing style was reminiscent of this or this.
• It may have been linked from MeFi at some point; I thought I found it via the creepypasta post but none of the links in that thread match my recollection.

Unfortunately, none of these are particularly google-friendly, so I haven't had any luck after repeated searching of MeFi and the web in general. Not being able to remember where I saw this is driving me crazy!

posted by teraflop to writing & language (8 comments total)

Can't help you there, but I can tell you that the prolific nonpareil of short-short sci-fi/fantasy was Fredric Brown. Maybe he factors in your search somewhere. If not, he might make a good "plan B" for you to investigate.
posted by RavinDave at 10:58 PM on November 23, 2008

I thought I remembered reading what you're looking for, but a quick search of my history only turned up a close facsimile (more than 100 words per story, white-on-black text, directory instead of grid index). But it is very similar stylistically, so perhaps you'll get some mileage out of it if the other one doesn't turn up.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:09 PM on November 23, 2008

Not sure, but 365 Tomorrows features a new short (i.e. one or two paragraphs) SF story per day.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:55 AM on November 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

I had a book of 100 extremely short short stories edited by Asimov at one time. Can't remember the name, but a bit of Googling might help.
posted by Dorri732 at 5:30 AM on November 24, 2008

It's not 10x10, but could you be thinking of Michael Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction?
posted by fings at 5:34 AM on November 24, 2008 [2 favorites]

Probably The Drabble Project. 100 stories of 100 words length.
posted by Jabberwocky at 5:57 AM on November 24, 2008

I would just like to point out that the Periodic Table of SF is kinda, sorta totally fucking awesome.

356 Tomorrows is also great, but I would say that cause it's run by a friend.

Thouse two should keep you busy for a while.
posted by The Whelk at 6:57 AM on November 24, 2008

Thanks for all the suggestions! Nope, it's not any of those, but the Periodic Table of SF comes closest. I should clarify that to the best of my knowledge, this was an online-only collection by a single, relatively unknown author, hosted on their personal web site.

I guess it's always possible that it's just dropped off the web since I came across it.
posted by teraflop at 5:32 PM on November 24, 2008