Books of short stories where all the stories feature the same character
October 31, 2024 4:16 PM Subscribe
Any recommendations for books of short stories where all of the stories feature the same protagonist (and/or group of recurring characters)? I love fantasy and science fiction, and am open to non-sf/f fiction recs, but don't really like mysteries unless they have a supernatural element.
I want to read more short stories — to learn about the short story form — but I find myself just turning to novels instead because I find it psychologically tiring to "get to know" new characters every 6,000 words. However! I've read a couple books of short stories where all the stories had the same protagonist, with the same handful of secondary characters dropping in and out all the time, and that was just perfect. I enjoy seeing characters' relationships develop over time, and, in general, just hanging out with characters I like.
I know the most obvious example is Sherlock Holmes, but as said above, I don't enjoy mysteries unless they have a sf/fantasy element, or unless the mystery is really, really not the main point, and just exists as window dressing for something else (like a romance). I'm terrible at keeping all little details and plot points straight.
Bonus points for gentleness and humour but open to anything (except straight mystery).
Examples of books I've loved that fit my criteria:
- Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
- The Bone Key, Sarah Monette
- Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz, Garth Nix
- The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by K.J. Charles (technically mystery, but fantasy and romance elements predominate)
I'd also appreciate recs for short stories featuring the same protagonist published across different literary magazines (as-of-yet-uncollected in a single volume). Rebecca Fraimow's Yudah Cohen stories come to mind (1 2 3). In the same vein, Jonathan L. Howard's character Johannes Cabal — he has his own five-volume series now, which is one of my favourites, but I think he started off in various short stories. Would love recs to these loose "story series" as well.
I want to read more short stories — to learn about the short story form — but I find myself just turning to novels instead because I find it psychologically tiring to "get to know" new characters every 6,000 words. However! I've read a couple books of short stories where all the stories had the same protagonist, with the same handful of secondary characters dropping in and out all the time, and that was just perfect. I enjoy seeing characters' relationships develop over time, and, in general, just hanging out with characters I like.
I know the most obvious example is Sherlock Holmes, but as said above, I don't enjoy mysteries unless they have a sf/fantasy element, or unless the mystery is really, really not the main point, and just exists as window dressing for something else (like a romance). I'm terrible at keeping all little details and plot points straight.
Bonus points for gentleness and humour but open to anything (except straight mystery).
Examples of books I've loved that fit my criteria:
- Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
- The Bone Key, Sarah Monette
- Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz, Garth Nix
- The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by K.J. Charles (technically mystery, but fantasy and romance elements predominate)
I'd also appreciate recs for short stories featuring the same protagonist published across different literary magazines (as-of-yet-uncollected in a single volume). Rebecca Fraimow's Yudah Cohen stories come to mind (1 2 3). In the same vein, Jonathan L. Howard's character Johannes Cabal — he has his own five-volume series now, which is one of my favourites, but I think he started off in various short stories. Would love recs to these loose "story series" as well.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. The title character is complex and not always likeable, YMMV.
posted by lizard music at 4:28 PM on October 31 [4 favorites]
posted by lizard music at 4:28 PM on October 31 [4 favorites]
Manly Wade Wellman's John the Balladeer (Appalachian fantasy).
posted by praemunire at 4:36 PM on October 31 [3 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 4:36 PM on October 31 [3 favorites]
Aren't Salinger's Franny and Zooey stories like this? The internet tells me that this collection is one short story and one novella, but the Glass family is in other things.
posted by AbelMelveny at 5:09 PM on October 31
posted by AbelMelveny at 5:09 PM on October 31
Zenna Henderson's The People stories. They were published in various sci-fi magazines and collections over the years, but can all be found together in the one volume compilation Ingathering. Aliens come to Earth and mostly want to be left alone with their amazing powers in the US west.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:35 PM on October 31 [2 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 5:35 PM on October 31 [2 favorites]
You mentioned that you don't really like mysteries unless they have a supernatural element. Have you read any of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series? Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire working as a private investigator in Chicago. Two of the books, "Brief Cases" and "Side Jobs" are short story collections featuring many of the same characters as the main novel series.
I will say up front that the way Butcher writes women in the first couple books is... not super great? But it does get better.
posted by xedrik at 5:40 PM on October 31
I will say up front that the way Butcher writes women in the first couple books is... not super great? But it does get better.
posted by xedrik at 5:40 PM on October 31
The first two Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski are exactly that. Last Wish and Sword of Destiny.
Also the original Robert E. Howard Conan stories remain immensely readable. Ranging from short story to novella in length.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 5:42 PM on October 31
Also the original Robert E. Howard Conan stories remain immensely readable. Ranging from short story to novella in length.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 5:42 PM on October 31
Oh, you want The Cyberiad! Lem's Ijon Tichy stories would also work but Cyberiad is my favorite. Other contenders: Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, and if you're open to graphic novels, any Love and Rockets collection (I favor the Palomar stories and particularly Heartbreak Soup).
posted by babelfish at 5:44 PM on October 31 [4 favorites]
posted by babelfish at 5:44 PM on October 31 [4 favorites]
I have two old school recommendations for you.
Cyrion by Tanith Lee.
Dilvish, the Damned by Roger Zelazny. That's a wikipedia link because I don't know who's currently publishing those books. There's a second book about Dilvish but it's a novel.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 5:58 PM on October 31
Cyrion by Tanith Lee.
Dilvish, the Damned by Roger Zelazny. That's a wikipedia link because I don't know who's currently publishing those books. There's a second book about Dilvish but it's a novel.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 5:58 PM on October 31
Matthew Hughes!
He has a bunch of collections for his various characters, such as Raffalon, Cascor and Baldemar.
posted by fiercekitten at 6:03 PM on October 31
He has a bunch of collections for his various characters, such as Raffalon, Cascor and Baldemar.
posted by fiercekitten at 6:03 PM on October 31
It's older but Dreams Underfoot: A Newford Collection by Charles de Lint ticks your boxes. It's set in the same city with character that are related and sometimes show up in other stories. It also has a supernatural vibe.
posted by stray thoughts at 6:15 PM on October 31 [2 favorites]
posted by stray thoughts at 6:15 PM on October 31 [2 favorites]
Berlin Stories and Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. They are set in Berlin between World War I and World War II, and follow the narrator and his friends, among them Sally Bowles. The stories formed the basis for the Broadway show I Am a Camera, which then led to the Broadway musical Cabaret, which in turn led to the movie Cabaret.
They are great stories, set in cosmopolitan Berlin at the end of the Jazz age as the Nazis are coming to power.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:40 PM on October 31 [2 favorites]
They are great stories, set in cosmopolitan Berlin at the end of the Jazz age as the Nazis are coming to power.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:40 PM on October 31 [2 favorites]
I love this kind of thing so thank you for asking! The Bone Key is one of my favorites too.
Here's a link to the John the Balladeer stories recommended above by praemunire.
These suggestions are not whodunnit mysteries but they are crime focused:
An Elderly Lady series by Helene Tursten
Defender of the Innocent by Lawrence Block
Mysterious Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie
posted by entropyiswinning at 8:10 PM on October 31
Here's a link to the John the Balladeer stories recommended above by praemunire.
These suggestions are not whodunnit mysteries but they are crime focused:
An Elderly Lady series by Helene Tursten
Defender of the Innocent by Lawrence Block
Mysterious Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie
posted by entropyiswinning at 8:10 PM on October 31
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell might fit the bill in an interesting way. Mitchell's books are generally interconnected, mostly through characters. That's the only book of short stories in particular that I've read from him.
posted by Molasses808 at 9:26 PM on October 31 [1 favorite]
posted by Molasses808 at 9:26 PM on October 31 [1 favorite]
I've read 3/4 of your exemplars (Gaskell, Monette, and Nix), and I'd suggest ...
Seanan McGuire, Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots (superheroes--read these in the "VS. The Online Fiction" order and poke around for the book or two of sequels published on LiveJournal)
qntm, There is No Antimemetics Division (SF/Horror/Weird Fiction; the book is composed of the stories "SCP-055" through "Champions of Nothing," free online at the link; posted on MeFi here; update here)
Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming (urban fantasy, sort of)
Hiroshi Yamamoto, MM9 (kaiju stories, linked by the organization working to handle them)
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:57 PM on October 31
Seanan McGuire, Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots (superheroes--read these in the "VS. The Online Fiction" order and poke around for the book or two of sequels published on LiveJournal)
qntm, There is No Antimemetics Division (SF/Horror/Weird Fiction; the book is composed of the stories "SCP-055" through "Champions of Nothing," free online at the link; posted on MeFi here; update here)
Daniel Polansky, A City Dreaming (urban fantasy, sort of)
Hiroshi Yamamoto, MM9 (kaiju stories, linked by the organization working to handle them)
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:57 PM on October 31
nthing John the Balladeer. I came to suggest it but someone was here first
posted by TimHare at 10:11 PM on October 31
posted by TimHare at 10:11 PM on October 31
A couple of the later Anne books (from the series beginning with Anne of Green Gables) are structured this way. L.M. Montgomery pretty clearly got bored of writing straightforward novels about Anne and the last couple books are mostly short stories about her kids and neighbors, sometimes separated by years, with pretty thin overarching plots. The Chronicles of Avonlea books go even further in this direction and are in fact just short story collections about all the randos in Anne's town, as is most of The Blythes Are Quoted.
posted by potrzebie at 10:36 PM on October 31 [1 favorite]
posted by potrzebie at 10:36 PM on October 31 [1 favorite]
The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank is a collection I treasure. It is more along the chick lit/gentle romance line; I find it knowing and wistful.
posted by Erinaceus europaeus at 10:44 PM on October 31
posted by Erinaceus europaeus at 10:44 PM on October 31
WW Jacobs (1863–1943) is mostly remembered for his hallowe'en appropriate story The Monkey's Paw. But he developed (at least) two threaded clans through multiple short stories.
One is the nightwatchman on a London wharf who has a fund of comeuppance tales about three sailors ashore between v'yages. Their names are Peter Russett, old Sam Small and Ginger Dick and they usually contrive to piss all their money away in an astonishing variety of ways almost before they've found lodgings ashore. The stories are simple enough but you want to watch out for the throw-away remarks which are doubly funny because they are unexpected. The innocent are there to be bilked as the sheep are there to be shorn but nobody dies. Peter's Pence is reasonably typical.
After he married, Jacobs moved with his family to the suburb of Loughton in Essex before it got entirely drowned in urban sprawl. He recast the village as 'Claybury' with a pub called the Cauliflower which has a permanent resident in an long retired peasant who idles the days away cadging drinks off passers-by. Anyone who buys the old codger a pint will get a story as sure as you can now get money from an ATM if you have a PIN. But it's delightful how many ways a stranger can be artlessly persuaded to do the right thing by the oldest inhabitant. The anti-hero in this thread of tales is Bob Pretty, the local poacher, fixer and bamboozler who always turns out to be innocent of whatever outrage is committed on the other villagers and is painfully hurt that any of his neighbours would think badly of him.
The whole oeuvre is on-line .
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:37 PM on October 31
One is the nightwatchman on a London wharf who has a fund of comeuppance tales about three sailors ashore between v'yages. Their names are Peter Russett, old Sam Small and Ginger Dick and they usually contrive to piss all their money away in an astonishing variety of ways almost before they've found lodgings ashore. The stories are simple enough but you want to watch out for the throw-away remarks which are doubly funny because they are unexpected. The innocent are there to be bilked as the sheep are there to be shorn but nobody dies. Peter's Pence is reasonably typical.
After he married, Jacobs moved with his family to the suburb of Loughton in Essex before it got entirely drowned in urban sprawl. He recast the village as 'Claybury' with a pub called the Cauliflower which has a permanent resident in an long retired peasant who idles the days away cadging drinks off passers-by. Anyone who buys the old codger a pint will get a story as sure as you can now get money from an ATM if you have a PIN. But it's delightful how many ways a stranger can be artlessly persuaded to do the right thing by the oldest inhabitant. The anti-hero in this thread of tales is Bob Pretty, the local poacher, fixer and bamboozler who always turns out to be innocent of whatever outrage is committed on the other villagers and is painfully hurt that any of his neighbours would think badly of him.
The whole oeuvre is on-line .
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:37 PM on October 31
Arguably The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. For that matter, arguably his Red/Green/Blue Mars books as well.
posted by one for the books at 12:32 AM on November 1
posted by one for the books at 12:32 AM on November 1
This doesn't quite fit, but it's close enough that I think it might work for you. In Helen Dunmore's Love of Fat Men, every other story is about Ulli. Wikipedia, Goodreads.
Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories would work, too.
posted by paduasoy at 1:32 AM on November 1
Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories would work, too.
posted by paduasoy at 1:32 AM on November 1
Larry Niven, The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton. Many books in Spider Robinson's Callahan series.
posted by daveliepmann at 2:39 AM on November 1
posted by daveliepmann at 2:39 AM on November 1
Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit From The Goon Squad, a collection of interlinked short stories mostly set in the music industry, is tip-top.
posted by Beverley Westwood at 6:21 AM on November 1
posted by Beverley Westwood at 6:21 AM on November 1
I think the greatest short story collection is Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson. It fits your criteria.
If you're an audiobook listener, you can get Jesus' Son AND Train Dreams, a fantastic Johnson novella, for one price: Audible or Libro. They're both read perfectly by Will Patton.
posted by dobbs at 6:36 AM on November 1
If you're an audiobook listener, you can get Jesus' Son AND Train Dreams, a fantastic Johnson novella, for one price: Audible or Libro. They're both read perfectly by Will Patton.
posted by dobbs at 6:36 AM on November 1
You'll want to look for "linked short stories." Olive Kitteridge is excellent, as is Monkeys by Susan Minot.
Edit: Also check out Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson. (Anderson was an interesting dude.)
posted by booth at 7:03 AM on November 1 [1 favorite]
Edit: Also check out Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson. (Anderson was an interesting dude.)
posted by booth at 7:03 AM on November 1 [1 favorite]
Aren't Salinger's Franny and Zooey stories like this? The internet tells me that this collection is one short story and one novella, but the Glass family is in other things.
If you're interested in the Glass family (and fans of 'The Royal Tenenbaums' should be, as they're the model) the other stories where members appear are Raise High the Roofbeams Carpenters and Seymour, An Introduction (which, like F & Z, is just two) plus "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (trigger warning), "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" and "Down at the Dinghy" all in Nine Stories.
Hapworth also qualifies, apparently, but I find that one incoherent and not worth your trouble.
posted by Rash at 8:50 AM on November 1
If you're interested in the Glass family (and fans of 'The Royal Tenenbaums' should be, as they're the model) the other stories where members appear are Raise High the Roofbeams Carpenters and Seymour, An Introduction (which, like F & Z, is just two) plus "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (trigger warning), "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" and "Down at the Dinghy" all in Nine Stories.
Hapworth also qualifies, apparently, but I find that one incoherent and not worth your trouble.
posted by Rash at 8:50 AM on November 1
Larry Niven, The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton.
Also his Crashlander, a 1994 compilation of all of the Beowolf Shaeffer stories. That wikipedia page describes the book as a fix-up, a term I first heard in conjunction with Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. (Many more examples listed in that link.)
posted by Rash at 8:58 AM on November 1
Also his Crashlander, a 1994 compilation of all of the Beowolf Shaeffer stories. That wikipedia page describes the book as a fix-up, a term I first heard in conjunction with Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. (Many more examples listed in that link.)
posted by Rash at 8:58 AM on November 1
Very obscure but entirely charming: The Witch Ball and other short stories by Doreen Valiente is a collection of cozy occult mysteries/thrillers set in and around Brighton, UK, all featuring the same pair of main characters as their relationship with each other develops.
posted by heatherlogan at 9:42 AM on November 1 [2 favorites]
posted by heatherlogan at 9:42 AM on November 1 [2 favorites]
Ellen Gilchrist is not so well known as she once was, and her stuff may be dated, but that's exactly what she wrote. All her stories are like that. I have not reread her in many years but she was a huge favorite of mine and I hope that her work has aged well.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:59 PM on November 1
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:59 PM on November 1
You should read some James H Schmitz stories! Here's an article about his recurring character Telzey Amberdon (and it's got a list of books that collect the stories).
https://reactormag.com/girl-power-the-telzey-amberdon-stories-by-james-h-schmitz/
Isaac Asimov also has some stories that fit this criteria - there's some characters that show up in several of his robot stories, and he's also got the "black widowers" mysteries (but I think you said no mysteries)
For something a bit more recent, check out The Liaden Universe. There's a whole bunch of novels, but also several short story collections. https://www.baen.com/a-liaden-universe-constellation.html
posted by elizabot at 3:44 PM on November 1
https://reactormag.com/girl-power-the-telzey-amberdon-stories-by-james-h-schmitz/
Isaac Asimov also has some stories that fit this criteria - there's some characters that show up in several of his robot stories, and he's also got the "black widowers" mysteries (but I think you said no mysteries)
For something a bit more recent, check out The Liaden Universe. There's a whole bunch of novels, but also several short story collections. https://www.baen.com/a-liaden-universe-constellation.html
posted by elizabot at 3:44 PM on November 1
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury comes to mind. Also Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories by Gurney Norman.
posted by gudrun at 6:12 PM on November 1
posted by gudrun at 6:12 PM on November 1
Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit From The Goon Squad
The standalone sequel The Candy House leans a little harder into speculative fiction, too, though there's some of that in Goon Squad as well.
posted by babelfish at 10:12 AM on November 2
The standalone sequel The Candy House leans a little harder into speculative fiction, too, though there's some of that in Goon Squad as well.
posted by babelfish at 10:12 AM on November 2
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posted by robcorr at 4:28 PM on October 31 [1 favorite]