33 writers. 5 designers. 6-word science fiction.
We'll be brief: Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work. So we asked sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games to take a shot themselves.
Dozens of our favorite auteurs put their words to paper, and five master graphic designers took them to the drawing board. Sure, Arthur C. Clarke refused to trim his ("God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' The universe ceased to exist."), but the rest are concise masterpieces.
Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket.
- William Shatner
Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?
- Eileen Gunn
Vacuum collision. Orbits diverge. Farewell, love.
- David Brin
Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
- Joss Whedon
Automobile warranty expires. So does engine.
- Stan Lee
Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
- Alan Moore
Longed for him. Got him. Shit.
- Margaret Atwood
His penis snapped off; he’s pregnant!
- Rudy Rucker
From torched skyscrapers, men grew wings.
- Gregory Maguire
Internet “wakes up?” Ridicu -
no carrier.
- Charles Stross
With bloody hands, I say good-bye.
- Frank Miller
Wasted day. Wasted life. Dessert, please.
- Steven Meretzky
“Cellar?” “Gate to, uh … hell, actually.”
- Ronald D. Moore
Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth.
- Vernor Vinge
It cost too much, staying human.
- Bruce Sterling
We kissed. She melted. Mop please!
- James Patrick Kelly
It’s behind you! Hurry before it
- Rockne S. O’Bannon
I’m your future, child. Don’t cry.
- Stephen Baxter
1940: Young Hitler! Such a cantor!
- Michael Moorcock
Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses.
- Richard Powers
I’m dead. I’ve missed you. Kiss … ?
- Neil Gaiman
The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
- Orson Scott Card
Kirby had never eaten toes before.
- Kevin Smith
Rained, rained, rained, and never stopped.
- Howard Waldrop
To save humankind he died again.
- Ben Bova
We went solar; sun went nova.
- Ken MacLeod
Husband, transgenic mistress; wife: “You cow!”
- Paul Di Filippo
“I couldn’t believe she’d shoot me.”
- Howard Chaykin
Don’t marry her. Buy a house.
- Stephen R. Donaldson
Broken heart, 45, WLTM disabled man.
- Mark Millar
TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …
- Harry Harrison
Tick tock tick tock tick tick.
- Neal Stephenson
Easy. Just touch the match to
- Ursula K. Le Guin
Special Web-only edition: We were unable to include these 59 stories in the print magazine.
New genes demand expression -- third eye.
- Greg Bear
K.I.A. Baghdad, Aged 18 - Closed Casket
- Richard K. Morgan
WORLD'S END. Sic transit gloria Monday.
- Gregory Benford
Epitaph: He shouldn't have fed it.
- Brian Herbert
Batman Sues Batsignal: Demands Trademark Royalties.
- Cory Doctorow
Heaven falls. Details at eleven.
- Robert Jordan
Bush told the truth. Hell froze.
- William Gibson
whorl. Help! I'm caught in a time
- Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel
Nevertheless, he tried a third time.
- James P. Blaylock
God to Earth: “Cry more, noobs!”
- Marc Laidlaw
Help! Trapped in a text adventure!
- Marc Laidlaw
Thought I was right. I wasn't.
- Graeme Gibson
Lost, then found. Too bad.
- Graeme Gibson
Three to Iraq. One came back.
- Graeme Gibson
Rapture postponed. Ark demanded! Which one?
- David Brin
Dinosaurs return. Want their oil back.
- David Brin
Bang postponed. Not Big enough. Reboot.
- David Brin
Temporal recursion. I'm dad and mom?
- David Brin
Time Avenger's mistaken! It wasn't me...
- David Brin
Democracy postponed. Whence franchise? Ask Diebold...
- David Brin
Cyborg seeks egg donor, object ___.
- David Brin
Deadline postponed. Five words enough...?
- David Brin
Metrosexuals notwithstanding, quiche still lacks something.
- David Brin
Brevity’s virtue? Wired saves adspace. Subscribe!
- David Brin
Death postponed. Metastasized cells got organized.
- David Brin
Microsoft gave us Word. Fiat lux?
- David Brin
Mind of its own. Damn lawnmower.
- David Brin
Singularity postponed. Datum missing. Query Godoogle?
- David Brin
Please, this is everything, I swear.
- Orson Scott Card
I saw, darling, but do lie.
- Orson Scott Card
Osama’s time machine: President Gore concerned.
- Charles Stross
Sum of all fears: AND patented.
- Charles Stross
Ships fire; princess weeps, between stars.
- Charles Stross
Mozilla devastates Redmond, Google’s nuke implicated.
- Charles Stross
Will this do (lazy writer asked)?
- Ken MacLeod
Cryonics: Disney thawed. Mickey gnawed. Omigawd.
- Eileen Gunn
WIRED stimulates the planet: Utopia blossoms!
- Paul Di Filippo
Clones demand rights: second Emancipation Proclamation.
- Paul Di Filippo
MUD avatars rebel: virtual Independence Day.
- Paul Di Filippo
We crossed the border; they killed us.
- Howard Waldrop
H-bombs dropped; we all died.
- Howard Waldrop
Your house is mine: soft revolution.
- Howard Waldrop
Warskiing; log; prop in face.
- Howard Waldrop
The Axis in WWII: haiku! Gesundheit.
- Howard Waldrop
Salinger story: three koans in fountain.
- Howard Waldrop
Finally, he had no more words.
- Gregory Maguire
There were only six words left.
- Gregory Maguire
In the beginning was the word.
- Gregory Maguire
Commas, see, add, like, nada, okay?
- Gregory Maguire
Weeping, Bush misheard Cheney’s deathbed advice.
- Gregory Maguire
Corpse parts missing. Doctor buys yacht.
- Margaret Atwood
Starlet sex scandal. Giant squid involved.
- Margaret Atwood
He read his obituary with confusion.
- Steven Meretzky
Time traveler's thought: "What's the password?"
- Steven Meretzky
I win lottery. Sun goes nova.
- Steven Meretzky
Steve ignores editor's word limit and
- Steven Meretzky
Leia: "Baby's yours." Luke: "Bad news…"
- Steven Meretzky
Parallel universe. Bush, destitute, joins army.
- Steven Meretzky
Dorothy: "Fuck it, I'll stay here."
- Steven Meretzky
Contributors
To produce our special collection of 6-word sci-fi stories, we enlisted some of our favorite writers and graphic designers.
MARGARET ATWOOD's sixth collection of short fiction, The Tent, was published in January.
STEPHEN BAXTER has written more than a dozen sci-fi novels and more than 100 short stories.
BEN BOVA received the Arthur C. Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award for his many books and anthologies.
DAVID BRIN earned a doctorate in space physics from UC San Diego before becoming an award-winning sci-fi author.
ORSON SCOTT CARD is the author of Ender's Game and last year's comic Ultimate Iron Man.
HOWARD CHAYKIN's five-issue adaptation of DC Comics' Hawkgirl concluded this summer.
ARTHUR C. CLARKE is the author of dozens of novels, most notably 2001: A Space Odyssey.
PAUL DI FILIPPO's newest batch of stories, Shuteye for the Timebroker, was released in April.
STEPHEN R. DONALDSON's eighth installment in the Thomas Covenant series will be published in 2007 – just two more to go.
STEPHEN DOYLE, the creative director at Doyle Partners, is a former associate art director of Rolling Stone.
FROST DESIGN is an Australia-based firm whose clients include Nike and Phaidon Press.
NEIL GAIMAN is the author of American Gods and the recently published Fragile Things.
EILEEN GUNN was Microsoft's director of advertising and sales promotion before becoming a prolific science-fiction writer.
HARRY HARRISON is the author of Make Room! Make Room!, the basis for the film Soylent Green.
JAMES PATRICK KELLY's latest short story, "The Leila Torn Show," was featured in the June issue of Asimov's.
CHIP KIDD is a Manhattan-based graphic artist who specializes in book-cover design.
STAN LEE is the cocreator of comic book icons Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the X-Men.
URSULA K. LE GUIN created the fictional world of Earthsea; Voices, her latest novel, was just released.
KEN MACLEOD's most recent book, Learning the World, was nominated for a 2006 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
JOHN MAEDA is a computer scientist and graphic designer based at the MIT Media Lab.
GREGORY MAGUIRE's revisionist fairy-tale novels include Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Wicked.
STEVEN MERETZKY is the designer behind text-based videogames like A Mind Forever Voyaging and Planetfall.
MARK MILLAR wrote the comics Ultimate X-Men and Civil War.
FRANK MILLER's graphic novels include Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, 300, Ronin, and the Sin City series.
MICHAEL MOORCOCK created the Elric series and has won the British Fantasy Society's Best Novel award four times.
ALAN MOORE is the author of the graphic novels V for Vendetta, Watchmen, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
RONALD D. MOORE is the creator of the reimagined TV series Battlestar Galactica and its forthcoming spinoff, Caprica.
ROCKNE S. O'BANNON is the writer and producer behind the sci-fi series Alien Nation, seaQuest DSV, and Farscape.
RICHARD POWERS' most recent novel is The Echo Maker, about a man with an unusual brain disorder. (For a Q&A with Powers, click here.)
RUDY RUCKER's latest book is the nonfiction The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul.
WILLIAM SHATNER played Captain James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek TV series.
KEVIN SMITH, aka Silent Bob, directed Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Clerks, and Clerks II.
NEAL STEPHENSON's works include Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, and the Baroque Cycle.
BRUCE STERLING is a Wired contributing editor and wrote the cover story for the magazine's first issue.
CHARLES STROSS' latest novel, Glasshouse, was published this summer.
TOMATO designed the first wristwatch with an electronic-paper display.
VERNOR VINGE's earliest works, like 1981's True Names, helped trigger the cyberpunk explosion.
HOWARD WALDROP received a 1980 Nebula Award for his story The Ugly Chickens.
JOSS WHEDON is the creator of three TV series: Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Firefly.
