Multiple Short Stories

 

When an author has a large output of short stories republished in multiple collections with overlapping contents, we can remember the plot or some of the details of a story without remembering either the title or which collection(s) it is in. 

When John Costello referred to "To Build a World" and said that it was about transforming the Moon, I had to check that against a terraforming-the-Moon story that I remembered. This required me to take a dozen collections, some of them with interchangeable titles, from the shelves. Since "To Build a World" is online, I almost immediately confirmed that its opening sentence is the same as that of "Strange Bedfellows," collected in Beyond The Beyond. Problem solved. But it could have been a bigger research job.

We do not remember the names of the characters in these numerous short stories but can refer to the texts if necessary. This is a different world from the major series with big name heroes like van Rijn and Flandry.

Addendum: I have ordered through eBay The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes which I think does contain one genuine canonical short story that has not been included in the canon.