The latest issue of The New Yorker offers a Steven Millhauser short story titled The Invasion from Outer Space, which I would define as concise, literary sci-fi.
For more Millhauser short stories, check out Dangerous Laughter.From the beginning we were prepared, we knew just what to do, for hadn’t we seen it all a hundred times?—the good people of the town going about their business, the suddenly interrupted TV programs, the faces in the crowd looking up, the little girl pointing in the air, the mouths opening, the dog yapping, the traffic stopped, the shopping bag falling to the sidewalk, and there, in the sky, coming closer . . . And so, when it finally happened, because it was bound to happen, we all knew it was only a matter of time, we felt, in the midst of our curiosity and terror, a certain calm, the calm of familiarity, we knew what was expected of us, at such a moment.
In the same New Yorker, the anniversary issue, there are pieces by Adam Gopnick and Roger Angell regarding and remembering John Updike. The magazine also contains an Updike retrospective titled Picked-Up Pieces -- an homage to Updike's 1975 collection of essays and criticism. Fitting fifty-three years of writing on fifteen pages is an impossible task, but if you want a taste of Updike's prose and poetry, it's a good place to start.
