Dads Deserve these Short Fiction Gems

This Father’s Day, give Dear Ol’ Dad some peace and quiet—and a great read!

Hey, gang! Nick here, and we are staring down the maw of another twelve-gauge Father’s Day. If you’re like me, you sometimes wake up in a strange dumpster covered in blood that turns out not to be your own.

Wait, wait. Not where I was going with this.

Scottsdale, man. What a town.

Anyway, if you’re like me, you struggle with what to get your beloved paterfamilias for a Father’s Day gift. Or maybe it’s not your own dad, but a great-uncle who has meant a lot to you, a college buddy with a newborn, or your miscreant nephew who finally managed to go a year without murdering a Chinese Money Plant. Perhaps it’s your beloved husband, who every day drags a razor up his face, stuffs himself into a monkey suit, suffers through a terrible commute, slaves all day over a hot laptop, and then comes home only to have to go out to the yard and…re-simonize the begonias? I don’t know, I don’t do yardwork. That’s why I had kids.

Whoever it is, you may find yourself in need of a gift to give to someone who, more or less, qualifies as a “father.” You could do the tired old thing where you look at gift guides from GQ, InsideHook, or Pravda. These vary, depending on how much money the vendors paid and how much free swag they sent the staff at those magazines, but in general, they’re all the same. Whiskey. Beer. BBQ utensil kit. Atrocious necktie. New razor and silver-tipped badger fur shaving cream brush. The tears of the kulaks. Pajamas.

Bushwah, I say! Horsefeathers to those boring, same-old-same-old disappointments.

We are here to offer you an alternative. Does your dad enjoy things? Is he able to comprehend written language? Can he, if only ever so faintly, fog a mirror?

Then he may like one or more of the following short fiction collections—all lovingly curated and calculated to excite, delight, or give a fright to your paternal trilobite.

For the Military Sci-Fi lover

Is your dad a fan of Alien, Starship Troopers, or Warhammer? Does he enjoy tales of intergalactic war and conquest? Is he a veteran? If any of these are true, then he may get fired up by these tales of warriors fighting on distant planets, derelict orbital stations, or in the inky vacuum of space. Check out the Space Marines series.

My own father came to visit us here in Holland recently and found the third volume on my bookshelf. He inhaled the whole thing over just a day or two.

For the techie who also enjoys history

Does your dad love The Rocketeer, airships, or the Ketty Jay books? Does he still occasionally re-install and play the beloved classic Crimson Skies? (I’m guilty of this myself.) Then he may get a ton of joy out of the Steampunk series. Biplanes! Alternate technology! The dashing, dandy panache of sky pirates and the heroic men and women who hunt them down and blast them from the air!

For the space cowboy

Was Firefly a frequent rewatch in your house? Did your pops love Cowboy Bebop so much that he has strong—nay, fanatical!—opinions about the Netflix live-action remake? Get him the Space Cowboys books, available on whichever orbital weapons platform, gate station, or long-haul starliner you find yourself aboard. FIVE volumes now ready for your dad’s eyeballs. Pull up a nebula and get comfortable, friends.

For the man who should have been a mech pilot

Did your old man cut his teeth playing the old pencil-and-dice mech RPGs? Did he guzzle down the Battletech novels or get a kick out of Gun Runner? Does he keep a copy of Mechwarrior 5 lying around and still boot it up once in awhile? (Again…guilty of that one myself.) Then get him the first collection in the Giant Robot series, the second of which will be released in October, with more planned. Great stories of giant robots and those who pilot and fight them. If you can find stompier robot fiction anywhere, then my name ain’t Stompin’ Arizona.

For the history nerd

Is your dad one of those who will binge-watch Ken Burns’s The Civil War in one sitting, barely taking breaks to get snacks? Does he play the old Avalon Hill tabletop games to see how the battle of Leuctra or the siege of Jadotville could have gone differently? Then our alternate history line might be right up his dress-right-dress alley. Only Hooves, Tracks and Sabers is downrange so far, but there are more in the hopper, so keep scanning your sectors!

For the Western aficionado

Were you raised, as I was, on a steady diet of Old West films? Seven Sons of Katy Elder. Tombstone. Shenandoah. Rio Bravo. Once Upon a Time in the West. Heck, even Blazing Saddles is a darn good western, in my opinion.  Whether it was my grandfathers, my uncles, or my dad, I’ve had male role models showing me western movies since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Dads love westerns, and if yours also loves magic and mystery, he may enjoy Wyrd West. Only the first has been published as of yet, but stay tuned, pardner. This one did so well that there may be more a-comin’ in this series.

One last thing!

Raconteur does not just publish testosterone-filled adrenaline stories. We’ve got stories about adventurous cats, noir detectives and femme fatales, and Maltese warriors. If any of that sounds like it would be fun for your dad—or you, or anyone else you have occasion to give a gift to—then check them out today!

Okay, gang, good talk. I’ll see you out there.

-Nick

The OG Intern Steve