Shorter works of fiction Short stories, novelettes and novellas have comprised the vast majority of his fiction and over 100 of these, in multiple genres, have been published across his writing career. His short stories have appeared in
Omni and
Playboy and other major magazines and anthologies and have been collected in
Timetipping (1980), the retrospective short story collection
Jubilee: the Essential Jack Dann (2001), including an introduction and notes by Dann and
Visitations (2003). Major shorter works include: 'Junction', a novella, later expanded into a novel, published in
Fantastic Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories 23 in November 1973; 'The Dybbuk Dolls', published in
New Dimensions of Science Fiction Number 5 in 1975, a fantastic tale portraying Jews in a dystopian future United States; 'Camps', published in
Fantasy and Science Fiction in May 1979, a story of a terminally ill young man who experiences another man's past in a concentration camp, part-based on Dann's own brush with death in his youth; 'Down among the Dead Men', published in
Oui on 11 July 1982 and co written by Gardner Dozois, also focusing on a concentration camp - the story was awarded the Premios Gilgames de Narrativa Fantastica award; 'Bad Medicine', published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
in October 1986, an except from his novel Counting Coup'', substantially revised. Sections of
Starhiker were serialized as two novellas in
Amazing from June–September 1976, prior to the publication of the full novel version. It was translated into German, and published as
Welten-Vagabund in 1979.
Junction (1981) The novel begins in a small town in the 19th-century fashioned
Midwestern United States, which is separated from reality: apparently it is the only human settlement left on Earth, now situated close to Hell. Protagonist Ned Wheeler leaves the town, undertaking a journey into hell and emerging in a 20th-century New York where many have dreamt of him prior to his arrival. Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick was greatly impressed with the novel, commenting: "
Junction is where Ursula Le Guin's
The Lathe of Heaven and Tony Boucher's "The Quest for Saint Aquin" meet... and yet it is an entirely new novel ... I may very well be basing some of my future work on
Junction." A novella version of
Junction was published in
Fantastic in November 1973. The novel attracted significant praise within the science fiction genre and was appreciated by both followers of humanistic and cyberpunk traditions in that field. It was compared to Ingmar Bergman's film
The Seventh Seal by the
Washington Post, and it was described as among the greatest science fiction novels by
Science Fiction Age.
High Steel (1993) with Jack C. Haldeman, II Set in a 22nd-century Earth overshadowed by mega-corporations, the novel follows John Stranger, a Native American who is forced from his reservation home by the Trans-United company to work in orbital space construction. Stranger's shamanistic skills become prized by his employer to assist in a race against rival companies to decode an alien transmission containing blueprints for a faster-than-light space drive. The novel was an expanded version of the novelette
Echoes of Thunder, which was published in a
Tor Double Novel volume with Harlan Ellison's
Run for the Stars in 1991. It was first published by
Bantam Books in December 1995 and has been published in ten languages to date. It won the Australian
Aurealis Award in 1997, was #1 on
The Age bestseller list, and in 1996, a novella based on the novel, "Da Vinci Rising," was awarded the Nebula Award for Best Novella.
The Memory Cathedral was also shortlisted for the Audio Book of the Year, which was part of the 1998 Braille & Talking Book Library Awards. A novelette version, a revised excerpt from the novel, was published by in ''
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine 8
in October 1984, and was shortlisted for Locus Award for Best Novelette, Nebula Award for Best Novelette and World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 1985. A companion volume, Promised Land'', appeared from
PS Publishing in 2007 and further explores, through short stories and novellas, both elements of the actual and alternative 1950s setting as presented in the novel.
The Economy of Light (2008) Michael Swanwick provided an introduction to this short horror novel about a retired
Nazi hunter, whose siblings were murdered by Nazi prison doctor,
Josef Mengele. He is propelled into an arduous and confronting journey into the
Amazon jungle, in search of a rumored miracle working physician. This is instigated by the discovery of the purported remains of the infamous doctor, and the apparent need to purge the effects of a spiritual ailment, which strikes him at Mengele's graveside, and may be the source of diseases with which he has become afflicted. It was nominated for a 2008 Aurealis Award in the category of Best Horror Novel.
Poetry He has published poetry in collections, magazines, in the form of poetry postcards and a
chapbook Christs and Other Poems (1978). The greater number of publications have been in
The Anthology of Speculative Poetry and
Rod Serling Presents The Twilight Zone Magazine. Dann and Webb's 1997 story, "Niagara Falling," won both the Aurealis Award and Ditmar Award for short fiction in 1998. Most collaborations have been in the short story form, and Dann published a collection of these in
The Fiction Factory (2005). However, they have included novellas, and he has also written one novel with Jack C. Haldeman II,
High Steel (1993). The majority of the book length publications with which he is associated are editorial collaborations. ==Writing==