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Great Science Fiction that is Out of Print?
book_reader asks: "I recently came across a set of (the alas) out of print The Phoenix Legacy by M. K. Wren. This is/was an amazingly good classic space opera trilogy. So it got me thinking...what other great sci-fi books have vanished into the ether that I don't know about?"
A whole series of fantastic short stories edited by edited by Edmund Crispin, titled "Stars and Under"... have been trying to find it for ages...
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They're not out of print, but also not widely read/known about. CS Lewis's trilogy "Out of the silent planet", "Perelandra" and "That Hideous Strength". I only came across them because I'm a fan of his non-fiction writing, which I strongly recommend.
Like all of Lewis's writing, they're fairly Christian in outlook - that is, not endlessly talking of Jesus, but rather always relating things to a greater power. But they're easy to read and interesting. They get better as the books go on.
Quick description (you'll find others online of course) bloke is taken to another planet my mad scientist (quite hackneyed, but honestly doesn't matter) and discovers a lot about mankind. Then goes to another planet, before spending a book on Earth arguing against dehumanising modernity. Yep, that about sums it up.
I enjoyed Sterling Lanier's Hiero's Journey and Unforsaken Hiero ...
Most of Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero books are sadly out of print...
Most of the works of Clifford D. Simak seem to be unavailable...
I can never keep up with what Harlan Ellison is available from what publisher at any given time. There's some good stuff that I was hoping White Wolf would re-publish when they were putting together the Edgeworks editions, but that series seems to have imploded.
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As I've been contributing to IBList I've been digging through various bibliographies. One thing I came across that struck me as something I'd want to read was all the old short stories from the pulp science fiction magazines of the 40's and 50's. In particular, it seems that there were a couple of "house pseudonyms" used by the writers. I'd love to see the collected works of "Ivar Jorgensen" (at various times, works by Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Randall Garrett, Paul Fairman and Richard Wilson) or "E.K. Jarvis", (a pseudonym used by Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, Robert Silverberg, Henry Slesar, Paul Fairman and Robert Moore Williams).
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..if you're interested in Space Opera, his is the best; I recommend excession. Not exactly a niche market, but excellent science fiction nonetheless, and I guess it *would* be possible to pass him over.
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Daniel Keys Moran wrote an extremely well-received SF trilogy: Emerald Eyes, The Long Run and The Last Dancer. Remarkable books, but due to a lot of Real Life stuff (divorce, birth of a son, new job, etc.) and the Woes of the Publishing Industry (contract disputes with Bantam, etc.), the succeeding novel, while written, has never been published.
... *cough* painful. Fortunately, DKM doesn't have that problem. :)
Check out some of DKM's stuff, if you like. It's not hard SF--DKM doesn't hold a candle to Vernor Vinge or Robert Forward[*]--it's definitely pretty firm SF. Just not quite hard.
[*] Bob Forward is a great author of hard SF. Unfortunately, his dialog and characters are
--- Jason Olshefsky
Karma: Poser (mostly affected by adding this line long after everyone else did)
Not to mention another great Harry Harrison satire, "Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers."
Clifford Simak's "Way Station" leads my list of books I'd like to see made into a movie. Two reasons - because the plot is relevant today, and because I think the book could be done well as a movie. It seems that most good books suffer badly when movie-fied.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Without question, you should read the Witches of
Karres. It was out of print for years, but a small print
run occurred a few years ago. Amazon seems to
have a few (it costs $30). This seems to have produced a
glut of the older paperback copies (check bookfinder.com)
-- before the new print run, it was almost impossible to
find. This is fantastic old-school sci fi.
It is no space opera. Lem always wrote 'serious' sci-fi. This one is about the contact with a multi-parts species and the lack of means to communicate. There is no happy end, there is no sad end either.
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Not very widely known, but very good material.
Informatus Technologicus
I spent 7 years trying to find John Shirley's "A Song Called Youth" trilogy (Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, Eclipse Corona), which I consider one of the great earlier cyberpunk works. Apparently, it has recently been re-released.
I would also recommend Norman Spinrad's Little Heroes, which is now out of print, but well worth hunting for.
These were good space opera, especially if you love martial arts and Eastern philosophy. Very well written, 4 books in all, revolves around a planet seeded with explorers from Earth. I never read anyhting else by this author, but this series was a favorite of mine at time.
Also, Steve Perry, not sure if these are out of print, but, he had a series that started with "The Man Who Never Missed". It was also a great series for the martial arts enthusiast, but also laced with a lot of semi-political metaphors.
Just try to get books like the Foundation Novels (Prisoners of Stars, The Far Ends of Time and Earth, ...) or The Robot Novels, The Complete Robot, ...
Just gone!!!
The checkbox said "Requires Windows 98, NT, or better. And so I installed Linux
Stanley G. Weinbaum, most famous for the story "Martian Odyssey", a very early pulp writer who created an amazing array of alien life and worlds. Get his old "Best Of" Del Rey book (Alibris has some here).
The prolific Naomi Mitchison, who wrote in many genres, wrote two of the best scifi novels - "Memoirs Of A Spacewoman", which is a catalog of alien contacts with a memorable main character, and "Solution Three", an amazingly prophetic future history novel. She is spot on about genetic engineering in particular there.
Lastly, the horror master William Hope Hodgson, who along with Robert Chambers influenced Lovecraft and that whole movement. While "House On The Borderland" has stayed in print for a long time, "Boats Of The 'Glen Carrig'" (personal favorite) and "The Night Land" have only recently come back into print as library editions. Get them before they go under for another 20 years.
Jack Vance has written many excellent but out of print sci-fi and fantasy novels. But you can often find them at used-book stores. I recommend them highly; his mastery of the English language is astonishing, and his dialog is very witty.
should be on your list.
I think it should be on everyone's list.
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
... it would not be out of print.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
For a long time, at least according to my local bookseller, the second book in the great "Gateway" series, "Beyond the Blue Event Horizon," was out-of-print.
It took me over a year to track down a copy (in the pre-Internet world I was living). I could never figure out why all the other ones were still be printed when the second one wasn't. Curiouser and curiouser.
"Yeah, well, Dracula called and he's coming over tonight for you and I said okay."
Brunner's "Compleat Traveller in Black" is absolutely excellent, and in my opinion, well worth tracking down.
It's disappointing that anybody treats the Science Fiction genre as something that goes 'out of print.' That implies shopping only at new bookstores, and that is a serious error. Much of the great SF writing out there is only obtainable through used bookstores. This seems to have almost always been the case with authors like Harlan Ellison. Some of the better SF bookstores (i.e. Dreamhaven in Minneapolis) mix out-of-print classics in with the new books on the shelf because of this. It's disappointing to think that there are SF readers out there with a 'new book only' mentality.
It doesn't realy count as an all time great work of fiction.. but I happened to be looking recently for the third in a series by Jack Chalker called 'The Wonderland Gambit'.. all of which are out of print now after about 5 years. Can't find it anywhere for trying (used stores, even libraries! :P).. which is a shame, because it was a very clever series, and lots of fun to read.
;)
:P
It's a VR-universe-jumping setup (predates the Matrix as a movie, but pays some homage to Gibsons stuff while adding a lot of it's own)... explores some of Chalker's standard questions, like identity switching and what it would actually mean, as well as lot of other cool and reasonably original twists/ideas on what's becoming a genre of it's own. The big difference being that it has an 'infinite recursion of worlds within worlds' type deal.. rather than just IN and OUT. A healthy dose of Lewis Carol imagry is fun too
If anyone knows where I can get an electronic copy of it, I'll mail him the 5$
G
- adam
Robert Heinlein isn't obscure, of course, but it's surprising that The Past Through Tomorrow (1967), an omnibus collection of almost his entire Future History stories and novels, has been out of print for years. The only source you can get a new copy is from the Science Fiction Book Club.
Mckillip's "Riddle of Stars" trilogy (Riddlemaster of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire and Harpist in the Wind) is terrific. Partly because it came out when fantasy was dominated by LOTR ripoffs (e.g. Shannara), but it holds up well after 20+ years. Or anything else by her. It's fantasy, rather than SF, but that's okay, since others have already referenced the CS Lewis trilogy.
Rudy Rucker once wrote a series of books that ended in *ware. There was software, wetware, freeware and I think a few others.
I really liked them, but as one other poster noted, if they were great, they wouldn't be out of print.
out.
-- DrZaius - Minister of Sciences and Protector of the Faith
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. edited by Ben Bova.
"A Canticle for Lebowitz" It's an interesting post-nuclear war senario. I'm pretty sure it's out of print. You can find paper back versions in the book swaps.
and Creatures of Light and Darkness, both by Zelazny and both blurring the boundaries of fantasy and SF.
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The *ware books are all back in print. As are many of his other books. He seems to have been "rediscovered," as I have been able to find new paperback copies of many of his other great books-- The Hacker and the Ants, Spacetime Donuts, Gnarl!, White Light, Spaceland, Saucer Wisdom and so forth. At chain bookstores, no less. Amazon has quite a few in stock.
I can't recommend him enough. Buy them all while you can!!
Without a doubt one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read. Read "The Forge Of God" by Greg Bear. The sequel "Anvil Of Stars" is also excellent.
----- "All right. It was a miracle. Can we go now?"
His stuff was totally original, in a different way from Philip K. Dick's oeuvre is different. Short stories "Scanners Live in Vain", "The Game of Rat and Dragon", "Queen of the Afternoon, "A Planet Named Shayol", and "The Dead Lady of Clown Town". Read about what Fremen would have been in a free society in the novel "Norstrilia", along with the trained spiders of Earthport, speiking and heiring, and laminated mouse-brain robots. He also wrote, as either Paul Linebarger (his given name) or Felix C. Forrest "Atomsk", "Ria", and "Europa". I reread the SF books and collections about every 18 months or so, takes me back to when I first read them as a teenager.
Another (post-Bill TGH) Harrison series. Not exactly out of print... but the first one was a hoot (I haven't read all the others, so can't personally recommend).
Have fun!
OldFart
Was very enjoyable (at least when I read it for the first time, as a young teen). The latter books in the series tend to squishify (aka the 'Piers Anthony Syndrome)... but I recommend the first one 8-).
Have fun!
OldFart 8-)
The same Stanislaw Lem that shows up constantly in the "fortune file", and that most geeks quote (even if they don't know it)?
The same Stanislaw Lem that is the most published Polish author - ever?
Out of curiosity, what's your idea of "widely known"?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
When I go looking for an out-of-print Science Fiction title, I often end up with a volume discarded from a public library. Sometimes I remember seeing the very volume in my own public library, and passing it by. Gives one pause.
More ontopic: of all the SF writers I've read, the one who most deserves broader recognition is Richard McKenna. Not a towering literary talent, but still a imaginative and insightful storyteller. He's obscure mainly because he went and died just a few years after he began writing full time. His best-known work, The Sand Pebbles, is not Science Fiction, but nevertheless is the kind of story that will appeal to SF readers, full of technical detail, culture clash, and social speculation.
The first Sci-Fi book I remember reading was a childrens book by Alexander Key called Sprockets: A Little Robot. I'd love to get a copy to re-read, but used copies are rare, and typically sell for over $100. It's a shame; it would be a great story to get kids interested in Sci-Fi.
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I used to work in a used book store, and the better (not necessarily popular) the author, the less likely people were to sell the book. Take me ofr instance, ive got some authors who Id never sell, juat because i enjoy reading their stuff too much.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
"The Last Dancer" and "Terminal Freedom" are still available here: http://www.quietvision.com/
at QuietVision. Well, except for The Ring, anyway.
Eric Frank Russell
If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.
Thanks to the Vance Integral Edition, which reprints all of Jack Vance's work in a uniform edition of 44 hardback volumes. I just got my half of the set in the mail yesterday.
Of course, at $1250 for the set, it's not exactly cheap...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
This is a mix of SF, Fantasy, and Horror, and includes things I think are out of print:
Novels
Rats & Gargoyles - Mary Gentle
The Werewolves of London - Brian Stableford
Blood Music - Greg Bear
Eon - Greg Bear
The Glass Hammer - K.W. Jeter
Moving Mars - Greg Bear
Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, Eight Skilled Gentlemen - Barry Hughart
The Hereafter Gang - Neal Barrett Jr.
The Light at the End - John Skipp & Craig Spector
Crucifax Autumn - Ray Garton
The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman
The Bridge - Iain Banks
Evolution's Shore (a.k.a. Chaga) - Ian McDonald
Holy Fire - Bruce Sterling
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
Terminal Cafe (a.k.a. Necroville) - Ian McDonald
The Night Watch - Sean Stewart
Nifft the Lean - Michael Shea
Fevre Dream - George R. R. Martin
The Magic Wagon - Joe R. Lansdale
Perfume - Patrick Süskind
The Difference Engine - William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
Synners - Pat Cadigan
Lord of the Hollow Dark - Russell Kirk
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Door Number Three - Patrick O'Leary
The Paratawa Trilogy - Christopher Hinz
The Paper Grail - James P. Blaylock
Firelord - Parke Godwin
The Shaft - David J. Schow
Empire of the East - Fred Saberhagen
Collections & Anthologies
The Hugo Winners (Volumes I & II)- Isaac Asimov, editor
Strange Things in Close Up - Howard Waldrop
Songs the Dead Men Sing (Dark Harvest version) - George R. R. Martin
Vacuum Diagrams - Stephen Baxter
San Diego Lightfoot Sue & Other Stories - Tom Reamy
Night of the Cooters - Howard Waldrop
By Bizarre Hands - Joe Lansdale
Think Like a Dinosaur - James Patrick Kelley
Dark Gods - T.E.D. Klein
The Fire When It Comes - Parke Godwin
Portraits of His Children - George R. R. Martin
Book of the Dead - John Skipp & Craig Spector, editors
Watchers at the Straight Gate - Russell Kirk
The Last Defender of Camelot - Roger Zelazny
Mirrorshades - Bruce Sterling, editor
Slow Dancing Through Time - Gardner Dozois, et al.
Seeing Red - David J. Schow
Heatseeker - John Shirley
Empire Dreams - Ian McDonald
Patterns - Pat Cadigan
Crystal Express - Bruce Sterling
Before the Golden Age - Isaac Asimov, Editor
Many of these are still available on the used book market. In fact I have many available at The Lame Excuse Books Web Page
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
"And the Devil Will Drag You Under" by Jack Chalker
"Waiting for the Galactic Bus" by Parke Godwin
"Dark Star" by Alan Dean foster
"The Damned" trilogy by Alan Dean Foster
--- It is not the things we do which we regret the most, but the things which we don't do.
This is a great classic I think, probably going further in time than any other SF book :)
I xerox'd a copy 'cause it's not printed anymore. You can buy a used copy at amazon.
http://www.orionsarm.com/books/Star_Maker.html
"...is astonishing, and his dialog is very witty. "
Then slasdot readers definitely(notice the correct spelling) wouldn't be able to follow it.
by John Steakley. Not quite out of print, but hard to find. I think the last edition released was 1985-95. Enormously good book...the best science fiction book I've ever read.
About his only work still in print is the Hellicona trilogy, which is a shame because his short stories are brilliant. Two compilations come to mind:
Galaxies Like Grains of Sand is an utter classic. It's a series of short stories that chronicle the next few million years of human galactic history, including one in which archaeologists finally locate the ruins of the original Earth, which has been lost for eons, but are discredited as crackpots.
No Time Like Tomorrow is another great one, but I only have it becuase I found it sitting on an airplane seat years ago...
THE GOOD HUMOR MAN CAN ONLY BE PUSHED SO FAR
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Since I noticed this article a couple of days late and enough people have mentioned my other favorite answer to this (Daniel Keys Moran) I'll mention M.A. Foster. Thoughtful, complex stories of ideas, if you like Frank Herbert's works you'll probably like these. All of these were published by DAW Books in paperback (remember the SF publisher with the yellow spines?)
Two trilogies:
The Gameplayers of Zan
The Warriors of Dawn
The Day of the Klesh
The Morphodite
Transformer
Preserver
Waves (a standalone novel in the same universe)
Owl Time (four novellas)
Owl Time was published in 1985, and was one of his last published works. I spoke with M.A. Foster around that time, and he said he had a novel-length manuscript sequel to "Entertainment" (one of the four novellas in _Owl Time_) that he hadn't been able to sell. I've been meaning to track him down and ask him if I can read that.
You can get his compilation of all his short SF stories in a book published by the NEFSA Press.
Title: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith
ISBN: 0-915368-56-0
It has all the stories in the insturmentality series, except Norstrilia. It also has a few of his other stories; the original version of War No. 81-Q (which was not written for the Insturmentality setting); Western Science is So Wonderful; Nancy; The Fife of Bodidharma; Angerhelm; The Good Friends. I really reccomend CS for anyone who likes science fiction.
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"Aristoi"
"Hardwired"
"Angel Station"
"Voice of the Whirlwind"
"Facets", short story collection
I think all of these have gone out of print now.
[Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
The Worm Ouroborous by E.R.Eddison is an amazing story, though I suppose it leans a little more toward fantasy than science fiction.
Anything by Philip K. Dick is good, I include him only because it's sort of hit-or-miss whether or not you'll see his books in a "new book" bookstore.
Jack Vance has already been mentioned, but he deserves to be flogged again. If you are a fan of science fiction/fantasy and have not read his work, consider yourself chastised. Go find some. Most of it, if in print, is usually not on the shelf. Go find The Dying Earth in a used bookstore. Sit down and hold the book in your hands for a moment before opening it; there's magic inside.
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe is rarely on the shelf; I don't think it's "out of print", but I don't see it too often. A shame. It ought to be required reading.
I tried really hard to keep this on topic, but some prejudice slipped in. For more info on great works of fantasy and science fiction, check out greatsfandf.com. It has a bit of awkward html, but no blinking or marquee, thank god. There you will find some fine reviews of some little known works of speculative literature, as well as a few essays on fantasy and sf in general. A fine site.
philcrissman.com.
Don't forget, or miss, "The Demon Breed", also a smacking good, and quite different, story by Schmidt (do you like giant sea otters?). I just got mine out again.
He had a short story about Nazi UFOs picking up a US Senator years _after_ WWII and showing him the war they had started with aliens that looked like trees. Does anyone remember the name of it?!
...don't you get to spend staggering amounts of money defaming and generally trashing the lives of leading CoS personalities instead?
Perhaps when Lafayette claimed to have multiple submarine kills off Oregon, he really meant Georgia, as in the bit of Russia next to Turkey? It has Black Sea frontage, and "next to turkey" could well be a short summary of Mr Hubbard's life.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Read Eddison and you'll know where Gandalf comes from.
'Nuff said
This series, written by the author of Trillion Year Spree and the Myst novels, is by far the most underrated Sci-Fi series of all time. At the very least, it's my very favorite collection of books (I have a whole bookshelf dedicated to nothing else).
I learned of the series after a copy of the first novel fell into the hands of my father from a colleague, while on a family vacation over a decade ago. Each day, before his daily nap, my father would pick up the book and attempt to get past the 5+ page long character list (in small text, mind you). Finally, he gave up and handed me this treasure of a book.
Now, I realize I may have just scared both of you who read comments that sit so low on the mod points totem pole, but this is a really complex book. Not that it is hard to follow, or obtusely written, quite the opposite! Wingrove's descriptive environments, complete and complex characters, morally questionable situations, fast violence, and sexy sex are a joy to experience. His characters are so numerous, however, and their relationships so heavily intertwined, that it may scare off the most casual readers. But one need only get ten pages in to get completely hooked.
Not one person I've introduced the series to has been able to put it down for a moment, and almost all have read the entire eight-book series.