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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?"
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.
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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