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Ask Slashdot: Good, Forgotten Fantasy & Science Fiction Novels?
jjp9999 writes "I've been looking for some good reading material, and have been delving into the realms of some great, but nearly forgotten authors — finding the likes of Lord Dunsany (The King of Elfland's Daughter) and E.R. Eddison (The Worm Ouroboros). I wanted to ask the community here: do you know of any other great fantasy or science fiction books that time has forgotten?"
Can I suggest 'Night of Light' by Phillip J. Farmer. Bit religious, but brilliant.
c j cherryh -Downbelow Series, Chanur's Pride, etc
I liked the lensman series back in the day, but in retrospect they seem a little fascist
I'm just sayin'
EE 'Doc' Smith, the Classic Lensman Series.
I don't know if it fits the criteria of 'forgotten' but Philip Jose Farmer - River World, World of Tiers, and many other great novels - would have to be the amount the best SF of all time.
http://www.amazon.com/Dragonworld-Byron-Preiss/dp/0671039075
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_the_Silent_Planet
Fantasy or SF, take your pick...
Enjoyed reading these.. the early editions were standard sci-fi, though he wrote a few later on that were rather dark. I believe that the Berserkers were the inspiration behind the Borg.
That Hideous Strength. It's obscure - obscure for a reason; it combines dystopian sci-fi with Christian allegory and British academic politics, so there's not a large natural audience. But it's culturally significant as one of George Orwell's inspirations for 1984, and Orwell himself thought reasonably well of it ("by the standards of books today", at least). It's also an interesting little moment before the atomic bomb but still within the realm of dystopian WWII-inspired science fiction.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Have a look at the 'SF Masterworks' list on Wikipedia. Not really forgotten, but still some titles are 40+ years old.
They're YA but I really enjoyed one of H.M. Hoover's Morrow books, Children of Morrow. It's grim, but man I loved it forever.
Well World series
and many others http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_L._Chalker
n/t
Oh, you said good.
Robert E Howard and all the original Conan books are pretty good (well, if you like the old stuff, which it seems you do!). Maybe you were looking for something more obscure, though.
The master of the surreal. My favorite was in his book mindswap where about 3/4 of the way through, the main characters staged a revolt against the author and demanded a new plot line. Favorite line (paraphrased) "We stand an equal chance of finding your girlfriend. I know everything about her but nothing of the Theory of Searches, while on the other hand I know everything about the theory of searches but nothing about her."
He only published a few books, but "Bridge of Birds" (and its follow ups) is a wonderful mixture of Chinese folklore, Indiana Jones, and Sherlock Holmes.
Mr. Moon (Jove, 1979.) by Philip Knobel -- After a devastating earthquake hits the west coast, an unprepossessing man announces that he is an emissary from the stars, and he might be telling the truth.
Especially the stories of Elric of Melnibone / Stormbringer series -- very good fantasy series.
Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
Barry Hughart's "Number Ten Ox" series
Nick Pollota's "Illegal Alien" and Bureau 13 series
Bruce Bethke's "Headcrash" (sure to appeal to the BOFH crowd)
Mark E. Rogers' Samurai Cat series
Ah, I've said too much already...
Black Easter by James Blish
A Canticle for Liebowitz by Miller
Non Robot/Foundation Asimov
Dueling Machine Ben Bova
Any of the earlier Pern books
Friday by Heinlein - still one of my favorites
Morgaine books by Cherryh
John Campbell
The collections put together in the 60's and 50's are outstanding - and you can usually pick them up for a quarter at a book store.
I'm really liking the Mistborn series right now by Sanderson.
Tad Williams is great if you like authentic style medieval fantasy with a Norse bent. Dragonbone Chair is really well-written.
Neither of these authors is unknown.
There's an old book I really liked as a teenager, Master of the Five Magics, by Lyndon Hardy. I haven't re-read it but I remember thinking it was a very unique take on magic.
Other than that I've pretty much read the old school fantasy, Eddings, Weiss, Feist, and of course Gaiman (Neverwhere and Stardust are really fun early novels if you haven't yet read them.)
Nothing by L. Ron. Hubbard. That's not a book title by the way
"An epic tale of freedom and slavery, love and war, and the potential futures of humankind tells of a twenty-first century California clan caught between two clashing worlds, one based on tolerance, the other on repression."
The description does not do it justice... this is a post-apocalyptic fiction at its finest, addressing the dividing forces of our society and looking at the possibilities presented by our political structures, values, technologies and attitude towards nature and magic.
It is awesome, intense, sexy and rewarding.
And most of his work is available via Gutenberg.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.
Not quite forgotten, but I keep running into people who haven't heard of the series. Great read, really; it's a strangely wonderful blend of Tolkienesque high fantasy and dark smarminess.
Oh wait, I forgot what I didn't know.
Platypus of Doom and other stories by Arthur Byron Cover. Out of print, but one of my faves from the mid 70's
Others in the series
Bridge of Birds.
"To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking: Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!"
Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier, The Cyberiad by Lem, Citizen in Space by Robert Sheckley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Savage
I used to read a lot of those when I was a kid. The nearest "modern" character would be Indiana Jones I guess.
C|N>K
Way Station
City
Time and Again
Time is the Simplest Thing
Leo Frankowski
Cross Time Engineer series is good.
Love aldus huxley--- Brave new world.... funny how much of his visions have come to pass!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination
one of the bests i had ever read
Some classics:
Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast (and sequels). HARD to get into, but rewarding if you understand that they are very experimental.
F.M.Busby - The Demu Trilogy. Nothing ground-breaking, but it is well written escapist fiction.
James Blish - Cities in Flight. Ditto the previous.
John Crowley - Little, Big. Please please please DO read this. It is the single best book in the English language. Each chapter is like a gem. Another of his books "Engine Summer" is also jaw-droppingly lovely and has a "reveal" at the end that makes M.Night Shamylam seem like a moron. You WILL weep unashamedly. His later stuff is hard to digest, but worth the read if you stick with it.
Lin Carter - The Martian books (The Valley Where Time Stood Still, The City Outside the World, Down to a Sunless Sea, and The Man Who Loved Mars). Thinking man's pulp fiction.
James H. Schmitz - The Witches of Karres. So fun to read. It's a novelization of a series of short stories (or it reads that way, anyway) concerning a trio of underage witches and the space captain they "adopt" and whose life they make miserable but in a good way.
Apologies for spelling/grammar/mispronunciation/
Bulfinch's Mythology contains the roots of much of the modern 'fantasy' universes. But Bulfinch's is itself a collection of more ancient texts.
In other words, why go back 50 years, when you could go back 1500?
William Hope Hodgson's "The Night Land" deserves a read. Inspiration for Lovecraft, among others.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Most notably A Land out of Time and the epic Ringworld.
The Demon Princes (really, anything) by Jack Vance. Any short fiction by Cordwainer Smith and Avram Davidson. I also was greatly impressed by Peter S. Beagle's short story collections.
"To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking: Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!"
Not sure these count as forgotten, but definitely worth reading:
The Heechee saga by Frederick Pohl sci-fi
The Parafaith War by LE Modesitt Jr.sci-fi
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem sci-fi
Hyperion by Dan Simmons sci-fi
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut sci-fi
Some newer works:
The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks fantasy
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch fantasy
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss fantasy
All of the early Robert Heinlein are fun. Lots of great stuff out there.
-c
Taking a browse through Project Gutenberg's whole Science Fiction bookshelf would probably be worth your time. That's where I picked up some of my first science fiction novels, and I particularly enjoyed H. Beam Piper's Federation series.
Supporter of the +1 Over Dramatic mod option. In memory of apk.
Frank Herbert's Dune is amazing. There is a reason there have been multiple attempts to make it into film. However none of them come close to the books.
Very similar and also from that time period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avenger_(character)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
Eric Frank Russell, Fredric Brown, Keith Laumer (Retief in particular), Jame Tiptree Jr, H. Beam Piper. Basically plunder all the free ebook sites for classic/pulp - there's a lot of good stuff there and I even quite like the not so good :-)
I hereby inform you that I have NOT been required to provide any decryption keys.
Not all that obscure, but worth a mention. So many great books to choose from, but start with "Time Enough for Love" and "Stranger in a Strange Land."
Light cup, beer drink, thin so chain, neck turtle fat, man I won't say it again
Celia S. Friedman wrote the Coldire trilogy, publishing the first book, Black Sun Rising, in 1992. Rich, dark fantasy with incredible plot detail and the sense that the characters are themselves telling the story.
She has also written a few science fiction novels, such as The Madness Season, that are equally compelling.
The Age of the Pussyfoot - Fred Pohl
This book was waaaaay ahead of its time. A wonderful short novel from the 1960's that is still a great read. Pohl pretty consistently produces good books. 'Black Star Rising', 'The World at the End of Time', the Gateway series (although hardly obscure) and a whole lot of others.
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
A post-apocalyptic novel. Excellent. Would help to have some local knowledge of English culture.
Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
This book does not get enough recognition.
The Lilith's Brood series - Octavia Butler
Three novels about the integration of the human race by aliens after a nuclear war. Marvelous.
I got into reading Vance's books when I was in high school. A few years ago a friend asked a similar question and i gave him one of Vance's short story anthologies. In 28 pages Vance had a more complete and engrossing story than some authors have in 200 pages.
His stories range from straight out fantasy to classic science fiction, from short stories to multiple book sagas. Plenty of stuff to keep you going for the summer and probably the winter too.
The Macroscope by Piers Anthony, and the Chanur Series by CJ Cherryh.
Christopher Stasheff, A Wizard in Rhyme series. It was funny and amazing. An english lit professor gets transported to alternate world Europe where spells are cast by rhyming, and where damning someone to hell literally opens a portal and summons a demon. It was a brilliant series. Hillarious to read.
_The Face in the Frost_ by John Bellairs
1969, humorous, different, and memorable "fantasy" novel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bellairs
I have wanted a weather vane that makes a snurfling sound ever since I read this book.
Any of the Wing Commander novels are a great light read especially if you are into heroic characters and fleet actions. The entire book series is great reading for any fan of space opera.
is gene wolfe really all that obscure? personally i think he's overhyped
A bit basic by modern standards, but any of David Eddings writings are classic reading.
Modern sci-fi standards, i would recommend Neal Asher.
Sorted from cheapest, restricting results to books rated 4 stars or higher
Look at Gutenberg.org for Edgar Rice Burroughs. He wrote the Tarzan novels and also John Carter of Mars. Dated but fun to read.
Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro
The fantasy books by Virginia author James Branch Cabell were in vogue at one time but seem mostly forgotten now.
Check out 'most anything written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
there's a re-publication of some of the most amazing sci-fi books, which to be honest take a little getting used to: the sci-fi masterworks series. "Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny is a particularly beautiful tale. then there's Olaf Stapledon's "Last and First Men" which is just breathtaking in its scope and prescience: i found it particularly funny that the foreword by Stephen Baxter said "Stapledon got everything right except of course for the bits about the United States" when in fact he was right on the nose, having predicted the fall of the League of Nations, the rise of the United Nations, the detonation of the Atomic Bomb and more.
then there's "The End of Eternity" by Isaac Asimov, which was the book written very early on that explains the background of the entire Asimov "Foundation" series. this book was noteworthy for its use of the word "Computer" as a title, like "Professor", to refer to one with the highly responsible task of "Performing Computations" - in this case, the job of working out the "minimum necessary change" to alter the future in order to keep it on track.
i have a challenge for you, jjp9999. read *all* of asimov's books, including the ones written at the behest of the asimov estate, in a timespan where you will actually remember details from one book to the next. "robby the robot", which he wrote in conjunction with his wife. the early "robot" books which describe susan calvin's experiences - she screams "LIAR!!" at one robot, as it dies. remember to include the one written by greg bear, "forward the foundation" i think it is, as well as the "New Law" Robots, and pay attention also to Giskard's role. i think you will find the sheer scope of asimov's vision as he paints a picture which develops over - and beyond - the span of his life - to be absolutely stunning. but it does take patience: some of the isaac bailey series are quite methodical, being detective novels, and can be somewhat... well, tedious isn't the right word. you just have to be patient: it's worth it.
then there's a couple of books which even i've forgotten the name of the authors. one of them very much reminds me of that new sci-fi series with the lead character from "The Librarian Series"... i remember the book because humanity was fighting against a much superior race of "invaders". when humanity "won", they left... but the parting words were something to the effect of "we are leaving because you are not worthy". and there was another - again, alien invaders, where the premise of the book was that just by learning the *language* of the invaders actually changed human DNA - or allowed it to change - to enhance and augment the person's intelligence... and physiology... into one of the aliens. both of these books were well written, and i've just spoiled the plot for anyone wishing to read either of them, but i would really appreciate someone letting me know who the authors are if they know either of these books, because i'd quite like to read them again.
I finally got off my ass and registered for the World Science Fiction Convention last year and read the nominees for best novel so i could vote for the Hugo awards. In doing so i read two novels that i might never have picked up otherwise, and was tipped me off to a third one that was actually by one of my favorite authors under a pseudonym. (I presume i eventually would have stumbled across that one one way or another.)
The realization that i hadn't heard of three of those books before and might never have read them caused me to go back and review the complete list of Hugo awards and Nebula awards for best novel.
There are a lot of old favorites on there, but there are also a lot of other books that i know of but never gotten around to reading and a lot more that i've never even heard of, especially for the earlier years. Unless you're a lot more knowledgeable than me you've probably never heard of a lot of them either. All the books in those lists were considered one of the best books that year either by the fans or the writers, and a lot of them probably still hold up well today. I've now got a plan, or at least a desire, to try and start working through those older books a few at a time. (Though how i'm going to manage that when i can't even keep up with all the _new_ books coming out i don't know.)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
When I first went looking for King of Elflands Daughter there were no copies except those sold at collectors prices. I eventually found a paperback from the 70s at a dollar or two. A good book. Fortunately, it was reprinted not too long ago so you should have no trouble finding that.
You could look for books by Cordwainer Smith. "Norstrilia" I remember as being a good one and his short story "Scanners Live in Vain" should be easy to find somewhere. I know Audible.com has it.
I would recommend "The Book of Swords" series by Fred Saberhagen. Such great books.
A crystal age by Hudson.
Anything by Roger Zelazny. His most extensive set of novellas were the Amber series-- five books, if I recall, eventually published in two volumes-- but he had a number of really lovely independent stories, including My Name is Legion, This Immortal, and Jack of Shadows. It's been a good twenty years since I went through my Zelazny phase, but few things would make me happier even now than discovering something else written by him.
The Description of a New World, Called The Burning-World by Lady Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. Late 1500s. Very strange early SF, semi-autobiographical. Requires tolerance for Elizabethan English, though it's easier than Shakespeare since it's prose not poetry. Author also composed poems about pixies responsible for moving atoms around.
The Three Impostor: and Other Stories, by Arthur Machen. Very Lovecraftian, except that it predates Lovecraft.
Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling. Not read as much as his other stories these days; basically a tour of English/European history from a decidedly British perspective, courtesy of tour guide Puck.
The Days of Chivalry,or, The Legend of Croque-Mitaine; original in French by Ernest Louis Victor Jules L'Epine; free (VERY free) translation by Thomas Hood the Younger, late 1890s. 177 illustrations by Gustave Doré. Originally a children's book, this heavily allegorical book follows the adventures of Mitaine, female squire to the legendary French knight Sir Roland. Would never hand this to a child now. Illustrations of impalements. Thoroughly racist, sexist, and every other kind of -ist you can think of. Shows illustration of Mohammed getting his teeth punched out by Roland (!!). Despite all that, fun in a horrifying kind of way. Reading this helped me understand how World War I came about. If this is the kind of thing they were raising their kids on, no wonder they killed millions of each other.
A Gift Upon the Shore by M. K. Wren -- two women struggle to preserve knowledge in post-apocalyptic Oregon. SF only by membership in post-apocalyptic sub-genre, but beautifully written.
Interesting question. Will keep eye on discussion. Note to self: must take refresher course on personal pronouns.
Harry Harrison's "Stainless Steel Rat" & Keith Laumer's Jame Retief (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jame_Retief) series.
A couple that aren't usually thought of as sci-fi but would be if they were publiished today: "Utopia" by Thomas More, and Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". As far as more modern books go, one of my favorites, for it's great plotting and incredibly prescient imagining of an information web, is "Shockwave Rider", by John Brunner.
Everything possible to be believ'd is an Image of Truth - Wm. Blake
If you haven't read it, "Silverlock" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverlock) by John Myers Myers is an amazing novel that takes its titular character on a voyage through myth, legend, and literature. There was a "sequel" called "The Moon's Fire Eating Daughter" which was more about the ways that gods and goddesses were recycled by various civilizations based on what came before. It was interesting but not as good. If one were to connect the two novels, it would be in that Silverlock is about the joys of reading, and The Moon's Fire Eating Daughter is about the travails of writing.
Anyway, highly recommended if you are looking for older material that you might have missed.
I'd love to find more of his stuff.
Look for "The Weapon Shops of Isher".
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin and Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy.
Clark Ashton Smith
Almost anything by Jack Vance
Much by Paula Volsky, wherever she may be
Crisis by Donald Kingsbury
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville...rest of his stuff sucks by and large
The Riddle Master Trilogy:
-The Riddle-master of Hed
-Air to Sea and Fire
-Harpist In the Wind
Short, somewhat abstract, but a nice plot with some truly unique character names (Ghisteslwchlohm)
As mentioned before, Dune is a great book, but an even better series. Keep reading, it just gets better and better (although you do have to push through the second book a bit).
Stephen Donaldson is a great author, not often mentioned in discussions (in my experience). A great fantasy series in Thomas Covenant, but a surprisingly excellent sci-fi narrative in The Gap Cycle.
Certainly not forgotten, but currently underrepresented in print and best-of lists.
There have been some ginormous (non-Ellison) anthologies at my local library recently that look like they have been compiled by real scifi scholars. This one, for instance:
http://www.amazon.com/Space-Opera-Renaissance-Kathryn-Cramer/dp/0765306182/ref=cm_lmf_img_13
As a young teen I was mesmerized by the books. Hope the big screen can do it justice.
Really like the Elrick of Melnibone series but any of his works around the Eternal Champion concept are pretty good. A little dark in that many of them will have an anti-hero as their hero, and happy endings are rare, but it's good stuff. Some may consider it pulp, and I wouldn't argue with them but they are truely entertaining.
Oh, and if you're in for a really odd read, well pick up Gloriana.
You know there was a sequel called 'secret of the sixth magic'... I loved that too. Always kinda reminded me of 'A Saturday Life', not sci-fi but fairly obscure I'd think. Anyway, Patrick Rothfuss probably read Master of the Five Magics, I think I can see a little coming through in his books.
-- "It's not stalking if you're married!" My Wife.
Lyonesse, probably will have to interlibrary loan it.
And I'll second the recommendations for H. Beam Piper and early Heinlein. Also anything by Glen Cook if you're looking for fantasy, and his "space opera" SF is also very good. Fortunately a lot of Cook's early stuff has been reprinted.
First and Last Men, and Starmaker. Olaf Stapleton is interesting.
And then there is the weird stuff, I suggest William Hope Hodgeson. Boats of the Glenn Carrig is pretty strange. Nightland is a work of genius, but also pretty much unreadable. It is probably worth reading the early Nightland part of it just for the atmosphere though. The House of Silence is CREEPY.
"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem." -- Jefferson
"Lud-in-the-Mist" by Hope Mirlees is a fantasy novel written in the 1920's that fell out of circulation but has been reprinted, so I guess it has been "rediscovered" and is not necessarily obscure these days.
Religion is poison to rationality, and we lose sight of that at our own peril. -- Lurker2288
do you know of any other great fantasy or science fiction books that time has forgotten?
Yes. I know of a multitude of forgotten works! The problem is just that I can't remember a damn one.
Most of the others I have seen mentioned are hardly forgotten, they actually seem fairly modern to me.
hmmm, was this topic started by Amazon? They can only do well from this in any event. Who else has already added items to their cart based on recommendations here? I am up to six so far.
tales of Pirx the Pilot among many others -Solaris (esp the movies) is not a good representation of the poetry and honesty of his work
-I'm just sayin'
Chronicles of Prydain. Technically it's a young adult series but I still re-read them every couple of years.
I second the call for Eddings but the original question stated 'forgotten'. I don't think they qualify yet.
Daley died years ago and he didn't write many books but his two-book Coramonde series is fantastic. Strongly suggest you pick up Doomfarers of Coramonde and try it. The book looks short but he builds a terrific world within it.
- Hugo nominated.
- One of the best female protagonists since Podkayne Fries (the plot follows a precocious 11-year-old orphan girl, living in a post-apocalyptic United States).
- A talking, possibly psychic, parrot companion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence_(novel)
It's been out of print for quite some time, but still seems to be available at a somewhat reasonable price from the usual online booksellers. A better bet might be through your local library, particularly if you have access to a wider lending network.
Excellent book. Well worth tracking down.
It's sad, but look for early works of any of these three as they're largely forgotten.
Keep an eye out for:
Asimov, "The Foundation Trilogy", "The Caves of Steel" and "The Naked Sun"
Clarke, "Childhood's End", "Tales of the White Hart" (short stories), "A Fall of Moondust"
Heinlein, "Have Spacesuit, will travel" (kids book, but still good), "Orphans of the sky", "The Puppet Masters", "Farmer in the Sky"
Wow, getting nostalgic and thinking about re-reading many of these.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Classic sci fi.
Phillip K Dick- Every short story and most of his longer works. All good, all thought provoking.
As Martin would say, the ABC's of science fiction- Asimov, Bester, Clarke!
Use to love reading these in the late 80's and early 1990's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathlands http://www.jamesaxler.com/TheBooks/tabid/55/ctl/ViewBookList/mid/374/SeriesID/1/Default.aspx
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
eom
Arachne and one that followed it, what ever it was called by Lisa Mason. Phenomenal dystopia of the future.
Mirabile by Janet Kagan. Absolutely a gem; if you don't laugh out loud while being absolutely stumped you're dead.
Some of the better material was created around late 80's in the form of a game. Mayday Festival Medieval Witch hunting in Germany was implemented as a RTS RPG in a title known as Darklands.
Nothing a storybook auther has written anything close to H.P. Lovecraft or just German rumors back in the Dark Ages. Modern fantasy authorsx except Lovecraft are all johnycomelatelies.
go read Kill The Dead and then burrow in the rest of her writings
Gollancz in the UK have 2 series, Science Fiction Masterworks and Fantasy Masterworks. There's a good selection of well known and forgotten books in the series. The SF mostly covers from the 1950's onwards while the Fantasy version goes back as far as Dunsany & Eddison. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Masterworks/ PS looks like pricing bots have had their way with new copies of them on Amazon.
The entire Heechee series. Loved it back in the day. Still remember waiting - wating - waiting for the next book.
But Perelandra ... well, it isn't really sci-fi or fantasy, except as a really thin veneer of that on top of some religious ruminations on matters such as: the creation of man, the Garden of Eden, the problem of Evil, and spiritual warfare. It is of some interest to the reader who is interested in Christian thought (either as a Christian or an outsider interested in how Christians think about things), but aside from some clever floating islands, its offerings to the genre of science fiction (or fantasy for that matter) are sorely limited. It has more in common with the likes of The Screwtape Letters than science fiction proper.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I really enjoyed a really strange novel called I, Zombie by "Curt Selby". According to this link, this was actually a pen name for Doris Piserchia.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1257369.I_Zombie
I think you will enjoy it more if you don't read any spoilers. I'll just say it's told first-person by a narrator with a truly strange point of view, and some truly strange things happen.
This isn't even forgotten, because I don't think it was ever well-known. But I enjoyed the heck out of it, and perhaps you will too.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Kind of obscure as in you won;t find them on any top 25 best sellers but quite well written and worth the effort. Actually there is no effort as these stories are like smoking grass: Easily inhaled, held onto, feels exhilarating, and afterward you feel as if you've experienced something.
John Varley
Titan, Demon, Wizard - Three great futuristic tales of a large, sentient, organic space station out in our solar system. Probably my favorite blend of Sci-fi and fantasy in one setting.
The Ophiuchi Hotline - What if the internet was really a signal from another galaxy? One of the best of the "eight worlds" novels. (Just an opinion)
"The Pusher" - Short story published in Blue Campaign and other places. This is a story that makes you feel dirty but so worth the read.
Roger Zelazny
Chronicles of Amber - Great stuff. Alternate worlds controlled by an elite bloodline. Fun family politics. 5 books each of which are short and can be read in a single setting.
John Steakly
Armor - This is an exciting read and will wear you out and make you feel the physical exhaustion of the characters. As Steakly said this book is the action in starship troopers. Orson Scott Card mentions it in his introduction in one of his books. I forget which one. If you do read this. Don;t stop after part one. You'll want to: Don't.
Vampire$ - This is what a vampire novel should be. People working for the Vatican to slay vampires for fun and profit. The book rocks, but Damn, the John Carpenter movie version in the 80's sucks ass. Don;t ever watch it.
Finally,
Steven Brust
Jhereg - This and all of the 11(?) other books follow an human assassin, Vlad Taltos, that kills "elves." It involves the fantasy elements of gods, sorcery, witchcraft, elves, etc in a world as dark and gritty as you want and as rich as Tolkein. Why these books haven;t "hit the big time," I have no clue.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
Would be a great movie!
Daniel Keys Moran wrote extremely enjoyable SF. Think Robert Heinlein meets Joss Whedon. The Long Run is on my all-time favorites list. Heinlein himself is of course on the list - He wrote about humans at their very, very best. Look to his Boy's Adventure period for the ones that are both great and obscure, start maybe with Tunnel in the Sky. As far as fantasy, look for Howard's Conan (beware of all the others, they can't do him justice), he's far better than Burroughs' Tarzan. I'll also go out on a limb and say John Norman's Gor saga. Skip straight to Tribesmen. There's enough detail in there to rival Tolkien. Just stay far, far away from the internet Goreans. They'll ruin it for you.
There's gold in them there hills.
I'd run out of authors I knew much about, so I picked up Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War" and enjoyed it. Then I noticed the '1' on the spine and that it was part of a series. Kept me busy for ages...
Of particular note (IMHO) was the Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith, though in this instance I'd recommend tracking down the complete works (under the same title) instead of the Sci Fi Masterworks version.
First come to mind are Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (only by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, skips all other authors in Dragonlance series). LotR are Hairy are pale in comparison.
Also, the most fascinating series I have ever read is The Eternal Champion by Michael Moorcock. His most popular work is Elric of Melniboné, but its ending upset me very much, though. (I wish you don't mind spoiler. XD).
Wasp by Eric Frank Russell is about a human dropped onto an enemy alien’s planet to cause as much confusion and destruction as possible to destabilize the occupying force in advance of a human assault. It’s a great ‘war novel’ about, essentially, spy stuff and what would now likely be called terrorism. Eric Frank Russell is generally ignored now, in fact, and does not deserve to be.
How can you use my intestines as a gift? -Actual Hong Kong subtitle.
CJ Cherrhy's work. Her skills vastly improved over time. The depth of the main character develops in this series as well. 5 books in all I think. What I enjoyed a little though was a non 'human' centric main character. There are very few comical moments, although the few there are are pretty good. And, its pretty easy to dissolve oneself into the atmosphere she creates. Pierce Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant was also interesting.
If can be tough to find a good SF that really engages.
I suggest John Anthony Curran's "The Ranboen Contract", it's practically free at $0.99 in EPUB, PDF and kindle.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-ranboen-contract-john-anthony-curran/1109132699?ean=9781471634048&itm=1&usri=ranboen+contract
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ranboen-Contract-ebook/dp/B003YOSEY8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1331085749&sr=8-2
This pentalogy (quintology?) by Sherwood Smith and Dave Trowbridge is something I'm re-reading at the moment. It came out in the nineties, and it's even better than I remember. It's a great story that contains a lot of well-worn space opera tropes, some of which I would have sworn could never work until I saw them work in this book. We've got a lazy good-for-nothing (but is he?) royal heir who suddenly winds up next in the line of succession due to a well-orchestrated series of assassinations, we've got space pirates, weird sex (among space pirates), telepathic aliens who can cook people's brains and make them explode out their eyes (eeeew!), aliens who are single-personality triplets and communicate with humanity only on the basis of old Three Stooges TV shows, an Evil Ruthless Conqueror, an Evil Ruthless Conqueror's Son (but is he really thoroughly evil?), we've got oodles of plots and counterplots. This list may be boring, but the books are not! The major characters all have depth, and some of them are not quite evil, while others are not quite good.
These books are pure fun, but they seem to have been pretty much ignored when they came out, and certainly aren't talked about much today. Unlike many books written over a decade ago, they have aged very well. The authors took care to draw the background in such a way that you seldom come across jarring references to what is today outmoded technology. The Exordium books are out of print, but can still be had at online used bookseller sites. The five volumes are:
Sherwood Smith has written some other novels, some of which I liked and some of which I hated. Trowbridge does not seem to have ever written anything else. One can only hope that the two collaborate again some day! Meanwhile, get these five books and enjoy!
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
Venus on the Halfshell by Kilgore Trout. Excellent. And written by a fictional character to boot.
By Larry Niven Jerry Pournelle, more of a fantasy story, but so good. And The Killing Star, by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski. After aliens destroy the Earth with relativistic bombs they explain to the last human that because all civilizations are potentially dangerous, and there's really nothing to lose by exterminating them before they get too strong, it was the logical choice. Excellent read.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
It's been a very long time but I remember enjoying everything of hers that I read. Ann Maxwell: Timeshadow Rider —1986
Dancer's Illusion —1983
Dancer's Luck —1983
Fire Dancer —1982
The Jaws Of Menx —1981
A Dead God Dancing —1979
Name Of A Shadow —1978
The Singer Enigma —1976
Change —1975
Marion Zimmer Bradley - I never got into the Darkover series but enjoyed a lot of her other works. Some highlights
Hunters of the Red Moon (1973) - This would make an epic movie. A CGI enhanced remake of The Most Dangerous Game
The Survivors (1979)
The Brass Dragon (1970)
Roger Zelazny - Most everything he wrote on his own plus a few of the collaborations. The following is a short list of stories I remember fondly not counting the Amber.
This Immortal (1966)
Lord of Light (1967)
Jack of Shadows (1971)
Roadmarks (1979)
The Changing Land (1981)
Dilvish, the Damned (1982)
Eye of Cat (1982)
Edgar Allen Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Pit and the Pendulum
His output was very limited, and all set in a unified future history. It is available in two books; The Rediscovery of Man a collection of short stories, and Norstilla, a novel. His work is very unusual, so a short description does not do it justice. As Wikipedia says "Linebarger's stories are unusual, sometimes being written in narrative styles closer to traditional Chinese stories than to most English-language fiction." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_Smith.
You can read some of his work on line. I suggest
Scanners Live in Vain" http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/1416521461/1416521461___5.htm
Game of Rat and Dragon http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29614
Why is Snark Required?
Anything by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
I wish that Disney weren't killing one of my childhood memories by destroying the John Carter series. They did the same thing with The Chronicles of Narnia. /sigh
Read Emergence, if you can find a copy. A genius eleven year old girl and her pet macaw travel a post-apocalyptic America. The writing style is hard to get used to -- a lot like Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" -- but after a few pages your brain starts filling in the missing words. (The in-story explanation is that it's her personal diary written in Pitman shorthand.)
Unfortunately, the sequel "Tracking" is only available as a bootleg right now, (check torrents). It was serialized in a now-unavailable sequence of Analog magazines. If you can find "Tracking", it's also worth reading.
Palmer seems to have done a lot of research for the books. He makes some mistakes regarding firearms that grated on me, but the rest seemed correct.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Sword of the Lamb, House of the Wolf, Shadow of the Swan
Somewhat in the vein of Asimov's Foundation, but with a much tighter focus, and personal protagonists. It's basic premise is a feudal star-spanning empire, emerged from a second Dark Age on Earth, that is now facing the inevitable transition to a more progressive form of government. It follows a group of people who attempt to manipulate society sociologically, in order to ensure that that transition doesn't rip society apart as it occurs.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man
My second nomination would be the fairie tale collections by Terry Windling and Ellen Datlow. Starting with 'Snow White, Blood Red' and continuing through 'Black Heart, Ivory Bones', those two brought the grim back to fairie tales (and the delight too) that we miss in some of the Disney-ized versions.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ is a great resource for looking up bibliographies and writing order of many of the more well known fantasy and sci-fi authors.
I've been trying for years to track down this story I read as a kid. It's a locked-room mystery sort of thing, but with time travel. There's a guy in a locked room who kills himself. A detective type guy, who has access to time travel, is trying to prevent this from happening. The detective keeps going back and doing things to prevent the guy in the room from dying. Hung himself? Take the rope. Shot himself? Take the bullets out of the gun. Has more bullets in his pocket? Take the gun. The finale is the guy in the room finally survives until morning only to go and open the window and a meteorite smacks him in the forehead, killing him. At this point the detective decides that, if the universe is that determined to kill this guy, the detective's going to stop trying to fight fate.
Like Heinlein, check out his earlier novels. I particularly enjoyed Police Your Planet and The Sky is Falling, both available on Gutenberg, last I checked.
Supporter of the +1 Over Dramatic mod option. In memory of apk.
"Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand" is incredible.
His "Triton" seems to be set in the same universe.
Do not read if you are homophobic.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
The next government form that asks for religion...
"Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
Any of the old DragonLance novels from about 20+ years ago are wonderful.
I spent many a long hour reading plenty of those fantasy fiction books, and as much as I hate to admit it, some of the stories were so vivid and compelling that they brought a tear to my eye during the tragic finale here or there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dragonlance_novels
The Chronicles
+ Dragons of Autumn Twilight
+ Dragons of Winter Night
+ Dragons of Spring Dawning
+ Dragons of Summer Flame
Legends
+ Time of the Twins
+ War of the Twins
+ Test of the Twins
Lost Histories
+ The Kagonesti (A Story of the Wild Elves)
+ The Irda (Children of the Stars)
+ The Dargonesti
+ Land of the Minotaurs
+ The Gully Dwarves
+ The Dragons
Meetings Sextet
+ Kindred Spirits
+ Wanderlust
+ Dark Heart
+ The Oath and the Measure
+ Steel and Stone
+ The Companions
Preludes
+ Kendermore
+ Brothers Majere
+ Darkness and Light --- This one was HILARIOUS! I hadn't laughed my arse off whilst reading before I came across this book.
Anything with Elminster in it, anything with Drizz't Do'Urden and the Avatar series (NOT the movie) are also strongly recommended.
I seem to recall coming across a bittorrent of some poorly-scanned versions of these books but I can't say for sure if it is still around.
Randall Garrett is now best remembered for his Lord Darcy stories (which are great; if you haven't read them, check them out). But one of the best things he ever wrote was a novel called Unwise Child.
There are action scenes, there are geeky science-fiction ideas, there is a bit of sleuthing. The main character is "Mike the Angel", a genius who designs spaceship engines and likes to build gadgets. There's a robot named "Snookums" who... knows too much about hydrogen. There is an overall logic to the plot that isn't obvious as you are reading but makes sense when you reach the end. There is a love interest, a lady scientist who is every bit as brilliant as Mike but in a completely different field. And there is a bunch of lovely writing and snappy dialog, as smart people banter with each other. I think I have re-read this novel over a dozen times, and I'm not done with it yet.
And lucky you, it is one of the works that is actually in the public domain. (It was written when the author had to renew a copyright after a fixed term to keep the copyright, and Garrett never renewed it.) So go and grab your copy here:
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1957/unwise-child
You might also find a paperback edition published under the name Starship Death. Since the book was public domain, there was nothing stopping anyone from publishing it under a different title, and someone did.
P.S. If you haven't read the Lord Darcy stories, you can get them in ebook form (any format you like, and with no DRM) from Baen. The stories are collected in a single omnibus volume simply called Lord Darcy and it includes every story Garrett wrote. They are detective stories, set in an alternate-history Earth where magic was developed instead of the science we have; much of Europe and all of North and South America are united into the "Anglo-French Empire" and the rival superpower, the Polish Empire, is often causing trouble. The best stories work both as detective stories and as a glimpse into another world. You can read the first two stories as a preview; if your tastes are anything like mine, you will want to buy the book after you read these.
http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200207/0743435486.htm
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Public domain and should be on Gutenberg:
Lindsay's - _A Voyage to Arcturus_
William Morris - _The Wood Beyond the World_
A.E. Merritt - _Dwellers in the Mirage_
Still in copyright
Susan Cooper - Dark is Rising Pentalogy (Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, Silver on the Tree) --- ignore the movie
Megan Lindholm -_Cloven Hooves_ --- amazingly moving urban fantasy
Linda Haldeman - _Star of the Sea_, _Lastborn of Elvinwood_
Dale Estey - _A Lost Tale_
Saunders Anne Laubenthal - _Excalibur_ --- Arthurian myth in Mobile Alabama
R.A. MacAvoy - _Tea with the Black Dragon_ --- worth it for the Knuth reference if nothing else. Wish the sequel was better.
Seconding
Jack Vance _Lyonesse Trilogy_ (Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl, Madouc) --- read aloud to a loved one if possible.If Vance were European he would've won a Nobel prize
Barry Hughart --- there's a free initial version of the first book which demonstrates the importance of meaning to a book
Cherryh --- Alliance Union books are fabulous w/ realistic space combat and no hand-wavium save for FTL. Morgaine books are excellent. Dreamstone is heartbreaking.
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Does anyone recall a story which I must have read in the 60s about a future ice age, where the hero is a young man and he leaves his under-glacier city to explore the world above? I remember it was a great read at the time, but can't recall anything about the title etc.
the "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" are fantastically complex works deeply influenced by Joseph Conrad (who Donaldson is a scholar of) and also by the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.
These books are Nondual Tolkien, and in a sense are also a deconstruction of Tolkien.
These are difficult works, written in a high style with outsize and anachronistic vocabulary. But they are the only modern fantasy novels that are on the same high level as Tolkien or Mervyn Peake.
The 'hero' of these High Fantasies is a diseased leper who is also a rapist. Read them and be amazed if you can get past the odd writing style.
Not quite as old as some of the others in here, but in my experience he is a bit unknown. I cut my fantasy teeth on his Black Company series, which is still my favorite. Also, the Tyranny of the Night series is pretty good as well.
a good post-apocalyptic sci-fi. some of the things mentioned (talking to your computer, many "princes" having access to nukes, etc) still bring a chill to my spine.
Great writers, wrote the best Star Trek episodes and Ellison also did some Outer Limits episodes. Demon with a Glass Hand maybe the best made for TV SciFi episode ever.
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
Ralph 124c41 arguably the first modern sci fi novel.
This book was by Alan Dean Foster. I still remember it from when I read it in high school (gads that's over 30 years ago). It has a lot of humor and adventure. The setting is quite unique. I could not find an audio book, so I ordered a used copy a week ago.
Barbara Hambly, The Windrose chronicles, for the hilarious 1980's computer programming mixed with magic.
C.S.Friedman, The Coldfire Trilogy, for the seriously badass main character, magic casting arrogant vampires were cool back then. *sigh*
The Warstrider series by William H. Kieth Jr has to be my fav scifi series by a wide margin. You can find all six books on amazon.
Glen Cook's Black Company Series.
I wouldn't say they were that difficult. I remember reading them when I was pretty young, without any real problems. 11 or 12, I think. I think the library only had the first four or so, now that I think about it.
Maybe I should revisit it.
I remember reading a series of sci-fi books when I was young by one author, which really altered the way I thought about things. They're pretty simple, as they're geared towards 'tweens, but have some heavy stuff in them.
They are all by William Sleator:
House of Stairs:bunch of kids wake up in some immeasurable environment where they are treated like a lab experiment.
The Boy who Reversed Himself: some kid seems able to hop in and out of our normal space, but comes back with his body reversed (heart on his right side, hair parted backwards, etc), and gets into higher-dimensional stuff, and
Singularity: identical twins find an old shed that seems to distort time.
They're all quick reads, and all dealing with really interesting premises that are more the variety of rigorous-but-plausible sort of Sci-Fi that doesn't get into space-opera stuff.
He has a whole pile of other books, and they're all cheap, so I'd heartily recommend all of them.
Tales of the Dying Earth
I'd recommend Purseus Spur if you're into pretty hard core sci fi. Takes a bit to get into I thought, but really great story once you get there :)
The Golden Age trilogy. by John C. Wright
Best Scifi I've read. A warning though, it's pretty heady stuff. Some of the concepts are bizarre to say the least, but I think he's got a very realistic view of the future. I found myself having to re-read many parts of the books because some of the concepts were so advanced I was having trouble grasping what was going on.
Here's the amazon link to the first book: http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Age-Book/dp/0812579844/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1331087154&sr=1-2
Many years ago I read a book, the plot was, a cop was involved in a shootout and was hit bad. He woke up in an alternate universe where everyone carried weapons as a legal right. His first memory in this new world was of a paisley hovercraft ---alternative to a car-- and his rescue and return to health with the help of a couple and their mother ( I think) they used lighter than air craft for long journeys. I remember the cover art, a large simian wearing a bandoleer and holding a large handgun. If any of you recall this book I sure would like to reread it. I have read most of the books mentioned in this post, I am a very avid science fiction reader; not so much fantasy :P
Try John Scalzi's Old mans war, David Weber's The Honor Harrington series, Ben Bova Moonwar series, Jeffrey Carver Eternities end, Philip K Dick do androids dream of electric sheep(Bladerunner), David Drake's Hammers Slammers series, and if you want something more--- adult--- try Angela Knight Mercenary series, I could go on for a long time.
Somewhere out on the web is a group of files that can be downloaded, called library of science fiction and fantasy, I found it on the something or other bay-- a ton of files that kept me in reading material for years.
Murray Leister (William F Jenkins). Mostly remember, if at all, for his later pot boilers, but at his best he was amazing. Seems to have invented the "alternate worlds" concept and wrote a 50s story about something that was amazingly like the internet.
Any of John Brunner's books, but particularly good are: 'Stand on Zanzibar', 'The Sheep Look Up', 'Shockwave Rider'
Raymond Feist has a fairly large body of great work in the vein on Martin worth checking out. I recommend you start with the Riftwar Saga
Six volumes of collected stories and poetry by Roger Zelazny.
You are bound to bump into something you haven't read before OR find a new facet to the things you've read already as each story is followed by a section explaining the references he used.
As for actual "new" stuff by Zelazny, there's this.
And you may find this amusing as well.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
"Police Your Planet" is by Lester Del Ray, not Heinlien. I like both.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
It was more enjoyable than Canticle, though Canticle will make you think harder.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
If you don't mind some communism apology in some stories, Soviet SF has some great works, although finding English translations might be hard.
See the works of the Strugatsky brothers, in particular.
Dilbert RSS feed
One of the best series I have ever read and I've been reading SciFi for 35 years.
Intervention (sometimes two books as Surveillance & MetaConcert)
Jack the Bodiless
Diamond Mask
Magnificat
The Many Colored Land
The Golden Torc
The Nonborn King
The Adversary
"There are laws that enslave men, and laws that set them free. " - Sean Connery as King Arthur
Frankly, prior to Disney making this into a movie I had no idea that it was sci-fi from 1911.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
http://paizo.com/planetStories
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis.
Read this a long time ago and just recently figured out what the title was.. not sure where you would find it though. Full of Unix puns.
Anyone who's read Lacuna knows that I'm a big fan of War of the Worlds. It's public domain now so there are DRM free copies around for nothing.
I mean... It has the heat ray, an invisible beam of heat that was point-and-click death. A laser. But every Hollywood movie ever has lasers being bright beams of light...
War of the Worlds wrote a much more realistic depiction of lasers than almost all movies and did it all [i]before lasers were even invented[/i].
It is a bit depressing, though. Welles wrote the Martian tripods as the most invincible, powerful weapon of war ever conceived. Only we have gotten so good at killing that these days, the version described in the original novel would be defeated laughably easily.
Sometimes things get an extra, unintended, meaning much later...
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
Dark Universe, counterfeit world
Does anyone recall a book from the 60s or so where a young guy leaves his glacier-buried city to explore the surface world for the first time in centuries? As a kid it was a great story but I can't recall the name or author.
One of my favorite books by Robert A. Heinlein
John Sladek wrote a hilarious parody of Asimov's take on robots. Tik-Tok is a menial servant bot who is driven to psychosis as he passes from one owner to another and all are venal or neurotic. Tik-Tok eventually winds up a genocidal misanthrope who learned all too well from humanity. He basically becomes a robot version of Alex from Clockwork Orange. He is just as sardonic and devastingly original in his revenge on humanity.
http://www.amazon.com/Tik-Tok-John-Sladek/dp/0575072350
i liked child of fortune and little heroes. star trek fans ought to note that he also wrote the episode 'wolf in the fold'.
spinrad's novels are generally set in decadent societies and feature lots of drug use.
when religion is no longer the opiate of the masses, governments will resort to real opiates.
L. Ron Hubbard is actually quite a good and unique science fiction writer. "The Invaders' Plan" was a humorous and strange - but engaging - work. http://www.amazon.com/Invaders-Plan-Mission-Earth/dp/1592120229/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331087999&sr=1-2
First read "Childhood's End" by Arthur C Clarke.
Next read "The Harvest" by Robert Charles Wilson.
Finally read "Blood Music" by Greg Bear.
It takes Clarke's concept and twists it into a strange conclusion, but really all 3 are kind of the same story. Too many books by too many authors, including the above, so I'll just put in a few extra plugs.
"Eon" by Greg Bear
"Good Omens" by Neal Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
"Macroscope" by Piers Anthony (mentioned once already)
"Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem (the book, not either movie)
"Sundiver" and "Startide Rising" by David Brin - the rest of the Uplift books don't reach the same level.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Neville Shute - On the Beach
Among fantasy works like those you cite, certainly Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast, Titus Groan, Titus Alone), anything by A. Merritt but particularly The Moon Pool, Fritz Leiber (incl. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser), Michel Moorcock, Talbot Mundy, Fred Saberhagen, among others.
On the science fiction side, any list of older authors must be headed by E.E. Smith, whose Triplanetary/Lensman series is among the best ever. Algis Budrys, Hal Clement, Gordon R. Dickson particularly the Childe cycle, Vonda N. McIntyre, Joanna Russ, Robert Silverberg, Clifford Simak, Kate Wilhelm, among others.
Michael Moorcock wrote well on both the F & SF sides. Hopefully no one as great as Theodore Sturgeon is in no danger of being forgotten (?). The Space Merchants is among the best things Fred Pohl has produced, but I don't know much about Cyril Kornbluth.
Posts like this are awful because you know there are many authors and books that are better than the one you cite.
Enjoy,
Craig MacKenna
Los Gatos, CA
Does anyone recall a book from the 60s or so where a young guy leaves his glacier-buried city to explore the surface world for the first time in centuries? As a kid it was a great story but I can't recall the name or author. My prev posts are hidden for some reason.
Possibly one of the earliest cyberpunk novels (William Gibson listed it as his favorite sci-fi novel) and containing the first description of synaesthesia in a popular account.
Seemingly forgotten now, it is a must-read for any SF enthusiast.
I'm a fan of Jeff Noon's Vurt series:
Vurt
Pollen
Automated Alice
Nymphomation
The best of the bunch is probably Nymphomation, which is a prequel to Vurt that can be read as a stand-alone novel.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is an absolutely amazing book, as is its sequel. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Chtorr!!!
The short stories of Fritz Leiber are fantastic. They were all published in periodicals mostly during the 40's I believe, but they can be found in collections now. Leiber's characters Fafrd and The Grey Mouser are the inspiration for Bravd the Hublander and The Weasel from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
I would highly recommend Julian May's Intervention, Saga of Pliocene Exile, and Galactic Milieu from the 80s-90s. These interrelated series stretch from the far past to our space-faring future and combine science fiction, technology, and fantasy into one grand vision. Intervention is my favorite and works very well as a stand alone novel... Ah, Oncle Rogi...
My other recommendation would be Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis (aka Lilith's Brood) from the late 80s, a series of novels with an interesting take on the future of humanity and what it means to be human. A bit less Sci-Fi, but also highly recommended, is her powerful Parable series from the 90s (Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents). In it she explores issues of race, freedom, religion, violence, and more through extrapolating a dark but all too possible vision of the future based on current trends in American society.
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"Lord Foul's Bane" exposed me to understanding uncommon emotions in middle school I could connect with instead of the English lit exposure of the time. If you have not read the first series take vacation time and brew a lot of tea or hot chocolate for intense read.
I'll second the Amber series. Some other lesser-known books/authors I have in my collection:
James White's "Sector General" series is very good. The novels mostly take place in an multi-species, multi-environment hospital/space station.
Cherry Wilder's "The Luck of Brin's Five" is also good.
Connie Willis "Futures Imperfect" and "To say nothing of the dog".
Walter Jon Williams "HardWired" and "Days of Atonement"
Rendevous with RAMA
Self Defense - A Human Right www.a-human-right.com
The "Dray Prescot" series by Alan Burt Akers (pseudonym of Kenneth Bulmer) is in the vein of E.R. Burroughs' "Barsoom" series, in which the hero is transported from Earth to another planet. Most of the books are available on Fictionwise as an eBook.
I highly recommend the Stainless Steel Rat series from Harry Harrison.
I'm currently reading the third Deathworld book, which is good, but not quite as good at the Rat books.
And I'd also recommend that you ask for the books people recommend at your library. Most of 'em have reserve funds to get books if they're not already in the system, which means that you can get your library to start filling out their SciFi section, so maybe other people will read them too.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Maybe this isn't forgotten, but Bruce Sterling's "Islands in the Net" (1988) is great old sci-fi. I personally liked the idea of fax machines still being cutting-edge in 2023.
In a decadent period far in the future, there's a lot of genetic modification and a fratboy finds himself in a penal battalion. Deeply odd and very good. And, um, not safe for work, if you know what I mean.
Jack Vance+ He's the Pixies (as in the band) of the SF and F.
Tanith Lee, especially her earlier work. Good luck finding it.
"She" and the rest of the Alan Quarter main series by Haggard.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
If you like scfi-esque dark comedy. Start with "Cat's Cradle".
The Demolished Man and Tiger, Tiger.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I remember reading both of those in school (late 1970's). Enjoyed both, but The Worm Ouroboros was the one that actually was memorable, as in, so unique and impactful that I remember it 30 years later. Not sure it's what I would consider "forgotten", although Lord Dunsany's stuff probably is. I happened upon The Worm Ouroboros from literary references used by authors in later generations. Steven R. Donaldson used references to it in the original Thomas Covenant series, IIRC.
There's some old stuff by David Gerrold I can recommend. His most popular is the "War Against the Chtorr" series, which is worth reading, if you haven't. But IMHO his best work was "The Man Who Folded Himself". Short read but really insightful bit of work.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
"do you know of any other great fantasy or science fiction books that time has forgotten?" Taking your question literally, here is the ultimate collection:
http://slashdot.org/story/02/08/02/0349211/scifi-motherlode-donated-to-canadian-university
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
As I recall, the first three books of the original series were first serialized in Analog magazine before they were published as novels.
They were. I read them in the original copies of Astounding. I "wasted" many hours when I probably should have been studying going through the University of Arizona's special collections department's copies dating from the first copy edited by John Campbell until my own collection picked up in the mid-50s.
I don't know where those copies are now, but I'm sure they aren't about to let undergraduates handle them.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I liked reading the Tom Swift series when I was a kid. They had "inventions" a bit ahead of their time considering the series started written in 1910. You can still read some of them here - http://durendal.org/ts.html - for free. Check out the Electric Gun, Electric Runabout, the Photo Telephone to name a few.
First sci fi I read as a young kid was the Mushroom Planet series (Eleanor Cameron). Got the same books out of the same library when my kids started reading around 3-4, and they have recently found copies to buy for themselves and me. Now if they would just get their heads out of the books and make me some grandchildren...
Hyperion & Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmon. Hand Down
The John Carter series, of course. With the movie coming out, I suspect you'll be able to find these everywhere. Ignore the last novel, though, he only wrote the outline and his son finished it, poorly IMHO.
The Black Company by Glen Cook.
Here;re some of my favourites...
Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay (The summer tree, the wandering fire and the longest road)
The winter of the world by Michael Scot Rohan (Anvil of ice, etc)
I'll agree with another poster here when he mentioned Taltos the Assassin (I got it in a single volume)
David Eddings' Belgariad and Malorian were good too... Preferred them to the sapphire rose books.
There're a hell of a lot more on my bookshelf but those are top of the list.
(I did like thomas covenant too,but that's had a mention already)
I DID like Robert Jordan's wheel of time... But I got stuck in one of them and never got it finished... And I found myself skipping whole chapters because I found the matt cauthon character utterly boring,
By Keith Laumer. Also introduces you to Retief, who is like a James Bond/Clint Eastwood of the future.
Also the follow on Bolo books are good, but few if any are written by Laumer. The original is still the best.
"There are laws that enslave men, and laws that set them free. " - Sean Connery as King Arthur
Er, yes, I scrambled my message by over-editing. Both of those books are by Lester Del Rey.
Supporter of the +1 Over Dramatic mod option. In memory of apk.
Andre Norton, the pen name of Alice Norton, wrote a whole bunch of sci-fi and fantasy books. I've only read the ones that are available for free on the Kindle store (so they're probably on Gutenberg) but I've been very impressed by the quality of the writing, considering the pulp-ish themes.
For example, there's a sequence of books, beginning with The Stars Are Ours!, that treats human colonization of space and contact with alien races. Another sequence, beginning with The Time Traders, considers time travel and advanced alien technology in a Cold War setting.
They have reprinted much of the classic SF and have a website located at http://www.nesfa.org/press. No financial connection, just a satisfied customer. Also reprints by Fredric Brown, Murray Leinster, Anthony Boucher, Algis Budrys and many more.
Here's some series that I love. In fact I've started reading them again. The Song of the Lioness The Immortals Protector of the Small Daughter of the Lioness Each of these series interact together. Another group of series are these. Circle of Magic The Circle Opens
ITA w clarke/asimov/heinlein, zelazny is mind-blowing, burroughs is must-read.. simmons' hyperion series, greg bear, niven/pournelle all fun reads. I also recall really enjoying some of the older stephen baxter novels (hard sci fi), but haven't read him in years (just noticed he's got a boatload of new books). I'd call baxter accessible hard sci fi (you don't have to crack the books to understand it; engaging). Stay away from Wheel of Time. (Gotta make that my signature.)
Do you approve of Planned Parenthood? Its founder was big on eugenics - that's why she founded PP.
Depends on what you mean by "eugenics"-- the word has changed a little in connotation since the 1930s.
Sanger was an advocate of parenthood by choice, and opposed to anybody who wanted to make decisions on childbearing for other people. So, if you think of eugenics as meaning forced sterilization and involuntary contraception, no, she was fiercely opposed to that.
She did, however, believe that availability of contraception would mean that poor people would have fewer children, and that this would benefit both society and the gene pool (and, for that matter, benefit the poor people themselves, who would split their wealth a smaller number of ways). This was considered eugenics at the time.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Dig up some old short story anthologies. Lots of gems not seen elsewhere. Even if you end up reading a mediocre story, there's always a great one a few dozen pages later. Authors you'll never hear of. Some who only wrote a couple stories.
Several stories still stick with me decades later. Wish I could find those books again.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
I rarely hear this mentioned, but this is my second-favorite novel of all.
Not at all like Drake's other fare, which I find rather dull (except the Vettius and his Friends collection of short stories).
Birds of Prey is set in the later Roman Empire, with a science fiction twist. In any other book this would be too violent for my taste, but this is so good that I've re-read it several times anyway.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Robert E Howard and all the original Conan books are pretty good (well, if you like the old stuff, which it seems you do!). Maybe you were looking for something more obscure, though.
Make sure that the Howard books you read are actually by Robert E. Howard, though. Avoid anything by some other author continuing the series, or by "Robert E. Howard and xxx," or "Inspired by Robert E. Howard," or "completed by YY based on an unfinished story by Howard".
With that said, the Howard books do have a bit of the '30s feel to them, but if you like that style, they're the original.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
What about some good ol john norman? the first few books are too bad ;)
In the U.S., John Wyndham is rarely mentioned these days, yet each book that I've read has been a monument. The Midwich Cuckoos. The Day of the Triffids.
If you're looking for gentle and humorous adventure, try the three books in Alexei Panshin's Thurb pentology.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Donald E. McQuinn, trilogy Warrior, Wanderer, & Witch, set in the Pacific Northwest, generations after World War III.
Closest thing to a modern Heinlein. And I second Farmer's Riverworld series.... but stay away from the god-awful Riverwirld miniseries!
Science Fiction is the last bastion of the short story as serious literature. Some might scoff at describing ANY SF as serious literature, but at the heart of SF is it's willingness to ask big questions and offer big ideas. Short stories have no room for extraneous subplots, meandering descriptions or the dreaded "expository lump" of pseudo-scientific rationalizations. A great short story will take less than an hour to read and will last with you for years. A bad short story is over quickly and soon forgotten. I tried hard to think of a great forgotten novel to recommend and all I could think of were short stories. People above have mentioned Asimov. I, Robot was serialized in its initial publication. Each chapter stands alone as a short story. I discovered Nancy Kress, Greg Bear, and others because of "Year's Best" SF anthologies. Most of the SF greats cut their teeth in the pulp market and some of their most resonant and lasting ideas come from those pages. Just sayin.
Must Second this. One of my favorites. I have reread this series several times.
Here's a nice assortment of science fiction and fantasy books, all available in digital format. Some old stuff, some high profile authors, some lesser knowns, some interesting collaborations, Enough to keep you busy for a while. Also, if you go to the local library, look for any CD audio books by Baen Publishing - usually the last CD contains these plus others that you can copy off. http://www.baenebooks.com/c-1-free-library.aspx
There is a really good series I once found and the main character was a ming dynasty mystic/private detective. Never finished the series and can't remember the author.
I don't see it mentioned here, so I'll put my plug in for Little, Big, by John Crowley. It won the World Fantasy Award in `82.
Also, I have always loved the Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny. The first series was, I thought, much better than the second.
Lord of Light
the Amber books.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Best Disney movie that Disney never made. It was out of print for a couple decades until J.K. Rowling listed it as a book she loved as a child, then it was suddenly reprinted. My introduction was via a ratty 1948 UK copy that had been brought over to the US sometime in the 60s, based on the used bookstore price of 25 cents. It's a fantasy story set in England during the early Victorian period, involving lions and unicorns and lost pearl necklaces.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
The Black Company by Glen Cook and the rest of the series is a very good read. It's hard to find but well worth it.
I'm here for the experience, not the Hyperbole.
This is a classic sci-fi novel, especially if you are a bit of a math geek.
Hard to believe that it is over 125 years old...All the better since it is free to download.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland
However, no request for fantasy would be complete without a hat-tip to Ballantine's early 70s series. These were not like the latter-day watered-down Tolkein formulaic series that seem to litter the shelves now, but were resurrected and republished older works (many English) from a time when that decidedly less poetic paradigm hadn't yet gelled. Many formative hours were spent rooting through used bookstores looking for paperbacks with the backwards/forwards B logo and the fabulous, seminal cover art. Some I enjoyed or that at least left an impression: HP Lovecraft's "Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", any of the Lord Dunsanys, a few of the Lin Carters (don't remember the names offhand), Cabell's "The Wood Beyond the World", David Lindsay's highly odd metaphysical and unresolved "A Voyage to Arcturus", and Peter Beagle's "The Last Unicorn" (yeah, I went there, deal with it ... and for that matter, toss on "A Fine and Private Place" although it's really off-topic here). Along similar lines, Jack Vance's Dying Earth series is fun. Hell, I think Ballantine actually put out a version of "Orlando Furioso"; that and Spenser's "Faerie Queene" ought to still have some eyeballs looking at them. If I recall correctly, all the Ballantines go well with expensive imported Krautrock vinyl for ambiance and, um, mood-altering enhancers. But for some reason, those details get a little fuzzy.
Half Past Human and The Godwhale are pretty awesome and seem to be pretty forgotten. Dr. Bassler died last December and it didn't make a blip on any internet science fiction sites that I noticed. While there are plenty of hard SF books that deal with physics and that sort of thing, these two books had some 'hard' biology, which I thought was pretty cool.
One of the best forgotten books of children's' science fiction is The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz. Try to find an unedited copy. The edited editions are subject to severe remarks on Amazon, for example, and for good reason. The highly idiosyncratic dialog penned by Schmitz is a delight. The story is one of the most entertaining and original in early sci-fi.
these are books so difficult (and leaden) most people never finish them. they aren't written for children at all. the deeper philosophy and psychology is something no 12 year old could appreciate, and also the references to Wagner and Conrad are completely beyond a child. The series has recent volumes, 9 of them and a 10th to come in 2013. The later books are much richer than the early ones, very much so.
I'm shocked nobody has mentioned him.
And before the joke comes along, yes, he's the inspiration for the Psy-Cop Bester in B5.
James Blish wrote a lot of good stuff, but in particular his "Cities in Flight" series is really awesome. The four books are: They Shall Have Stars A Life for the Stars Earthman, Come Home The Triumph of Time The third is the best, IMHO but they are all good.
Wow! That sounds vaguely familiar... I know I read it but I can't remember who wrote it either :-(. Now I'm going to go nuts.
or any of his epic collections of short stories you can find.
I don't think this got listed high enough. Back in the day when I was in the Science Fiction Book Club, Anne McCaffery, Pern.
The entire series.
Boy was it a tough read in HS. I don't think it would too much easier as a 40 year old, but sticks with me to this day.
Every time I see a loose piece of thread, I'll think about it.
"Thirty Days in the Samarkind Desert with the Duchess of Kent" by A. E. J. Eliott, O.B.E.
" A Hundred and One Ways to Start a Fight" by an Irish Gentleman
"David Coperfield," with one 'p,' it's more thorough than the Dickens. "Grate Expectations," "Knickerless Knickleby," "Khristmas Karol," and "A Sale of Two Titties" by Edmund Wells
or "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens.
Charles Sheffield should be remembered alongside Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke.
Orlando Furioso, by Ludovico Ariosto written in the Renaissance in 1516 in Italian, there are modern English translations and modern retellings
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086074/ for the movie, very visual
Also, an opera by Vivaldi
this is a fantasy retelling of the fictional account of Charlemagne's invasion of Spain, which was fictionalised as in Chason de Roland. So even by the 16th century it was many layers of retelling.
Witty writing and engaging characters put these books in the top tier. These books, now long out of print, are: Star Well, The Thurb Revolution, and Masque World. They can be purchased in the omnibus ebook "New Celebrations" (for the ridiculously low price of $6.99) here: http://www.electricstory.com/authors/author.aspx?authorid=96
Its greatest, and almost unforgiveable, failing, is that Panshin never published the fourth book.
Finder, Bone Dance and Falcon, by Emma Bull. Three completely different novels, all fantastic. She's still writing, but you asked for old stuff.
M.A. Foster did a series about a transhuman species called the Ler that I found really haunting and freaky back in the day.
The Witches of Karres, by James Schmitz (a couple of fairly decent sequels have been written, but the original is unmatched).
The Last Planet, by Andre Norton.
The Chronicles of the Deryni, by Katherine Kurtz.
The Family Tree, by Sheri Tepper (this is one of her best books, so even if you've read others and didn't like them that much, I still recommend this one).
The Musashi Flex series, by Steve Perry (and anything else by Steve Perry, for that matter).
Scott Westerfeld's The Risen Empire, which it pains me to refer to as an oldie, which has one of the most insanely great and physically realistic space battle scenes _ever_.
Silk Roads and Shadows, by Susan Schwartz (she gets the Buddhism mostly wrong, but it's still a great book).
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (who put a spaceport in Hamtramck and explained how to pronounce it) and The Demolished Man, also by Alfred Bester.
All The Myriad Ways (the short story collection) by Larry Niven.
Michael Marshall Smith - Only Forward.
This is a 3 book story that I really enjoyed. Read it as a kid and still enjoyed it 25+ years later as an adult. Totally worth your time to seek out at your local library.
Good lord, you f'ers are making me go out of my cave and look at my library.
I still have most of this stuff up on a shelf, but the bright light of the aboveworld at 10 pm is too much for me!
I've been going back and reading all the early books by Lord Dunsany. I really recommend "A Dreamer's Tales" and "Tales of Wonder." They're both collections of short stories, but well worth reading. His prose if really unique and colorful, and the themes go down roads I don't think I've ready any or author delving into. I recently finished "The King of Elfland's Daughter" and I'm in the process of reading "The Charwoman's Shadow," which are full novels and well worth reading.
David Zindell's Neverness and its follow up Requiem for Homo Sapiens trilogy, the first of which The Broken God is my all time favourite.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
Cryptozoic, by Brian Aldis. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what it's about, because that would be too much of a spoiler. The only book that comes close to it in (can't tell you this word) is The City and the City, by China Miéville
Godstalk, by P.C. Hodgell
Jericho Moon, by Matthew Woodring Stover
Heroes Die, by Matthew Woodring Stover
The Face in the Frost, by John Bellairs
Gloriana, by Michael Moorcock
Magic Casement, by Dave Duncan
Fritz Leiber - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series
James P Hogan - The Giant series starting with Inherit the Stars
Poul Anderson - Polesotechnic League series; Hoka series; The Psychotechnic League series; Time Patrol series; Harvest the Stars series; etc (100 or so books)
James Blish - Cities in Flight
Gordon Dickenson - Childe Cycle - Soldier, Ask Not is one of favorites
and one that captivated me and blew my mind - Robert Silverberg - Across A Billion Years
These should keep you busy for a few weeks. Or years.
*click**beep**beep* Scotty, One to Mod up!
Damnit, another one I'm gonna have to read again!
Wonderful stuff.
Nostrilla is a total knock-out.
The Queen's Squadron and Jerusalem Fire are both terrific stories. (The former containing the ending Avatar should have had.) The author has a distinct and unusual voice, in much the way Ursula Le Guin does.
I'm surprised nobody else mentioned Clifford Simak. "City" was a classic. "Project Pope" had a group of robots in a monastery searching the universe for God. "Special Deliverance" was memorable. He is one of the authors I always search for in used book stores.
No Highway
A Shadeless room is a brighter room.
Yeah, yeah, so sue me cause I've posted 4 in a row. Lord Valentine's Castle.
You'll want to learn to juggle before you're done with this one, so don't read it unless you can deal with bloody knuckles.
(Hint, juggle in front of a concrete wall, and you'll soon stop throwing the balls, whatever, forward.... Not from the story, from learning to juggle.)
Oh, the three Valentine books will burn quite some time. Beware.
I humbly submit The Sunset Warrior trilogy by Eric Van Lustbader.
Logan's Run?
The House on the Borderland, by William Hope Hodgson
(admired by Lovecraft and cited in Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature")
author/Book
Gordon Dickson - Dorsai
EE "Doc" Smith - Lensman series - Books of many big ideas before everybody else plus non stop action
Jerry Pournelle/Larry Niven - The Mote in God's Eye - A great Sci FI book I fear people have forgotten
How about The Iron Tower by Dennis L. McKiernan? It's not very popular, don't know about forgotten though
Death Gate series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Great books. They should make a movie or series out of them
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
The Long Run
The Last Dancer
Great sci fi from the 1980's. Still has some great but dated hacker/net stuff I still am able to refer people to.
Last I looked it's all available as an ebook.
DKM is my favorite guy that's not famous.
Also David Gerrold 'War Against the Cthor' series, was shaping up well. Disappeared years ago, never heard exactly why.
The active Imagination is the preeminent mirror, the epiphanic place of the Images of the archetypal world; that is why the theory of the mundus imaginalis is bound up with a theory of imaginative knowledge and imaginative function--a function truly central and mediatory, because of the median and mediatory position of the mundus imaginalis. It is a function that permits all the universes to symbolize with one another (or exist in symbolic relationship with one another) and that leads us to represent to ourselves, experimentally, that the same substantial realities assume forms corresponding respectively to each universe (for example, Jabalqa and Jabarsa correspond in the subtle world to the Elements of the physical world, while Hurqalya corresponds there to the Sky). It is the cognitive function of the Imagination that permits the establishment of a rigorous analogical knowledge, escaping the dilemma of current rationalism, which leaves only a choice between the two terms of banal dualism: either "matter" or "spirit," a dilemma that the "socialization" of consciousness resolves by substituting a choice that is no less fatal: either "history" or "myth" (Mundus Imaginalis, or the Imaginary and the Imaginal, by Henry Corbin).
French philosopher and theologian, Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was one of the most important intellectuals and scholars of the twentieth century. I first heard of him in the mid '90's, after immersing myself in the writings of James Hillman. The latter saw him as a carrier of the torch of Soul, when many in those days were denying its value. In 1949, Corbin attended the Eranos Conference in Asconia, Switzerland, in which he would play a large role, along with C.G Jung.
Most of us are aware of what Corbin means in the above passage by "active imagination." If you're not, read Gary Lachman's wonderful essay at Reality Sandwich.
We know the power and value of this gift that Jung rediscovered for our generation. It was by no means a Jungian invention, for mystics and seers have used it for millenia to enter another, more subtle world. Corbin dubs this realm mundus imaginalis, the world of the imaginal. He uses "imaginal" to differentiate from "imaginary," and the disparaging connotations it carries in our rationalistic culture.
Corbin's worldview requires a complete cosmology and metaphysics of presence. The West once possessed this, but lost it when the Aristotelianism of Averroes swept aside the Avicennan cosmology in the twelfth century. From that point on, the emphasis would be on res extensa and res cogitans.
Our typical idea of historical consciousness of a world of cold, dead objects and linear time will not work here. According to Tom Cheetham, "the human presence spatializes a world around it in accordance with the mode of being of that presence" (The World Turned Inside Out, p 66). This is very Heideggerian, reminding me much of Dasein. In fact, Heidegger was a major influence on Corbin's work. This mode of being requires a qualitative, not a quantitative space. Our normal idea of space is much too limited for the limitless depths of Soul. That is why our urge to personify machines, as in the seemingly never-ending quest for so-called artificial intelligence, will never produce anything more than a cold, lifeless calculator.
The mundus imaginalis is the realm of Soul, the metaxy, mediating between the physical and spiritual universes. It is the middle course Icarus was instructed to fly by his father, but disobeyed and perished. It is the abode of the Archetypal Images of all existence and the realm of all mythology, which provides for us analogical knowledge by which we can peer into multiple levels of being. Cheetham says,
It is a measure of the depth of the catastrophe to which we have succumbed that we have come to regard this realm as just a fantasy in our heads. It is a realm of Being with its own characteristics, its own laws, and to which we have access by an organ of cognition appropriate to just this realm. The org
A few folks have mentioned Stapledon, but I believe he deserves his own post here.
Stapledon was a . . . well, I don't know if protege of H.G. Wells is apt, but he was immensely influenced by Well's futurism. This included the notion of utopian socialism causing a sea change in human affairs and nature, creating a "minded world."
Stapledon started with that, adding a huge dose of doubt and humility and scientific depth. His two best-known books are less novels than future histories.
Last and First Men is a future history of humanity, beginning with what today looks like an alternate-history Second World War. This leads to a conflict between China and America. America "wins," introducing a prosperous, materialistic world civilization that crashes when the last fossil fuels run out. After that, the pace accelerates. New races of humanity rise and fall; Earth is invaded by group-minded cloud creatures from Mars. The Fifth Men terraform Venus after Earth becomes uninhabitable. The story ends on Neptune two billion years in the future, where the Eighteenth and last human species starts a panspermia project in the face of extinction via nova.
Everything in that books takes up a couple of paragraphs in Star Maker, which is about the rise and fall of planetary civilizations, and eventually a galactic civilization and a space-and-time-spanning overmind which seeks to encompass the viewpoints of all sapient beings in hopes of figuring out the meaning of it all. Freeman Dyson credits the book for the actual genesis of "Dyson Spheres."
Stapledon's best actual novel is Sirius, which is about what we might call today an uplifted dog. It's insightful and heartbreaking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio_of_a_Space_Tyrant
A Polish writer who seemed to be critiquing Soviet-style Communism, but was lampooning us all.
It doesn't look like anyone has mentioned this one yet. I really enjoyed this novel, with more technical detail than most.
A dingo ate my sig...
I remember "The Wall at the Edge of the World" by Jim Aikin and "The Shattered World" by Michael Reaves.
The first novel is about a dystopia set in the future. Mankind consists of a small totalitarian, telepathic, hive-like society. The old world was destroyed by this society and has long since returned to a wild state. However, small groups of ordinary survivors still remain, and when they discover the telepathic society, confict results.
The second novel is a fantasy novel, set in a world that was broken up by magic. I honestly don't remember much of the plot now, but the novel was set in a very original world that I still remember.
Robert Silverberg, "Time of the Great Freeze".
...I just came for the free beer.
One of my favs, surprised no mention here.
The Black Company by Glen Cook starts the series.
Fantasy or science fiction? No, it's military fiction. And awesome. Cook is on my annual re-read list.
Get with Croaker, Oneeye, Silent and the gang.
Anything is possible given time and money.
Wonderful question. You asked and people who give a shit answered. Set aside an hour a day, you've got the next twenty years covered. Thanks to all, who reminded me of too much stuff not remembered, and more not yet discovered. Yikes, I got a chill or two just reading through the replies.
Right now I'm playing my way through the Vorkosigan saga, awaiting the next Honor story, and saving for more from Baen and others.
Lester del Rey, Alfred Bester, Simak, track down "An Omnibus of Science Fiction"... "All Flesh is Grass"... van Vogt, Doc Smith, anything by Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein... John D. MacDonald wrote two in the Fifties "Ballroom of the Skies" and "Wine of the Dreamers"...
An aside re six degrees, met a fellow in '69 named Marty, the walls of whose room were bookshelves, all filled with science fiction. He knew each book for author, publisher, year, main and many ancillary characters and their growth or lack thereof, the extrapolated or purported technologies, plots, subplots, the _ideas_; does he still live, I suspect he's still an unparalleled resource.
Track down and frequent a few real used-book stores do they still exist (they're extinct in my city); tell them what you seek.
I always enjoyed Schmitz's The Witches of Karres. Courtesy of Baen Books, you can read the first few chapters for free here
Baen Books also maintains a library of free book, Baen Free Library. I say this is worth a look.
Whew! This water sure is cold!
An amazingly good read - I've read it at least six times and spied on the book shelf a week ago and moved to the front - I'll read it again.
It's terminally out of print, but it's worth checking out Level Seven by Mordecai Roshwald. It's set in an underground government base. The missiles fly, everything is shut down - and slowly, the top levels of the base stop responding, one by one. A downer, but one of the great classics of cold-war era nuclear apocalypse sci-fi.
On a lighter note, check out the novels of Karel apek, particularly The War of the Newts and The Absolute at Large. They're both humorous apocalypse stories - apek wrote largely between WW1 and WW2, and he has a really interesting take on the industrial acceleration of the time.
The Absolute at Large is back in print now, but a version based on the out of copyright first edition is available at http://davemayo.is-a-geek.org/projects.php#literary . Link is to my personal website - I'm the one who put together the edition. It's available in ePub (ASCII and Unicode) and mobi, although the mobi is just a conversion through Calibre. The text should be fairly good - I've gone through it several times, correcting it against the physical copy.
"C. J. Cherryh"s stuff is pretty awesome, the aliens in Chanur may be a turn off for some folks, but in that case her "Alliance-Union" books are pretty excellent sci-fi: yes, she has FTL, but no they don't have dampening fields or subspace communications - and in several of her books she plays with the resulting mechanics - the proximity between an arriving ship's first contact data to a station and the ship itself breaking from a relativistic speed.
She does a pretty good alien world: I loved fading sun, and for some reason I'm one of the many hooked on the Foreigner series ;)
Cyteen has a creepy edge to it that continually makes you wonder if you want to keep reading, but brilliant.
-- A change is as good as a reboot.
Spider Robinson was given the honor of completing Robert Heinlein's last known novel, Variable Star. An excellent read created from a manuscript that publishers rejected, so Heinlein packed it away with the intent of completing it at a later date. The story was originally written during Heinlein's adventure story phase, before he got into experimental social fiction. Robinson did an excellent job capturing Heinlein's style, and mixing in a bit of Heinlein's later style.
Robinson is currently working on a sequel to Variable Star called Orphan Stars.
Whew! This water sure is cold!
Sheckley is one of my favourite sci-fi authors. "The Status Civilization" is a classic, but I'd recommend pretty much all the stories written in the 50s/60s. He's also written franchise novels in the late 90s, but I haven't read them, and I doubt that the sorts of story constraints involved would make for memorable sci-fi.
george alec effinger's Marîd Audran series: When Gravity Fails (1987), A Fire in the Sun (1989), The Exile Kiss (1991), The Audran Sequence (omnibus), Budayeen Nights (short stories, 2003) And mary doria russel's: The Sparrow (1996), Children of God (1998)
Starrigger trilogy (Starrigger, Red Limit Freeway, Paradox Alley) by John DeChancie.
Not to be confused with the Star Rigger universe by Jeffrey A Carver - also well worth reading. (Inc. Star Rigger's Way, Dragons in the Stars, Panglor)
Roads of Heaven trilogy by Melissa Scott (Five Twelfths of Heaven, Silence in Solitude, Empress of Earth.)
An intelligent dystopian satire about the discovery of a race of race of intelligent but uncultured aquatic newts, and their use/commercial exploitation by man. Think of them as robots who happen to be newts. (Capek is the author of the term "robot").
and opposed to anybody who wanted to make decisions on childbearing for other people.
"We who advocate Birth Control... lay all our emphasis upon stopping not only the reproduction of the unfit but upon stopping all reproduction when there is not economic means of providing proper care for those who are born in health. While I personally believe in the sterilization of the feeble-minded, the insane and syphilitic, I have not been able to discover that these measures are more than superficial deterrents when applied to the constantly growing stream of the unfit Eugenics without Birth Control seems to us a house builded upon the sands. It is at the mercy of the rising stream of the unfit"
- Margaret Sanger, “Birth Control and Racial Betterment,” Feb 1919.
"I believe that now, immediately, there should be national sterilization for certain dysgenic types of our population who are being encouraged to breed and would die out were the government not feeding them.”
- Margaret Sanger, 1950
L. Sprague de Camp - "Lest Darkness Fall" ...Probably my all-time favorite.
Andre Norton - "Daybreak 2250 AD" or "Star-Man's Son" ...I had a thing for post-apocalyptic stuff when I was a kid. i secretly hoped for a nuclear war so I could live in such a world!
Brian Aldiss - "Starship"
Eric Frank Russell - "Wasp" ....someone mentioned this one earlier. Also "Men, Martians, and Machines"
Niven and Pournell - "The Mote in God's Eye" and "The Gripping Hand"
Larry Niven - "The Integral Trees" and "The Smoke Ring". Also all of the "Ringworld" books.
Harlan Ellison - "Phoenix Without Ashes" ...they made a really BAD TV series (The Starlost) based on this book. Too bad, because the book was really good.
Steven Gould - "Wildside"
Kenneth Bulmer - "Keys to the Dimension" series.
E. C. Tubb - The "Dumarest" series.
...I just came for the free beer.
CL. Moore
Ursula LeGuin Earthsea
H.G. Wells
Gordon Dickson / The Childe Cycle must be read
William Sleator / House of Stairs
Two books I've loved and re-read over and over; "The Traveller in Black" by John Brunner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Traveller_in_Black/ and one mentioned by some other folks, "Jack of Shadows" by Roger Zelazny. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_of_Shadows/
WARNING: I cannot be help responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.
The old stuff is not in eprint.
Chthon and also Macroscope are still books I enjoy. Excellent.
Bitter and proud of it.
T. J. Bass
_Half Past Human_ (1971)
_The Godwhale_ (1974)
Unlike anything else I've read. Definitely two, maybe three reads.
I'm glad I'm not the only one where Silverlock sprang to mind instantly when seeing this post. This is book is a trip and a half. Great fantasy anchored in some of the best literature written in the last 4000 years! Well written and wonderful denouncement of rampant cynicism applicable today (the book was written in 1949).
I'll shamelessly add another book written not long after in the late 1950s: A Canticle for Leibowitz. A classic of American literature, rich in texture, dark without being depressing; an achievement since the author, Miller, suffered from it and eventually committed suicide. But he does show that he still had hope at that point in time. He suffered what we would now call post traumatic stress disorder from his time flying in bomber missions in WWII. The bombing of the abbey in Italy did a number on him.
And for the politically incorrect, whatever happened to the Gor series by Norman. I guess a series of books where women where kept as sex slaves fell out of favour. Imagine that. They should have been kept in the B&D section of the book store at least. :)
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Seconding "End of Eternity". In fact, I was scanning the replies looking for just this reply. :-)
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
A requeim for a ruler of worlds. Fun, light scfi.
The Inverted World is fantastic and the man can actually write.
Also, Pavane or Kiteworld by Keith Roberts.
At the risk of leaving myself open to angry trolls, I would keep clear from Heinlein. His books are needlessly long and his prose is turgid. I admire him for discovering and supporting Philip K. Dick, but man is he a bad writer.
Not only is Red Dwarf funny, but it has a practical yet imaginative sci-fi universe to play around in. It does contain some of the content from the TV show, but it is not a novelization of it.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Another good set of story telling books are the shared novel Merovingian Nights (wonderfully edited by C. J. Cherryh) and the novel that started the Angel with the Sword (by C. J. Cherryh).
Tad Williams series Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is one of my all time favourites. I still like to re-read it every few years. The world is immensely well-realised and the characters (in particular the protagonist) really grow and mature throughout the series.
Hit any used book store & check out the F&SF section. Look for copyright dates 1960 or earlier.
When I first posted as AC I didn't see it show in comment so I posted with my login. On my original post someone kindly suggested "Time of the Great Freeze" by Silverburg. It does look about right...I'm going to read it and find out. As a kid that was a world that was close enough to touch.
Good fantasy novels? Anything by James Branch Cabell, such as "Jurgen", "Figures of Earth", or "The Silver Stallion".
Back in the 1970s' fantasy editor Lin Carter went back and collected and republished most of the best 1920-1930 fantasy. You can still find them in used book stores.
Intervention
The Galactic Milieu Trilogy
The Saga of Pliocene Exile
Fantastic science fiction. Interwoven set of series. Aliens, meta-humans, cyber-enhancement of humanity, time travel, history.
Very fun.
Thank you! That does look like it could be the right book. I'll reread it and see what it's like now.
I tried to research this book before via google but couldn't get a fix on it. When I saw this topic on /. it seemed possible that someone would know.
SF novel by George R.R. Martin, long before "Game of Thrones"
I second DeChancie and the Starrigger series - time travel via an interstellar road system. Gotta love it.
Also Roadmarks by Zelazny (well, pretty much anything by Zelazny)
I just came across the book "Pump Six and Other Stories" by Paolo Bacigalupi, from 2008 - it's a collection of his short stories. I have to say that this collection is stunning - it's some of the best speculative sci-fi (with one non sci-fi) fiction I've read, in that most scenarios presented are (horrifically) plausible in the relatively near future. He definitely doesn't paint a rosy portrait of humanity's future, so this isn't an easy read by any means, but I do suggest picking it up! Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Pump-Other-Stories-Paolo-Bacigalupi/dp/159780133X
You have to be able to appreciate trenchant satire to enjoy this story about an alterante universer where Hitler emigrates to the US and becomes a celebrated Science Fiction writer. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/633177.The_Iron_Dream
That DOES sound about right. Woohoo I'll have to track it down! Thanks!
Tad Williams was about the first person whose books felt like they had the same kind of authoritative weight as Tolkien. Fantastic writer, although his later stuff had some structural issues.
A novel of time travel by David Gerold, a bit in the vein of Heinlein's short story, "All You Zombies"
I really enjoyed his G.O.D. series, which now appears to be out of print.
Just don't read the followup novels published in the last few years. Those deserve to be forgotten.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Some of my favorites;
Guy Gavriel Kay - Fionavar trilogy, Tigana - top notch fantasy. He helped edit Tolkien's The Silmarillion, and his writing reflects a lot of Tolkien's influence.
Timescape - Gregory Benford - the only good science fiction book about time travel I've ever read.
David Brin - the Uplift series
Lord of Light & Roadmarks - Roger Zelazny. Lord of Light should be required reading for any Sci Fi fan.
Hothouse - Brian Aldiss. May be hard to find, I found an old copy in a used book store.
I read a lot of Andre Norton's books as a kid, I especially liked "The Stars are Ours". Her stuff is mostly regarded as young-adult, but very good. I may have to re-read it some day. I've also been meaning to read her Beastmaster series, I understand it's much different than the bad movie / tv adaptations.
Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh: the first 100 pages or so are tough, you get dumped into the story without any explanation what is going on. But when you get through that it is difficult to stop reading. One of the best I have read.
Also great: Lyonesse by Jack Vance, the Amber series by Roger Zelazny, Hyperion series by Dan Simmons, Asimov's Foundation.
Like many of the authors and titles listed here, how you regard many of these depends on where you are in your literary development.
Everyone's read all of Bradbury. Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars was an early hacker.
The Gormenghast trilogy was a really big deal when I was in college; but I just found it ghastly.
Daniel Keys Moran - The Long Run
Eric Frank Russel - Three To Conquer, Sentinels From Space, The Great Explosion, Wasp
Also think of Marie Stopes (the UK equivalent of Margaret Sanger and the founder of the UK equivalent of PP). She disowned her son for marrying someone with a congenital defect -- short-sightedness. This was eugenics at the time.
His Castle Perilous series was a great read when I was younger. I'm going to have to look them up again, I know I have them around the house somewhere. :)
Available free on the web. A weird novel. Very vaguely like a "Pilgrim's Progress" but set on an alien world.
murray lenster (gallager) fred saberhagen (bverserker series) don't forget Clarke's "The City and The Stars" which was the first story to include concepts of virtual reality (Against the Fall of Night was the first version which Clarke later re-wrote) delightful to compare the two takes on the same story
(From wikipedia)
The Aleph
In Borges' story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping or confusion. The story continues the theme of infinity found in several of Borges' other works, such as The Book of Sand
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
In the story, an encyclopedia article about a mysterious country called Uqbar is the first indication of a massive conspiracy of intellectuals to imagine (and thereby create) a world known as Tlön
The Garden of Forking Paths
According to Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort, "The concept Borges described in 'The Garden of Forking Paths'—in several layers of the story, but most directly in the combination book and maze of Ts'ui Pên—is that of a novel that can be read in multiple ways, a hypertext novel.
The Book Of Sand
The titular "Book of Sand" is the Book of all Books, and is a monster. The story tells how this book came into the possession of a fictional version of Borges himself, and of how he ultimately disposed of it.
These are the ones that aren't forgotten. The 100 best sci-fi books of all time.
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Abides
Post-apocalyptic, but it's a very interesting take on it.
Anything by R.A. MacAvoy, but especially Lens of the World and the Damiano books.
For a tough, tough, read, pickup M.J. Engh's "Arslan".
H. Warner Munn's "Merlin's Ring", "Merlin's Godson" and especially "The Ship from Atlantis."
Rare, but a worthwhile read, especially the relationship between Gwalchmai and the orichalcum ship of living metal, imbued with the spirit of an ancient Atlantean sorceress.
Paul Gillingwater
MBA, CISSP, CISM
Sanger was an advocate of parenthood by choice, and opposed to anybody who wanted to make decisions on childbearing for other people. So, if you think of eugenics as meaning forced sterilization and involuntary contraception, no, she was fiercely opposed to that.
No, actually:
Sanger was a proponent of negative eugenics, which aims to improve human hereditary traits through social intervention by reducing reproduction by those considered unfit. Sanger's eugenic policies included an exclusionary immigration policy, free access to birth control methods and full family planning autonomy for the able-minded, and compulsory segregation or sterilization for the profoundly retarded.[73][74] In her book The Pivot of Civilization, she advocated coercion to prevent the "undeniably feeble-minded" from procreating.[75] Although Sanger supported negative eugenics, she asserted that eugenics alone was not sufficient, and that birth control was essential to achieve her goals.
Wiki
I have enjoyed scifi books involving the outer planets...
Jupiter Theft by Donald Moffitt
Forge of God by Greg Bear
There were a couple of other books I read as a kid that I would love to find again. One involved artifacts on Titan that created sunspots to destroy the earth. In this same story, there was a trip into one of the outer plants using a spaceship filled with water to handle the pressures found in the outer planets.
A second book involved aliens blocking/destroying the sun. This resulted in humans living underground until Jupiter was ignited into a star. I think the end had a great revenge plot on the aliens.
If anyone has info on either of the two books above that would be appreciated.
None of them totally forgotten, but none of them given the level of aclaim they deserve. Diana Wynne Jones wrote mostly young adult stuff, but IMHO, it is all well worth reading. Her Tough Guide to Fantasyland is definitely not to be missed. Glen Cook and Simon R Green both write series that cover a range of tones and styles, so its worth giving books from a couple of their different series a try. I personally recommend The Swordbearer, by Cook, and Green's Hawk and Fisher series.
J. F. Bone: The Lani People (available at Project Gutenberg)
Jerry Sohl: Point Ultimate, The Transcendant Man, Costigan's Needle
Eric Frank Russell: anything he wrote
Jack Williamson: Seetee Ship, Seetee Shock
Alexis A. Gilliland: The Revolution from Rosinante, Long Shot for Rosinante, The Pirates of Rosinante
Randall Garrett: Brain Twister, The Impossibles, Supermind, Anything You Can Do, Unwise Child (all available at Project Gutenberg)
Most things by John Varley, but most especially the Titan series (Titan/Wizard/Demon)
"The sleeping planet"
"King of Argent"
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
I recommend an obscure genre author named named Thorarinn Gunnarsson; his Make Way for Dragons! (Yes, the bang is part of the title) is a particularly brilliant work, blending high fantasy with slice-of-life drama and mixing it all together with some marvelous jokes. Later works in the series are a bit more high fantasy, but as they all include a character or two from Earth, they were really more like the first wave of urban fantasy. His characterization is excellent, and when he wants, he can set quite the scene - a lot of authors are capable of only one of the two. It's a slow starter, but the pace builds consistently and evenly to a satisfying climax; having read this book years before How to Train Your Dragon came out, the climactic battle in that one had me immediately flashing back to this book. (I suspect someone on the production team may have read this book, and found inspiration, but I can't say for certain.)
;-)
You also find out later in the series what happens when you give a distressingly bright mechanical engineer access to copious magical power and training.
Another particularly intriguing fantasy novel is The Dark Lord of Derkholm and its sequel, Year of the Gryphon. The two narratives are separated by years, and while I could follow the plot when I read them out of order, the characters are much more compelling if you read them as they were meant. Once again, brilliant characterization and solid world building.
Asimova have this great compilation of Sci-Fi I recall most warmly Tumitak of the halls
I was at a remote worksite camp working in the oil industry back in the 70's. People would leave books around in the rec room when they were through with them. Once I ran out of what I brought, I would read damn near anything.
There were 2 books in particular that caught my attention that I looked all over for my own copies. Couldn't find them and have long since forgotten their names, but not the basic story lines. I have spent hours recently looking for them to no avail, still.
One of them in particular I remember was copyrighted in the early to mid 1930's. I remember because as I read the book, I hit a section that made me go look for the copyright. The author was doing a real good description of some futeristic planes found in a cave/caveren that was set up as a hanger. Guy is describing these things, then I hit the terms 'wood frame skeleton' & 'bi-plane'. Threw me for a loop. Great read.
Hard to find, but worth the hunt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Cloud
Both very good sci-fi books.
She, Hi. Rider Haggard
Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirlees
The Wallet of Kai Lung, Ernest Brahma
The Lost Continent, C. Cutliffe Hyne
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, Patricia McKillip
Micromegas, Voltaire
The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by Stephen Mitchell (very readable, enjoyable)
The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series should introduce you to a lot of good but often obscure work on the fantasy side.
-Gareth
Kage Baker's "Company" stories, Harry Turtledove's WWII and post-Civil War series, and anything by Connie Willis.
Also, don't forget excellent hard SF authors like Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven and Steven Barnes.
There are just soooo many!!!
The Swedish author Bertil Mårtensson. Especially the trilogy "Maktens Vägar" (Paths of Power).
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
One I would heartily recommend is Pohl and Kornbluth's Space Merchants.
It's about the government colonizing Venus and giving the advertising franchise to a firm. The firm assigns the work to the hero.
The funniest thing is that as time goes on the world seems to resemble the one that they describe more and more.
The web between the worlds.
May have not the same impact as when I read it, but anyway, it's full of known-to-have-been studied technological projects.
I've read the first Thomas Covenant trilogy, but I couldn't really enjoy it.
I just found the main character too reprehensible, and that's saying something considering that I usually sympathize at least somewhat with the 'bad guys' in these stories.
I'm all for having an 'unusual' hero with 'problems' or whatnot, but this guy basically does not have a single redeeming quality.
Kristine Smith's series of 5 books: Code of Conduct, Rules of Conflict, Law of Survival, Contact Imminent, Endgame. She's probably my favorite overlooked author. I'm quite certain that 999 out of 1000 readers of this thread will never have noticed this very pleasant surprise.
The Overman Culture, by Edmund Cooper
The House in November, by Keith Laumer
Re-birth (AKA The Chrysalids), by John Wyndham
Hawksbill Station, by Robert Silverberg
Children of the Star trilogy, by Sylvia Engdahl
The Changeling, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
These are all wonderful books, though I seldom see them mentioned anymore.
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
Titus Groan
A space opera in four volumes. Look at my website - I have started to render the first book, "Hyperion", in anglo-saxon heroic verse ( the same as that of "Beowulf" ). Dan Simmons is definitely worth reading, and remarkable to the extent that, throughout the 4-volume space opera, his main characters evolve and develop.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Iain M. Banks
+ Culture series
+ The Algebraist
Orson Scott Card
+ Ender's Game
+ Speaker Of The Dead
And thank god, that someone above mentioned Neal Asher and his Polity Universe.
But Frank Herbert's Dune will always be my number one.
The Book of Isle Series.
Basic fantasy. Less magic and more grit than the usual. Less epic and all powerful, more human sized. It was the first book that came to mind, and no one else brought it up.
Roger Zelazny is damn good. The Amber Series (both the original 5 about Corwin and the next 5 about his son Merlin) is awesome. but his best is the single book: A Night In The Lonesome October. That book totally kicks ass. Plus I would highly recommend the Amber Series and A Night In The Lonesome October on audio. They are read by Zelazny himself (except for book 10 of the Amber series as Zelazny died before he could read it). He has one of the best voices ever and since he is reading his own works, he gets the emotions, inflections, etc. perfect. Alan Dean Foster's Shadowkeep, Pip 'n Flinx, etc. Robert Lynn Aspirin's Myth series (at least the 1st six or eight then it got weird once Aspirin got writers block). David Drake's Hammers Slammers and Ranks of Bronze Keith Laumer's Bolo series (even the short story collections by other authors and a couple of books by others). David Eddings' Elenium and Tamuli series (I was never much of a fan of the Belgariad series personally) If you liked Robotech, the written series by Jack McKinney was pretty good. Frank Herbert's Dune series though the prequels by his son made the series a bit better/fleshed out more. I liked Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series though it needed to be in moderation / spread out - read too many in a row and they got harder to take Larry Niven's DreamPark series was good. John DeChancie's Castle series was entertaining. Christopher Stasheff's Warlock series ( at least the first five or so) was good as was the 1st four of his Wizard in Rhyme series.
Burrough's Barsoom novels would be a good choice, with "John Carter" in cinemas tomorrow...
Just don't confuse E.R.Burroughs with W.S.Burroughs :-)
Also, I'd like to put in a good word for James Tiptree, Jr. (real name: Alice Sheldon, nee Bradley).
And I second that. Her collection of short stories, 10,000 Light Years from Home, is one of the few books I'd keep if I had to downsize my collection. Great variety of ideas in that one volume.
Note to ACs: I won't mod you up, even if you are being funny or insightful. So take a chance! It's not real life!
So far nobody mentioned 'the space merchants' by Pohl and Kornbluth, somewhere late fifties early suxties. Convincing story about consumerism and marketing run wild.
Paai
I've liked whatever I've read from Norman Spinrad. He's more interested in political or societal questions that he can explore using Sci-Fi, than the more typical fantasy aspects.
"In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interest."
Children of the Dust is a post-apocalyptic novel, written by Louise Lawrence, published in 1985. The book details three generations of a family during the aftermath of a nuclear war. The survivors of the blast suffer through radiation, nuclear winter, feuds between rival groups and radiation-induced mutations, eventually evolving into a new species, Homo superior. The new species has adapted to the loss of the ozone layer and the abundant radiation, and will become the dominant species on the planet.
The book contains three sections, one for each generation. The novel offers some hope that humanity could survive the horrors of war (as an allegory for the current age) in order to form a new world.
Old Friend of the family by Fred Saberhagen and it's Dracula told from the vampire's point of view. Seems the human records have it all wrong . . . Very much recommended.
I picked up the first book from a Grocery Store in Missouri while on vacation in 1986. Ended up buying all of them, it's a very addictive story. The books are hard to find these days, but Google is your friend. I highly recommend this series.The Sha'um (telepathic war cats) are just awesome.
Copypasta from Wikipedia article about the series:
[Off the synopsis on the cover, and really doesn't do the story justice, but it sorta describes it.]
The Gandalara Cycle is a series of seven Fantasy/Science Fiction paperback books created and written by authors Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron beginning in 1981.
Ricardo Carillo, an aging language professor with a terminal illness, is flirting with a captivating young woman on a Mediterranean cruise ship. They both watch with wonder, and a growing horror, as a dazzlingly beautiful star quickly grows to engulf the sky and then crashes into the ship.
Ricardo awakens in a blinding hot desert, with no idea where he is and a dead man by his side.
Without knowing how or why, Ricardo finds himself inhabiting the body of a strong, healthy, young man named Markasset. Ricardo quickly learns that Markasset is wanted for murder and the theft of a precious and powerful gemstone, the Ra'ira. Ricardo has only a smattering of Markasset's memories, and no idea if he is guilty or innocent. But with the help of a giant warcat named Keeshah, with whom he shares a telepathic bond, and the beautiful illusionist, Tarani, Ricardo sets out on a quest to recover the missing gemstone and clear his new name.
But what has happened to Markasset? And when will he want his body back? Now that he has a new lease on life, can Ricardo let it go?
The series is full of vivid characters, sword play, great warcats, and a desert world called Gandalara...a kind of alien Arabian Nights. Originally released as seven novels, the series was repackaged into three volumes (The Gandalara Cycle I, The Gandalara Cycle II, & The River Wall).
these are books so difficult (and leaden) most people never finish them. they aren't written for children at all. the deeper philosophy and psychology is something no 12 year old could appreciate, and also the references to Wagner and Conrad are completely beyond a child.
I read this in secondary school, so I'd have been about 15 at the time. There were a bunch of us who all read them all, and we had no problems with the language. Not sure we got the philosophy you hint at, but I'm not going back to read them again, they didn't make that much impact upon me. I do remember that the middle book of the second chronicles was pretty pointless - they sail away, then come back, not much happens in terms of the big picture.
Note to ACs: I won't mod you up, even if you are being funny or insightful. So take a chance! It's not real life!
Here is a big list of "forgotten" SF books:
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/04/mind_meld_the_forgotten_books_of_sffh/
While a lot of Michael Moorcock's work is pretty high fantasy, the setting
and characters in the "Warhound and the World's Pain" are outstanding.
An anti-knight on the grail quest, set during the Thirty Years war, with a lot
of philosophical musing on the nature of choice, humanity and reality.
While the first of a (retconned) trilogy, it is better read in isolation.
I have long dreamed of seeing this as a film or even a good game,
but sadly it seems to be out of print.
Should you find a copy, enjoy.
(R)ule in Hell or (S)erve in Heaven [R]?
Transmetropolitan?
A series of ten books by Hugh Cook that walk a fine line between Fantasy and Sci-fi. Quite hard to find the whole set (especially the later books) but try the first one (the Wizards and the Warriors) and see if you want to embark on the difficult task of finding the rest.
- Lab
if these books are considered forgotten, which books are REMEMBERED? this is nearly my entire reading list of great sf. I do read some more modern works, but seriously, these are the people who created sf as we know it. i suppose jules verne and hg wells are not read as much, probably due to their style. John Christopher writes good juvenile sf. robert forward is great hard sf. have people forgotten david brin, greg benford? how about Dangerous Visions? Watership down? do people remember authors published in the 1990's, like neal stephensons Snow Crash, or the early works of bruce sterling? michael kube mcdowell? China Mountain Zhang, by maureen mchugh. a woman of the iron people, by eleanor arneson.
An amazing writer. His "Joe Mauser" series posits a world where MegaCorps strive with each other by hiring mercenaries to fight strictly-limited battles that are broadcast on TV.
Thoughtful (he'd have been all over "reality TV" if he'd lived past 1983) , but also hugely entertaining. He also comes from a different ideological angle than most Golden Age SF authors - his dad ran for US President twice as the candidate of the Socialist Labor party, and he himself was a lifetime member of the SLP.
From Wikipedia:
His novels predicted many things which have come to pass, including pocket computers and a worldwide computer network with information available at one's fingertips.
Much of his work is downloadable for free from Gutenberg or the other usual suspects.
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Poul Anderson - High Crusade, Ens Flandry, Nick van R.... ,but And Then There Were None is a personal favorite
Lloyd Biggle, Jr - Monument was his peak, but anything he wrote is worthy of picking up
James Blish - Cities In Flight, short stories
James Hogan - enjoy
Donald Kingsbury - The Moon Goddess and the Son and Psychohistorical Crisis
John Myers Myers - Silverlock, a classic
Chris Moore - Hunter S. Thompson craziness in contemporary world. Find, read, laugh
Jerry Pournelle - tells a good yarn, A Spaceship for the King / King David's Spaceship
Tom Reamy - San Diego Lightfoot Sue, Blind Voices
Eric Frank Russell - everything
Fred Saberhagen - An Old Friend of the Family (and sequels) and Berserker stories
George R Stewart - Earth Abides, this novel defines the post apocalypse genre
Roger Zelazny - The first 3 Amber books, Jack of Shadows, Lord of Light
How about a source that can be verified as being from the era. PP would obviously like to say that weren't formed by a Eugenicist.
Yeah so that basically still eugenics because poor people are seen as less valuable and their offspring beforehand invalid.
This series by Somtow Sucharitkul: - Light on the Sound - Darkling Wind - Throne of Madness, odd ball but good by Frank O'Rourke - Instant Gold
Start with the Warlock in Spite of Himself by Christopher Stasheff.
I quite liked the sequels, up to The Warlock is Missing, but nothing meets the first book. Seriously recommend also reading Escape Velocity which is the prequel to Warlock in Spite of Himself.
For a standalone book, Heinlein's The Door into Summer is excellent.
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Ward Moore -- Bring the Jubilee
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
This is a post-atomic war novel, set in *and written in* the late '50's, recounting the experiences of a small town in pre-civil rights rural Florida after the bombs hit. Well written, well thought out, good characters, including good African-American characters who are not cartoons.
If I were teaching history to HS kids, I'd want to assign this to convey both the cold war and race relations of the period (just like I'd assign "The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club" by Dorothy Sayers to convey the effect of WW I on British society).
By putting all of this "good for you" freight on the book, I'm afraid that I'm distracting from the fact that this is one hell of an entertaining read. I first read it as a teen; I'm now in my 50's and have read it probably 20 times and it stands up.
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I'd recommend the duology "The Host" (1991) and "Shortblade" (1992) by Peter R. Emshwiller. The first was Nebula-nominated by the way and both have movie rights optioned but currently no concrete movie projects exists. Both are out of print but available through Amazon's merchants.
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
Forgot all the specifics, what you need is this:
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
I own a copy of the 2nd edition and it is an amazing resource. If you ever run out of things to read then you just need to open a random page and you should find some author you never heard of worth a look...
The 3rd editon is in Beta and viewable for free here
Very enjoyable series but I wouldn't call them forgotten. They seem to be available at even small bookstores.
A truly surrealist and fantastique novel.
Also by Donaldson: The Gap series.
It's a very harsh story (even more than the Covenant series). Many people dislike it for that reason.
WWTTD?
'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin is an excellent dystopian book that is said to have inspired Orwell. There are incredible non english SciFi novels out there but many top 100 lists and english readers seem to be ignorant and miss out on them albeit they are definitley worth the read. Also read Stanisaw Lem, his books are hilarious ('The Futurological Congress') and philosophical ('Solaris').
And, to be fair to Lewis, he said that it would mostly interest his co-religionists. His view was that other worlds were really good for spiritual adventures (hence the Narnia series, scarcely SF but certainly spiritual), and pointed to David Lindsay's 'Voyage to Arcturus' as the archetype of this kind of story.
Two classics, one SF the other Fantasy.
The Timeliner Trilogy - Richard C. Meredith
The Keys to Paradise - Robert E. Vardeman
The science fiction trilogy is just another Christian allegory in the same way as the Narnia books were. I wonder what Tolkien, a friend of Lewis, thought of the books given his comment in the introduction to the LoTR, namely "I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and have always done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence."
Several of the best early SF stories I've read are from the French author JH Rosny Aine. Some are now available in English : http://sfscope.com/2012/02/wesleyan-bringing-jh-rosny-ain.html The narrative and topics are amazingly modern for a book almost one century old. This books features several stories : -The Death of the Earth : an apocalyptic last-man story in a agonizing Earth -"The Xipehuz" is a prehistoric tale in which the human species battles strange geometric alien life forms. Definitely wirth a try.
Fantasy books I find totally unforgettable...
James P. Blaylock-The Elfin Ship, The Disappearing Dwarf, etc (An intensely described world full of scents and moods, really takes you away. A small-town professor and a cheese-maker battle an evil wizard!)
Demon In The Mirror-Andrew J. Offutt (Pure fun! And: Pirates!)
These were some of the most wonderful, nearly psychedelic oddities I've ever read:
Mindfogger-Michael Rogers (Get a contact buzz, just from being near a certain kind of transmitter, the fun that can be had!)
Zalazney- Jack Of Shadows (Wow, it's a planet of tech versus magic, separated along the equator! Serious creepiness ensues)
All Right, Everybody Off The Planet!-Bob Ottum (Martians invade! Well a few anyhow. Undercover. If they ever do get a real AI working I hope they pattern one after the computer in this book...)
And I'll second (Or third?) Age Of The Pussyfoot-Frederic Pohl. Man, what a view ahead that man had. Paging Nostradamus!
First 3 books in the series are in my opinion the best.
Ruthless mercenaries, spiteful wizards, betrayals. And thats the` good ` guys
Some things are obvious disadvantages, such as strong shortsightedness. Say, more than three diopters (a mild shortsightedness could be an advantage if you live in a world without reading glasses and have to focus on near objects a lot).
But what we don't know is how to change just this aspect and leave the rest alone. AFAIK genetic engineering is still not a very exact procedure.
And if you just de-select the whole person by sterilizing them, it becomes complicated how to weight the pros and cons. And the best weighting may change with the circumstances.
Taking myself as an example:
On one hand, I'm relatively smart and can do qualified work (in my case, software engineering). That makes me one of those that are fit to contribute to society as we know it.
On the other hand, I'm one of those guys with glasses like the bottom of a coke bottle. A clear disadvantage.
So if you were a rabid fan of eugenics, would you select me for breeding or sterilization?
C - the footgun of programming languages
What about this ?
http://www.cosmic-people.com/english/svetelna_knihovna/en_contact_from_planet_iarga.htm
The OP says: "...do you know of any other great fantasy or science fiction books that time has forgotten?"
And most people here are citing books from the 1960s. That's only 50 years ago - inside many people's lifetimes!
You want some of the older books? I assume that everyone here has read 'The Lost World', but has anyone read any of the other Professor Challenger SF stories of Conan Doyle, such as 'The Maracot Deep' or 'The Poison Belt'? For fantasy, it is very hard to top Rider Haggard's African books - 'She', 'Nada the Lilly', 'The Ancient Allan' etc.
One of my favourite light fantasy authors is Thomas Anstey Guthrie, who wrote as "F. Anstey". Forgotten is the right word for him. His works have formed the basis of dozens of films and plays, but he receives no attribution whatsoever. As an SF/fantasy writer, he has the ultimate accolade of having invented at least one completely new fantasy genre - that of the body swap, which he invented in his 1882 novel 'Vice Versa'. There must have been at least a dozen recent films with that plot - including at least one with that title - but I have yet to see him credited. He was also an early developer of time-travel stories, and, I think, the first to raise the time paradox problems which are an important part of this genre, in 'Tourmalin's Time Cheques' (1891). And those books are perfectly readable today, from Gutenberg.
That's a 'forgotten' pioneer of the genre for you, if you like....
The first two trilogies have great stories and are incredibly epic, but the actual writing can be a little off at times, especially some of the dialogue. The NEW set of Thomas Covenant books he's in the middle of (in which Linden Avery is the main protagonist, in case you didn't know) is much better-written, and just as epic and weird, although it doesn't make a ton of sense without having read the earlier books. On the other hand, Donaldson does like to provide readers with a synopsis of 'the story so far', so maybe it's OK?
Strange no one remembered Ursula, her books are the best, and very actual, not just sience fiction for science fiction but much more...
I just remembered this talk I listen to yesterday... about technology and science but with heart, humanity...http://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice.html
Ursula is really one of the best science fiction authors, and with a great 'subliminar' message...
George Griffith is a british sci-fi writer who wrote many books at the turn of the century. Angel of the revolution is about a war of the future as envisioned from the victorian era involving wars with giant airships and such like. Reminded me quite a lot of michael Moorcocks warlord of the air books. The attitude to chivalry is a bit over the top by todays standards as is the authors notion of the superiority of the British empire but they are an interesting read never the less. I only found out about this book from a random link on wikipedia! You can get this for free from guttenburg.
Read every book on those 2 lists and you will be set for a while :)
Greate selection imho.
http://www.sfsite.com/lists/orion05.htm
http://www.sfsite.com/lists/orion01.htm
Check http://www.scifi.darkroastedblend.com/ from time to time.
Great reviews on Scifi from 1910 to now and a toplist of authors from 1990 to now:
I've used the toplist to find some great writers: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pIWbMZsKi4uXDMKwVbgBTSg&gid=0
Couple of fantasy books;
Magician; Raymond Fiest I think; they broke the first book up into 2 sections when it went to paperbook; later books weren't as attractive to me, but the first was good.
Master of the five magics; been a while all 3 books are good/decent
Thieves World collection; edited by asprin has a number of good stories, and there is an effort underway to continue the series now.
Bio of a space Tyrant; Piers anthony. Not hard core sci fi, but I like the series when I read it.
World of Tiers; farmer was mentioned earlier, I liked this series better than riverworld
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
God no, that entire Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series was awful. Boring as hell.
His Otherlands was excellent (although be warned, the ending is not)
Rational thought is the only true freedom
Or back issues of other magazines you like. They often have fascinating, short science fiction that is enough to sample a genre or a style and decide if you like the author enough to pursue other work. And reading the early work of an author who later becomes better known is often interesting.
The old "Rissa and Tregare" books were also fun space opera, if sexually insensitive by modern standards. Like real military in occupied countries, sexual coercion and rape are an integral part of various story lines, so it's not for people who are squeamish.
Compiled as Ingathering: The Complete People Stories. Just . . . excellent.
The Robotech book series was an amazing sci-fi. It's a novelization of an anime series by the same name, but is overall much better developed than the anime series. Nice character driven show which has some really fantastical sci-fi, not often you find books which strike a good balance between the two. One of very few book series that hooked me so much that I dropped everything to read it through, had me hooked from the first chapter to it's completion. If ya pick this one up be sure to get a more recent version of the books, as the originals were poorly edited and contained a lot of confusing grammar/spelling problems.
Decent scfi, precursor to the dystopian novel.
Great, but nearly forgotten describes Henry Kuttner and C.L.Moore pretty well.
Separately and together they wrote a slew of short stories (under almost as many pseudonyms) and a some novels in the 40s and 50s, stories with the ideas and impact to influence other writers. My favourites are the Gallegher stories of a gadget man who works best when drunk but forgets what he has made.
Hugh Cook's web-site is down but his big fantasy series (10 parts) survives: Chronicles of an Age of Darkness. The first, The Wizards and the Warriors, is the best but others are great fun too.
As someone else above has noted, in the US John Wyndham is rarely mentioned, but The Day of the Triffids is great reading.
Anything by Tenn (eg. The Square Root of Man).
Some of the ones I enjoyed but have not seen yet:
The Chronicles of the Cheysuli by Jennifer Roberson
Vernor Vinge is good, but so is the other Vinge. Joan D. Vinge's books about telepath Cat are very very good, and my dog-eared copy of Psion, the first book, is a treasure.
UGH. There's another two-book series that deals with human-alien interaction; something "light" in the title and by an author best known for her fantasy, but I can't think of it and it's driving me bonkers. Absolutely amazing.
And if you like the French Revolution in a fantastical steam-punk magic style, there's also a book titled "Illusion" by an author I can't remember... and it's probably out of print.
Unfortunately, I'm at work, and if I was at home, the majority of my books are still in boxes from the last move. (A lot of them include older sci-fi, fantasy, and a number of SciFi Book of the Month club selections that are old - like the Spellsinger omnibus volumes.)
I would have to throw in the Faded Sun series by CJ Cherryh
For the sake of Peace, the Sword.
"The Patterns of Chaos" and "The Chaos Weapon", both out of print and hard to come by. I've read them over 20 years ago so I recall my impressions from when I was much younger but still.
The Professor Jameson series by Neil R Jones. Clunky but fun.
Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem. How they translated all the wordplay from Polish I will never know.
Not forgotten, exactly, but all of Larry Niven's "Known Space" series, especially "Protector".
Dragon's Egg and Flight of the Dragonfly by Robert L Forward.
(I just had a look at my bookshelf. Half the space is by authors beginning with "B" - Banks, Baxter, Bear, Benford, Bester, Bova, Brin, Bradbury, Brunner, Bulmer. Weird.)
Sean Ellis
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elfstones of shannara was one of my childhood favourites. I actually preferred this to Lord of the Rings.
Not sure if they count as forgotten, but her Darkover series was excellent reading.
I also remember a shorter book she wrote called The Falcons of Narabedla.
For fantasy, I'd recommend the Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenburg. The concept seems a little basic, college kids suddenly waking up in a fantasy world as their D&D like fantasy game characters. However, the books take a pretty serious look at what would could happen. Also, don't get too attached to anyone.
Well worth the read.
Inherit the Stars by James P. Hogan. Maybe not that 'forgotten', but the characters' process of discovering the real story was interesting (though I despise US procedural cop shows).
Eric Frank Russell - "Next of Kin" and "Wasp"
Robert Heinlein, of course.
Some older Harry Harrison.
(Spider Robison is still active, but so is John Varley - and I'd recommend both.)
Of course "The Remarkable Exploits of Lancelot Biggs, Spaceman", by Nelson Bond.
Retief stories by Keith Laumer.
Black Company is very good but never leave out Dread Empire
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
SF: not terribly old, but doesn't get a ton of notoriety, particularly when compared to her other books, is The Faded Sun trilogy by CJ Cherryh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faded_Sun_Trilogy
Fantasy: another book/series that doesn't seem to receive many accolades: The Master Of The Five Magics (and sequels) by Lyndon Hardy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_the_Five_Magics
Others have mentioned The Foundation series by Asimov, both the original trilogy and the later sequels are fantastic, though they are pretty well known.
Another fantasy: The Reluctant King series by L. Sprague de Camp:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Reluctant_King
SF: I'll second (or third or fourth or whatever) The Berserker series by Saberhagen. Not high prose (but what in these genres is?) but entertaining:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker_(Saberhagen)
The RPG company, Paizo, has an imprint called Planet Stories. It reprints lesser known works by the giant's of the pulp scifi and fantasy era. Leigh Brackett, Henry Kuttner, Robert Howard and (my personal favorite) Manly Wade Wellman.
http://paizo.com/planetStories
Cherryh is one of my favorite authors; the way she depicts alien cultures and concepts ("Hunter of Worlds," "Serpent's Reach," among others) is incredible, simultaneously alien and strange and yet very very human. "Hunter of Worlds," in particular, remains one of my favorite novels of all time. Her "Morgaine" novels are very good, too, especially when you consider that "Gate of Ivrel" was her first novel.
Life, ultimately, boils down to the Four Fs: Fighting, Fleeing, Feeding, and Mating.
Crest/Banner of the Stars by Hiroyuki Morioka
The Crest of the Stars (3 books) portion of the series was translated by Tokyopop but never continued. Still 4 books left untranslated offically, a great space drama.
dude, there are NEW books in this series. written past the year 2000. No 15 year old has any business as a literary critic.
Stephen R. Donaldson Ate My Dictionary
Meeting the Big, Scary Words of Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
http://gdiproductions.net/srdamd/
the stars my destination, the demolished man
Fritz is best known for his Lankhmar stories of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser but wrote other fantasy, scifi, and horror.
C. M. Kornbluth wrote "The Marching Morons" an uncredited inspiration to "Idiocracy" as well as many other great Science Ficition shorts.
I will also reiterate the importance of Canticle for Leibowitz, Alfred Bester, and the first half of the Amber series as books/authors that seem to have been forgotten..
Let's not forget Brian Aldiss' first novel from 1958, which I knew as "Starship." I can think of at least 2 TV series and one pen and paper RPG that were based on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Stop_(novel)
Didn't see anyone mention:
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
A little too many recent works for it to be top100 for me, but almost everything on there looks good.
First 10 are...
1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
By Ted Reynolds in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, January 1979.
Okay, so it's not 'old' but if you haven't read this trilogy.. you should.
Name: Fencer Trilogy
Books are:
1. Colours in the Steel (1998)
2. The Belly of the Bow (1999)
3. The Proof House (2000)
Don't look it up. Just read them. Easily worth buying.
The premise and execution of the first book is well worth while by itself.
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The other "father of space opera' whom nobody remembers - and I mean, at all - these days is Edmond Hamilton. Six of his books are available through Project Gutenberg. Really terrific stuff.
Also, E. E. Smith's original "Skylark of Space" novel was begun in 1915, and finally completed in 1920. It wasn't published until 1927, when it was serialized in three parts in Amazing Stories. That's pretty much the definitive beginning of space opera as a genre. The final Skylark novel - "Skylark Duquesne" - was serialized in four parts in Worlds of If in 1965. I remember very well what an amazing experience reading that serialization was for me, at the age of 12.
Smith actually died in late August, 1965, just as the "Skylark Duquesne" serialization was ending (If was actually distributed the month prior to its nominal month of publication). It was heartbreaking to read of his passing just as "Skylark Duquesne" - the capstone of a series that lasted nearly 40 years - reached publication.
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George Alec Effinger: Marîd Audran series When Gravity Fails (1987) A Fire in the Sun (1989) The Exile Kiss (1991) The Audran Sequence (omnibus) Budayeen Nights (short stories, 2003) Mary Doria Russel: The Sparrow (1996) Children of God (1998) Stephen R Donaldson: The Gap series The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story (1991) The Gap into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge (1991) The Gap into Power: A Dark and Hungry God Arises (1993) The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order (1994) The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die (1996)
dude, there are NEW books in this series. written past the year 2000. No 15 year old has any business as a literary critic.
Stephen R. Donaldson Ate My Dictionary
Meeting the Big, Scary Words of Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
http://gdiproductions.net/srdamd/
I don't see it mentioned, so I must: "The Night We Buried Road Dog" by the late Jack Cady. It is a multiple award winning novel, but it seems that Jack Cady never really got big sales or other accolades during his lifetime.
Lyndon Hardy - "Master of the five magics" and its sequels (fantasy)
Elizabeth Moon - The "Vatta's war" series (SF)
Vernor Vinge - "A fire upon the deep" and "A deepness in the sky" (SF)
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
If they've been truly forgotten, no one will remember to post them here.
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
Lensmen and Skylark. E.E. Doc Smith is one of the pioneers of Science Fiction but his works seem to be lost to the mists of time.
One of my favorite science fiction books I picked up purely by chance at a used book store: White Wing by Gordon Kendall. A friend of mine later picked it up off my shelf, read it, and also agreed that it was a surprisingly good book.
By Frank Herbert -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Santaroga_Barrier
* One heck of an interesting story, & quite possible/believable imo as well...
(I don't "leisure read" anymore, though @ times I truly *think* I ought to make time for it, but... that's one of the ones I'd suggest!)
APK
P.S.=> I read it when I was about, oh... 10-12 or thereabouts. It also got me into the incredible work of Mr. Frank Herbert (DUNE for example)...
... apk
James P. Hogan's Giant series. I've only read the second book The Gentle Giants of Ganymede and only recently discovered it was part of a series. Guess I'll have to look for the other four.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants_series
LOVED master of five magics! Like the other responder, I've also read the sequel-- well worth checking out. I must be the only person who likes fantasy but hates Tad Williams. The novels sort of meandered,and while the twist at the end was interesting, for me it sort of fell flat.
_The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything_ by John D. MacDonald - a rare venture int SF by an amazing detective story writer
_Joyleg_ by Avram Davidson & Ward Moore - Just a wonderful and unappreciated novel
_Courtship Rite_ by Donald Kingsbury - simply the best SF novel of the 1980s
_Planetary Agent X_ by Mac Reynolds - a joyful romp
_Way Station_ by Clifford Simak - quiet and beautiful
When Worlds Collide and the sequel After Worlds Collide co-written by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer.
The first was made into a movie.
I've read a few by Watts, but Blindsight stands out - not only is it an interesting take on alien contact, and worth the read for that, but it's got Vampire's, psycopaths, and evil alien starfish - what more could you want? Similar perhaps to Stanislaw Lem, whose four contact books are all fantastic: The Invincible, Fiasco, Solaris, and His Master's Voice (Solaris mentioned above, but worth reading all four books, which are not a series, but certainly on a theme).
Also, since *no one* seems to have mentioned Philip K. Dick (yeah yeah, hardly obscure or forgotten), but his 5 volume collection of short stories is pure gold. Also, Dorris Lessing's Shikasta series is beautifully done, and i think often overlooked - could be argued it's not "science fiction" (she addresses that in the foreword), but gotta include it.
Also, in case you're aiming at the 14 year old crowd, I have very fond memories of reading the Tom Swift series many, many moons ago. Doubt that it stands up now for me, but really enjoyed it then.
Slashdot is really not the best place to ask this question.
I recommend GoodReads.com for identifying any type of book that might suit your fancy. It's a community of bibliophiles, and also a great way to keep track of what you've read and what you intend to read.
I only include this because Lumley takes more of a scientific explanation of the Wamphyr and not a supernatural one. Alien race of vampires infecting our world through a "wormhole" under a old soviet science base being fought off by a hitech squad of vamp hunters led by a guy capable of mathmatic teleportation. Sounds sci-fi enough to me! The first 8 or so books of the Necroscope line are one of my all time favorite series, but they don't seem to get much publicity in this day of "sparkly vamps". http://www.brianlumley.com/necroscope/ http://www.amazon.com/Necroscope-Brian-Lumley/dp/0812521374/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331128761&sr=8-1 I also thought that new comers to the series would think the first book was a 6th sense ripoff and be turned off, but it was actually around long before that movie.
This list should be collected somewhere...I'm sure I'm just repeating someone else's suggestion. The Weirdstone of Brisengamen by Alan Garner...good book for young readers 8-10-ish Flinx series by Alan Dean Foster Fahfrd and Grey Mouser by Fritz Leiber Shanara series by Terry Brooks
Friend of Lovecraft's - if you like one, you'll probably like the other.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Ashton_Smith - most of his works are available for free.
I couldn't disagree more. Donaldson has a terrible writing style that has a few brief moments of greatness and a lot of tawdry mediocrity. He doesn't come close of Tolkien on any level, and I found "The chronicles of Thomas Covenant the unbeliever" to be very dull for the most part. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. It's urban fantasy. The first book or two starts out a little slow, but it picks up after that. It's urban pulp detective meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer basically, without the teen angst/drama. I highly recommend it. I find the authors sense of humour hilarious and I enjoy the way he ties things together over the course of the novels. Codex Alera are more traditional fantasy and are pretty good. It was actually written on a bet ironically enough. It's a fantasy coming of age story. I enjoy the world and find the back drop fascinating if nothing else. If you like space opera, Simon Green's Deathstalker novels are also pretty entertaining. I don't really know how to describe those other than space opera. They get pretty trippy at points, but they're entertaining. None of it is something I'd consider a classic, but it's all incredibly entertaining.
Did I just jinx it?
Yes! How odd that it took this long to get mentioned -- what with the movie adaptation bringing it back into current relevance.
I read these many years ago and found them quite entertaining: The story is quite good, and the quaint ancient-science-finction-before-it-was-even-called-that just adds to the enjoyment. Of course the 8th colour is lighter than air and can be stored in tanks to make ships fly...!
(Also, you don't have any problems with "disturbances in the avidyne fusion converter", so no need to "neutralize the electroplasma pattern with adaptive matter stream". :-)
"Good news, everyone!"
"Dhalgren" by Samuel R. Delany. Although he has a lot of works that are more purely "sci-fi" than this one, I found reading it to be one of those reality-altering experiences that you never really recover from. Check it out.
Dark Universe
Simulacron-3 -- which spawned 13th Floor and Matrix
I recommend this to every Sci Fi fan I can. It's imaginative and draws on many themes - AI, hacking, space/time travel.
https://plus.google.com/107286020910913706370/posts
WJW did a really funny pink panther-esque trilogy that starts with 'The Crown Jewels'
I'd recommend just about anything written by Thomas Disch, Robert Sheckley, or Jack Womack. Sadly, you'll have to root through used bins to find them these days.
Disch wrote the children's story _The Brave Little Toaster_, but is best known in SF circles for _Camp Concentration_, and was firmly located in the more literary-minded '70s New Wave; heavy subject matter, but worth the investment. He was a published poet, and it shows in his evocative, beautiful prose style. If you can, also track down any of his short story collections, as he was master of the form.
Sheckley wrote in more traditional SF areas than Disch, and was more of an absurdist satirist. _Immortality, Inc._ and _The 10th Victim_ are good starting points. Pro-tip: Douglas Adams was quite the fan of his.
Womack wrote the "Ambient" series (_Ambient_, _Terraplane_, _Heathern_, _Elvissey_, _Random Acts of Senseless Violence_, _Going, Going, Gone_), a loosely-connected set of novels concerning an alternate near-future America. They are bleak, bitter, blacker-than-black satires that will leave you emotionally scarred, but I love them, God help me.
Yes, they were. Although it's interesting how well-known groups keep changing over time - the people today called "neo conservatives" were called "neo liberals" when Ronald Reagan was one and Ted Kaczynski was writing about them. The Republicans were the party that nearly destroyed the Union to kill color-line slavery, but later they were the party that resisted civil rights for dark-skinned people and today they are the preferred party of racists and neo-Nazis.
During the Eugenics craze, the people who opposed it were considered soft and unscientific in their outlook - conservatives were seen as pansies unwilling to do the rough work of civilization. Today, though, conservatives are considered bullies and roughnecks by their opponents, and characterize themselves as bold, patriotic cowboys, while liberals are considered effete college boys who never did a lick of work by their opponents, and characterize themselves more educated and cultured than their ignorant opponents. It's a total turnaround - the opponents to Eugenics were considered backwards in their time, but they were not really much like the people considered backwards, anti-science social conservatives of today.
I don't know why someone didn't make it into a movie, talk about a kick ass plot! I can even see the tagline "The gang thought they were the alpha predators, the top of the food chain...they thought wrong". With a good director it would make a kick ass horror movie, completely different from the same old crap we've seen time and time again.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Somewhat psychedelic but a great read.
This book is almost completely ignored by many since the movie sucked, and it was written by L. Ron Hubbard (best known for creating scientology).
That said, it is one of the best sci fi epics set in a post apocolyptic world I have ever read. Forget the movie, forget Hubbard's other 'accomplishments' in life, and just enjoy this amazing book.
Cherryh, Heinlein, Niven, Clarke, Asimov, and I would even say van Vogt listed above.... These are notnot "forgotten" series and authors to anyone who knows jack about sci-fi. (Not to be too critical, as all of the choices listed are good - but the OP was asking for stuff that could be forgotten.)
So I'll make one push that isn't all that great sci-fi, but is a nostalgia kick for me, Thomas Ryan's http://www.amazon.com/Adolescence-P-1-Thomas-J-Ryan/dp/0671559702"The Adolescence of P-1.". Viruses, IBM mainframes, and a cloud system that has taken over the universe of computers with 5 GB acquired, all from 1985.
The Queens Own FBI series by Laurence M. Janifer and Randall Garrett as Mark Phillips. Consisting of Brain Twister, the Impossibles and Supermind.
The Synthetic Man and More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
The Whole Man and Traveller in Black by John Brunner
Odd John by Olaf Stapledon
Journey to the East and the Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse
Emil Petaja's Kalevala series:Saga of Lost Earths, the Star Mill, The Sun Stealers and Tramontane
Jack Vance's the Dying Earth, the Dragon Masters, the last Castle and Eyes of the Overworld
Samuel R. Delany's Nova, the Ballad of Beta Two and Empire Star
Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light
Katherine MacLean's the Missing men
Thomas Burnett Swann, the Goat without Horns
Fred Saberhagen of course. Berserker stories or Empire of the East
Henry Kuttner's Fury, the Dark World, the Well of the Worlds and Mutant
Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp's Harold Shea stories.
Alan Dean Foster (who novelized the Animated Star Trek series), has a set of novels revolving around Philip Lynx (Flinx) and his minidrag - Pip. His lesser known series is more fantasy based - Spellsinger...
"Software is the difference between hardware and reality"
you are missing the point, completely. and your opinion is in the extreme minority.
the 9 books are a tale of Covenant's REDEMPTION, so yeah duh he starts out as a HORRIBLE person! kinda, ya know, THE POINT OF THE STORY!
By coincidence, this very week I am re-reading E.E. "Doc" Smith's Skylark series. Sure, it's a period piece, when men were men, strong-willed and lantern-jawed and inconceivably brilliant, but it's always a lot of fun and a great nostalgia trip. I'd love to read the original versions sometime, to see how the "science" evolved.
I am equally fond of his Lensmen series, although the first one is little disconnected (as it should be, since it wasn't written for that universe) and "Masters of the Vortex" was amusing but essentially unrelated. I was delighted that my daughter (age 16) loved them, too.
And where else but in Doc Smith (Spacehounds of IPC) can you find a shipwrecked hero who can singlehandedly construct a hydroeelectric power plant, smelting his own copper and steel(!)?
Another favorite of mine is George O. Smith, particularly his The Brain Machine novel and the Venus Equilateral stories. The Brain Machine is a child-prodigy story; if you enjoyed Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, then The Brain Machine will likely reach you, too.
And I'd wholeheartedly recommend Cordwainer Smith as well. Wish he'd written more.
In the non-Smith category, there's always Michaelmas by Algis Budrys: a great story for those who like Walter Cronkite or self-aware computers that emerge to make the world a better place. His work covered a lot of other topics as well; I liked some more than others, but Michaelmas is my favorite.
I used to have a lot of Science Fiction Book Club anthologies, and they contain some gems (as well as some dross). Anthony Boucher's Treasury of Great Science Fiction and Asimov's Before the Golden Age are two of my favorites.
In the early 90's, Michael Swanwick wrote two excellent novels that I recommend to anyone who likes sci-fi, fantasy, or some blend of the two...
Stations of the Tide and The Iron Dragon's Daughter.
I strongly recommend 'Midnight at the Well of the Souls' (and the subsequent series) by Jack L Chalker. The original set of books was pretty hard to find. It is by far my favourite sci-fi series.
It is often funny, sometimes sad but always thought provoking. It's a series of books that ultimately makes you think about Life, the Universe and Everything (except for the lack of restaurants, dolphins and floating couches).
From wikipedia:
Nathan Brazil is the captain of the interstellar freighter Stehekin. While transporting three passengers, Captain Brazil receives a distress call from an uninhabited planet and makes a detour to investigate. There, they find the remains of a research team murdered by the rogue scientist Elkinos Skander in order to conceal his discovery of how to control Markovian technology. While exploring the planet, they are inadvertently transported to the Well World, where they must track down Skander and his equally brilliant and insane pupil. In addition, they must deal with being changed into bizarre alien creatures.
"Omnis tuus capsa sunt inesse nos"
"The Demolished Man", "The Stars My Destination"...
Anon at work but :
Market Forces by Richard Morgan
Most things by China Meville - but particularly Perdito Street Station
not so unknown: but American Gods and Ananzi Boys by Neil Gaiman - good fantasy/mythology dark and funny, respectively
I actually enjoyed the fact that the protagonist was an anti-hero, but I just found these books too tedious, too much a rip-off of the general flow of Tolkien. I read them all the way through, and by the time I got to the end, my only thought was, "man, I wish I had read 'The Lord of the Rings' again instead.
I'm not sure about that. I read this series, too, and I had the same opinion. Too close to Tolkien for me to really appreciate them on their own merit, but just not nearly as good.
To Reign in Hell (if you can find it) - Steven Brust (imagine the revolt en Heaven told as a fantasy novel)
The Ethshar Series by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Start with "The Misenchanted Sword" and go from there. Very fun, light series.
The Books of Swords - Saberhagen (The gods decided to play a game with man, but then man changed the rules...)
duh! the books are on one level a PARODY of Tolkien _and_ a deconstruction of Tolkein. Much deeper, more adult, more complex and nuanced than Tolkein.
For Adults, not Kids.
"The Last Legends of Earth" by A. A. Attanasio (science fiction)
"Dying of the Light" by George RR Martin (science fiction)
"Druss the Legend" by David Gemmell (fantasy)
"The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick (science ficiton)
Jasper Fford did an entertaining series that is best described as fantasy, but is a must for book lovers because it centers on libraries. Here's the wiki for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thursday_Next .
I've always been a fan of Kate Wilhem's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Late_the_Sweet_Birds_Sang
the story is both a parody and a deconstruction of Tolkien. duh.
the 9 books are a tale of REDEMPTION, so yeah the antihero starts out as a terrible person! kinda, ya know, THE whole POINT OF THE STORY!
The Belgariad and The Malloreon by David Eddings...
Fantasy:
The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
Temeraire series by Naomi Novik.
Anita Blake books up to Obsidian Butterfly, depending on your personal "Squick" factor.
Dark Jewels series by Anne Bishop.
Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman.
Taltos series by Steven Brust.
Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce.
Pit Dragon trilogy by Jane Yolen.
The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick.
Light and Shadows series by Janny Wurts.
The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny.
Vampire$ by John Steakley.
Young Wizards series by Diane Duane.
A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin.
I am Legend by Richard Matheson.
Science Fiction:
A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky, The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge.
Downbelow Station and Cyteen, especially, of the Company Wars series by C.J. Cherryh.
Foreigner series by C.J. Cherryh.
Xenogenesis Series by Octavia E. Butler.
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein.
Old Man's War series by John Scalzi.
The Gap Into Conflict series by Stephen Donaldson.
War Against the Chtorr series by David Gerrold.
Draka! series by S.M. Stirling.
Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, The Big U, The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold.
World War Z by Max Brooks.
Culture Series by Iain M. Banks.
Uplift series by David Brin.
Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. This became a movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120004/
Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith.
Crystal Singer series by Anne McCaffrey.
Accelerando, The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross.
Vang series by Christopher Rowley.
Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising Sequence".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Is_Rising_Sequence
John Christopher's "The Tripod" series..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods
those are not 'follow up' novels! they are written with more skill than the ones from 35 years ago AND they complete a giant story arc! they are wonderful novels!
There used to be a great website based in the Au that did to 100 and 200 book lists for Science fiction and Fantasy. It also did movies and TV shows. Later on it used to allow for user voting. I tried to find it on the interweb just now and couldn't find it. I am not sure if that is because it is gone, or if there are just too much other crap out there getting better Google rankings. Anyway it used to be a wonderful resource. I pretty much would go through it and just pick out the ones I haven't read yet. Most were older books. In my opinion much of the best science fiction was the older stuff, most of the new stuff is garbage (and has been for awhile). Less people actually writing and more people selling. Few exceptions out there, I really liked John Scalzi's "Old Mans War".
Anyway I have seen some good recommendations so far. I would second Stephen R.R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series for fantasy, as well as Joe Haldman's Forever War, as well as Canticle for Leibowitz. Dune was great, but I think most people would agree with that, however Frank Herbert has a ton of other books, most of which are also quite good. There are plenty of classics out there, one I was surprised to see not mentioned yet is Fahrenheit 451by Ray Bradbury. I have Day of the Triffids on my nightstand right now to read, and Wrinkle in Time is also a classic. Anything by Ursla L. Guin like "Left Had of Darkness" is also good.
The easy thing about older good science fiction is that books used to be a lot shorter back then. You can destroy a lot of good books in a short period of time. The not so easy part, is that unless you want to pay a bunch for new copies from a Chapters or an Amazon, it is HARD to find a lot of these at a used book store. I have YET to find a Stanilaw Lem book anywhere. People tend to get rid of the crap, and keep the good. So some authors you just don't see all that often as people tend to hold on to them (likely because they are favorite books also). Some older but not ancient fantasy might be the Terry Broks Sword of Shanara series, or David Eddings The Elenium and The Tamuli. I can list a ton of Fantasy, but none of it is particularly old. I like my old science fiction a lot more than old Fantasy. David Brin was also a favorite from the Uplift War series.
Much depends like anything on personal preference. Some of Heinlein's stuff is really good, however sometimes I get sort of sick of some of his protagonists, same with Ben Bova. Some are a bit to over the top Anne Ryndian caricatures. Anyway there is a host of great old Science fiction out there, it is just a matter of finding it. As I said it is too bad I can't find that website, as it was a great resource. Also Aldus Huxley and George Orwell, Phillip K. Dick. Used to read a lot of Pohl, Sagan, and Asimov...
Depends on what you define as old and obscure also. Anything by Neal Stevenson is good, Snow Crash being one of the highlights or Cryptonomicon, but neither are particularly old to me. Particularly if you are mentioning ones like E.R. Eddison The Worm Ouroboros which was done in the early 1900's. Which by the way I hated. I only got through a few chapters before I threw it down in disgust. Reading the old englishly phrasing drove me batty. If you want REAL old science fiction, the two big ones of course are Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
Anyway that should give you a lot to chew on for awhile.
Larry Niven - Protector
Fred Hoyle - The Black Cloud
Alter Aeon Multiclass MUD - http://www.alteraeon.com
Again, all of these are part of the Space Trilogy - which was on the NPR top 100 Sci-Fi and Fantasy list, I'd hardly consider that to be forgotten.
and.... Tolkien was "derivative" and "ripping off" the SAME ancient myths and legends that Wagner was "ripping off"......... so..... no one is "ripping off" anything but ancient Finnish and Anglo-Saxon lore from the dawn of European culture.
Farnham's Freehold by R.A. Heinlein. Strange post-apocalyptic tale of a family that was prepared for 'the big bomb' and survived.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
+1 for anything by Lord Dunsany (in original pst)
George MacDonald's Phantastes
Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright
William Morris - The Wood Beyond the World
Newer slightly off-the-beaten path stuff (if you like the above, you might also like...):
Mythago Wood
Lovecraft's The Dream Cycle of Unknown Kadath
Stephen Donaldson's 1st Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
Thanx to everybody that replied - I realize that the authors and suggested books are well recognized.
But, I should have noted that they are books that a younger reader (for lack of a better term) will probably have not read, even though they are listed.
Now, you kids get off my lawn!
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_Smith
Great if you like weird science fiction.
Also:
Edmond Hamilton
Stanley G. Weinbaum
Henry Kuttner
Leigh Brackett
Last would suggest, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame compliations give you a nice selection of works from 1929 to 1969 (if you can find volume 3)
Volumes 1, 2a and 2b have been reprinted fairly recently.
It's from 1928, but My First Two Thousand Years: The Autobiography of the Wandering Jew has an interesting take on the last two thousand years of history. It's a bit graphic and probably considered blasphemous by every religion it mentions, but that's bound to be the case with any story about an immortal encountering various famous and infamous historical figures.
Poul Anderson's "Tau Zero" still gets me thinking.
"Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank (real name: Harry Hart Frank)
"Star Maker," by Olaf Stapledon
READ the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the other amendments! http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/const.html
http://greatsfandf.com/
Old site, but some great suggestions
"The Black Cloud," by Sir Fred Hoyle
READ the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the other amendments! http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/const.html
Some of his work is freely available at Project Gutenberg. Dark humor.
quote from "Status Civilization":
Mr. Frendlyer shook his head and smiled sadly. "I'm afraid not. According to the law you must leave here at once."
"But they'll kill me!"
"That's very true. Unfortunately it can't be helped. A victim by definition is one who is to be killed.... We protect rights, not victims."
google sheckley site:gutenberg dot org
Oh bullshit. I read the Thomas Covenant Trilogy (yes it's only a trilogy) and understood most of the points being made and I was 12-13 at the time.
You're doing the same disservice that many others make in the west. That children don't have the smarts to understand something. Let me clue you in a bit. If you treat your kids as responsible adults, they'll do their best to meet that expectation and be mature. Just like if you treat your kids like hooligans and monsters, guess what, that's what you end up with. Irresposible bullies and people who'd sell their own mother just to make a buck (sounds like many of the CEO's now a days doesn't it?).
Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
http://www.amazon.com/Life-During-Wartime-Lucius-Shepard/dp/0752816144/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1331139259&sr=8-17
Fantastic book. Several of the best death scenes ever writting. Hello dying by a swarm of butterflies. Mixes raw warzone, Telepathy, a CIA like organization and revolution. Reads like Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
If you haven't read Lucius Shepard, try out the Jaguar hunter too.
blah
For humor, the Eagleheart series by C.T. Westcott. Gritty dystopian near future on earth, after a limited nuclear war. As a kid I struggled with the sometimes painful humor, but some of my buddies swore it was the funniest thing they'd ever read.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Bartkid sez,
When I was eight or ten years old, in the late 1970s, I read a paperback of collected SF short stories about a mad scientist. It was already an old paperback, so I believe the book may have been published in the 1950s or 1960s. In each story, the scientist's patrons would put forth a task for him, and he would produce results which were, while following the letter of the commanded task, typically 90 to 180 degrees of the desired result. (Asimov's Azazel stories, which I read more than a decade later, reminded me of this collection.) The one story that especially sticks up sharply in my memory was the military getting the scientist to breed or clone man-sized rabbits (Ã la Harvey) to be soldiers. The scientist was able to produce such leporine troops, and the brass are pleased, until the last paragraph where the scientist reveals that all the rabbits are female, and thus ineligible for combat duty.
Anyone recognize this book or author?
In this world of cookie cutter plots -or- strange way out trippy stories, these two books stand apart. A great mix of good characters, well paced stories, interesting assumptions and well thought out repercussions. It is a testament to great science fiction to me that when you take the imaginations as given (for example, teleporting by thought alone: Stars My Destination) when the rest of the story proceeds without you ever saying, "That doesn't make sense." or "That's stupid." then you've got a good story. Both of these novels work great within the context of their world view.
Just re-read "Stars my destination" last week.
blah
I stand corrected.
I was reading Margaret Sanger quotes that seemed to say the opposite, but either I was misreading the quotes, misreading the subtext of the quotes, or else she contradicted herself.
(Or all of the above.)
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
And the inventor of the transistor, Shockley, thought blacks were inferior to whites. Quick, throw out your transistor radios and computers!
Speaking of eugenics, Germany stood for something heinous once, under the rule of Hitler. Support for eugenics, I'm afraid was something that was quite a common thing in her day (the KKK was actually a highly popular social organization in many a northern town at that time too).
Planned Parenthood openly takes on the Sanger issue: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/PPFA/OppositionClaimsAboutMargaretSanger.pdf
Some hospitals of today had practices that included some heinous actions under the guise of treatment, we don't hold that those hospitals that are still in existence and practicing good, high quality medicine be shut down or that they and their employees are in support of the agendas that were behind those treatments.
Being an Avid Reader and a Fan of Doc Smith's Lensman Series, I have to agree with someone that posted earlier. There were 3 books originally based on the feel of the tale.
The book that seems to be shoehorned in is what's offered as the 2nd - 1st Lensman. From reading it, all I can say is that it really doesn't feel the same as the 3 I've listed while the 5th book of the series kind of wraps up the story line and brings an end to things.
It's a sad note you provided about Doc Smith's death being in 65. That's they year I was born, so I now have something to make his Lensman Series more important to me. Thank you for that link
Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
You did _not_ get the references to Conrad or Wagner, which are constant. No kid could. You are full of rich, brown caca. These are NOT kids' books in any fashion. The first and main and most important act in this whole series is a violent _rape_ of an innocent girl! And the consequences of that action reverberate for 9 more books. No child is sophisticated enough to 'get' the fundamental questions of ontology and phenomenology that are baked into these books.
The Belgariad by David Eddings (also the Mallorean and the Sparhawk books)
Legend by David Gemmell (and pretty much anything else he's written)
Inverted World - Christopher Priest
Friday, Heinlein. In fact, any old Heinlein, if you've not read it.
Any old Asimov other than Foundation, I loved the R. Daneel Olivaw books.
The Black Company by Glen Cook
The Amber Series
Any of Anne McCaffery's sci-fi - The Ship Who Sang
This one isn't really a forgotten author, but a really good "Up and Coming" author would be Ken Scholes for his "Psalms of Issac" series. Really great fantasy with a hint of Sci-fi in it.
Stories by Gu Long aren't well-known in the United States, but several of his stories were used as the basis for kung fu movies from Hong Kong.
The only one that I know is available in English is "The Eleventh Son", which is the epitome of a good action story. It has strong characters that you can easily feel sympathy for, lots of insane action, romance, and plenty of quirky, cultural details.
The Eleventh Son:
http://www.amazon.com/Eleventh-Son-Novel-Martial-Tangled/dp/1931907161/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331139762&sr=1-1
Information about the Wuxia genre:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxia
My favourite SF series. I re-read this series every couple years (I've worn out a few copies of the soft-cover books -- I really need to get a hard-cover set); a warning though, it can be dark and depressing compared to Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan) or Lord of the Rings.
Not sure if you'd consider it forgotten, but "The King in Yellow" (1895) by Robert W. Chambers hasn't been mentioned yet. Not necessarily sci-fi, fantasy, or horror, but... weird.
I was a big fan of the Chronicles of Xanth by Piers Anthony. It gets wildly inappropriate at points but good story and I love the world.
Black Company series, Dread Empire (his early works), plus "The Swordbearer".
Very anti-hero reminiscent of Michael Moorcock.
Thomas M. Disch "Camp Concentration"
Clifford D. Simak "City"
James Blish "The Seedling Stars"
Stanislav Lem "The Invincible", "Fiasco"
Arkady & Boris Strugatsky "Hard to Be a God"
Richard Matheson "I am Legend"
Roger Zelazny "Creatures of Light and Darkness"
Samuel R. Delaney "Babel-17"
Theodore Sturgeon "Killdozer"
Brian W Aldiss "Helliconia" Triology
Several Novels and many of his short stories are on Gutenburg. He has been so forgotten that the copyrights have expired.
It looks like no one has mentioned George Alec Effinger. I've not read all of his stuff, but I've never read anything I didn't like.
Hard science fiction was never easy to pick out of the random-paperback section of the library when I was a kid. But those were the two most memorable ones I recall.
I remember another one where a Rendezvous With Rama-like giant cylinder parks in Earth orbit, and explorers discover it to be a giant time capsule in which a Jurrasic jungle, complete with dinosaurs, is preserved. Some of them have evolved into sentient beings, which devour an elderly Golden Age science fiction writer, which was good for a laugh.
I have never, ever been disappointed by a Robin McKinley novel. She writes across a broad spectrum, from science fiction (Dragonhaven) to contemporary fantasy (the Kingdom of Damar books: The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown) to re-tellings of classic fairy tales (Spindle's End, Rose Daughter, The Outlaws of Sherwood, Deerskin, Beauty) to vampire fiction (Sunshine - trust me, it's definitely not your Twilight vampires here...)
Everything, and I mean everything I have read of hers has been riveting, well written and an instant favourite. There are not many other authors I can say that about (the only other two that come to mind are Sir Terry Pratchett and David R. Palmer). Some of her books are no longer in print (i.e.,the Damar books), but it is well worth finding a copy if you can.
Wait, looks like I spoke too soon: the Damar books may be back in print again! Excellent, time to get a less dog-eared copy!
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
there are 9 books now, and a 10th final one coming. that is not a trilogy, duder.
Even the author doesn't think they're as good. If you do, you are a truly rare exception.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Or the Bill of Rights. Long lost fantasy fair now
David Gerrold
- When H.A.R.L.I.E Was One
- Voyage of the StarWolf
- The Chtorr Series (A Matter for Men, A Day for Damnation, A Method for Madness, a Season for Slaughter, (pending) A Time for Treason)
DF Jones
- The Colossus Series (Colossus, The Fall of Colossus, Colossus and the Crab)
Thomas Ryan
- The Adolescence of P-1
Orson Scott Card
- Pretty much anything he's written (the Ender Series, among others)
Keith Laumer
- Any and all of the Retief books
John Ringo
- There Will Be Dragons
David Weber
- The Honor Harrington Series
and the ethics and moral questions in these books, which are lifted and transplanted from Conrad's "Lord Jim" and "Heart of Darkness" and totally outside the comprehension of any child and most ill educated and a-literate adults!
The White Plague, by Frank Herbert.
You can try picking up a few old issues of Galaxy on ebay; they usually go for a few dollars each. That will give you a good sampling of vintage sci-fi and fantasy and you can delve deeper into the writers who appeal to you.
I did a quick search and couldn't find other references already so:
The Uplift War by David Brin. (do not read his comet thing he also wrote, its pants but...) this series is exceptional. The concept: we find we're not alone, but the galactic society we enter is quite bureaucratic and snobbish about itself, where each race is not only ecologically conscious (by ancient rules) but also has a hierarchy of 'uplifting' races by helping them evolve to consciousness. And there's the poxy humans who've not only trashed their own planet (tut tut) but also have managed to 'uplift' chimps and dolphins, so the senior races have no choice but to accept humanity as a senior race in their own right... which pisses them off royally, and starts a whole series of underhand and back-door intrigue against us, while the true heroes of the books (the uplifted animals) struggle to fight back in almost naive and innocent ways.
I'd also like to recommend all of C.J.Cherryh's works, an exercise in feminist ideals in space, with books you can appreciate - as can your gf as there's a lot of 'how people feel' type stuff in there too, along with the usual society changing as factions develop, almost like you can see history being made.
For much older stuff, Harrison, von Vogt, Vance, Carter, Ellison. All good stuff.
Anything by C.M. Kornbluth, both his solo work and his work with Frederik Pohl.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Vorkosigan Saga
"The Warrior's Apprentice" and "The Vor Game"
Might be nice to find bibliography of some long time published magazine, throw out familiar names and have a brief look at some of those remaining. During nineties, there was a Czech mutation of Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It had decades of delay behind the original and was issued bi-monthly instead of monthly so the editor cherry picked from the past and the present of magazine's portfolio. I discovered quite a bunch of interesting names both old and forgotten or new and yet-to-be-recognized, also forgotten faces of familiar names.
Some examples from the magazine would be James Tiptree, Bruce Holland Rogers, Esther M. Friesner, Joe Haldeman (yeah, I've read Forever War and Hemingway Hoax before, but Ma Qui and Graves were different meat), Ray Vukcevich, Vance Aandahl, Barry N. Malzberg, Lisa Tuttle and loads of others I don't even remember, all those authors of twenty short stories and a novel, that somehow made it into publishing three stories in Magazine of F&SF and getting translated 20-40 years later.
As for actual suggestions of forgotten gems or interesting tidbits, there is House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson, if you don't mind old fashioned heroes scribbling their Oh No's and God Why's into diary while Unspeakable Horrors enter the door, already mentioned and not exactly forgotten James Tiptree, Jr., non-Amber Zelazny*, Yevgeniy Zamyatin (Us, but his "non-SF" stuff is worth reading too), Kallocain by Karin Boye, William Tenn (Liberation of Earth, Venus and the Seven Sexes), Strugacki brother's (I liked Picnic by the road, but there's more to them, especially "Escape Attempt"), Henry Kuttner/C.L.Moore, Sam Lundwall (No Time for Heroes and Bernhard the Conqueror), Shirley Jackson, Robert Aickman (The Waiting Room).
*Might have been caused by crappy translation but I found Amber books mildly amusing but mostly just fluff, his short stories varying from amusing and interesting to masterpieces; whoever here haven't read A Rose for Ecclesiastes yet and is more of a bookworm with penchant for SF&F instead of die-hard SF fan, go read it _right now_, you won't regret it.
Troll 2.0 Fear my asocial networking!
Ann Maxwell is favorite SF author, but is totally unknown by most people I've talked to. Not too surprising seeming she didn't publish much. Pity.
Fire Dancer, Dancer's Luck, & Dancer's Illusion, are short but very good.
Timeshadow Rider is longer and a more involved read.
All four sit on my shelf to be read over and over.
the author has said no such thing. you are an absurd and nonsensical troll.
If you can't take Covenant as a protagonist, The duology of Mordant's Need is probably a better read. (The Mirror of Her Dreams, A Man Rides Through). Most of the same themes of a lead character out of place, but it just works better.
We are the 198 proof..
A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermeyer Magic in a Steampunk setting, back before Steampunk was cool.
We are the 198 proof..
Frank Herbert's - no, not Dune - Destination: Void. The tech really isn't central to the story, so it holds up pretty well, IMHO. This the only sci-fi story I can think of that could successfuly be turned into a play. 1000+ comments; shame no one will read this. Ah, well.
Architect of sleep by Stephen R Boyette.
A pretty old book I remember from about 20 + years ago. It's speculative fiction about a guy that winds up in a parallel world where darwinism never selected for the ape's evolution to homo sapiens because geographical differences that would have resulted in the right conditions never happening. Leaving the path open for racoons to take their place. The story is set in what might have been feudal times and plays well on the similarities and differences of how society might have evolved differently in this new context. It had the earmarks of potentially becoming epic with many side stories, a rich world and interesting characters.
Unfortunately, it's end assumes there will be more books. But only the first of the series was ever published. From what I understand. Originally, irreconcilable differences of vision with the editor prevented the publishing of the following books... and now apparently furries have become involved and I imagine, hilarity ensued.
(Unverified quote found on a forum while looking to see if the series was ever finished)
"Where's the rest of THE ARCHITECT OF SLEEP?
In a box in my closet. For the longest time I've had every intention of finishing it, but thanks to the existence of (and the kind of mail I get from) furries, I've changed my mind."
Not a novel/story per se. But excellent perusing.
Yeah, it's in the author notes for fatal revenant.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Zenna Henderson's stories of The People were published as a single volume, titled "Ingathering", which I highly recommend. Trivia bit -- a 1972 made-for-TV movie was filmed of one of the stories starring William Shatner as the non-alien doctor who performs psi-augmented emergency surgery on a child, plus Kim Darby (of "True Grit" fame). But read the book first to immerse yourself in a delicate female perspective on alien contact. Deeply moving in many parts.
Very dystopian, but with some very off-the-wall characters and disturbing villains. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hinz
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." -Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear
1/.The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (same guy wrote Day of the Triffids and Midwich Cuckoos)
2/. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (This is one of the only "early" Sci-Fi books that got the media centric world of today right. reads like a contemporary novel, very cool)
3/. Macroscope by Piers Anthony, dunno why, but really enjoyed this one - wikipedia it..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weapon_Shops_of_Isher
http://www.LinuxMedNews.com Revolutionizing Medical Education and Practice.
Agreed. Turgid prose made worse by the uncritical application of a thesaurus. Anyone that enjoys the adventure and poetry of Tolkein should steer well clear of Donaldson.
1) The Sunset Warrior (the whole series) by Eric Van Lustbader
2) The Languages of Pao - Jack Vance
3) The Space Ship Under the Apple Tree (4 books), Louis Slobodkin (good Kids books)
Can't believe I forgot these: The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy and another series by the same author, Limekiller.
I read this book probably a hundred times in junior high.
Lord of Light Amazing book
"If the only tool that you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Donny Rumsfeld
Reiterating two that have been mentioned:
The Black Company Series by Robert Cook
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazney
And another really interesting, somewhat similar pair:
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
Fairie by Raymond E. Feist
I actually got very bored by the Covenant series, but found the Gap series quite good. While both are harsh stories, the Gap doesn't feel as derivative. (yes, I realize the literary reasons that Covenant was written the way it was, but it didn't work for me as a good read)
A.C. Clarke "The City and the Stars" maybe.. great story about "a kid who escapes from a city closed off for millenia, believing that the world outside is dead, finds out different..
"If the only tool that you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Donny Rumsfeld
This is a nicely wrought adventure into post apocalyptic alternate universe. But if you're acquainted with World of Warcraft it won't seem half so strange. When I re-read this book, I'd been playing World of Warcraft for a couple of years and was pretty surprised to find the designers of WoW had poached a number of zones and monsters from the work.
The Birthgrave - Tanith Lee. Her first book.
Memoirs Found in a Bathtub - Stanislaw Lem.
Entropy just isn't what it used to be.
Cyberpunk that was so 80's in 1955. Just Wow!
Michaelmas is one of the icons of his time, in a more automated but recognisable future that is a backdrop to events, not a substitute. He is one of the faces that report the news; a travelling reporter with enormous cachet and friends throughout the business. He is also the creator of a machine, Domino, which has evolved from a means of getting free trunk calls to his wife into something teetering on the brink of self-awareness. Between them, for all intents and purposes, they run the world; only the world doesn't know it - a benign nudging and manipulation rather than an overt exercise of powe
All I say is by way of discourse, nothing by way of advice
no, it isn't. troll. 30+ years of refining his writing skill SHOWS.
Donaldson made a PARODY and a deconstruction of Tolkien, and his works are far more adult and far more nuanced with great psychological depth. Donaldson is for adults, Tolkien is juvenile literature.
I love them BOTH, and many many people do as well.
But note that Arthur C. Clarke spoke favorably of "Perelandra" in one of his essays.
Didn't see these in quick scan of the not hidden posts, so they must be forgotten.
Larry Niven-- any of "The Ringworld" books
Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson---"The Reefs of Space", "Starchild", "Rouge Star"...
Ian Stewart--"Jack Of All Trades" Availiable as ebook, The true story of Billy the Joat.
Analog Magizine--Many great stories and serialized novels. There are still old issues available, in old book stores, old comic stores and on the web in places like http://backissues.com/titles/Analog-Magazine
The whole "Sten" series is excellent. I'm surprised it doesn't get more notice, there's a lot of really great stuff in there.
I also have a few others (some of which I've posted elsewhere):
"On My Way to Paradise" by Dave Wolverton
"Armor" by John Steakley
"Synners" by Pat Cadigan (basically anything by her, but this is my fave)
Anything by Stephen Brust, especially "Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille" and his "Vlad Taltos" series
Zelazny has been mentioned a lot, and of course "Amber" is great, but I quite liked "Jack of Shadows" and "Doorways in the Sand"
Lots by Walter Jon Williams such as "Angel Station", "Hardwired", "Aristoi", and "Implied Spaces"
YA books by William Sleator, especially "House of Stairs" and "Singularity" and "The Interstellar Pig"
I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them right now.
Sci-Fi/Mystery/Crime
Fist came out in 1975
Hugo Award Nominee
http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook535.htm
The Book of Swords Series is collectively a science fiction/fantasy novel series written by Fred Saberhagen. It's well worth the read of these smaller (page size) novels.
Monument and the Jan Darzek books are fun reads, if not especially deep and artistic. Annoyingly hard to find, though...
Man dies of a heart attack and wakes as a young man in his dorm room and begins to live his life over again, with full memory of his past life. It has a lot of very ardent fans that pass it on to others, but it's still not well known. See the Amazon reviews for a sampling of what it means to its fans.
The first trilogy are a pretty good read. The second trilogy leave a lot to be desired, IMO. The self-loathing gets a little old in the second set.
The leper/racist should be explained a little I think, lest people get the wrong idea:
Note: for those that don't know, leprosy is a disease that kills nerve cells in a way that leaves you without feeling. Lepers would typically die due to un-noticed wounds that get infected, turn gangrenous, and cause toxic shock and all sorts of other fun things. To combat this, lepers constantly and continuously check themselves for cuts or injury - Visual Surveillance of Extremities (VSE).
Covenant is a leper, had been for quite some time so it's pretty late stage in the neural degeneration, meaning he hasn't felt any sort of tactile sensation in decades.
Wife divorces him to protect their child from the disease. He gets hit by a car and wakes up in a fantasy-based world - magic, druids, the whole shebang. In this world he is healed of his leprosy and more or less immediately falls on the girl that healed him. He then spends the rest of the series filled with self-hate and a refusal to believe that anything he is experiencing is real, since if he abandons the constant vigilance and VSEs, he's as good as dead when he wakes up and returns to the real world.
The universe in which the story takes place is very well thought out, the characters are well developed, and your constantly challenged to try and decide whether or not this is all in Covenant's head, in which case he is not guilty of the rape but is going insane, or it's real and he's a rapist but perhaps with extenuating circumstances.
I have no idea why you were modded down, most of Piper's work is very good. Mod this guy up :)
Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!
I absolutely love the Xanth trilogy-turned-to-30+ books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanth
One of the best fantasy universes ever created IMO. They start off very "young adult reader" but get a touch more deep as the series progresses. I love how the characters age from book to book and you start following the adventures of the children and grandchildren of the original protagonists as the series goes on.
The Diskworld series by Terry Pratchett is up the same ally fantasy-with-comedy as Xanth. Where Xanth is witty and pun-based, Diskworld is the dry British humor/sarcasm/master of the understatement.
Both series will have me laughing out loud even though I've read them all a dozen times.
And as a single-shot book, "Good Omens, The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, is another superb read.
The son of the Devil is a 12-year-old British boy that lives out in the 'burbes. The armies and Heaven and Hell are both seeking him (bit of a clerical mishap, wrong mum got the kid 12 years ago, sorry about that chap), and it's up to an Angel and a Demon to stop Armageddon.
Zulawski "On the Silver Globe" trilogy (Polish, don't know if translations are available in English) - a timeless classic foundation of almost all today's genres, from hard sf to steampunk to quests to fantasy to mystics...
have you tried John Brunner ( Stand On Zanzibar; Double, Double; The Sheep Look Up; etc)
Excellent short story: A boy makes a "disapearer" and puts it to use. Quick, entertaining read, economical, vivid prose.
John Young - "The Dandelion Girl", and if you like it - just about anything by him!
Murray Leinster (pen name of Will Jenkins) is probably the most overlooked hard science fiction writer of the 20th century. His stories featured both deeply human characters and hard technical edges. His stories seem pretty sexist by today's standards: women exist largely as motivations for the male heroes. But in his case I think that was more a product of the market than of his personal attitudes—he sold his first story in 1919, at the height of the pulps, the year before Doc Smith finished Skylark of Space. Unlike many early pulp writers, Leinster survived the advent of John W. Campbell, and thrived into the late Sixties. He did it by being incredibly imaginative, yet painstakingly realistic and technically accurate.
In Proxima Centauri, Leinster described an attack on a human ship by aliens. They used intense 30cm microwave beams to try kill the human crew; when that attack was unexpectedly blocked by the human ship's metal hull (the aliens used cellulose), they switched to heating the metal hull by hysteresis effects from focused radio waves. He vividly (and fairly accurately, as far as I can judge today) described the effects of a molten hull rupturing in vacuum from the pressure of heated air inside. The ship itself was powered by disintegration of matter into pure energy, and had traveled from Earth to Proxima Centauri by seven years of constant acceleration and deceleration at 1 gravity. Proxima Centauri was published in 1935, four years before Lise Meitner made the first correct analysis of nuclear fission—and four years before Robert Heinlein sold his first story.
I think it was in 1952's Space Ferry, a decade before the Mercury program, that one of Leinster's characters correctly forecast the image that the government would want for its astronauts: Big, heroic men. The character himself was a midget, who pointed out how midgets would make much more practical astronauts, because they required less space, consumed less food, water, and oxygen, and—most importantly—massed less and thus required less thrust to lift. NASA still hasn't taken the hint.
Operation: Outer Space was a semi-comic, semi-satirical novel in which the exploration of deep space is led by a television executive, because it's easier to pay the expense of space exploration if it sells a lot of advertising time. That one came out in 1954.
Leinster practically invented some of the sub-genres of SF. He wrote about alternate-history parallel time-lines in 1934, over a decade before H. Beam Piper. He wrote a benchmark first-contact story—named First Contact—in 1945: If you meet an alien in deep space, where neither of you knows the other's home planet, how can both of you get safely home without revealing where you came from? In A Logic Named Joe from 1946, one of the very few early computer stories that doesn't describe a massive computer running the entire world, he described something very like the modern internet for consumers—especially Wikipedia. He wrote a lengthy series of medical SF stories, a subgenre that he and Michael Crichton still have practically to themselves.
In short, Murray Leinster wrote a hell of a lot of entertaining and imaginative fiction, much of it years or even decades ahead of its time. He's worth digging up.
(By the way: If you want others, check out George Willick's Spacelight website, a listing of all the best dead SF authors.)
I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
" It is a chilling, short story masterpiece about the role of technology in our lives. Written in 1909, it's as relevant today as the day it was published. Forster has several prescient notions including instant messages (email!) and cinematophoes (machines that project visual images)."
http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html
-- Hail Eris
years ago I ran across this, I thought it was quite good and I am sure it is somewhat forgotten http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nitrogen_Fix
Malazan Books of the Fallen
best books I have read in a loooooooooooooooong time.
- NOoC
I couldn't disagree more. Donaldson has a terrible writing style that has a few brief moments of greatness and a lot of tawdry mediocrity. He doesn't come close of Tolkien on any level, and I found "The chronicles of Thomas Covenant the unbeliever" to be very dull for the most part. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.
I complete agree with you. I couldn't even finish the first one, because I *HATED* the protagonist so much. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sophisticated reader (degree in English) and I can handle the concept of anti-hero, or hero you don't like that much, protagonist who isn't that sympathetic, whatever. But i just literally HATED Thomas Covenant. He was such a whiny little BITCH that I wished he was real so I could hunt him down and slap him as hard as I could. It was like reading a book about a rich, entitled, spoiled 12-year-old who just wouldn't shut up.
Challenge the reader with a protagonist who isn't that likable or makes questionable decisions? Sure. But writ a book where the protagonist just ANNOYS THE PISS out of you? Well, maybe it's brave in some literary sense, but I'm sure as hell not going to torture myself to read it. It's like a novelist writing a book and insisting that you read it in the same room as a busy band saw. Sorry, pal. Maybe it's good and all, but I'll never know because they annoyance level makes it so not worth the effort.
You are too unskilled in empathy and you are hard and sociopathic, or you would have some sympathy and understanding for an actual sufferer of advanced leprosy!
OK, reading this made me look up a book I read 40+ years ago. The title has never left my mind. It was a book I enjoyed greatly when I was in my teens. Lightweight short fiction. As for forgotten - only 25 downloads on Gutenburg
I can't believe nobody's mentioned James White yet!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_White_(author)
"Sector General is a gigantic multi-species hospital space station founded as a peace-making project by two heroes from opposite sides of humanity's only full interstellar war."
I needed something new to read. It's nearly impossible to find anyone that can give me halfway decent advice in this category of literature.
Jack Finney, Time and Again
Alan Garner, The Owl Service (and other works).
When Worlds Collide and After Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer are excellent period pieces. I believe they were written during the Great Depression.
I recommend 'In the Wet'
Yes, Vance absolutely should be on the list, in fact I consider Jack Vance pretty much THE forgotten genius of SF and Fantasy. To the must-read works by Vance that others have mentioned I would add the five Demon Princes novels, some of the best space opera ever written, but pretty much almost anything by Vance is worth looking at.
The other great forgotten SF novel I would recommend is The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. This is a mind-blowing kaleidoscope of a novel, a true classic that easily holds its own when compared to the best modern SF, the style and writing is so far ahead of its time it's almost impossible to believe it was first published in the '50s.
You are too unskilled in empathy and you are hard and sociopathic, or you would have some sympathy and understanding for an actual sufferer of advanced leprosy!
I have tons of empathy for living people. This is a fictional character. And I've met plenty of living people with diseases just as horrible, and not one of them was even close to being as hellishly self-pitying as Covenant. Generally they are quite courageous, or maybe sad and depressed, but not one has ever been even slightly self-righteously wallowing in self-pity. I find the character not only repugnant for that reason but also not realistic or believable at all.
Greg Costikyan - First Contract, a first contact novel showing profit behind exploiting backward worlds.
Robert Frezza - A Small Colonial War and the sequel, Fire in a Faraway Place future war
Harry Harrison - Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers, this would make fantastic action movie
Lem's Fiasco ... http://www.amazon.com/Fiasco-Stanislaw-Lem/dp/0156306301/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331182427&sr=1-4 ... http://www.amazon.com/Ring-Daniel-Keys-Moran/dp/0385248164/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331182480&sr=1-7
Ring by Daniel Keys Moran
Also, previously mentioned Asimov's stories, Steakly's Armor, Card's Ender series ... to name a few.
Malazan, Book of the Fallen is a fantasy series that defies description. The cast of characters and the scope of the world and stories blows Tolkien out of the water.
It's probably not for the casual reader, since it is very long (think Wheel of Time) and you need to be paying attention to follow the details. Second readings are very rewarding though. For what it's worth, everyone I've ever heard discuss this series has struggled to get into the 1st book and was then compelled to read the entire series, usually as fast as humanly possible.
Jupiter Theft by Donald Moffitt
Forge of God by Greg Bear
Does anyone remember a book involving Titan and artifacts that used sunspots as a weapon? This same story involved a spaceship filled with water that flew into Jupiter or Saturn?
There was another great book which involved aliens "destroying" or removing the sun causing humans to live underground. Later these same aliens ignited Jupiter to form a new star and allowed earth to be rebuilt. There was a great revenge plot at the end of this story.
I would be grateful if anyone remembered the titles of those two books above...
George MacDonald was praised by C.S. Lewis for his novels Phantastes and Lilith. I also enjoyed them, fwiw. Some more modern fantasy novels I enjoyed are the Compleat Enchanter series by L. Sprague deCamp and Fletcher Pratt. Very amusing and intelligent.
Often formulaic, and quite episodic (even the novels are almost a collection of short stories), White has a beautifully optimisitic view of the future, and his alien first-contact stores (I think in excess of 20!) are often brilliant, with wonderful reasoning and fascinating ideas. I heartily recommend buying every sector general novel he has written.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
yo dumbass, the entire story arc is a TALE OF REDEMPTION!
"Where Late, the Sweet Birds Sang", by Kate Wilhelm
Post apocalyptic future, where remnants of humanity survive by cloning. You'll probably appreciate the novel less if you don't like "hard(ish)" science fiction. Should have a basic understanding of genetics and cloning. (Only one post here mentioned her name, but no specific recommendations.)
I dunno if this one counts. At one time, this work was put on the same famous scale as Dune, but since it hasn't been mentioned...
The llluminatus Trilogy, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.
You should have a collegiate level literary reading background, or you won't get ANY of the jokes. Its starts out with a mindboggling stream of consciousness, which introduces a hundred characters in the books, but they abandon the technique midway into the first chapter. (Call it a test to weed out the weak.)
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
by A.E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull
I was sad to learn of his suicide 3 years ago. Some of his notable novels and short story collections:
Camp Concentration
334
The Genocides
101 H Bombs
and for kids(adults can enjoy it too) The brave Little Toaster(made into a nice movie)
All worth reading. Almost all of it concentrated on social speculation and not hard science,
Didn't see it mentioned here, but the "Chung Kuo" novels (8 in the series) is a sprawling future -topia (u- or dys-, you decide) by David Wingrove that is quite engaging, although by the end, he seems to run out of steam, a la Neal Stephenson's more ambitious efforts.
Also, a woman named Judith Merrill used to create an annual anthology "The Year's Best SF", which was all short stories and novellas. Fantastic stuff, featuring many of the writers mentioned here, and some not - Fritz Leiber, for one. ("Gonna Roll the Bones" still resounds, and I read it forty years ago.) If you can find them, they're generally engrossing, and the great thing about short stories is if you don't like it, it's over soon.
I was lucky enough while study engineering at the University of Toronto that Merrill opened the "Spaced Out Library" directly across the street from the main eng buildings. Spent many lunch hours there devouring works from writers I'd never seen anywhere else. It still kind of exists, but it's a single floor in a reference library on College Street, and not near as inviting (Merrill used to come by and have conversations at random; her knowledge of the genre defines "encyclopedic").
Maybe it shouldn't be amazing but it seems the community has stumbled upon a topic where getting all pissy just doesn't seem to hold. Well done, /.ers!
I'll toss out Hiero's Journey by Sterling E. Lanier. A fun read from my youth. Hard to find. The sequel wasn't nearly as good but still sits on my bookshelf!
http://www.sffmeta.com/listBooks?list=alltimehigh
Mostly newer books but a lot of great stuff there
I rarely like fantasy but this series was unbelievable. Outstanding writing and the scope of the story is breathtaking. I almost took a pass when a friend offered it to me. I practically cried when I finished the series. I felt like I had lost all of my friends. It felt to me like a fully fleshed out Lord of the Rings type of adventure with serious overtones and moral dilemmas galore.
The Forever War
Six books, starting with Gateway. Then these brilliant classics: The Wheels Of If, L. Sprague de Camp, The Majipoor Chronicles, Robert Silverberg, The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury, The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny
A quick scan of the bookshelf brings these authors to mind:
Jorge Luis Borges
Rosel George Brown
James Branch Cabell
L Sprague de Camp
G C Edmondson
R A Lafferty
Keith Laumer
Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner)
Eric Frank Russell
Theodore Sturgeon
William Tenn (Philip Klass)
James Tiptree Jr (Alice Bradley Sheldon).
--
90 percent of this list is NOT crud.
I liked Sos The Rope but the Xanth series is supposed to be good.
If you liked Lord Dunsany, definitely even better is Clark Ashton Smith. All His works were stories, not novels, so you would have to find some collection, but his writings are simply incredible. I have never read anything as powerful as him. Similar atmosphere have some scenes in Lord of the Rings, like feeling nostalgia after times and civilizations past, but C.A.Smith was better in it. Examples: City of the Singing Flame, Abominations of Yondo, Dark Eidolon, Enchantress of Sylaire, Holiness of Azédarac, Vaults of Yoh-Vombis and many others.
for the Soul Rider series.
alive to the universe, dead to the world
Geez..... How I HATED "Out of the Noisy Planet", "Paraplegic" and That Hideous Book"!!! okay he called them by other names, but MY titles are more fitting!
Please don't overlook Richard, his stories and screenplays have hooked many into the SciFi genre!
The Black Company by Glen Cook. Peter Morwood's Horse Lord series. Micheal Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone.
Dunno if her stuff is particularly forgotten, but I liked the Time of the Dark trilogy by Barbara Hambley. Most
of her early stuff is good.
Her stories of the People were a gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) series about a group of aliens who looked like us but had psi talents. They crash landed on Earth in the 1800's after their Home was destroyed by massive natural disaster. They tried desperately to fit in which let to pogroms and cultural imperatives like, children's feet should shuffle and never leave the ground, lest they be discovered. In modern day a group is trying to gather all the lost ones together. They are still a great read
They (at least the first two trilogies) are very strongly based on the Bible (e.g. the first trilogy, all about recovering the Staff of Law, has many similarities to the Old Testament, all about the Mosaic Law; the second trilogy deals with sin and redemption and sacrifice on a personal level, like the New Testament; many of the terms like Elohim and Jehannum are biblical).
I happen to find these allegories deepen and improve the story. I've read the first two trilogies something like ten times over the past thirty years, and they still have new messages each time.
I was about 15 when I first came across them, and they challenged me more than almost any other books I've read. I've been reading since I was 4, and I think that I had a good vocabulary even then.
Loved the entire series. Read them way back in the day whilst awaiting each one after The Power that Preserves to be released. Also loved Eric Van Lustbader's Sunset Warrior series and the whole series of Thieves World (which was also a game).
That was exactly my experience. My eyes were opened to an understanding of personal responsibility and morality that was certainly at odds with the world around me.
P.S. Donaldson responded to my letter(s?) and was very gracious, interesting and intelligent when I met him in person.
I really liked the Covenant series, but found the Gap to be unrelentingly bleak and cynical. "People are bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling." Covenant conveyed an essential belief in the value of goodness, beauty and sacrifice. The Gap was kind of the opposite.
Recently back in print. Great review in Washington Post recently: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-world-pavane-by-keith-roberts-holds-up-decades-later/2012/02/27/gIQAvzy3iR_story.html
Just a few more excellent authors. I'd post my full author list but my website would get ./'d but I've been collecting/reading since the early 60's.
alan nourse: start surgeon, rocket to limbo, the universe between are very good
gordon disckson: spacial delivery, the dragon books, pretty much everything I've read by him.
david gerrold: the trouble with tribbles, the war against the chtoor series pretty much again every book I've read by him.
Poul Anderson: many good books.
Frank Baum: wizard of Oz series.
Jules Verne and H. G. Wells also come to mind.
The Coming Conquest of England by August Nieman in the later 1800's
I read That Hideous Strength in college for a class on the Arthurian tradition. Twenty-five years later, I still remember the paper I wroute contrasting the men trying to create a god by separating a man from his body, and the example of the Christan God taking up the burden of a body in order to fulfill his role as a deity. (Hey, it's a C. S. Lewis story.)
I went back and read the other boods subsequently. I thought they worked better as allegory than as sci-fi, but were interesting enough.
There is a series of 10 interlinked fantasy novels by the late (and great) Hugh Cook that all are titled The W* and the W* (The Women and the Warlords, etc). I've only just managed to get the whole set again (alas by differing publishers) having read them as a younger man and lost them all when I lost most of my other books. They are fantastic.
Also, as other readers above have noted, anything my Michael Moorcock is great, especially the Elric books, The Dancers at the End of Time series and the Jerry Cornelius novels. Also the film of The Final Program wasn't bad.
Also anyone who has not read The Illuminatus trilogy needs to get their heads messed up by that one. And anything by Phillip Jose Farmer is worth a go. Harry Harrison is always good and James Blish knew how to write. Those Ringworld books were fun, and the Bio of a Space Tyrant books were excellent.
The War with the Newts is a classic, as is Solarus and Last and First Men. The Asimov 'Foundation' and 'Robots' books are great too. And The Phantom Toll Booth is worth a mention.
That ought to get you started.
I used to have a better sig than this, but I got tired of it
An amazing source for classic sf on the Net for free is Free SF Online (www.freesfonline.de). Much of what folks are citing here is available. Here's one so obscure it never got published--The Flower of Goronwy, by Michael Coney. Look for his name on the website. Great character development and it skewers United Nations-style aid organizations, a rare but deserving target.
Daniel Hood's Fanuilh series - Fanuilh, Wizard's Heir, and Beggar's Banquet are also available as an omnibus called A Familiar Dragon and are quite satisfying - if you like mysteries, these are a compelling twist on the genre. If you like fantasy, well... you'll like fantasy and mysteries when you finish this series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Hood#Fanuilh_series
http://www.scifan.com/
-Eric
Robert Heinlein's "Glory Road". Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series.....
"The Inverted World" (1974)
Great plot of a "world" that some of its inhabitants perceive as being of hyperbolical geometry.
"Orbitsville" (1975)
The crew of a spaceship discovers an object that turns out to be a huge Dyson sphere around a star built artificially by an unknown old civilization. The inner surface of the sphere is inhabitable, has a breathable atmosphere and calls for exploration, exploration big time. ;-)
Later there were two sequels, "Orbitsville Departure" (1983) and "Orbitsville Judgment" (1990).
I liked these novels - at least - as much as Larry Niven's "Ringworld" series.
From 1972 by Richard Adams. From Wikipedia article: "Evoking epic themes, the novel recounts the rabbits' odyssey as they escape the destruction of their warren to seek a place in which to establish a new home, encountering perils and temptations along the way."
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, anyone?
David Bischoff, Gaming Magi series - The Destiny Dice, Wraith Board, and The Unicorn Gambit.
And Amber by Zelazny
I find myself somewhat amazed when people take for granted that the biological ability and imperative to reproduce is somehow an inalienable right, and not worthy of discussion nor change.
People will take some pretty ridiculous stances 'for the greater good', but no-one feels that any sort of logical assessment of the genetic health of the entire human race should be done.
By the time Darwinian evolution starts to make serious inroads against our multitude of deficiencies, there will be no-one who remembers the name Darwin.
Not sure it's been forgotten yet but I never pass up a chance to bring up Neuromancer. The imagined, far-future Digital Age of 28 years ago seems closer and closer to reality with every day that goes by.
"That's either incredibly asinine or the most brilliant troll I've ever read. Not sure which." -Anonymous Coward
"I've been looking for some good reading material, and have been delving into the realms of some great, but nearly forgotten authors — ... "
I remember having fond memories for two novels by Blish; read decades ago (making it difficult to assess on how well they'll hold up with present perceptions): "Jack of Eagles" and "A Case of Conscience".
IIRC, Eagles did a speculative mix, combining quantum mechanics with parapsychology; Conscience dealt with Humanity's Religious institutions confronted with instinctively moral Aliens--without the need to use any Religion.
Yesterday's Weirdness is Tomorrow's Reason Why
He had a couple of novels that hit the zeitgeist on the head: The Long Loud Silence; and The Year of the Quiet Sun.
His other classic is The Lincoln Hunters (covering ground latter ploughed by Connie Willis's time travel stories).
http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0011558003/default.aspx
I found "Retief of the CDT" great reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jame_Retief
I'm surprised that Little, Big hasn't made this list as of yet. I can see how it might not appeal to everybody. It's about an invisible war between an unseen world and our own, it's a parable, it's...hell, I don't know what it is, and I've read it three times now. Just pick it up and read the first few pages. That's all it took for me. John Crowley is good at hiding far more than he reveals. His books are not escapist, because they are about being alive and human. One thing you might find refreshing in Little, Big: there are no people named Erowigon, Elowind, or Farondodil. There are no quests for the ArkinDongle. The Eldaar race never shows up. On the other hand, if you are looking for a clear catalog of different magicks, races, and the like, it's pretty slim to none in here. On a personal note (yawn)...the book's about wonder, and about losing it as we grow old, and about the possibility of rediscovering it, just maybe, when it seems lost forever. That's my take, and why I like the book so much. Oh, it's also about George and the case of 100-year-old Turkish hashish that he discovers in his basement. Talk about a fantasy. Speaking of drugs...they play a prominent role in Engine Summer. Read that one, too. It's sad and beautiful. The drugs in it are quite engineered. "Taking a Load Off"? Oh, some days that one would be very nice. I hope somebody else reads this one, just so I know that my wife and I aren't the only ones in the world...
An author's author, his fantasy series Book of the New Sun is beautiful prose about a brutal world. His most powerful characters are defined more by their silence than their speech, like many of Hemingway's heroes. Michael Moorcock's Eternal Hero books are great and subtle, and I also recommend Jack Vance's Dying Earth series.
Stapledon earned his PhD in philosophy in 1925 and used SF to expound on his philosophical ideas, so his is not the normal SF of rocket ships and laser guns. Wikipedia states that Stapledon's writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Stanisaw Lem, C. S. Lewis and John Maynard Smith and indirectly influenced many others. His fiction often presents the strivings of some intelligence that is beaten down by an indifferent universe and its inhabitants who, through no fault of their own, fail to comprehend its lofty yearnings. It is filled with protagonists who are tormented by the conflict between their "higher" and "lower" impulses. Star Maker was published in 1937. The book describes a history of life in the universe, dwarfing in scale his previous book, Last and First Men (1930), a history of the human species over two billion years. Star Maker tackles philosophical themes such as the essence of life, of birth, decay and death, and the relationship between creation and creator. A pervading theme is that of progressive unity within and between different civilizations. Some of the elements and themes briefly discussed prefigure later fiction concerning genetic engineering and alien life forms. Arthur C. Clarke considered Star Maker to be one of the finest works of science fiction ever written.
Ben Bova's Exiles trilogy was a good read for me when I was younger, though I didn't enjoy the third one as much as the first two. When I last checked they were out of print, but used ones should be obtainable.
- T
Anything by A.E.VanVogt
Umm, the Vlad Taltos series consists of 13 books. You've probably read the omnibus edition of the first 3. Much more to enjoy :-)
I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
Of course you know script "The Trouble with Tribbles". He also wrote book"The Man Who Folded Himself" (imagine Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" with a Moebius twist) and book "When Harlie was One" -- an AI right up there with Clarke's HAL and Heinlein's Mycroft. (book "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"). (ok,ok: 'Mike').
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
Published 1970. Ed. Robert Silverberg. 26 stories chosen by Science Fiction Writers of America. cite: http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Hall-Robert-Silverberg/dp/0999174061/ . The best SF Anthology. Ever. I have the paperback issued by Avon (4th printing, May 1972). Search your local used book store!
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
A marvelous collection of humorous SF short stories revolving around two advanced robotic beings who are some kind of intergalactic engineers. Contains probably the worlds only love poem using vocabulary from higher mathematics.
Apparently it can't - reviews have been terrible.
If this book is a representative sample of his work then it is worth exploring further.
"the weapon" by Michael Z. Williamson if you enjoyed that- very similar
Daniel Keys Moran, titles include "the last dancer" "the long run" and "emerald eyes"
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Of the books I know, these two seem most akin to the ones mentioned in the question -- published around the same time too:
"A Voyage to Arcturus" by David Lindsay
"Lud-in-the-Mist" by Hope Mirrlees
More recent stuff that might fit:
"Viriconium" by M. John Harrison -- imagine if Lord Dunsany, William Burroughs and Mervyn Peake had hijacked Gene Wolfe's brain while he was writing the The Book of the New Sun.
"Moonwise" by Greer Gilman -- 350 page linguistic orgasm...I mean prose-poem.
Probably in no real danger of being forgotten, but just in case:
"Little, Big" by John Crowley -- the kind of book that tends to slip through the cracks: too literary for most genre readers and too fantastic for literary snobs.
"Always Coming Home" by Ursula Le Guin -- doesn't seem to get mentioned as often as her other novels, but it's possibly her most unusual, and the one where she uses her talents best.
As with most old sci-fi it's more science fantasy now (and probably always was), but it's an outstanding book. And profoundly influential given the list of authors that cite it or outright steal from it (and I don't mean this pejoratively, Shakespeare himself was a literary robber baron without peer). It's one of the few books I've ever read that really delves into what it would be like to not be human (in terms of new ways of perception/observation/etc.).
I'm sure that someone's mentioned Gene Wolfe's Solar Cycle books, but let me toss in his second novel, The Fifth Head of Cerberus, which can either be read as a novel or as a series of linked novellas about colonialism set on another planet. It's really a fascinating look at the impact that colonizers have on their subjects.
I'll also recommend George MacDoanald's two great fantasies, Lilith and Phantastes
My favorite Del Rey is The Runaway Robot, which I still find very readable. It's written from the viewpoint of a robot that is a companion/servant for a young boy and gets sold when his family moves back to Earth. It would still make a wonderful movie! Interestingly, this wasn't actually written by Del Rey, but just outlined by him and ghost written by Paul W. Fairman. Perhaps that's why Del Rey didn't republish it.
There's the Time Agent series by Andre Norton. The first four books are in public domain, which is a great start.
If we want to change our genetic pool we no longer need to do it by selective breeding. We just go in and change it. Genetic engineering will produce the effects eugenics promised but much faster and easier. Whether that's desirable or not is a whole separate question.
James Alan Gardner - "Expendable"
John Scalzi - "Old Man's War"
Joe Abercrombie - "The Blade Itself"