Favorite SF/Fantasy books that no-one else has heard about

[scratch1300]

*Originally posted by TroubleAgain *
**Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War? Is that obscure enough? It’s certainly old enough, and is the book that got me started on sci-fi. 'Course I was a young teenager at the time and probably only started reading it because it had a lot of that forbidden word (you know, the f-word) in the first chapter. Whatever the case may be, I found it to be kind of poignant, and a really interesting commentary on War with a capital W. I still enjoy it, even though it’s kind of campy in a way. **

Trouble, help me. Did I read this book? Was it about a war with extraterrestrials that went on “forever” because time went by so much more quickly on the spaceships? And the protagonist went back to Earth and everyone was homosexual, and English sounded like Chinese, and in the end it was revealed that the War started because when we humans first saw the aliens we freaked out and blasted them for no good reason? And the book ended with the guy going out into space and coming back, and going out and coming back, waiting for the years to pass for his loved one to return from her space journey? Or am I thinking of something else, dammit?

[Wendell_Wagner]

scratch1300 asks:

> Did I read this book?

Yes. Incidentally, it’s quite famous. Many of the supposedly obscure books mentioned in this thread are in fact quite well known.

TroubleAgain writes:

> It’s certainly old enough [. . .]

So, in other words, any book more than 20 years old is by definition obscure? Is that what you’re saying?

[Irishman]

Missed this comment before:

Rocketeer said:

Incidentally, my prejudiced and probably indefensible opinion about book lengths is that if a paperback novel is thicker than five/eights of an inch (1.6 cm), the editor needed to be more forceful with the author. Anything thicker has too much extraneous material and should have been ruthlessly trimmed.

I agree with the first part - indefensible opinion.

Dune by Frank Herbert 3.1 mm
Contact by Carl Sagan 2.8 mm
Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov 2.8 mm
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card 2.5 mm
On Basilisk Station by David Webber 2.2 mm (The rest of the series are all probably that size - I don’t have all to check.)
A Matter for Men by David Gerrold 2.5 mm
A Day for Damnation by David Gerrold 2.3 mm
A Rage for Revenge by David Gerrold 2.7 mm
A Season for Slaughter by David Gerrold 3.2 mm
Armor by John Steakley (not on hand to measure, ~3 mm)

This is a small sampling of books just within the genre that exceed your arbitrary length but I feel are entirely justified in going as long as they do. These are only selected because I’ve read them and have them on my shelf, and consider them well enough known for others to evaluate. I am not even including any Heinlein, because his material is controversial. Similarly, I only listed the first Dune book, because the others aren’t considered as good by many people. I think that anyone who has read the above books will agree that the length of the book is required to cover the detail necessary. Shortening would lessen the quality. Unless you expect every author to break the good stories into sets of 2 and 3 books to fit your arbitrary size. (I read one 2 book set that doesn’t appear to have any reason for being 2 books instead of one except the thickness of the book would have surpassed Battlefield Earth. No, don’t remember the names. Which reminds me, if I can come up with the names I should post them because I think they fit the OP.)

If you still hold that opinion, so be it, but I have shown my reasons for disagreeing.

[CalMeacham]

TroubleAgain:
Haldeman’s “Forever War” is obscure? I’d have to disagree. It won a stack of awards when new, of course. I don’t think it’s ever been out of print. And there are TWO new sequels out now. Of course, Haldeman s visiting faculty at MIT, so maybe the bookstore there (the COOP) is a little more ikely to have his book on hand than elsewhere. But still, “obscure” TFW definitely is not.

[cjharker]

*Originally posted by GuanoLad *
**
Eek! Stephen King wannabe bollocky crap!

But anyhoo…

Dave Duncan. Why has nobody else read Dave Duncan? Why is it so hard for me to find his books on any shelves? Why do the mainstream bookshops not stock him? He is the coolest writer, who answers his email personally. Wonderful!

I read a couple of series by someone named Phyllis Eisenstein once. They were great! As far as I can tell, she has only written these four books. She reminds me a lot of Jack Vance, only better.
**

I’ve read Dave Duncan. After reading one book, it took me years to find the rest of that series, of which, naturally I can’t think of the name. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

One of my favorites: Anne Lesley Groell’s Cloak and Dagger series.

[Cumber]

The Canopus in Argos: Archives series, by Doris Lessing. First book is called Shikasta. My favourite books of all time at the moment.

[Sir_Rhosis]

CalMeacham,

Two sequals to “The Forever War”? What are they? I remember seeing a book by Haldeman entitled “The Forever Peace,” but I seem to recall that someone told me that it was not a sequal, just “sounded like one.”

And though I’m not defending anyone who thinks that “The Forever War” is “obscure,” I must say with the f-ing godawful slew of TV tie-ins saturating the market, any original work of SF or Fantasy just may become obscure.

“Buffy” novels, for Chrissake!

Sir

[Wendell_Wagner]

The sequels are Forever Peace and Forever Free.

It’s not a good idea to judge what’s obscure by what you can find on the shelves of a third-rate bookstore. If that’s the definition, then anything more than six months old is obscure.