### Author:  [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/21 "2001-12-05T23:07:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eonwe \*
> \*\*How many people out there have actually read The Martian Chronicles? No? Didn’t think so. \*\*
I read them. I actually enjoyed tham.
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### Author:  [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/22 "2001-12-05T23:21:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Spiritus Mundi \*
> \*\*Other individual titles:
> Haldeman’s _The Forever War_
> \
> Dick’s _Man in the High Castle_
> \*\*
Jeez, I know those books are in print, I’ve seen them in the bookstore recently. I distinctly recall being impressed by new cover artwork on both books. The Usenet legend James “Kibo” Parry once told me he was doing the artwork for the new PKD volumes (yes, Kibo was being serious for once, he told me this via email).
Now if you want a really hard to find SF, try to locate some of Rudy Rucker’s early books like “Spacetime Donuts” “The 57th Franz Kafka” or “The Meaning of Life.” Some of these books are tied up in a dispute with a bankrupt publisher that holds the rights, and may never be printed again.
There’s a whole bunch of early cyberpunk that is out of print. Most if it is too recent to be reprinted yet, although a few classics (like Rudy’s “White Light”) are starting to appear. I noted one SF publisher (forgot who) is reissuing important classics in paperback, with titles recommended by SF authors. I’ve seen some great titles appearing over the past few years.
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### Author:  [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/23 "2001-12-05T23:21:33Z")
All of **Clifford D. Simak** ’s novels are out of print.
I picked up some of them in used book stores, and some of them are dated, but still good.
I also bought **The History of the Science Fiction Magazine, Vol, 2, 1936-45** in a used bookstore. It has some of the best short science fiction stories I have read.
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### Author:  [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/24 "2001-12-05T23:40:39Z")
I was thinking of putting this in my thread, but it fits this one much better. The book “the moon is a harsh mistress” was a fav of mine, even had a character named “Comrade Clayton”, hehe…
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### Author:  [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/25 "2001-12-05T23:47:19Z")
How about: Under Pressure by Frank (Dune) Herbert.
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### Author:  [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/26 "2001-12-06T01:09:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eonwe \*
> \*\*How many people out there have actually read The Martian Chronicles? No? Didn’t think so. \*\*
[oneupmanship]
Read it when it was called “ **The Silver Locusts** ”.
[/oneupmanship]
Heh.
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### Author:  [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/27 "2001-12-06T01:26:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eonwe \*
> \*\*How many people out there have actually read The Martian Chronicles? No? Didn’t think so. \*\*
I have, and it’s one of my favorite books. Didn’t know it was hard to find, I’m glad I have my copy.
I wouldn’t know what is hard to find, but I bet Asimov’s “Nightfall” (short story) is up there. Come to think of it, the anthology I have is probably pretty rare: “The Science Fiction Hall of Fame”. It has some landmark science fiction shorts in it.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/28 "2001-12-06T02:53:50Z")
_We_, by [Vevgeny Zamyatin](http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1634/). It’s one of the best of the “dystopian” sf genre along with Brave New World, 1984, or Anthem. I’ve never seen it in print; at the local library I had to go to the special archives to find it. And it’s still a pretty good story too.
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/29 "2001-12-06T03:15:13Z")
Mudshark wrote:
> [@](#):
>
> I also bought **The History of the Science Fiction Magazine, Vol, 2, 1936-45** in a used bookstore. It has some of the best short science fiction stories I have read.
Was that the one that had “Magic City” in it?
(I swear, “Magic City” **had** to have been the inspiration for the TV cartoon series _Thundarr the Barbarian_.)
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/30 "2001-12-06T03:17:29Z")
Another hard-to-find SF novel is Martin Caidin’s _Cyborg_. It was the basis for _The Six Million Dollar Man_ – although the TV series switched Steve Austin’s bionic arm from the left side to the right side of his body, and made his artificial eye much more useful.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/31 "2001-12-06T03:42:40Z")
Wow, **Lao Tsu** , I read “Earth Abides” eons ago - I had all but forgotten about it. I loved it - I think this was the book that turned me onto Apocalyptic Fiction. And A.E.Van Vogt’s “Slan” - another lost classic. How about his “Null-A” series?
I didn’t know Clifford D. Simak’s books were out of print - I’ve read everything I can get my hands on of his. I got a big bonanza last summer - I found a couple dozen old sci-fi books at a garage sale. Bought every last one of them. There were some real beauties in there (“Day of the Triffids” was one of them.)
**Balduran** , I just finished reading a book that is somewhat linked to the two you mentioned - “Too Too Solid Flesh” by Nick O’Donohoe. The hero is an android Hamlet, who is looking for the murder of his “father”, a scientist named Capek. The R.U.R. book is also mentioned in this book.
(ps - yup, read “The Martian Chronicles” too - how about “The Majipoor Chronicles” by Silverberg? Now, those were classics!)
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### Author:  [@ChrisM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisM)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/32 "2001-12-06T04:04:09Z")
Let’s see…just off the top of my head and trying not to duplicate anyone’s suggestions…
**Dark Universe** by Daniel Galouye, a post-holocaust novel set entirely in pitch-black caverns.
James White’s non- **Sector General** novels, like **The Escape Orbit** and **All Judgement Fled** , and especially **The Watch Below**.
**The Twilight of Briareus** by Richard Cowper is a fine British disaster novel.
I’ll just start listing authors now…Barrington J. Bayley, Edward Bryant, M.A. Foster, Chad Oliver, Edgar Pangborn, Keith Roberts.
Also, Frank Herbert’s **Dune** books are easy to find, but his other novels are also pretty good. **Hellstrom’s Hive** and **The Santaroga Barrier** I would recommend.
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### Author:  [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/33 "2001-12-06T04:23:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by tracer \*
> \*\*Mudshark wrote:
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > I also bought **The History of the Science Fiction Magazine, Vol, 2, 1936-45** in a used bookstore. It has some of the best short science fiction stories I have read.
>
> Was that the one that had “Magic City” in it?
>
> (I swear, “Magic City” **had** to have been the inspiration for the TV cartoon series _Thundarr the Barbarian_.) \*\*
**Magic City** is not in the book. I have heard of that story, just never read it.
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### Author:  [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/34 "2001-12-06T04:23:48Z")
The Martian Chronicles? Everybody’s read them.
Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris is the best science fiction book I’ve ever read, nobody here has mentioned it yet. Written in Polish and translated into English. It is about another world that is completely alien.
I would also recommend anything written by the late great Phillip K. Dick
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/35 "2001-12-06T05:19:46Z")
Lost classics? All of these books:
Earth Abides
Childhood’s End
2001: A Space Odyssey
Last and First Men
The Martian Chronicles
Burroughs’ Mars series
The Forever War
The Lovers
More Than Human
The Man in the High Castle
Little Fuzzy
The Fifth Head of Cerberus
Engine Summer
Beasts
The Deep
War with the Newts
Three Hearts and Three Lions
Men, Martians, and Machines
The Day of the Triffids
The Oz Books
Blind Voices
The Stars My Destination
The Demolished Man
Slan
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
Replay
The Deathworld Trilogy
The Circus of Dr. Lao
Spacetime Donuts
The 57th Franz Kafka
The Meaning of Life
White Light
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame
Under Pressure
The Twilight of Briareus
The Watch Below
Solaris
are on my bookshelves. Seriously, most of these books are in print. Most of the others are easy to find in libraries or used bookstores. These days it isn’t that hard to find the rarer ones using online booksellers.
TPWombat writes:
\> Read it when it was called “The Silver Locusts”.
It was only called _The Silver Locusts_ in the early British editions. The American editions were always called _The Martian Chronicles_.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/36 "2001-12-06T05:42:14Z")
It has been awhile since I’ve seen a copy of _The Man in the Maze_, and the last time I read _The Star Kings_ I had to get it on interlibrary loan.
If juvenile sci fi counts, the collected works of Alan E. Nourse (_Star Surgeon_, The Universe Between, Rocket to Limbo, The Mercy Men, Raiders from the Rings, Psi High & Others, \*etc.) seem to have disappeared from the stacks without a trace, which is really sad.
\*PS-whatever happened to the poster named Dal Timgar?
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### Author:  [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/37 "2001-12-06T05:48:13Z")
Frank Herbert wrote _non-Dune_ books? No way!
I read _Martian Chronicles_ when I was about 11. It freaked me out seriously… if it hadn’t been for Anne McCaffrey it probably would have turned me off of SF forever. Of course, looking back on it I can see how good it was… but it was just so sad, with everything falling apart and all the people dying and stuff… although the last chapter _Chronicle?_ was pretty cool. I have that in an anthology somewhere.
I read three of the ER Burroughs _Mars_books. Where could one find, say, all of these at???
And _Earth Abides_ is one of the most awesome books of all time.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/38 "2001-12-06T06:50:05Z")
The first title that came to my mind was Walter M. Miller, Jr’s _A Canticle for Liebowitz_, but my Yahoo search comes up with nearly two hudred fifty hits, so how lost could it be, _nu_?
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/39 "2001-12-06T06:57:03Z")
In the same vein as _A Canticle for Liebowitz_, but more obscure and **much** harder to read due to its “future English”, is Russel Hoban’s _Riddley Walker_.
We had to read this book for our undergraduate Science Fiction Literature class at UCLA. The professor absolutely **gushed** over the book. Which means it was really deep and literary and symbolic and **boring.**. (Well, except for the part where the dogs ripped the guy’s nuts off. That was pretty cool.)
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-classics-of-science-fiction/97073/40 "2001-12-06T12:18:54Z")
[crotchety old coot hat on]
Actually, when I go into the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of a bookstore today I am astounded at how little of it I’ve read and am familiar with. A lot of “classic” science fiction is just gone. Almost all of Heinlein’s stuff is stiull in print (that argues for the quality and popularity of his writing). An awful lot of Arthur C. Clarke’s still is, and (oddly, to my mind) Philip K. Dick. But most of Asimov’s books are out of print. Okay, a lot is non-sf, and a lot is long outdated, but a lot of his SF stuff is unobtainable. Frank Herbert’s non-Dune stuff, as has been pointed out, ain’t there either (The Green Brain, Dragon in the Sea, Eyes of Heisenberg, White Plague). And a huge number of classic SF writers are not there at all, or are represented by only one or two books:
Doc Smith
Hal Clement
Jack Williamson
L. Sprague de Camp
Henry Kuttner
Catherine L. Moore
Poul Anderson
Jules Verne
H.G. Wells
Fredric Brown
Robert Sheckley
William Tenn
James Blish
Murray Leinster
Stanley G. Weinbaum
Cordwainer Smith
Clifford D. Simak
Lester Del Rey
Harry Harrison
Eric Frank Russel
and a lot more I could name. Some of these are _classics_, whose stuff isn’t dated at all. And look at how few of books by many popular writers aren’t on the shelves: Ursula K. LeGuin, Jerry Pournelle, Jack L. Chalker. We’ve had discussions about good sf, but people just starting to read it today probably can’t even get hold of copies of these unless they lives near a science fiction library, or live near a public library with a good SF collection (most libraries are awful about keeping sf on the shelves), or spend a bundle through Alibris and other used book venues. I think the New England Science Fiction Association is still publishing Cordwainer Smith’s **Norstrilia** , for instance, but you’re not likely to find it in your average Waldenstuff.
[/crotchety old coot hat off]
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