At the beginning of March, I bought myself a Nook (which I am loving). One of the great things about it is that it supports PDF and epub files, so I can easily get all of the out of copyright books from Project Gutenberg, among other sites.
So, I’m looking for recommendations. I love fantasy and science fiction, but I’m not really sure what’s good out of the older books. I’m not a really big fan of military SF (other than John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and perhaps Starship Troopers as well) or the sort of “lone hero exploring the vacant reaches of outer space/ battling vicious aliens against terrible odds” type of stuff that you might find Calvin daydreaming about; I am usually interested in time travel, alien-human contact, interstellar exploration - typical SF fare. Since they’re free, though, I’m pretty willing to explore, and I’ve got a vacation coming up soon that will involve 30+ hours in the car, so if there’s something outside of my usual range that you think is great, I’ll definitely give it a try.
Thanks! I’m really looking forward to discovering some new (old) stuff!
I was surprised by how many titles are relatively recent. Looks like somebody didn’t bother to renew the copyrights on a lot of short stories when that was required (before 1963). If you live in a country other than the U.S. where copyrights expire faster, there may be more titles available on foreign websites.
One type I’m a big fan of are the short stories with a twist ending that the Twilight Zone made so popular. A lot of people seem to think Rod Serling invented this – he didn’t. They wrere mmensely popular in the 1950s.
So try:
**Robert Sheckley
Fredric Brown
** I notice others in the field aren’t on your list. But keep your eye out for
Richard Matheson
Charles Beaumemny
Theodore Coggswell
William Tenn
Other classic authors on your list:
**Philp jose Farmer
Ben Bova
Leigh Brackett
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Algis Budrys
philip k. Dick
Raymond Z. Gallun
Tom Godwin
James Gunn
Harry Harrison
Raymond F. Jnes
Damon Knight
C.M. Kornbluth
Fritz Leiber
Murray Leinster
Catherine L. Moore
Andre Norton
Alan E. Nourse
H. Beam Piper
Fredericl Pohl
Mack Reynolds
Robert Silverberg
George O. Smith
Jules Verne
H.G. Wells
STANLEY G. WEINBAUM
**
George RR Martin edited the book of short stories called “Wild Cards”.
I’ve only read the first one in it, but it’s REALLY quite good I think as it takes place basically in the 1940s-1970s and has a pretty good central theme if you like Science fiction mixed in with a dose of superheros as well as revisionary history.
I missed it too, at first, but these are precisely the links in the OP. He wants to know which of the stories/novels are worth his time, I believe.
Now there’s a surprise: H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy is on the list. A classic! Read it!
I get a kick out of some of Lord Dunsany’s stories, for the writing, the atmosphere, and the sly humor. See, for example, “The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save For Sacnoth”
Keith Laumer’s “The Yillian Way” is on the SF list. That’s one of his Retief stories. They can’t be beat - funny and clever as anything you’ll come across.
Good list. I’d add Cordwainer Smith
Alfred Bester
Henry Kuttner/C. L. Moore (husband and wife; they often helped each other out so that many of their stories are collaborations. Also used the pen name Lewis Padgett). William F. Nolan
John Wyndham (Day of the Triffids is a must, as is Out of the Deeps/The Kraken Wakes (US and UK titles).
**Hal Clement
Theodore Sturgeon
**
Not for everyone: A. E. Van Vogt. One of SF’s most popular writers in the 40s, though his reputation has diminished. But you should read Slan
CMC fnord! Little Fuzzy is the real reason George Lucas is going to hell.
It’s impossible to do anything with Piper’s stories without hearing “Oh, you mean Ewoks, right?”. :mad:
Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men and Star Maker are interesting reads, especially once you skim past the inevitably dated near future stuff in the former. Very epic in scale, spanning vast spans of space and time.
Fuzzy Sapiens, the sequel to Little Fuzzy is also good if you can find it.
I was going to recommend him, but none of his stuff was available on Gutenberg. And for what it’s worth, I highly recommend the two Isher books (The Weapon Makers and one of my favourite books ever, The Weapon Shops of Isher) and The World of Null-A by him. Great stuff.
Two early classics in fantasy / horror are The House on the Borderland and The Night Land, by William Hope Hodgson. Written in the early 1900s - I believe they were an influence on Lovecraft, and definitely have that creeping horror vibe, if you like that kind of stuff.
They’re really exceptional in some ways - the language is very dated, particularly in The Night Land, but his imagery (The House of Silence :eek:) and ideas are timeless and still come through with a lot of power.
The first few are the best, but I wouldn’t read after about #5. The series gets shark jumpy, and some of the authors are retreading stories in odd ways.
Think of it sort of like the Watchman but with mutants that get real superhero powers when they ‘get an ace’ but most of them get ugly deformations and some really odd powers. IIRC there is one guy who turns intensely narcoleptic, and while sleeping his body mutates - and he sleeps for months at a time. Some awakes he is an ace, most of them he is a dud.
Croyd, aka “The Sleeper”. He’s seldom a “dud”; he pretty much always has superhuman strength for example. He does often end up a Joker (deformed) however. He also has a habit of taking methamphetamine to stay awake when he has a good body which causes problems; “Sleeper speeding, people bleeding”.
My main problem with the series is that after a while it tended more and more towards gloom and depression; most of those “shared world” series did that. I think it’s the influence of too many writers who think that True Art means trauma, failure, despair and never happy endings for anyone except maybe the bad guys.
Some of the Harry Harrison should be quite fun, and I see a fairly short R. A. Lafferty story - as ever with him, it’s a bit strange!
My favourite H. G. Wells novel isn’t there (The War in the Air; Zeppelin warfare, with added autogyros!) but The Island of Doctor Moreau is good.
