# Recommend some old SF
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 30, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387 "2010-03-30T21:43:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@iftheresaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iftheresaway)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/1 "2010-03-30T21:43:36Z")
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](http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Fantasy_%28Bookshelf%29) and [science fiction](http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_%28Bookshelf%29), 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!
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### Author:  [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/2 "2010-03-30T22:05:44Z")
James Branch Cabell is well represented on Gutenberg, wrote fantasy novels, and was a great writer.
Ernest Bramah wrote stuff that was sort of fantasy (I am thinking of the Kai Lung stories), and they are also on Gutenberg.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/3 "2010-03-30T22:19:17Z")
Browse through these:
[Gutenberg’s fantasy bookshelf](http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Fantasy_%28Bookshelf%29)
[Gutenberg’s science fiction bookshelf](http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_%28Bookshelf%29)
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.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2010, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/4 "2010-03-30T22:21:55Z")
Science Fiction:
- Edgar Rice Burroughs’ _Barsoom_ series (e.g., _Thuvia, Maid of Mars_)
- Check out the _Venus Equilateral_ series by George O. Smith. Great “hard” science fiction from the 1940s
- You want OLD? Have you read _The Time Machine_ by H. G. Wells?
Fantasy:
- If the 1960s is old enough, read _The Stealer of Souls_. It’s the first book in Michael Moorcock’s _Elric_ series. Really DARK fantasy.
- Robert Howard’s _Conan the Barbarian_ series.
- Personally, I’d call _Beowulf_ some awesome sword and sorcery fantasy. Is that one old enough for you?
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/5 "2010-03-30T23:37:32Z")
Abraham Merritt, there is a bunch of his stuff on [Feedbooks](http://www.feedbooks.com/)
His stuff is half way between Conan and Lovecraft in writing style … very purple prose. Read burn Witch Burn before Creep Shadow.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/6 "2010-03-30T23:54:07Z")
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
\*\*
My apologies to those I left out
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### Author:  [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/7 "2010-03-31T00:29:18Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/8 "2010-03-31T00:29:33Z")
> [@bibliophage](#):
>
> Browse through these:
> [Gutenberg’s fantasy bookshelf](http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Fantasy_%28Bookshelf%29)
> [Gutenberg’s science fiction bookshelf](http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_%28Bookshelf%29)
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”
[QUOTE=Lord Dunsany]
The next day, when
the twilight was far gone and night was gathering fast, the magician
went away to the forest’s edge, and uttered there the spell that he
had made. And the spell was a compulsive, terrible thing, having a
power over evil dreams and over spirits of ill; for it was a verse
of forty lines in many languages, both living and dead, and had in
it the word wherewith the people of the plains are wont to curse
their camels, and the shout wherewith the whalers of the north lure
the whales shoreward to be killed, and a word that causes elephants
to trumpet; and every one of the forty lines closed with a rhyme for
‘wasp’.
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/9 "2010-03-31T00:32:09Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/10 "2010-03-31T00:37:21Z")
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**
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/11 "2010-03-31T00:39:42Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> … H. Beam Piper’s _Little Fuzzy_ is on the list. A classic! Read it! …
Seconded.
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: ☹
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/12 "2010-03-31T01:09:30Z")
Not necessarily for any stories or authors in particular, but to get the old-SF zeitgeist, check out the [Tales of Future Past](http://davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm) website.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/13 "2010-03-31T01:17:44Z")
E. E. “Doc” Smith’s [**Skylark**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylark_(series)) series, and his [**Lensmen**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensman) series are classic Space Opera.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/14 "2010-03-31T01:25:21Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/15 "2010-03-31T01:56:04Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> 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**
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.
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### Author:  [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/16 "2010-03-31T09:08:43Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/17 "2010-03-31T09:18:18Z")
> [@ToeJam](#):
>
> 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.
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.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/18 "2010-03-31T09:29:52Z")
> [@aruvqan](#):
>
> 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.
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### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/19 "2010-03-31T10:26:42Z")
I see Jules Verne and H.G. Wells listed in the audio book section. War of the Worlds would be pretty neat on audio.
Neat site
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### Author:  [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2010, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-old-sf/534387/20 "2010-03-31T11:05:10Z")
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.
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