# SF/Fantasy Book Recommendations: Lost Civilizations **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 27, 2008, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434 "2008-06-27T13:23:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![muzzynyc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@muzzynyc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muzzynyc)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/1 "2008-06-27T13:23:11Z")
I’m a sucker for stories with mysterious lost civilizations as the focus of the story, or the backdrop. Can’t get enough of 'em. I know that’s a pretty general requirement and that it’s kind of a SF/Fantasy cliché at this point, but what are people’s favorite books that deal with lost civs? For instance, I love Richard Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels with the Martian technology strewn around all over the place. (Although am frustrated that we never find out more than we do about the Martians.) Elantris was an interesting idea that, ultimately, fizzled to me. Love the LOTR’s deep history and, yes, have read the Silmarillion and love it as well. So, Dopers, any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/2 "2008-06-27T13:33:37Z")
Here’s rather obscure, but good one: [_Fata Morgana,_](http://www.amazon.com/Fata-Morgana-Leo-Frankowski/dp/0671578766) by Leo Frankowski. Features a lost civilization derived from Medieval Europe, on . . . wait for it . . . a **floating island!** ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/3 "2008-06-27T13:33:40Z")
Just how lost are you talking about? Are there still living representatives, or do you just find the artifacts? In the former case, you can find plenty of African examples in the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs (His Africa is simply filled with Ancient Lost Civilizations, kingdoms of medieval knights, countries of tiny men, and the like) or H. Rider Haggard (She, The People of the Mist). Pierre Benoit’s **l’Atlantide** has a lost Atlantis stuck in the Sahara desert. These are all old examples from the 19th and early 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![muzzynyc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@muzzynyc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muzzynyc)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/4 "2008-06-27T13:39:24Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Just how lost are you talking about? Are there still living representatives, or do you just find the artifacts? In the former case, you can find plenty of African examples in the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs (His Africa is simply filled with Ancient Lost Civilizations, kingdoms of medieval knights, countries of tiny men, and the like) or H. Rider Haggard (She, The People of the Mist). Pierre Benoit’s **l’Atlantide** has a lost Atlantis stuck in the Sahara desert. These are all old examples from the 19th and early 20th century. [/QUOTE] Interesting question. I meant lost as in dead and long-gone, but I’m open to the other interpretation as well, I suppose. Thanks for the suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/5 "2008-06-27T13:41:39Z")
In the 6th grade, I read a story about a Danish boy who gets lost in Greenland and stumbles on a lost Icelandic colony dating back to Eric the Red. Can’t recall the author or title. The people are going to kill him to preserve the secret of their existence (can’t recall **why** they want to remain hidden), until he demonstrates his ability to read (the last scholar who could read their tribe’s history chronicles having died in an accident the previous year). There’s a scene where they come across a party of Danes mapping the coast, so the setting would have to be some time in the 19th Century. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/6 "2008-06-27T14:25:52Z")
How about the Heechee series, by Frederik Pohl? When humans began exploring space they found advanced technology that was abandoned by a mysterious alien race. They’re able to use some of it without really understanding how it works. In the first novel, _Gateway_, there’s an asteroid full of alien spaceships docked and ready to go, but the nobody can figure out exactly how to program them. So there are “Prospectors” who will stock up on supplies, climb in a ship, fiddle a few knobs, and take off. They don’t know where the ship will go or how long the journey will last. Sometimes the ships don’t come back at all, and sometimes they come back with a dead crew. But once in a while they’ll come back with “treasure”: more alien artifacts that are worth a fortune. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/7 "2008-06-27T14:29:35Z")
H. Rider Haggard is your man. He practically invented this category of fiction. A 19th century writer it is true, but very, very readable today. Read _King Solomon’s Mines_ and _She_ for a start. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/8 "2008-06-27T14:45:07Z")
I came in to recommend Pohl’s **Gateway** as well. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/9 "2008-06-27T14:53:40Z")
Much of H.P. Lovecraft’s horror fiction features lost civilizations, human and non-. Notable examples: _At the Mountains of Madness_ “The Call of Cthulhu” “The Nameless City” “The Shadow Out of Time” You can read those and many others [here](http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html) if you can handle white type on a black screen. (I’m excluding things like “The Doom that Came to Sarnath,” which are set in an alternate fantasy-world or dreamland.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/10 "2008-06-27T15:07:26Z")
Larry Niven’s Known Space series features many indistinguishable-from-magic artifacts left over, preserved in “stasis boxes,” from the long-extinct Thrintun or Slaver Empire. An actual Thrint shows up in [_World of Ptavvs._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_ptavvs) And, of course, the [_Ringworld_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringworld) was built by a lost civilization. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/11 "2008-06-27T15:09:39Z")
Jack McDevitt has written a series of novels about space exploration where lost alien civilizations are occasionally found. One of the nice things about the books is that it reflects the universe – few planets are habitable, and any signs of civilization are rare (though there’s a reason for this that’s explained early on). His latest, **Cauldron** , solves one of the main mysteries of the series. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/12 "2008-06-27T15:15:12Z")
Not a book, of course (although you can still find W.J. Stuart’s novelization of it), but one of the best SF “lost civilization” movies is **Forbidden Planet**. The “we-shall-know-them-by-their-=artifacts” school of Sf has a lot on entries, including, atrguably Arthur C. Clarke’s **Rendezvous with Rama**. Ignore the sequels. Then there’s Greg Bear’s **Eon** (which I hated, but a lot of other people like). Hal Clement had a short story about space explorers finding an alien starship and trying to figure it out. I can’t recall the title, but it’s in **The Best of Hal Clement** and, I think, **Natives of Space**. George O. Smith had one in “Lost Art” , which you can find in **Venus Equilateral** and **A Treasury of Great Science Fiction**. Fohl’s Heechee stiff has been mentioned. Virtually all stories about Mars written before 1950 seem to feature lost or almost lost civilizations. Read Burroughs or Leigh Brackett’s stories or novels (see **The Best of Leigh Brackett** or **The Sword of Rhiannon** or something from here: [Leigh Brackett - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Brackett) ) ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/13 "2008-06-27T15:54:14Z")
There’s Glen Cook’s Black Company series. The Black Company (a mercenary unit) is “the last of the 13 free companies of Khatovar.” Except that the Company has been adventuring for so many generations that no one who’s in the current Company has any idea where or what Khatovar is. In the later books in the series, you find out. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/14 "2008-06-27T16:15:40Z")
Robin Hobb’s _Farseer_ and _Liveship_ trilogies have a lost civilization. It’s not the focus of the books though – just glimpses, but fascinating enough that I wish she’d write more about it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/15 "2008-06-27T16:31:40Z")
Terry Pratchett parodied the lost-interstellar-civilization theme in [_Strata._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strata_%28novel%29) ---
**Author:** ![muzzynyc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@muzzynyc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muzzynyc)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/16 "2008-06-27T16:32:12Z")
Some great suggestions here, peoples. Thanks and keep 'em coming! (I’ve read the Ringworld and Rama books. Yes. ALL of the Rama books.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/17 "2008-06-27T16:35:57Z")
The ur-lost-civilization story is, of course, [Plato’s account of Atlantis in the _Timaeus_ and _Critias._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis#Plato.27s_account) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/18 "2008-06-27T16:40:44Z")
Check out the tvtropes pages on [The Precursors](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Precursors) and [Atlantis](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Atlantis) – lotsa lost-civilization stories listed there. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/19 "2008-06-27T16:58:49Z")
Also the [Lost World](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LostWorld) page. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434/20 "2008-06-27T17:01:47Z")
Check out Donald Tyson’s novels [_Necronomicon_](http://www.amazon.com/Necronomicon-Wanderings-Alhazred-Donald-Tyson/dp/0738706272/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214585986&sr=8-2) and [_Alhazred,_](http://www.amazon.com/Alhazred-Author-Necronomicon-Donald-Tyson/dp/0738708925/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214585986&sr=8-1) about the character created by Lovecraft, with plenty of lost-even-in-the-Eighth-Century civilizations featured. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-fantasy-book-recommendations-lost-civilizations/454434.md?page=2)