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What's your favourite older SF story?
04-25-2013, 04:15 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-29-2018, 11:41 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
I have a reason to make a pseudo-representative list of older SF, so... What's your favourite older science-fiction story?
Two requirements: - It must be at least 20 years old; and
- It must be set in the future, as of when it was written. (Macross' starting date of 1999 counts as "the future" since the show is from the mid-1980s, for example.)
Other than that, anything goes. Any medium (print, audio, visual), any language, any intended audience.
No need to defend your choice, and please don't denigrate anyone else's.
I'll start the list by offering my entry: Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
(Edit: linked to the aforementioned reason)
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I've always been partial to the novels that are in the Dragonrider's of Pern world, by Anne McCaffrey. I haven't yet tried the works by her son in that world.
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Quote:JFerio wrote:
I've always been partial to the novels that are in the Dragonrider's of Pern world, by Anne McCaffrey. I haven't yet tried the works by her son in that world.
I preferred her psionic series which started with To Ride Pegasus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Ride_Pegasus
I'm also a big fan of the Christopher Stasheff series that began with The Warlock in Spite of Himself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warloc ... of_Himself
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I've always had a soft spot for the first Foundation novel.
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Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama.
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Oh, I have so many... Short story: "Deathbird" by Harlan Eliison. Novel... I'd have to actually sit down and think it all through; there are probably too many to pick just one. Other media... I'd have to think about that, too.
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Thats a hard one. Pern is definatly up there, but really its been more Sci Fan than sci Fic.
Hmm. I'd have to say Either Azimov's Robots or McCaffrey's ShellPeople
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Is The Immortal Bard Eligible?
Something every English teacher should have to read.
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Strictly speaking, it's fantasy, but my favorites are the Harold Shea stories, by L. Sprague deCamp and Fletcher Pratt. Christopher Stasheff was inspired to write his Warlock stories by reading them, and even wrote later stories with deCamp in the 90s. For those who aren't familiar with the stories (the originals can be found in a collection called The Complete Compleat Enchanter), Harold Shea is a psychologist who, with the help of his peers, comes up with the idea that schizophrenics and delusionals aren't truly crazy, but are partially perceiving other worlds, and that if you can change your frame of reference mentally, you can perceive these other worlds as well. He builds a logic engine (called the "syllogismobile") and tries it out, and finds that he doesn't just perceive another world, but goes there. The first world he goes to is the Nine Worlds of Norse myth, and the rest of the stories have him hopping around the great fictions of the Western World (and later, the Eastern world, as Stasheff and deCamp throw him into Journey to the East in a later story). For those of you who like the transfictional multiverse idea, this is pretty much one of the original stories.
It's a bit dated these days, given that it was written in the 50s or late 60s, and some of the attitudes are a bit parochial, but I found them great fun when I was younger, and I think they age well.
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My all time favorite has to be A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke.
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While I have a clear favorite, I decided it doesn't really further the goal of producing a list if it's a novel that was already on the list. So, after some thought I came up with a second choice: Lone Star Planet, by H. Beam Piper.
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Heinlein's "All you Zombies" . Best time travel story ever.
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Andre Norton's Star Man's Son, alternate title Daybreak: 2250 AD. The first science fiction I read that so impressed me that I kept the title and the author's name in mind. I was about ten at the time, 45 years ago. Quote:For the second time Fors' skin burned red. "I am mutant. And mutant stock is not to be trusted. The--the Beast Things are also mutant--" He could not choke out more than that.
"Lura is mutant also--"
(The importance of that reply is pointing out the double standard, that the Star Men prize the mutant cats such as Lura, who make excellent hunting and battle companions, yet scorn human mutants such as Fors, no matter how good they prove themselves.)
Quote:"We who were meant to roam the stars go now on foot upon a ravaged earth. But above us those other worlds still hang, and still they beckon. And so is the promise still given. If we make not the mistakes of the Old Ones then shall we know in time more than the winds of this earth and the trails of this earth."
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Much of H. Beam Piper's works.
In particular Omniligual and The Cosmic Computer. So close and yet so far in predictions.
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Either Keith Laumer's Bolo books or the Rifts RPG, if the last can even count.
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Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series.
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Quote:Ebony wrote:
Strictly speaking, it's fantasy, but my favorites are the Harold Shea stories, by L. Sprague deCamp and Fletcher Pratt. Christopher Stasheff was inspired to write his Warlock stories by reading them, and even wrote later stories with deCamp in the 90s. For those who aren't familiar with the stories (the originals can be found in a collection called The Complete Compleat Enchanter), Harold Shea is a psychologist who, with the help of his peers, comes up with the idea that schizophrenics and delusionals aren't truly crazy, but are partially perceiving other worlds, and that if you can change your frame of reference mentally, you can perceive these other worlds as well. He builds a logic engine (called the "syllogismobile") and tries it out, and finds that he doesn't just perceive another world, but goes there. The first world he goes to is the Nine Worlds of Norse myth, and the rest of the stories have him hopping around the great fictions of the Western World (and later, the Eastern world, as Stasheff and deCamp throw him into Journey to the East in a later story). For those of you who like the transfictional multiverse idea, this is pretty much one of the original stories.
It's a bit dated these days, given that it was written in the 50s or late 60s, and some of the attitudes are a bit parochial, but I found them great fun when I was younger, and I think they age well.
I liked those too. But, IIRC, the Warlock series has at least one chapter lifted in its entirety from one book to another... regarding Beowulf, actually...
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Mine is a somewhat boring answer, but bear with me - there's a tale behind this. You see, probably my favourite bit of older science fiction is Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. That's obviously quite well-known, so nothing strange there, right?
But here's the thing. I read the book just before I went into the Army. I carried that copy into Basic Military Training, and ended up loaning it to friends looking for something to read. Yeah, I know a lot of it is Heinlein going off into weird places with strange political rants about the purpose of the military, what it means to be a soldier...but I was in exactly the right place in my life to really appreciate that book, and so were the guys I shared it with.
-- Acyl
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I've always like The Cosmic Computer and Space Vikingfor their civilization-building aspect. I think I've re-read those two more times than any other books in my collection.
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Well, if Amazon is to be believed, Mutineer's Moon is almost exactly 20 years old... (Wikipedia lists it as a bit older though...)
Several of Lois McMaster Bujold's novels qualify, but I'm particularly fond of Barrayar and The Vor Game.
Hmmm. For non-print work, Legend of Galactic Heroes?
... Ghost in the Shell? (Orion too, maybe.) And Appleseed.
Outlanders.
-Morgan.
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Though I've already named my number-one favorite, I'd like to add in a few honorable mentions:
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, by H. Beam Piper.
Quote:"Oh, my people had many gods. There was Conformity, and Authority, and Expense Account, and Opinion. And there was Status, whose symbols were many, and who rode in the great chariot Cadillac, which was almost a god itself. And there was Atombomb, the dread destroyer, who would some day come to end the world. None were very good gods, and I worshipped none of them."
Lord of Light and This Immortal by Roger Zelazny. Perhaps This Immortal in particular, as I vividly recall taking it off a library shelf to glance at the first page ... and setting it back on the shelf two or three hours later.
David Drake's Hammer's Slammers.
In movies, Forbidden Planet, of course.
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oh gods, Tolkien got me started, but he's fantasy.....Card's ender series was marvelous, but i would have to say Jules Verne's "Time Machine" would have to be my fave classic
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Two of my top favorites have already been mentioned - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Rendezvous with Rama.
So I'll just make mention of a classic I was introduced to via "the back way" from John Carpenter's THE THING. I once did some research long ago around 2000-2002 somewhere. I knew that it was a remake of the 1950s version. Except I was wrong. It wasn't. They are both VERY different films. But they shared a common point of origin. The "short" story (almost novella) by John Campbell "Who Goes There?"
It's a true classic. It's scientifically and psychologically fascinating in the questions it asks (and mostly doesn't answer). John Carpenter's THE THING is based much more closely on this story than the 1950s movie was. And is better for it.
Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom series. (John Carter of Mars)
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