Comments on: Classic SF of the 1950s: beautiful books introduced by Gibson, Gaiman, Reed, Willis, Straub and others

By: Jason Miller

Jason Miller — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 22:02:00 +0000

That would be a strange choice, since Gully Foyle is black.

By: 20thCenturyVole

20thCenturyVole — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 20:34:00 +0000

Bester: “The Demolished Man” is much better, IMNSHO.

By: Walter Guyll

Walter Guyll — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:24:00 +0000

Read them all, some several times. Can’t justify buying this, I keep telling myself.

By: StreetEight

StreetEight — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:31:00 +0000

The problem is not that those other genres exist, but that they don’t have their own shelves and sections. I want to browse through SF that’s new (and new to me) without having to filter out all the Tolkien wannabees and Twilight clones. Go take a look at the online offerings of the now laughably misnamed “Science Fiction Book Club” to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 08:57:00 +0000

It is, I think, possible to distinguish between replicators, holodecks and transporters possible and ancient Martian civilization possible, the latter being actually impossible while the former are merely improbable.

By: CH

CH — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 07:55:00 +0000

Hmm… well… if we go by a truly hard sf definition then we would be left with very little. Any interstellar space travel… scrap that, with the knowledge we have now. Time travel is right out of the question.

I’m happy with any “what if…” parts. SF contains the word “fiction”, so as long as the suspension of disbelief works, I rather go with that than start nit picking what is actually possible and what isn’t.

By: CH

CH — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 07:37:00 +0000

Nice collection! Although I bet they had a hard time choosing which ones to include, there are just so many.

By: Foobar Incorpral

Foobar Incorpral — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 05:02:00 +0000

The Stars My Destination is one of my favorite books, ever since reading it 12 years ago. I wish it would be made into a mini-series with Bruce Willis staring in it.

By: Francisco Santos Silva

Francisco Santos Silva — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 03:56:00 +0000

Yes… that is because zombies and vampires are horror, magic swords and dragons are fantasy. As the title clearly spells out this is science-fiction. (It’s like commenting on an edition of Lord of the Rings “I bet there isn’t a starship, black hole or cybernetic implant in the thousand pages”.)

By: Roy Trumbull

Roy Trumbull — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 02:46:00 +0000

Gutenberg.org has cleared a number of Sci-Fi stories from the 1950 era pulps that didn’t have their copyrights renewed. Most of what we call Sci-Fi is really fantasy. Ray Bradbury said to qualify as Sci-Fi it had to be something that could happen. He called Martian Chronicles fantasy. Of the some 50 pulp stories I’ve narrated only one qualified as Sci-Fi and that was Poul Anderson’s “The Burning Bridge”. In it he deals realistically with inertia in space travel. We don’t like to think about the bug on the windshield aspects of acceleration and deceleration. We’re already in major trouble without ever getting to warp speed.

By: ashypete

ashypete — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 02:23:00 +0000

Now that’s an awesome set and excellent choices.

By: StreetEight

StreetEight — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 02:08:00 +0000

Wow.

Science Fiction.

And I bet there isn’t a zombie, a vampire, a magic sword, or a dragon on any of the (one thousand?) pages.

Ah for the halcyon days of my youth, when the SF sections of my bookstore and library were……just that.

By: Stefan Jones

Stefan Jones — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 01:31:00 +0000

That is a perfect set of choices.

By: Charles Lenchner

Charles Lenchner — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 01:29:00 +0000

Want. I grew up on this stuff.