Where to Start Reading Classic Science Fiction; Three Great Choices for Skeptics & Newbies
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- Опубліковано 11 гру 2024
- Classic science fiction stories sometimes get knocked for being impenetrable, impersonal or impossible, turning potential readers away from the genre. In some cases, that negative reputation is deserved, but there's also a lot of really terrific older SF that's able to overcome those stereotypes and others.
Here I'm presenting three great entry points to classic science fiction that have sufficient variety to appeal to readers of all types and tastes.
0:20 General Recommendation
3:06 Book Recommendation 1
6:31 Book Recommendation 2
8:20 Book Recommendation 3
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Links to Amazon pages for the recommended books:
Recommendation 1:
amzn.to/3YITGiX
amzn.to/3v7mlki
Recommendation 2:
amzn.to/3HRZil7
amzn.to/3VkyRr4
Recommendation 3:
amzn.to/3hJkTBp
amzn.to/3hIz3mv
amzn.to/3VgjUGD
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#sciencefiction #scifi #booktube #booktubesff #raybradbury
Your comment regarding modern "critics" and their annoying, lazy habit of dismissing vintage authors and works as "cliche" is SO appreciated. Would that your message spread. Loved your choices and approach. Some of my most prized SF PB's are these anthologies. Probably 25% of my collection. Indeed, one can see why you are a member of The Alliance! Great content, production and presentation (especially), Rod Serling-esque! Hopefully you are not offended. :) Cheers.
Thanks! Far from offended, I'm flattered to be compared to Rod Serling. Although not all of the vintage authors and works have aged well over the past 40, 50, 80 years or more, many of them are still very readable and enjoyable today. I'm trying to shine a spotlight on them across a variety of genres here on my channel.
I always want to ask those critics how they think certain thing BECOME cliches. It's because they're so good that they get reused, perhaps too often. Oops, just heard you say exactly that lol
I was reminded a bit by that comment of a good friend of mine sitting down with his daughter to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark sometime in the late 2000s. She found it boring... had see it happen already in other movies. Of course... she didn't realize the movie was based on much earlier pulp fiction, but that when it came out, it was not really something seen in a long long time. She saw a cliche. When he and I saw it in the theater, it was AMAZING.
"They weren't clichés when they were written" - Ah! Love that observation. So true! Great suggestions, and I love your approached of recommending shorter stories as "start packs." I will remember that in the future!
Thanks! Given my focus on older books in various genres, I might make that my unofficial channel motto. :D
I like short stories also because it's a way of trying out new and different authors to see if I like their writing style before committing to a full-length novel.
I've been reading SF, Fantasy and fiction for getting close to 60 years. I've been collecting mainly SF and Fantasy books for over 50 years. I love those suggestions, the older works have so much to offer.
I agree about older works. Not all of them measure up to today's standards, but many of them are considered classics for very good reasons and deserve to be more widely known and read today. That's what motivated me to start this channel in the first place -- to shine a light on great works and authors (older and modern) that are overlooked on BookTube and are at risk of being forgotten. Thanks for sharing!
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
All excellent novels, and with a variety of styles and themes!
I stumbled on this channel randomly a few days ago and it has very quickly become my favourite channel. Keep up the good work! You are doing incredible!!!
Thank you and welcome aboard!
Thanks, Bridger. I have that same edition of Treasury of Great Science Fiction. Been meaning to take them off the shelf and look at them.
For many years, that Boucher anthology was the most affordable way to get Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination in hardcover format, and I'd argue it's still the best value today.
Excellent video! It reminded me that I am guilty of focusing almost exclusively on science fiction novels. I don't know why I have fallen into this habit--I love short stories!
Thanks! With only a few exceptions, I get more enjoyment per page out of SF short stories than I do most SF novels. I love the variety of styles and topics, as well as the more-focused storytelling. With a novel, the emotional or intellectual payoff tends to happen near the end, which requires a substantial time commitment to get to it. And even then, there's no guarantee it'll be worth the wait. With short stories, the payoff is always just a few pages away.
@@thelibraryladder Quite true. Also, authors feel free to experiment in a short story.
Love the newer look. Same high quality as always.
Great suggestions (of course.)
Thanks so much for the feedback! I'm experimenting with some different visual elements and styles.
I was thinking as you started that short stories would be the way to go.
You were prescient! There's so much variety in those short story anthologies that even the most skeptical reader should be able to find something they enjoy.
@@thelibraryladder
Not exactly an anthology but one of my favorite short stories collection is Heinlein's The Past Through Tomorrow..
_A librarian found a genie and after being told he can express three wishes and anything he says will be fulfilled he just smiled and said, "wonderful, first of all I want a dozen more wishes..." ;)_
But seriously, it's a very good approach for all the reason you've talked about! Short stories are a clever way to dig out of the heavily entrenched genre science-fiction can be (and fantasy, too). Don't get me wrong, I love nice multi-volume works with my whole heart but a new guy trying to dig into such series may get overwhelmed... and having as little as just a few dozen of pages to digest at a time - time potentially wasted from the new guy's perspective - is a really attractive idea. Anyways, Merry Christmas! May all that is beautiful, meaningful and brings you joy **cough-cough** books **cough-cough** be yours this holiday season and throughout the coming year! :)
Thanks! You summed up my thought process very well. As a newbie to almost anything, I generally prefer my first introduction to be something that I can easily digest and absorb, and that allows me to see the big picture without getting lost in the minutiae. And as a reader, short story anthologies serve that purpose well. I've sampled many new or unfamiliar authors through their short fiction before committing to their longer works. I hope Santa brings you plenty of enjoyable reading material for the new year as well!
This is a brilliant (and cunning) recommendation! I am a avid anthology reader and collector; by reading them, I get to spend more time and money on authors that I have tasted a bit of and liked.
A good anthology is a bottle of fine wine that I want to open and taste from time to time, rather than finish it in one or two feasts.
Speaking of anthologies, Harlan Ellison's two "Dangerous Visions" collections are different to others in that Ellison's forewords are just so much (maybe too much?) fun to read! His foreword to Dan Simmons's collection "Prayers to Broken Stones" is hands down the best foreword I have ever read.
Finally, let me shout out to Bradbury's "Frost and Fire"! The plot, the characters, the prose, just perfect. Even thinking of this title, these three words alone, made my spine chill.
Thank you for this video!
Thanks! You sound like you've been reading my mind. I agree with everything you wrote. :D
By the way, I'll be discussing "Prayer to Broken Stones" in an upcoming overview of all of Dan Simmons' works, probably next month if my schedule works out.
As a kid I really liked Andre Norton’s science fiction. I didn’t know he was a she but they were great novels nonetheless. Don’t see many critics or readers even mentioning her. I’m talking about her more SciFi works. She then turned purely fantasy later. I’m sure you have read some of her works. Thanks. Didn’t know there were reading obsessed folks like me. Even in my older age and realizing I may not be able to get to reading all the books in my library physical and electronic I continue to purchase books:)
I was much the same. I read a _lot_ of Andre Norton as a kid. The Stars Are Ours and The Moon of Three Rings were two of my favorites. I'm planning a retrospective video of her works that I hope to get to next year. (I have a long list of video topics I want to cover, and it takes me a week or two to produce each video.) Thanks for watching and sharing!
Shann Lantee, Hosteen Storm, Travis Fox, etc., all old friends from from elementary school. 🙂
I never knew C. J. Cherryh was a woman until I bought an omnibus edition of the _Faded Sun_ trilogy. Her _Chanur_ pentalogy is also quite good, although the interspecies politics can be confusing at first.
I began reading SF in 1963. I am in complete agreement with your analysis.
Mentioning "Lewis Padgett" may reopen that great catalogue.
I have had the first 2 anthologies you mention for over 50 years. To me, "The Weapons Shops Of Isher", and "Brainwave" far exceed "The Stars My Destination". Everyone has their faves.
I would also suggest several other anthologies for consideration.
Adventures In Time And Space by Healy and McComas (too much to list, just incredible!), Great Stories of Space Travel - The great Groff Conklin - Here you will find: The Wings Of Night - Del Ray, The Holes Around Mars - Bixby, Kaleidoscope - Bradbury, Far Centaurus - Van Vogt, The Helping Hand - Anderson, Allamagoosa - Russell, more. Conklin produced many wonderful anthologies.
Another excellent anthology is "Beyond Tomorrow" - Damon Knight. Brightside Crossing - Nourse, Coventry - RAH, Nightfall - Asimov, Desertion - Simak - among the finest Shorts ever written, and more. So many more, Asimov's series of anthologies "The Great SF Stories" contains just that.
Thanks for the great recommendations! Many of my favorite works of SF are short fiction from the early decades. I'm planning a video later this year showcasing many more classic short fiction anthologies (including some of the ones you mentioned), and I have another video coming soon about humorous SF short fiction (e.g., Kornbluth, Sheckley, Russell).
Lewis Padgett (Kuttner/Moore) was one of my favorites. They wrote very few duds, in my opinion.
@@thelibraryladder "Lewis Padgett" Agreed, mostly classics from the classic period! A Wild Surmise, Vintage Season, etc. The "Vintage" movie with Jeff Daniels was pretty well done.
Keith Laumer's Retief series and shorts nearly all contain some humor along with satire. The Planet Wreckers, The Star Sent Knaves, The Monitors all provide laugh out loud moments. I will try find one on the internet.
I know the content is amazing and well researched/produced but everytime I see one of the videos I keep thinking "this is the most pleasant voice in the universe"
Thank you for your very kind (and pleasant) comment! :)
Excellent suggestions. When I was in 5th grade, I came across a short story in my English textbook entitled, The Sound of Summer Running. I thought it was awesome that someone could capture that summer feeling embodied by getting new tennis shoes. At the bottom of the first page of the story were the words "From R Is For Rocket, by Ray Bradbury". I went to the middle school library later that day and found the book. As soon as I saw that blue cover above. I was in love. Discovering Bradbury was a life-changing experience.
I had a similar experience. My first encounter with Bradbury was in an English textbook in 10th grade. We had to read his short story "Usher II," a science fiction story inspired by Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." Immediately thereafter, I went to the library and checked out his big short story collection "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" (which I highly recommend, as it contains 100 of his best short stories -- out of the more than 400 short stories he published in his career).
I love your work! Thanks 🙏
Thank you!
Good video!
My three choices would be:
Beyond the End of Time by Frederick Pohl
A Century of Science Fiction by Damon Knight
Dangerous Visions by Harlan Ellison
Those are three great anthologies. Thanks for sharing!
Great list and love this approach...of course I totally missed the ball regarding the 3 book limit. In my defense I filmed mine a while ago before the official strict rules were forged into stone :)
Thanks, Michael! I kind of cheated with the three-book limit, given that one of my choices has two volumes, each of which contains two novels and multiple short stories. Given the wide variety of SF subgenres and writing styles, it seemed impossible to limit it to three novels that could potentially appeal to any reader.
One astounding ( 😁 ) thing about the way _The Stars My Destination_ appeared in the _Treasury_ anthology was that Boucher left in all the weird fonts and graphics! They're essential to the plot, and simplifying them would have ruined the effect...but the layout for that section must have been a headache in an age of Linotypes and custom-cut mats.
That's a great point (and nice wordplay)!
I love these suggestions. I’ve never really explored the numerous anthologies out there.
Hi, Chas! I'm a big fan of anthologies. I love being able to sample different authors and styles without the time commitment required by novels. Also, some authors (such as Bradbury) are better short story writers than novelists, so it's a chance to read their very best works.
@@thelibraryladder yes I’ve heard Bradbury is better at shorter works. I’ll check some of these out.
The second set of anthologies looks awesome! I would love to get those
They were published as a trade hardcover edition in 1959 and then a book club hardcover edition was published in 1960. The two editions have identical dust jacket designs. The trade first edition has a sturdier binding, but the book club binding is pretty good. The book club edition is by far the most common one (book club editions often outsold trade editions by a 10:1 ratio or more). It's possible to find copies in very good condition with dust jackets for as little as $20-25 for the pair (or less if you're lucky).
With the advantage of decades of hindsight, I agree with every word you said about The Stars My Destination.
It's a terrific example of a well-told story. The fact that it's 70 years old doesn't diminish its quality or impact. I hope to highlight more older works that are just as enjoyable today. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I appreciate and subbed because of your stance on cliche and remembering when something was written. Outlaw Bookseller even suggests, using different terms, paying homage to these works which is important if you really want to explore. SF Hall of Fame was required text for my freshman year of college.
Thanks! I agree with OB on that point. I often gain a better appreciation of modern works of speculative fiction by understanding their roots. In many of my videos, I try to place books and authors in historical context. It's part of what motivated me to start my channel.
@@thelibraryladder exactly why I will keep watching. I find that if something about the author's world view conflicts with my reading experience I try to incorporate the bumps with the "alien or otherworldly" nature of the item I am choosing to read. Most of the time that works but hey; plenty of other books and authors
Another great video - thanks for these anthology recommendations. In particular, I had been wondering where to start with Ray Bradbury (beyond Fahrenheit 451, which I’ve read). Thanks!
Thanks, Josh! Given what I know of your reading tastes, I'd suggest skipping Bradbury's smaller short story collections. Instead, I think you'll enjoy his two large collections that incorporate the smaller ones -- The Stories of Ray Bradbury (1980) and Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales (2003). There's no overlap between them, so combined they represent 200 of his best stories (out of the more than 400 he wrote). Also, Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes seem like books you'd enjoy.
Thank you! Adding these instead - I appreciate the guidance here. Cheers!
Anthologies are an *excellent* way to introduce someone to science fiction. That's pretty much how I started my lifelong trek down that path. Three great anthologies in my own collection include "Before the Golden Age" edited by Isaac Asimov, "Analog: The Best of Science Fiction" from the editors of Analog magazine, and "The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF" edited by Mike Ashley. All contain classic examples of the best science fiction stories ever written.
I completely agree. Short stories are my favorite science fiction format -- the high points are very high indeed and the flops are easily forgiven and forgotten because of the low time commitment involved. I have the first two anthologies you mentioned, both of which are very good. I haven't run across the third one before. I'll have to check it out. Thanks!
Thank you for a unique way of recommending SF!
I love promoting the SF genre. I hope you find my thoughts and suggestions helpful. Thanks for watching!
I agree with your first choice whole hardheartedly.
However, my second choice would be the outstanding collection of short stories in both "Dangerous Visions" & "Again Dangerous Visions", both edited by Harlan Ellison.
Some of those stories originate from the 50's but the vast majority come from the 60's whose subject matter reflects those very tumultuous times and the societal changes that marked that extraordinary decade!
Those are great options. I thought about recommending Dangerous Visions (and its sequel Again, Dangerous Visions), but ultimately I decided to go with less challenging stories as SF starting points. I think those Ellison-compiled anthologies would make terrific follow-ups, though.
@@thelibraryladder Some of those stories are really tough reads. I still won't read "The Bisquit Position" because I'm an animal lover.
@@lisagulick4144 I agree with you that some of the stories in those anthologies can be pretty polarizing (which was part of Ellison's motivation in selecting them -- hence the "Dangerous" visions in the titles). It's why I ruled them out as entry points to the genre. I wouldn't want to turn a newcomer off from the entire genre because of a bad reading experience with a high-risk story.
Some great suggestions, and I like the idea of using anthologies as a starting point for new readers. I've got SF Hall of Fame vol 1, and the two books of the Treasury of SF set and agree they are some very good stories.
I've reread some of Bradbury's work recently and I find myself enjoying his writing even more than I did as a teen, so I think I will try to hunt down R is for Rocket and S is for Space, now. 😁
If you're already somewhat familiar with Bradbury, do yourself a favor and get his two big short story omnibuses instead. They're "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" (first published in 1980) and "Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales" (published in 2003). Each volume contains 100 of Bradbury's short stories, and they don't overlap, so it's a total of 200 of his very best stories, including pretty much every story published in his various shorter collections over the years (e.g., The Illustrated Man, The Golden Apples of the Sun, The October Country, A Medicine for Melancholy, The Martian Chronicles, etc.). He's my all-time favorite short story writer.
I'm new to science fiction but I've decided to dive in at the deep end with Stephen Donaldsons Gap series (since I loved the first TC trilogy) and Ian M Banks Culture series since I love Malazan and I've heard it compared similarly in scope and tone
I'll also be keeping an eye on those anthologies 👀
Oh, my! You're a brave one. :)
Banks is excellent. His Culture novels are like an anthology composed of novels instead of short stories that allows you to experience a range of styles from a single author.
I'm not a big fan of Donaldson's Gap Cycle. I liked the imagination he brought to it, but I had a hard time connecting with the characters (most of whom aren't very pleasant). I'll be interested to hear your take on it.
@@thelibraryladder I'll keep you updated
Before I got sidetracked with Christmas stories, I had just started the Illustrated Man ("the Veldt" was a fun if predictable critique of future smart homes, and pretty good, if fantastical, vision from the 40s) having been, as you predicted, emotionally blown away with "Something Wicked". I'm certainly returning to Bradbury again and again, though by his own admission he's a soft "s" science fiction writer, when he even qualifies.
I also have "S is for Space" and "the Bradbury Chronicles" (actually that's other big names writing in RB's style), all of Arthur C. Clarke's short SF (I liked his earliest which is a good sign), John Wyndham's "Sleepers of Mars" and "Wanderer's of Time", Frank Herbert's "Eye" ("Rat Race" was alright, but "Try to Remember" was *amazing* (alternate ends of the alien visitation spectrum)), Ken Liu's "Invisible Planets" (various Chinese authors), Octavia Butler's "Bloodchild", China Mieville's "Thee Moments of an Explosion" and what looks like a decent anthology of both big and obscure names in David G. Hartwell's "the Science Fiction Century".
As you may guess, I'm already invested in the idea of short stories, I'm trying to read one a week on top of whatever novel I'm on, but so far it's mainly been Robert Howard's Kull/Conan or H.P. Lovecraft (who might vaguely qualify as SF) and I hope to fit in some literary shorts also as they're a big weight on my shelf LOL.
That's a heck of a reading list you have planned! The variety of your tastes seem to track mine pretty closely. Since you're already somewhat familiar with Bradbury, I strongly recommend getting his two larger short story collections "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" and "Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales." Each collection contains 100 stories with no overlap between them, and together they represent the best of the more than 400 stories he published in his career. Clarke's short fiction is also consistently very good (in contrast to the short fiction of Asimov and Heinlein, which can be very uneven). Enjoy!
Amazing video, Love the channel and love the content! Would love to see a a video more on the history of dragons in literature! Personally I'm looking for some books were dragons are the antagonist other than the Hobbit! Not hating on The Hobbit though it's one of my favorites!!
Thanks! Great suggestion for a video. Dragons as significant antagonists used to be common in early folklore & fantasy (e.g., Beowulf, The Faerie Queene, the Edda/Volsunga/Nibelung saga, tales of St. George & King Arthur, etc.). Tolkien's dragons in The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and Farmer Giles of Ham were inspired by those traditional sources.
Evil or hostile dragons continued to make appearances in works inspired by Tolkien and Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s & 90s (e.g., the Forgotten Realms series and Dragonlance series by authors such as R.A. Salvatore and Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman). Other authors from that period with dragon antagonists include Barbara Hambly (Dragonsbane) and Robin McKinley (The Hero and the Crown).
But (as I imagine you've discovered for yourself) the vast majority of dragons in fantasy fiction since Tolkien are part of a different tradition that began in the late 19th century in which they're portrayed more sympathetically. Children's authors (e.g., by Kenneth Grahame, Edith Nesbit, Ruth Stiles Gannett) began this trend, and by the 1960s/70s, most dragons in fiction were presented as neutral (or good) advisors, partners, pets or supreme beings, making it difficult to find old-style dragons in modern fiction.
I think the genre could use a few more dragon-hunting quests these days.
Another great video. Since you mentioned him as an editor, I was wondering what your opinion is of Ben Bova. My public library in the early to mid 90's wasn't particularly well stocked with sci-fi but it had a surprising number of Bova books, so he had a pretty big influence on how I view sci-fi.
Thanks! I'd say that Bova was a better editor than a writer, in my opinion. He did great work as an editor of the Analog and Omni magazines in the 1970s, elevating the field and introducing new SF authors to readers. Omni was probably the most prestigious SF magazine at that time. (I loved reading it as a kid.) I've read six or seven of Bova's novels and none of them has had much of an impact on me. They weren't bad, but they weren't exactly good, either. At this point, he's pretty low on my TBR list.
@@thelibraryladder I still get a laugh out of "A Slight Miscalculation." Maybe his short stories are just better overall.
2:30 I had a friend who was a high school English teacher, and I remember him telling me how one of his students asked why people were so impressed with shakespeare, since the dialogues in his plays were so full of cliches...
Great video, thank you!
Would love to see your analysis of James Alan Gardner.
Thanks! I've only read some of Gardner's short fiction, which I was impressed by. I ought to try his longer fiction too. Thanks for the suggestion!
I recommend Philip K Dick's The Man In The High Castle to non sci-fi fans particularly if they like history
Thanks for sharing! I can see how PKD's High Castle could appeal to certain kinds of non-SF readers.
Thank you for the video! Tiger tiger is one of my favorites... so great novel. (Ps greetings from Ukraine)
Нема за що! I'm very glad you enjoyed the video and the book, and I hope the holidays are happy and safe ones for you.
The Boucher anthology was/is a gem. First got it in the mid-60s.
I agree with (and own) your first two choices but, if I were to pick a single author anthology, I'd choose Heinlein's The Past Through Tomorrow over Bradbury.
Dangerous Visions? Hah, just kidding! I think you really nailed it-- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame was MY gateway drug to the genre after I pulled it off my father's bookshelf many years ago...
Good jest! I have a lot of respect for the stories in Dangerous Visions, but I just don't see it as a good entry point to the genre for most readers. Thanks for watching and commenting!
E.E. "Doc" Smith's "Triplanetary", Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot" (not a novel but a collection of short stories), and "Little Fuzzy" by H. Beam Piper. Those would be my choices.
Great suggestions! I'm not sure how well Smith's Lensman series would translate for modern readers (I last read it ~30 years ago), but I, Robot and Little Fuzzy would be on my short list of starter recommendations.
Just a little tidbit here for those of us old enough to remember... That 2 book set of "A Treasury of Great Science Fiction" was what lured many of us into the famous Science Fiction Book Club back in the early 70's. It was an impossible set to pass up for the price of a single dime (taped to the post card). Wish I still owned those two hardcover books.
Thanks for sharing that. I knew this anthology was offered by the SFBC for many years, but I didn't realize it extended into the 1970s. Doubleday started culling its backlist of book club titles in the late 60s, and I thought this anthology was one of the casualties then. You can't find them for a dime anymore, but the pair still shows up (with dust jackets) for $20-30 on eBay and Amazon on a regular basis.
P.S. You have a great avatar. I loved Land of the Lost as a kid. The dinosaurs, sleestaks and Cha-ka provided the appeal for this eight year old (while the human characters were expendable).
@@thelibraryladder Thanks for the reply. I have been a huge LOTL fan since the first airing in 1974, and it's still one of my favorite shows. I am sure that MUCH of that has to do with pure nostalgia, but there were some quality writers behind those stories, and it showed.
Same here
Except I joined in early 60s
Blast and damnation! Now I wish I had scrolled down a bit farther before I wrote about that very thing!
I am more of a fantasy reader, but I found that I just love Niven. Ringworld was my first older SF novel and it just hit me right. I also really like Brin... the first Uplift trilogy being pretty mind-blowing. While I consider China Meiville to lean towards fantasy, he does have a couple SF novels. I hated the fact I wasted breath on Embassytown, but I consider it his one shite novel. But The City & The City was fantastic.
I'm a fan of many of the works of Niven, Brin and Mieville. All three authors provide readers with plenty of food for thought, and they've been formative influences on many later authors.
As an avid Sci FI enjoyer one issue with sci fi is that it ages a lot less graceful than fantasy does. Fantasy can be timeless, sure some values and norms will change over time but generally it can be timeless. This isn't always the case for sci fi because the "science" in the sci fi might feel old timey or dated to a modern reader. It's hard to suspend your disbelief, esp as someone not used to reading older sci fi, when Azimov talks about film rolls and projector rooms in a far, far, far future. It's hard to grasp, esp for those who have grown up with mobile phones, those esp born after 2000 to imagine a future in which .. no such thing exists.
Or imagine a 16 / 20 year old trying to read neuromancer. It's just hard to get into because not only does it use a lot of made up terminology that isn't always explained, esp initially. On top of that it has 80s Canadian slang .. and it uses words we recognize today but in a completely different way. Like a Microsoft in the Sprawl books and short stories is a small chip that goes into a socket behind your ear and not the microsoft we know today.
Reading Philip K Dick's short stories is .. idk it's hard to not call it very pulpy. The man is obviously extremely influential and many of his stories classics. I don't know how derivative it is from other stuff. I just know it's very pulpy and at times very hard to take seriously. (I've only read many short stories of Dick and none of his full books yet). Philip's definition of sci fi is a fantastic one, but esp with what we know now, his books rarely would be considered sci fi under his own definition. Like in one of his short stories the main protagonist is from a future where a pacifist religion/cult has taken over. And he's basically a gun for hire.. who .. lived in the ruined cities .. on the moon. Where he slept many nights in the freezing moon cold with .. dangerous moon monsters lurking at every corner of the .. trees and .. ruins of .... stuff. Ho and he does all this in the year 2040 or so ... Then this dude goes back to the past to stop the cult from forming, and he meets this cute 16 year old and he thinks to himself "wow .. I wonder if she's someone's mistress .. in my time she would have been in a trail marriage already and would have been designated someone's mistress" or something .. eehhhh .. idk about that Dick.. in what universe do you think that the culture will change that drastically by the year 2040.
I mean I'm not sure if that would make sense even to someone from the 40/50's ... was our knowledge of the moon so limited that we thought there might be dangerous monsters and entire wiped out civilizations on the moon? It's just hard to get to grips with such stuff that is so counter to everything we know today ... I think this is part of what makes older sci fi so hard to get into for people. And unforunately there is very little really good modern sci fi at the moment.. I absolutely adore fantasy. But I wish sci fi got more love. And I wish we got more good cyberpunk stuff.
Ps. I've kinda accepted now that to read old sci fi I need to learn to appreciate it for when it was written and suspend my disbelief like I'd do a fantasy book if things become too .. fantastical. And to be fair, after the First Law books. Neuromancer and what I've read from Burning Chrome so far, have been the best books I've read this year.
You make some fair points. There's a lot of older SF that's not aging gracefully, as you put it, although there's also quite a bit that's still very relevant and modern-feeling decades after it was written. It's an extreme generalization, but I've always thought that the biggest stylistic difference between science fiction and fantasy is that historically, SF authors tended to focus on their innovative ideas at the expense of good storytelling, while fantasy authors prioritized the storytelling, often at the expense of original ideas. SF prompted readers to think, but struggled to make them feel, while fantasy did the opposite. (Clearly, though, there are many exceptions to that generalization.)
To use a legal term from Latin, PKD is _sui_ _generis_. Dick's works are so oddball and fever-dream-esque that it's hard to use him as a representative example of classic SF. Personally, I'm not a fan of his writing. I think he has some very imaginative ideas, but the narrative styles he uses in his novels don't resonate with me. I think his shorter fiction is better, but it's very uneven. I've read all of his short stories, and I truly enjoyed maybe 20-30% of them. He's one of the rare authors whose movies are better than the books, in my opinion.
I suggest you do read Dick novels but avoid The Variable Man as it's crap. I think the thing is Dick was living a sci-fi life while others were writers imagining it. I've never felt Dick was a pulp writer certainly not in terms of his portrayal of people who are generally normal people with humdrum jobs trying to survive
Enjoy collecting the years best Science Fiction , enjoy the different styles of authors in it
That's how I feel about them. They're great for sampling different voices and subgenres in SF. Thanks for watching and commenting!
The lunar chronicles, 1984, and Frankenstein would be my three
That's an eclectic list of recommendations. A reader would have a good chance to find something they enjoy among them. Thanks for sharing!
I collect knives and books. I live in a tiny house and my two passions are squeezing up against each other. I just noticed an area that I can construct some shelves.
I can empathize. I've mostly run out of space for more books, so I've shifted to audiobooks for a lot of newer fiction in recent years. I'll still get physical copies occasionally, but only for books I'm very confident about or that are out of print and unavailable in audio format.
@@thelibraryladder I built hanging bookshelves attached to my ceiling. Hold about 20 books. Made them about ten years ago from a really nice piece of maple that had been discarded in a cull bin at Menards.
@@jackasswhiskyandpintobeans9344 Now that’s a good idea! Hmmm…[thinking about my own ceilings]
@@thelibraryladder The shelves have a Danish Modern look.
Interesting choices. I could probably do with equivalent lists for philosophy, AI and general science/maths textbooks.
Anyone else getting a bit of an ASMR vibe from this guy's voice?
thx for this.
I question the need to know the roots of SF to appreciate SF today. SF is the cutting edge literature of today and tomorrow, not their dad's SF. The Murderbot stories spring to mind as good intros to today's SF. People like Blake Crouch's Dark Matter & Recursion. And since I think fantasy is more popular than SF, what the heck, I'll disregard everything I said, and pick an old one, A Princess of Mars, because I'm an old guy.
You make some fair points. I like to promote the older classics, not because they're inherently better than or essential to modern works (although I'd argue that some are), but rather because I feel like they're at risk of being forgotten by younger generations. So many authors today are standing on the shoulders of giants who created the various genres (SF, fantasy, mystery, etc.) from scratch, inventing the customs, tropes and expectations that define the genres and provide a formula for success that subsequent authors have copied (and sometimes improved upon). Whenever I read a modern SF story that has Dyson sphere or a space elevator as a 'gee whiz!' central element, I wonder how many readers today realize that authors such as Clarke, Niven, Leiber and Stapledon were pioneering those technological concepts in their stories 50, 60, 90 years ago.
I agree with you that Barsoom makes great comfort reading. I'm planning a broad overview of Burroughs next year, so stay tuned. :)
Have you bought books from abebooks before, and do you have any recommendations on buying from them if you have?
Yes, I've bought books through Abebooks with mostly positive results. Abebooks isn't a bookseller, though. Instead, it's a platform (similar to eBay or Amazon's used book marketplace) where booksellers can list their books for sale. Thus, the buying experience on Abebooks can vary depending on the individual seller. Fortunately, because Abebooks charges sellers a slightly higher sales commission than some other platforms, it tends to attract reputable sellers who are willing to pay the extra commission. The downside is that many sellers on Abebooks target customers who can afford to pay more for collectible quality books, so it can be difficult to find significant bargains there. Nevertheless, sellers on Abebooks tend to provide more detailed and accurate descriptions of their books than typically found on eBay or Amazon (although often without any accompanying photographs), so you can feel comfortable that you're getting what the seller describes. I hope that's helpful.
@@thelibraryladder very very helpful!! Thank you so much for this channel! :) I probably watched close to three hours of your stuff today.
Some great stories in that first anthology:
'Microcosmic God' by Theodore Sturgeon
'Flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keyes
and
'A Rose for Ecclesiastes' by Roger Zelazny
Another great collection is 'Dangerous Visions' edited by Harlan Ellison (as seen in your video @10:50 )
it has wonderful stories like:
'Riders of the Purple Wage' by Philip José Farmer
' If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?' by Theodore Sturgeon
and
'Aye, and Gomorrah' by Samuel R. Delany
Thanks! I agree. I thought about recommending Dangerous Visions. It's a great anthology (as is its sequel Again, Dangerous Visions), but ultimately I decided to go with less challenging stories as SF entry points.
Cordwainer Smith..... please.
I enjoyed this video and appreciate the recommendations, but: if our prospective neophyte SF reader is young (say, teens or 20s) there is no way we’ll get them interested in SF through the medium of the short story. Young people today don’t read short stories. When they do read them it’s usually for school, and they have difficulty understanding them-they don’t feel like “whole stories” to them. This is what the modern publishing world with its preoccupation with gigantic novels, trilogies, and endless series has wrought. (I teach teenagers, by the way, and the “whole stories” line is a direct quote from one of my students.) The entry point for SF with young people today will have to be novels.
Is learning things a reason to read Science Fiction? What has technology done to us in the last 40 years?
We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis Taylor
The Two Faces of Tomorrow by James P Hogan
Gibraltar Earth by Michael McCollum
Interstellar without FTL
Mundane within local space
FTL with aliens
The best sci-fi I ever read was from Heinlein and Asimov.
I have a lot of respect for both authors. I plan to do comprehensive reviews of their works in the future as part of a series of videos looking back at all of the recipients of the SFWA Grand Master Award. There have been 39 recipients so far, so It's going to take me a few years to get to all of them.
@@thelibraryladder I don't read much anymore. But have started reading the Arkham House books, especially Derleth's Solor Pons stories. Derleth could write a very good Holmes pastiche. A very good story was one in which Pons takes a case from Dr. Fu Manchu. Derleth doesn't write that it's Fu Manchu, but we all know it's Fu Manchu.
@@jackasswhiskyandpintobeans9344 Fu Manchu appears in two or three of the stories, and some other real and fictional characters appear at times as well, including Lovecraft, Hodgson’s Carnacki, and Hercule Poirot.
@@thelibraryladder The book I'm reading now is "The Return of Solar Pons."
Asimov is a very good choice. I like that he writes simply and clearly. I recall an article where he basically condemned flashy writers where you have no real idea what they are saying
The man says >SF< , tru blu.
Awww, thanks! :D
@@thelibraryladder ,,,, short stories, indeed. I started reading SF in 1953 , when I was 13, after running out of Heinlein and Norton , I went to the librarian and asked if there was some more science fiction to read, wisely she took me to the 'adult' section and said "try these". They were the many anthologies edited by Groff Conklin, I was entranced by those short stories , Ted Sturgeon, Fred Brown, Fred Pohl, C M Kornbluth, Damon Knight, Robert Sheckley, Chad Oliver, Fritz Leiber, L Sprague Decamp, .... there is almost an uncountable number. I can't leave out Cordwainer Smith the most unique SF writer of all time (in my book). Several writers of SF like Damon Knight and Brain Aldiss were critics and historians of of the genre and thought that the great forte of the form was the short story.
Those Groff Conklin anthologies are really good. I think I have all but one of them.
I tend to agree with Knight and Aldiss in their assessment of the merits of short stories. Historically, many science fiction authors were great at coming up with innovative ideas, but they weren't always very good at telling compelling stories that could be sustained over the length of a novel. Short fiction allowed them to showcase the ideas without the need for the narrative trappings of a novel.
Jeeeeez, please tell me you're an NPR host or a children's audiobook narrator or something, your voice needs to be heard
I'm neither, but both would be fun to do. Thanks!
FIFTY SHORT SCIENCE FICTION STORIES edited by (who else?) Isaac Asimov
Most of A E Van Vogts novels are rather short.
You're right. It's also true of most of the early SF novels from the 1930s to the 50s, many of which started out as short stories that were later expanded.
@@thelibraryladder It's funny you would think if you were being paid by the word you would write longer stories.
In many cases, the authors were writing on tight schedules to meet publication deadlines and didn't have the time to write more expansive novels. Also, many of the magazine publishers that serialized the novels set length limits to ensure they could fit them into only two or three issues.
@@thelibraryladder Hadn't thought of that.
@@bobkeane7966 I think the modern malaise of readers confusing length with quality hadn't really started either...though who can blame a buyer/reader when a paperback book is I think about £7 in Britain, (I cannot even recall the last book I bought at normal price) you wouldn't really want to pay that for 150 page book when you could get 1000 pager for the same
Man if you fixed your audio, these videos would be legendary. Really tough to listen to your deep voice with that static every time you say something.
Thanks for the feedback. What kind of static are you hearing? Is it intermittent or continuous? Might it be caused by the hoarse throat I've had for several of my recent videos? Also, what kind of device and speakers/headphones are you using to listen to my videos? Some speakers and headphones can make normal sibilance sound really harsh.
@@thelibraryladder I'm actually a video production guy. I only hear the static when you speak. I would say It might just be gain on your mic and or your distance from the mic. Because of the way your voice sounds ( love it btw ) it seems like you don't talk very loud the mic needs to kind of stretch itself to reach the sound level you desire. While stretching to get to your levels the "empty sound" also gets boosted which is the static. Fixing this could be as easy as moving the mic a little bit closer, or turning the gain down.
Thanks for the professional ear and suggestions. I just realized that what you were hearing behind my voice in this video was probably my neighbor's lawn mower/weed trimmer/leaf blower, which boosted the noise floor in the recording substantially. (It's a regular source of frustration for me; someone always seems to be doing yard work whenever I have an opportunity to film my videos. I try to hold off until they're done, but I didn't have a chance to do that this time.) I use an audio gate plug-in to lower the noise floor in the editing software, but it only works in the pauses between my words. I've tried using an overall de-noising plug-in, but it tends to wreak havoc with my voice, due to overlap with the frequencies in the background noise.
You're right that I speak at a slightly lower volume level than normal when filming. I've learned from experience that I have to do that or else I have much worse audio problems. At my normal speaking volume, the bass in my voice overpowers the signal, requiring excessive audio compression to level the signal and keep it from clipping. I keep the mic (a pencil mic designed for indoor dialogue recording) about 18 inches away. Any closer and the proximity effect kicks in, boosting the bass in my voice and exacerbating the clipping/compression problem. Any farther away, though, and the problems with my recording space become very noticeable. The room where I film is an audio nightmare, with plenty of hard, reflective surfaces (glassed bookcases and wood paneling) that generate a lot of reverb, particularly at the lower frequencies. I'm going to keep experimenting with different mic placements and recording levels to try to find the sweet spot. Thanks again!
what's up with that voice?
Nothing's up. It's my normal speaking voice. :)
Why are you whispering?
I'm not whispering. This is my regular conversational volume as if you were sitting in the room with me. My microphone is sensitive enough that I don't need to raise my voice to get a good audio signal (which isn't the case for many channels). :)
Great video like always :)
Thanks again!