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Location: UK | This is the discussion thread for the Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge, to read a book from each year of the Defining Books of the 1950s list in chronological order. | |
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| I think I'll join you. I'm Jim Harris, who created the list at my blog. I've been rereading these old science fiction books since 2002 when I joined Audible.com and started rereading my favorites by listening. I recently bought an audio edition of The Man Who Sold the Moon, but I'm also tempted by The Martian Chronicles which I bought awhile back but haven't listened to yet. I'm also in the middle of eye-ball reading The Voyage of the Space Beagle.
Do I pick a book and then read it, or read it and then selected it?
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Location: Great Lakes, USA | I may join this challenge. I noticed when looking through the 1950s books that I have at least one book from every year on my TBR pile. So much for not signing up for too many challenges this year. | |
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Location: UK | jwharris28 - 2015-01-06 1:47 AM
Do I pick a book and then read it, or read it and then selected it?
I'd say that you are free to change your mind until you've finished reading a book.
I've pencilled in Galactic Patrol for 1950 because it's the only unread book I already own, but I'd really like to read Martian Chronicles, too, since it's one of the headliners and an inexplicable gap in my background. Although I did see the TV version in the 80s. I won't let that put me off. (Actually I can't remember a single thing about it.) | |
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Location: UK | daxxh - 2015-01-06 3:33 AM
I may join this challenge. I noticed when looking through the 1950s books that I have at least one book from every year on my TBR pile. So much for not signing up for too many challenges this year.
It does run until December 2016. Honestly I'd have made it open-ended if there was an option for that. | |
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Hahaha... DrNefario, the "You Must Read The Books In Order By Year" Police.
It's nice to see I'm not the only OCD here.  | |
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Location: UK | That's half the fun.  Although I'm already struggling with 1951. | |
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| I picked The Martian Chronicles for 1950 and started listening to it. In the introduction Bradbury admits that the stories aren't science fiction, and he's excited to think his Martians are like Egyptians. The stories are quite engaging, but they have both a mundane and unreal quality at the same time. They are more like The Twilight Zone than traditional science fiction of the 1950s. And their appeal is psychological. They probably were popular because of their human angle and not because of Mars or space travel. | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | Great challenge! As much as I complain about the flaws of books that don't hold up well to time, I love seeing how science fiction has changed and grown. I like to see the seeds of concepts that were refined and developed later. (and I like to think that I'm "well read" )
Edited by pizzakarin 2015-01-07 12:34 PM
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| While listening to The Martian Chronicles I keep thinking: Does it hold up, will it appeal to new young readers, does it compare to literary classics from the same time period. I recently read The Stranger by Albert Camus and Breakfast at Tiffany's, books that come before and after The Martian Chronicles. Both were outstanding. The Martian Chronicles isn't as good, but it's close. Bradbury anticipates a lot of philosophical concerns that emerge in the 1960s - like respect for the environment and how destructive our society is. He also seems to question the whole final frontier mentality.
I'm listening to The Martian Chronicles read by Stephen Hoye, and his narration is a 10 in my book. He's showcasing Bradbury's writing in a way I never could. There's a lot to this book. And I'm curious how future generations will read and interpret it. Bradbury is talking about the 1940s and looking to the future with a certain philosophical questioning, so I wonder if the future will understand him. | |
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| I finished The Martian Chronicles, which I listened to read by Stephen Hoye. The reading was excellent. I'm not sure if I would have been that impressed if I had just read the book myself, but Hoye's reading just made the book for me. The characters sounded like actors in old 1940s movies. I was damn impressed with The Martian Chronicles. I wish I had taken notes, but in some ways, Bradbury touch on dozens of science fictional themes that would be explored in later science fiction books.
Looking at the 1951 books for my February read is going to be a hard choice. I'm thinking I should give Foundation another chance. When I reread it several years back I was hugely disappointed. It just didn't have the sense of wonder I remember when I first read it 50 years ago. Actually, I decided to do another 1950 book, The Man Who Sold The Moon until Feburary.
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Location: UK | I've started on Galactic Patrol, not expecting to get much from it. It's kind of a pulpy adventure far too fond of exclamation marks.
The early years of the 50s seem to be full of collections and fix-ups of stories from the 40s and 30s. The reason I have the Doc Smith is because it was nominated for the Retro Hugo for 1938, last year. I guess it's the dawn of the paperback era, and they're busy raiding the back-catalogues, but it does make the 50s the right place to start a book-based overview like this.
I'm leaning towards The Green Hills of Earth for 1951, but Foundation is the only one I currently own. It's only two or three years since I read Foundation, though, and I'm not ready for a re-read. | |
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| I just can't handle Doc Smith anymore. Many of the "novels" of the early 1950s came from specialty publishers like Gnome and Fantasy presses. Foundation was jarring to me when I reread it several years ago because the short stories were so different. At least with The Martian Chronicles, the stories are worked into a consistent theme. Of the novels from 1950, I think The Day of the Triffids has had the most lasting power. It's still a gripping story. I love Farmer in the Sky by Heinlein, but I'm not sure how many people read it today. The Heinlein story was original in 1950, so it seems more modern than the others, plus Heinlein was always more modern in his writing than the general run of science fiction writers back then.
Cosmic Engineers, which if I remember right, if from the late 1930s, and is primitive like Galactic Patrol. Seetee Ship is going the same way. The Voyage of the Space Beagle holds up a little better because it's built around the classic short story, "The Black Destroyer" which anticipates the horror film Alien.
I've read all the 1950 books a long time ago, and I'm only familiar with the 7-8 I've reread in the last couple decades. I loved I, Robot in my teens, but it just didn't hold up in my 50s. I haven't reread Fury or The Dreaming Jewels, so I can't say how they have fared. | |
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Location: Dallas, Texas | jwharris28 - 2015-01-12 8:16 AM
Of the novels from 1950, I think The Day of the Triffids has had the most lasting power. It's still a gripping story.
I just read The Day of the Triffids and it was indeed gripping. Really pleased with that one. It's my first book for this challenge though I skipped 1950 so I'll have to go back one year to get back on track. I read it before this challenge started but I'm going to count it. I promise I'll read the rest in order after I get my 1950 book in
I'm thinking of reading Needle or perhaps The Martian Chronicles now I've heard from Jim. | |
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| I read Needle a couple years ago for the Classic Science Fiction book club and it was pretty good. Positive take on alien possession. | |
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Location: UK | I wonder if the catastrophe books are less of a stretch because they are contemporary novels, rather than projecting a distant future that now seems very dated? I read On the Beach last year, for the End of the World challenge, and found it very readable, and I also picked up The Death of Grass for the same reason, but ended up not using it. It should come in handy later in this challenge.
I'm surprised that I, Robot doesn't stand up. It's about 30 years since I read it, but I thought the logic-puzzle nature of it might hold up better than Foundation. | |
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Location: Dallas, Texas | So I know E. E. "Doc" Smith is not great literature and I don't blame anyone who finds him unreadable, because, well, he really is by adult standards. And yet, there's something about those old pulp stories that I just love. I did a blog post about my love of Pulp some years ago that I thought I'd share here. I had a lot of fun writing it. In Praise of Pulp When I'm in the mood for it nothing scratches that itch like a good pulp novel. | |
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| Dave, there's a whole range of pulp fiction writing. Raymond Chandler wrote beautifully. And Edgar Rice Burroughs was a very good story teller. Ditto for Zane Grey. But poor Doc Smith is just horribly dated and poorly written. I understand that some people still love his stuff, but I think for the modern reader who isn't used to the joys of pulp fiction, he would be a poor recommendation.
By the way, I loved Before the Golden Age when I read it a long time ago. The writing varied greatly, but it did have a kind of vitality. And even Smith has a big sense of wonder, but his stories and characters are just too basic, and too political incorrect for our modern times. His style is closer to Dime novel era writing, or boys books from the early part of the century.
As a kid I loved The Skylark of Space series, but by the time I got to the Lensman series, I was too old to really enjoy them. But that's not saying you still can't. I know a lot of guys who just love the old pulps. | |
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Location: UK | Jim,may I just take a minute to thank you for your fantastic lists,a worthy and welcome addition to our WWEnds already fabulous resources. I well realize the dilemmas of producing such lists,the warring between what is academically and historically important(which can be dull)and those dear old nostalgic favourites frrom our youth(many of which we dare not reread in case of embarrassment or disappointment.) and all shades of types in between. You did a splendid job. I was very gratified that out of the 12 books per decade that you think may survive a century I had read 10 or 11 from the 50s to 80s lists,then failed miserably with the 90s,only 2 read! Afraid I am living in the past as far as what SF I read! I was away from the SF genre as a whole for several decades and am methodically working my way through Hugos and Nebulas etc filling in the gaps of ignorance. Many of those books appear on your lists.
Thank you for joinng in the discussions. I am recovering from surgery on my knee and now a truly epic dose of cold which of course has descended to my lungs,so I am wiped out,and time sitting at a computer is limited,but I hope to chat to you sometimes! | |
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Location: UK | I thought I'd read exactly 9 of the 12 headliners for every decade, but it turned out I'd only read 8 in the 80s, which I would have said was my era.
I'm still struggling through Galactic Patrol for 1950. I can't love the pulpy style, I'm afraid. It just pushes me out of the story. I'm wishing I'd picked up Martian Chronicles when I saw it in the library the other day, rather than trying to stick to books I already have. | |
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| Thanks Dusty. Your high hit rate shows you've been reading science fiction for a long time. And I think it shows that certain books are emerging as the favorites, both for scholars and nostalgic fans.
By the way, I'm open to suggestions for books I might have missed. I used awards, best-of lists, scholar books, books about science fiction, ISFDB, and my own memory to try to identify the standout books, but I'm sure I could have missed some.
Colds do that to me too, get into my lungs and cause bronchitis, and I'm trapped for 10-12 days waiting to get better and can't do anything. I avoid people this time of year. Hope you get better soon.
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| DrNafario, why don't you switch to The Martian Chronicles then. I'd be curious what you think. I highly recommend the audio book with Stephen Hoye reading. It makes The Martian Chronicles come alive. It still has its period problems too, and it's aging in strange ways. However, I think it captures the essence of the science fiction fan of the 1940s and their thinking about the future. Through the course of the stories Bradbury brings up many science fictional ideas that later writers will devote whole novels to writing. | |
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Location: UK | I do intend to fill in all of the headliners at some point, so I will read the Martian Chronicles sooner or later. I just wanted to get the challenge underway with what I had. Also, with a collection, I prefer to have an ebook. It makes it easier to dip in and out without losing my place. | |
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| Hi, Jim thanks for all your work on the lists. Of the headliners I'm done with the 50s, missing one from the 60s and two each from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in. | |
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| Why does some science fiction become dated? DrNafario says the pulp style pushes him out of Galactic Patrol.
What strange is I dont think outdated science has any effect on dating science fiction. But something does kill off science fiction books, either they are forgotten because they were never that interesting, or something became annoying about them that stops readers. Racism and sexism has killed a lot of older books. There was a popular boys book series by Roy Rockwood called the Great Marvel series (1906-1935) that featured science fiction adventures of exploring the solar system. Why dont people remember them like they do Tom Swift? (Even though Tom Swift is all but forgotten too.) Most comments on the web is because of the racism.
Poor E. E. Doc Smith is almost unreadable today except by hardcore pulp fiction fans. In fact, there is damn little science fiction before 1939 thats still popular. But age isnt the factor. The Time Machine (1895) and When Worlds Collide (1933) are still compelling reads.
Jim
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| I've accidentally discovered that some of the 1950s books we're reading are free audio at YouTube. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFvpy1-5Uok for The City at the Worlds End by Edmund Hamilton. With more books here
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD2iZ1i2502HtWJqcfyRn55MhGrRh...
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Location: Dallas, Texas | That's a great resource for audio books! They have The Big Time, Deathworld, 2BR02B and The Black Star Passes to name just a few that I've got on my to read list. Thanks for the tip. We need to get these links on to the novel pages for each.
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Location: UK | jwharris28 - 2015-01-15 6:08 PM
Why does some science fiction become dated? DrNafario says the pulp style pushes him out of Galactic Patrol.
It's a tricky one, really. I think it might simply be Smith's version of the pulp writing style. There are other older SF books I can read quite happily, even if their visions of the future seem quaint, and there are plenty of contemporary works of other genres that are absolutely fine. The viewpoint and the pacing are just a little bit off compared to what I'm used to, so I never quite feel comfortable. It's a bit too breathless and a bit too distant. I'm nearly done with it now, though.
I'm kind of expecting Galactic Patrol to be my least favourite book of the challenge. It wasn't really my first choice for 1950, but I'm trying to read what I already own where possible, and I wanted to get started as soon as possible, meaning I didn't get to scout out too many second-hand book stores.
I am aiming to read books I haven't previously read, and I can currently cover 8 of the 10 years (having just bought City by Simak about half an hour ago), but a few of those 8 aren't my first choice, and I hope to replace them before I reach those years. It gives me an excuse to browse second-hand books, which I haven't had since I completed my Agatha Christie collection last year. | |
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| jwharris28 - 2015-01-15 1:08 PM
Why does some science fiction become dated? DrNafario says the pulp style pushes him out of Galactic Patrol.
Definitely the writing style. Wells is still read, Verne too. Orwell and Huxley are classics. I would also say that the simpler the style the longer the book lasts. Simple is difficult to achieve, though, and requires greater writing skill. | |
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Definitely the writing style. Wells is still read, Verne too. Orwell and Huxley are classics. I would also say that the simpler the style the longer the book lasts. Simple is difficult to achieve, though, and requires greater writing skill.
I don't know about your library but around here the stock for Wells has shrunk to four titles. With Verne it's three. Still, a hundred plus years after the fact seems remarkable in our consume and forgot entertainment society. Some day perhaps, they might refer to Wells and Verne as the ancients, like they do to Plato and Plutarch today. | |
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Location: The Wilds of Washington | dustydigger - 2015-01-14 3:11 AM
I was very gratified that out of the 12 books per decade that you think may survive a century I had read 10 or 11 from the 50s to 80s lists,then failed miserably with the 90s,only 2 read!
Just getting through the highlighted, best possible candidates for those decades, could be a challenge all by itself.
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Location: The Wilds of Washington | justifiedsinner - 2015-01-16 9:26 AM
jwharris28 - 2015-01-15 1:08 PM
Why does some science fiction become dated? DrNafario says the pulp style pushes him out of Galactic Patrol.
Definitely the writing style. Wells is still read, Verne too. Orwell and Huxley are classics. I would also say that the simpler the style the longer the book lasts. Simple is difficult to achieve, though, and requires greater writing skill.
The classic elements of storytelling, in other words. There are some SF books which are terribly dated, the science in them is just plan wrong. That must be a sin if you're working in the hard SF sub-genre. But still it can stand the test of time, if all those things from english class work. Readers have been known to forgive a lot if other parts of the story work well. What dates a story for me is culture. If the society/culture of some far flung place feels like 1955, 1968, whatever, then I have problems very quickly. I'd like to think I can handle bad, indifferent writing (I have to read my own), so that's not an issue for me. What breaks that suspension of disbelief is different for everyone.
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| I don't know who recommended this link, and it will be embarrassing if it was from one of you, but check out this history of the paperback book.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/rise-paperback-novel/
It covers the rise of science fiction book publication in the 1950s, with the emphasis on paperback books. Before 1950 there were very few science fiction books being published, which is one reason why I didn't do a 1940s list. There was some. Like Heinlein's first juveniles came out from Scribner's in the late 1940s. Fantasy Press's first books came out in 1947. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Press - and Gnome Press in 1948, but the number of titles was very limited. | |
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| I wrote up my summary of our discussion about why science fiction books go stale.
http://auxiliarymemory.com/2015/01/18/when-does-science-fiction-go-...
I copped out and didn't try to get into very specific things. Like mutants. In the 1950s and 1960s we loved stories with radiation mutants. But that idea has fallen out of favor. There's probably a whole list of such concepts. PSI stories were big in the 1950s, but we seldom read about people with telepathy today. I'm listening to City at the World's End by Edmund Hamilton, about a small town sent into the far future by a A-Bomb blast. Heinlein did something similar with Farnham's Freehold. But we don't read more about atomic bombs doing magical things any more. | |
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Location: UK | What I am feeling nostalgic about at the moment ,Jim,is that whole area of Lost Worlds. I saw a Wildside Press Megapack of books for the Kindle like King Solomon's Mines.Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger,Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth,ERBs Pellucidar series and The Land that Time Forgot. Even Bulwer-Littons Vril! All for 0.39,or 99 cents! What a pity that we made the earth so mapped and photographed,and with tourists visiting every corner to the point of killing all that exciting sort of book. And what has happened to exploring new planets in the way of the old pulp authors? Now it seems most books about planets are boring things about human conspiracies,like Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars.I long to go roving over Barsoom 's ancient plains with John Carter and faithful Woola!.Much more fun lol. | |
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| Dusty, if you love old lost worlds stories, try Goslings by J. D. Beresford. Yeah, I loved those stories too, lost races, lost lands, hidden valleys, Shangri-La.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-01-19 9:15 PM
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| I switched from Foundation to City at World's End by Edmond Hamilton. I found an audio book version at YouTube, and got hooked. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. I'm was doing data entry at GoodReads and City at World's End kept me company. Like many SF books from the 1950s, it featured an atomic bomb causing a fantastic event - this time sending Middletown, population 50,000, into the far future where the Earth has grown cold, and abandoned by our descendants. The writing wasn't horrible, but on the thin side, reminding me more of the 1930s than the 1950s, a story that would fit into Thrilling Wonder Stories.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-01-19 11:20 PM
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Location: UK | I've chosen Green Hills of Earth for 1951. I have a sub-challenge to try to read a short story every day, so I can get this collection ticking over in the background while reading something else as my "main" book. | |
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| Are we defined by the science fiction we read? Does an affinity for 1950s science fiction reflect a certain personality type? I ask this because of the blog I just wrote, wondering if I could psychoanalyze myself by studying the books I choose to read.
http://auxiliarymemory.com/2015/01/20/self-psychoanalysis-by-studyi...
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| I see two people have read The Day of the Triffids, but no reports. I'm surprised since I think that's such an exciting book that people would be raving about it. If you don't write about the books you read at this forum, but do at your blog, put a link up here. I'm curious what people think about all these old SF books. I'll go read your blog. | |
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Location: UK | ` Couldnt resist joining you,though I already have over 50 SF books on my TBR for this year. Had a slight problem choosing a book for 1950,since 9/13 are not available from my library.I had reread I Robot about 18months ago,and Farmer in the Sky and Pebble in the Sky only a few months ago,so by default it had to be Martian Chronicles.The book blew me away as a teenager. I found the writing intoxicating,and the irony,in all shades very telling. I was about 15,we had sweated through the Cuba Crisis( I vividly remember lying in bed rigid with fear,sure we were all going up in smoke). So Bradbury,though he had written the book in the 40s and up to 1950, was of major interest. Also the racial aspect was coming to the fore for my generation,and Bradbury touched on that too. I am looking forward to seeing just how accurate my impressions of past readings are( I read it again in the 90s.) | |
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Location: UK | Welcome aboard. The challenge runs for two years, if you find it hard to fit in the extra books this year. Actually, I kind of wanted to do a five-year (or even open-ended) challenge for all 50 years in the list, but the best I could do was two years.
I guess library availability is another measure of how well the books have lasted. | |
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| DrNafario, libraries are an indicator, but they are changing. I do a lot of used book shopping and I'm amazed at the number of library discards out there. My libraries removes thousands of books each year. If they aren't checked out, they aren't retained. I know people who go to libraries to check out books to help their favorites remain in the collection. But there are other good indicators of long term life for books. I think getting the audiobook treatment on Audible is a good sign. Ditto for the ebook treatment. Or inspiring a movie.
I also thought about starting a 50 SF Books in 50 Months book club - but at Yahoogroups. Mailing lists make a great way to participate in a book club. But you got this one started, so I'm putting in here instead.
By the way, I'm listening to The Man Who Sold the Moon, not one of my 10, but an extra one. D. D. Harriman reminds me of Elon Musk. The first story, "Let There Be Light" is about inventing LED lights and solar panels, and the problem of corporations blocking the roll-out of solar energy and high efficiency.
I think this experiment of reading books by order of year is working out. I can feel the early 1950s in what I'm reading. I'm expecting the SF to evolve with the years. | |
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Location: UK | The thing that has tripped me up twice so far is that "computer" is a job title. It's cropped up in both my books so far, although it is actually used in both senses in Heinlein's "Space Jockey" in Green Hills of Earth.
Also, everybody smokes, even inside spaceships, and they still seem to use slide rules. I guess those are just signs of the times, but some authors did see past that (Foundation, I seem to remember, has computers with actual interactive displays, albeit only in monochrome). I've only seen a slide rule once, and I have no idea how they work. I'm reading the current book on my unimaginably futuristic touchscreen phone. Sometimes it's nice to feel that we do live in the future.
Edited by DrNefario 2015-01-23 10:58 AM
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| I used to use a slide-rule in the late 60s and early 70s. I remember getting permission in math classes to be allowed 2 decimals of accuracy on homework and tests. But for the life of me I can't remember how to use them now. I haven't seen a slide rule in forty years.
The amazing thing to me about then and now, is the immense lack of knowledge those people lived with. They really had no idea what was coming, even with the help of science fiction. I can remember reading astronomy books back in the early 1960s that were published in the 1950s. The Hubble telescope, and all the other wonders of astronomy and robots to the planets has caused an immense explosion in awareness of the universe. Hell, they didn't know about multiple galaxies until the late 1920s.
All of which begs the question. What aren't we seeing that everyone will know about in the 2060s? | |
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Location: UK | Oh yes,the smoking,how quickly we have become shocked at heroes smoking! I find the old rockets with fins very endearing. Easy for take-off,but what about landing? Slowing down without stalling,then putting the fins down first is taken for granted in most books,but it must have taken great skill! I also love the way private individuals build their own spacecrafts.All that sort of thing disappeared once we saw the reality of the sheer complexity of building the Apollo series,and the sheer scale of people needed to get it up in space. No more Rocketship Galileo homemade converted rockets developed into spaceship with a few tools in a delapidated hut!. But cover artists stuck to showing the old rocket-with-fins design for quite a long time after. An indelible part of my youth,those rockets! | |
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Location: UK | Finished the Martian Chronicles,though that title has no resonance for me,I knew it as a teenager under the UK title The Silver Locusts. Much more romantic and fitting than the dry as dust US title,dont you think?
This book was one of 10 books that were promoted as possibly still being read in a hundred years. I definitely think it will be.There is a complexity of viewpoints and themes enough that the book will always strike a chord somewhere. Fear of a nuclear war destroying earth may be in abeyance at the moment,but that insistence in trampling over and simply destroying other cultures than its own is as rampant as ever,as is the destruction of the environment by crass commercialism and greed. The book is more a dream than an actual depiction of colonizing Mars,and its elegiac style,poetic rhythm and intense emotionalism making any outdated concepts or attitudes seem unimportant. We dont stop to pick holes in dodgy science or even sneer at some sentimentality (would everyone go back home in the case of a nuclear war? sounds unlikely!) because we are moving on to the next little vignette which gives us a rush of nostalgia,awe at the martian landscape,sadness at mans seeming inability to learn from mistakes etc etc. The whole work is suffused with delicious irony from beginning to end,and this neutralises any sugariness and sentimentality. That irony will be what preserves this book for the future I believe. A true classic
At an earlier time I also read severalmother of the 1950 books. Hope it is OK to post about them,since not many books seem to have been read or reviewed yet
Isaac Asimov - Pebble in the Sky.Asimov's firsst full length novel is no spectacular masterpiece, but still is a solid enjoyable read. It was a change to see a middle-aged sedentary man as the hero for once, and the story was engaging enough. I was reading Zelazny's This Immortal at the same time, and there was a similar theme, a post nuclear war badly radiated earth, much of the population fled to other planets as second class citizens, outsiders in control of the earth. A nicely developed plot here, with a few surprises, though the characters are as usual rather cardboard, and there is quite a bit of coincidence. There was an obligatory stilted romance, though it was of interest in the prejudices the young archaeologist hero had to overcome to accept one of the despised earth citizens as a worthy lover. All in all a good effort from the young Asimov, and a pleasant read.
Robert A Heinlein - Farmer in the Sky. One of my favourite Heinlein juveniles about a typically ebullient young man who goes off to the moon Ganymede with his father to escape the bleak life on an overpopulated earth,where food is strictly rationed.Young Bills 'practicality and quick wits leads him to save the ship on the journey, They intend to become farmers on Ganymede which is in the process of being terraformed,but various disasters cause great problems,but our intrepid young man sees it through. Lots of fun on the spaceship,and some very interesting info on terraforming,and some quite dark emotional issues for a juvenile book. Well worth a read by adults,for the terraforming alone. No wonder I was disappointed with KSRsRed Mars,I was looking for something similar to Heinlein!
Edited by dustydigger 2015-01-25 11:13 AM
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| Just finished listening to The Man Who Sold The Moon. My second 1951 book. Listening to the 2013 Brilliance Audio edition let me appreciate these Heinlein stories like I had never had before. The narrator acted them out in a way I never read. In fact, I always thought these stories were on the boring side because they're so talky. Hearing them presented this way is the way I imagined Heinlein heard them in his head.
I was also surprised the stories were out of order though from the original Shasta edition. And the original Shasta edition had two introductions by Heinlein that get left out of all latest editions. "Blow-Ups Happen" comes last in the book, but its events happen before "The Man Who Sold the Moon." If you look at ISFDB http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?31918 it appears almost every edition is slightly different. I find that annoying.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-01-26 1:20 PM
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Location: UK | Was very pleased to see that my library just got new editions of two Heinleins I hadnt read,so I will read Between Planets for 1951,and Assignment in Eternity for 1953. I was delighted and a bit surprised that when I ordered Vonnegut's Player Piano for my 1952 read I got it within a few days. Asking for the only copy in the Depository is hit and miss. I ordered Hoyle's Black Cloud early November,and its not in sight yet! The Player Piano copy is the original 1950s edition,very dusty and careworn,so I will have to treat it with at least metaphorical kid gloves!
I have also lined up several other books,and found a few in the Wildside Megapacks on kindle,so I am pretty much sorted for the 1950s challenge. | |
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Location: UK | I didn't think to check the Megapacks. I can cover every year but 1959 without a re-read, at the moment, but four of those are not my first choices. (Three of them are Andre Norton books, which I seem to have accumulated somehow over the years. I'm happy to read one Norton for the challenge, but three seems like too many.)
I'm finding The Green Hills of Earth a lot more readable than Galactic Patrol. The stories don't seem particularly major, but it's relief to have some competent prose. | |
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| The Green Hills of Earth has some of Heinlein's stories that were sold to the slicks, like Saturday Evening Post. That was a huge step up for a pulp writer. But the do seem slight today. They're good stories, but not standout stories. To me, Heinlein was always best when he was writing for young adults. His best short story is "The Menace From Earth," which has a teenage girl for the main character. My second favorite story is the very adult "All You Zombies..." - which might be his last two short stories. Which supports my theory that Heinlein peaked as a writer between 1955-1960.
I didn't start reading Heinlein until 1964, so it's hard to gauge the impact Heinlein's stories had in the 1940s. From what I read though, he was a shooting star right from the start in 1939, and his stories were extremely popular. I wish I could comprehend how readers felt about Heinlein when The Man Who Sold the Moon and The Green Hills of Earth came out in 1950 and 1951. Just how many people were thinking of space travel? Or how many people read science fiction? What were the print runs on those early books? I'm sure V-2 rockets and the atom bomb got a lot of people receptive to science fictional ideas.
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Location: UK | I finished Green Hills of Earth yesterday. It was fine. Not outstanding, but readable. Mostly tales of everyday life in the space age that never happened. I have no idea what it's doing on the Baen Military SF list.
Two Masterworks coming up for 1952 and 1953: City by Clifford D Simak and Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke. The latter is the highest-ranked book I haven't read on the Locus All-time Top 100 (in fact, my top 3 unread books on that list are the 3 headliners from the 50s I haven't read.) I have to say I'm looking forward to the Simak more than the Clarke. I've always found Clarke a bit stodgy. | |
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Location: UK | Ah, I've just realised it's probably "The Long Watch" that makes it count as MilSF. | |
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| City is one of my all-time favorite science fiction books. I'll be very curious to see what you think. I'm not sure it will hold up for modern readers because it's very sentimental, even wistful. | |
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| gallyangel - 2015-01-17 8:50 PM What dates a story for me is culture. If the society/culture of some far flung place feels like 1955, 1968, whatever, then I have problems very quickly. I'd like to think I can handle bad, indifferent writing (I have to read my own), so that's not an issue for me. What breaks that suspension of disbelief is different for everyone. I read Joe Haldeman's The Forever War (1974) a few months ago. Whilst I really enjoyed it, I have to say that I liked Scalzi's Old Man's War (2004) better. Of course, the fact that I was too young to really have a first-hand awareness of the Vietnam War probably contributes to that, because that resonance with people who were acutely aware of / involved in the war seems to be a huge part of the book's enduring appeal.
But Haldeman also posits that all female soldiers tacitly agree to sleep with all the male soldiers and avoid monogamous linkups to help prevent "problems" amongst the troops, and the main character freaks out repeatedly about homosexuality. Both of those I found to be now quite unlikely concepts which really "dated" the novel and broke my suspension of disbelief.
Edited by illegible_scribble 2015-01-29 2:42 PM
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| I still consider Starship Troopers the conversation starter, which in a way, The Forever War was a reply, and then Ender's Game and finally Old Man's War were later comments. All are great books, but I was hugely let down by Old Man's War when the main character was rejuvenated. I thought the story was going to be about an old man. I thought that was a very cool perspective. And then he became an ordinary normal horny young man, and the story lost its novelty for me. Still good, but I was let down from my opening expectations. Full disclosure here - I'm old, so I root for older guys now. | |
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| jwharris28 - 2015-01-30 8:02 AM I was hugely let down by Old Man's War when the main character was rejuvenated. I thought the story was going to be about an old man. I thought that was a very cool perspective. And then he became an ordinary normal horny young man, and the story lost its novelty for me. For me, if Scalzi had left him in a failing body to go off and fight in an interstellar war, it would have pretty much trashed any suspension of disbelief. I'm curious why you no longer think of him as an "old man". His essence is still the same; he's still got the same personality, and his many decades of experience and wisdom. He's still an old man -- and far from ordinary. He's just been put into a different container. | |
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| illegible_scribble - 2015-01-29 7:49 PM
For me, if Scalzi had left him in a failing body to go off and fight in an interstellar war, it would have pretty much trashed any suspension of disbelief. I'm curious why you no longer think of him as an "old man". His essence is still the same; he's still got the same personality, and his manydecades of experience and wisdom. He's still an old man -- and far from ordinary. He's justbeen put into a different container.
But the story started me off with the belief that the old guy was going to find a new purpose when he was old. I thought Scalzi was going to give reasons to be old and living in space. Which could be true. Having an old body in low gravity might extend our abilities. Also, old people don't have to worry about their reproductive organs being damaged by radiation. I thought the story started off promising geezers in space, and I liked that idea. I'm not against SF about rejuvenation, but I was intrigued by old people finding new life in outer space. That would have been a new and unique plot twist. | |
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Location: UK | Looking at the 1951 list,I have previously read 5 of them. Sorry but I could never take to the Foundation series,which I have been rereading this last year or two. Since I never found the whole psychohistory premise that Seldon could predict the future credible in the least, I was unenthusiastic from the start. Then it is very ''bitty,natural enough in a fix-up novel I suppose. No characterization at all,at least I want a little bit! So not my thing.
Heinlein's Puppet Masters was one of his ''cheesy'' ones I felt,but at least it was a fast moving fun read.
Bradbury's Illustrated Man was a great favourite of mine back in the 60s. I remember our very small SF corner,probably never more than 150 books on the shelves,but all the Bradbury anthologies were there - Illustrated Man,Golden Apples of the Sun,Machineries of Joy,October Country and of course Martian Chronicles/Silver Locusts. I imagine most of the books were older SF ,from the 40s and 50s though of course all new to me,so short stories were the order of the day. Theodore Sturgeon was King of the Castle then,along with Clarke,Asimov,Damon Knight. Oddly,I dont remember any Heinlein at all,I got into him much later,the 1980s.
The Stars Like Dust was just a run of the mill books,aimiable but nothing special. Apparently it was Asimov's least fave book.
Day of the Triffids was an excellent read.and still is.It never won awards,but it outstrips all the other books in its year by appearing in no less than 10 WWEnd lists.,equalling Martian Chronicles. I think I have read it at least three times,plus all the TV adaptations. It seems to be a national imperative to bring out a new version every 10 or 15 years or so here in the UK! lol.
I am now half way through Between Planets by Heinlein for my 1951 book,and its quite enjoyable,though not first rank. More about it when I finish.I also just received Hal Clement's Iceworld,also 1951,which I will read next. It was a nice surprise,I ordered just Iceworld,but the library sent me the brand new Gateway SF series omnibus containing Iceworld,Close to Critical and Cycle of Fire,none of which I have read before,so yippee! Pity Needle wasnt among them,I would have read it for 1950! | |
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| Dustydigger, if we compare these old 1951 books to modern books, they don't hold up well. The best of them might be V-2 rockets, whereas the current book I'm reading, The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert would be a Saturn 5. And most of those old science fiction stories would only be small sounding rockets.
I concur with your assessment. I also have a lot of trouble with the Foundation stories. I'm trying again, because I read so many essays about people's love for that series, but I struggle to find anything to like. I've only read the original trilogy though. What's funny is I love the opening of Foundation where we see Trantor for the first time, and then it's all downhill from there. The whole psychohistory thing just seems silly.
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Location: UK | Wow! AT LAST someone who agrees with me about the psychohistory. I found it ridiculous from chapter one! And I never did understand why the Mule was such a catastrophe and derailed the whole thing. I particularly found it disconcerting when,after taking up large amounts of space in the first two books he was summarily dismissed from the tale! Not with a bang but a whimper - if even that.
I recently read Foundation's Edge and here we were suddenly expected to join up the Seldon universe with the robots,which I found a bit odd.. I much preferred good old Daneel and Lige stories,even Fantastic Voyage,which at least was fast paced and amusing! I also was pretty unmoved by The Gods Themselves,so I seem not to be much of an Asimov fan..
About Day of the Triffids. I know Brian Aldiss was pretty scathing about it,calling it the founder of the Cozy Catastrophe school,but it is still very readable today,and was massively influential. I remember the first time I saw 28 Days Later,being dimly aware that the early scenes were very familiar,when it dawned what the source was,Bill coming out of the hospital.As for cozy catastrophes,I dont think the characters found it all very cozy at all!
I cant locate Aldiss's comments on the genre but TVTropes had a typically wry and amusing explanation -
"Cosy Catastrophe" is a term coined by Brian Aldiss . The End of the World as We Know It has arrived and ... our heroes feel fine. Sure, it's a pity for all those billions who just perished at the hands of super-plague/aliens/nuclear war. But for our safe, middle-class, (usually) white heroes, it means a chance to quit their day job, steal expensive cars without feeling guilty, sleep in a five-star hotel for free, and relax while the world falls apart around them. Maybe things weren't as good as they were in The Beforetimes, but all in all, life is still enjoyable. Especially if you brought your dog.
Maybe later they'll band together to recreate a humble yet sustainable pretechnological society. Maybe, if they're of mixed genders, they'll see it as their duty to repopulate the species (wink wink). Maybe they'll just learn to accept the extinction of the human race with quiet dignity. Either way, the end of the world shouldn't be the ... end of the world, so to speak.Expect Arcadia since there's not as much pollution and construction''
I think we need to look at the conditions of the time Wyndham was writing. That very uncozy catastrophe World War II was still fresh and painful,devastating and with looming problems to come. Hey,we were still on rationing in UK! I think seeing hope through the ruins of the fictional,however bleak, world made the real world more manageable. Some adventure,some excitement,yes some getting perks by grabbing what you wanted was a nice little sop to the rigours of life. Its very similar in the crime fiction arena,James Bond exploded on the scene in - was it 1953,and was drinking champagne,eating fancy food driving a fancy car at a time when my mother was trading her clothing coupons with a neighbour to give her kids two bananas a month instead of one,half the houses in the area were ruins,and life was very grey. I think cozy catastrophes with their wish fulfilment and hope that things can only get better were an excellent source of reassurance and comfort for the times,and the Triffids was well enough written and had such a strong story it has manage to live far beyond the label,which wasnt particularly fair anyway. | |
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Location: UK | I can kind of see Aldiss's point about the cosy catastrophe, but it doesn't stop me enjoying them any more than the "cosy mystery" tag stops me enjoying Agatha Christie.
I get the feeling that Wyndham was much more significant in the UK than he was in the US, which is maybe why he missed out on the awards. I don't have any actual evidence to back that up. | |
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| When the Classic Science Fiction book club read The Day of the Triffids we were all amazed by how much we enjoyed the book. It really is a standout novel, and is still effective today. And it's cozy nature is its main virtual. I didn't know their was a sub-genre "cozy catastrophe" but I love that, even if Aldiss was sneering at it.
One of my all-time favorite books is Earth Abides, but modern versions also include The Road, The Dog Stars, The Age of Miracles and endless parade of YA novels about the end of the world told at the family level.
My only criticism of The Day of the Triffids would be the Triffids. The book would still have been great without them. But I didn't hate them either. I was willing to overlook killer walking plants. | |
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Location: UK | Lol,Jim! Poor old triffids,lurching around like drunks ,they lost a lot of credibility once Little Shop of Horrors came out. But still I get a frisson on they quietly but determinedly line up and lean on the fences of the survivors' compound. Werent the triffids supposed to be genetically engineered by the nasty Russians? I'm a bit vague on that ,its a long time since I read it | |
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Location: UK | I finished my 1951 read, Heinlein's Between Two Planets,good fun.Rockets with fins? Check. Sliderules? CheckI dont mind outdated science,I just assume I am reading a book set in an alternate world,where this stuff is perfectly acceptable. Here's my report
Email
One of Heinlein's fun ''juveniles''. Don Harvey,warned by his parents on Mars to leave his schooling on Earth before there is war between Earth and its Martian and Venusian colonies,is asked to collect a package from a professor friend before leaving Earth,which leads to his arrest and the mysterious death of the professer. There is a seemingly valueless plastic ring which is returned to him by the ominous security officers,and he takes it off on his travels to Mars,via space station and Venus/. On the spaceflight he aids a stricken Venusian ''dragon'' andwitnesses the destruction of the military space station by the rebels. Landing on Mars he is overtaken by the war,and is surprised that Earth is searching for him and his ring,which eventually proves to holdvital breakthrough technology about weapons and speeding up spaceflight.
Don sees a friend murdered by the Earth troops,and escapes from a prison camp,wading through vile stagnt swamps full of mud lice. He falls in with rebels and becomes a guerilla taking part in dangerous raids. Eventually he meets up with the brilliant Dragon,again and passes on the ring,which gives the edge to the rebels.Oh,and there is a light little romance too,though the not very sharp Don barely recognises it!
I really enjoyed this book full of action and adventure,but with nuggets intriguing enough to keep the interest of adults. I was glad that it was written at a time when all the data we had on Venus was by telescope etc,and authors could still have fun inventing strange environments and could still have venusian ''dragons''!
This was,as is common with Heinlein juveniles,a coming of age story-,but with some more serious shadows. The ebullient practical but rather obtuse young man we meet at first comes through hard times,and that has impact on him,though Heinlein touches only lightly on it for his young readers eager for adventure. On Venus he sees a friend shot dead,and in a prison camp though he escapes when an outage makes the electric fence be useless he gets over in time but sees a fellow prisoner fried as the fence comes on again. When he meets up with rebels their leader is frank about their aims,to make the lives of the small earth force unbearable and expensive inn terms of men and equipment. ''We will sneak in at night and cut their throats,and sneak out again for breakfast'' and we can assume when Don joins them he is involved with this,though its not very explicit - ''He learned the ways of the guerilla - to infiltrate without sound,to strike silently and fade back into the dark....those that learned survived,those that did not,died....He aquired deep lines around his mouth.lines beyond his years,and a white puckered scar on his left forearm.''
On a later occasion,when reunited with allies someone tries to bully him into giving up the ring calling him a young boy,and suddenly,seemingly out of nowhere a knife is pressed against the mans stomach.,and he insists on being regarded as an adult. At one point he thinks about his parents,but admits to himself that somehow he can not conjure up any emotions. None of this sort of thing is standard in juvenile fiction,and as |I said,it makes for enjoyable reading for adults | |
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Location: Great Lakes, USA | I am trying to choose which books I will read for this challenge and I have found that I own a lot of 50s books that I haven't read. 1959 is the only year that I have only one book on my TBR shelf. I have a lot of unread Asimov and Heinlein. I am having a hard time choosing... | |
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Location: UK | 1959 is the year I have the fewest unread books, and now the only year where I don't own any of them. All being well, however, I will be visiting a couple of good second-hand bookshops tomorrow, and hope to fill in some of the gaps. | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | If you're into getting as many challenges completed as possible, I have found that nine of my 10 picks for this challenge count as entries on different lists for the Listomania Challenge. (Dorsai! doesn't count because it was nominated for a tracked award).
Edit: And if you're going to be munchkin, the other way to complete the challenge is to read books on the same list and as long as they haven't been nominated or won an award, all of these books are on the same "list".
Edited by pizzakarin 2015-02-06 2:20 PM
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Location: UK | I intended to read Vonnegut's Player Piano for 1952,and fortunately got it through the library,the battered original edition. Wasnt too enthused about Vonnegut. Cat's Cradle amused me greatly way back in 1964, but it doesnt stand up today. And am I the only person who did not like Slaughterhouse Five? Well,I have made a serious attempt to get through Player Piano. Oh no,dystopia,a world where machines have taken away the work of the masses.I couldnt take to any of the characters and just didnt feel up to this book about a failed attempt to restore a better society. . I gave up at 100 pages,sneaked a peek at the ending - yep,thoroughly downbeat,so bye bye Vonnegut. I wanted to try Simak's City,which wasnt in the library,then was delighted to see they recently got a copy of the 2011 Masterworks edition. Now the library says it is no longer available The amazon prices were horrific so bye bye Simak. I finally located a kindle edition of This Island Earth,and I think this will be much more fun,about a man who finds a catalogue of spare parts for alien technology. Sounds fun! | |
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Location: UK | Mixed fortunes at the second hand shop. Only one book for the challenge, Midwich Cuckoos, and one, er, not for the challenge. Still plenty of time to find something for 1959. | |
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| Dustydigger, I'm having trouble with Vonnegut too, but I still like Slaughterhouse Five. I think. I haven't reread in several years. I'm generally bothered by satire. It dries out rather fast, and satire is usually cold and lacking in emotional warmth. I think Slaughterhouse Five has some warmth to it. Vonnegut's other books are just old dried out satire. That's why I don't like The Space Merchants anymore. If a book doesn't make me cry in places, I usually consider it inconsequential. The best books put you through an emotional ringer, leaving you all teary eyed and snotty nosed. Satire just doesn't push any buttons for me.
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Location: UK | Jim,you are so right about satire. There has to be something beyond it,either character or plot to make it viable,and . Player Piano seemed to have some what was meant to be humour,but it seemed heavy handed to me. As for Slaughterhouse 5,I may have gone into it with wrong impressions. Someone had said it was a time travel novel and so it was not at all what I was expecting. I felt as if I were being manoeuvred into sympathy for the characters one minute,then there was off the wall sections about the space zoo and those aliens,and I found the mix not very smooth or enjoyable. And the characters were not very well delineated either To me it was really just literary fiction using SF motifs for other purposes. I felt disconnected from it,and as I said,felt a bit manipulated. I could feel no connection at all with Player Piano,even though we are much nearer the state of machines taking over today than was the case back then. I never take much to such books (thinking of Atwood's Handmaid's Tale,as just one example),its just me being a philistine as usual! In my old age and want some nice straightforward exciting stuff,my days with litearry fiction are long gone! | |
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| Things have been quiet around here. For 1952 I'm reading The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. I'm disappointed its not available from Audible.com. Audible has a tremendous number of the old classics, but for certain writers they have nothing, like Bester and Samuel R. Delany. Audible even has The Dreaming Jewels and More Than Human by Sturgeon, a rather obscure figure today. Audible even has E. C. Tubb, so it's strange they have nothing by such major writers as Bester and Delany.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-02-12 5:20 PM
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| jwharris28 - 2015-02-12 5:19 PM Things have been quiet around here. For 1952 I'm reading The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. I'm disappointed its not available from Audible.com. Audible has a tremendous number of the old classics, but for certain writers they have nothing, like Bester and Samuel R. Delany. Audible even has The Dreaming Jewels and More Than Human by Sturgeon, a rather obscure figure today. Audible even has E. C. Tubb, so it's strange they have nothing by such major writers as Bester and Delany. The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester - Audiobook Full 8:27:40, from ScienceFictionAB on YouTube
Edited by illegible_scribble 2015-02-12 6:09 PM
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Thanks! And it's a pretty good reading too.
Jim
Edited by jwharris28 2015-02-12 7:08 PM
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Location: UK | I finished This Island Earth for 1952,after giving up on Player Piano. Island was good fun,good old fashioned adventure,but with some interesting points.As ever, WWII looms over the book. Jones makes the point that just as in the war small islands with so called ''primitive'' peoples were dragged in to the bigger conflict,and were often left with a wrecked society after their usefulness was done. Here Earth is a very backward planet which can be easily sacrificed in the huge scale of an millennia old interstellar conflict. But our good old engineer who had been used as a sort of factory foreman points out a new tactic.to fight the evil enemy.The book ends there before the tactis are deployed,but it is an optimistic ending. Very enjoyable.
The only books I had read for this year were The Demolished Man,the first award winner in our list,and Foundation and Empire. You all know my feelings about Foundation,but I did enjoy Demolished Man,though it has dated a bit. The typography for the mental speech must have seemed very cool and exciting back in 1952,but it has been done a million times since,so the impact is lost somewhat today. Add that we view much of the book from the anti-hero's point of view and it doesnt rouse much empathy either. I much preferred the pyrotechnics of Bester's Tiger Tiger/ Still,an interesting read.
We are now getting more and more books which are on WWEnd lists . In 1950 Martian Chronicles,on 10 lists,and I,Robot,on 6 lists,towered above the rest. Again in 1951 Day of the Triffids was on on 10 lists,Illustrated Man on 5,with Foundation on 3 lists.In 1952 Demolished Man is on 8 lists,City on 5,and the other books barely show. But from 1953 onwards we see a lot more heavyweight books. Cant wait!-Interesting about which authors get chosen,and who are ignored. I remember back in the 60s Sturgeon was massive,the author young writers aspired to. ,famous for his short stories,but now that people hardly read short stories in the genre he is mostly forgotten,apart from More Than Human,of course
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| dustydigger - 2015-02-13 8:05 AM
Cant wait!-Interesting about which authors get chosen,and who are ignored. I remember back in the 60s Sturgeon was massive,the author young writers aspired to. ,famous for his short stories,but now that people hardly read short stories in the genre he is mostly forgotten,apart from More Than Human,of course
I totally agree. Systematically going through these 1950s SF books is revealing the true classics. What we need to do is find the forgotten gems and encourage people to read them. For example, today (2/13/15) Amazon has The Dreaming Jewels on sale for the Kindle for a $1.99 - and you can add the Audible edition for another $1.99. That's a good indicator that people are still remembering Sturgeon. There's even a quote on the Amazon page that hooked me:
"I look upon Sturgeon with a secret and growing jealousy." Ray Bradbury
Even though I'm not familiar with this novel, and the plot description is unappealing to me, the glowing reader reviews made me go ahead and buy it. I'm hoping it will be a gem. What I'd really like to do from participating in this 1950's SF reading challenge is find books that will thrill me like SF thrilled me back in the 1960s, when I first discovered SF as a teen.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-02-13 8:34 AM
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| For 1952 I'm reading The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. It's good but not compelling, probably because the main character wants to murder someone, and the main theme is about a world where telepaths exist. I just can't believe in telepathy. We hardly ever see telepathy used in science fiction stories anymore, although it was very common in the 1950s. I wonder how many science fictional concepts have become extinct?
Edited by jwharris28 2015-02-17 10:12 AM
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| I enjoyed The Dreaming Jewels. Its populated with a cast of Diane Arbus characters and reads more like an Algernon Blackwood story than a science fiction novel. The gears grind a little when Zena launches into a long unnecessary plot exposition, but thats a minor quibble.
The Sands of Mars has an interesting premise, but the execution seems flat and colorless. Martin Gibson, the protagonist, never comes alive. I cant help but think that Heinlein would have centered the plot on the young crew member Jimmy Spencer and Project Dawn would have become a riveting event. Instead, The Sands of Mars just plods along like a metronome. | |
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| I finished Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss today - a 1958 book I read out of order. It's the February book for the Classic Science Fiction Book Club. It was fun, but not great, but I can't really say what it's about with giving spoilers. If you can read it without reading anything about it you'll probably have the most fun figuring things out for yourself.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-02-21 8:02 PM
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Location: The Wilds of Washington | jwharris28 - 2015-02-21 6:01 PM
I finished Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss today - a 1958 book I read out of order. It's the February book for the Classic Science Fiction Book Club.
These days, when I think of Non Stop, the SF channel's Ascension comes immediately to mind. Or is that to much of a spoiler? I'm sure there was some inspiration there.
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| gallyangel - 2015-02-23 12:56 AM
These days, when I think of Non Stop, the SF channel's Ascension comes immediately to mind. Or is that to much of a spoiler? I'm sure there was some inspiration there.
I had heard there was a TV show using that idea. Unfortunately, I don't have cable. I wonder if they use the same basic plot that Aldiss and Heinlein used? I just checked, and Ascension is available for streaming from Amazon for $7.99. | |
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Location: UK | Not quite sure what the timescale is for this challenge. One year a fortnight,or a month? I have some sort of vague notion that we are going to do one year a fortnight,thus neatly taking two years to do al l50 years. Am I right in thinking we should be reading a 1953 book now? Dont want to get too far ahead if it is one year per month,so I am going to read Hamilton's City at the End of Time, Campbell's Black Star Passes,and Van Voght's Weapon ships of Isher alongside the current book. I have to say though that I have already finished Hal Clement's Iceworld for 1953,so I had better read those others while waiting for you all to catch up! Though I do see mamajulie has also finished 1953. Better get your skates on,you slackers! lol | |
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| dustydigger - 2015-02-24 6:21 AM
Not quite sure what the timescale is for this challenge. One year a fortnight,or a month? I have some sort of vague notion that we are going to do one year a fortnight,thus neatly taking two years to do al l50 years.
I've covered 1950, 1951 and 1958, and I'm reading 1952 now. So I'm at the fortnight pace. But I doubt many people will want to keep that pace for 50 books.
By the way, I found this at Goodreads
Classic Science Fiction 1950-1959
They have lists for many decades. And it's interesting to compare their lists to mine. One advantage to these lists is they are ranked by reader voting. Fahrenheit 451 is their top book for the 1950s. | |
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Location: UK | I've just started City, for 1952. I think I'm going to count it as a collection. It's always tricky with fix-ups, but this one is looking like it might be disjointed enough.
There's no great rush, unless you want to get on to the 60s. | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | I, like a few others, chose The Martian Chronicles as my 1950 book. I put up a full review, but would just like to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get over the "dated" bits and just enjoy the book as it is. I also highly recommend the audiobook read by Stephen Hoye (the one on Audible). By delivering it a little pulpy, but also very evenly so, he mitigates some of the cheesiness that might have resulted from a straight print reading on my own.
Next up: 1951 - The Day of the Triffids, though it is a bit down my list because of a couple of challenges that end mid-year | |
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Location: UK | The only bit of The Martian Chronicles that was a bit jarring to me,didnt fit into the lyrical style of the book,was the section about the House of Usher . It was a little too dark and gruesome for the book IMO,though it is darkly funny,and to fans of Poe there are lots of fun allusions to his work.. I just thought the theme of censorship was not quite in line with the rest of the stories. | |
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| dustydigger - 2015-02-26 2:03 PM
The only bit of The Martian Chronicles that was a bit jarring to me,didnt fit into the lyrical style of the book,was the section about the House of Usher . It was a little too dark and gruesome for the book IMO,though it is darkly funny,and to fans of Poe there are lots of fun allusions to his work.. I just thought the theme of censorship was not quite in line with the rest of the stories.
I agree, that story really didn't fit in with the others. | |
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Location: New Zealand | Hi, I haven't posted before but thought I might join the discussion.
My first book for 1950 was Cosmic Engineers. I picked it because I love Simak's Way Station, and thought I'd try some more of his. It wasn't as good as Way Station, but it was kinda fun.
I've just finished my challenge book for 1951, The Day of the Triffids. I know I've read it before because we had to read it at school, but that was over 35 years ago, so I thought it would be interesting to revisit it, particularly as the only thing I remembered about it is that it had creepy people-eating plants.
I was surprised to find that the book was much better than that. In fact the people-eating plants were really such a small part of the book, with the focus being more on people, their reactions, and their struggle to put society back together again. And of course, there was also plenty of killer-plant carnage. | |
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Location: New Zealand | Oops, that last post by 'Guest' was by me, Weesam. Somehow I became un-logged in. | |
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Location: UK | I finished City yesterday. It was OK, but wouldn't really have been my pick as a Masterwork. I think Simak's stories hold up for the same reason that Bradbury's do: because of their emotional depth, which still resonates even when the science is dated, but City has too many of the flaws of a fix-up to really work for me. I've never really been able to love collections like I do novels. The stories are all related, here, even if they occasionally look like they might not be, but it still has the feel of a collection, to me, and on top of that I just didn't really buy some of the ideas.
Childhood's End is next up for me, one of the headliners, and the highest-placed book on the Locus Best SF list that I haven't read. It seems like this is real gap in my SF education, but I've always struggled a bit with Clarke. I have mixed feelings about this one ahead of time. I'm not sure when I'll get round to starting it. | |
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| DrNefario - 2015-03-02 7:32 AM
I finished City yesterday. It was OK, but wouldn't really have been my pick as a Masterwork. I think Simak's stories hold up for the same reason that Bradbury's do: because of their emotional depth, which still resonates even when the science is dated, but City has too many of the flaws of a fix-up to really work for me. I've never really been able to love collections like I do novels. The stories are all related, here, even if they occasionally look like they might not be, but it still has the feel of a collection, to me, and on top of that I just didn't really buy some of the ideas.
I often wonder if the age of when you first reading a classic science fiction novel is important. Yes, City is just a collection of stories fixed up to "seem" like a novel, but its a clever way to tie the stories together. I first read City as a kid, and I think its enchantment power is more potent then. When I reread it now, it has nostalgia potency. On the other hand, the older the book gets, I imagine the more dated it will seem, which is an anti-nostalgic effect.
Yet, the idea that humans have moved on and the Earth is populated with intelligent dogs and robots, is top level sense of wonder image. I wonder if a modern writer could still turn that idea into a novel and make it work? | |
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Location: UK | I have updated this challenge to add Reading Levels. Participants will need to adjust their settings. | |
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| Piano Player was disappointing. It's hard to feel much empathy for the protagonist, Paul Proteus. He's a hopeless milksop who reminds me of the Og Oggilby character in the movie The Bank Dick. I kept thinking of W. C. Fields comment to Og: "Don't be a luddy-duddy! Don't be a mooncalf! Don't be a jabbernowl! You're not those, are you?" Paul seems to stumble through life, professing to love his wife Anita even though she is a hectoring busybody. It's tough to build a compelling story on the shoulders of such a weak character.
Piano Player is filled with disconnected people, places, and events that don't seem to serve any purpose in furthering the plot. Paul buys Gottwald House, an old fashion farm, but loses interest after one day of farm work. The Shah of Bratpuhr character is so broad that his outsider's viewpoint is diminished. Doctor Lawson Shepherd, Paul's second-in-command, is a matinee villain, flat and one-dimensional. The plot detours into an encounter with the Cornell football coach, a checker playing machine named Checker Charley, and a black cellmate who is straight out of a minstrel show.
Player Piano is a jumbled mess. | |
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Location: UK | Lol! MJ,at least you managed tp finish the book. I gave up only part way throiugh.It was so drab and dull in this particular world,and I couldnt connect with any of the characters at all.
There seems to be a common thread about labour relations in several books of this period,anxiety about unions,the frustrations of workers etc. I came across it in various forms in Player Piano,This Island Earth,The Forever Machine. A general unease with technology and man's relationship to machines seems to be widespread.And that is not including the huge fear of scientists and the atom bomb,the greatest bugbear of the time,where every other book makes dire predictions of destruction. | |
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| mj122955 - 2015-03-03 8:45 AM
Piano Player is filled with disconnected people, places, and events that don't seem to serve any purpose in furthering the plot. Paul buys Gottwald House, an old fashion farm, but loses interest after one day of farm work. The Shah of Bratpuhr character is so broad that his outsider's viewpoint is diminished. Doctor Lawson Shepherd, Paul's second-in-command, is a matinee villain, flat and one-dimensional. The plot detours into an encounter with the Cornell football coach, a checker playing machine named Checker Charley, and a black cellmate who is straight out of a minstrel show.
Player Piano is a jumbled mess.
I can't read old Vonnegut. I wonder why it's still in print? I guess fans of later Vonnegut want to read his older stuff. Evidently publishers in the 1950s were so hard up for content they'd publish almost anything.
Ultimately, I hope we all can distill a list of SF books from the 1950s that are still worth reading today. I can't believe Library of America included The Space Merchants in their Classic American Science Fiction Novels of the 1950s http://www.loa.org/sciencefiction/ . That's another story that really hasn't aged well. I guess it's very hard to separate reputation from readability. | |
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Location: SC, USA | The only Vonnegut I've read is Cat's Cradle and Slaughter-house Five. I read Cat's Cradle in a SF class in college and hated it. I just taught Slaugher-house a couple of years ago in a class about historical metafiction. The students liked it. I have Sirens of Titan on this year's reading list. When I finish it, I might say I'm done with Vonnegut.
I read The Space Merchants for the first time 5 or 6 years ago. I really liked it because I think it has a lot to say about consumerism that is still relevant--at least in a philosophical sense. | |
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Location: UK | Its half a century since I read Space Merchants and now have little recollection of it but do remember it made a big impact on me back then,such that even now when I think of that little library collection in my small town,that title springs to mind automatically.I may have to try to fit in a reread........shoehorn it in somehow! | |
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| I just finished reading The Space Merchants. Mitch Courtenay is an ad agency wonk that happily generates lies and deceit about a planned mission to colonize Venus. A shadowy organization known as "The Consies" opposes the powerful corporations intent on fueling the rampant consumerism causing widespread human suffering and environmental disaster. When Mitch finds out his wife Kathy is a Consie, he calls her "...a lying fanatic and a bitch." When he explains the Consie manifesto to his boss Fowler Schocken, Fowler says "...you're talking like a Consie" and Mitch replies "Why, so I am. That's terrible." Seven pages later, Mitch takes over the ad agency after Schocken's death and immediately reveals "...I had learned to despise everything for which it stood." Like a light switch, no soul searching, no epiphanies, no insights into Mitch's momentous decision. Such an about-face seems clumsy and unbelievable. | |
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Location: Grootfontein, Namibia | I've read Fury for 1950 and The Puppet Masters for 1951. I'm reading Vonnegut's Player Piano as the 1952 choice. Both Fury and The Puppet Masters were a tad disappointing. The "Heinlein Voice" was a bit much for me, and his depiction of female characters were ... well ... 1950-ish. I struggled with the theme of Fury and could not accept the protagonist's character, of what he was, even considering the basic premise of the story that made Sam utterly ruthless. I just couldn't identify with him. Maybe Kuttner went a little over the top in his characterizations here. The last line of the book, in the context of everything, is brilliant. That, at least, filled me with a sense of wonder(ing) ...
I'm hoping Player Piano will restore some faith in the old 1950's classics. | |
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| Emil - 2015-03-05 9:48 AM
I've read Fury for 1950 and The Puppet Masters for 1951. I'm reading Vonnegut's Player Piano as the 1952 choice. Both Fury and The Puppet Masters were a tad disappointing. The "Heinlein Voice" was a bit much for me, and his depiction of female characters were ... well ... 1950-ish. I struggled with the theme of Fury and could not accept the protagonist's character, of what he was, even considering the basic premise of the story that made Sam utterly ruthless. I just couldn't identify with him. Maybe Kuttner went a little over the top in his characterizations here. The last line of the book, in the context of everything, is brilliant. That, at least, filled me with a sense of wonder(ing) ....
The Puppet Masters is not one of my favorite Heinlein books. It's a great idea for a story, but I don't like the Heinlein handles it. Heinlein had a number of pet ideas he liked to push, and when an editor would allow him, he'd go overboard. Usually you don't see this until after 1960. Heinlein complained bitterly about his editor at Charles Scribner's, but I think she improved his books.
I haven't read Fury, but it's interesting that's its another book about Venus. Between Planets and The Space Merchants are about Venus. I haven't read much Kuttner, but his books have been reprinted lately as ebooks. Fury does okay at Goodreads, so I might give it a try someday, but you don't make it sound good though.
We should study how many 1950s SF books are about the Moon, Mars and Venus. When did science fiction become more focused on interstellar travel? | |
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Location: SC, USA | "We should study how many 1950s SF books are about the Moon, Mars and Venus. When did science fiction become more focused on interstellar travel?" I'd guess that after we went to the moon then we could then imagine going farther than just the solar system. C'mon over to the Science Fictional Solar System Reading Challenge and conduct your study Rhonda | |
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Location: New Zealand | Finished my 1951 book, Between Planets by Heinlein. Can't say I was impressed. If I had been a teenage boy growing up in the 1950's I would probably have loved it, but I am none of those things, and it did nothing for me at all. Lots of running around deering-do by teenager on the loose who manages to save everyone.
And I can't get over the fact that Venus somehow has a native population, and they are dragons. Why would they be a creature out of earth's mythology? They should be something completely different.
Next up: City by Clifford Simak | |
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Location: UK | I just noticed the new reading levels. I am going for 15 books. I will have a chance to read some of the early books,and do a reread of Day of the Triffids and Double Star,which I have been itching to do but had new authors i wanted to read. I would have loved to do the full 20,but couldnt locate any more in the library system.As it is,I reckon locating the books for this challenge will cost me around $40 in total,and I cant afford to spend more than that!And some of the prices for even secondhand SF classics are totally ridiculous. II am going back to fill in Weapon Shops of Isher and City at World's End,then read Double Star and Day of the Triffids. Great fun! | |
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| Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is my 1954 book. I finished it today. It's a dystopian novel that reads like a Saturday afternoon matinee. Workmanlike prose marches the story along. The book aims to be a scary vampire tale and it succeeds in that respect, but character development is minimal.
Favorite quote:
"There were no psychiatrists left to murmur of groundless neuroses and auditory hallucinations. The last man in the world was irretrievably stuck with his delusions." | |
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Location: UK | I started Childhood's End last night, and was surprised to be reading about Kennedy's speech and Armstrong and Gagarin. Either Clarke was really really good at this futurism lark, or he tweaked it a bit for later editions. | |
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| DrNefario - 2015-03-14 4:39 AM
I started Childhood's End last night, and was surprised to be reading about Kennedy's speech and Armstrong and Gagarin. Either Clarke was really really good at this futurism lark, or he tweaked it a bit for later editions.
I've wondered if science fiction writers had a chance to revise their work in later editions to fix glaring errors. I don't like that idea at all though. | |
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Location: UK | According to Wikipedia, the revised first chapter was written in 1990. It's odd that the Masterwork version of this goes for the revised text, while the Masterwork version of City, my 1952 book, did not include the extra ninth story added later.
Edited by DrNefario 2015-03-14 8:20 AM
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Location: The Wilds of Washington | Guest - 2015-03-14 5:59 AM
I've wondered if science fiction writers had a chance to revise their work in later editions to fix glaring errors. I don't like that idea at all though.
If I remember correctly there were, as you say, glaring errors of a scientific kind, like the earth spinning backwards or something so obviously wrong like that in the first edition of the Ringworld, that Niven had to make revisions for later editions. It was just to embarrassing to leave them.
And, of course, the first edition of The Hobbit, is different than the current edition. As Tolkien was integrating the Hobbit into his material for LOTRs, the character of Gollum had to be revised considerably from the first edition.
So there are times where it does happen. And Plenty of times when it simply doesn't. Depends on the work and the author, is my guess.
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| gallyangel - 2015-03-14 1:27 PM Guest - 2015-03-14 5:59 AM I've wondered if science fiction writers had a chance to revise their work in later editions to fix glaring errors. I don't like that idea at all though. If I remember correctly there were, as you say, glaring errors of a scientific kind, like the earth spinning backwards or something so obviously wrong like that in the first edition of the Ringworld, that Niven had to make revisions for later editions. It was just to embarrassing to leave them. And, of course, the first edition of The Hobbit, is different than the current edition. As Tolkien was integrating the Hobbit into his material for LOTRs, the character of Gollum had to be revised considerably from the first edition. So there are times where it does happen. And Plenty of times when it simply doesn't. Depends on the work and the author, is my guess. I think it was very common for writers to change content from their magazine versions of their stories/serials when they were reprinted as books. But still, I like to think of books as unchanging, reflecting the times in which they were written. | |
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| One problem I think many of these 1950s SF books have is they are close to first drafts. A lot of writers back then wrote quickly, sometimes publishing more than one book a year, and wrote for paperback publishers that didn't pay much so they gave their books little work time. They are all action, with little character development. Most were under 200 pages, so they make a quick read, but that also means they aren't fleshed out compared to modern novels. Many of these books are fun to remember, but disappointing when compared to all the better books I've read in the last fifty years. Weesam didn't like Between Planets, but it holds up well for me today. Not as good as the top Heinlein juveniles, but much better than most other 1950s SF. However, I can never tell if my enjoyment of rereading it today comes from nostalgia or if the book is actually a well-written story.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-03-14 2:55 PM
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Location: New Zealand | That's interesting. I hadn't thought about why the 1950's books are so short, with lots of action and little development.
I don't think I disliked Between Planets, I just didn't connect with it in any way. I thought that might be because I am a 49 year old female living in 2015, rather than a 14 year old boy living in the 1950's who would have found it fun.
However, I recently read Iceworld by Hal Clement, which also seems to have been written for a younger audience, also had science that was just ridiculous from the 2015 point of view, yet I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also really liked City by Clifford Simak. Why do we like one, and not another? Go figure! | |
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Location: New Zealand | Ahh, technology is defeating me! The above post was from me, I seem to have become logged out! | |
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Location: UK | Since Weesam has mentioned Iceworld,I can suppose we are up to 1953 at last? With 18 books listed this was the busiest year of the decade.Most listed are
Fahrenheit 451 - 11 lists
Childhood's End - 10 lists
More Than Human - 8 lists
Honourable mentions - Bring the Jubilee (5) and Space Merchants (5)
So how many have we read previously to the challenge? What do we want to read now?.
...........just got visitors,its Mothers Day here in UK,so I'll get back to you later!
I do wish you could add or edit these posts at a later time! Sometimes when I'm in a hurry I mess them up,and cringe later when I see my errors and cant put them right!
Edited by dustydigger 2015-03-15 4:28 AM
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Location: UK | I'd previously read Fahrenheit 451 (I'm almost certain), and Second Foundation. Since I already owned Childhood's End and More Than Human, and hadn't read either, I didn't spend much time looking into the rest. | |
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| dustydigger - 2015-03-15 4:24 AM Since Weesam has mentioned Iceworld,I can suppose we are up to 1953 at last? With 18 books listed this was the busiest year of the decade.Most listed are Fahrenheit 451 - 11 lists Childhood's End - 10 lists More Than Human - 8 lists Honourable mentions - Bring the Jubilee (5) and Space Merchants (5) So how many have we read previously to the challenge? What do we want to read now?. .( I'm picking books that are on few or no lists hoping to find books that should have gotten more attention. Generally though, I'm finding books that should have been forgotten. I guess time has helped us spot all the good ones. BTW, I have an edit button so I can go back to redo a message. I don't know how long it stays there, so if I go away and come back can I still edit messages. | |
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Location: UK | Great year,1953! I had previously read 6/18 books;
Fahrenheit 451 - a slightly odd dystopic mix of totalitarian censorship and nuclear destruction. I would presume Bradbury had read George Orwell's 1984?Bradbury was very passionate about censorship. Remember that savage story in Martian Chronicles where someone murdered all the people who wanted to impose censorship on him when he built a house based on Poe's stories?,and I thought the story jarred with the rest of the Chronicles? Well here Bradbury certainly made an impassioned diatribe againnt censorship by extrapolating to a totalitarian state whiere firemen dont put out fires but burn books? At least Bradbury gives us a glimmer of hope,and it is poignant and poetic,less relentlessly downbeat than Orwell. I would agree that this will survive a long time.It still seems fresh,despite censorship is finding it difficult to suppress freedom of speech in these days of social media etc
Childhood's End. I found this book slightly repellent. Books about Transcendent aliens make me slightly suspicious. I kept wondering if these children uplifted to some higher power were really merged with the entity,or if they were just a meal to them! lol. A surfeit on my part of reading about dastardly devious aliens,perhaps? The callous way the whole of mankind were disposed off,and the suffering of the children lying in their own filth waiting for transcendence didnt seem very highly ethical at all. All that religion bashing didnt go down well with me either,but that is just my personal opinion. The Overlords were interesting,and the fate of the last human was poignant.but all in all it wasnt my cup of tea.
More Than Human. Sturgeon's b with compassion anest novel. He was theidol of awhole generation of youngerb authors,but mostly for short stories,but today known mostly for this book. He was an excellent literary author,could draw vivid characters. This is a fix up novel,of course. So many of the 50s books were,but this is well written. We really focus on the characters in a sensitive compassionate way. The usual focus on psychiatry and psi powers is there in abundance,but being well written and evenhanded(no transcendent humans tossing away the old humans like rubbish).its base on people is enough to rise above from trends of the time. I really hope that those who havent yet read this book will choose it for their 1953 read. Well worthwhile your attention
Second Foundation - Oh dear,I have made my lukewarm feelings to the Foundation series earlier. Not my cup of tea,didnt like the whole psychohistory premise,no characterisation,very bitty,even for a fix up. Nuff said.
The Space Merchants. Opinion seems divided here,Jim was disappointed,Rhonda loved it,I had good vibes about it butnafter decades cant be surehow I would feel now. Will be interested in the views of challenge readers!
Starman Jones - One of Heinlein's fun juveniles a light fun read about a young boy who manages to wangle his way into the crew of a space ship.Resourceful,with an eidetic memory he has lots of adventures. The science on the spaceship is so dated,so cumbersome,but Henlein grabs our attention from the start,and we root for the young man.Good fun, a quick enjoyable read,though not spectacular. Nice and pleasant.
For the challenge I read Iceworld and The Black Star Passes.
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| I am bothered by Clarke's hang-up that we need uplifting by superior aliens. He does this in both <i>Childhood's End</i> and <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i>. It also bothered me that Clarke, a scientist, believed that psychic powers were the next stage of human development. With Clarke's stories it's very easy to see how aliens have replaced God, and outer space has replaced heaven, so science fiction appears like a substitute for religion. Give me Heinlein any day - especially a story like <i>Starman Jones</i> where Sam uplifts his own self by his bootstraps. | |
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Location: New Zealand | I'm mostly going with books I haven't read before. There were quite a lot of good books to choose from in 1953, of which I had previously read four.
I am trying to do two books from each year, and I chose to go with Iceworld (because I was intrigued by the cover) and More Than Human. More Than Human has been on my bookshelf for years, so it really was time to read it. I don't know what to think of it. It wasn't what I expected at all, but had such an intriguing premise. It is a book that I think needs a second reading. It was very different to the 'just plain good fun' Iceworld. | |
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Location: UK | Jim,like you I greatly prefer Starman Jones to theClarke. I wonder if RAH had problems with the editors with this one,because the ethical situation,lying to get a job etc isnt the usual squeaky clean upright sort of thing expected of young heroes. I know at the end he gets heavily fined,but its still a bit dodgy. There are all sorts of interesting things in the book,from the rather stark home life with the unpleasant stepfather to be,the rather mediaeval Guild structure of society the fun encounters later with the alien centaur like race,and of course,Sam - liar, thief,deserter and all round shifty character!An unusual sidekick for a 1950s juvenile hero!
The tech is very odd. They have spaceships and computers,yet,just like sailing ships of yore,course positions and corrections have to be done by hand,and trig and log functions all have to be done from tables! I was wishing I could give Max my daughters smartphone,which would have sorted things out in seconds!. Its very strange just how limited ideas about computers were at that time.
I really like Starman Jones,well plotted,well written,full of twists and surprises. A fun read. And here the alien s make no bones about wanting to kill people. No transcendence like Clarke. I am still sceptical about that!
By the way,so sorry for the badly done post earlier.I had a stroke last year,and though I have recovered well I have been left with a heavy handed right typing hand!. I make a lot of errors,and extra letters get between words. Normally I edit,but as I was finishing that post I got interrupted,and it was a couple of hours before I got back to it,and I was too late to correct it. I am cringing looking at it! lol. Make allowances for me | |
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Location: UK | 1953 - Iceworld by Hal Clement. Drugs Squad boss Rade is struggling with the repercussions of a dangerous drug. Only one dose causes immediate addiction, and agony and madness ensues if the addict cant get a fix. Addicts will pay exorbitant amounts for it, and Rade has traced it to a disreputable, ruthless and dangerous spaceship owner who has obviously discovered a supply on some unidentified planet. In desperation Rade infiltrates Ken, a high school science teacher, into the ship's crew. The smuggler wants to discover more about the drug so he can grow it instead of trading with the natives for it. Rade wants concrete evidence against the smuggler. And Ken, your typical scientist, while working for both of them, is consumed with the desire to learn more about the strange planet, its dangerous drug,and its possibly cultured inhabitants. Only problem is that the planet is about 400 degrees colder than home! Ken will need all his scientific thought processes to gain the knowledge he needs while hiding his treachery from the avaricious, and vicious, smuggler.
A nice little story which has a neat twist 10 pages in when we realize that Ken and the others are aliens with tentacles and live on a planet with a toasty 500 degree temperature,and of course the cold planet is Earth. Most of the story is told from the aliens point of view,and we watch with interest as Ken explores this weird and frightening world which has nightmare conditions. Why it doesnt even have a breathable sulphur atmosphere, and it has huge amounts of liquid on it. A frightening but fascinating place indeed, and it takes Ken all his ingenuity to rig up experiments, and to avoid freezing to death in the horrifically low temperatures.
A light fun read, though sometimes clunkily written in typical Clement style, but engaging and entertaining. Oh and the drug of course is tobacco! | |
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| Sorry to hear about your stroke Dusty. I assume you're older then? I'm 63. I wonder how many of us here are older, or younger? How many of us are reading these old books out of nostalgia? And how many are younger people are digging into the past?
I think I keep reading these 1950s SF books to recapture how I felt about science fiction when I first discovered it in early 1960s. Even before I knew there was a genre called science fiction, I was searching libraries for books with science fictional elements. I found kids books like Danny Dunn series, Tom Swift, Jr. and of course those literary drug trips, the Oz series. | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | I'm 30 and doing the challenge to pick up some of the "classics" that I hadn't gotten to yet. My book choices for the challenge tend to be the fairly well-known books, though I did find one to overlap with my Women in Genre Fiction challenge which was nice. Ultimately, I like to see how these books inspire and inform my favorites. | |
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| pizzakarin - 2015-03-16 12:28 PM
I'm 30 and doing the challenge to pick up some of the "classics" that I hadn't gotten to yet. My book choices for the challenge tend to be the fairly well-known books, though I did find one to overlap with my Women in Genre Fiction challenge which was nice. Ultimately, I like to see how these books inspire and inform my favorites.
Pizzakarin, you'll be a good test subject then, for learning how old books works with young people. What are some of your all-time favorite SF books. I can't imagine a young person preferring old stuff to the exciting stuff that's coming out today. | |
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| Guest - 2015-03-16 12:31 PM pizzakarin - 2015-03-16 12:28 PM I'm 30 and doing the challenge to pick up some of the "classics" that I hadn't gotten to yet. My book choices for the challenge tend to be the fairly well-known books, though I did find one to overlap with my Women in Genre Fiction challenge which was nice. Ultimately, I like to see how these books inspire and inform my favorites. Pizzakarin, you'll be a good test subject then, for learning how old books works with young people. What are some of your all-time favorite SF books. I can't imagine a young person preferring old stuff to the exciting stuff that's coming out today. Why does the system keep logging me out? By the way the above reply was from Jim Harris. | |
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Location: UK | I'm 67. I think I told how I had been reading Yeats poetry,and on the day I got my adult ticket,age 13,Bradbury's Golden Apples of the Sun caught my eye,and I got that out,plus Burroughs Princess of Mars,and after that devoured the rather small SF collection. Sf was not very available to a young girl in a small English town at that time,but I had always loved fantasy. The Narnia books,E Nesbit,the King Arthur stories ( I still remember the awesome feeling when a hand comes out of the water to take back Excalibur) I also loved fairy stories and mythology. Not for me books about ponies,or school life or soppy romance novels! .
In our teens everything we read is new and fresh and exciting. No matter how well written a book is today,it hasnt got that frisson we got then,alas.I saw little of proper SF before I was 13,but do remember loving Out of the Silent Planet when I was about 12. What did make an impression as a kid was Dan Dare,Pilot of the Future,the cover story weekly in a garish boys' comic,The Eagle.. I loved the evil alien villain,the Mekon,ruler of Venus. whom Dan had to fight every week. The artwork was exciting,and a certain young budding writer called Arthur C Clarke checked out the science side. Checking out Google Images today I realised I had forgotten how Dan Dare was portrayed exactly like a WWII fighter pilot,including the normal officer's cap! I must assume this was my first real contact with SF,and I recall Dan with great affection. It has also come back to me that there was a radio version. I can still remember the portentous voice announcing ''Dan Dare! Pilot of the Future!''
Wow! Just checked up,and that serial ended when I was about 8. Never realised how far back my love of SF went. | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | I looked through my 5 star books specifically for older SF and here's what I came up with:
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton
I'm having a hard time articulating it, but I think what those three have in common and what makes them resonate with me is a sense of humor about the absurdity of humanity.
As far as more recently published favorites:
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Of the three of those, I expect Blindsight to hold up the least well as it is the mostly likely to be knocked down by improved social theory (one of the things that I think a lot of 50s and 60s books fell to). I expect Old Man's War to hold up the best as it is mostly an adventure story, though the technological trappings may get outdated. | |
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| pizzakarin - 2015-03-16 2:28 PM I looked through my 5 star books specifically for older SF and here's what I came up with: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury The Big Time by Fritz Leiber The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton I'm having a hard time articulating it, but I think what those three have in common and what makes them resonate with me is a sense of humor about the absurdity of humanity. As far as more recently published favorites: Anathem by Neal Stephenson Blindsight by Peter Watts Old Man's War by John Scalzi Of the three of those, I expect Blindsight to hold up the least well as it is the mostly likely to be knocked down by improved social theory (one of the things that I think a lot of 50s and 60s books fell to). I expect Old Man's War to hold up the best as it is mostly an adventure story, though the technological trappings may get outdated. If you like Old Man's War, you should try Starship Troopers, The Forever War, and Ender's Game. I think all military SF descends from Starship Troopers. I've been thinking about Blindsight since one of my blog readers keeps recommend Peter Watts. Of the newer books I've been very impressed with are Ready Player One, The Windup Girl, Little Brother, The Martian, The Hunger Games, Spin, and the Wake, Watch, Wonder trilogy.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-03-16 3:43 PM
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Location: New Zealand | I think I already said I'm 49, however I didn't start reading SF until my early 20's when a friend loaned me Isaac Asimov. I haven't looked back since. Books were expensive and hard to find where I was living at the time, and I haunted the one book shop in town who stocked only Asimov, Clarke, Silverberg and Heinlein. I read through all the Asimov's, then the Clarke's, then the Silverberg's, and was just starting on the Heinlein's when I moved to a country with more books!
Ready Player One, The Martian and Spin are some of my favourite recent reads as well. | |
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| pizzakarin - 2015-03-16 2:28 PM Of the three of those, I expect Blindsight to hold up the least well as it is the mostly likely to be knocked down by improved social theory (one of the things that I think a lot of 50s and 60s books fell to).
I'm curious -- why do you think that? | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | Other than the super creepy spaceship/being (which is awesome and will hopefully never go out of style), a lot of the fun of this book hinges on following the main character's Chinese Box logic and believing in the type of sociopath that the commander/vampire is. I think that that's vulnerable to us finding out that that's not how brains work in these neurally atypical people and therefore becoming one of those books that was speculating interesting things at the time but feels dated fifty years later.
Of course it could go the other way and exactly what I feel will date it will make it feel prescient and fresh, especially if the science goes that way. | |
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Location: UK | I'm 43, but I feel like I have some grounding in 50s SF. For these early years, I haven't read too many books, but they mainly fall into two categories: books I read quite recently for the Retro Hugos and Hugos (Farmer in the Sky and the Foundation trilogy), and books I read in my formative years, which were in this omnibus, the St Michael book of Great Science Fiction Stories, published in 1982, and featuring 2001, The Demolished Man, Day of the Triffids and I, Robot. I wish I still had it! Day of the Triffids and Martian Chronicles were both televised in the early 80s, too.
Later on we'll be getting into PKD territory. I had a bit of a PKD phase in my youth, and I've read quite a lot of his work, but I can't really remember which ones I've read and which ones I haven't. Alfred Bester was another big personal favourite, but has rather less output.
Anyway, I finished Childhood's End last night. It makes an interesting companion to City.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Both books feature the end of humanity, but City seems weirdly gloomy about what was actually not a bad result - most of us are living in paradise on Jupiter - where Childhood's End seems oddly upbeat about what seems like a catastrophe, with humanity subsumed into some kind of group mind.
END SPOILERS
I think CE was the most novel-like of the books I've read so far, even though it's still split into three parts, and one of them was sort of previously published. I've never particularly been a Clarke fan, and this one still has a lot of his usual flaws, but it held together pretty well and achieved what it set out to achieve. I don't think I was ever going to love it, but I can recognise why it's regarded as a classic.
I'm not really prepared for 1954, yet. I already own The Star Beast and, it turns out, The Forgotten Planet (which is included in the Baen book, Planets of Adventure), but I'd really like to read Caves of Steel, and also have a strange desire to investigate Trouble on Titan. (I've already read I Am Legend and Mission of Gravity.)
Edited by DrNefario 2015-03-17 8:40 AM
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Location: UK | In 1953 Campbell produced The Black Star Passes fix-up novel of three adventures of some young, brilliant and adventurous scientists, but the original stories had been written back in 1930 when he was a 19 year old MIT engineering student, and he specifically wrote for highschool maths and science students - the geeks! The book is full of interminable indigestible (to me, anyway, without a science background) chunks of scientific explanations, the characters are interchangeable, only differentiated by their names, the dialogue is very dull, and all in all the book would not be worth bothering with except for the descriptions of the aliens, which are interesting in that Campbell at least makes the effort to show how their appearances were influenced by their environments. Apart from these gleams of interest the book was dull, stodgy and almost unreadable. I read it for the 1950s Defining Books challenge, and I am afraid that this is one that is only surviving because of Campbell's illustrious and influential editorial career, otherwise it is very slight | |
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Location: UK | DrNefario - 2015-03-17 2:38 PM
I'm not really prepared for 1954, yet. I already own The Star Beast and, it turns out, The Forgotten Planet (which is included in the Baen book, Planets of Adventure), but I'd really like to read Caves of Steel, and also have a strange desire to investigate Trouble on Titan. (I've already read I Am Legend and Mission of Gravity.)
I've changed my mind about this, and decided to read The Forgotten Planet. I've got way too many unread books to be buying more when I already have 2 for 1954. I don't believe I've read any Murray Leinster before. | |
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Location: UK | Well, The Forgotten Planet was forgettable. Not awful, but not special, either. A pulpy adventure with regressed primitive humans versus giant insects. Another fix-up, but the joins were pretty smooth. I think I just didn't feel very engaged in the drama.
I feel like these early 50s books are more approachable, because they are short and straightforward, but they aren't always living up to their promises, even when they aren't promising much.
Forgotten Planet wasn't really a positive choice, for me, so much as a book I happened to already own. The next four years are all first-choice books I'm actually looking forward to. But first I'm taking a month off SF&F. | |
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| DrNefario - 2015-03-28 11:54 AM Well, The Forgotten Planet was forgettable. Not awful, but not special, either. A pulpy adventure with regressed primitive humans versus giant insects. Another fix-up, but the joins were pretty smooth. I think I just didn't feel very engaged in the drama. I feel like these early 50s books are more approachable, because they are short and straightforward, but they aren't always living up to their promises, even when they aren't promising much. Forgotten Planet wasn't really a positive choice, for me, so much as a book I happened to already own. The next four years are all first-choice books I'm actually looking forward to. But first I'm taking a month off SF&F. I have fond memories of The Forgotten Planet from reading it as a kid. However, I expected if I reread it now, it might not appeal to the adult me. Have you read Hothouse by Brian Aldiss? It was called The Long Afternoon of Earth when it first was published, a title I like much better. I thought Hothouse is a superior take on what Forgotten Planet was about.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-03-28 12:26 PM
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Location: UK | Im about a quarter way through Forgotten Planet just now,and some of the premises were a bit annoying to say the least!. Many generations have passed since a space ship was stranded on a planet full of massive dangerous insects. The people are savages,and dont even know what a weapon is,living precariously by scavenging. They have almost lost the use of language,having only a ''few hundred labials''. No characterisation,just battles with insects that are not very engaging. All in all a bit lacklustre. Not as much fun as other Murray Leinsters I have read. | |
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Location: New Zealand | I am enjoying this challenge, and loving going back and reading some of the early works. There are some real gems to be found here. Without this challenge I probably would not have read many of these books, not because I didn't want to but because there is so little time and so many books. I've just finished Double Star by Heinlein, and I must say I really liked it a lot. Much more than Between Planets which I read earlier this month.
I am about to start on The Shrinking Man as my second choice for 1956. I read I Am Legend many years ago so I am looking forward to seeing what else Matheson has to offer. | |
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Location: UK | 1954 - I have read previously to the challenge 4/11 books of that year.
Isaac Asimov - Caves of Steel. i thoroughly enjoyed this first outing for Daneel Olivaw and Lige Baley. The privations in the aftermath of WWII show in the way the world is on the brink with a population of 8 billion,and the whole of society had to be regimented around feeding the people who have retreated to steel domes and fear the outside world. while the rest of mankind went out to colonise 30 planets. Engaging characters,and a mystery,rather perfunctory in its solving,but for me this book was a much more enjoyable read than the Foundation books.
Richard Matheson - I am Legend. Would you class this short but harrowing little book horror or SF? It would fit both,with its vampires or plagues,but mostly it is a study of lonliness. Poignant and so sad. The various film versions couldnt do it justice,because its not so much about the action,though there is plenty of that,but is about the internal sorrow ,depression and ,yes,boredom of his claustrophobic life. Excellent
Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity. Human scientists are intrigued by the massive planet Mesklin,which has an 18 minute day,rotating so rapidly that its equatorial diameter is more than double its polar diameter.So its gravity is variable,from a mere 3 gees at the equator to 700 gees at the polesIt has a methane/ammonia atmosphere,and an steep axis tilt that produces ferocious weather.The planet is totally inhospitable to humans (a 180 lb man would weigh 540 lbs at the equator,60 tons at the poles) so when an earth probe sent to the south pole fails to take off for its return with precious data about the mysteries of Mesklin gravity,the humans must enlist the help of a Mesklin sea captain,Barlennan,a trader,explorer,adventurer, to make the enormous,difficult and dangerous trek to the pole to bring back the data.....
Challenged by John W Campbell to devise a planet of variable gravity,Hal Clement with some help from a certain Isaac Asimov,painstakingly worked out the physics,chemistry and biology of Mesklin,and then used it to underpin an exciting adventure tale about Barlennan and his redoubtable crew.15 inches long,3 inches high,incredibly tough and strong physically,Barlennan is brave,resourceful,very intelligent,intellectually curious-and ambitious to learn as much as he can about the humans' science.He may look a bit like an earthly caterpillar,but Barlennan is cute.Its fun going on the journey with him,and though there is a great deal of hard science in this book,the plot and characters are enough to make it an enjoyable yarn as much as a scientific dossier about an amazing planet.
It is dated,of course.I was delighted to see a human engineer using a slide rule,using a wall projector to show their filmed material,but all in all a fun read as Clement manages the balance of science and story,something too many writers are unable to achieve.Highly recommended
Robert A Heinlein - Star Beast. Amusing fluff,one of RAHs juveniles,lightweight but enjoyable about a boy and his unusual ET pet.,whom the town wants to get rid of. Said beast turns out to be royalty and his people want him back. One interesting little point is that the world leader is a black African,which in 1954 segregated USA must have been a little startling!
I am unable to obtain most of the other books of this year,but will read Leinster's Forgotten Planet.
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Location: New Zealand | I've finished 1957 with a reading of The Midwich Cuckoos. My second Wyndham for this challenge and I must say I am loving his work. I shall seek out more.
About to start 1958 but keep changing my mind about which books to read. I have finally settled on Who? and A Case of Conscience. | |
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Location: New Zealand | Finished 1958. I have mixed feelings about A Case of Conscience. It started well, but then it all fell about half way through.
On the other hand, I loved Who?. I finished off A Case of Conscience yesterday evening and thought I'd just read a couple of chapters of Who?, but before I knew it I had finished. Not a long book, but well worth reading. And now I really must check out more Budrys. Why have I failed to read him before?
1959's selections will be Time Out of Joint and Dorsai.
Edited by Weesam 2015-04-13 4:17 PM
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Location: UK | I'd better start thinking about setting up the 60s challenge. | |
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| DrNefario - 2015-04-14 6:35 AM I'd better start thinking about setting up the 60s challenge. Then I need to get on the stick, because I'm still back in 1954. | |
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Location: UK | I'm only half way through the 50s myself, but I have made a giant spreadsheet to plot my reading all the way through to 1999, and I do already have the 60s covered, although there are a few I'd like to replace. | |
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Location: New Zealand | DrNefario - 2015-04-14 11:35 PM
I'd better start thinking about setting up the 60s challenge.
Don't hurry to set it up on my account. I'm happy to wait to embark on the 60's until some others get to the end of the current challenge. I have plenty of other challenges to focus on in the meantime. | |
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Location: UK | I didnt want to get too far ahead of the majority so I have added some extra books to the list to make 20,and will probably complete them in May. Its a fun challenge,and I have read lots of new books and authors. Too bad there wont be so many free books online when we come to the 60s. I will probably only be able to do a minimum number of books there,as the majority are not available in my library system,and I cant afford to buy many books. We'll see. | |
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| dustydigger - 2015-04-23 5:09 AM I didnt want to get too far ahead of the majority so I have added some extra books to the list to make 20,and will probably complete them in May. Its a fun challenge,and I have read lots of new books and authors. Too bad there wont be so many free books online when we come to the 60s. I will probably only be able to do a minimum number of books there,as the majority are not available in my library system,and I cant afford to buy many books. We'll see. It disturbs me that libraries don't carry these books. What kind of classics must they be if libraries don't carry them? When I go to used bookstores, or order used books from ABEBooks, quite often I end up buying library discards. That bugs me. I want libraries to be repositories of knowledge, not warehouses for free books that are in the most demand. Many of the books on these lists are remembered by hardcore SF fans, but not by our culture in general. | |
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Location: UK | I agree,Jim,in spades.The peoplestruggling to save books in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 would be in despair. No need to burn books,just let them get tatty and dont replace them! lol. We are going through a crisis for libraries here in UK,as all local government scrambles to find ways to implement national government austerity cuts. . Two years ago,for instance,the annual book budget for my library system,of 39 branches,was down from 6 million to r4.25 million.I dont know the figure for last year,but it must be even less. Where once almost every branch would get at least one,usually two or three copies of a title,now,apart from the blockbuster headline authors,we are lucky to get a handful of copies shared out among all the branches. Now apart from the big names,to save money they get us paperbacks,which fall apart quickly and there is little hope of replacement.The public have a voracious appetite for new books,so why waste what little money there is on some 60 year old pulpy trashy book about bug-eyed monsters,as many still view SF. I cant believe that in our system there isnt one copy of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. They have a single copy of about 10 of his books in the county reserve stacks,and believe me its like pulling teeth to get at them. I put in a request for Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud,and am still waiting 9 mths later.
My dream is that someone like SF Gateway,the Gollancz project to publish old SF books,could set up something like Overdrive,a lending library for their books.For 50 cents you could borrow any of their titles, like a ebook from the local library. I get so frustrated when I see their tantalising lists of old books. Too pricey to buy,but a type of library loan would be wonderful Any millionaires lurking around here to set up something like that?I would be their first member!
Mind you ,its not just SF suffering. If anything,its even worse trying to locate old crime fiction. My library system has no Rex Stout,Ellery Queen, and the situation is pretty dire really for anythingbbefore 1990. I have a list of 100 famous crime novels and only 16 of them are available in the library - and I've already read those
Edited by dustydigger 2015-04-24 3:23 AM
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| jwharris28 - 2015-04-24 1:22 AM It disturbs me that libraries don't carry these books. What kind of classics must they be if libraries don't carry them? When I go to used bookstores, or order used books from ABEBooks, quite often I end up buying library discards. That bugs me. I want libraries to be repositories of knowledge, not warehouses for free books that are in the most demand. Many of the books on these lists are remembered by hardcore SF fans, but not by our culture in general. In one of Connie Willis' books, Bellwether, her protagonist discovers from the local librarian that when a book is not checked out within x amount of time, it is deaccessioned. The main character is horrified by this, and proceeds to pull numerous of her "must-have" books every time she goes to the library, and checks them out -- not to read them again, but to ensure that they are retained in the library's collection. I have to confess that for the last few years, I have been doing the same thing: when I check out books I want to read, I also check out books I've read which I perceive to be "must-have" books, just so the library's records show that someone is checking them out, and they are retained. | |
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Location: New Zealand | Many, many years ago, back in those pre-computer days, library books had those little cards in the back that were stamped every time someone took one out (or, at least they did here in NZ). I would always go looking for the books that hadn't had their cards stamped in quite a while, and take those ones out. Mostly because I felt sorry for the book that no one loved it! Of course, it probably helped retain that book in the library system for a little longer. An added bonus. | |
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| I guess we have to ask: How long does a book have to go unnoticed before it deserves to be discarded by the library? It really is a matter of room, but I would think they'd have some way around that. Like temporary storage, or long term archives.
One of the best deals I've seen lately is https://www.scribd.com/ - which is an online subscription library. It's far better than the Kindle Library. Not only does it have a better selection of ebooks but it has a huge library of audiobooks, comic books and graphic novels for $8.99 a month. But it's not perfect. It has few Heinlein ebooks, but a huge list of his books on audio. It did have a bunch of Henry Kuttner, including Robots Have No Tails. Such ebook libraries might be the future of true archival libraries. | |
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Location: Middle TN, USA | Ok I was talked into signing up for this challenge, not that there was much arm twisting! I have managed to find a book from each year from my libraries digital library, and a different author for each year. It took me over an hour and I was so excited because 2 of the novels on the list were ones I had already read this year. Failed to see the "READ IN ORDER" directive. I am super exited about this challenge because I have not read much of the old "pulp" of the genre. I know I'm late to the party but I'm jumping in with both feet starting with "First Lensman" by E E "Doc" Smith. And yeas I already read above where it is not great, so I have been warned, but it was the only 1950 book Library had that I have not read yet, I'm trying to avoid rereads. | |
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Location: New Zealand | Welcome aboard. Good thing about this challenge is that the books are mostly short, so even starting late you should be able to catch up quite quickly. | |
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Location: New Zealand | And I'm finished. Book number 20 for this challenge was Dorsai! by Gordon Dickson. I really didn't have much expectation around this one. It's cover made it look a bit bland and typical 1950's military SF, but I surprised myself by quite enjoying it. So there you go, don't judge a book by its cover. | |
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Location: UK | Congratulations.
I read Dorsai! for one of last year's challenges, and didn't think much of it. Maybe I was hoping for a bland and typical 50s mil-SF.
I've just finished The Long Tomorrow for 1955, and I liked it a lot. It felt like the first proper modern novel I have read for this challenge. And I guess it is, really. Everything else I've read so far has been a fix-up or collection or extension of shorter, older works. Also it probably helps that it mostly stays away from future tech.
I was thinking of setting up the sixties challenge to start in June, if you find yourself getting bored. | |
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Location: New Zealand | June sounds good. I have plenty to keep me busy in the meantime! | |
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Location: UK | @ Weesam - Congrats on finishing the challenge. Unfortunately my internet has been off for 4 days,and apart from Case of Conscience and Sirens of Titann the others on my challenge are all to read on line,so I have been frustrated.,as I am trying to read in order!. Hope I can complete them this month,.
@ Doc Nefario. I too was impressed with The Long Tomorrow. That and Dreaming Jewels have been my favourite reads for this challenge. Of course I had read many of the famous books previously to the challenge,but its been great fun reading some of the rather pulpy stuff. I would often be surprised at the way a story would develop,or what a character would say. The familiar tropes we come across today and take for granted in our reading are subtley slightly off kilter in these books of around 60 yrs old. I cant quite put my finger on what the differences are. Its not just old tech,having slide rules,the oldfashioned attitude to women etc. Its something about the storytelling style,and story developement I think. Will have to ponder on it a bit more. | |
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| dustydigger - 2015-05-04 6:19 AM Of course I had read many of the famous books previously to the challenge,but its been great fun reading some of the rather pulpy stuff. I would often be surprised at the way a story would develop,or what a character would say. The familiar tropes we come across today and take for granted in our reading are subtley slightly off kilter in these books of around 60 yrs old. I cant quite put my finger on what the differences are. Its not just old tech,having slide rules,the oldfashioned attitude to women etc. Its something about the storytelling style,and story developement I think. Will have to ponder on it a bit more. I think these older books for the most part are poorly written compared to modern science fiction. I think fiction writing as a whole has evolved a lot in the last 60 years. Often these old novels have some neat ideas, but the storytelling is crap. Some books do stand out, and I think it's because they were much better written than their peers - stories like On the Beach, Alas, Babylon and The Day of the Triffids. To me, Heinlein stands head and shoulders above the other SF genre writers of the time. I'm now wondering if newer, better written science fiction isn't pushing out older science fiction because of writing and not newer ideas and science. | |
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Location: Belgium | I think the answer to your question is definitely a yes. | |
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| I end up writing a blog about why I think it's writing rather than science that dates these old novels.
http://auxiliarymemory.com/2015/05/07/why-writing-dates-older-scien...
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Location: Belgium | Wow, that's an excellent, well conceived article! | |
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Location: UK | I should have finished this challenge by now,but upped the ante to Double Star and had to go back to fill in spaces. I had Doc Smith's First Lensman on my list,so had to read Triplanetary first to get the feel of the series,so that delayed me even more. Should finish Lensman in a matter of days,and I already have Russell's Wasp,Blish's A Case of Conscience in progress,so I have hopes of completing the challenge this month.
Many congratulations to Weesam,who of course has already finished - naturally! | |
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Location: UK | I am expecting to finish my 1956 book, The Death of Grass, today. It's a surprisingly un-cosy cosy catastrophe. Very readable and very English. In a way it slightly reminds me of The Road by Cormac McCarthy, but I'm not too sure I can say why. It's another strong book, still in print in the UK as a Penguin Classic.
We're getting into territory where I've read a few more books, now. I'd already read at least four from 1956: Double Star, The Man Who Japed, The Stars My Destination and They Shall Have Stars.
I'm considering going for a women-only month in June, and I'd like to be ready for my Andre Norton book in 1958 by then. That will mean I can't possibly finish the 50s until July, since there are no female authors in the 1959 selection, but I'm still intending to create the 60s challenge next month. I already have my 60s list decided. | |
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Location: Middle TN, USA | I am half way through my 1950 book First Lensman and it is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The conversations between the two "master" aliens is almost intolerable but the story itself is good old fashioned pulp. I hit the used book store today looking for some of the missing books from my list specifically Death of Grass for 1956 and The Midwich Cuckoos for 1957. No luck but I found a book in the corner with a 1968 copy of Gray Lensman in MINT condition , along with a Double Star, Farmer In The Sky, and a Babel-17. Total price $1.10. I love this store! | |
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Location: Middle TN, USA | DrNefario - 2015-01-05 1:53 PM
This is the discussion thread for the Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge, to read a book from each year of the Defining Books of the 1950s list in chronological order.
So if I decided to bump up up to "Double Star" on this challenge how does the "read it in order" commandment work, can I go through the list twice or do I have to read two from each year back to back? This is of course directed to you DrNefario, Grand Poohbah of the challenge. What was your vision fearless leader?
By the way I just finished First Lensman and I think pulp 50's sci-fi might be my new guilty reading pleasure, right next to cozy mysteries!  | |
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Location: UK | I'd say you just need to read ten in order, and can mix in another ten in any order you like.
I didn't think much of Galactic Patrol, or of Forgotten Planet, so I don't think the pulpy stuff is for me. I seem to be much happier with the end of civilisation as we know it, which seems to happen quite a lot in the 50s. | |
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| DrNefario - 2015-05-17 4:22 PM I'd say you just need to read ten in order, and can mix in another ten in any order you like. I didn't think much of Galactic Patrol, or of Forgotten Planet, so I don't think the pulpy stuff is for me. I seem to be much happier with the end of civilisation as we know it, which seems to happen quite a lot in the 50s. Galactic Patrol was first published in 1937, and The Forgotten Planet was first published in 1920 and 1921. So they are true 1950s stories. Many of the famous novels that first came out in the 1950s was first published in the 1940s - like The Foundation Trilogy, but some were much older. Books that were actually written in the 1950s are much better still.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-05-17 5:29 PM
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| I meant to say, they "aren't" true 1950s stories. Home come I can edit a message sometimes, but not other times? | |
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Location: UK | Jim,you can only edit for a short period and then thats it!. I cringe sometimes when I look back and see mistakes I cant put right. Sometimes I am in a real rush,hurrying to do posts before making breakfast,and there just isnt time for careful scrutiny. Then there are my mistakes glaring at me forever
I I read once about a printer of the Bible back in the 17th century who inadvertantly left out the word ''not'' in ''thou shalt not commit adultery',which certainly went down well with adulterers but very badly with the Church!'. He was heavily fined 300, about $80000 today, the bibles were all recalled and burned,and he lost his printing license! I think there are only about a dozen copies left in existence.
Edited by dustydigger 2015-05-18 1:25 AM
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Location: UK | I hadn't realised Forgotten Planet was that old. It does actually raise my opinion of it. | |
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Location: Middle TN, USA | I've decided to go through each year once then try again for a second go round. I want to get all the books through library sources, but these older books can be hard to find. When I asked the librarians they said it was because of limited space. I found I have the best luck with our R.E.A.D.S. overdrive digital library.
Edited by Badseedgirl 2015-05-18 3:05 PM
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| DrNefario - 2015-05-18 5:34 AM I hadn't realised Forgotten Planet was that old. It does actually raise my opinion of it. If you don't consider the writing, but the ideas, these old stories have a lot of far out ideas in them for the time. I think E. E. "Doc" was one of the first writers to imagine interstellar and intergalactic travel. When The Forgotten Planet was written we still thought the whole universe was the Milky Way galaxy.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-05-18 4:43 PM
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Location: UK | Long time since I gave a year report for this challenge. I increased my total to 15 and had to go back to fill in some reads,then upped it to twenty,once again had to fill in the gaps.
So,now its 1955. I had previously read 3/16 books: - The Body Snatchers,great fun, an iconic work about possession/replication of humans by aliens. I actually preferred the film versions to the book which was rather poorly written,but the themes of identity etc certainly struck a chord with the public. Loved The Crysalids about a post nuclear war society ruthlessly trying to eradicate radiation caused mutations by destroying such unfortunates . Like The Long Tomorrow we have a fundementalist anti technology society., but whilst society is capable of destroying physical mutants,some people have developed telepathic traits. Another excellent read by John Wyndham. I had also read Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky,one of my favourite RAH juveniles,where high school students of the future go on a survival test on a distant planet,getting there through the Gates,but unfortunately a malfunction leaves them stranded on a dangerous planet far away. Great fun!
For this challenge I read Leigh Brackett's The Long Tomorrow,one of my favourite reads this year. I particularly liked the way Brackett was even handed about the pros and cons of eschewing technology after a nuclear holocaust,especially by having the main character heavily conflicted about technology. No black and white certainties here. Excellent book. I also read Pohl and Kornbluth's Gladiator-at-Law a light amusing story about a young lawyer fighting big corporations of the future,seeking to destroy the stranglehold they have on society.Typical sharp satire from P & K
There were no less than 11 of the books unavailable in the library. In fact I had to buy a copy of the Brackett book. A pity I couldnt get hold of so many. It seemed to be a year totally given over to Mars and Martians! I would have enjoyed reading them all! | |
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Location: UK | I've just finished The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham for 1957. Another good, readable book, if a bit short on surprises. I guess it's one of those books where I'd kind of absorbed the story already, through secondary sources.
I'd previously read:
Big Planet - Jack Vance - I don't really remember much about this, to be honest. I'm fairly sure I've read it.
Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert A Heinlein - I read this as a child. I think even then I realised that Heinlein and I weren't going to get along.
The Cosmic Puppets - Philip K Dick - One of my least favourite PKD novels. It's possible I read the other PKD this year, too, but I'm never that certain which ones I've read unless they really stick in my mind.
The Forever Machine - Mark Clifton & Frank Riley - Famed as being the worst ever Hugo winner. There are some other winners I didn't much like, and they're all much longer than this, but it's really not very good.
On the Beach - Nevil Shute - I read this for the End of the World challenge last year. Good but bleak.
So, overall, not a favourite year, for me, but there are some decent books in there.
I'm planning to read The Time Traders for 1958, but not just yet.
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Location: UK | There seems to be a preponderance of P K Dick in the 50s and 60s challenges. I tried Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and wasnt too keen on it or Man in the High Castle. It must be me.. Certainly someone likes PKD in my library because they have no less than 25 of his novels. Not a single Vance,or Silverberg,and only 3 Zelaznys,but so many PKDs!
I thought The Forever Machine was very peculiar,I couldnt fathom out what they were getting at,it seemed vague and confused.. So glad that there was a Wildside Megapack of Clifton's work,as I wouldnt have forked out about $40 for it! lol $1 was a sweet price
Agree about On the Beach,''good but bleak''. Boy,there were some real downbeat books in the 50s,when half of the population were fixated on materialism and hedonism,and the rest were sweating in fear of the End of all Things. Produced some very fine work,but the laughs are few and far between!
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Location: UK | I had a bit of a PKD phase in my late teens. I think what eventually made me call it quits was that his work was so variable. Some of it I loved, and some of it just missed completely.
I don't know what it is, but I've always enjoyed a good catastrophe. The End of the World challenge was a personal favourite last year, and while I don't know if I'd have wanted to repeat it, this 50s challenge seems to have it covered. | |
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Location: New Zealand | I read The Man in the High Castle many years ago - and hated it. Didn't pick up another PKD until last year, when for some reason I decided to read Radio Free Albemuth - and loved it. So I've decided to give him another go with the 1960's challenge. | |
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| Weesam - 2015-05-26 4:36 PM I read The Man in the High Castle many years ago - and hated it. Didn't pick up another PKD until last year, when for some reason I decided to read Radio Free Albemuth - and loved it. So I've decided to give him another go with the 1960's challenge. What specifically did you hate about The Man in the High Castle? I think it's a masterpiece. Not only is it an early and original example of alternate history, but it's well written, and has wonderful characters. I love how PKD tells his story through the lives of little people. Also, pound for pound, it has an amazing amount of creative ideas in it, far more than most science fiction novels.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-05-27 5:02 PM
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| I'm trying to think why I like PKD's writing so much. Even though his books were weird and far out, he often wrote about believable people. Not super-heroes that save the world, but schmucks that get by day by day. Here's a passage from The Man in the High Castle about an ex-wife that struct me.
Juliana the best-looking woman he had ever married. Soot-black eyebrows and hair; trace amounts of Spanish blood distributed as pure color, even to her lips. Her rubbery, soundless walk; she had worn saddle shoes left over from high school. In fact all her clothes had a dilapidated quality and the definite suggestion of being old and often washed. He and she had been so broke so long that despite her looks she had had to wear a cotton sweater, cloth zippered jacket, brown tweed skirt and bobby socks, and she hated him and it because it made her look, she had said, like a woman who played tennis or (even worse) collected mushrooms in the woods. But above and beyond everything else, he had originally been drawn by her screwball expression; for no reason, Juliana greeted strangers with a portentous, nudnik, Mona Lisa smile that hung them up between responses, whether to say hello or not. And she was so attractive that more often than not they did say hello, whereupon Juliana glided by. At first he had thought it was just plain bad eyesight, but finally he had decided that it revealed a deep-dyed otherwise concealed stupidity at her core. And so finally her borderline flicker of greeting to strangers had annoyed him, as had her plantlike, silent, Im-on-a-mysterious-errand way of coming and going. But even then, toward the end, when they had been fighting so much, he still never saw her as anything but a direct, literal invention of Gods, dropped into his life for reasons he would never know. And on that account a sort of religious intuition or faith about her he could not get over having lost her. Dick, Philip K. (2012-01-24). The Man in the High Castle (pp. 14-15). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-05-27 6:07 PM
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| jwharris28 - 2015-05-27 5:01 PM
What specifically did you hate about The Man in the High Castle? I think it's a masterpiece. Not only is it an early and original example of alternate history, but it's well written, and has wonderful characters. I love how PKD tells his story through the lives of little people. Also, pound for pound, it has an amazing amount of creative ideas in it, far more than most science fiction novels.
Don't know as it was such a long time ago that I read it. About 25 years ago. Maybe I just wasn't ready for PKD at that time. I was new to science fiction and most of my reading at that point was Asimov or Clarke. I got scared off by PKD possibly because it was a lot deeper than what I was used to, and honestly I didn't really understand it. That is why I am going to give it another go. I have read a lot more since I was 24, and learned much. Perhaps now I am ready to be in PKD's head. | |
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Location: New Zealand | And there I go again, not logged in. I really wish someone could sort out why that 'keep me logged in' button no longer works. That was me above. | |
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Weesam - 2015-05-27 7:33 PM And there I go again, not logged in. I really wish someone could sort out why that 'keep me logged in' button no longer works. That was me above. Philip K. Dick is much different from other science fiction writers. It's funny how were all so different, and resonate with different writers. I took to PKD when I first discovered him in high school. The first book I remember reading was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It was 1968 and I can still see it on the new 7-day book shelf. I was at the Coconut Grove Library branch, in Miami, Florida. I pulled it down because of the strange cover. I took it home and read it, and thought it very weird indeed. I really didn't start getting into PKD until later though, around 1973 or 1974, when I started doing drugs regularly, and was blown away by The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. I gave up drugs a couple years later, and sort of forgot PKD for a while. Then I got him to him again, when I started reading his mainstream novels that started coming out. Then I rediscovered him again with his Valis books. My favorite PKD novel is Confessions of a Crap Artist. I wrote about rereading it not long ago at my blog. http://auxiliarymemory.com/2013/01/08/confessions-of-a-crap-artist-by-philip-k-dick/
Edited by jwharris28 2015-05-27 7:57 PM
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Here's an interesting video review for our group: Smackdown between The Caves of Steel vs. Double Star. http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015/05/video-starshipsofa-gives-asimov-vs-heinlein-smackdown/ I posted my perceived winner to the SFSignal site.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-05-27 8:19 PM
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Location: The Wilds of Washington | I had the same experience with PKD. When I first read him, didn't get it, didn't like it. No, thank you, I'll read something else. I think I was to young. I think there's an experience of the world factor which comes into play with his work and writing style. And I wasn't ready for it. I've read both Android and High Castle in the last 2-3 years, and I just marvel at them. For a very long time I didn't understand why he was important to SF. I do now.
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Location: UK | I must admit, High Castle was never one of my favourites. Honestly, I think I'd probably get more out of it now, but I just found it a bit dull at the time, I think.
The ones I liked were the reality-bending books like Ubik, which is probably still my favourite, although it's a long time since I read it. The short stories are also pretty great, for the most part. As I said before I kind of gave up on PKD when I read too many turkeys. I found his work very variable. I'm planning to read at least one of his books for the 60s challenge, though.
He's always had a kind of counter-cultural cachet, and for me is one of the most interesting SF writers from a philosophical standpoint. His two big themes seemed to be "what is real?" and "what does it mean to be human?", and I always felt that the movie version of Bladerunner did a good job of being true to the latter theme while not really keeping anything else from the original. | |
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| gallyangel - 2015-05-28 2:06 AM I had the same experience with PKD. When I first read him, didn't get it, didn't like it. No, thank you, I'll read something else. I think I was to young. I think there's an experience of the world factor which comes into play with his work and writing style. And I wasn't ready for it. I've read both Android and High Castle in the last 2-3 years, and I just marvel at them. For a very long time I didn't understand why he was important to SF. I do now. That's two people who said they might have been too young to enjoy PKD. That's interesting. One criticism of science fiction from the outside world is it's too much for young adults. So maybe PDK is atypical because he's more mature. A lot of science fiction has young people as protagonists, and often PKD had men that were older, often divorced, sometimes with a kid. They were regular guys, struggling with their jobs, dealing with bosses and wives. I can see where that wouldn't appeal to younger readers. PKD was known as a druggie writer, but often his science fictional drugs were just substitutes for mental illness. There's a lot of mental illness is his stories. I can see where that would be a turn off for young people too. One reason I've read The Martian Time-Slip several times is because the characters are struggling with mundane real-life problems, even though the setting is Mars. Like Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick's Mars, is just 1950s America transported to another planet. Actually, Bradbury was more of the 1930s America. Dick always reflected the 1950s, and to an extent the 1960s, but mostly he was a 1950s person. His drug use was never psychedelic, but had the feel of troubled people of the 1950s. Y'all might not know this, but the 1950s were obsessed with psychiatry. So PKD's work is focused on 1950s mental problems, rather than 1950s dreams of conquering space.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-05-28 7:55 AM
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Location: UK | OK Jim,I will definitely try Martian Time Slip.
I think I went into Man in the High Castle with wrong expectations. I was interested at first with the alternate history stuff,and was a bit disconcerted when the whole plot seemed to be carelessly(to me) tossed aside two thirds through,when melodrama,murder etc came in. I just found it a bit odd somehow. I do still intend to read Ubik and A Scanner Darkly.Maybe I will finally ''get'' PKD!....maybe...
I also just completed my final book of the challenge,Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan. The usual Vonnegut's savage denunciations of war and christianity. Acerbic,mordantly funny at times,but as usual the unpleasnt characters puts me off a bit. Good writing though,and numerous twists of plot to keep us riveted. One chilling but brilliant chapter was about the Martian army,all with antennas in their heads,sort of proto chips,who are completely controlled by them. Brainwashing was a major concern in the 50s after the Korean War. Lobotomies were still surgical procedures. All very frightening. The brain,brainwashing,psi talents etc were all quite common themes in 50s SF. So as usual I was impressed by Vonnegut,but not enthused. One of the downsides of satire as I think we touched on with his Player Piano early in the challenge. Once again,Vonnegut is admirable for his savage bitter denunciations,but not lovable whatsover.
So now waiting for Doc N's new challenge for the 60s.
Thanks both to him for setting it up,and of course Jim for his fantastic lists. I now have a much deeper grasp of 50s SF. Thanks for the guidance! | |
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| Dustydigger, I don't think everyone will like PKD. Time Magazine liked Ubik enough to add it to its Best Books of All Time. I didn't. But I know many people who love Ubik. I think everyone finds a different PKD book to love. He wrote many strangely different books. A Scanner Darkly is both brilliant and depressing. It's about how drugs destroy people, and is based on his real life experience with drug users, many of which died. My absolute favorite PKD novel is Confessions of a Crap Artist. It's not even science fiction, but a science fan is the main character. It's a round robin between several characters' POVs. Dick shows us reality from different perspectives, and none of them are reliable. It's a Rashomon like story.
Edited by jwharris28 2015-05-28 12:15 PM
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Location: Middle TN, USA | I read Man In The High Castle this year, and frankly I did not like it. The way PKD seemed to drop the main character 2/3rds of the way through the novel to focus on the wife was disconcerting to say the least. And then I'm not sure I even understood the ending. What were the wife and the author trying to say at the end, that they knew they were an alternate reality? I don't know, I'm not stupid and I don't need plots spoon fed to me, but the novel seemed to me to be a series of unfinished thoughts. PKD picked up and dropped story lines without any resolution to any of them.
Now this is the first PDK I have read and I have 2 more of his novel slated to read this year, Time out of Joint and Solar Lottery, which I may like more. I try not to judge authors by just one novel, especially a prolific writer like PDK, so as you said JW, I might find I like one of the others.
I just finished Bradbury's The Illustrated Man for this challenge, and actually enjoyed that one better than The Martian Chronicles. Although " There Will Come Soft Rain" may be my favorite short story of all time. I'm on to Player Piano by Vonnegut or The Demolished Man by Bester if it comes in from Interlibrary Loan in a timely manner. Sometimes waiting for the library to get the books is the worst part of a challenge!
By the way Mr. Harris I am enjoying your list very much. Although I have heard of many of the authors on your list, I have not read very many of them. This at least gives me a reference to start dipping my toe in some of these classic novels. I think it is important to see where the "roots" of a genre that I enjoy so much come from. Many of what are considered the sic-fi cliches, found their start in these very novels. | |
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Location: New Zealand | jwharris28 - 2015-05-29 12:54 AM
That's two people who said they might have been too young to enjoy PKD. That's interesting. One criticism of science fiction from the outside world is it's too much for young adults. So maybe PDK is atypical because he's more mature. A lot of science fiction has young people as protagonists, and often PKD had men that were older, often divorced, sometimes with a kid. They were regular guys, struggling with their jobs, dealing with bosses and wives. I can see where that wouldn't appeal to younger readers. PKD was known as a druggie writer, but often his science fictional drugs were just substitutes for mental illness. There's a lot of mental illness is his stories. I can see where that would be a turn off for young people too
I don't know if it is necessarily just age, after all I was 24 when I read it, not a teenager. But I was a very sheltered 24, with no real experience of a big bad world, and therefore there was nothing in PKD that spoke to me, and little understanding from me of issues such as mental illness. You also mention that it is a world that people of the 1950's would understand, and there again, I didn't really start picking up what would be my culture until the 1980's, which was when I was a teenager. | |
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| Here's an interesting article about John Wyndham at Kirkus Reviews https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/john-wyndham-and-global-expansion-science-fiction/
Edited by jwharris28 2015-05-29 7:35 AM
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Location: UK | @ Jim. Better late than never I watched the Heinlein/Asimov video,and I too agree that Heinlein holds up better.The Great Lorenzo is such an interesting and engaging character,and anyway the whole substitution plot is one of my fave plotlines,from Shakespeare's Comedy of errors through Twain's Prince and the Pauper up to Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar and a million other modern books. Asimov has a lot of great ideas,the world building of the Caves of Steel is interesting,but the writing is so pedestrian and clunky.and the characters are so cardboard that much is lost. Still.I enjoy both books,and can bear to reread them.
By the way,the person discussing the books obviously comes from my area.,probably 15-20 miles away by his strong north east accent. My accent isnt half as strong as that,thank heavens! A really strong local accent is almost incomprehensible to the rest of the country
The Wyndham article was interesting,especially the points about how Wyndham and others escaped the genre straitjacketso prevalent in the US because the SF magazines were in short supply here so authors were looked upon less disparagingly by the wider public. Food for thought.
Edited by dustydigger 2015-05-31 12:59 AM
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Location: UK | YAY! Great discovery today. I have been very frustrated by the paucity of 1950s boks available through my library. I had to buy several books to complete the challenge. Well,today I discovered an offshoot of Internet Archive called Open Library,similar to Project Gutenberg in making free access to older books.The books are scanned,and the layout is a bit clunky,but I discovered many of the 50s challenge available to borrow free for two weeks at a time!
Heres the list of available books if you can bear to read scanned books
1950
E E Smith - First Lensman
E E Doc Smith - Galactic Patrol*
Isaac Asimov - I,Robot
Isaac Asimov - Pebble in the Sky
A E Van Vogt - The Voyage of the Space Beagle*
1951
Isaac Asimov - Foundation
E E Doc Smith - Grey Lensman*
Robert A Heinlein - The Puppet Masters
Arthur C Clarke - The Sands of Mars*
Isaac Asimov - The Stars,like Dust
1952
Clifford D Simak - City*
Isaac Asimov - Currents of Space*
Alfred Bester - The Demolished Man
Isaac Asimov - Foundation and Empire
Robert A Heinlein - The Rolling Stones*
Raymond F Jones - This Island Earth
1953
Arthur C Clarke - Childhoods End
Theodore Sturgeon - More Than Human
Clifford D Simak - Ring Around the Sun*
E E Doc Smith - Second Stage Lensman*
Pohl+Kornbluth - The Space Merchants
Robert A Heinlein - Starman Jones
Wilson Tucker - Wild Talent*
1954
Isaac Asimov - Caves of Steel
Andre Norton - The Stars Are Ours!*
1955
Arthur C Clarke - Earthlight*
James Blish - Cities in Flight*
Isaac Asimov - The End of Eternity*
Isaac Asimov - The Martian Way*
Fredric Brown - Martians Go Home*
1956
William Tenn - The Human Angle*
Robert A Heinlein - Time for the Stars*
Frank Herbert - Under Pressure*
1957
Robert A Heinlein - Citizen of the Galaxy
Mark Clifton - The Forever Machine
John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos
Isaac Asimov - The Naked Sun
Nevill Shute - On the Beach
Andre Norton - Star Born
1958
Brian W Aldiss - Non-Stop*
Andre Norton - Time Traders
Algis Budrys - Who?*
1959
Pat Frank - Alas Babylon*
Gordon R Dickson - Dorsai*
Pohl+Kornbluth - Wolfsbane*
asterisked books are those I intend to read. | |
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| Thanks for the information about Open Library. I've been poking around and it's quite a fascinating place. Claims to do for books/libraries/catalogs what Wikipedia did for encyclopedias. | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | I just finished Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut for my 1952 book and found it unenjoyable. It read more like an extended parable than a novel because it hammered home its lessons so forcefully. I didn't find any of the humor that others seemed to have found. Maybe it's because I found it hard to place myself in that world. Besides there being only a single female character in the entire book, the male characters were not ones I could empathize with. Paul Proteus, the protagonist, lacked any agency and instead went with the current of wherever he was. The previously mentioned currents were single-minded two-dimensional characters of various agendas and they swept up everything in their path without consideration. While that may have been part of Vonnegut's point, it made for dull reading (or, in my case, listening).
Next up for 1953, Childhood's End. | |
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Location: UK | I've just finished The Time Traders by Andre Norton for 1958. It was a reasonably entertaining lightweight adventure story. I'd previously read The Big Time and A Case of Conscience for this year, neither of which are big favourites of mine, so I guess it's looking a bit of a weak year, so far.
Just 1959 to go, and it's now the only year until 1971 for which I don't actually own anything. I've read five of the nine books of 1959, proportionally my best year of the decade. At the moment, I'm thinking The Enemy Stars is my most likely choice, since I can get hold of it easily and cheaply from SF Gateway. I'm slightly amazed that I've had the willpower to hold off buying it until I'm ready to ready to read it, but I figured it's an ebook. It's not going anywhere. | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | I finished 1954 - Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke. Even though I can't say that I enjoyed the book much I am glad to have read it. It seems like the type of book that has endured because it has something important to say. I do wish that Mr Clarke had not fiddled with the opening chapter. I read both versions and the original fits with the book so much better. | |
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Location: UK | I thought there was also a bit of a logical problem with the revised version, too, when one of the scientists mentions that he worked on radios for the resistance during the German occupation of France. It's just a throwaway line, but if you move the whole thing forwards 40 years, it doesn't really work out. | |
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| pizzakarin - 2015-07-09 9:23 PM I finished 1954 - Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke. Even though I can't say that I enjoyed the book much I am glad to have read it. It seems like the type of book that has endured because it has something important to say. I do wish that Mr Clarke had not fiddled with the opening chapter. I read both versions and the original fits with the book so much better. I hate when authors revise their science fiction. Fixing things means we don't get to see how they originally extrapolated. | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | I feel that Clarke would have been better served leaving the first chapter as-is and expanding his forward to the new addition to discuss how he feels his story might have changed if he had written it forty years after he did (since the new chapter was put in place in the early 90s edition of the book). | |
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Location: UK | I read the whole of The Enemy Stars yesterday (it's only 140 pages) to complete this challenge. Whee! Only 40 more years to go. 40 more years of increasing book length.
I must admit I was kind of worried about this one. The only Poul Anderson book I'd previously read had left a very bad taste, and I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but I enjoyed it just fine. A pacy, marooned-in-space story with what looked like some serious numbers I glossed over. Also another slide rule. When will the last one appear? | |
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Regular
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| The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Bracket is on sale at Amazon for $1.99. That's a great 50's SF classic if you read ebooks.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Tomorrow-Leigh-Brackett-ebook/dp/B00... | |
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Location: Middle TN, USA | jwharris28 - 2015-07-23 12:26 PM
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Bracket is on sale at Amazon for $1.99. That's a great 50's SF classic if you read ebooks.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Tomorrow-Leigh-Brackett-ebook/dp/B00...
I'm half way through this book, and it is so good! The last two I've read for this challenge have been better than average. (Caves of Steel, Asimov, and this one ) | |
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Regular
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| I decided to reread The Foundation Trilogy because they are available on audio book at my Scribd.com subscription library. I'm in the middle of the first book, Foundation, and it's painful to listen to, even though it has an excellent reader. The writing is primitive, which is to be expected because Asimov was very young, and he was writing for the pulps, but it's also bad because of the logic of the story. Nothing in the plot makes sense. Each story is set around a series of strawmen that Asimov has his character argue over, and then the actual solution is an unexpected twist. And to put so much faith in psychology is hard for us to believe now. Plus, there's lots of weird things to consider. How does the collapsing empire have interstellar space travel without atomic power? If the encyclopedia is a ruse, why is it quoted with so much reverence?
Edited by jwharris28 2015-10-16 3:20 PM
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Regular
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| I'm looking for different ways to identify which SF books from the 1950s have remained popular.
http://scifilists.sffjazz.com/lists_books_rank1.html
Using this site, Ive extracted what 1950s SF books show up, and in order. This system is based on a poll, so it reflects current opinion. However, we have no statistics on the poll, other than to assume the population is one that likes to read science fiction and participate in the poll. These are the usual suspects again. You have to think who is getting left off. No Wilson Tucker, no Andre Norton. You have to assume the second 100 are books that are being forgotten, even though it has some famous books in it.
City and More Than Human were near the top of my system, but you can see they are fading. I doubt youll see either at a bookstore today.
#3 The Foundation Trilogy (1951) by Isaac Asimov
#7 Fahrenheit 451 (1954) by Ray Bradbury
#11 I, Robot (1950) by Isaac Asimov
#19 Childhoods End (1954) by Arthur C. Clarke
#22 The Martian Chronicles (1950) by Ray Bradbury
#30 The Stars My Destination (1956) by Alfred Bester
#32 The Caves of Steel (1954) by Isaac Asimov
#43 The Day of the Triffids (1951) by John Wyndham
#45 A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
#50 The End of Eternity (1955) by Isaac Asimov
#60 The Sirens of Titan (1959) by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
#65 The City and the Stars (1956) by Arthur C. Clarke
#67 The Demolished Man (1953) by Alfred Bester
#68 The Door Into Summer (1956) by Robert A. Heinlein
#81 Have Space Suit-Will Travel (1958) by Robert A. Heinlein
#82 The Chrysalids (1955) by John Wyndham
#90 I Am Legand (1954) by Richard Matheson
#93 City (1952) by Clifford Simak
#99 More Than Human (1953) by Theodore Sturgeon
If you use their expanded list, which contains the second hundred top books, wed get:
#104 Cities in Flight (1955) by James Blish
#120 The Man Who Sold The Moon (1950) by Robert A. Heinlein
#126 Double Star (1956) by Robert A. Heinlein
#127 Alas, Babylon (1959) by Pat Frank
#133 On the Beach (1957) by Nevil Shute
#140 The Grey Lensman (1951) by E. E. Doc Smith
#141 The Space Merchants (1953) by Pohl & Kornbluth
#151 Player Piano (1952) by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
#155 Mission of Gravity (1953) by Hal Clement
#158 Non-Stop (1958) by Brian W. Aldiss
#191 The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950) by A. E. Van Vogt
My hunch is The Foundation Trilogy remains popular because its a whole lot like Star Wars. They both have an appeal that touches a lot of fans. Who knew that folks would love galactic empires so much.
Jim
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Veteran
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Location: Austin, Tx | I just finished Of All Possible Worlds by William Tenn (1955) and was pleasantly surprised by it. The book is a collection of 7 short stories, all of which fit one of the classic "science fiction story" premises, but almost all of which manage to add something interesting to the premise. I will definitely be picking up Tenn's complete works at some point (there is a two volume set) since my copy of Of All Possible Worlds is falling apart after one reading (it was the 1955 edition and had a very fragile spine when I got it). | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | Yesterday I finished The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. I am usually not a fan of psychic power stories, but I didn't find this one too obnoxious. I definitely see why it's a classic.
Only three more left in the challenge! | |
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Member
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Location: Fort Worth, Texas | Hi. New to the challenge, and new to the site as well. Just read The Man Who Sold the Moon for my 1950 selection. Found the story in an anthology of 40s and 50s sci fi stories at my library, but then found the paperback was scanned and available at openlibrary.org. It read better as part of a collection of Heinlein stories I think. And it wasn't bad for being so dated.
Edited by Beardie 2016-02-10 9:31 PM
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Member
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Location: Fort Worth, Texas | Another Heinlein for my 1951 selection, Between Planets. Not a bad little space opera.
I'll probably be reading a few Heinlein juveniles for this challenge as I found an omnibus edition of several of them at my library, which should take me through 1954.
Edited by Beardie 2016-03-05 6:02 PM
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Uber User
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Location: Middle TN, USA | First off Beardie, a belated welcome, you'll find good people on this site. Without this challenge I would not have found out how much I enjoy these pulp stories. I am especially fond of E.E "Doc" Smith. Good luck with the rest of this challenge, and again, Welcome! | |
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Member
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Location: Fort Worth, Texas |
Thanks for the welcome!
I'm enjoying getting into this challenge. Finished 2 more Heinlein juveniles for 1952 and 53, The Rolling Stones and Starman Jones. I'm enjoying these, but think I'm ready to move on to something beside Heinlein in this challenge. Although, the books aren't bad, the little details (like slide rules or manually calculating flight paths) really show the age of the books. Makes an interesting reading experience. | |
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Location: Middle TN, USA | Without really realizing it, I finished this challenge. I guess it is on to the 1960's challenge. | |
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Location: Austin, Tx | Congrats on finishing! I'm so close, 3 books out. I'm going to try to push through them before I get sent to FL for work (and inevitably only have my Kindle with me). | |
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Location: UK | I find the kindle rather disappointing on the SF front. There are huge gaps in the vintage SF available,and the prices are too high.My fave author,C J Cherryh,is barely represented,unless you read German! lol,so that makes me so not a fan of the kindle! | |
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Regular
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| I find the Kindle extremely useful. For years I've been collecting SF classics when they go on sale for $1.99. Got quite a collection now. Plus, all my books are available on my iPhone. If you follow SFSignal.com, they have a regular listing of on sale SF. Plus I get the Kindle Daily Deal email, and BookBub. | |
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| dustydigger - 2016-04-15 5:04 PM I find the kindle rather disappointing on the SF front. There are huge gaps in the vintage SF available,and the prices are too high.My fave author,C J Cherryh,is barely represented,unless you read German! lol,so that makes me so not a fan of the kindle! Consider signing up for Open Road Media's Early Bird mailing list. They offer one freebie a day, usually an old Public Domain work (and sometimes these are SF), plus several $1.99 specials, which are often from SF authors' backlists (for example, I got Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's collection Scarborough Fair for $1.99). I've picked up quite a few vintage SF works this way -- but as I'm not really interested in reading vintage right now, they will just sit in my library until that changes. | |
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Location: UK | Open Road never seem to extend their offers to the UK. I believe Eleanor Arnason's Woman of the Iron People is on offer right now, which is on my list of potential reads for the 90s version of this challenge, but it's still at its regular price here (which is a pretty good price by Open Road's UK standards anyway). | |
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Regular
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| I found this site accidentally, http://www.uvulaaudio.com/stars.html - which has an audio edition of The Stars Are Ours! by Andre Norton, from 1954. I'm listening to it while doing some data entry. I'm surprised by it's theme, where scientists are outlawed by a politically repressive state.
Edited by jwharris28 2016-04-15 7:49 AM
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Edited by illegible_scribble 2016-05-23 12:13 AM
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Location: UK | Jim.I am reading The Stars are Ours right now on Open Library. I think there ws a lot of dislike of scientists around at that time. I remember in Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz the scientists were purged. And in The Long Tomorrow things werent going well for them either! lol.Of course the effect of Hiroshima (remember Oppenheimers famous quote ''I am Death,the destroyer of worlds'' ?) lead to the whole scientific community being looked on askance!No wonderthe SF of the time was so dystopic in view! | |
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Veteran
Posts: 144
Location: Alief, TX | I started working on this challenge at the beginning of May. I started my eighth book of the challenge today. So far I have read -
1950 Voyage of the Space Beagle by A.E. van Vogt: Great stuff. Loved the episodic nature. Makes me wonder if Gene Roddenberry read it before Star Trek
1951 The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury: Bradbury is a true master of the short story medium
1952 The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester: Fantastic book. Went straight to my favorites list. To me, it compares with Frederick Pohl's The Space Merchants and Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
1953 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: Surprisingly, I'm a little disappointed. I just didn't feel this one like some of the others
1954 The Stars are Ours by Andre Norton: Surprisingly good. Her post-apocalyptic world really spoke to me
1955 Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick: Excellent, especially for a first novel. I really loved his dystopic world government
1956 The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester: Really good book. The end lost me, just a little, but still highly recommended
1957 Star Born by Andre Norton: Sequel to the prior book. I'm a third of the way through, and enjoying it
Still to come, Time Travelers by Andre Norton for 1958 and Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick for 1959.
I'm still considering bumping my commitment up to 15 books. I have the titles lying around, I just have to make the time. If I do, Martian Chronicles will make the list, as well as The Man Who Japed, Player Piano, and Philip Wylie's Disappearance. While I have the books, for some reason I find myself driven to complete this challenge without reading any new Asimov or Heinlein. I'm not sure why.
If you're looking for recommendations, I read for challenges in previous years The Canticle of Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, The Space Merchants by Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, and The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, and loved loved loved all of them.
Edited by jontlaw 2016-05-23 6:15 PM
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Veteran
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Location: Austin, Tx | I have finally finished. My last book, Dorsai! by Gordon R Dickson, was a terrible way to end what was mostly a positive experience. I found Dorsai! to be dull. Donal Graeme, the protagonist, didn't seem to encounter anything that he couldn't intuit his way out of. I never felt like he might fail. That's before the awful last chapter. And on top of that, lots of really outdated sentiments on a woman's place in the universe.
Looking back on it, I am so glad to have read The Martian Chronicles, I Am Legend, and The Stars My Destination. Additionally, I"m glad to have found the short fiction of Richard Matheson (at the back of my copy of I Am Legend) and William Tenn. | |
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Location: UK | Congrats.
I didn't think much of Dorsai! either. I thought I'd read it for this challenge, but apparently not. It certainly wasn't too long ago. | |
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Veteran
Posts: 144
Location: Alief, TX | Finished!! The summer was a wasteland for me, almost no reading done, but September has gotten me going again. My updated list:
1950 Voyage of the Space Beagle by A.E. van Vogt: Great stuff. Loved the episodic nature. Makes me wonder if Gene Roddenberry read it before Star Trek
1951 The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury: Bradbury is a true master of the short story medium
1952 The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester: Fantastic book. Went straight to my favorites list. To me, it compares with Frederick Pohl's The Space Merchants and Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
1953 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: Surprisingly, I'm a little disappointed. I just didn't feel this one like some of the others
1954 The Stars are Ours by Andre Norton: Surprisingly good. Her post-apocalyptic world really spoke to me
1955 Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick: Excellent, especially for a first novel. I really loved his dystopic world government
1956 The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester: Really good book. The end lost me, just a little, but still highly recommended
1957 Star Born by Andre Norton: Sequel to the prior book. Enjoyed it
1958 Time Traders by Andre Norton: I've never considered myself a time travel kinda guy, but this was good enough to continue the series
1959 Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick: Excellent! PKD never disappoints
extra Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury: Maybe the best of his that I've read.
extra Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut: He must have had a crystal ball for this one
extra Sargasso of Space by Andre Norton: A great little adventure novel. Another series I'll have to keep reading
extra The Man Who Japed by Philip K. Dick:
extra The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick: As I said, he never disappoints
On to the 1960's challenge. I've already finished one. From Philip K. Dick to Philip Jose Farmer | |
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Location: UK | Nice work.
I went through a big PKD phase many years ago, and now I'm not sure what I've read and what I haven't. | |
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Uber User
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Location: UK | Does anyone want this challenge extending? Or is everyone happy for it to expire at the end of the year? | |
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Uber User
Posts: 369
Location: Middle TN, USA | I finished this challenge, but I could use the 60's challenge extended, if your offering. | |
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| I just finished this challenge this week. Looking forward to moving on to the 60s.
Interesting finds: I enjoyed Philip k. Dick and Alfred Bester, I think the only reason Bester isn't a bigger name is that he has so few sci fi novels.
Disappointments: James Blish and Gordon Dickson. Usually I don't mind religion in my sci fi, but I found A case of Conscience boring. And Dorsai! has been on my shelf for years, but the wait wasn't worth it. I'd rather reread Starship Troopers. | |
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Location: Fort Worth, Texas | The Forum posted the above as a Guest. Apparently I forgot to log in before I posted. Any way, this has been a great idea for a reading challenge and hope to knock off a couple more decades in 2017.
Edited by Beardie 2016-12-28 11:09 AM
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Regular
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| I've gotten out of the habit of checking the forums. I think it's okay to close the 1950s at the end of the year. I think I need to just start again with a newer forum. | |
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The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge