SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Which sci-fi books published before the 70s would you recommend?

The first 3 or 4 books of Ursula K Le Guin's Hainish Cycle were published before 1970.

☝️ What Gabi said. The Left Hand of Darkness makes the cut, and is especially highly recommendable.

Many of the books by Philip K. Dick were published before 1970, like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 1.

This Immortal & Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny & The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany are listed as SF, although they have a fantasy feel.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is amazing for its prescience. Published in 1953, it had a lot of elements we're seeing today: biometrics, ear shells that are like earbuds, TV screens that cover the walls & inane programs that are more important than real life since they also allow user input. Montag's run is eerily familiar to King's "The Running Man" & 'reality' TV, short wars that no one understands a thing about & a presidential race decided on which candidate looked & sounded better.

Alas, Babylon, On the Beach, A Canticle for Leibowitz, I Am Legend, & Earth Abides if you want something apocalyptic.

Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison isn't quite apocalyptic, but it's the book "Soylent Green" (1973) was based on.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, but make sure you don't get one of the early US editions which left the last chapter off. That's what Kuberick used for his fantastic film.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a good novel, but I think the original short story is just as good. The movie "Charly" (1968) is based on it.

I highly recommend most of Heinlein's work prior to the early 1960s especially his juveniles. Stranger in a Strange Land hasn't aged well, but The Moon is a Harsh Mistress has.

Way Station
Cat's Cradle
Asimov's robot stories

Let's not forget the old daddies of sci-fi: H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.
The Time Machine
The War of the Worlds
The Invisible Man
The Island of Doctor Moreau
The First Men in the Moon
The Shape of Things to Come
A Modern Utopia
Tales of Space and Time
The War in the Air

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Around the World in Eighty Days
The Mysterious Island
From the Earth to the Moon
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Round the Moon
In the Year 2889
The Master of the World
Robur the Conqueror

Those two men were true visionaries of their time.

I endorse this entire thread so far.

Jim is echoing my review of Fahrenheit 451: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Similarly, the astonishing Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, from 1932 (!!).

I would add John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar.

The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey.

Also The World of Ptavvs by Larry Niven.

I really liked The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, which has more humor than I expected.

The Seedling Stars by James Blish. (Interconnected short stories.)

Dune, for completeness.

The Day of the Triffids
I Am Legend

1984

I adore this thread. And I’ve read so much of it! Go me! And go all of you for beating me to it!

Well, if we are going to get into ancient history, there is some interesting stuff written by (of all people) Rudyard Kipling -- have a book of his SF short stories around somewhere, of which one of my favorites was With the Night Mail.

His vision of the world of the future turned out not to be very accurate, but of course the same could be said of Jules Verne (with the exception of his nuclear submarine concept).

A more recent classic SF book that didn't quite get it right as far as the future is concerned would be Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. IMHO, that was a great book, and I can appreciate that she wrote it before the development of the interstate highway system in the United States and before commercial aviation really got going, when people still thought that railroads would be the mass transportation system of the future.

A lot of Andre Norton's SF books were written before 1970:

The Stars are Ours
Crosstime and the rest of this series
Star Born
plus quite a few other books

Definitely recommended:

Dune
War with the Newts
The Martian Chronicles
I, Robot

Sorting by “Date Published” in my Read list reveals a few more suggestions:

City

The Humanoids

More Than Human

Childhood's End

I Am Legend

Martians, Go Home

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Colossus

Ubik

Looks like people already beat me to my favorites. Hahahahaha. Mainly the HG Wells, Verne, Orwell, Clarke, and Huxley books.

It never occurred to me about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a science fiction novel, but that’s true too. I’d like to see the Bond producers do a non musical remake of it that either more closely follows the book, or at least the spirit of the book, AND have it tied in and crossover with the Bond films.

I think the only other one I can add is The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. Also, Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, although some people debate whether those are horror or sci fi.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Who Goes There?
The Anything Box
We

Some of James Tiptree's short stories were published before 1970.

A few Notable classic scifi authors are issac Asimov, jules Verne, Burroughs, HG Wells, Arthur c Clarke

I'll also recommend this one: The Witches of Karres

it's funny and I always thought it would make an excellent movie. At the time I read it I imagined Drew Barrymore (from her ET times) as The Leewit and Kristy McNichol (Family) as Goth. Maybe harrison Ford as the captain.

What about Babel-17 or Nova? Those are pretty good Delaney books no one has mentioned yet.

Also, I really enjoyed The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination, but I don't know if Bester wrote any SF other than those two.

Bryan wrote: "What about Babel-17 or Nova? Those are pretty good Delaney books no one has mentioned yet."

I prefer Dhalgren but it was published in 1974

Babel-17 was quite interesting

Rita wrote: "I would recommend Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. There are many other good books by him as well."

This is my favorite by Clarke!

Bryan wrote: "What about Babel-17 or Nova? Those are pretty good Delaney books no one has mentioned yet."

I got Nova and will give it a try!

Ben wrote: "A few Notable classic scifi authors are issac Asimov, jules Verne, Burroughs, HG Wells, Arthur c Clarke"

I read a lot by Asimov, he is my favorite sci-fi author. I still have to read a lot by Clarke, I read around five by him and some of his books I really like and some not so much. I got a collection by HG Wells and will give it a try, my first impression was of very dry writing but I will give it a second chance.

Bryan wrote: "Also, I really enjoyed The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination, but I don't know if Bester wrote any SF other than those two."

I really liked The Stars my Destination, so I will give The Demolished Man a try soon.

MeaganCM wrote: "Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Who Goes There?
The Anything Box
We

Some of James Tiptree's short stories were published before 1970."

We is in my TBR too.

Thanks for the tips, I'll check the books out!

Leticia wrote: "I got a collection by HG Wells and will give it a try, my first impression was of very dry writing but I will give it a second chance. ."

I found The Invisible Man to be funny and ditto for The first Men in the Moon. I also read War of the Worlds (fairly good), The Island of Dr Moreau (ok) and The Time Machine (good). Wells does a good job of portraying ordinary people, especially the gullible, the lower classes in Britain, and those who are greedy.

I have the Delphi Collected works of H.G. Wells

careful what you ask for as read a lot from the 60s on :) here are some authors and books:

Murray Leinster A Logic Named Joe
Gordon R. Dickson Dorsai!
Theodore Sturgeon More Than Human
Frederik Pohl Gateway
Jack Vance The Moon Moth
Fritz Leiber Swords and Deviltry
A.E. van Vogt The Weapon Shops of Isher

2nd anything by RA Heinlein and The Witches of Karres. slightly past your threshold but John Varley is up there with Heinlein I think, and Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series by Spider Robinson are a hoot.

Do you like short stories? Several of those mentioned here are & they're the best of SF, IMO. For instance, Leinster's "A Logic Named Joe" is a longish short story for the period. Asimov's "I, Robot" is a collection of short stories as is the first book in Spider Robinson's Callahan series. Heinlein's "Past Through Tomorrow" is most of his short stories. All are great reading.

"A Logic Named Joe" is like Fahrenheit 451 in that its prescience is almost freaky. Leinster doesn’t use the same terms we do, but he’s clearly describing the world we live in. It has the internet, complete with streaming video, FaceTime, the works.

Online here: http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200506/...

Trike wrote: ""A Logic Named Joe" is like Fahrenheit 451 in that its prescience is almost freaky. Leinster doesn’t use the same terms we do, but he’s clearly describing the world we live in. It has the internet,..."

CBRetriever wrote: "I'll also recommend this one: The Witches of Karres

it's funny and I always thought it would make an excellent movie. At the time I read it I imagined Drew Barrymore (from her ET tim..."

Potential readers should be aware that "The Witches of Karres" was originally a novelette in the December 1949 issue of Astounding Science Fiction (later Analog), and this version has been reprinted many times (including a 1973 appearance in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume II B, which contained a selection of stories from before the Nebula awards which the then members Science Fiction Writers of America considered to be in the same class).

Schmitz's expanded novel version appeared in 1966, and was nominated for a Hugo, although the publisher, Chilton, seems to have marketed it at least in part as a juvenile. The novelette is great fun, but this is the preferred version. However, since Schmitz extended the story instead of re-writing it wholesale, no harm is done if you happen to read the short form first.

"The Witches of Karres" was Schmitz's longest novel, and has no connection with either the relatively early "Agent of Vega" stories or the longer series of the Confederation of the Hub, chiefly, but not only, featuring as heroines Telzey Amberdon and Trigger Argee. "Witches" was reprinted by Baen Books in 2001, along with Schmitz's other science fiction, and remains in print.

It has been joined by two volumes by other hands, "The Wizard of Karres," by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer, and 'The Sorceress of Karres, by Flint and Freer.
The Witches of Karres
The Wizard of Karres
The Sorceress of Karres

There's so much. And it's difficult to determine what's worthy. For example, I personally love Asimov's Robot stories, but have a heck of time appreciating the Foundation trilogy.

Theodore Sturgeon has a lot of stuff that holds up well. Clifford D. Simak has never disappointed me, though some is def. weaker than others. Oh gosh I could keep digging for quite a while. I recommend short story collections to get samples.

Most of the ones I would have recommended have already been suggested here!

I think I'd add Out of the Silent Planet to this. Not my favourite, but it was important at the time and quite popular. I didn't make it though the entire trilogy, though. I probably would have had I read it as a teen, though.

I’ve been mulling this over because I’m bothered by the dearth of books by women in this thread. The problem is that there weren’t that many women writing genre fiction before the 70’s. This is what I’ve come up with that fits and hasn’t yet been mentioned:

Herland by Charlotte Gilman Perkins
Memoirs of a Spacewoman by Naomi mitchison
Jirel of Joiry by CL Moore
Women of Wonder, the Classic Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1940s to the 1970s a short story collection edited by Pamela Sargent
Orlando by Virginia Woolf

There’s lots of great so-called feminist SF that was written in the 70’s and 80’s, so you might consider the following.

Of course the ones already mentioned by Ursula Le Guin
The Memoirs of a Survivor Doris Lessing
The Girl Who Was Plugged In Tiptree
The Girl Who Was Plugged In/Screwtop an Ace Double with the Tiptree novelette and on by Vonda McIntyre
Dreamsnake Vonda McIntyre
The Female Man Joanna Russ
Walk to the End of the World Suzy McKee Charnas

Leigh Brackett
C.L. Moore
Judith Merril

are a few other writers from that period

I'm definitely bookmarking this thread for the future!

Oldie authors I like are:
Theodore Sturgeon: Venus Plus X; More Than Human; Case and the Dreamer; others
Clifford Simak: The Way Station; They Walked Like Men; Time and Again; others
Zenna Henderson: The Anything Box; Holding Wonder; Pilgrimage; The People: No Different Flesh. I especially like her as there are not that many female authors and her stories explore all the wonderful facets of humanity, and the aliens living quietly among us.

If you're interested in how s.f. developed, look into short stories. A few anthologies would help with this:
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume II A
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume II B
The Big Book of Science Fiction

These are a smorgasbord of authors to pick and choose from as you look for other titles.

Specific collections by a single author worth looking into include,
The Past Through Tomorrow
City
The Martian Chronicles
His Share of Glory
Two-Handed Engine: The Selected Stories of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (husband/wife collaborators)
From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown
The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (bit of a cheat since many published in the early '70s)

Pre 70 's sci fi is my guilty pleasure. This is one of the best threads i ve seen in GR. Keep it up!