The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

Nominations for the October 2020 read are for books published prior to 1920.

SF novels or short story collection/anthologies that have not previously been read by the group are eligible. Please check the bookshelf & the nomination rules for further clarification before nominating a book.

Previously nominated books are on this bookshelf. More qualifying authors & books can be found here. Also, both Wells & Verne are eligible for nominations. It's been more than 5 years since we read the first of their books.

Please add your nominated book title as a clickable link directly to the goodreads' book page, with author and year, so it looks like this:
Children of Time
Adrian Tchaikovsky
2015
(If you can't create book links, please include the URL to the book.)

Tell us why you chose the book that you're nominating. Remember that books require seconding now. Each member is allowed to make one nomination & second one other book other than their own.

We'll close this nomination thread on the 15th of August, in order to have plenty of time for poll(s) and then for acquisitions of the winner(s).

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Nominations


Nominations that have been seconded
Red Star by Alexandr Bogdanov, nom by Oleksandr, 2d by Shant
The Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs, nom by Adrian, 2d by Jim
The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens nom by Jo, 2d by Ed
The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, nom by Lautaro, 2d by Jo
Erewhon by Samuel Butler, nom by Jim, 2d by Rosemarie

I re-nominate Red Star, originally from 1908, one of the earliest Russian socialist utopias written by a revolutionary

I'll nominate The Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs 1916.
It has been a loooong time since I read any of Burroughs work, and whilst i know it is dated , it was 40 years ago when I last read some, it was always fun.

I forgot to reserve the second comment to keep nominations, so I'll put them at the bottom of the first message.

I'm not ready to make a choice, but I'm looking at these three:

The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens (a.k.a. Gertrude Barrows Bennett). It is an adventure story and dystopia story first published in 1919.

Eugenia: A Fictional Sketch of Future Customs by Eduardo Urzáiz Rodríguez (a.k.a. Eduardo Urzaiz.) Also from 1919, this is a story warning about the dangers of Eugenics. Translated from Spanish.

Last and probably least, El Anacronópete (a.k.a. The Time Ship) by Enrique Gaspar. This is story of a time machine written in 1887 before H.G. Wells did it. Reviews are not very kind to the quality of the prose.

I'm not actually nominating any of them yet. Feel free to nominate one yourself if it appeals to you.

I second Red Star by Alexander Bogdanov
. It would be interesting to read what a Russian socialist in 1908 has to say about the future of our civilization.

I'll second "The Lost Continent".

Two nominations & seconds updated at the bottom of the first message.

I'm between Round the Moon by Jules Verne (the continuation of From the Earth to the Moon), and The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton...

Ok, decision made, I nominate The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

Ed wrote: "I'm not ready to make a choice, but I'm looking at these three:

The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens (a.k.a. Gertrude Barrows Bennett). It is an adventure story..."

I like the sound of this one so will nominate it.

I'd also like to second The Coming Race.

Instead of nominating Heads of Cerberus, I'll second it, and not nominate anything myself. That gives us four to choose from.

For my other two ideas, I plan to read Eugenia on my own, and will skip Anacronopete completely.

OK, so far we have:

Red Star by Alexandr Bogdanov, nom by Oleksandr, 2d by Shant
The Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs, nom by Adrian, 2d by Jim
The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens nom by Jo, 2d by Ed
The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, nom by Lautaro, 2d by Jo

Last day for nominations. I'm going to nominate Erewhon by Samuel Butler. While this is a satire of Victorian society, The novel is one of the first to explore ideas of artificial intelligence, as influenced by Darwin's recently published On the Origin of Species (1959) and the machines developed out of the Industrial Revolution (late 18th to early 19th centuries). Specifically, it concerns itself, in the three-chapter "Book of the Machines", with the potentially dangerous ideas of machine consciousness and self-replicating machines.
- from Wikipedia

It is available on Gutenberg.org in multiple formats for free here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1906
or as an audiobook from Librivox here:
https://librivox.org/erewhon-by-samue...

I will second Erewhon.

Rosemarie wrote: "I will second Erewhon."

You're faster than an ordinary human being. Thank you!
:)

All nominations have been seconded. Here's the updated list:
Nominations that have been seconded
Red Star by Alexandr Bogdanov, nom by Oleksandr, 2d by Shant
The Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs, nom by Adrian, 2d by Jim
The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens nom by Jo, 2d by Ed
The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, nom by Lautaro, 2d by Jo
Erewhon by Samuel Butler, nom by Jim, 2d by Rosemarie

I've also made sure all the books are on our group bookshelf on the "noms-0-pre1920-proto-sf" shelf. (Yes, awkward name, but we had to do that for sorting purposes.)

We had read The World Set Free by H.G. Wells?

Rafael wrote: "We had read The World Set Free by H.G. Wells?"

No, we have not read that. Are you nominating it?

The poll is up. Vote here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Ed wrote: "Rafael wrote: "We had read The World Set Free by H.G. Wells?"

No, we have not read that. Are you nominating it?"

I was but I went offline. It's fine. Next time I may renominate it.

Rafael, I added it to our bookshelf. That might help us remember for the next time.

Thank you, Jim!

I'm a couple of days late getting to this, but Erewhon by Samuel Butler won, so we'll be reading it in October. This book can be downloaded for free from Gutenberg.org in multiple ebook formats or read online here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1906

It is also available as an audiobook, either download it or listen through your browser, from Librivox here:
https://librivox.org/erewhon-by-samue...