Early SciFi

March 4, 2005 8:12 AM

Suggestions for a friend on a speculative fiction / early Sci-Fi kick (stuff along the lines of H.G. Wells' "The War in the Air" and John Jacob Astor's "A Journey in Other Worlds")?
posted by Polonius to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

Perhaps Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men and StarMaker, both written in the 1930's.
posted by RichardP at 8:34 AM on March 4, 2005

William Morris' News from Nowhere

Frank Bellamy's Looking Backward

Just about anything by Jules Verne (some of it's not quite Sci-fi though)
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:42 AM on March 4, 2005

E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops.

Stanley Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey."
posted by Zed_Lopez at 9:12 AM on March 4, 2005

Karel Capec. The only thing I've read by him was "The Absolute at Large," but it was interesting and witty.
posted by adamrice at 9:15 AM on March 4, 2005

"When Worlds Collide" by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer tells a wonderful story about early speculation on human travel to another planet. It examines how a society would be formed. Classic Reviews has some more info, and links to other classic scifi.
posted by tumble at 9:23 AM on March 4, 2005

Any of the Ted Sturgeon collections
Slan or The Weapon Shops by AE van Vogt
If you like it really pulpy, the Lensman books by Doc Smith; start with Galactic Patrol
The Rediscovery of Man or other Cordwainer Smith
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:24 AM on March 4, 2005

Should have asked before: how far back/forward is your friend looking for?
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:27 AM on March 4, 2005

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Please keep them coming.
I'm looking for roughly turn-of-(last)-century stuff that imagines society (and the accoutrements) of today. Looking at the Bison Frontiers of Imagination Series. Any suggestion from this list as well?

Also, does anyone know of any good theoretical books on this subject?

-The friend for whom Polonius was posting this thread, who just signed up to this brilliant, crack-addictive site.
posted by Dante5Inferno at 9:56 AM on March 4, 2005

From that list, A Voyage to Arcturus is terrific, though it's more of a fantasy and it's from the 1920s. Which, uh, isn't at all what you're looking for. Good book though.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 10:01 AM on March 4, 2005

Perhaps Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men and StarMaker, both written in the 1930's.

I second Stapledon, I bought a copy of a 2-book compilation of Odd John and Sirius, both about super-intelligent beings (one a man, one a dog) and I remember thinking it was fantastic. I lent it out and never got it back. As mentioned above, take at least a look at E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series, although you have to ignore the very, very dated (to put it nicely) attitudes of the characters. Please also read Edgar Rice Burroughs, especially the Mars books. The Heinlein book The Number of the Beast was the one that led me to Burroughs, Heinlein was a big fan. I also like and recommend Asimov's Before the Golden Age series, because of the interesting asides that Asimov puts in about the stories' influence on him. While we're at it, read the Perelandra series by C. S. Lewis, the author of the Narnia books.
posted by wzcx at 10:58 AM on March 4, 2005

I came in to highly praise "When Worlds Collide", but since tumble already did, let me mention the sequel, "After Worlds Collide". It's much harder to find, but is just as good. And when you read the two of them, you have to keep reminding yourself that they were written in the '30s.
posted by ewagoner at 12:13 PM on March 4, 2005

From the Bison Frontiers list, I recommend The Purple Cloud. It's early, it's compelling, it's weird, it's well worth reading. I agree that the Burroughs Mars books, which I only recently read, are also great.

I think C. S. Lewis' science fiction is very much underappreciated, and is likely to appeal to a fan of the earlier 20th century books, but be warned that the books get progressively Christian (both allegorically and not at all allegorically) and that their gender and class politics are problematic. I love them, though, and always will.
posted by redfoxtail at 4:21 PM on March 4, 2005

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Poison Belt, likewise by Doyle.
posted by SPrintF at 6:25 PM on March 4, 2005

The Science Fiction Stories of Rudyard Kipling
The Road to Science Fiction #1: From Gilgamesh to Wells
The Road to Science Fiction #2: From Wells to Heinlein (not terribly coincidentally including my previous two suggestions)
Future Perfect
Tales of Wonder by Mark Twain
The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe
posted by Zed_Lopez at 2:10 PM on March 15, 2005