Posted on 12/13/2013 8:49:04 PM PST by Kip Russell
Everybody (well, everybody who reads sf/fantasy) has their favorite novels in each genre...which are usually a bunch of other people's favorite novels as well. This only makes sense, since cream rises to the top.
But even so, there are plenty of obscure books that for whatever reason, never really caught on. They might well be great reads, but no one seems to have heard of them...so what's your favorite sf and fantasy novel that still lies in not-so-deserved obscurity?
With any luck, we'll all discover a bunch of great books that we've never heard of before!
I'll start off with mine: for sf, "The Killing Star" by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski.
In the late 21st Century, our solar system is attacked by aliens using "relativity missiles"...boulder-sized hunks of metal accelerated to 90% of the speed of light. Thousands of them. 99.9999% of humanity is wiped out in a few hours. There's no need for a spoiler warning, this happens in the first 20 pages. The rest of the novel follows the desperate struggle of the few survivors spread throughout the solar system.
For fantasy, "A Personal Demon" by Richard Brown, David Bischoff, and Linda Richardson.
When Willis Baxter, a frustrated professor at a New England university with a penchant for drink and remarkable talent for failure in romantic relationships, got too drunk at his own party, unexpected results ensued. Instead of just impressing his guests with his knowledge of obscure magic rituals, he summoned an absolutely stunning female half-demon, Anathae. The demon, who looks like a naked sixteen year-old redhead with small horns, hooves and a tasteful tail, has been unhappy in Hell, and is extremely grateful to her "liberator". Luckily, most guests attribute the summoning to a party trick, with amusement value pretty much divided by gender.
Hilarity ensues. "I Dream of Jeannie" meets Faust...
i don’t know if this would count, but I found Arthur Koestler’s book THE GLADIATORS to be far superior to Howard Fast’s SPARTACUS. No Dalton Trumbo nonsense in it as there is in the movie.
I also read some si-fi book ( I don’t remember the name) back in the early 1960s about a evil man who planned to raise the sea levels by destroying underwater cliffs in the North sea, diverting the gulf stream into the Artic and melting the ice cap.
The hero tries gets inside the HQ to destroy it and finds everything is colored green.
He is captured and tortured, but does not crack, so the inject some chemical deep inside his nose which causes a maddening itch inside his head, armpits, and groin. He is still tied up so he can’t rip himself apart to get at the itch.
Another REAL strange short story I read was LORELI OF THE RED MIST by Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury.
I also have fond memories of Andre Norton's Witch World series. I read them all until it was taken over by other authors.
thanks, thats them...
I liked the Sacketts (sp.wrong) saga. A lot of his books were made into movies. A great story teller. Not many have that ability..Read in the back of one of his books, they are so real because he visited all the places he wrote about. When the author of the Hopaong Cassidy stories died, Lamour was chose the only one that could continue writting about Hopalong...
Yes, indeed. It's a perfect one to re-read this time of the year!
Heh heh, I sure know about that ‘sitting at XXXXXX words’ thing. Shucks, I’ve written seven novels and two non-fictions, and only two or three are ‘finished’. As someone once said, ‘Eventually you have to let them go’ ...
You want obscure?
Go to the Gutenberg Project and browse the Sci-Fi and Fantasy shelves.
Good selection of public domain stuff available in all e-book and html formats. Some terrific short stories and Novels. Also first issues of Amazing stories. Good but brief section of early works of Harry Harrison and others.
Thanks for the recommendation. Will look for that, and I love radio plays. WW Z is one of my son’s favorites.
FREE E-BOOKS
Link to Gutenberg Project Science Fiction shelf. There is also a Fantasy shelf. Check out the new additions for the occasional pleasant surprise.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_%28Bookshelf%29
Thanks. I remember Ray Bradbury theater (from the 80s?). They did a good rendition of “Zero Hour,” one of his very best.
“The Talisman” Stephen King
Dave Duncan's "A Man of His Word" quadrilogy followed by the sequel quadrilogy "A Handful of Men" - the settings and interesting system of magic are fantastic.
The less obscure "Magi'i of Cyador" and "Scion of Cyador" duology (the first two chronologically in The Saga of Recluce series) by L.E. Modesitt Jr. are likely my favorite in the genre. I love how he logically endorses so many conservative ideals in his writing but it is all cleverly disguised in a fantasy wrapping - most likely to get past the liberal editors.
A few more hard to find good ones:
John DeChancie - Castle Perilous series
Joel Rosenberg - Guardians of the Flame series
Gordon R. Dickson - Dragon Knight series
Elizabeth Moon - The Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy
Dennis McCarty - Thlassa Mey series
Craig Shaw Gardner - Ebenezum trilogy/Wuntvor trilogy
Patricia A. McKillip - The Riddle-Master trilogy
John Steakley - Armor
Great! That one’s also on YouTube. I’ll watch it later.
What's your favorite really obscure fantasy/sf novel?
L. E. Modessit, Adiamante.
A little obscure. Earth is messed up, and the ecosystem is vicious and hostile. Surviving humans have tweaked themselves for a biologically enforced non-aggression principle. Somehow, this includes not being able to warn aggressors (like the fleet come back from an interstellar colony to wreck millenia delayed revenge) about the buzz saw they're provoking.
Oh, oh, another good one. Brad Lineweaver, Moon of Ice.
A alternate history story. The Nazis win in Europe. This recounts some incidents in the life of Hilda Goebbels in the 1960s, freedom fighter and libertarian hero. (In the real world, her mother poisoned all the children when the 3rd reich fell.)
” ‘Eventually you have to let them go’ ...”
I’ve finished every one I’ve started; ten so far. Five are currently on Amazon.com. One I finished in a motel on Tennessee street with my bed backed up against a wall I shared with a hooker. (Man, what a performance she gave, and five times a night on Friday and Saturday night. I average 1500 words a day.)
No, A Canticle For Lebowitz will not change your life. In fact, it’s a pretty boring read.
I’m amazed that no-one (so far) has mentioned the Horseclans novels by Robert Adams. Post apocalyptic stories of telepathic barbarians- how can you go wrong with that? Unfortunately, the author died suddenly in the early nineties, with no designated beneficiary for his copyrights, so they’ve become obscure...
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