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...
You want obscure? Try the Hot Blood series. Erotic horror stories written by some of the modern-day masters of the genre. Most of the stories are about men who get seduced and destroyed by beautiful women who turn out to be aliens, monsters, demons, witches, and in one case a virtual-reality babe who doesn’t even exist and yet still manages to snuff the dude. What makes the stories so clever and entertaining is that they are erotic without being the least bit sexy. Pure horror.
Enterprise Stardust Perry Rhodan #1
Space Opera.
I love “The Moon is a Hard Mistress”.
Two of my other favorites are:
“Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen” by H. Beam Piper and
“Day-by-Day Armageddon” by J. L. Bourne
Both are excellent reads.
And just in time for the latest Hobbit movie:
Bored of the Rings - Harvard Lampoon
I loved this book!
The Draka series by SM Stirling. Quite obscure and VERY dystopian.
Also greatly enjoyed his Nantucket “Island in the Sea of Time” trilogy.
Hard SF:
G. Harry Stein / Lee Correy - "Space Doctor", Del Rey, June 1981: Country Doctor becomes 1st Space Doctor for a visionary Solar Power Satellite.
Future SF:
Janet Kagan - "Hellspark": Tom Doherty Associates. 1988. ISBN 978-0-8125-4275-2: Galactic trader demonstrates skill in both language and body language.
Fantasy:
Zenna Henderson - "Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson": 1995, NESFA Press, ISBN 0-915368-58-7: Stories from 'Pilgrimage' and 'The People' - Just marvelous!
Wish he'd written a sequel like he planned to.
If I get to heaven, there are ever so many books that I hope to find up there. Like you I want this sequel and more of the Sacketts! That man taught more history than a generation of college professors!
Yes. Big impact on me in high school.
Dramatized radio version: https://archive.org/details/ACanticleForLiebowitz
“We” - sci fi Russian take on “1984”’ theme decades before “1984” was written.
For all the use of the word, few have read “Utopia” - but should.
Semi-obscure. I enjoyed the first few, but thought it got a bit weak towards the end. Speaking of which, Harry Harrison now has the dubious honor or writing what is rapidly being considered the worst alternate history series of all time: the "Stars and Stripes" trilogy, in which the USA and CSA put aside their differences in the middle of the Civil War to attack Great Britain, and by the end of the series have successfully(!) invaded the United Kingdom, to the applause of cheering crowds of the oppressed citizens of the UK.
Oh, and they casually invent the internal combustion engine and the tank just to make it easier. In the 1860's.
Moderately so. It's not as if it's famous...it did have a wargame adaptation, as I recall.
Just the title makes me want to read it...!
Christopher is known for his sub-genre of "cozy catastrophes", as they're sometimes called. It's a very British approach to the disaster novel. Quite enjoyable.
Spinrad wrote some great dark stuff.
It wasn't meant to be SciFi when he wrote it, but subsequent events have rendered it so.
I have all the bantam reprints up about #85.
His books need to be rediscovered by another generation, passed around, discussed, etc. He’s too good to be relegated to obscurity.
Lovecraft is still popular amongst the roleplaying community in the form of the game, "Call of Cthulhu". The publisher, Chaosium, recently crowdfunded a new 7th Edition of the game on Kickstarter, and raised over half a million dollars.
I don't want to think about how much I personally donated...but it was enough that I'm going to be one of the sample NPCs!
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