What pre-1985 science fiction adventures have you finished this summer? Any great reads? Disappointing ones? Intriguing discoveries? Here’s the June installment of this column. I know, it’s been a while…
A selection of read volumes from my shelves
On Bluesky, a Youtube channel that I follow sought to collate a list influential cyberpunk novels for a future video or review series from the first generation of the subgenre’s practitioners. Other than Pat Cadigan’s multiple contributions, the list was entirely male. Knowing me, I suggested a few works by female authors that engaged with similar ideas that might be considered either important predecessors–for example Joan Vinge’s “Fireship” (1978) and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s Hyacinths (1983) (I think the proto-internet isn’t that central so it tends to be dismissed)–or works by the second generation right around the original poster’s cutoff date of 1990: Lisa Mason’s Arachne (1990), late 80s short fiction by Candas Jane Dorsey, Melissa Scott’s Trouble and Her Friends (1994), Gwyneth Jones’ Escape Plans (1986) and White Queen (1991), Misha’s Red Spider White Web (1990), and Nisi Shaw’s “I Was a Teenage Genetic Engineer” (1989).
Intrigued about why so many female authors started writing cyberpunk in the 90s, I tracked down Carlen Lavigne’s book Cyberpunk, Feminism, and Science Fiction (2013) which charts feminist interpretations of the genre between 1981 and 2003. She admits that before 1990, other than Pat Cadigan, cyberpunk was primarily white and male. Unfortunately, as cyberpunk lost its steam and cultural cache in the 90s, female authors increasingly offered their unique critiques on the genre and larger contemporary movements. My takeaway, if you read newer SF, is not to ignore the slightly later takes by feminist authors–they tend to be given short shift in the established canon of the subgenre. Other than the few I mentioned above, the following caught my eye: Marge Piercy’s He, She and It (1991), Emma Bull’s Bone Dance (1991), and Raphael Carter’s The Fortunate Fall (1996).
Also, before we get to the photograph above and the curated birthdays, let me know what pre-1985 (or after if it’s cyberpunk by women!) SF you’re currently reading or planning to read.
The Photograph (with links to reviews and brief thoughts)
- Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris (1960, trans. 1970): One of those novels on my shortlist to reread. I remember how transfixed I was by Lem’s heady combination of critique of humanity’s urge to explore outward and the personal of memory and trauma. A look at Wikipedia revealed a Soviet TV adaptation earlier than Tarkovsky’s 1972 masterpiece: Boris Nirenburg and Lidiya Ishimbayeva’s TV play Solaris (1968).
- Angela Carter’s Heroes & Villains (1969): Carter’s prose tears and rends with unnatural power. Recommended for fans of experimental, feminist, and well-written 60s New Wave science fiction. I suggest tracking down The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972) first.
- Isaac Asimov’s Foundation (fix-up 1951): I impulsively started watching the recent TV adaptation (through episode five). Solid. My memory of my original read-through back in my teens remains mostly lost to time so I wasn’t fixated on show’s changes.
- Jack Vance’s The Languages of Pao (1958): I found the ideas in The Languages of Pao elevate the story above its banal plot and muddled action. Recommended for fans of early social SF.
What am I writing about?
I’m currently working on a review of a rare reread — John Brunner’s fascinating The Shockwave Rider (1975). Stay tuned. I’m also working on an article for issue three of Rachel S. Cordasco’s magazine The SF in Translation Magazine. I plan on contributing one review of pre-1985 SFF in translation for each issue. If you haven’t tracked down the magazine (or taken a look at my review in each) then you’re in for a treat! Here’s the link to free PDFs of each issue. The next issue will be published at the end of November.
If you missed any of my articles and review from the past few months, here are links to some of my favorites.
- Exploration Log 17: Interview with Loïg J. F. Pascual on 1970s-1980s Feminist Science Fiction Fandoms
- Luděk Pešek’s Trap for Perseus (1976, trans. Anthea Bell, 1980)
- Exploration Log 16: Clifford D. Simak’s speech “The Face of Science Fiction” (1953)
- Exploration Log 15: Clifford D. Simak’s fanzine article “The Future of Science Fiction” (1941)
- George Alec Effinger’s The Wolves of Memory (1981)
What am I reading?
Uncredited cover for the 2013 edition
I read Carlen Lavigne’s entire book Cyberpunk, Feminism, and Science Fiction (2013) a few days back while waiting for vet updates on my cat — we had to visit the pet emergency room. He’s on the long road to recovery but we had quite the scare. See comments above for my thoughts on this monograph! Thought provoking for sure!
A Curated List of SF Birthdays from the Last Two Weeks [names link to The Internet Speculative Fiction Database for bibliographical info]
September 12th: Henry Slesar (1927-2002)
September 12th: Frank K. Kelly (1914-2010).
September 14th: Martin Caidin (1927-1997). In addition to his slick best-selling SF thrillers, he claimed to posses the power of telekinesis.
September 14th: Martin Caidin (1927-1997). In addition to his slick best-selling SF thrillers, he claimed to posses the power of telekinesis.
September 14th: Artist Rowena Morrill (1944-2021). Can’t say I’m much of a fan of her work.
Charles Moll’s cover for the 1st edition of Norman Spinrad’s No Direction Home (1975)
September 15th: Norman Spinrad (1940-). My most recent Spinrad review: “The Weed of Time” (1970).
September 15th: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1942-). I’ve reviewed her post-apocalyptic novel False Dawn (1978) and Hyacinths (1983), an unsettling dystopian tale of a future where even the unregulated creative world of dreams is harnessed and controlled.
September 15th: Howard Waldrop (1946-2024). I thoroughly enjoyed Waldrop’s “Mary Margaret Road-Grade” (1976).
September 16th: Lisa Tuttle (1952-). I can’t dispel the disquiet caused by her story “Stone Circle” (1976).
September 18th: Francis Stevens (1883-1948). Best known for her SF satire The Heads of Cerberus (1919).
September 19th: Hilary Bailey (1936-2017). I’ve covered a few of her short stories. I remain most impressed with her novel co-written with her then-husband Michael Moorcock The Black Corridor (1969).
September 19th: Damon Knight (1922-2002). My most recent Knight review: Far Out (1961).
September 19th: Tanith Lee (1947-2015). If you haven’t read any of her science fiction yet, check out her brilliant and moody Electric Forest (1979).
Chris Foss’ cover for the 1977 edition
September 20th: Keith Roberts (1935-2000). Check out his wonderful collection The Grain Kings (1976).
September 20th: George R. R. Martin (1948-). I’ve only covered his early short story “The Second Kind of Loneliness” (1972) on my site. I should read more of his early SF.
September 20th: James P. Blaylock (1950-). Remains a complete unknown to me. I always see his name on the shelves of my local Half Price Book store.
September 20th: A. A. Attanasio (1951-). His monolithic looking Radix (1981) judges me, unread, from the shelves (for years). I have yet to explore his work.
September 23rd: Wilmar H. Shiras (1908-1990). is best known for her short stories in the Children of the Atom sequence–starting with “In Hiding” (1948)–about hyper-intelligent mutant children and a well-meaning psychiatrist who brings them together. I reviewed the majority of her early work here.
Chris Foss’ cover for the 1977 edition
September 23rd: Richard Wilson (1920-1987). I’ve only reviewed Wilson’s controversial “Mother of the World” (1968). I reviewed his short story “Strike” (1953) for my ongoing series on labor issues in SF.
September 24th: Artist Jack Gaughan (1930-1985). While he’s never been one of my favorite big name artist of the era, I find an occasional cover or interior art appealing. His cover for the 1969 edition of Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) is a great example.
September 24th: John Brunner (1934-1995). The author of my favorite SF novel: Stand on Zanzibar (1968). As I mentioned earlier in the post, I’m working on a rare reread review of one of his best works.
September 24th: David Drake (1945-2023).
September 24th: John Kessel (1950-).
September 25th: J. Hunter Holly (1932-1982).
September 26th: Douglas R. Mason (1918-2013). An incredibly prolific British SF author… I’ve not enjoyed what I’ve read of his so far.
For book reviews consult the INDEX
For cover art posts consult the INDEX
For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX
I revisited Shockwave Rider a couple of years ago. Still a very prescient look at the poorly-distributed-access-to-information age. I’ve read Foundation so many times that I can bring most of it to memory without much effort – it was (shall we say) foundational to my SF reading.
Recently read Vinge’s “The Witling” (1976) which has some very nice worldbuilding and prefigures some of his later concepts as well.
As you probably know, I’m not much of a rereader. Maybe that will change as a get older. That said, I was very pleased when I reread The Shockwave Rider. As I hope my review makes clear whenever I find a minute to finish it, I enjoyed it far more than when I read it back in my late teens.
I acquired a copy of Vinge’s The Witling a while back. I don’t know much about it.
Looking forward to your thoughts on Shockwave Rider. I read it (relatively) recently, and though it had a lot of interesting stuff in it, I wasn’t super impressed, perhaps – as with Stand on Zanzibar – because I had read The Sheep Look Up earlier, which I think is kind of in a different league.
As I have perhaps mentioned before, Solaris is my all time favorite book. I have read it maybe three times (though it’s some time ago), and I’d still like to reread it again soon.
My summer SF reads were, as mentioned last time, Kate Wilhelms Infinity Box, Christopher Priests The Glamour and a reread of Ballards The Drowned World. The latter also among my all time faves, and as good as I remembered. The stories in Infinity Box were mostly brilliant, though one or two didn’t really do it for me. The Glamour was great almost all the way through, but I found the ending to be a big letdown.
Since then I’ve also read Keith Roberts Pavane, on behalf of all the people saying it’s one of the greatest alternative history novels. It could well be – I’m not really a fan of alternative history and it didn’t change that, but I enjoyd the writing and really liked several of the stories. Didn’t find the resolution particularly convincing though.
The Glamour was spectacular. I was a bit overwhelmed by Priest’s vision that I didn’t write a full-length review. There’s a short one on the site.
I also was frustrated–for, what I suspect, are quite different reasons–by some elements of Pavane. I have returned to short stories like “The White Boat” from the sequence (albeit added to UK editions much later) and found them quite spectacular.
Wilhelm is a favorite of mine. I’ve only read a few of the stories from that collection.
So is the Ballard you mention — never managed to review it… that seems to be the theme of this selection of summer reads. I’ve read them but never managed to review them.
Hmm, I can’t find the short review of The Glamour. Is it part of a larger post that’s not all reviews?
Ah, sorry. I mixed it up momentarily with The Affirmation!
Ah, yes, that explains it.
When it comes to The Affirmation I definitely agree that it’s a spectacular masterpiece!
Sorry again. I assume you prefer The Affirmation then?
No problem, I was just curious.
Yes, I very much prefer The Affirmation, it’s one of my favorite books.
Large parts of The Glamour were almost as great, but I find the ideas of The Affirmation more interesting, and better used – not least because I found the ending of The Glamour really disappointing.
I am a huge Priest fan so I plan on reading The Glamour, flaws and all, eventually.
It’s certainly worth reading, especially when you’re already a fan of Priest.
There’s also supposed to be different versions, where he allegedly mostly tampered with the ending. I think I read the last edition. Maybe earlier ones are better.
I’m not sure why you’d recommend Dr Hoffman before Heroes & Villains; I would say the latter is far more accessible to most sf readers. I absolutely love all Angela Carter’s works. For those asking which to start with, I usually recommend The Magic Toyshop.
Of those in your opening photo, I liked all but the Asimov. But then, I frequently find myself at odds with popular opinion, especially in sf.
Why? Because it’s one of my absolute favorite SF novels of the 70s! And yes, I certainly would not call it accessible but I assume readers of my site know my penchant for the oblique and experimental.
I don’t have firm memories of Foundation. I read it as an older teen — half my life ago — and have not returned.
I read The Big Book of Cyberpunk anthology when it was published. It does a good job filling in writers post-1990 of the Cyberpunk sub-genre who are females or non-white/English language, although only short fiction. It was a high-quality book, as I think I only found two or three stories not worth reading. There was a story from Bulgaria and one from South Korea which stood out as my favourites. That would be a nice place to go to find some of the more recent names in Cyberpunk, if one had read Gibson, Sterling, Cadigan, etc.
There’s also James Tiptree Jr.’s “The Girl Who was Plugged In” as far as proto-Cyberpunk by a woman.
I have always considered Steven Barnes’ “Streetlethal” trilogy as a neglected work of early Cyberpunk, with the first novel (1983) predating Neuromancer.
As far as The Shockwave Rider, I enjoyed it until the damp ending. After all that promise, it ends with the decision that they can now do a better job of collecting progressive income tax? Brunner couldn’t stretch his imagination a bit more than that? I am in agreement that the writing and plot doesn’t hold up as well as Stand on Zanzibar or The Sheep Look Up, even if it’s not as dated as large parts of Stand on Zanzibar. It’s the writing style that makes Stand on Zanzibar work so well rather than the plot.
The Tiptree was already proposed by the original poster as an important precursor — I made sure to list only what I added. But yes, I take your point. It’s a great story.
My review: “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” (1973) https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2018/12/28/book-review-new-dimensions-3-ed-robert-silverberg-1973-le-guin-tiptree-jr-lafferty-malzberg-effinger-et-al/
I haven’t read anything by Steven Barnes. I should. I’ll add it to my personal list.
I’m with you re-The Shockwave Rider. Did not care for the end. Wait for my review! hahaha. 🙂
Well, Stand on Zanzibar has been sitting on my shelves for about forty years, waiting for a re-read — that’s why I still have it — and you may just have inspired me to pick it up again soon. I read quite a few of Brunner’s novels when researching my master’s degree, and still think he’s probably the best SF writer England has produced.
It is my favorite SF novel. I hope you enjoy my review of The Shockwave Rider — when I finally get around to posting it. He can be very very good.
I hope you also saw my Interview with Loïg J. F. Pascual on 1970s-1980s Feminist Science Fiction Fandoms.
I reread Imperial Earth by Arthur C. Clarke. I last read it in 1975 when it came out, so it’s been 50 years. I enjoy Clarke, so it was a fun read. The plot is fairly straightforward, the strange environment of Saturn’s moon, Titan and a travellogue of Ducan’s trip to Earth. His time on Earth shows Clarke’s usual optimistic outlook on the future.
I have fond memories of that one. I’m not sure what I would think now. I read it in my late teens (i.e. early 2000s).
I’m very interested to read your review of The Shockwave Rider too. That’s been on my to read list for a couple of years now.
I’ve read over the past few months Slow river by Nicola Griffith (1995, but I think it counts as cyberpunk) and The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter.
I very much enjoyed them both, but for differnet reasons.
The Infernal Desire Machines took me forever to finish, I must’ve read 5-6 other books whilst I was reading it. I loved it, but Carter’s prose is so very rich I found it hard to read more than a chapter at a time. I was always thrilled during and after but needed a bit of a break.
The setting (London-like city) and the characters I really liked in Slow river. The two female cyberpunks lived a believable life hustling via tech. It’s not a hugely SF book, more of a character driven novel with a cyberpunk setting but well written and worth a read 🙂
Not reading any Science fiction this month. I just finished Len Deighton’s WW II thriller City of Gold and now I have Swords Against Darkness IV on the go.
I am trying to track down some of the Best of Omni Science Fiction Anthologies for October.
I know Deighton wrote a famous alt-history — SS-GB (1978) — that I’ve been meaning to track down.
SS-GB is definitely worth the price of admission. I read more than once and may get it on audible for gym and commute time.
They did a TV series in 2017 but it fell flat, unfortunately.
If you’re in the alt-history mode, I recommend another British examples: Sarban’s The Sound of His Horn (1952) https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2023/12/03/book-review-sarbans-the-sound-of-his-horn-1952/
If you haven’t read it already.
It’s been a minute since I read Shockwave Rider (oddly a book I first became aware of pre-internet because of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPK7Nqcn4pA&list=RDyPK7Nqcn4pA&start_radio=1) but I recall it being my favorite of the Brunner peak, particularly because of that breathless opening sequence. I do not recall the ending, by comparison.
Currently midway through several books:
– Jack Vance “Dying Earth”, went back to this as it can be a little bit of a slog with the endless picaresque hijinks although enough bizarre and occasionally grotesque elements pop up to keep it interesting. Gender politics of it still rankle me a bit.
– Philip Wylie “The Disappearance”. Picked up because of a reference on this site and by comparison the way gender is handled here is really fascinating. Occasional bouts of authorial pontificating aside the characters are very well drawn and the way it digs into the various social structures that are built on gender hierarchies is great, feels unusually perceptive for it’s time (although it still exhibits the fustiness of prior generations here and there).
– Josephine Saxton “The Travails of Jane Saint”. Also picked up due to a reference on this site, and one I have not gotten very far into. Very entertaining in a scattershot way – the narrative looseness doesn’t bother me (makes it very easy to pick up and put down) and I tend to like this type of hallucinatory journey structure.
The ending is definitely the flaw of the novel. I will say more when I post my review!
Dying Earth is one of those books that I read but never managed to read. Saxton has long been a favorite. Unfortunately, she passed away almost 3 years ago but it was not made public until this year.
I’ll see if I can track it down.
Since we are on alternate histories, English author Clive Egleton wrote a trilogy that has England occupied by the Soviet Union in the 1970’s
A Piece of Resistance
The Sleeper
The Judas Mandate
More spy thriller than Science Fiction but still alternate history.
Thank you.
Have you not read John Kessel? I recommend him very highly. Most of his work is post-1985 to be sure, but before then he wrote “Not Responsible! Park it and Lock it!”, “Another Orphan”, “A Clean Escape”, “Hearts do not in Eyes Shine”, and (with James Patrick Kelly) the fixup novel Freedom Beach. Also “The Pure Product”, in 1986! “Another Orphan” and “The Pure Product” are particularly good.
(For what it’s worth, I typically have breakfast with Kessel and Kelly whenever we are at a convention together.)
I haven’t really been reading that much pre-1985 SF lately (lots of pre-1960 general fiction though!) But I do have a piece in the most recent F&SF (just out electronically, I haven’t seen a paper copy yet) about a Canadian novel from 1896.
Not yet. There are a lot of great authors out there. Thank you for the recommendations.
I hope you saw my recent interview with Loïg J. F. Pascual on 1970s-1980s Feminist Science Fiction Fandoms.
I’m reading Shockwave Rider, specifically because I like to keep up with your Brunner reviews. I don’t think I ever read it before because so far it doesn’t seem familiar.
I’ll keep my thoughts close to my chest until the review! Stay tuned!
I read The Shockwave Rider back in June of 2023. I don’t remember any details. That’s how my old mind has become. I do remember that the novel was readable but nothing that excited me. My favorite work by Brunner is Stand on Zanzibar, which I’ve read twice. I got to spend an afternoon with Brunner in the early 1970s. He was very impressive. However, I have trouble with his stories. They are overly intellectual and idea driven. I need a certain amount of emotion to care about a book.
This summer I read the following pre-1985 SF stories: Dark Universe by Daniel F. Galouye (5 stars), Ruler of the World by J. T. McIntosh (2 stars), The Fittest by J. T. McIntosh (4 stars), and Time and Again by Clifford D. Simak (2 stars). I remember little from any of them. I only have my Goodreads record to help me recall.
Hello James. I will keep my thoughts on The Shockwave Rider a bit under wraps until my review. But yes, my single favorite SF novel in general is Stand on Zanzibar.
I enjoyed Dark Universe. I haven’t read anything by McIntosh. I struggled through that Simak — the reason I abandoned my Galaxy magazine read-through.
I tried reading Shockwave Rider, but I couldn’t get past the first 40 pages. John Brunner is one of those writers whose writing I just can’t get through, and in the case of Brunner I’m not sure why. What makes it worse is that his plots sound really interesting so I really want to get through at least one of them.
Lately, I’ve been vintage science fiction about AI. I finished The Slaves of the Crystal Brain, which was written by Rog Phillips under a pen name. It wasn’t as bad as Phllips’ The Cyberene, which isn’t saying a lot. The Slaves of the Crystal Brain is one of those evil computer controlling people’s minds novels and it’s fine. Hilariously, there’s an American intelligence agency known as the FSB. I also just started Colossus: the Forbin Project. It’s better, and it’s written like one of those ’60’s political thrillers, so it’s made clear that the powerful middle-aged men are still attractive to young women. I’m not too far into it, but one thing that is interesting is how much effort Jones puts into explaining how the computer was constructed and works in order to plug any plot holes ahead of time. That’s something I respect in a writer. In general I think it’s fascinating to read these older stories about AI where the AI is so different from how it’s actually turned out.
My mini-review of The Shockwave Rider: The Shockwave Rider is often grouped with John Brunner’s other dystopian future US novels (Stand on Zanzibar, The Jagged Orbit, and The Sheep Look Up), but it really does not compare. At least not favorably.
The three earlier novels borrowed techniques from the literary works of John Dos Passos, following big casts of characters through societal crises and intercutting the narrative with fictional news reports, advertisements, and other cultural detritus to reinforce the reader’s immersion in the world portrayed. There’s only a little of the intercut material in The Shockwave Rider and it chiefly follows one character, the orphaned genius Nick Haflinger, a man raised in a secret government program that he eventually rebelled against and fled, assuming several false identities to conceal his whereabouts. Nick is close to being the type of superman that populates A. E. van Vogt novels, but rather than having psi powers he’s a polymath who specializes in computer hacking wizardry. And this version of the US has something resembling an internet of interconnected computers and related technology for government surveillance, so this novel is frequently taken as prophetic of the real internet, computer worms and viruses, and other technology like smart phones and laser printers that didn’t show up on the mass market till after the novel was published.
The story is more than half conversations where the characters analyze their society and its shortcomings (or defend the society), and the author makes clear who is right and who’s not in these intellectual sparring sessions, so there’s a vaguely Ayn Randian odor to the talky proceedings, although from a philosophically opposite pole. But the novel’s downfall is that we can compare what we got with what Brunner predicted and see how misguided he was, not about evil government and the secret research groups it spawns, but about the potential for interconnected computer networks as a tool to empower people by giving access to the “truth” which corrupt politicians were keeping hidden from them. So like some of the visionaries of the early 1990s (e.g., George Gilder, Howard Rheingold, and even Bill Gates) Brunner completely ignores how an internet will empower bad actors to spread libel, lies, misinformation, propaganda, pornography and scams even more than it will empower citizens to find the truth of what is going on in the world. Computers are still garbage in-garbage out, even when networked together, and can’t mystically tell what information is true and what is false; and even curated human assistance (“fact-checking”) is prone to corruption. (So-called AI has the same problems.)
So this book ends in a hopelessly idealistic denouement, where Nick and the residents of Precipice (a treacly anti-Galt’s Gulch for communitarian believers) will presumably dispense internetwork-mediated “wisdom” to the now empowered masses. In the real world, we can see now that the internet was a horrible mistake, possibly a civilization-dooming mistake, but Brunner’s usual very downbeat dystopian view deserts him here, and he fails to prophesy that more realistic outcome in this novel.
As I said to others, I will have my review up eventually. I’ll keep my (half-formed) thoughts (slowly morphing into a review) to myself until then.
Also, I don’t know whether you saw it, but I posted a Simak speech: “The Face of Science Fiction” (1953). It’s not the easiest think to find as it was published in a Minnesota Libraries journal. https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2026/08/16/exploration-log-16-clifford-d-simaks-speech-the-face-of-science-fiction-1953/
Simak was not alone in wishing for some sort of respect (and probably better payment rates) for writing science fiction (which I do think is just a branch of the much larger fantasy tree). Barry Malzberg was also quite bitter about being dismissed by the Saturday Review/New York Times types and being paid poorly for SF writing that he was trying to imbue with literary quality. But what’s so great about “literature” anyway? The prize winners and featured NYT review subjects are forgotten just as quickly as the pulp novels, and in a similar ratio. We remember the literary classics that had some staying power, but many more, a very large number, appeal to the fashions of the critics of their day and then fade away not very many years later, much as happens with science fiction and other less respectable genres. I would guess most authors desire prestige, ideally from the upper echelons of the literary elite, which may bring financial advantage as well, but, failing that, at least from their peers and from whatever dedicated fans they acquire. Depending on any type of creative art to pay the bills is a fraught proposition though, unless you already come from money. The need to keep churning out submissions in search of the next payday works against developing the kind of literary craft that the author can take pride in. And that seemed to be the fate of many SF authors.
I think most of the prophecy aspect of SF is overrated (The Shockwave Rider is a good example of seeming to prophesy future technology but getting the social consequences all wrong). Like the proverbial stopped clock, the genre does hit on some predictions after failing on a ton of others. I hope we can agree that humans will not be going on interstellar voyages in space “ships”, that time travel stories are only slightly less unrealistic than the earlier “psi powers” tales, and that a galactic empire is an absurd notion, an attempt to shrink the vastness of space to the scale of a terrestrial ocean, because we are familiar with ocean travel and naval battles and imperialist wars of colonial subjugation–and all the stories that have already been written about those subjects. It’s “science-y” without really taking the science seriously, in most cases. We (readers) have a strong need for some kind of otherworld to oppose the world of our mundane existence, with its entropy and its wearying, unglamorous difficulties. Fantasy offers that, and its SF subgenre clothes the otherworld in the garb of supposedly scientifically derived technology. Simak is right to point to the older forms of SF (technology fantasy) that now are treated as part of the canon of respected literature. There’s no reason well-crafted fantasy stories should not garner literary prestige. It was the publishing environment in which he and his peers were submitting (and trying get paid for) works that militated against the craftsmanship being fully developed and rewarded. That’s changed, to the extent that authors like Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin, Philip K. Dick, Octavia Butler, et al. are getting Library of America editions and being taken seriously by the critics.
I’ve read all four of the books in your photo, but so long ago that my memories of each is pretty dim.
Re female cyberpunk authors. NOT a pre-1985 author – but what about Chris Moriarty? The Spin Trilogy isn’t cyberpunk in the traditional sense (ie, space travel is in the mix as well) but Moriarty’s use of virtual realities and AIs is very Gibsonian.
James P. Blaylock. Pretty ubquitous back in the day, he first came up on my radar after winning a Hugo for best short story – Paper Dragons. Deservedly so, imo. I did read quite a few of his books subsequently and a certain pattern emerged – ie, an intriguing premise was often undermined by a weak pay-off, with Land of Dreams being a prime example.
I’ve very much been back into the reading groove recently, mostly due to making a conscious decision to take the train more to work as circumstances now allow for that which has given me some time on those days to commit myself to reading. Prior to that I had done some checking of various lists online to line up my next set of readings and found what I could. One I really enjoyed recently was Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter, it was less fantastical than I think I was expecting and more rooted in the US landscape which is a setting I always enjoy for my dystopias (a bit like Where The Wild Birds Once Sang by Kate Wilhelm).
Zelezny’s This Immortal is another that I very much enjoyed despite going into it a bit warily as Greek mythology is not really my thing and I found Lords of Light a bit heavy going in places but I found This Immortal highly readable and it was a pleasant surprise. I think I read it just after Waystation by Simak which was its own idiosyncratic ride although again I enjoyed the pastoral side of the story.
This week on holiday I’ve read His Master’s Voice by Lem (partly because I’m in Krakow and have seen the mural dedicated to him). It was good once I got into it but I found the faux academic intro wearying and set me off on the wrong foot a little as I started the novel. It’s possible if I hadn’t been on a plane that I might have set it down and not persevered. Moved onto Day world by Philip Jose Farmer now and it’s a refreshing change of pace to Lem, not as literary obviously but what I perhaps needed. The premise of people only loving one day a week as an answer to overcrowding is an interesting one albeit the linked plotline is fairly ridiculous. After this I have The Deep by John Crowley lined up, looking forward to that one as I’ve read good things about it.
There have been quite a few more that I’ve read recently that I can’t remember off the top of my head, it’s been good fun digging into a few books recently after a few months of taking a step back. The to read pile is starting to shrink again though!