Sci Fi books of the 70s, 80s, early 90s

sirlynxalot

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I went to a used book store recently and found the following ridiculous books. I'm not sure what modern sci Fi books are like as I haven't read any sci Fi in probably 20 years, but there's a charm to the complicated and cheesy descriptions here that reminds me of a simpler time. They were all around a dollar each so I picked them up as potential gag gifts

Anyone read or collect this stuff? Any other interesting suggestions for similar sci Fi and cyberpunk stuff of the 70s-90s that's maybe off the radar and not something super popular like Bladerunner or Neil Stephenson? Looking for stories that are absurd, but not self consciously absurd. I want the author to have written the story seriously, putting in their full effort, fully believing that their absurd narrative is fantastic and worthwhile. Bonus points for neat cover art.
 

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FAT$TACKS

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Way cool find. That Spelljammer book is good old Dungeons & Dragons craziness.
 

fake

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The Conan books are super horny and hilarious. I’ve read the first Lensman book and it was a slog. I picked up the second one for a dollar so I’m going to give it a try.
 

fantat

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I went to a used book store recently and found the following ridiculous books. I'm not sure what modern sci Fi books are like as I haven't read any sci Fi in probably 20 years, but there's a charm to the complicated and cheesy descriptions here that reminds me of a simpler time. They were all around a dollar each so I picked them up as potential gag gifts

Anyone read or collect this stuff? Any other interesting suggestions for similar sci Fi and cyberpunk stuff of the 70s-90s that's maybe off the radar and not something super popular like Bladerunner or Neil Stephenson? Looking for stories that are absurd, but not self consciously absurd. I want the author to have written the story seriously, putting in their full effort, fully believing that their absurd narrative is fantastic and worthwhile. Bonus points for neat cover art.
Pick up the Matador series by Steve Perry.
 

HornheaDD

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Pick up the Matador series by Steve Perry.

Oh how I wish this was by Journey's Steve Perry.

If you wanna check out "modern" scifi, I'd say take a look at the following:

The Ender's Game Saga by Orson Scott "Im a bigot" Card. Shitty person. Great book series (except the last book, its absolute garbage - no really. Talking birds. Fucking stupid).
The Homecoming Saga by the same idiot. 5 books. 4 of which are fantastic. The last one - you guessed it - absolute shyte. Based on Mormon mythology.
The Culture novels by Iain Banks
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C Clarke
Childhood's End - Clarke
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson - think X-men mixed with slight fantasy.

Good stuff.
 

Lagduf

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The best book in the Ender’s Game quartet is Speaker for the Dead. How Card could write such a book whilst being a piece of shit boggles my mind. Just an excellent book all around.
 

LoneSage

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I've wanted to read The Long Walk by Stephen King for a long time. Supposedly written when he was about 18.
 

prof

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The best book in the Ender’s Game quartet is Speaker for the Dead. How Card could write such a book whilst being a piece of shit boggles my mind. Just an excellent book all around.
I read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead back to back a few years ago. Both were excellent, but the direction he took it in Speaker caught me off guard after Ender's. In a good way. I'd like to check out the 3rd in the series at some point, Xenocide. Have you ever read that one?
 

HornheaDD

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I read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead back to back a few years ago. Both were excellent, but the direction he took it in Speaker caught me off guard after Ender's. In a good way. I'd like to check out the 3rd in the series at some point, Xenocide. Have you ever read that one?

I went through the entire series. Oof. Sorry for the length but I have a lot of feelings when it comes to this series.

Card once explained the difference in style and timeframe between Ender's Game and Speaker. He said something like he had to write Ender's Game to tell the story he wanted to tell in Speaker, Xenocide and Children of the Mind.

Then he expanded the universe into the Shadow books which focus on the character Bean. Ender's Shadow takes place at the same time as Ender's Game. But The following books, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow of the Giant and Shadow Puppets all take place between the end of Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead.

Once those 8 books have been read (they dont meet up, storywise) he then wrote a few ancillary books like Ender in Exile (set between Game and Speaker), A War of Gifts, and First Meetings. Then came the final books. Shadows in Flight which also focuses on Bean and... some other spoilery stuff... That was a short novel released as a stopgap until he finished the final Enderverse book - The Last Shadow, released a couple years ago.

If you want to know more about that book (I dont spoil the main story - I promise) feel free to unspoiler the following:

I wont go into spoilers about the story mainly to keep the main 8 books clear of any spoilage becuase the Last Shadow is related to the main story/theme of the series. But it ends, SO. FUCKING. STUPID.

The last book in chronological order (before Last Shadow) is Children of the Mind. Children ends in a sort of a cliffhanger for the main story. But the very final book, Last Shadow is complete and total garbage. The big question introduced and cliffhangered in Children of the Mind is never answered.

And its not like a "hurr durr the show Lost didnt answer questions but thats part of its charm" bullshit. It literally does not answer the main burning question of the Ender series. The last book involves talking birds.

Literally. Talking birds who shit on you. An evolved human - who was genetically modified to be essentially a shaved ape that doesn't wear clothes. A genius shaved ape who's ancestors figured out genetic manipulation and forced evolution (hence the talking birds) - but doesn't wear clothes because they were "too difficult to learn." It makes no fucking sense. It doesn't involve any of the main characters from the entire series. They are featured, but it doesn't really involve them at all. The book reads and feels like it was written 2 days before the deadline or over a long weekend where he was completely distracted with whatever the fuck else was going on outside his window. It was trash. It is a terrible, terrible ending to what was a really great series to get into.
 

SouthtownKid

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I've wanted to read The Long Walk by Stephen King for a long time. Supposedly written when he was about 18.
It's the best thing he's ever written. And it's not that long. There must be some version of it online somewhere.
 

Lagduf

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I read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead back to back a few years ago. Both were excellent, but the direction he took it in Speaker caught me off guard after Ender's. In a good way. I'd like to check out the 3rd in the series at some point, Xenocide. Have you ever read that one?

Xenocide and Children of the mind are good reads, it’s just that Speaker is great. And really Speaker, Xenocide, and Children should be read as a trilogy.

As Hornhead alludes you can skip the rest of the Enderverse though some of the Bean books are cool.
 

Lagduf

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I recently learned there are two sequels to The Forever War.

I might have to read them.
 

prof

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I finished up Xenocide last week, and, well, I found it rather disappointing. While I thought Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead were excellent, Xenocide, while having some strong passages, fell flat for me. To the point where I'm not in any rush to open Children of the Mind, even though Xenocide ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. I'd rather read something else first, to cleanse the palate, or perhaps just not bother at all, and pretend that Speaker was the end of the Ender Saga. Ha.

I don't know, it began interestingly enough, and I enjoyed the mysteries and culture of Path, prior to the big reveal about it with Congress anyway. Sadly, the Path storyline was abandoned for hundreds of pages going down the stretch, only for it to receive an unceremonious denouement in the final act. Seemingly, only as if to wrap up a loose end.

And Lusitania, for all of its strange otherness and wonder in Speaker, was treated far more linear and matter of factly in Xenocide. Ender's inherited family of scientists and their endless technobabble dominate the 600ish pages of the story. It reminded me of those TNG Trek stories where Data and Geordi spend an episode attempting to solve a problem with the warp core reactor, and the writers use a myriad of scientific buzzwords that make no sense, but sound good. The difference being, in an episode of Trek, those conversations have brevity and are interspersed with parallel stories and action throughout the duration. In contrast, Card spends an inordinate amount of time, page after page, focusing on conversations between the scientists regarding physics and botany, among other areas of science. And after a while, it became crystal clear that Card is not a scientist, and has had little education in these subjects in which his characters are having their endless technobabble conversations. Literally, hundreds of pages of this.

The lack of plausible, comprehensible science is fine in a sci-fi novel if that isn't the focus. And in Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, Card delved into grand ideas, morality and the very nature of what it means to be a sentient being, all set within the science fiction setting. In Xenocide, those ideas, while still there, fall to the background, and the science (or very loose psuedo-science I should say), becomes the sole focus. And this is very much to the story's detriment.

I'm kidding myself though, when I say that I won't read Children of the Mind, but I've got to say, that it's more out of obligation/completion sake than actual desire. And I've got tons of quibbles about characterization and any number of things that are flawed in Xenocide, but I've written enough at this point. Besides, I'd hate to further spoil the wonder for the uninitiated. Ha.
 

Lagduf

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Children of the Mind is straight up off the deep end.

I look forward to your review.
 

NERDtendo

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I’m a bit of a NERD so I always keep an eye out for old sci-fi books even though I am not a reader. The only book I have read here is John the Balladeer. It’s a collection of short stories of a guy traveling through the Appalachians with a silver stringed guitar that he uses to fight all sorts of otherworldly stuff. It also happens to be a pretty expensive book! My kids like the Zork choose your own adventure style books.

If anyone sees anything they might like to read, feel free to PM me…
 

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sirlynxalot

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I’m a bit of a NERD so I always keep an eye out for old sci-fi books even though I am not a reader. The only book I have read here is John the Balladeer. It’s a collection of short stories of a guy traveling through the Appalachians with a silver stringed guitar that he uses to fight all sorts of otherworldly stuff. It also happens to be a pretty expensive book! My kids like the Zork choose your own adventure style books.

If anyone sees anything they might like to read, feel free to PM me…
Many interesting looking covers there.
 

prof

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Children of the Mind is straight up off the deep end.

I look forward to your review.

I have read some conclusions to long running book series in my life, and this was one of them. While I can't say that Children of the Mind was a satisfactory conclusion to the Ender Quadrilogy, at least it was entertaining. After the slog that was the majority of Xenocide, I found its brevity and lighter tone most welcome. Instead of basking in the weeds of horticultural psuedosl-science for extended periods, this volume hopped from story point to story point in the opposite manner. It almost felt like it was written by someone else at times. Card's versatility, I suppose.

Spoiler:

What became of Ender and Jane felt unjust to the characters in my opinion. For me, the idea that she would go for Miro in that way rings false. For Miro, sure, but definitely not Jane. And to have Ender become consumed and reduced to buried memories inside a personality that he created from his subconscience in Peter is borderline travesty. Was it a yin-yang type of thing Card was going for? I wonder, in that Ender's subconscious Valentine is totally consumed by Jane, while his Peter half totally consumes him. I'm not sure, but the results left me deflated.


Still, at the end of the day, it was a light, entertaining read full of wild story points, and it all resolved itself. As a standalone book, with no relation to its predecessors, I think many people would enjoy it, strictly as an engaging sci-fi adventure. But after becoming invested in Ender's Game, and Speaker of the Dead, I think the characters deserved better than this.



Side note, I was at the mall with the family last weekend, and I wandered into Barnes and Noble. They had a science fiction display set up, and I noticed William Gibson's Neuromancer. As a fan of Philip K Dick, and the cyberpunk genre as a whole, I've known of it for years, but never got around to it. So I just started reading that this week. Enjoying it so far.
 

NeoSneth

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I've been meaning to get to some of the Tracey Hickman stuff from early DragonLance. I was always enamored by them in the bookstores, but I was more into gaming than reading. I didn't get around to most of the Forgotten Realms stuff until a few years ago.
 
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