Seven Science Fiction Must-Read Classics

[Zankapfel]

Once a niche pursuit, Science Fiction is now a global phenomenon.

Here's seven little known Sci-Fi Classics that introduced new concepts, and rewired our brains:

• Time Machine

H. G. Wells may have coined the term "time machine", but the Spanish diplomat Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau beat him to the concept by eight years.

In a light opera called El Anacronópete, published in 1887, he told the story of a group of characters who travel back in time in a cast-iron box. The box's designer grows ever more obsessive, eventually taking it all the way back to the dawn of time – in search of the secret of immortality.

Wells's The Time Machine followed in 1895.

• Invaders from Mars

Wells was also the author one of the earliest classics of modern science fiction, The War of the Worlds, which was first published in Pearson's Magazine in 1897. The story of an overwhelming Martian invasion of Earth and the narrator's desperate attempts to survive it has been immensely influential.

Wells was taught by Thomas Henry Huxley, known as "Darwin's bulldog" for his robust defence of the theory of evolution. The novel reflects Huxley's influence, depicting the invasion as a battle between two competing species.

Although the book has been filmed several times, no adaptation has managed to capture both its atmosphere and its themes.

This illustration by Henrique Alvim Corrêa, that I've used in a previous thread, is from a 1906 Belgian edition.

• Tunes from Mars

Taking a completely different attitude to Martians, Raymond Taylor's marching tune A Signal from Mars is jaunty in the extreme.

Published in 1901, the piece became immensely popular but has little to do with its title. You can listen to it on the Creeps Records blog.

Observant readers may notice that the piece was arranged by E. T. Paull. It's not a joke: Edward Taylor Paull was a successful composer, arranger and publisher of music.

• Dark Future

Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is an early example of one of science fiction's most enduring tropes: the futuristic dystopia.

In We, people are referred to by numbers only, wear identical uniforms and are slaves to the state – which can spy on everything they do because all buildings are made of glass.

Written in the years following the Russian revolution, it implicitly criticises the way socialism morphed into totalitarianism. George Orwell read it shortly before beginning work on Nineteen Eighty-Four.

This image is the cover of a Polish edition from 1985. It is a samizdat: the book was illegal in the Soviet Union and could not be published, so people made their own copies –like this one– and passed them on.

• On the News Stand

Amazing Stories was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction.

Launched in 1926, it was immensely influential in its early years but ran into major problems in the 1940s when it began publishing the Shaver mystery – stories of a malign ancient civilisation that lived underground and menaced humanity – as fact.

It recovered and continued for many decades, but went into a long decline from the 1970s onwards and published its last issue in 2005.

Over the years it published stories by some of science fiction's most influential authors, including Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein.

This cover from April 1928 was designed by famous science-fiction artist Frank R. Paul.

• Time Travel Trouble

A Sound of Thunder is the story of a man who travels back in time to hunt a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Ray Bradbury's seminal story introduced readers to the now-familiar butterfly effect: the notion that a tiny change can have world-shattering consequences.

During his trip, the hunter is panicked by the dinosaur and accidentally kills a butterfly. When he returns to the future he finds it irrevocably damaged, as an indirect result of the butterfly's death.

A movie version was released in 2005, to catastrophic reviews. According to The New York Times, it "achieves a level of badness that is its own form of sublimity".

The illustration by Frederick Siebel is from the story's first publication in Collier's Weekly on 28 June 1952.

• False Encyclopaedia

The Codex Seraphinianus is part science fiction, part surrealist artwork.

Created by the artist, architect and designer Luigi Serafini, it is an encyclopaedia of a fictional world. Its eleven chapters describe the physics, biology, history and culture of an imagined universe.

It took Serafini nearly three years to complete. He illustrated it himself, often parodying objects and animals from the real world.

The work is written in a made-up language, which uses an invented alphabet and has not yet been decrypted – although the numbers appear to be in base 21.

Source: Culture Labs

[Comte Arnau]

Nice classics. Hadn't heard that about the Anacronópete. Very interesting.

I'd say that old classics about it will always have to include Verne. Probably the first guy to mix sci-fi with quality.

This one below could also be an interesting one, given that Sagan and Asimov regarded it as the first sci-fi (in the 1620's!), and given that it's Kepler:



In the narrative, a student of Tycho Brahe is transported to the Moon by occult forces. It presents a detailed imaginative description of how the earth might look when viewed from the moon, and is considered the first serious scientific treatise on lunar astronomy. Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov have referred to it as the first work of science fiction.

Btw, you made me wonder which had been the first sci-fi written in my language. Apparently it was a work written by Pujulà in 1912 called Homes Artificials (Artificial Men). I haven't read it, but the abstract seems weird and funny, about a certain Doctor Pericard who proposes two alternative techniques to creat the gametes which will produce the twelve embryos of the new humankind (Alpha, Beta, Gamma...), them being archetypes of the different kinds of humans of the time. Looks like it has some things in common with the Island of Doctor Moreau. Wells had a sort of an impact in some Catalan writers during the early 1910's.

I guess the border between sci-fi and simple fantasy are hard to define at times.

[Zankapfel]

Nice classics. Hadn't heard that about the Anacronópete. Very interesting.

I'd say that old classics about it will always have to include Verne. Probably the first guy to mix sci-fi with quality.

This is why I look for feedback, so we can add more and better choices when compiling, and I agree that Jules Verne is definitely a must.
Amongst so many effective and artistic tales, it is difficult to give a preference to one over all the rest, but if I had to choose, it'd be Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. D'oh!

This one below could also be an interesting one, given that Sagan and Asimov regarded it as the first sci-fi (in the 1620's!), and given that it's Kepler:



In the narrative, a student of Tycho Brahe is transported to the Moon by occult forces. It presents a detailed imaginative description of how the earth might look when viewed from the moon, and is considered the first serious scientific treatise on lunar astronomy. Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov have referred to it as the first work of science fiction.

And who are we to contradict good old Isaac? (:

Btw, you made me wonder which had been the first sci-fi written in my language. Apparently it was a work written by Pujulà in 1912 called Homes Artificials (Artificial Men). I haven't read it, but the abstract seems weird and funny, about a certain Doctor Pericard who proposes two alternative techniques to creat the gametes which will produce the twelve embryos of the new humankind (Alpha, Beta, Gamma...), them being archetypes of the different kinds of humans of the time. Looks like it has some things in common with the Island of Doctor Moreau. Wells had a sort of an impact in some Catalan writers during the early 1910's.

That sounds like a great read. I will google it and bookmark it (I have a bookmark for tagging books I mean/want to order).

I guess the border between sci-fi and simple fantasy are hard to define at times.

I think the difference lays in sci-fi dealing with possibilities based on what we know or can speculate about science and technology (and even politics).
Fantasy is more inclined to superstition, magic and/or the supernatural.
Although there are lots of hybrid stories where they become interrelated, and it can be hard to tell the difference between the two.

[BeerBaron]

I've read Time Machine, I'm going to look into the others. I think the list should include George Orwell's 1984

[Zankapfel]

I've read Time Machine, I'm going to look into the others. I think the list should include George Orwell's 1984

1984 is no doubt a Sci-Fi Classic, but we're dealing with less mainstream, early Classics here (:

[BeerBaron]

1984 is no doubt a Sci-Fi Classic, but we're dealing with less mainstream, early Classics here (:

Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep- Philip Dick

1960's I dont think its that mainstream

[Zankapfel]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep- Philip Dick

1960's I dont think its that mainstream

One of my personal favourites, too.

Take my above post with a grain of salt, though, because my take on 1984 is biased.

I do not believe that it belongs in a list of undiscovered gems, so to speak, because if anything, 1984 has been overexposed.

It does not strip the book of any of its merits, it is still a masterpiece in my opinion, but I wouldn't include it in this particular list.

[Comte Arnau]

Ok Zank, I've decided to make here a personal list of 7 sci-fi must-read early classics, famous ones included. My conditions were: only one book per author, and all of them should be previous to Asimov's Nightfall in 1941, the arbitrary date I set to divide early classics from post-Asimov sci-fiction.


Lists like these are definitely never easy, but here it goes:

1

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, published in 1818. Definitely the first book focused on a sci-fi topic, not only featuring sci-fi elements.




2

20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, by Jules Verne, published in 1870. Although A Journey to the Center of the Earth has always been my favourite, if only one book is allowed, it should be this one. On it, Zank, I agree with you.




3

Vril, the Power of the Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, published in 1871. And no, it's not Coonoid fiction.




4

The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. Not being original here, I know, but it's obviously a must. (Otherwise, one can always choose The Invisible Man as another good candidate.)




5

Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future, by Olaf Stapleton, published in 1930. "A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years and eighteen distinct human species, of which our own is the first and most primitive."




6

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, published in 1932. No comments needed, I'd say.




7

A Martian Odyssey and its less known sequel Valley of Dreams, by Stanley G. Weinbaum, both stories published in 1934. Maybe the lesser known of the pack.





7 options force you to leave out many good sci-fi writers of the 19th/early 20th century, or famous works like the Czech R.U.R. that introduced the well-known term robot. But I'd say it's a decent basic list.

[Zankapfel]

Ok Zank, I've decided to make here a personal list of 7 sci-fi must-read early classics, famous ones included. My conditions were: only one book per author, and all of them should be previous to Asimov's Nightfall in 1941, the arbitrary date I set to divide early classics from post-Asimov sci-fiction.

That is actually a great system, wish I had thought of it like that

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, published in 1818. Definitely the first book focused on a sci-fi topic, not only featuring sci-fi elements.

Concept: Rudimentary Genetic Engineering?

20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, by Jules Verne, published in 1870. Although A Journey to the Center of the Earth has always been my favourite, if only one book is allowed, it should be this one. On it, Zank, I agree with you.

Concept: Submarines.
How could one not agree on this one!

The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. Not being original here, I know, but it's obviously a must. (Otherwise, one can always choose The Invisible Man as another good candidate.)

Agreed.

Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future, by Olaf Stapleton, published in 1930. "A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years and eighteen distinct human species, of which our own is the first and most primitive."

Concept: Involutive Dystopia?

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, published in 1932. No comments needed, I'd say.

Agreed, again.

7 options force you to leave out many good sci-fi writers of the 19th/early 20th century, or famous works like the Czech R.U.R. that introduced the well-known term robot. But I'd say it's a decent basic list.

Seven isn't written in stone!

Give me a day, and I will make sure to list a few more, Capek included up

[Zankapfel]

Another short compilation of Classics.

• Robots

As suggested by Count Arnau: Rossum's Universal Robots, an English phrase used as the subtitle in the Czech original, a science fiction play by Karel Čapek that premiered in 1921.

The word comes from the Czech word robota. But if you had said the word "roboti" in say 1920 in what is now the Czech Republic, very different images would be conjured. It would not be of an entity, but rather verbiage denoting drudgery and slave labor. It is due to Czech writer Karel Čapek's 1920 play, R.U.R. that the descriptor "roboti" morphed into the noun "robot" and spread far and wide from its Czech roots, altering in meaning along the way.

As you see, the main reason why R.U.R. is so important in the context of robotics history is probably the invention of the term itself. However, not only that. Although Capek's robots were quite different from what we regard as robots today, Capek in his play explored different issues that are or may one day become relevant in real life robotics.

• Search Engines

A Logic Named Joe is a 1946 uncannily prophetic short story of home computers and the internet by Murray Leinster, and published by Astounding.
It is about a network connected machine that can answer any and all questions!

A Logic Named Joe brilliantly and with astonishing accuracy not only predicts but maps the contemporary Internet, and Google searches: a giant network of relays that contained all human knowledge, accessed with TV-like machines called logics.

The cover is from March 1946's issue of Astounding Science Fiction, where the short story is contained.

• Geostationary Communications satellites

Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1952, introduces the concept of weather and communications satellites, albeit distinctly lacking in the computer/electronic systems we take for granted today.

An interesting device described is a solar electric generator that doesn't use photo-voltaic elements, but a curved mirror to focus heat at a point - to heat water that will then be converted to electricity via a steam based generator.

The only and most obvious misprediction to be found in this book is that of plant life on the Moon and Mars, and even animal life on Mars. When reading about these, well thought out, forms of life, it is worth remembering that these stories date from the first tentative beginnings of The Space Race.

• Remote controls, Tape Recorders, Radars...

Amongst other things!

Ralph 124C 41+ was first serialized in Hugo Gernsback's magazine Modern Electrics in 1911.
It was collected and presented as a novel for the first time in 1925.
The title itself is a play on words, meaning "one to foresee for many."

The story is a simple pulp comic book recipe: boy meets girl; boy saves girl from some terrible fate or another; repeat as desired; end happily.
There's really nothing more to tell about it, since the details of the plot are hardly relevant.

The details of the ideas, however, are endlessly intriguing. You can feel the enthusiasm boiling up out of the pages; the world, Gernsback must have felt way back in 1911 and still (or again) in 1925, was brimming with possibilities and with hope.
Remember: between 1911 and 1925, the world saw some truly amazing technological developments and scientific discoveries, including such marvels as the first airplanes, intercontinental telephone communications, Einstein's general theory of relativity, Max Planck's quantum theory, and stunning advances in rocketry, astronomy and chemistry.

____________

That will be it for now, as I am exhausted (: