Early 20th century SF recommendations?

Yes, The Girl in the Golden Atom is an enjoyable tale, and "The Machine Stops" is a classic of its kind -- it is, in fact, included in one of the volumes of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

While being a bit beyond the time frame you mentioned, you might take a look at Lester del Rey's The World of Science Fiction, 1926-1976: the History of a Subculture for suggestions. In addition to Science Fiction by Gaslight, you might want to look up Moskowitz' companion volume, Under the Moons of Mars, a History and Anthology of the "Scientific Romance" in the Munsey Magazines: 1912-1920. Moskowitz's history can be a bit dry at times, but it is packed with information on the writings of the period, and few have ever been more knowledgeable about the field's history than Sam.
 
Not that it matters but the stories in UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS are, if I recall correctly, excerpts from novels. Also, if my memory is in a forgiving mood, they're supposed to be fairly stand-alone, so may be read without feeling the loss of the rest of the book. I have a copy but it's out in the garage somewhere and I'm too lazy to go look for it.:eek:
 
I would personally love to get a hold of Flatland by Edwin Abbot (1884). There is an online version at google books, but I don't do the scroll and read thing.

And there was a bunch of books about Mars mostly written before 1920, i.e. the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. He wrote a few other SF books too.
 
I had a copy of Flatland, but I have no idea what happened to it :rolleyes: I've been wanting to read it ever since I saw Carl Sagan's segment about Flatland on the discovery channel. Need to go get another copy!
 
I've seen several second hand copies over the years on book hunting jaunts, in fact I saw one two or three weeks ago at a thrift store or book sale, is it really good:confused: I read about it in an sf history book a while back. Didn't sound all that interesting. But if I'm wrong I'll pick up a copy next time I come across one.
 
dask said:
I've seen several second hand copies over the years on book hunting jaunts, in fact I saw one two or three weeks ago at a thrift store or book sale, is it really good:confused: I read about it in an sf history book a while back. Didn't sound all that interesting. But if I'm wrong I'll pick up a copy next time I come across one.
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Hmm I read the synopsis for thos on Fantastic Fiction and it didn't sound that inspiring-certainly not very SFnal. There's also a follow up-Sphereland.
 
S.Fowler Wright..do you know his work? Check out 'The Amphibians..A Romance of 500,000 Years Hence' for good early sci-fi (1920's though,not 1901) There were heaps of excellent imaginative stories in the 'Lost Race' type of genre,and again,you can't go past S. Fowler Wright! 'The Island of Captain Sparrow' is a beauty! People like A.Merritt (The Metal Monster,The Dwellers in The Mirage etc etc),Francis Stevens (The Citadel of Fear,Claimed etc etc)and lots of others did excellent stories in that style too. For the more sci-fi stuff,there was Ray Cummings ('Girl in The Golden Atom' etc,but avoid 'Aerita of The Light Country' at all costs!),obviously Burroughs,Otis Kline,Ralph Milne Farley (the Radio Man series etc) etc etc. You could try things like 'Palos of The Dog Star Pack' and it's sequels by J.R Giesy but that's lame compared to things like 'The Purple Cloud'. Now there's a true classic!! By the way,you can get all of these free at Gutenberg and other free places...It says I can't post a link but look for Fowler Wright on this site...
onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/.. ;)
 
Elflock said:
S.Fowler Wright..do you know his work? Check out 'The Amphibians..A Romance of 500,000 Years Hence' for good early sci-fi (1920's though,not 1901) There were heaps of excellent imaginative stories in the 'Lost Race' type of genre,and again,you can't go past S. Fowler Wright! 'The Island of Captain Sparrow' is a beauty! People like A.Merritt (The Metal Monster,The Dwellers in The Mirage etc etc),Francis Stevens (The Citadel of Fear,Claimed etc etc)and lots of others did excellent stories in that style too. For the more sci-fi stuff,there was Ray Cummings ('Girl in The Golden Atom' etc,but avoid 'Aerita of The Light Country' at all costs!),obviously Burroughs,Otis Kline,Ralph Milne Farley (the Radio Man series etc) etc etc. You could try things like 'Palos of The Dog Star Pack' and it's sequels by J.R Giesy but that's lame compared to things like 'The Purple Cloud'. Now there's a true classic!! By the way,you can get all of these free at Gutenberg and other free places...It says I can't post a link but look for Fowler Wright on this site...
onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/.. ;)
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Yea I now have a lot of those authors on my reader, and The Purple Cloud was the first e-book I read-good stuff! Thanks for the other recommendations tho- a few I'd not heard of before!
BTW I couldn't get any of that link to work, whichever way I posted it. Altho I'm sure I could find S. Fowler Wright on Project Gutenberg
 
'BTW I couldn't get any of that link to work, whichever way I posted it. Altho I'm sure I could find S. Fowler Wright on Project Gutenberg'[/QUOTE]

Yes,sorry,it's not the full link,they said I couldn't post one until I have 15 posts on here or something! I just typed,'S Fowler Wright Gutenberg' in Google Search and that link to his stuff at 'onlinebooks.library.whatever' was about 3 listings down. For some reason,none of his stuff is available at Gutenberg. :)
 
Elflock said:
'BTW I couldn't get any of that link to work, whichever way I posted it. Altho I'm sure I could find S. Fowler Wright on Project Gutenberg'
Click to expand...

Yes,sorry,it's not the full link,they said I couldn't post one until I have 15 posts on here or something! I just typed,'S Fowler Wright Gutenberg' in Google Search and that link to his stuff at 'onlinebooks.library.whatever' was about 3 listings down. For some reason,none of his stuff is available at Gutenberg. :)[/QUOTE]

Could you send me a private message with the link in? (Is this ok mods- I forget!)
 
Could you send me a private message with the link in? (Is this ok mods- I forget!)[/QUOTE]

Apparently not!! No,it won't let me,I need 10 posts to send a PM (personal message?) I'll just make some comments somewhere on the forums and come back in a couple of days or something with the link,no problem. I suppose you have the other M.P Shiel stuff from Gutenberg? He sounds like an interesting guy,a West Indian dude living and writing in London at the time of the Decadent Movement,Oscar Wilde etc...
Cheers,I'll get back to you :)
 
I recommend this! (good luck finding it though)

elflock-albums-sf-paperback-cover-art-picture857-ccf10022009-00014.jpg
 
Here's my copy. At forty cents you obviously have the earlier edition.
LordsOfAtlantis.jpg

Part of LOA appeared here as the novelet "...And Found Wanting."
FutureSFNov52.jpg

I was very impressed with West's writing. I intended to read the entire story but, well, just got sidetracked.:eek:
 
dask said:
I was very impressed with West's writing. I intended to read the entire story but, well, just got sidetracked.:eek:
Click to expand...
It's a true classic I think. That novel was published in 1960,but it's probably based on one of his much earlier short stories...

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&s...sg=AFQjCNGNZAI0kiWaJV9w2vImgiPBGubZeA&cad=rja

Here's a recommendation from 1919,by one of my all-time favourites...

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&s...sg=AFQjCNEqTlMR5ej8w9TQ-5ZgCEEWgCDEEw&cad=rja

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&s...sg=AFQjCNH-pbE0diCIYOKA7rSJWey9-uIlFQ&cad=rja
 
I meant to ask if you knew what year that Future mag was from?
Early 50's?
 
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