Early 20th century SF recommendations?

[Elflock]

It's the November 1952 issue. Good issue, too. Magazine SF gets a bad rap. No turkeys in this one.

Ok,ta. (Raymond F Jones was good)

 

[IainRichmond]

Obviously there's H G Wells (I have an omnibus) and Verne but what other books/stories stand out from the early years of the 20th C.?

The Skylark of Space, a novel by E.E. "Doc" Smith. Written in 1915 and published in the late 20's in Amazing Stories (serialized) was given credit for popularizing the space opera genre.

Interesting read into the beginnings of an entire genre.

 

[AE35Unit]

The Skylark of Space, a novel by E.E. "Doc" Smith. Written in 1915 and published in the late 20's in Amazing Stories (serialized) was given credit for popularizing the space opera genre.

Interesting read into the beginnings of an entire genre.

Yea i have that as an e-book, will get round to it sometime. I just hope its better than his Triplanetary!

 

[Elflock]

I wanted to strongly recommend that you DON'T ever waste your time with ANYTHING by Stanton Coblentz...ok? I've been trying to read a thing called 'Enchantress of Lemuria',but I can't finish it,it's just too pathetically lame in every way (especially the usual pathetic one-dimensional characters...the 'venerable,white,shining Timur with his flowing silver hair and blue eyes...versus the dark,hook-nosed,hawk-eyed Murkambu'...etc) Exactly the same as the other piece of racist,militaristic rubbish I read by this guy years ago. Coblentz was possibly the lamest,most simplistically juvenile,racist sci-fi author ever!! And that's a BIG call considering a lot of the other lame,horribly racist,militaristic US fiction from the early days!! Has anyone had the misfortune of reading Capt.S P Meek? Don't!

 

[Elflock]

Yea i have that as an e-book, will get round to it sometime. I just hope its better than his Triplanetary!

Yes,it's interesting from a historical viewpoint certainly,I think it was the first book to use the idea of galactic travel as opposed to just within the Solar System...is that right? (anyone?) I can't really remember if it was better or worse than 'Triplanetary'...'Skylark' was better actually,I think...but there are a thousand books I would read before that,you know?

 

[J Riff]

Unfair to take Doc Smith too too seriously. Those books were reissued in th' 70s- effectively as YA of the time or just.. adventure stuff for younger SF fans and we gobbled 'em up. The evil Duquesne!...
And in defense of Coblentz... he did write satirically sometimes. But it is fairly arful... tho he uses great words like numbskulls quite a bit.
From Nemesis of the Astropede:
Now excellency," he finished his recital, as she stared down at him with grave attentive eyes, "you may prescribe the drug of annihilation."

 

[Elflock]

Unfair to take Doc Smith too too seriously. Those books were reissued in th' 70s- effectively as YA of the time or just.. adventure stuff for younger SF fans and we gobbled 'em up. The evil Duquesne!...
And in defense of Coblentz... he did write satirically sometimes. But it is fairly arful... tho he uses great words like numbskulls quite a bit.
From Nemesis of the Astropede:
Now excellency," he finished his recital, as she stared down at him with grave attentive eyes, "you may prescribe the drug of annihilation."

He seems to have liked this idea,here's a similar one from the aforementioned 'Enchantress':

'“Obliteration Rooms?” gasped Will, with a sinking sensation. “What on earth may they be?”
“The rooms where those who do not deserve life are pierced with the Paralyzing Needle, which
brings oblivion'.

Here's another one you might like:

'It might take him years; but from what I had seen of his Multi-Tone Pocket Radio Receiver,his Manganese-Nickel Airplane Protective Antennae and his Super-Magnetic Sound Detector,I expected him to take a place side by side with Marconi and Edison'.

And then,there's this:

'“Now, you numbskull! Tell me, do you see her?” insisted Will, with growing impatience.'


Yes,ok,but there's no defence for outright racism! (I don't mean Darwinism,they were all pretty much into that in those days...what I've read of Coblentz and Meek I would call just plain ugly racism,racial stereotyping,whatever,you know?)
I liked 'Skylark of Space' too as a young guy...it's a million times better than Stanton Coblentz anyway!

 

[psikeyhackr]

100 year old thinking about science fiction:

With the move from Japanese to Chinese, we encounter the writer Lu Xun, generally considered the “father” of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun was also one of the first Chinese to fall in love with science fiction. In 1903, as a 22-year-old medical student in Japan who had studied Japanese for only a year, he translated Verne’s De la terre à la lune based on Inoue’s Japanese version. Lu Xun thought of the act of translation as a vital piece of the revolutionary work of introducing scientific thinking to the Chinese:

The typical reader is bored by the tediousness of science books and cannot finish them. But when dressed up in the form of fiction, the science can seep into readers’ minds without boring them. … As the reader’s heart is touched, the reader gains insight and wisdom without taxing the mind, knowledge that would break down legacy superstitions, improve their thoughts, and supplement our culture. What a powerful tool is such fiction!

- Lu Xun, Preface to From the Earth to the Moon

http://io9.com/the-heroic-translato...tm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Of course that means the SF must contain some real science.

It looks like China did not pay enough attention until the 1980s. Is the SF since then as useful?

psik

 

[Zendexor]

Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger stories: The Lost World, The Poison Belt (there are a couple of others that I don't recommend)

Rudyard Kipling's story "With the Night Mail"

William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland might qualify; it's a sort of weird fantasy-with-sf-elements
And above all William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land, a stupendous tale of a far-future Earth when the sun has gone dark and humanity's remnant is confined to a couple of pyramidal redoubts several miles high, besieged by various transdimensional forces which haunt the planet's last days. Once read, never forgotten.
Benson's Lord of the World is science fiction with a Roman Catholic apocalyptic theme; I thought it was good

 

[BAYLOR]

The Forgotten Planet by Murray Leinster

 

[Zendexor]

Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger stories: The Lost World, The Poison Belt (there are a couple of others that I don't recommend)

Rudyard Kipling's story "With the Night Mail"

William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland might qualify; it's a sort of weird fantasy-with-sf-elements
And above all William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land (1912), a stupendous epic of a far-future Earth when the sun has been dark for ages and humanity's remnant is confined to two giant pyramidal redoubts, besieged by the monstrous beings of the world's last epoch. Once read never forgotten.
Benson's Lord of the World is science fiction with a Roman Catholic apocalyptic theme; I thought it was good

 

[Zendexor]

Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger stories: The Lost World, The Poison Belt (there are a couple of others that I don't recommend)

Rudyard Kipling's story "With the Night Mail"

William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland might qualify; it's a sort of weird fantasy-with-sf-elements

Benson's Lord of the World is science fiction with a Roman Catholic apocalyptic theme; I thought it was good

And above all William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land (1912), a stupendous epic of a far-future Earth when the sun has been dark for ages, and humanity is confined to two giant pyramidal redoubts, besieged by the monstrous beings of Earth's final epoch. Once read, never forgotten.

 

[BAYLOR]

And above all William Hope Hodgson's The Night Land (1912), a stupendous epic of a far-future Earth when the sun has been dark for ages, and humanity is confined to two giant pyramidal redoubts, besieged by the monstrous beings of Earth's final epoch. Once read, never forgotten.

Unfortunately the way it's written (17th century writing style) works against it and makes it less accessible and difficult read for the average reader. If only he had used the same same style of prose that he had in The House on the Borderland .

 

[Bick]

The Forgotten Planet by Murray Leinster

The OP is looking for books 1900-1920. This was written in 1954.

 

[BAYLOR]

The OP is looking for books 1900-1920. This was written in 1954.

. The Mad Planet 1920 and The Red Dust 1921 became the 1954 novel. I had originally thought it was published in the 20's. A bit of a mix up on my part.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Moon Pool 1919

 

[Zendexor]

Unfortunately the way it's written (17th century writing style) works against it and makes it less accessible and difficult read for the average reader. If only he had used the same same style of prose that he had in The House on the Borderland .

I suppose you're right about some readers being put off. CSLewis made the same point in criticising the work, as well as complaining of its "sentimental and irrelevant" love interest, though he considered the book a masterpiece. Still, the style isn't difficult, just archaic. Seventeenth century English is acceptable when it's written by a good storyteller. (It would be interesting to pursue this argument with actual examples, but I don't have my copy to hand. Most of my sf collection is currently stored at my brother's house - my house is too small!) Anyhow, I strongly recommend anyone to perservere with The Night Land - it would be sad to miss reading it just because one is put off by some antiquated phrases.

 

[BAYLOR]

I suppose you're right about some readers being put off. CSLewis made the same point in criticising the work, as well as complaining of its "sentimental and irrelevant" love interest, though he considered the book a masterpiece. Still, the style isn't difficult, just archaic. Seventeenth century English is acceptable when it's written by a good storyteller. (It would be interesting to pursue this argument with actual examples, but I don't have my copy to hand. Most of my sf collection is currently stored at my brother's house - my house is too small!) Anyhow, I strongly recommend anyone to perservere with The Night Land - it would be sad to miss reading it just because one is put off by some antiquated phrases.

It took me about a month to hammer through it. Yes the imagery was great and it had huge potential , but this is not a book I will ever reread. Hodgson's choice to write it in this tedious antiquated form absolutely ruined it.

 

[Extollager]

There's an abridged version of The Night Land called The Dream of X, isn't there? Wasn't it abridged by Hodgson himself? Has anyone here read it?

 

[BAYLOR]

There's an abridged version of The Night Land called The Dream of X, isn't there? Wasn't it abridged by Hodgson himself? Has anyone here read it?

I could be misremembering this but I thought one was written by James Stoddard?