Gems From Gutenberg

[JoanDrake]

Can anyone tell me of some good titles that are available for Free from Gutenberg? Ideally, they should be Fantasy or SF and they should illustate good writing techniques that are either timeless or fit well with contemporary styles. (I don't ask for much, do I? But I had to justify the super lame title somehow )

 

[J-Sun]

Proto-SF
SF
More, including Fantasy and Horror

Basically, just search for what you want. Burroughs, Wells, Verne, on up to 50s mags with copyright glitches and whatnot.

 

[JoanDrake]

I do that. One surprise I've run across is that Jack London published a good deal of SF, some of which has been made into movies just recently. I'm just wondering if anyone has run across anything they like and/or that seems modern or will fit with modern.

 

[Vertigo]

I have mainly read Wells, Verne, Conan Doyle, ERB and just recently Homer. But there is certainly loads more

 

[The Holy Drunk]

Praise the e-reader, Gutenberg has a treasure trove of speculative fiction, and now I can read it without going blind.

If you want a slice of true turn of the century sci fi, I'd suggest checking out Edison's War against the Martians, the trashy tale of what happens when H.G. Wells doesn't have copyright in America. Though seriously its relatively fun, and exists in the money-grubbing sequel mould by completely ignoring Wells' original themes so the superior Earth men led by Mr. Edison can blow up and subjugate the upstart Martians. Its an interesting slice of the period and was very popular on original publication I believe. So it at least gets social history points.