#VintageSciFi Dicussion week 2!
Posted on: January 13, 2019
Welcome to week two of Vintage SciFi Month! Last week we had a fantastic discussion about what makes older books feel dated, or not feel dated.
Topic for Jan 13 – Jan 19: Gateway Drug to Vintage. Your friend says they don’t want to read anything older. They think older books are awful/dated/slow paced/badly written/etc.
What titles(s) do you recommend to them to help them step outside their comfort zone?
How do you convince them to give the book(s) a chance?
To help you get your thinking caps on, here are some links to some recent #VintageSciFi around the blogosphere
Tip the Wink reviews Sands of Mars, Arthur C. Clarke’s first published novel
Every Day Should be Tuesday reviews Nightfall and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov, and looks at Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee
Kaedrin tackles Robert Heinlein’s Podkayne of Mars and explains the most confusing Heinlein conversation I have ever been part of.
Weighing a Pig reviews Destination Void by Frank Herbert
Howling Frog Books reviews Earthworks by Brian Aldiss
This Sporadic Life reviews Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Red Lips and Bibliomaniacs has a fantastic and in depth review of Lost Mars: The Golden Age of the Red Planet edited by Mike Ashley
Wolfman’s Cult Film Club enjoyed Fantastic Voyage
David Lee Summers talks about A Bertram Chandler’s famous John Grimes
Late to the Game enjoyed the movie The Black Hole
Enjoy!
16 Responses to "#VintageSciFi Dicussion week 2!"
January 13, 2019 at 9:45 am
Thanks for the linkage. 🙂
All the best…. Mikey Wolf
January 13, 2019 at 11:36 am
You didn’t mention my review of Arthur C. Clarke’s SAND OF MARS.
Here: https://tipthewink.net/2019/01/03/friday-forgotten-sands-of-mars-by-arthur-c-clarke/
January 13, 2019 at 12:30 pm
ugh, I suck! I am so sorry!
Link to your review of Sands of Mars is at the top of the link list, right where it belongs. 🙂
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January 13, 2019 at 11:59 am
Thank you for including me, Andrea! I’ll slowly work my way through these posts. 🙂
January 17, 2019 at 9:31 am
[…] Check out more Vintage Science Fiction Month posts at the Little Red Reviewer. […]
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January 18, 2019 at 2:36 am
I am not at all sure what I would recommend for vintage SF — at least to a skeptic! If they don’t get the joy in old B-movies and pulp fiction and reading Asimov, what am I to do? I guess I could give them Bradbury. Maybe “The Veldt” and some others of the great short stories, and then move on to more shorts by others.
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January 18, 2019 at 2:39 pm
I disagree with this sentiment — there is so much more to SF than old B-movies, pulp, and Asimov……
For example, I recently read a brilliant vintage SF novel in translation that blends Scandinavian noir ultra-realism with SF themes — Bodelsen’s Freezing Down (1969). Also, Ballard’s dystopias would appeal to many people who enjoy dark 70s literary works on the more experimental bent — The Drowned World (1962) comes to mind. Christopher Priest’s short stories (and novels) I’d recommend to anyone interested in experimental fiction more generally.
I fear pigeonholing SF into a purely “pulp” container — it diminishes how downright experimental it can be (especially the late 60s, early 70s, and early 80s).
And I have thousands of recommendations for anyone interested in feminist literature more generally as well… From Russ to Charnas, from Monique Wittig to Le Guin.
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January 20, 2019 at 12:46 am
Sure, but *I* love pulp and B-movies. I read the more serious stuff too…sometimes! I would probably recommend some Simak though, I quite like him.
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January 20, 2019 at 6:54 am
I’m not saying these things aren’t bad! (although my personal tastes differ)
Have you read Simak’s Why Call Them Back To Heave? (1967). My absolute fav of his — how society transforms by the very promise that the technology for immortality will be discovered in the near future…. Does not have his standard pastoralism which always is so confusing (his anti-technological stance is often facilitated BY technology — robots, no diseases, etc.)
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8 | Secret Agent of Terra | Planetary Defense Command
January 24, 2019 at 7:43 am
[…] is, as usual, Vintage Science Fiction month among my fellow bloggers. Also as usual, I’ve waited until almost the end of the month to […]
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the Little Red Reviewer 
January 13, 2019 at 9:26 am
Hey, thank you so much! I really enjoy your site and I’ve been wondering how to get more plugged into blogs/sites on vintage scifi, which is very much my interest. If you knew of any other places to recommend, I’d love to hear further suggestions, and please keep doing what you’re doing!
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January 13, 2019 at 12:57 pm
Hi Jeff, two sites come to mind right off the bat:
Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations – Joachim focuses on reviews of scifi from the 50s through the 70s.
https://sciencefictionruminations.com/
Every Day Should be Tuesday’s Throwback SF series
https://everydayshouldbetuesday.wordpress.com/category/throwback-sf/
Lots of excellent pulp fiction, sword and sorcery, Conan and such.
Many of us dip into older works from time to time, you’ll find more links and reviews than you know what to do with by scrolling through the comments of the Vintage SciFi Month tab up at the top of my blog.
Happy Vintage-ing!
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January 13, 2019 at 2:50 pm
Hey, these are great! Somehow my earlier dive from your website led me to Every Day Tuesday earlier, but I haven’t heard of the firs at all. A brief glance shows me this is perfect.
I really appreciate your reply, and will be checking both of these, and your site, often. Recently I went home to visit my parents in Oregon, and brought back with me (finally) my whole collection of old Fantasy and Science Fictions, and some Asimov’s. I guess I got the bug in 2019!
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January 13, 2019 at 7:55 pm
Thanks for the shout-out.
Joachim
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