I love book stores. I can easily lose track of hours and hours in a good book store.
Shannon and I recently found a wonderful used book store here in Conway. Now a good book store is a wonderful thing, but a good used book store is that much more wonderful again. Not only are the prices much friendlier, but you can find such treasures, wonderful books that haven’t been published for years and years.
Now I love science fiction, but some of the best science fiction is the older stuff, in my opinion. Modern science fiction often feels contrived, many times the author has a soapbox to stand on or a drum to beat. Often between the agendas and the whiz-bang “special effects” the story is lost, or at least weaker than you could wish. And, to me, a book is all about story: I can enjoy the hell out of a poorly worded, poorly written book, if it tells a good story; conversely, well-written and polished tripe remains tripe. Whether the bucket is gold or tin, tripe always stinks.
I found a wonderful old book, boasting both skillful writing and a really great story, “Wolfbane” by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, published in 1957.
If you love science fiction, and you can find a copy, you owe it to yourself to give this book a read.
thanks for the suggestion, I’ll have to look for it.
My favorite sci-fi authors are Arthur C. Clarke and Issac Asimov. I need my sci-fi to be heavy on the believable science to be a good read (except for something like “Hitchhiker’s”).
Missy, if you like “hard” sci-fi (the kind that involves scientific principles and such), I’d DEFINITELY suggest anything by Larry Niven.
I don’t have any used books stores in the area that have any sci-fi, so I normally order my old sci-fi from Amazon. You’d really be surprised what you can dig up. Of course, you lose the atmosphere…
I presume you’ve read the Starchild books by Pohl and Kornbluth? I greatly enjoyed them; I think I’ve read Wolfbane, too.
I find I’ve grown out of SF to some extent. I’ve read and enjoyed a lot of Orson Scott Card and Piers Anthony (his SF-er type stuff rather than fantasy) in the last several years, but prefer classic stuff now, like Jane Austen, Sinclair Lewis, and such.
The used bookstore I used to frequent here closed a few years ago. I’m sure there’s another, but I haven’t found it. I order quite a bit from Alibris, though.
See, I’ve come full circle there, I think. I started out reading sci-fi in middle school. I spent several years doing that, then I switched to classic literature around grade 10, feeling I didn’t really enjoy it anymore. When I came to college last fall, I found myself picking up some very old, out-of-print sci-fi. And so here I am, an English major torn between the beloved classics and the under-appreciated sci-fi.
Speaking of great old books. . .I got a reread Silverlock this past fall. . .what a tremendous book it is! Check it out, and welcome to The Commonwealth!
My local used bookstores include The Leaping Frog in West Hartford (I believe its first incarnation was Hopping Frog, then Jumping Frog when it got too big for its britches).
There’s a used book store here in town owned by Friends, and it often has some very very obscure but great books. They have a small shelf of Bibles, too–for free.
And, you’re welcome to go in and sit and read for hours if you want, nothing like “Are you going to buy that?” is ever said; it’s a great place to be. I run in to my professors in there not infrequently. It’s a little kind of heaven.
Larry Niven: Look for ‘The Smoke Ring. ’ People colonize a doughnut shaped ring of atmosphere surrounding a neutron star. No solid ground, just giant trees and a lot of flying creatures and big bubbles of lakes blowing around. The people go aboriginal pretty quickly and adapt to this micro-gravity environment. Great visual imagery and a fun story. Has at least one sequel. Niven comments that some of his ideas in the sequel came from readers suggestions, like the flipper-wings on peoples’ feet.
Karen Traviss, a recent writer, wrote ‘City of Pearl’ about the interactions of very believable alien races and humans. Very tense. Deep complicated characters. My favorite lines: “Are you theatening me?” “No, I’m targeting you. Launch.”
I’m currently into a 1983 series by Barbara Hambly: ‘Time of the Dark,’ Walls of Air,’ and ‘The Armies of Daylight.’ Complicated, interesting characters, very nice writing style, plot gets more interesting as it goes along. Rave reviews on amazon.com. And, I’m loving it.
I read during my breakfast cereal before leaving for work, during lunch (I never socialize then), and before I turn out the light at night. It doesn’t cut into whistle practice.
Tony
… Hah – I’ve negotiated that circle too… quite a few times; but then, I’ve been out of college for cough a few years. I’ve always kinda read in phases like that; it’s good to be torn.
I’m with Congratulations. Larry Niven is my favorite. If you’re going to read “The Smoke Ring”, read “The Integral Trees” first.
Robert Sheckley is my second favorite. Hilarious.
Harry Harrison third.
I also used to like David Gerrold but became put off when he messed up his Chtorr series. “The Man who Folded Himself” was pretty good as I recall since it’s been a couple decades since I’ve read it. Voyage of the Star Wolf is an absolutely exellent image of starship combat.
I also like David Drake but sometimes the characters are too serious and wooden.
Jerry Pournelle, who collaborated with Niven on both Mote books, Lucifer’s Hammer and Footfall also did a series about some mercenaries called “Falkenberg’s Legion”. Good reading if you like the military stuff.
