Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
4people
2008–2026years
50% recommend25% neutral25% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Need magic but audience is a crew of logical positivists - let's call it psi, apply some handwaving, and slip it in under the radar. Sounds awful but it's exactly the same as every other "advanced technology" in the genre really.
Books with psi by forgotten writers that are interesting (to me): Stapleton's 'Odd John' and May's 'Intervention'.
- depends on the subgenre :)
Superhuman: Slan by A.E. Van Vogt More Than Human by Theodore STurgeon Odd John by Olaf Stapledon
Post Apocalyptic: The Day of The Triffids by John Whyndham Earth Abides by George R. Stewart A Canticle for Lebowitz by...don't remember
Space Opera/Adventure: any of The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks The Reality Dysfunction series by ...don't remember Hyperion series by Dan Simmons To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
Dystopian: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin <---highly overlooked, predates 1984 and Brave New World
But the Absolute Best would be anything by: Stanislaw Lem (Cyberiad, Futurological Congress, Solaris) Alfred Bester (The STars my Destination, The Demolished Man) or Samuel R. Delany (Babel-17, Dhalgren, Trtion, Nova) oh and Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light and This Immortal are both great.
Some of Philip K. Dick's stuff is great, but everyone recommends him. :)
almost forgot John Brunner, check out Steel Beach, The Sheep Look Up, and Stand on Zanzibar.
- A book of that stature being published cutailed in any way should be carefully avoided by all readers.
The 'Canadian Gutenburg' PD version [0] mentioned in another comment here contains all 16 chapters. ('Star Maker' is also there, as is 'Last Men in London', 'Odd John', and more.
- I read Sirius and Odd John due to Freeman Dyson advocating for Stapledon [0] but was underwhelmed by both.
