10 Obscure But Superb Science Fiction Novels

[K'Nort]

This is the nicest kind of article/list because they're not claiming that these are the BEST 10 anything. They're just throwing them out there as suggested reading. No controversy.

The list (http://listverse.com/literature/top-10-obscure-but-superb-science-fiction-novels/)

So how obscure are they? Anyone read any of them?

[Donald M.]

I've read none of these but who knows, if I ever run across them at a used bookstore or something, maybe I'll check some of them out.

I do have a huge stack of Science Fiction book club editions of a whole bunch of obscure science fiction novels (Obscure to me, anyway.) from the 50's and 60's that I picked up at a library sale last year, though I can't speak to their quality as I haven't gotten around to reading any of them yet.

[Spiffy]

Stupid board ate my post! Arrgh!

Here's the short version. I've heard of most of these authors Janifer and MCEnroe being the exceptions, but the only work here I've actually READ is Foster's Midworld, which is indeed a great book.

Of the remaining authors the one I know for sure is great, even if I haven't read the book recommended is William Tenn. A lot of his work is satiric, and witty, so I'd take the recommendation seriously. In fact, hunt down anything by him you can find (most of his work is short stories, but there have been several collections).

John D. McDonald is a great mystery writer, so I imagine his Sci-fi might be okay too.

Clement, Spinrad, Russell, never engaged me, the works of theirs I've read or tried to read.

[Puma]

The only one I've read is "House of Stairs" and that was ages ago.

[Greg Hatcher]

MacDonald's Ballroom of the Skies is certainly a good pick, but personally, my favorite non-mystery MacDonald is The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything. In addition to being a remarkably well-extrapolated one-gimme kind of fantasy (a man inherits a watch he can use to stop time) it's also hilariously funny.

I think it was made into a TV-movie at one point, so I don't know if you'd call it obscure. But for some reason, the book fell off the radar shortly after that, not very many people think of it when you mention MacDonald.

[K'Nort]

but personally, my favorite non-mystery MacDonald is The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything. In addition to being a remarkably well-extrapolated one-gimme kind of fantasy (a man inherits a watch he can use to stop time) it's also hilariously funny.

I think it was made into a TV-movie at one point, so I don't know if you'd call it obscure. But for some reason, the book fell off the radar shortly after that, not very many people think of it when you mention MacDonald.

That's actually one of my mother's favorites.

[howyadoin]

I vaguely remember reading Midworld at some point - highschool, maybe?

[Spiffy]

MacDonald's Ballroom of the Skies is certainly a good pick, but personally, my favorite non-mystery MacDonald is The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything. In addition to being a remarkably well-extrapolated one-gimme kind of fantasy (a man inherits a watch he can use to stop time) it's also hilariously funny.

I think it was made into a TV-movie at one point, so I don't know if you'd call it obscure. But for some reason, the book fell off the radar shortly after that, not very many people think of it when you mention MacDonald.
Now that you mention it, I remember it--the movie that is. More for the starring the "guy from Airplane" and the "girl from Mork & Mindy" aspect than anything else.

[Slam_Bradley]

I've read five of them...the ones by Leinster, Clement, Spinrad, Tenn and Russell. Of Men & Monsters by William Tenn isn't as obscure as it would have been 10 years ago, because of the attention that Tenn has gotten in the last decade or so.

I'll take umbrage at the originator referring to Murray Leinster as a hack. To quote Harlan Ellison, I don't want to talk SF with anyone who doesn't know who Murray Leinster is.

If Iceworld by Clement is obscure it is only because Mission of Gravity is such an incredible and incredibly important work.

[Spiffy]

I forgot about Leinster. The book cited isn't one I've read, but as with Tenn I've read a ton of his short fiction.

And I'd completely forgotten (until I Wiki searched him a minute ago) that he did all of the book adaptions of Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants. In the late 60s, book adaptions from TV weren't necessarily the shabby thing they later became.

Of Men & Monsters by William Tenn isn't as obscure as it would have been 10 years ago, because of the attention that Tenn has gotten in the last decade or so.
Has Tenn really had a modern "revival"? Wow. My main exposure to him were story collections (from the late 60s I think) that were reprinted in paperback in the early 80s.

[Slam_Bradley]

Has Tenn really had a modern "revival"? Wow. My main exposure to him were story collections (from the late 60s I think) that were reprinted in paperback in the early 80s.


Tenn was named Author Emeritus by the SFWA in 1999. The Author Emeritus is their award for a living author whose work is underappreciated.

And NESFA published most of his work in three volumes from 2001 through 2004. The books were fairly prominently featured by the SFBC when they came out.

[EZMOHR]

I read Skinner when I was a kid. Don't remember it being all that great. I got it for a nickel at a garage sale.

[dan bailey]

I've read the top 3 -- Wasp, Of Men & Monsters & Agent of Chaos & possibly Ballroom of the Skies (though I suspect I'm actually thinking of MacDonald's Wine of the Dreamers instead).

Russell was a very relilable novelist -- along with Wasp, I can also recommend his Sinister Barrier, Three to Conquer & Dreadful Sanctuary. I know I'm forgetting at least one other of his that I've read.

[Hintermann]

Nice list K'nort. I confess that I have not read any of the books but House of Stairs seems to be the most interesting.

Incidentally, I am more of a sci-fi short-story reader and William Tenn is among my favourite authors (his Eastward Ho! is a mini-masterpiece). But when I learned just now that his real name was Philip Klass, I was quite upset; this is because, back in the early to mid 1980s I used to belong to a Tucson based organisation called APRO and Philip Klass was one of the leading personnel responsible for it running out of funds. Thankfully, I checked Wikipedia and realised that that nasty chap was Philip J Klass and nothing to do with Wiiliam Tenn.

[Shem the Penman]

In my case, it's Sleator and ADF. I think I have a copy of Midworld somewhere. Good stuff, but perhaps a little too similar to Brian Aldiss's Hothouse.

As for Sleator, he's one of the better YA science fiction writers out there. Still, Singularity, Interstellar Pig, and The Green Futures of Tycho are all better than House of Stairs, imo.

[dan bailey]

Incidentally, I am more of a sci-fi short-story reader and William Tenn is among my favourite authors (his Eastward Ho! is a mini-masterpiece). But when I learned just now that his real name was Philip Klass, I was quite upset; this is because, back in the early to mid 1980s I used to belong to a Tucson based organisation called APRO and Philip Klass was one of the leading personnel responsible for it running out of funds. Thankfully, I checked Wikipedia and realised that that nasty chap was Philip J Klass and nothing to do with Wiiliam Tenn.

Never was a member of APRO (whose founders, Coral & Jim Lorenzen, wrote the first UFO book I ever read back when I was 10 or so, UFOs: The Whole Story) or any other UFO-oriented organization, though I do find the subject fascinating (I'm simply not the joining type, period), but I operated under the same misapprehension for probably a couple of decades. I, too, was rather relieved to find that Phil Klass/William Tenn was not the same person as Phil Klass/irrational debunker ("irrational" & "debunker" are hardly the same thing, of course, but in this case the adjective applies).

I've been a Tenn fan ever since I read his "Betelgeuse Bridge" in a library copy of the Heinlein-edited (actually a ghost job by Frederik Pohl, I believe I've read) Tomorrow, the Stars anthology probably 35 years ago. (Ace collection, by the way -- Jack Finney's "I'm Scared" is a great opener, assuming I'm remembering correctly.)

[Gothos]

I like a lot of these guys but the only books I definitely remember reading are WASP and BLOODWORLD, though the plots as described were utterly unfamiliar. If I've still got 'em maybe I'll give them another go.

[yankee]

ctually haven't read any of these, but i will!

[Justin D.]

MacDonald's Ballroom of the Skies is certainly a good pick, but personally, my favorite non-mystery MacDonald is The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything. In addition to being a remarkably well-extrapolated one-gimme kind of fantasy (a man inherits a watch he can use to stop time) it's also hilariously funny.

I think it was made into a TV-movie at one point, so I don't know if you'd call it obscure. But for some reason, the book fell off the radar shortly after that, not very many people think of it when you mention MacDonald.

Yep, definitely a TV movie. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY9sBATdA0Q) I'll look for the book now. Sounds like a concept I'd like. Wasp too.

[mikekerr3]

Have 3 of the 10, read eight No#s 9 and 10 I haven't read

Wasp is a great book, my favorite piece of Military sci-fi.