Older SFF

From Book Riot: 5 Great Older SFF Books To Revisit

I will say up front, I find this post surprising, and not in a good way. I bet you can guess why, can’t you? That’s right, it’s because the definition of “older” on display in this post is rather startlingly non-older.

These may be fine books, but older, no. Their first choice? The Haunting of Tram Car 015, which was first published in 2019. SIX YEARS AGO. Raise your hand if you think six years is enough to justify dropping this book into the category “older SFF.” Anybody?

Nor is this a fluke. The second and third books on the list — 2015. The fourth and fifth books — 2020. It’s as though the person who put this list together thinks SFF sprang into existence in 2010 and we are therefore looking back a loooong way when we look all the way back to 2015.

Now, this isn’t wholly astonishing to me, because Book Riot’s definitions of categories can be somewhat idiosyncratic. I swear I did not set out to find another Book Riot post with a weird definition of some normal category, but here we are.

Naturally, this makes me want to mention five SFF novels that deserve revisiting that are actually older. I’ll just note that I’m picking works because I liked them or admired them, with no attempt to figure out what works by the same author were actually the earliest. These are all in the order they occurred to me, so in other words, in no order.

Gaia trilogy — John Varley — published 46 years ago. I thought of this series first because Varley gets my vote as “older author most certain to be popular today if his books were just now being published.”

Chanur series — CJC — Pride of Chanur published 44 years ago.

The Integral Trees — Niven — published 42 years ago. It’s the setting, not the story, as far as I’m concerned. On the other hand, it’s a stunning setting.

Public Service Message to Publishers: IF YOU HAVE A WHELAN COVER, NEVER CHANGE IT. You will never again have a cover as good as the Whelan cover you threw away. Just a tip! Here’s the art for the original cover of The Integral Trees.

The Dispossessed — Le Guin — published 51 years ago.

Up the Walls of the World — “James Tiptree Jr.” — published 47 years ago. Wow, I loved this novel. I skipped all the human parts of the story because I was far more interested in the aliens. Not sure how old I was before I read the novel properly, from front to back, without skipping the human parts.

Xenogenesis — Octavia Butler — published a mere 38 years ago, so maybe I shouldn’t have included it. Of course many of her books were written earlier, I just particularly love this series. Well, let me make up for the youth of this choice by adding —

Instrumentality of Mankind — Cordwainer Smith — “Scanners Live in Vain” was published 75 years ago. Now THERE is an older SF story that is worth seeking out. Modern readers who have never encountered Cordwainer Smith have missed something unique in the field.

Oh, wait, I overshot the five I planned on linking because oops, there are SO MANY OLDER SF NOVELS THAT IT’S HARD TO STOP. It’s not like it’s difficult to think of great books from that era. There is no need to stick a trembling hand back five years, tap a book that just barely came out yesterday, and say, “Here, modern readers shouldn’t forget older novels,” as though five years is a noticeable stretch of time. Honestly, every time I blink, there goes another five years.

For crying out loud, MY first novel was published SEVENTEEN years ago, and I don’t go around saying it’s OLDER FANTASY.

What ARE some OLDER fantasy titles? Well, let me see what immediately springs to mind. I’m not trying to pick anything in particular, just works that occur to me that I think readers today would probably like a lot if they weren’t so focused on the past ten years that everything before that is (apparently) completely beyond any possibility of consideration. All right, five titles –>

Amber series — Zelazny — Nine Princes in Amber was published 55 years ago.

Dark is Rising — Cooper — published 52 years ago.

Tombs of Atuan — Le Guin — published 55 years ago. It’s sort of cheating to mention Le Guin twice, but the fact is, I didn’t like The Dispossessed. I included it because Le Guin is a genuinely important author from that time. I did like THIS book, so I’m including it, even though I would say that objectively it was not one of her important or primary works. But I really love it and have read it many times, so here it is.

Riddlemaster of Hed — McKillip — published 49 years ago.

And you know what, since I’ve mentioned Book Riot and it’s therefore on my mind:

Watership Down — Adams — published 53 years ago.

It’s astounding that anyone would call novels published in 2020 “older.”

All right, what is one older SFF novel you think should be drawn to the attention of younger readers?

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