reading – Page 2 – Classics of Science Fiction

Posted on July 24, 2025November 3, 2025 by jameswharris · 2 Comments

SCIENCE FICTION: THE 100 BEST NOVELS by David Pringle

I’ve been reading science fiction for sixty-three years, and it’s getting difficult to find anything that feels new and different. However, my problem is more than just being old and jaded. I’ve discovered that I missed or ignored many kinds of science fiction books that didn’t appeal to me for one reason or another. Late in life, I’ve discovered that I need to read science fiction outside my comfort zone.

I recently took another look at David Pringle’s Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. Pringle, a Scottish critic and editor, selected one hundred science fiction novels published from 1949 until 1984 to recommend. I knew his list was a good one because I had already read over sixty of the books on it. I figured the ones I haven’t read should be equally good. I’ve read and reviewed two so far: The Inheritors by William Golding and The Inverted World by Christopher Priest.

Both of those novels were outstanding, but more importantly, they were different, with stories and writing techniques lying outside my usual tastes. I’ve now started No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop. It’s proving to be equally good and different.

I’m buddy reading these books with my old friend Mike. Having someone to discuss books with is important. So is reading slowly and taking notes. I’ve decided to read or reread all the books on Pringle’s list.

This project is also a way to reevaluate a lifetime of science fiction reading. I plan to review each title when I finish that book.

The list below of Pringle’s recommended SF novels was copied from Wikipedia. However, Pringle’s book is $1.99 on Amazon (Kindle edition), and the essays recommending each novel are well worth reading.

Most of these books are still in print, but not always. Some are in very cheap eBook editions. I wish all were available as audiobooks, but they are not. I consider that a kind of criticism. Any true classic should be in print as a hardback, paperback, eBook, and audiobook.

The title and author link take you back to Wikipedia for those entries. If I give a date, it’s the last date I read the book. If I put a number in parentheses, it’s the number of times I remember reading the book. If I don’t provide a date but include a number, it’s because I read it before 1983, when I started keeping my reading log. The Buy link will direct you to the least expensive edition on Amazon. It will also allow you to view the availability of different editions. Bolded titles are unread titles I hope to read before I start rereading the others.

By reading Pringle’s essay, the Wikipedia entry, and the content and comments on the Amazon page, it’s possible to judge how these books are remembered since Pringle created his list in 1985, and to decide if they are worth buying and reading. Many of these books are still discussed by book reviewers on YouTube. But many others are forgotten.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949) – 12/31/13 (2) – Buy
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart (1949) – 4/12/10 (3) – Buy
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950) – 1/9/15 (3) – Buy
The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein (1951) – 9/2/93) (3) – Buy
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (1951) – 6/3/12 – Buy
Limbo by Bernard Wolfe (1952) – Buy
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1953) – 2/8/18 (2) – Buy
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953) – 10/30/05 (2) – Buy
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke (1953) – 12/23/08 (3) – Buy
The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness (1953) – Buy
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore (1953) – (1) – Buy
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth (1953) – 11/26/08 (2) – Buy
Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak (1953) – Buy
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon (1953) – 3/13/09 (2) – Buy
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement (1954) – 12/24/15 (1) – Buy
A Mirror for Observers by Edgar Pangborn (1954) – 11/24/24 (2) – Buy
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov (1955) – Buy
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett (1955) – 10/7/13 (1) – Buy
The Inheritors by William Golding (1955) – 7/7/25 (1) – Buy
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (1956) – (1) – Buy
The Death of Grass by John Christopher (1956) – 3/10/20 (1) – Buy
The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke (1956) – (1) – Buy
The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein (1957) – 8/1/06 (5) – Buy
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (1957) – (1) – Buy
Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss (1958) – 2/21/15 (1) – Buy
A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1958) – 12/15/08 (2) – Buy
Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein (1958) – 4/30/17 (7) – Buy
Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick (1959) – 2/2/24 (2) – Buy
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (1959) – 8/21/11 (1) – Buy
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1959) – 9/8/11 (1) – Buy
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1959) – 5/7/9 (1) – Buy
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys (1960) – (2) – Buy
Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon (1960) – Buy
Hothouse by Brian Aldiss (1962) – 11/9/24 (2) – Buy
The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard (1962) – 12/4/16 (1) – Buy
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962) – (1) – Buy
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (1962) – 12/27/15 (3) – Buy
Journey Beyond Tomorrow by Robert Sheckley (1962) – Buy
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak (1963) – 10/7/08 (2) – Buy
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1963) – Buy
Greybeard by Brian Aldiss (1964) – 10/25/24 (1) – Buy
Nova Express by William S. Burroughs (1964) – Buy
Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick (1964) – 2/11/10 (3) – Buy
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick (1965) – 10/24/08 (2) – Buy
The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber (1965) – Buy
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith (1965) – Buy
Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick (1965) – 2/14/22 (2) – Buy
Dune by Frank Herbert (1965) – 4/11/09 (2) – Buy
The Crystal World by J. G. Ballard (1966) – 12/22/24 (1) – Buy
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison (1966) (1) – Buy
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1966) – (1) – Buy
The Dream Master by Roger Zelazny (1966) – (1) – Buy
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1968) – 1/29/16 (3) – Buy
Nova by Samuel R. Delany (1968) – 11/14/14 (2) – Buy
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1968) – 4/15/08 (4) – Buy
Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch (1968) – 3/10/25 (2) – Buy
The Final Programme by Michael Moorcock (1968) – Buy
Pavane by Keith Roberts (1968) – 4/3/16 (1) – Buy
Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter (1969) – Buy
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969) – (1) – Buy
The Palace of Eternity by Bob Shaw (1969) – Buy
Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad (1969) – (1) – Buy
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson (1970) – (1) – Buy
Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg (1970) – 8/26/17 (3) – Buy
The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker (1970) – 5/13/12 (1) – OOP
334 by Thomas M. Disch (1972) – Buy
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe (1972) – 6/25/18 (1) – Buy
The Dancers at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock (1972) – Buy
Crash by J. G. Ballard (1973) – Buy
Looking Backward, from the Year 2000 by Mack Reynolds (1973) – OOP
The Embedding by Ian Watson (1973) – Buy
Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas (1974) – Buy
The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison (1974) – Buy
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974) – (1) – Buy
Inverted World by Christopher Priest (1974) – 7/21/25 (1) – Buy
High Rise by J.G. Ballard (1975) – Buy
Galaxies by Barry N. Malzberg (1975) – 7/22/22 (1) – Buy
The Female Man by Joanna Russ (1975) – Buy
Orbitsville by Bob Shaw (1975) – Buy
The Alteration by Kingsley Amis (1976) – Buy
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (1976) – (1) – Buy
Man Plus by Frederik Pohl (1976) – 8/30/96 (1) – Buy
Michaelmas by Algis Budrys (1977) – Buy
The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley (1977) – 5/18/85 (1) – Buy
Miracle Visitors by Ian Watson (1978) – Buy
Engine Summer by John Crowley (1979) – Buy
On Wings of Song by Thomas M. Disch (1979) – Buy
The Walking Shadow by Brian Stableford (1979) – Buy
Juniper Time by Kate Wilhelm (1979) – OOP
Timescape by Gregory Benford (1980) – 12/22/14 (3) – Buy
The Dreaming Dragons by Damien Broderick (1980) – OOP
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (1980) – Buy
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (1980) – Buy
The Complete Roderick by John Sladek (1980) – Buy
The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe (1980) – Buy
The Unreasoning Mask by Philip José Farmer (1981) – Buy
Oath of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (1981) – Buy
No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop (1982) – Buy
The Birth of the People’s Republic of Antarctica by John Calvin Batchelor (1983) – Buy
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984) – 5/8/85 (1) – Buy

JWH

Posted on July 21, 2025July 21, 2025 by jameswharris · 10 Comments

THE INVERTED WORLD by Christopher Priest

Read The Inverted World by Christopher Priest is my first recommendation. My second recommendation is not to read anything about this novel before you read it. This well-designed novel is a science fiction mystery. It unwraps like the layers of an onion. To get the maximum joy out of reading The Inverted World, you should do all the problem-solving yourself. Don’t even read the blurbs to the book.

The Inverted World is recommended in Science Fiction: The Best 100 Novels by David Pringle, which is currently $1.99 for the Kindle edition at Amazon. I’m using Pringle’s recommendations for a buddy read with my friend Mike. The novel also won the British Science Fiction Award and was nominated for the Hugo Award. It’s currently available in print from New York Review Books Classics, a highly respected publisher of forgotten literary classics. You can purchase a Kindle or a paperback edition, but unfortunately, there is no audiobook edition.

I read The Inverted World on my iPhone, using the Kindle app with the text-to-speech feature turned on. No matter how hard I try, I read too fast. And even though the computer voice is not very good, it kept me reading slowly and deliberately. And that was very important in The Inverted World.

You know this story is different when the protagonist gives his age in miles. That’s about the only thing I will tell you about this story specifically. There are many mysteries in this novel. And I found them delicious to contemplate. If you need straightforward adventure stories, you should probably skip this one.

Priest creates a very different science-fictional reality. The story is tightly plotted. Priest obviously rewrote his draft many times to get his plot to work so well and to unfold so smoothly.

The Inverted World sometimes feels metaphoric or symbolic, and it is. But it’s also a unique kind of hard science fiction. The NYRB Classic edition includes an afterward by John Clute that explains the social and political climate of England in 1974 when the book was first published. That might make you think the book is about that. But the novel fits so perfectly with 2025 that you’ll realize it’s not really. It’s more universal.

The Inverted World is a philosophical novel. To get the most out of it, you need to think about this story, and if you can, you need to talk about this story with a friend. Mike and I had quite a conversation. Our society is undergoing paradigm shifts that disappoint and depress me. I’m amazed by this novel, which came out fifty-one years ago, speaks so directly to today.

I’m surprised this novel isn’t more famous among science fiction fans. This is the reason I’m reading my way through Pringle’s book. So far, he’s gotten me to read two outstanding forgotten classics that I haven’t read before. You can see his list of recommended novels on Wikipedia. (I recommend buying Pringle’s book. It’s only $1.99.) Before I started my project to read all the books recommended in Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 1949-1984, I had read 62 of the 100. I already knew it was a solid list of great science fiction books. Reading The Inheritors by William Golden and The Inverted World by Christopher Priest suggested I still had 38 great SF novels to blow my mind.

James Wallace Harris, 7/21/25

Posted on July 15, 2025 by jameswharris · 2 Comments

“Sooner or Later or Never Never” by Gary Jennings

What exactly is fantasy? “Sooner Or Later Or Never Never” by Gary Jennings has no magic, no fantastic creatures. Its setting is present-day Australia. The story is both comic and absurd. Yet, it’s based on a somewhat realistic premise. Yes, the characters and plot are made up, but so is most fiction. I can find no reason to call this a fantasy. I assume Edward L. Ferman published it in the May 1972 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction because he admired the creative prose — and he had the power to publish it.

Gary Jennings (1928-1999) is known for writing historical fiction, but also published many stories in F&SF. You can read the story online here.

“Sooner or Later or Never Never” is told as a letter to The Rev. Orville Dismey, Dean of Missionary Vocations, at the Southern Primitive Protestant Seminary in Grobian, Virginia. Crispin Mobey narrates his effort to bring Christ to the Anula tribe in the Australian outback. Mobey was inspired by a quote from The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer. The quote describes a ritual Frazer witnessed. Mobey wants to use that ritual to bring Christianity to a rather primitive tribe.

I’ve read “Sooner or Later or Never Never” before, but I’m not sure where and how. I don’t normally read this kind of fiction. However, the prose is quite entertaining. Normally, I dislike dialect, but Jennings captures outback Aussie hilariously. I wish I had an audiobook version.

There is no way I can describe this story, so I’m just going to give you two pages to read as a sample.

I know this is cheating, but I’m taking the easy way out. I’m posting this merely to encourage people to read this story. I read it today because my Facebook short story club is reading The Best Fantasy Stories from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Reading this 792-page anthology demonstrates the range of what people call fantasy.

I routinely tell people I dislike fantasy. But of the stories we’ve read in this anthology, the ones set in the present about ordinary people have been the most entertaining to read. And the ones that people consider traditional fantasy were no fun to read. I guess when I say I dislike fantasy, I dislike only a subset of the genre.

However, I also think Ferman is cheating to call “Sooner or Later or Never Never” fantasy. It could have been published in almost any kind of fiction magazine.

James Wallace Harris, 7/14/25

Posted on July 3, 2025July 3, 2025 by jameswharris · 3 Comments

“The Invasion of the Church of the Holy Ghost” by Russell Kirk

I’m an atheist who doesn’t normally enjoy reading fantasy fiction; however, I found “The Invasion of the Church of the Holy Ghost” by Russell Kirk, a religious ghost story, to be quite entertaining and well-written. The characters of Father Raymond Thomas Montrose and Fork Causland are so well developed that it’s hard not to like this story. Plus, the story is set in a seedy, rundown section of town filled with hustlers, prostitutes, and con men, has all the feel of a Damon Runyon tale.

You can read this story online.

I had no idea who Russell Kirk was, but after reading about him on Wikipedia, the philosophy behind the story made more sense. Kirk was a major conservative intellectual and a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Since I’m a liberal, this doesn’t endear me to him. Kirk was also a convert to Catholicism and enjoyed writing ghost stories.

Kirk’s significant spiritual, political, and philosophical background forces me to look deeper into “The Invasion of the Church of the Holy Ghost.” Kirk was a serious thinker. That makes it hard to dismiss the story as a silly, inconsequential ghost story.

Even while liking “The Invasion of the Church of the Holy Ghost” very much, it proposes ideas I find totally repugnant. Both Father Montrose and Fork Causland are possessed. Kirk suggests that when people do bad things, it’s because they are influenced by evil ghosts, and when they do good things, they are empowered by higher-order beings. He doesn’t specifically say angels, but that’s how I interpreted the story.

In old religious philosophy, good comes from God, and evil from Satan. If humans do good, it’s because of the influence of the divine, and if we do bad, it’s because of the devil working through us. At one point, the normally good Father Montrose starts thinking about raping a young woman. Kirk proposes that those thoughts come from being possessed by an evil spirit.

I don’t believe in free will, but I also refuse to believe that our thoughts and actions originate with ghosts or other metaphysical beings. I don’t know if Russel Kirk believes that either, but “The Invasions of the Church of the Holy Ghost” is based on such a religious foundation. This fantasy is a religious reality to some. On the other hand, it might just be Kirk’s way of scaring us.

However, if I ignore what this story is suggesting, it’s an exceptionally creative work. Russell Kirk does an amazing amount of world-building. When I like fantasy, it’s often because it’s set in our present-day world. For example, It’s a Wonderful Life or The Bishop’s Wife.

Yesterday, I was pondering the value of fiction and nonfiction. Writers of nonfiction strive to be as accurate as possible. We read nonfiction to understand reality. Fiction is elaborate lies, but sometimes fiction writers work to express a truth they perceive at a deep, personal level. Knowing the kind of person Russell Kirk was, I can’t help but believe that he might believe in ghosts and possession.

James Wallace Harris, 7/3/25

Posted on June 7, 2025June 7, 2025 by jameswharris

THE LAST ASTRONAUT by David Wellington

I don’t read many science fiction novels nowadays. I prefer SF short stories. I just don’t read as many books as I used to. However, after my friend Laurie told me about The Last Astronaut by David Wellington, I decided to give it a try. The Last Astronaut is the kind of science fiction thriller that Michael Crichton used to write — fast pace, lots of physical action, and basically fun. The Last Astronaut reminded me how entertaining reading a novel used to be. I wouldn’t call it great, but it does have that page-turning quality.

Now I do have some things to say about it, but what I have to say is full of spoilers. I recommend you go read the novel and then come back here, if you can remember. The Last Astronaut made me think about how science fiction novels change over the years, and how each generation retells old themes in new ways.

The Last Astronaut is about a Big Dumb Object. That’s the official name of a specific science fiction plot device. When I started reading The Last Astronaut, I immediately thought of Rendezvous with Rama. In 2020, The Last Astronaut was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Wikipedia even says, “Edward Guimont and Horace A. Smith propose that the origins of the Big Dumb Object trope can be found in H. P. Lovecraft’s novellas At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time, both of which feature human expeditions to immense ancient alien cities in remote parts of our world, and both of which were early influences upon Arthur C. Clarke.”

Funny that they mention H. P. Lovecraft. Because I also thought of Lovecraft while reading The Last Astronaut. Wellington’s novel features horror. Horror like the film Alien, but also horror like Lovecraft’s monstrous alien gods.

The setting, inside the vast alien spacecraft, is dark. Having a story set almost completely in darkness reminded me of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson.

I’m finally reminded of another story/movie, Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov, along with “Finisterra” by David Moles. This last reminder should give you one huge clue to what’s happening in The Last Astronaut. But I did warn you about spoilers.

My point in this essay is that science fiction is seldom original anymore. The Last Astronaut feels like David Wellington took several of his favorite science fiction themes and blended them into a new SF novel. It succeeds well. I had a lot of problems with the characters because I felt their psychological motivations were too contrived. However, Wellington does use those contrived motivations to wrap up his novel. The ending does make sense and is satisfying.

I was entertained by how Wellington told his story. Wellington places himself in the book as an author in the future, writing a historical novel, but a history that hasn’t happened yet. It’s amusing that one of his characters criticizes the future Wellington for getting his facts wrong. Since we know the story is based on history, there are clues as to who survives and who doesn’t. The audiobook is especially nice because they rig up the audio so that interviews of characters taken after events sound different.

In the 40s and 50s, science fiction writers aimed to create new ideas and themes, but their stories were told without sophistication. In the 60s and 70s, SF writers added literary techniques to their stories. In the 80s and 90s, SF writers upped the ante by going epic. Hyperion is a great example. In the 21st century, SF writers have had to constantly find new ways to tell stories that have already been told.

If you haven’t read old science fiction, new science fiction seems novel. If you have read old science fiction, new science fiction feels recycled. That’s not a bad thing, but it makes the stories feel baroque when you cram so many old ideas into one story. Wellington does streamline his novel, so it feels action-packed like old science fiction. In some ways, his storytelling is as speedy as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories or pulp fiction.

James Wallace Harris, 6/6/25

Posted on May 30, 2025May 30, 2025 by jameswharris · 8 Comments

How To Buy the Most Ray Bradbury Short Stories with the Fewest Purchases

Ray Bradbury published hundreds of short stories over and over again in various collections. Bradbury and his publishers often repackaged his stories into new collections or reprinted older collections with a slightly different lineup of stories. Ray Bradbury’s bibliography at ISFDB.org is so confusing that we’ve decided to select those collections that will provide the most stories by buying the fewest books.

Mike, the programmer for the Classics of Science Fiction website, coded several programs to find the right combinations of Bradbury collections that would give the widest selection of stories to read. The permutations turned out to be excessively large, so we simplified the procedure.

Our solution was to pick the collection that provided the most Bradbury stories. Then add a second collection that provides the most additional stories not in the first collection. Then add the third collection that contributes the next most additional stories, not in the previous two. And so on. Study the table, and the technique will become obvious.

Here are the twenty-five collections we used. We only used collections that are in print, either in hardback, paperback, e-book, or audiobook. Hyperlinks are to Amazon affiliate links.

1947 – Dark Carnival
1950 – The Martian Chronicles
1951 – The Illustrated Man
1955 – The October Country
1957 – Dandelion Wine
1965 – Vintage Bradbury
1976 – Long After Midnight
1980 – The Stories of Ray Bradbury
1983 – Dinosaur Tales
1988 – The Toynbee Convecter
1996 – Quicker Than the Eye
1997 – Driving Blind
1997 – The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories
1998 – A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
1998 – I Sing the Body Electric and Other Stories
2002 – One More for the Road
2003 – Bradbury Stories
2004 – The Cat’s Pajamas
2007 – Now and Forever
2009 – We’ll Always Have Paris
2010 – A Pleasure to Burn
2010 – Killer, Come Back to Me
2011 – The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury 1: 1938-1943
2014 – The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury 2: 1943-1944
2017 – The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury 3: 1944-1945

Here are Mike’s calculations.

James Wallace Harris, 3/30/25

Posted on May 25, 2025 by jameswharris · 5 Comments

“The Whole Town’s Sleeping” by Ray Bradbury

I have not been writing blogs or reading for a couple of weeks. I lost the habit of reading and writing because of a house guest, many visitors, and a more active social life. However, tonight I felt a wistful urge to read a short story. I chose “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” by Ray Bradbury. It was the first story in Ray Bradbury Stories. You can read a PDF copy online here. “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” is not science fiction or fantasy. And I wouldn’t call it horror, although its purpose is to scare. “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” was published in three magazines, McCall’s (1950), Argosy (1951), and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (1954), indicating its wide appeal. Finally, the story was incorporated into the fixup novel Dandelion Wine in 1957.

For me, “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” was pure nostalgia. It’s a story that made me think about memory and writing. Sure, Bradbury is trying to tell a scary story, like those he heard camping in the woods, but he’s also remembering his past.

Although the story came out in 1950, “The Whole Town’s Sleeping” is set much earlier, in the era of Bradbury’s youth, because Lavinia, Francine, and Helen go to the theater to see a Charlie Chaplin film. That unnamed film could have been Monsieur Verdoux from 1947, but the story’s mood makes me think it might be The Circus (1928) or City Lights (1931). Bradbury was born in 1920, the same year my father was born. I was born in 1951. It feels nostalgic to the small towns I lived in in the 1950s, but it would have been nostalgic to readers in 1950.

Many of Bradbury’s stories were inspired by his youth growing up in Waukegan, Illinois, which he later fictionalized as Green Town. I believe those little towns I lived in hadn’t changed much in twenty years. Back then, I remember walking with my friends to the theater and talking to people sitting on their porches, which made me identify with the story. I remember walking alone along deserted streets late at night like Lavenia and having the same fears as she did.

My past includes living in small towns where all the stores were set on the square or along Main Street, with all the connecting streets occupied by homes. I had a hard time visualizing the ravine that divides Green Town. Although I do remember living in a little town divided by a small lake. It had a tiny waterfall, which scared me at age nine.

There’s not much I want to say about “The Whole Town’s Sleeping,” because I want to talk about reading. Often in my life, I’ve substituted reading for living. There are times when life is uneventful, so reading is exciting. Life experiences are superior to reading, but idle times are great for reading.

However, there are times when life is full, and I wish I were idle reading. We have two worlds to live in, reality and fantasy. Ray Bradbury created a fantasy world for us to enjoy, and it’s fascinating to think about how and why he did that. On one hand, he’s given us a simple story built to scare us. We even know he’s doing it. Readers know the ending will shock them, but we didn’t know how Bradbury would pull it off. It’s the kind of story that we watched on the old TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. (It’s even reprinted in one of Hitchcock’s anthologies.)

But that’s only one level. Fiction usually works on multiple levels. Bradbury also works to describe the past, his past, in the kind of detail that will trigger memories in his readers. And there’s a level beyond that which Bradbury entertains us. It’s the writing.

I have had several intense experiences over the last two weeks. They will stay locked in my head because we seldom share intense experiences. If I were a writer, I would write a story about them. That story might even be read by readers who have had similar experiences.

Isn’t that what Ray Bradbury is doing? Do we read to learn about Bradbury’s experiences, or do we read to remember our own?

Often, we use fiction to escape from boredom. But doesn’t fiction work best when it triggers something inside us? When life is full, I shouldn’t crave reading, but I do. Why? Is reading an essential nutrient of the soul that causes us to fall ill if it goes lacking?

I wish I could fictionalize my experiences so I could understand them. Maybe because I don’t, I read other people’s efforts instead.

James Wallace Harris, 5/25/25

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by jameswharris · 11 Comments

What is the Shelf Life of Science Fiction?

My library constantly discards science fiction from its holdings. I know that because I see those books in the Friends of the Library book sale stamped DISCARD. Often, they are books I would consider SF blasts from the past. Evidently, if they aren’t checked out for a certain period, they get discarded. I used to believe libraries were supposed to preserve the past, but I don’t think that’s true anymore.

But that’s not my only clue that science fiction has a shelf life. At the used bookstore I visit every week I see the same old books week after week – no one is buying them. It’s the newer books that come and go so quickly.

For years now, I’ve been watching people review science fiction books on YouTube. I can sense that many authors and their books are falling out favor over time. A major example is Robert A. Heinlein. When I was growing up, he was considered the #1 science fiction author. He was my favorite SF writer. I still love his books published before 1960, but the ones after that haven’t aged well with me. Reviewers generally pan Heinlein nowadays. I often see critical comments about Heinlein on Facebook. He’s just not popular anymore. I see many of his books at the used bookstore, but only a couple at the new bookstore.

Whitney at the YouTube channel Secret Sauce of Storycraft has been reviewing old Hugo winning novels by decades. She didn’t like over half of the winners. Five of the ten (The Wanderer, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, This Immortal, and Lord of Light) have stopped working for me too.

If I gave the Hugo Award now for the 1960s, my list would be:

1960 – STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert A. Heinlein
1961 – ROGUE MOON by Algis Budrys ( for A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ)
1962 – STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert A. Heinlein
1963 – THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE by Philip K. Dick
1964 – THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH by Walter Tevis (for WAY STATION)
1965 – THE MARTIAN TIME-SLIP by Philip K. Dick (for THE WANDERER)
1966 – DUNE by Frank Herbert
1967 – FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON by Daniel Keyes (THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS)
1968 – no award
1969 – STAND ON ZANZIBAR by John Brunner

I thought there would be hundreds of science fiction books that would be Hugo worthy from the 1960s, but there weren’t. I used CSFquery.com and ISFDB.org to look at each year 1960-1969 and there just was’t that many older books that’s being read today that people still admire.

I love A Canticle for Leibowitz still, but it’s a fixup novel, and I mostly love it for the first story. And reviewers aren’t as wowed as they used to be for it. I kept Stranger on the list even though I no longer like it, because it’s so ambitious for the times, and historically, it is the standout novel of the year. I love Way Station, but I don’t think people still read it much. The Man Who Fell to Earth has grown in popularity since 1963. The Martian Time-Slip is way better than The Wanderer, and people still read it. I definitely think Flowers for Algernon has aged better than Mistress. I’d give No Award over Lord of Light, or any other novel I remember from 1967.

All the books on my list are in print, and all are available as audiobooks. That’s a good indicator that they are still being read.

I was shocked by how few science fiction books from the 1960s I still admire. Twelve years ago I wrote a series about the best SF books from each decade. Looking at my essay for the 1960s shows damn few books that people still read.

I remember back in the 1960s when old guys would gush about E. E. “Doc” Smith books from the 1920s and 1930s. I tried them, and they were horrible. I guess today’s young readers would feel the same about most of the books I loved back in the 1960s. Is anyone still reading Keith Laumer, John Boyd, Mack Reynolds, A. Bertram Chandler, etc.

Here is a list of 242 popular SF books from 1920-1990. How many do you think are still being read?

What are the best science fiction books from the 1960s that you still read and think young people should try?

You might like to read An Information History of the Hugo Awards by Jo Walton. This was first published at Tor.com and many of the comments from readers are included.

James Wallace Harris, 5/5/25

Posted on April 12, 2025 by jameswharris · 2 Comments

“All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury

I’ve been rereading Ray Bradbury short stories, and I’m amazed at how well they hold up even when the science is beyond dated. Ray Bradbury is quite cruel to us readers in “All Summer in a Day.” In fact, I had to stop reading when I knew where the story was going, I just didn’t want to go there. I waited a couple of days to finish this fifteen-minute story on audio.

At first the kids in “All Summer in a Day” reminded me of Charles Schultz’s Peanuts characters, but then it was obvious they associated with bad kids from stories by Charles Beaumont or Shirley Jackson.

Remember when Lou Grant told Mary Richards she had spunk? And then Lou said, “I hate spunk.” Well, “All Summer in a Day” has a punch in the gut, and I should say “I hate a punch in the gut,” but when it comes to short stories, a punch in the gut is a good thing. Isn’t that weird. Why do we admire a great punch in the gut from a short story? Why is it so satisfying?

“All Summer in a Day” is set on Venus where it rains continuously except for a two-hour window of clear weather and sunshine every seven years. In a classroom the kids are talking about the impending summer. One girl, Margot, was born on Earth and didn’t come to Venus until she was four. She could remember sunshine and tried to describe it to her classmates who didn’t remember the sun because they were born on Venus. They were just two the previous summer day. They didn’t believe Margot. They resented that she knew something special. So, just before the sun was to come out, they locked Margot in a closet. All the other kids got to see the sun, and it was everything and more that Margot had tried to describe to them.

The children completely forgot about Margot while they cavorted through their brief summer day. When the rain and clouds returned, they remembered Margot and let her out.

This is a simple story about how children are cruel to each other. It’s about being the nail that sticks up. It’s about knowing the undescribable. Does the setting on Venus really matter? It makes the story science fiction so Ray Bradbury can sell it to a science fiction magazine, but does it really matter to the story? Charles Schultz could have done such a story about how the Peanuts gang mistreated Charlie Brown, and may have many times, I just can’t cite a specific panel.

I’m in the process of rereading my favorite science fiction stories and trying to understand why they are my favorites. Writing ability accounts for some of the reasons, but triggered emotions count for many too. I wish I could say I understood every cog in this story, but I don’t. What I do recognize is Ray Bradbury has a set of skills to tell a story in a way that makes it stand out. Not only that, but his stories also endure.

As I reread this story I didn’t remember the details, but either I guessed or remembered what was going to happen to Margot. That’s why I stopped listening to it. But when I returned to the story, I kept thinking to myself: “How is Margot going to react?” I was surprised that Bradbury didn’t give us Margot’s reaction. He left that up to us. That’s another tool in his writing toolbox. Writers don’t have to tell us everything. Bradbury does tell us this about Margot:

Because I just finished reading a biography of Ray Bradbury I know he was an odd child that stood out to his classmates. He also like to write poetry. Bradbury doesn’t have to tell us that this story is for us loners and oddballs, the ones other kids considered weird. When I was growing up, I didn’t know anyone else who read science fiction. Science fiction was like the sun appearing on Venus to me. I tried to explain its appeal to other kids, but they just thought I was a zero. I didn’t make a science fiction reading friend until the tenth grade when I met James Joseph Andrew Connell, III. The experience of meeting another science fiction fan is why Among Others by Jo Walton won the Hugo, Nebula, and British Fantasy Award. Zenna Henderson made a whole writing career out of telling stories about oddballs.

Even in the 1940s Ray Bradbury knew that being labeled a science fiction writer would hurt his career. Bradbury authored stories for all kinds of markets and genres, but when he wrote science fiction, he knew he had to be different. Back in the 1950s he might have been the best-known science fiction writer in America, but many science fiction readers didn’t consider his work science fiction. Bradbury wanted to be a writer like Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemingway, or Thomas Wolfe, someone who was just called a writer.

The reason “All Summer in a Day” is good is because of the parts that aren’t science fiction. The reasons why some science fiction fans dismissed him was for the science fiction parts. The obvious lesson here for would-be science fiction writers, is don’t worry about the science fictional aspects but focus on the universal human appeal.

James Wallace Harris, 4/11/25

Posted on April 1, 2025 by jameswharris · 7 Comments

“The Rocket Man” by Ray Bradbury

Did science fiction brainwash us into wanting to go to space? I can remember being a little kid in the 1950s and thinking the most exciting thing I could do in life was to go Mars. Before that I wanted to be a cowboy. If you’re old enough to remember television in the 1950s, most of the shows were westerns. That’s why most little boys back then had Santa bring them a six-gun and cowboy outfit for Christmas. But then we discovered science fiction and Project Mercury, and we traded in our cowboy hat for a space helmet.

My most common daydreams in adolescence after the XXX kind, were about going to Mars. Fantasies about becoming a rockstar came in a distant third. Looking back, I realize how unrealistic my teenage hopes for the future were. I was completely clueless as to what girls wanted, couldn’t carry a tune, and I most definitely didn’t have the right stuff. At seventy-three I see the absurdity of my childhood fantasies, so why didn’t I see them then?

Ray Bradbury is often accused of not being a true science fiction writer. Even as he started selling short stories to science fiction magazines in the 1940s, he knew he didn’t want to be labeled a science fiction writer. Yet, somehow, his very unscientific science fiction from back then has the heart and soul of science fiction, especially his stories collected in The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man.

“The Rocket Man” first appeared in The Illustrated Man and Maclean’s in early 1951. It’s about a 14-year-old boy who cherishes the few days his father is home from space. The father is always going off for three-month tours of duty as a rocket man. He tells the boy and his mother that when he’s in space he can’t wait to get home, but when he’s home, he can’t wait to get back to space. “The Rocket Man” deglamarizes space travel. In fact, the dad eventually asks his son to promise to never go into space.

The main reason Bradbury’s science fiction stories are great is because he sees both the fantasy and reality of science fiction. Bradbury is obviously obsessed with remembering childhood, but somehow, he was wise when young too.

You can read “The Rocket Man” online here.

By the way, the essence of the story is captured wonderfully in Elton John’s song “Rocket Man.” My favorite version of that song is this bluegrass cover:

But the question I want to explore is why did we all want to go into space? What’s so hot about outer space, the Moon, Mars, etc.? Why did we buy into those dreams that science fiction was selling?

My fantasy was always Mars. But Mars is only a planet that a geologist could love. There ain’t nothing there but rocks and cold. Why did reading The Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein make me think the best place in existence was Mars? Why does rereading The Martian Chronicles elicit so much intense nostalgia? And why do I think “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” is the epitomy of Martian fantasies?

Over the decades I’ve come to realize that the fantasies we embrace as young children are ones we seldom give up. That’s why kids who embrace religion when little seldom give up God and Heaven no matter how convincing science and logic are at invaliding their faith. Some people never let go of their Christian fantasies, and I never gave up science fiction fantasies. We’re all delusional.

Brian Collins at Science Fiction & Fantasy Remembrance seemed depressed in his current post. His solution is to read old science fiction and fantasy. That’s been my solution too when I think about the state of the world and U.S. politics. Even as a kid, I never really believed I would go into space, but thinking about it was a wonderful way to soothe the stresses of growing up. And now reading science fiction is the balm for growing old.

James Wallace Harris, 4/1/25