This is a great video. So good to learn more about the Penguin issues of SF. I’ve started to pick up more of them, including that run of 3D covers. I find the livery, size and font so easy to read. There is a sense of minimalism in design which is attractive and I do enjoy the different colour schemes. Thank you for showing examples from your collection. For those interested, my video featuring a conversation with Stephen will be up Friday, November 1st.
Thanks for all this Richard. As for the 3D covers, those are Vintage in the UK (Vintage and Penguin are now linked due to the merger between Penguin and Random House a few years back). I have the feeling they are Penguin-credited in North America though, maybe?
GREAT VIDEO. SOLID. Pointing out old things to check for as well as current and newer releases in the same vein. So useful. Holding up that Lost World with tie-in photo cover. . . priceless! That takes me back to the Penguin office. It's not scientific, but most of the times we were told about; "here's the British edition of "X"" or "only penguin UK publishes "Y"" it was to show off a cooler cover or to create the "awww shucks" response that we were not publishing the same book in the US. I'm almost certain that "Lost World" wasn't published over here. Someone at the top of Penguin USA had a very powerful, perhaps monomaniacal, prejudice against the fantastical, or at least anything fantastical that could potentially be branded "low-brow." There was a line they developed right at the end of the 90s, that was basically admitting that these were Classics but not willing to call them penguin classics - I don't remember if they were "20th century Classics" or "American Classics" but suddenly you got books like an HP Lovecraft anthology and Tarzan. **Still** still not in the classic proper, but their transition was now scheduled. . . It was utterly daft when you consider some of the classic they chose to include from the 20th century at that time we're a little more than pedantic bestsellers. Yeah, but I still really like the idea of a movie tie-in cover to a movie that came out 80 years before the book. . .
Very informative thank you sir. I really enjoy the commentary about the authors and editorial and popular opinion of them in the time and the overall evolution of the genre. Any of us can read the works themselves (theoretically/eventually lol) but the commentary you provide we can't get anywhere else.
Thank you. Context is everything: knowledge of SF involves more than just reading the books themselves- you have to see them in their place and time, both in terms of their genre, wider literature and historical/technological progress.
"Cli-Fi" LOL! I have the same revulsion to the term, OB! Regardless, I come here to this Outlaw Bookseller channel seeking knowledge and am always enlightened. Thank you for your dedication Stephen, in my convalescence this year, I don't know what I would have done without your perspective here in this forum. I've read dozens of 60's, 70.s and 80's SF and SFF novels and short stories these past 4 months and I must say my taste has migrated from a preference for hard SF and slid naturally and almost unnoticed into SFF. I'd say I'm now about 75% SFF, and tend to get restless reading hard SF. Cheers!
Brian Aldiss was such an exceptional writer, not given enough critical attention. So I make up for it on my channel reviewing his work from an Hegelian perspective.
Great idea, I'll take a look. Aldiss was revered in serious SF circles, but on 'booktube' he's covered less than he should be. He was a great writer and a lovely, characterful man in person.
I've been a huge PMC fan for over forty years. In theory, they should all be Mint Green now, but there are still white spine ones left over from the previous livery which haven't sold out- this always happens whenever they change the livery.
It's great to know what is hiding inside those Penguin Modern Classics sometimes. I don't think Harry Harrison is in the US lineup. I didn't realize a bunch of them were print to order! I'm glad the modern Classics ones come out nicely. I got a Clark Ashton Smith Penguin classic that is clearly a print to order- a shiny cover that's rolling up on itself. . . FROM AMAZON, so I doubt it was a bait-and-switch seller. It's really unforgivable in some cases though.
10:58 - Monkey Planet and Planet of the Apes - Steve you ask , 'who know why?' Monkey and Ape is the same word in French - 'singe' [san-g'hu] as in the first part of tang-erine. Listening from my art studio in France.
Great video, as always! Before I collected SF I was into Japanese literature and in my collecting I got a Berkley Medallion paperback copy of Kobo Abe's "Inter Icer Age 4", with incredible (and weird) art by Machi Abe all the way through. It is one of my favorites!
Lem is one of my favorite writers. One of the things that sets him apart from other science fiction writers of his time (and even today) is that he seriously engages with questions of the philosophy of science. You see him addressing the nature of scientific theories in several of his novels, for example His Master's Voice (which is practically a long philosophical essay). And he doesn't even need to mention philosophers, the very way he articulates everything through fantastical devices makes that very clear. I would recommend him to anyone interested in real science.
This is pretty much what I said in my video on Lem, 'The Problem of Knowledge', referred to in this video and linked at the end. I cover 'HMV' in that video.
Another class video from the Outlaw Bookseller. Always insightful, helpful and eye-opening. I know quite a few of these books and yet it feels like I'm seeing them through fresh eyes.
Excellent video. As it happens, I've not long read Pavane and wrote it up on my blog. Beautiful book. Good to see The Purple Cloud get a shout out. A title I never see talked about anywhere - yours is probably the first time I've seen it on booktube. Probably ripe for a revival.
Yeah, 'The Purple Cloud' used to be on every genre fan's list. If you search Keith Roberts on my channel, you'll see a video where I visit locations from 'Pavane', 'The Chalk Giants' and some short stories. Thanks for your comment.
Always enjoy your videos, Steve. They always add to the BOLO spreadsheet I carry on my phone for used book stores. Now there's even a column to check if I need to look in the non-genre literary section as well.) I always try to pick up the Penguin editions when I can. I think No Blade of Grass could have received a better film adaptation, or even a mini-series. Cornel Wilde made some odd choices for the film. Reading the book as a teen really horrified me (as did Make Room! Make Room!). Ward Moore's "Greener Than You Think", where Bermuda Grass grows out of control and chokes off the earth would make an interesting double-read with Christopher's book. His Lot, & Lot's daughter has some resemblances to the family's plight in "No Blade of Grass",and was also filmed, as "Panic in the Year Zero", by and with Ray Milland. I did not know that the Penguin white covers were print on demand! They look nice, at least... I just picked up quite a few of the NYRB titles you previously discussed on sale, through their web site and Pango Books. I have a HC copy of The Hopkins Manuscript, with illustrations by Ray Bradbury's favorite illustrator, Joe Mugnaini. It's on the groaning "To Read" bookshelf right now. Along with Sorokin's Blue Lard. I hadn't heard "Cli-Fi" before - Eeek!
Yeah, the Moore is akin, agreed. 'Panic in the Year Zero', now there's a clunker of a movie! As for 'Cli Fi'- not a good term, only used by newbies who think SF started covering the environment yesterday....
Great content. Was impressed by Non Stop so Hothouse is my next read. That Boulle novel has got my interest as keen to read the original story. Thanks.
I think 'Non-Stop' is textbook SF- it contains all the elements: Novum, Paradigm Shifts, Cognitive Estrangement, two Conceptual Breakthroughs at the climax and it's wonderfully well written to book. 'Hothouse' is a joy too. I'd also rave about 'Greybeard' and 'Frankenstein Unbound'. Those are my Big 4 Brians!
Loved this video thanks. Often, when I watch your videos I feel like I am doing a course in SF lit, but probably the coolest one on the planet. I especially love these ones which are kind-of 'slipstream' SF ones. And as you very rightly say, good SF is always philosophical in nature - much contemporary/mainstream SF is about as philosophical as a ham sandwich.
Yeah, it's punchier: the novel is good, but it feels very 'bestsellery' at times. I used to work for Pan in the mid 80s and read SF for them to advise on bids- I told them to bid for 'Eon' and 'BM' and if they won, to issue 'Eon' first, as it was more 'sci fi commercial'. They lost the bid, Arrow got the books instead and did exactly what I'd said, thus establishing Bear here in the charts, which would not have happened so fast if they'd gone with 'BM' first.
@outlawbookselleroriginal Glad that you have this experience and knowledge. I was working a lot in the 55 degree computer server rooms of the 1980s. We wore coats all day.🤧 I read SF in there, too!
Just read The Ark Sakura for the first time last month. Really great read! I've been slowly making my way through Kobo Abe's novels. Always inventive, strange and an absolute delight.
Thanks for the tour and background lesson. Penguin's art and covers tend to catch my eye regularly. They clearly have a taste for the modern art covers and yet pay homage to the classic styles as well. Soylent Green / Make Room Make Room is relevant. The fake meat is patterned off human. Look it up. True SF horror
Penguin championed Modernist covers in the 1960s, when they put Surrealists and other Modernist genre paintings on book jackets, SF especially. Don't need to look it up, incidentally, know both by heart! Thank you for watching.
Hi Steve great stuff as always . I’ve been collecting / reading a lot of the penguin books shown here . I particularly enjoyed the lem books I’ve been reading just ordered fiasco . I have never read any William Burroughs I nearly picked up naked lunch last week but was not sure where to start with his work . I’ll check out your old video on him . Many thanks mate .
Don't read ANY Burroughs novels until you've read 'Junky' - almost everyone falters with 'Naked Lunch' because they don't have the addiction jargon and background that his first novel gives- it's also a brilliant book per se. Go with 'Lunch' after 'Junky', or maybe try the Trilogy before 'NL', again after 'Junky'. Watch my WSB vids for clarity. Thanks as ever for your support!
The Lovecrafts are still just about available I think, but as I said, you have to be quick sometimes- they did one printing of 'Heroes in the Wind' in PMC, a great collection of Robert E Howard's stories. It's scarce as hen's teeth now and in fine condition, forget it!
Great video Steve, thanks for putting that together. CUFA has been on my list to read for a while, now next on my list. By the way where were the amazing images from, a folio edition?
I assume you're referring to my 'Coming Up For Air' video, even though you're commenting here on my PMC SF vid- no, the images don't come from a Folio Edition (I don't think Folio ever did Orwell beyond the obvious famous books), they are AI art I generated. I only do this as my painting/drawing skills died when I stopped doing it at 17 and I have to compete in the marketplace ofRUclips, where imagery makes people take you more seriously in terms of views. I don't like AI art putting real artists out of work really though. If I ended up with 50k subscribers and a lot more views, I'd get a real artist on the job. Pleased you enjoyed the vid.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal You're right, sorry, wrong video, that's the problem with watching one video after another, bingeing you might say. Liked the images regardless, they did look v. professional btw.
haven't even watched this video yet and your comment caught my eye. that's a wonderful book in my estimation. stumbled on it in a secondhand bookshop decades ago. it travelled with me to Australia, lived there with me for years, then accompanied me to Japan 30+ years ago.... I have it still. goodness knows how many times I've read it. now I'll have to see what the man says about it... pleased to see it's recognized. hope you enjoy!!!!!!
Great video, thanks. Just thought I'd add it was Anne Dick, his third wife, who introduced him to the jewellery business. And wrote a fascinating book about Dick too.
Yet another thing about Dick I'd forgotten that I could have looked up in my own library. I have to admit I've steered clear of PKD's wives, thinking if he divorced them, that was good enough for me. Always meant to read Anne's book, though, but never got around to it, but I am way past the height of my PKD obsession now....
1) I'm still working my way through "classic" science fiction, modern and otherwise, so unfortunately I don't have much relevant to say about the books in this video, but. You might be the first person I've heard saying Margaret Atwood's sci fi/speculative fiction is overrated. Honestly it's a relief; I tried very hard to like her but she's always left me cold for reasons I cannot pinpoint. 2) So yeah. Adding these books to my TBR. V curious about Facial Justice, partly bc of what you mentioned about our current social predicament. I will call it "hyperfaciality" because I want to. I've fallen prey to it myself.
Atwood uses the term 'Speculative Fiction' because she looks down on Genre SF (the Science Fiction that comes from the magazine tradition). I don't use the term as all fiction is speculative and really, Speculative Fiction that doesn't speculate from a basis of the philosophy of Science (theory backed up by repeated proof-making experimentation) isn't Science Fiction, it's Fantasy, as it must then draw from the Supernatural (Magic, Religion, Superstition - the anchronistic) not the Natural (Science). Speculative Fiction is also a term used by 'literary' snobs who look down on Genre SF- yet they are happy to draw loads of ideas from it. Atwood seems to think that no-one from Genre SF is literary, not the case of course... She also draws her fame as an SF writer in a degree through ignorance: many people seem to think she wrote the 'first' Feminist Dystopia (I experience this all the time in my job, talking to readers who think this). She was far from the first of course, in fact she was a decade at least behind the important Modern wave of Feminist SF - Russ, Elgin, Piercy, Charnas - and many others. These writers are unknown to the mainstream, apart from Russ, who has been canonised by Library of America. Glad you enjoyed the video, do watch more here. Thanks!
glad to see that king penguin of Pavane I found that in a oxfam recently. Everytime I go to a secondhand bookshop often the best science Fiction is in the general Literature that's probably because i'm not enjoying the hard scifi stuff as much. I picked up The Glamour by Christopher Priest a great book but oh boy is there some tough parts to read through.
'The Glamour' is my favourite modern novel, as you'll hear if you watch my Priest videos on this channel- I've never found it hard to read, but the 'tough parts' you refer to may well be the deliberately ambiguous sections which are intentional and underpin the whole idea of the book- what is real and how can we be sure our perception of it is correct?
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Yes you are right about the ambigous parts I did understand the book and what it was going for. I guess that my mind space right now as i've recently been through a break up, that some of the parts and their relationship situation hit rather close to home. Overall though I really enjoyed the book and will look at the video because I would really love to read more by Christopher Priest.
@@OhaDollar I can understand that. You'll find two interviews with Chris here on the channel and he's mentioned here many times, especially in my New Wave videos- he was a friend for 35 years and his death early this year hit me quite hard, I can say.
There's an oddity with The Man Who Fell to Earth. Although it was written in 1963, the 70s paperback edition refers to Nixon and Watergate. I wonder who decided to update it?
No Blade of Grass is available on bluray, but don't expect it to be 'aired' or streamed anywhere as there is some controversy surrounding the uninvited fornication scene.
were SF books then released on a weekly basis like what we have today with the graphic comics? there must be a lot of SF books for publishers to release omnibus copies.
Put it this way: for many decades from the 1960s onwards, the following UK publishers issued 2-6 (on average) SFF books a month- Penguin, Pan, Mayflower/Panther/Granada/Grafton, Sphere, Methuen, Arrow/Legend, NEL/Coronet plus other smaller publishers and I'm referring exclusively to paperbacks here. Gollancz, Faber, Sidgwick/Macmillan, Dobson and other hardcover publishers issued SF on a monthly basis- every hardcover house that issued fiction had some SF. Some of the hardcover publishers dropped out early to mid 80s. Most of this was SF, with only around 10% being Fantasy. The Fantasy boom started in 1977, but didn't become a rival to SF until the mid 1980s. Now, there is very little Genre SF published in the UK- and much of it comes from Gollancz, Solaris, Titan and Angry Robot. Penguin only does reissues strictly speaking. SF is only about 10% of the total SFF output we see now from British publishers and the genre is on its knees. To get an idea of how much SF was issued from 1950-1990, look at Gollancz Gateway, which is their ebook publishing list- at one time virtually all of these books had at least one printing in hardcover and or paperback, many of them getting multiple reprints in pbk over decades, until the 1990s: at this point, Fantasy had taken over, the Space Opera renaissance had begun, so it was more of the same old 1930s thing but in contemporary style and most SF novels issued in that decade only had one run in paperback, as they failed to capture the imagination of a mass readership and because 'Star Wars' had dumbed down the expectations of young readers growing up. VHS, computer games and then DVD and the internet also turned readers away from books to screens.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal very insightful! the number of books is just mind-boggling. sometimes I just wonder how many of those books that have really really good stories remain unread because readers have a limit to the amount of time devoted to recreational reading.
Thank you, fascinating video, I have always wondered about some of these 'modern' classics. That is the same copy of Make Room, Make Room that I have. Strange book but I adore it. Regarding Facial Justice; Does that author have a short story, where people are forced to wear impediments if they are jusdged to be above average? There was this marvellous story that I read ages ago that I would love to re-read: There is a middle aged couple watching tv, the man is judged to be smarter than average so bells clang randomly in his head to destroy concentration. There is an escaped felon who has torn off his impediments and it ends in a dance of two people who have cast off their impediments - before they are shot down by police. A long shot, I know but does that ring any bells for anyone? (pun intended)
Well, Challenger is funny in himself, though the other stories are short and don't have time for secondary character development in the same way, so I'd say no. I think the interaction between the four focus characters of 'Lost' is unequalled in Doyle's work.
A large Russian chain of bookstores has 16 of books by Sorokin in stock right now, including The Blizzard and Day of Oprichnik. Some of the novels are in different editions. So much for the big evil totalitarian regime.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal, Sorokin likes to shock his readers (or at least used to in his early short stories). So the ultra conservative crowd can easily find the stuff in his books to be riled about (coprophilia, pedophilia etc.). But I doubt that Putin gives a damn about Sorokin. Probably he does not even know who Sorokin is.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal, Sorokin likes to shock his readers (or at least used to in his early works). So the ultra conservative crowd can easily find stuff in his books to be riled about (e.g. funny business with feces and underage people). But I doubt that Putin gives a damn about Sorokin or even know who he is. As to the dystopian stuff, we can look at how one has to tiptoe around certain themes and words so that his comments do not disappear on a certain popular video platform.
Hothouse is one of the most overrated SF books I've ever read. The writing is quite juvenile. Like 1960s YA. I cringed so much while reading it. Tried both versions too.
You think someone with that command of style and invention is juvenile? Yes, Gren is a young man in the book, maybe a child, but compare 'Hothouse' stylistically to other books of the era and it's a standout- did you consider that the characters behave childishly because the evolutionary course they've gone down doesn't favour the intellect? As the opening paragraph suggests - 'It was no longer a place for mind....'. If you read that para again, you'll see how strong Aldiss' writing is.
This is a great video. So good to learn more about the Penguin issues of SF. I’ve started to pick up more of them, including that run of 3D covers. I find the livery, size and font so easy to read. There is a sense of minimalism in design which is attractive and I do enjoy the different colour schemes. Thank you for showing examples from your collection. For those interested, my video featuring a conversation with Stephen will be up Friday, November 1st.
They are minimalist while not being sparse. The color schemes and styles are iconic
Thanks for all this Richard. As for the 3D covers, those are Vintage in the UK (Vintage and Penguin are now linked due to the merger between Penguin and Random House a few years back). I have the feeling they are Penguin-credited in North America though, maybe?
GREAT VIDEO.
SOLID.
Pointing out old things to check for as well as current and newer releases in the same vein. So useful.
Holding up that Lost World with tie-in photo cover. . . priceless! That takes me back to the Penguin office. It's not scientific, but most of the times we were told about; "here's the British edition of "X"" or "only penguin UK publishes "Y"" it was to show off a cooler cover or to create the "awww shucks" response that we were not publishing the same book in the US. I'm almost certain that "Lost World" wasn't published over here. Someone at the top of Penguin USA had a very powerful, perhaps monomaniacal, prejudice against the fantastical, or at least anything fantastical that could potentially be branded "low-brow."
There was a line they developed right at the end of the 90s, that was basically admitting that these were Classics but not willing to call them penguin classics - I don't remember if they were "20th century Classics" or "American Classics" but suddenly you got books like an HP Lovecraft anthology and Tarzan. **Still** still not in the classic proper, but their transition was now scheduled. . .
It was utterly daft when you consider some of the classic they chose to include from the 20th century at that time we're a little more than pedantic bestsellers.
Yeah, but I still really like the idea of a movie tie-in cover to a movie that came out 80 years before the book. . .
The Purple Cloud sounds really interesting!
Used to be very famous, ripe for rediscovery.
Very informative thank you sir. I really enjoy the commentary about the authors and editorial and popular opinion of them in the time and the overall evolution of the genre. Any of us can read the works themselves (theoretically/eventually lol) but the commentary you provide we can't get anywhere else.
Thank you. Context is everything: knowledge of SF involves more than just reading the books themselves- you have to see them in their place and time, both in terms of their genre, wider literature and historical/technological progress.
"Cli-Fi" LOL! I have the same revulsion to the term, OB! Regardless, I come here to this Outlaw Bookseller channel seeking knowledge and am always enlightened. Thank you for your dedication Stephen, in my convalescence this year, I don't know what I would have done without your perspective here in this forum. I've read dozens of 60's, 70.s and 80's SF and SFF novels and short stories these past 4 months and I must say my taste has migrated from a preference for hard SF and slid naturally and almost unnoticed into SFF. I'd say I'm now about 75% SFF, and tend to get restless reading hard SF. Cheers!
I'm glad to hear you're on the mend, Rick, I was missing your support here. Glad to hear you are still reading like mad!
Brian Aldiss was such an exceptional writer, not given enough critical attention. So I make up for it on my channel reviewing his work from an Hegelian perspective.
Great idea, I'll take a look. Aldiss was revered in serious SF circles, but on 'booktube' he's covered less than he should be. He was a great writer and a lovely, characterful man in person.
Love Penguin Modern Classics! Especially the mint greens..
I've been a huge PMC fan for over forty years. In theory, they should all be Mint Green now, but there are still white spine ones left over from the previous livery which haven't sold out- this always happens whenever they change the livery.
It's great to know what is hiding inside those Penguin Modern Classics sometimes. I don't think Harry Harrison is in the US lineup.
I didn't realize a bunch of them were print to order! I'm glad the modern Classics ones come out nicely. I got a Clark Ashton Smith Penguin classic that is clearly a print to order- a shiny cover that's rolling up on itself. . . FROM AMAZON, so I doubt it was a bait-and-switch seller. It's really unforgivable in some cases though.
Yes, the very shiny covers are POD- Gollancz Masterworks do this in the UK for bargain outlets, which really annoys me.
10:58 - Monkey Planet and Planet of the Apes - Steve you ask , 'who know why?'
Monkey and Ape is the same word in French - 'singe' [san-g'hu] as in the first part of tang-erine.
Listening from my art studio in France.
Yes, I thought that was the case, said as much to someone else here. Always great to hear from France, great country!
Great video, as always! Before I collected SF I was into Japanese literature and in my collecting I got a Berkley Medallion paperback copy of Kobo Abe's "Inter Icer Age 4", with incredible (and weird) art by Machi Abe all the way through. It is one of my favorites!
A very uncommon book full stop. I have a hardcover, one of only 2 copies I've seen in the flesh!
Lem is one of my favorite writers. One of the things that sets him apart from other science fiction writers of his time (and even today) is that he seriously engages with questions of the philosophy of science. You see him addressing the nature of scientific theories in several of his novels, for example His Master's Voice (which is practically a long philosophical essay). And he doesn't even need to mention philosophers, the very way he articulates everything through fantastical devices makes that very clear. I would recommend him to anyone interested in real science.
This is pretty much what I said in my video on Lem, 'The Problem of Knowledge', referred to in this video and linked at the end. I cover 'HMV' in that video.
Another class video from the Outlaw Bookseller. Always insightful, helpful and eye-opening. I know quite a few of these books and yet it feels like I'm seeing them through fresh eyes.
Thanks man!
Excellent video. As it happens, I've not long read Pavane and wrote it up on my blog. Beautiful book.
Good to see The Purple Cloud get a shout out. A title I never see talked about anywhere - yours is probably the first time I've seen it on booktube. Probably ripe for a revival.
Yeah, 'The Purple Cloud' used to be on every genre fan's list. If you search Keith Roberts on my channel, you'll see a video where I visit locations from 'Pavane', 'The Chalk Giants' and some short stories. Thanks for your comment.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal I have, of course, watched those vids. I think I've seen virtually everything in your back catalogue!
Always enjoy your videos, Steve. They always add to the BOLO spreadsheet I carry on my phone for used book stores. Now there's even a column to check if I need to look in the non-genre literary section as well.) I always try to pick up the Penguin editions when I can. I think No Blade of Grass could have received a better film adaptation, or even a mini-series. Cornel Wilde made some odd choices for the film. Reading the book as a teen really horrified me (as did Make Room! Make Room!). Ward Moore's "Greener Than You Think", where Bermuda Grass grows out of control and chokes off the earth would make an interesting double-read with Christopher's book. His Lot, & Lot's daughter has some resemblances to the family's plight in "No Blade of Grass",and was also filmed, as "Panic in the Year Zero", by and with Ray Milland.
I did not know that the Penguin white covers were print on demand! They look nice, at least...
I just picked up quite a few of the NYRB titles you previously discussed on sale, through their web site and Pango Books.
I have a HC copy of The Hopkins Manuscript, with illustrations by Ray Bradbury's favorite illustrator, Joe Mugnaini. It's on the groaning "To Read" bookshelf right now. Along with Sorokin's Blue Lard.
I hadn't heard "Cli-Fi" before - Eeek!
Yeah, the Moore is akin, agreed. 'Panic in the Year Zero', now there's a clunker of a movie! As for 'Cli Fi'- not a good term, only used by newbies who think SF started covering the environment yesterday....
Great content. Was impressed by Non Stop so Hothouse is my next read. That Boulle novel has got my interest as keen to read the original story. Thanks.
I think 'Non-Stop' is textbook SF- it contains all the elements: Novum, Paradigm Shifts, Cognitive Estrangement, two Conceptual Breakthroughs at the climax and it's wonderfully well written to book. 'Hothouse' is a joy too. I'd also rave about 'Greybeard' and 'Frankenstein Unbound'. Those are my Big 4 Brians!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Thanks for the advice. Happy reading.
Loved this video thanks. Often, when I watch your videos I feel like I am doing a course in SF lit, but probably the coolest one on the planet. I especially love these ones which are kind-of 'slipstream' SF ones. And as you very rightly say, good SF is always philosophical in nature - much contemporary/mainstream SF is about as philosophical as a ham sandwich.
Exactly: today's writers under 50 never seem to think about metaphor- they're actually using all the tropes but with nothing behind them...
Great video.
Thanks, do watch more of mine, I think you'll dig them.
I have felt the short version of "Blood Music" is more striking than the novelization, since reading them both.
Yeah, it's punchier: the novel is good, but it feels very 'bestsellery' at times. I used to work for Pan in the mid 80s and read SF for them to advise on bids- I told them to bid for 'Eon' and 'BM' and if they won, to issue 'Eon' first, as it was more 'sci fi commercial'. They lost the bid, Arrow got the books instead and did exactly what I'd said, thus establishing Bear here in the charts, which would not have happened so fast if they'd gone with 'BM' first.
@outlawbookselleroriginal Glad that you have this experience and knowledge. I was working a lot in the 55 degree computer server rooms of the 1980s. We wore coats all day.🤧 I read SF in there, too!
Just read The Ark Sakura for the first time last month. Really great read! I've been slowly making my way through Kobo Abe's novels. Always inventive, strange and an absolute delight.
Yeah, he's a one off!
Thanks for the tour and background lesson. Penguin's art and covers tend to catch my eye regularly. They clearly have a taste for the modern art covers and yet pay homage to the classic styles as well. Soylent Green / Make Room Make Room is relevant. The fake meat is patterned off human. Look it up. True SF horror
Penguin championed Modernist covers in the 1960s, when they put Surrealists and other Modernist genre paintings on book jackets, SF especially. Don't need to look it up, incidentally, know both by heart! Thank you for watching.
Hi Steve great stuff as always . I’ve been collecting / reading a lot of the penguin books shown here . I particularly enjoyed the lem books I’ve been reading just ordered fiasco . I have never read any William Burroughs I nearly picked up naked lunch last week but was not sure where to start with his work . I’ll check out your old video on him . Many thanks mate .
Don't read ANY Burroughs novels until you've read 'Junky' - almost everyone falters with 'Naked Lunch' because they don't have the addiction jargon and background that his first novel gives- it's also a brilliant book per se. Go with 'Lunch' after 'Junky', or maybe try the Trilogy before 'NL', again after 'Junky'. Watch my WSB vids for clarity. Thanks as ever for your support!
Those Burroughs covers look lovely. I have that cover of Hothouse. I also love Penguin's Call of Cthulhu
The Lovecrafts are still just about available I think, but as I said, you have to be quick sometimes- they did one printing of 'Heroes in the Wind' in PMC, a great collection of Robert E Howard's stories. It's scarce as hen's teeth now and in fine condition, forget it!
Great video Steve, thanks for putting that together. CUFA has been on my list to read for a while, now next on my list. By the way where were the amazing images from, a folio edition?
I assume you're referring to my 'Coming Up For Air' video, even though you're commenting here on my PMC SF vid- no, the images don't come from a Folio Edition (I don't think Folio ever did Orwell beyond the obvious famous books), they are AI art I generated. I only do this as my painting/drawing skills died when I stopped doing it at 17 and I have to compete in the marketplace ofRUclips, where imagery makes people take you more seriously in terms of views. I don't like AI art putting real artists out of work really though. If I ended up with 50k subscribers and a lot more views, I'd get a real artist on the job. Pleased you enjoyed the vid.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal You're right, sorry, wrong video, that's the problem with watching one video after another, bingeing you might say.
Liked the images regardless, they did look v. professional btw.
@@markgarratt151 Cheers :-)
I like your shirt.
Thanks!
Coincidentally I picked up a copy of that Death of Grass edition on Sunday. Been meaning to read it for ages. 👍
haven't even watched this video yet and your comment caught my eye. that's a wonderful book in my estimation. stumbled on it in a secondhand bookshop decades ago. it travelled with me to Australia, lived there with me for years, then accompanied me to Japan 30+ years ago.... I have it still. goodness knows how many times I've read it. now I'll have to see what the man says about it... pleased to see it's recognized. hope you enjoy!!!!!!
Please comment once you've watched the video, like to know what you think.
Tell you what, John, I forgot to include my millions of Penguin Wyndhams- maybe next time!
@@jiji1946 I am very partial to an end of the world tale, looking forward to it!
@outlawbookselleroriginal will do! I was at Bob's on Sunday (from whence TDoG came), it was a productive, but costly, trip!
Great video, thanks. Just thought I'd add it was Anne Dick, his third wife, who introduced him to the jewellery business. And wrote a fascinating book about Dick too.
Yet another thing about Dick I'd forgotten that I could have looked up in my own library. I have to admit I've steered clear of PKD's wives, thinking if he divorced them, that was good enough for me. Always meant to read Anne's book, though, but never got around to it, but I am way past the height of my PKD obsession now....
1) I'm still working my way through "classic" science fiction, modern and otherwise, so unfortunately I don't have much relevant to say about the books in this video, but. You might be the first person I've heard saying Margaret Atwood's sci fi/speculative fiction is overrated. Honestly it's a relief; I tried very hard to like her but she's always left me cold for reasons I cannot pinpoint.
2) So yeah. Adding these books to my TBR. V curious about Facial Justice, partly bc of what you mentioned about our current social predicament. I will call it "hyperfaciality" because I want to. I've fallen prey to it myself.
Atwood uses the term 'Speculative Fiction' because she looks down on Genre SF (the Science Fiction that comes from the magazine tradition). I don't use the term as all fiction is speculative and really, Speculative Fiction that doesn't speculate from a basis of the philosophy of Science (theory backed up by repeated proof-making experimentation) isn't Science Fiction, it's Fantasy, as it must then draw from the Supernatural (Magic, Religion, Superstition - the anchronistic) not the Natural (Science). Speculative Fiction is also a term used by 'literary' snobs who look down on Genre SF- yet they are happy to draw loads of ideas from it. Atwood seems to think that no-one from Genre SF is literary, not the case of course...
She also draws her fame as an SF writer in a degree through ignorance: many people seem to think she wrote the 'first' Feminist Dystopia (I experience this all the time in my job, talking to readers who think this). She was far from the first of course, in fact she was a decade at least behind the important Modern wave of Feminist SF - Russ, Elgin, Piercy, Charnas - and many others. These writers are unknown to the mainstream, apart from Russ, who has been canonised by Library of America.
Glad you enjoyed the video, do watch more here. Thanks!
Great news about Lem. Is The Futurological Congress in print? Been meaning to look that up..
Yes, the PMC is in print, I have a pile of it where I work.
There's a Polish film called Test Pilot Pirxa made in the 70s that I saw about ten years ago, although I can't recall where. A lot of fun, iirc.
Yeah, I saw that once- but I can't recall how either!
Och yeah, I agree. 28:00 There seems to be so much noise. I just want to get away, far away from the sounds of combustible engines.
I totally get ya.
Fiasco is utterly fantastic.
Agreed. It blew me away.
glad to see that king penguin of Pavane I found that in a oxfam recently. Everytime I go to a secondhand bookshop often the best science Fiction is in the general Literature that's probably because i'm not enjoying the hard scifi stuff as much. I picked up The Glamour by Christopher Priest a great book but oh boy is there some tough parts to read through.
'The Glamour' is my favourite modern novel, as you'll hear if you watch my Priest videos on this channel- I've never found it hard to read, but the 'tough parts' you refer to may well be the deliberately ambiguous sections which are intentional and underpin the whole idea of the book- what is real and how can we be sure our perception of it is correct?
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Yes you are right about the ambigous parts I did understand the book and what it was going for. I guess that my mind space right now as i've recently been through a break up, that some of the parts and their relationship situation hit rather close to home. Overall though I really enjoyed the book and will look at the video because I would really love to read more by Christopher Priest.
@@OhaDollar I can understand that. You'll find two interviews with Chris here on the channel and he's mentioned here many times, especially in my New Wave videos- he was a friend for 35 years and his death early this year hit me quite hard, I can say.
There's an oddity with The Man Who Fell to Earth. Although it was written in 1963, the 70s paperback edition refers to Nixon and Watergate. I wonder who decided to update it?
That's a good question. It sounds like more than an editorial decision, I bet Tevis revised it. I must look at my copy...
No Blade of Grass is available on bluray, but don't expect it to be 'aired' or streamed anywhere as there is some controversy surrounding the uninvited fornication scene.
I must get a copy, as it's been decades since I've seen it.
Which do you feel is better by Tevis, Man Who Fell to Earth or Mockingbird? Thanks.
'The Man Who Fell To Earth', no question about it.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Ok; thank you for responding.
were SF books then released on a weekly basis like what we have today with the graphic comics? there must be a lot of SF books for publishers to release omnibus copies.
Put it this way: for many decades from the 1960s onwards, the following UK publishers issued 2-6 (on average) SFF books a month- Penguin, Pan, Mayflower/Panther/Granada/Grafton, Sphere, Methuen, Arrow/Legend, NEL/Coronet plus other smaller publishers and I'm referring exclusively to paperbacks here. Gollancz, Faber, Sidgwick/Macmillan, Dobson and other hardcover publishers issued SF on a monthly basis- every hardcover house that issued fiction had some SF. Some of the hardcover publishers dropped out early to mid 80s. Most of this was SF, with only around 10% being Fantasy. The Fantasy boom started in 1977, but didn't become a rival to SF until the mid 1980s. Now, there is very little Genre SF published in the UK- and much of it comes from Gollancz, Solaris, Titan and Angry Robot. Penguin only does reissues strictly speaking. SF is only about 10% of the total SFF output we see now from British publishers and the genre is on its knees. To get an idea of how much SF was issued from 1950-1990, look at Gollancz Gateway, which is their ebook publishing list- at one time virtually all of these books had at least one printing in hardcover and or paperback, many of them getting multiple reprints in pbk over decades, until the 1990s: at this point, Fantasy had taken over, the Space Opera renaissance had begun, so it was more of the same old 1930s thing but in contemporary style and most SF novels issued in that decade only had one run in paperback, as they failed to capture the imagination of a mass readership and because 'Star Wars' had dumbed down the expectations of young readers growing up. VHS, computer games and then DVD and the internet also turned readers away from books to screens.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal very insightful! the number of books is just mind-boggling. sometimes I just wonder how many of those books that have really really good stories remain unread because readers have a limit to the amount of time devoted to recreational reading.
Every few years I get an inexplicable urge to reread The Futurological Congress. Lem out-Dicks Dick there.
I'd say that's a fair assessment.
Comment of the video: “Looks like he belongs in Popol Vuh”.
...not only that, but his work his far weirder!
In the final volume of "League," Moore continues to utilize the Blazing World. It's not pretty.
It's not pretty in Cavendish' book: she hated men and it shows...
Thank you, fascinating video, I have always wondered about some of these 'modern' classics.
That is the same copy of Make Room, Make Room that I have. Strange book but I adore it.
Regarding Facial Justice; Does that author have a short story, where people are forced to wear impediments if they are jusdged to be above average? There was this marvellous story that I read ages ago that I would love to re-read: There is a middle aged couple watching tv, the man is judged to be smarter than average so bells clang randomly in his head to destroy concentration. There is an escaped felon who has torn off his impediments and it ends in a dance of two people who have cast off their impediments - before they are shot down by police. A long shot, I know but does that ring any bells for anyone?
(pun intended)
Can't say I recognise it- I haven't read any Hartley shorts.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Ah well, it was worth a shot.
Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
@@stephenwalker2924 yeah, good point, that could well be it.
Are Doyle's other SF stories as funny as The Lost World?
Well, Challenger is funny in himself, though the other stories are short and don't have time for secondary character development in the same way, so I'd say no. I think the interaction between the four focus characters of 'Lost' is unequalled in Doyle's work.
A large Russian chain of bookstores has 16 of books by Sorokin in stock right now, including The Blizzard and Day of Oprichnik. Some of the novels are in different editions. So much for the big evil totalitarian regime.
Interesting!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal, Sorokin likes to shock his readers (or at least used to in his early short stories). So the ultra conservative crowd can easily find the stuff in his books to be riled about (coprophilia, pedophilia etc.). But I doubt that Putin gives a damn about Sorokin. Probably he does not even know who Sorokin is.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal, Sorokin likes to shock his readers (or at least used to in his early works). So the ultra conservative crowd can easily find stuff in his books to be riled about (e.g. funny business with feces and underage people). But I doubt that Putin gives a damn about Sorokin or even know who he is. As to the dystopian stuff, we can look at how one has to tiptoe around certain themes and words so that his comments do not disappear on a certain popular video platform.
So, Penguin in their "Penguin Modern Classics" believe that "literary public" is actually capable of comprehending good SciFi.
Yep.
Sorokin Opritschnik 2006 - Sowjet Union?
Yep.
Hothouse is one of the most overrated SF books I've ever read. The writing is quite juvenile. Like 1960s YA. I cringed so much while reading it. Tried both versions too.
Huh???
You think someone with that command of style and invention is juvenile? Yes, Gren is a young man in the book, maybe a child, but compare 'Hothouse' stylistically to other books of the era and it's a standout- did you consider that the characters behave childishly because the evolutionary course they've gone down doesn't favour the intellect? As the opening paragraph suggests - 'It was no longer a place for mind....'. If you read that para again, you'll see how strong Aldiss' writing is.
I know....
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Love that 'cringe' is deployed to criticize the book as 'juvenile'. How very teenage slang of the poster...