So a long while back (in internet terms) there was a kerfuffle about Older SF/F Fans recommending older books that they had read as kids…to kids, and not say people with a special interest in Old As Balls SF/F. This was generally held to be a Bad Idea as many of the really old books…did not age so well. Either because of depicted technology not going in the direction it did in the current era, or because of social and cultural differences that might make reading difficult or outright upsetting for a modern reader.
The various factors were: underlying sexism, underlying racism, and other issues that the modern reader would not be very tolerant of. The Old Fans were resentful of modern readers who didn’t like their favorites and preferred more recent books by more diverse authors. (Who logically would be bringing new and interesting ideas to the table, or reworking/deconstructing old ones.) The modern/younger readers thought that the Old Fans were being gatekeeping jerks! Things were heating up in the shared multiverse of All The Fandoms. Though I think the fires have died down between one thing and another.
Now, I consider myself a modern reader. I grew up reading a lot of early science fiction and fantasy, and then ended up moving on to more recent books over the years. I am therefore not tied to the idea that the “classic sf/f” were somehow perfect and beyond any reproach. In fact, kind of the opposite! There is a lot of “classic, Golden Age” stories that are kind of terrible, or which readers are likely to bounce off of for a variety of various “ist” reasons. (Sexist, racist, ableist.) Failing to acknowledge it, or brushing it to the side as unimportant is in my opinion, a huge mistake.
With all that said, I will attempt to rec older books that more recent generations or their kids might actually want to read. (Based mostly on what I liked when I was a kid, much like the Old Fans, only hopefully less defensive about it, with appropriate caveats/spoiler alerts. .)
Criteria:
Does it read well? (that is, how many cultural speed bumps is the reader going to be navigating. And yes, there is a huge difference between the culture of the forties as compared to the eighties, nineties and 2000s. Languages change! The “futuristic” talk sounds silly! People actually trying not to sound racist sound racist, and people who are definitely being racist sound even worse. Example: I have difficulties with H.P. Lovecraft because he is a) racist b) super boring. I’m sorry, he’s not scary, and doesn’t even inspire the “oh god that’s so horrible” vibe that I’ve gotten from some of Stephen King’s work.
Did it age well? This is an amplification of the first criteria. This is also a Thing that seemed to annoy the Older Fans the most. “Grandpa, I don’t want to read your racist books,” the Millenial says, staring at Farnham’s Freehold as if it were a pile of seething maggots. (I have been Told It’s Not Racist Really but uh. Wow. And by Wow I mean WTF. Farnham Freehold is a pile of seething maggots.)
Is it hard to find? Is the book still in print? Is there a reprint? Or will you have to search in vain through multiple used bookstores?
First: Andre Norton. Her writing style tended to be very convoluted with regard to her fantasy and science fiction. In addition, her fantasies had a very “I’m trying to make this sound really ancient and old! Look how old I’m making it sound!” sort of tone. But I’m recommending her works because she’s one of the few writers of the time writing sympathetic characters of color. (Though a lot of her other work tended toward the occasionally questionable and sometimes absolutely terrible writing decisions.) Her characters all tend to be younger characters who were unique or set apart from the rest, which causes conflict.
The book I’m suggesting for Andre Norton is:
Star Man’s Son (1952): Our Protagonist is a young man named Fors (I’m estimating about sixteen, though the covers often make him look way older.) who runs away to prove himself capable of becoming a ranger as his father was. As one does. The reason Our Protagonist feels he needs to run away to prove himself is because he is a mutant, and mutants are not treated very well, and end up with menial labor jobs if they are very lucky.
Pros: Fors makes friends with a black man, who has a position similar to the one Fors wants. This is an actual, equal friendship without even a hint of a master & servant vibe.(Which given the time it was written, might have otherwise have been a Thing. Other fun bits: everyone is very proud of him! Everyone wants him on Their Team! It even turns out that he most likely wasn’t going to end up doing menial labor for his entire life! (The conversation he has with the head for the Rangers seems to imply this to me.) Going forward, he is going to be Everyone’s Favorite Diplomat!
Cons: While Norton argues for Mutant Rights she immediately beefs it when she makes the Beast Things–extremely mutated cannibals that live in the ruins of ancient cities–into Actual Real Monsters. Which undermines the “let’s all get along” message.
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE will think that this book you’re reading is a sequel to the movie Star Man. And will get annoyed at you because you’re annoyed that you have to explain, for the umpteenmillionth time that it is not. Or at least, that’s what happened to me repeatedly when someone saw me reading this book.
Silliness: It took me years to realize that “Fors” is “Forrest” filtered through a couple hundred years of language shifting. For some reason I find this hilarious.
Does it read well?: Yes, despite some stiffness in the dialog. (Andre Norton was going for that stiff “weirdly formal neobarbarian” post-apocalyptic feel.)
Did it Age Well?: Also yes. I was able to read it again and I still liked it, anyway. There are no little surprises like suddenly realizing something you loved when you were ten might not be so great when you are fifty. This does not happen to me here.
Can you find it?: Baen has it doubled up with No Night Without Stars at a very affordable price! It may be a challenge to find any of its past editions in a used book store. I have not read No Night Without Stars so I can’t state whether it’s good or not, or any other particulars.
Second: L. Sprague de Camp I have not read many books by this author! I’m mostly familiar with this writer by reputation and from knowledge of what he wrote from reading *about* his works, rather than actually have read them. However, I’m pretty sure I might have read Rogue Queen as some point, and either The Compleat Enchanter or the Complete Compleat Enchanter, about which I have retained nothing. His general presentation of women characters wasn’t too bad from what I remember. Occasionally annoying because of the combination of strong women characters interposed with “women are mysterious creatures that are unfathomable to Man,” baloney.
Lest Darkness Fall (1941): Our Protagonist is Martin Padway, who somehow time travels to the year 535 AD, in the Eastern Roman Empire. (Also called Byzantium.) By profession he is an archaeologist, and once he accepts his current reality, he immediately sets out to make changes to prevent The Dark Ages from happening. (He also tries to make money for himself, as you do when you are homeless and a couple thousand years away from your hotel room or a bank. This has some similarities to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, only working with different themes.
Pros: L. Sprague de Camp writes interesting characters and puts them into interesting situations! Our Protagonist is a likable character. He’s intelligent and while he had plans to do well for himself, he is also doing his best to keep civilization in his part of the world from collapsing.
Cons: Mostly the fairly mild sexism. Also, a reader may or may not buy an archaeologist being able to successfully pull off the schemes he comes up with. (As con artists, go, at least he’s using them in the direction of “uplifting” the general population.) Like many older sf writers, my general reaction to their characterizations is, “yeah but that not how that works, dude.”
Silliness: Whenever I think about this book, I mostly remember Padway freaking out because one of his romantic interests had every intention of murdering the competition. There is also a comment IIRC about not even being interested that much in the lady, because romantic interest’s ethnicity “ran to fat as they got older.” F-you, bro, she can do better.
Does it Read Well?: Well, it’s still in print after all. De Camp had a very engaging reading style, form what I can remember. There was almost no info dumping, or at least, it was all framed within Padway’s stream of thought. (I actually think I need to re-read this.)
Did it Age Well?: I think that it did age well. The Protagonist is very engaging, and you end up rooting for his efforts to prevent the collapse of civilization. (As he sees it. Feelings will of course differ.) On the other hand, Padway is kind of a jerk in some ways, and I’m not sure how he’s scoring so many romantic interests. (Early nerd wish fulfillment?)
Is it Hard to Find: It is not hard to find, but a lot of the editions are in omnibus fashion, with either other writers or with de Camp’s other work. You might want to try hitting the used book stores for a copy. (Or thrift stores). I do not recommend buying it on Amazon in the dead tree version. They tend to be pretty expensive.
Third: Anne McCaffrey! When I was a kid I adored her Dragonriders of Pern series! Dragons? Very cool! The riders? Also very cool. The latent homophobia that you don’t pick up on because you are a kid? Not cool at all! (I had picked up from various other works that it was supposed to be “bad.” I did not understand how, but I did understand that it was imperative to not reveal that I didn’t understand how it was bad. (Most of my family= frothing homophobes.) But while I want to write meta of a few of her dragonrider novels. I am going to instead rec The Ship Who Sang.
The Ship Who Sang (1969): Our Protagonist is a young lady born with a number of severe disabilities that immediately qualify her to become a “brain,” a kind of cyborg that is completely sealed inside of a life support tank, and runs various kind of machinery. (With their brains, hence the name.) They work in partnership with a “Brawn,” a person who acts as an assistant for things a brain is not able to do. The story follows Our Protagonist from infancy to final independence as an adult. Helvah has various adventures, and becomes known as The Ship Who Sang, because music ends up being one of her hobbies.
Pros: This is one of Anne McCaffrey’s better non-dragonrider works in my opinion. (I have tended to bounce hard off of most of McCaffrey’s non-dragonrider work so YMMV.) Helvah is an engaging heroine, and the stories that make up the fixup novel each have interesting world building and plots that range from thrilling to thoughtful. (With some romance involved, because a lot of what McCaffrey wrote had a basis in romance tropes of the time.) It has an underlying theme of people with disabilities transcending their physical limitations, which is a very positive message. (I guess?)
Cons: I will be honest here. A lot of McCaffrey’s work is pro-eugenics, or at least makes the assumption that people in the future will carefully manage their gene pool. This is kind of creepy actually! A lot of the “transcending limitations” message falls flat, because a) it’s implied that disabled infants with low intelligence are usually euthanized, after being abandoned by their parents. I think half of my love of the character is very much based on little-me despising Helvah’s bio parents. b) The “brains” are essentially indentured slaves who have to pay off their support equipment. c) The oversight/child welfare inspectors that show up when Helvah is a child are treated with contempt by the narrative, even though they have the very important job of ensuring that these little kids buzzing around on wheels aren’t any more exploited than they already are.
Silliness: The brawn-selection process is basically a form of speed dating. McCaffrey was ahead of her time in a lot of surprising ways!
Does It Read Well: I would say yes, even with all of cons I just mentioned. Helvah is immediately a character you can sympathize with, and the stories are good, even with the “cons” of the work.
Did it Age Well: No. No it did not. There’s a lot of ableism in this attempt to not be ableist. It wasn’t quite as apparent when I was a little kid: I was blinded by a Protagonist who was wearing a spaceship, and did not notice such things. (I read it later in my twenties/thirties and was dismayed by all the stuff I hadn’t paid attention to as a kid.)
Is it Hard to Find: I would say no. It has had a few reprintings so you are more likely to find it in a used bookstore, or Amazon.
Fourth: Roger Zelazny! With Zelazny one of two things generally happen: I bounce off the book like a rubber ball on a trampoline, or I get dragged along for the ride. (Very rarely, it’s a little bit of both.) His stories go in all kind of strange places, and some of them are just absolutely surreal, with references to other works, or with sudden bursts of poetry. This is very much a plus!
I was going to go with Dilvish, the Damned (1982) Instead, I will go with This, Immortal (1965): This was originally Serialized as …And Call Me Conrad. Our Man About Town is a mysterious figure named Conrad Nomikos with an even more mysterious past. The setting is a future earth ravaged by nuclear war and mostly owned by blue aliens from Vega. He’s coerced into playing tour guide for a rich Vegan, and a collections of “tourists” several of whom have beef with Vega. Since the title gives it away: Our man’s big secret that he’s been hiding under various cover identities is that he’s functionally immortal.
Pros: The world building is excellent. This is possibly one of the very few books (written by a white dude in the 60s) who does not demonize Vodun. (As is often the case even with modern writers. Who either write it inaccurately or Make Stuff Up.)
Cons: Some problems with ableism, and redacted terms for certain forms of disabilities. (If I recall correctly)
Silliness: There are some humorous/sarcastic moments related to Conrad’s Mysterious Past. And Conrad makes jokes about being a “changeling.”
Does it Read Well?: I had some mixed feelings the last time I read it, due to the certain scenes related to the ableism previously mentioned.
Did it Age Well?: I would say moderately well. It’s not exactly “timeless,” but very few books are.
Is it Hard to Find: I would say somewhat hard to find. Zelazny books get snapped up pretty quickly when they end up on used bookstore shelves.
Fifth: Theodore Sturgeon. This is another writer whose writing I have an extremely ambivalent reaction to. I’ve liked some of his stories, and just as intensely disliked others. Some of the ones I’ve gone back to later I ended up actually liking. (Others I have not.) For me he is very much a “I kind of understand where you’re going, but wow, I would not have written that, in that way.” (This mostly comes up in any situation involving or related to sex.) On the other hand, he is responsible for my favorite “rule” of writing: “Ask the next question.”
More Than Human (1953): We start with a telepathic man who eventually self-identifies as Lone. Lone has limited cognitive abilities but is able to control others with telepathy. A series of chance encounters between Lone and other individuals eventually leads to a gestalt mind of five individuals with various psychic abilities–and some fairly extensive neurodivergent traits/disablities. There’s Gerry and Janie who are both telepaths, (if I recall correctly Janie also has telekinesis, but it’s been a while since the last time I read the book. Beanie and Bonnie, twins with the ability to teleport and Baby, who had Down Syndrome, but a mind like a computer.
Pros: So, despite some extremely dated terminology for various disabilities, I feel that More Than Human has some pretty great representation. Beanie and Bonnie are non-verbal, and black. Gerry may or may not be sociopathic. (I do not entirely agree. Low empathy yes. Ruthless, yes; but he is one part of five minds who are very used to living on the edge of society due to disability or race. Therefore, the gestalt as a group are a domino effect of FAFO.) I do not remember Junie’s exact neurodivergence, but she has one. Actually, most of the kids read as autistic to me now, for Reasons.
Cons: Sturgeon uses terminology that would have been used at the time as clinical diagnoses, or had not faded from use in media. (He refers to Baby as “Mongoloid.” Which is pretty freaking gross!) So that was pretty gross! I also have some slight problems with Beanie and Bonnie, who I think needed to have more development as characters.
Silliness: There is no More Than Human fanfic on Archvie of Our Own. This makes me sad.
Does it Read Well: I think it would potentially still read well, if you can mentally edit certain words for the current technical terms. This might or might not be too draining, depending.
Did it Age Well: Withing parameters of “this is a product of its time, but a surprisingly forward thinking product,” yes, I would say that it ages pretty well.
Is It Easy to Find: Yes! I was able to get an e-copy on Amazon.
These are my picks for Old Books That Could Potentially Be Recommended To Modern Readers. There are undoubtedly others. You’re welcome.
Leave a comment