The Forgotten Sci-Fi Masters Of The Golden Age

[@andreaslermen2008]

As a 50+ person, it's hard to imagine SF without those authors. Readers just have to keep in mind, that they were written with standards from another time.

[@kid5Media]

Very sad that Van Vogt has been forgotten. A superb short story writer as well.

[@mountainbiker8904]

Delightful channel!

[@WaskiSquirrel]

A.E. van Vogt is one of my all time favorites. He keeps me going back to used book stores. Of these, the only one I've never read is Murray Leinster. I don't know why, just haven't. Another good one is Clifford D. Simak.

[@KRhetor]

You can find Leinster in a lot of short story collections; "First Contact" and "A Logic Named Joe" are his best and most anthologized stories.

[@huaweimediapadt3726]

Funny, when I was a lad back in the 80's these authors were all over the bookshelves in the shops. Strange to think they have fallen by the wayside now. Thank you Darrel for another superb episode of Sci-Fi Odyssey.

[@maximilionsteiner2778]

EE Doc Smith weirdly much more famous in Japan than here!

[@MarianPowell]

H. Beam Piper is another one to be remembered. Think Space Viking.

[@daggered3665]

Very fun read and very quick too

[@palantir135]

Know them all and read many books by them. Great writers. I miss Jack Vance, Harry Harisson, Larry Niven (and Pournelle), Robert Heinlein, Fritz Leiber, Keith Laumer, Arthur C Clarke. I don’t know if his books are ever translated into English but dutch writer Wim Gijsen is very worthwhile. And dutch writer Peter Schaap; Wolver series.

[@daxbashir6232]

Not L.Ron Hubbard? :D

[@palantir135]

@@daxbashir6232 😬 no, he founded something terrible called scientology.

[@beauthestdane]

Long been a fan of all of them. I started reading them in the early 70s from my dad's collection.

[@mateosimon4237]

One of the greats thats usually forgotten is John Wyndham

[@mikemason9727]

I started reading science fiction in the 70's so all these writers are well known to me. James Blish was my favourite author. I recommend "... And All the Stars a Stage", "Jack of Eagles", and "The Seedling Stars" as well as "Cities in Flight", which is a series of 4 novels. AE van Vogt was truly prolific. I think"The Voyage of the Space Beagle" is his most memorable work, but there's a lot to choose from, including "The War against the Rull", "The Weapon Shops of Isher","The Silkie" and many more. I loved EE "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series, but Skylark was a bit weak. I've not read much by the other two, but "Man Plus" is brilliant, and undoubtedly the inspiration of the film "The Titan"

[@joeturner8184]

Man Plus should really be considered on of the primary entries into a subgenre exploring technological modification of humans and the borders of human identity. It's really a whole subgenre of Sci Fi. Poe wrote one of the earlier entries in his "The Used Up Man", and Baum's Oz touches the idea with twisted lightheartedness in the Tin Woodsman. The major cyberpunk authors Gibson and Richard Morgan carried it as a central theme. "Broke Down Engine" by Goulart was a direct follow on or rebuttal to "Man Plus" but even classic blockbusters like RoboCop or it's reverse "Terminator 2” arrange themselves into the same theme.

[@plambdin]

I very much appreciate discussing some authors who get lost because of social media habits and poorly stocked book stores!

[@simonwatkins999]

Loved the Galactic patrol books.

[@barryvercueil2346]

YOU BA$TARD!!!!! YOU HAVE DOUBLED MY READ LIST!!!! Loved the video! Cheers

[@IRosamelia]

I'm just here for the lulz 😂

[@discobolos4227]

LOL!!!

[@daxbashir6232]

😀 😆 🤣

[@joebrooks4448]

I have been reading SF since 1963, these authors are who I grew up reading! Great video, great authors! While Pohl and Lester Del Rey edited Worlds of If Magazine, great SF was being published. Pohl and Kornbluth produced really good SF, individually, too. The Futurians were wildly optimistic about Communism. WW II and the resulting revelations about The Soviet Union's mass crimes caused a lot of them to move on, and a big debate in the SF world at the time. James Blish has a large catalog of excellent short stories, too. "Tomb Tapper", "Beep" (a first), "Common Time", "A Work of Art", and "The Box", are just a few. Smith is really influential. I read the first one or two from each series. Murray Leinster! A very reliable and dependable pro, with a huge catalog of great SF. A. E. van Vogt. From 1939's kickoff off of The Golden Age with "Black Destroyer", then "Far Centaurus", "Not The First", and many more short stories, he did a lot for SF. With the novels, "The Voyage of The Space Beagle", and "Mission To The Stars", he laid the foundations for "Forbidden Planet", "Star Trek", and "Alien" - which is basically "Black Destroyer" and "Discord In Scarlet" mixed, and more. van Vogt's "The Weapon Shops of Isher" likely influenced "Animal Farm". His "The World of Null - A" influence on "Nineteen Eighty - Four" is quite noticeable, as well. He includes very strong female characters in "Mission To The Stars" (also known as "The Mixed Men") - many, many SF concepts, "Slan" - mutants, "The World of Null - A" - sane philosophy/importance of history/preservation of word meanings, and "The Weapon Shops of Isher" - multiple philosophical/practical/pragmatic concepts. van Vogt preferred to demonstrate his ideas, thru the actions of his characters while also discussing the concepts, briefly. Gosseyn, pronounced Go Sane, dies repeatedly in "Null - A". Awakening in a new body, he recalls everything, each time. Demonstrating the reason for studying and learning from history, for each new generation. van Vogt's style influenced a bunch of authors, you may like Keith Laumer's short stories, novels and Retief series, if you like van Vogt. The "Prospero's Isle" website contains most of van Vogt's catalog, with reviews, analysis and a lot of the original publications, with the original illustrations. A great resource.

[@joebrooks4448]

Kornbluth's "The Cosmic Expense Account" is available online. One of the funniest and profound SF short stories ever!

[@subraxas]

Hello, Darrel! I already posted at least two comments containing suggestions over a month ago on your "Video Content Poll", but here are a few more: 1. Top 10 Best Sci-fi Novels That Weren't Even Nominated for the Hugo Award 2. Top 10 Best Sci-fi Novels of the Last 15 Years 3. Top 10 Best Sci-fi Authors Who Emerged During the Last 20 Years 4. Top 10 Best Sci-fi Novels from Foreign-language Authors (1 book per an author) ......

[@discobolos4227]

In a regard of #4, I bet that works of Cixin, Lem and Kalfar would likely be included.

[@subraxas]

@@discobolos4227 Yep! 🙂

[@JoeNicolosi-l8i]

Superb! Based on many BookTube videos I've seen, the younger generations of sci-fi lovers seem to be focused almost entirely on newer books and authors. There's nothing wrong with the new, but some are missing out on the old but great. When reading these books, it's important to remember the eras in which they were written. Having said that, it's a wonder how prescient many of them were.

[@kid5Media]

Most of them are just ignorant.

[@maximilionsteiner2778]

Young people only read Wheel of Time and/or Sanderson, very rare to have a conversation with anyone whos read anything credible like Wolfe or Moorecock. (I suspect they dont read either, just audiobook)

[@davidcashin1894]

Good choices

[@yw1971]

9:31 - Van Vogt even sued the 'Alien' producers & got compensations

[@joebrooks4448]

@@yw1971 About $50K, as I recall? Settled out of court, I think.

[@SolomonAD]

Thanks for this list! Several of them stood out by especially Null-A definitely gonna check that out.

[@mikemason9727]

I didn't like the Null-A books, but then I was about 15 when I read them, so maybe didn't get them. Maybe I'll give them a re-read.

[@DevonExplorer]

Ah, my favourite era, along with the New Wave and the 80s, including the fabulous Phil Dick, of course. Gateway is one of my favourite books. It's such a good premise and story, and Murray Leinster wrote excellent short stories. Great selection, Daryll, and difficult to make as there were loads of brilliant writers then. :)

[@goldenghostinc]

Borne in the 80s but I love the writers of this time frame. No boundaries and everything goes. I also love the more scientific / realistic SF, but sometimes you just want something a bit less serious. I have a few Pohl and quite a bit of both Vogt. Last weekend I went to a big out door bookmarket. Lots a different sellers, and I love to browse through all the bins of old SF. Picked up some interesting sounding books from writers I had not heard of before like Andre Norton and Philip José Farmer.

[@jasperdoornbos8989]

I read ‘First contact’ when I was a child and was hooked immediately. By the way, Peter Cawdron wrote many ‘first contact’ stories. I can recommend them.

[@hakonsoreide]

First contact stories are fascinating, though I think Stanisław Lem probably made the most realistic ones in Solaris and His Master's Voice, and in other stories I've yet to read, where first contacts lead to no verifiably successful communication whatsoever: language only gets meaning in context, but context gets meaning from culture, and since we have practically no way of understanding the culture of an alien intelligence, we have no way of truly understanding a piece of communication. Whenever what we think might be a deliberate message has in it a pattern we are able to assign meaning to, we cannot know if that is the meaning that was intended. Very interesting stuff.

[@icedriver2207]

Cities in Flight has always been one of my favorite story arcs.

[@WordsinTime]

I have read Pohl and Van Vogt, and Blish is high on my TBR. I need to make time for Smith and Leinster too.

[@Kim_Miller]

Authors on here that I read as a teen back in the 1960s. It's good to see their names pop up. One thing to add about older books is that many of them are out of copyright and available for download from places like The Gutenberg Project and Baen Free Library etc.

[@waverlyking6045]

CM Kornbluth, whom you mentioned as The Space Merchants’ co-author, is also someone whose solo material is worth reading if you can find and afford it. I lucked into a reasonably priced copy of His Share of Glory.

[@pattheplanter]

I only clicked on this video to check Kornbluth was mentioned. Well ahead of his time. The Syndic was my introduction from a second-hand shelf in an old bookshop.

[@bizzydizzy]

A E van Vogt is an odd one: I’ve read Quest for the Future many times and think it brilliant. He himself almost dismissed it as “one of his mash-ups”! Your other suggestions are great too.

[@KakashiHatake-ou7mp]

I always end up finding new books when I come to this channel. Wonderful place to spend time!

[@ronfisher5259]

I fell in love with each of these writers from late grade school thru four years in the Navy and still read SiFi at 75. And your reviews are terrific, bringing back memories that had faded but still lived.

[@telltalebooks]

Excellent video! Good to see others talking about the classic authors.

[@DavidGreen_au]

When I heard the video title, I wondered how many authors would cross my favourites list. 3 out of 5 wasn't too bad. I'm a big fan of "Doc" Smith and Van Vogt. Lensman, Skylark, and d'Alembert are amongst my repeat read books, although the latter I discovered was Golden using Smith's concept. My favourite of Van Vogt was "Destination Universe", which was a collection of short stories which I read more times than I can remember. I'd heard of Pohl, of course, but never read. I guess I'll have to rectify that.

[@IRosamelia]

My geek-o-meter just exploded 😂 Just kidding dude, sci fi is cool. 😊

[@peterschaffter826]

Not that they belong in the "not enough love" category, but I have noticed the absence of Varley, Delaney, and Zelazny from SciFi Odyssey, which I find odd. This was a blast from the past video and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Before I started watching, I tried to guess the five authors. I got four right. No wonder I love this channel.

[@soniciris]

Shoutout to my boy Theodore Sturgeon, doesn't get enough respect...probably because he mostly wrote short stories.

[@pattheplanter]

Remembered best for his Law and two iconic Star Trek stories, one of which is probably responsible for The Premise.

[@kufujitsu]

Yep, Sturgeon wrote many really good short stories. Some that come to mind are The Other Celia, It, Some of your Blood, Bianca's Hands, & Microscopic God, which may have influenced George R R Martin's Sandkings.

[@soniciris]

@@kufujitsu Bianca's Hands fucked me UP. all the stories in 'E Pluribus Unicorn' are fantastic actually. 'A Way of Thinking' also messed me up forever, and 'A Saucer of Loneliness'

[@craxanshards3139]

Was about to make a similar comment. Been one of my favs for a long time.

[@ReneBarendse-kn7sy]

Absolutely! Like young is my favorite story.

[@barmherzigsein3259]

Magnificent. Thank You! Salomè (Live Well and in Peace)! Mögest Du in das Licht, der Wahrheit, und dem SEIN der Schöpfung leben.

[@jaysonraphaelmurdock8812]

One of my favorite sci-fi authors is Jack L. Chalker and he really doesn't get the attention and respect he deserves.

[@darthdrezz9237]

i have read stuff from all these guys except Murray Leinster. must change that...

[@jamesclark7448]

Cheers for the recommendations. Surprised there was no Vernor Vinge, I love his works.

[@rogercroft3218]

Another author in this vein is Poul Anderson.

[@jerryfiore5818]

Great video! This easily could've been 3x's as long, though!

[@IRosamelia]

I had no clue about any of them 😮 Gateway and Man Plus both seem like the type of books I'd like. Van Vogt sounded totally new until you mentioned Slan! I know what that is! It's about a guy who is from a minority who are telepaths and who is persecuted by humans who killed his parents so slans have to move out from the planet into outer space no???? I remember Michio Kaku mentioning that on his book Physics of the Impossible, discussing class 1 inventions that could happen between decades to centuries from now irl. I may have read a bit of Blish given I liked quite a few Star Trek books a long time ago. Beam me up Darrell!

[@robertdurm2626]

The Expanse series is directly inspired with a darker twist of Pohl's Heechee Saga starting with Gateway. Humanity finds a Heechee spaceship on Venus. An astronaut accidentally pressed the wrong button and is zapped out faster than light to the Gateway station floating in an asteroid in our solar system filled with thousands of abandoned Heechee spaceships. The stories revolve around volunteers who board the ships with four outcomes - 1) they never return; 2) their dead body returns, 3) the journey is a failure, and 4) they come back as the next Elon Musk. If you like the Expanse, you will enjoy the Heechee Saga.😀😀

[@IRosamelia]

@@robertdurm2626 thanks for the recommendation Robert, I might have to check out The Expanse. I dislike gore, which keeps me away from most tv series nowadays whether they're good or not, unfortunately.

[@jasperdoornbos8989]

Ok, another comment from me. Last week I read Gateway because of your recommendation and I loved it! Thank you very much. Like I said earlier, book publishers should pay you. I followed up on many of your recommendations. Kind regards, Jasper

[@pehpa]

Please more such videos presentings authors. ❤

[@ljames357]

i'm sure there are lots of people that feel you left some out. But probably you didn't want to do an hours long video. i admit during your descriptions i thought about Alfred Bester as a good addition to the list. The ones you picked are great!

[@vilstef6988]

It's heartbreaking that the main thing most younger reader readers know Blish for is the Star Trek short stories.

[@discobolos4227]

Thank you for this!

[@erikramaekers63]

Robert Sheckley

[@iwuvu5940]

You have such a pleasant voice. I can fall asleep listening to you

[@keefer-k8266]

Great video. I would also recommend James Blish's "The Seedling Stars" especially the chapter/story, Surface Tension and Hal Clement's "Mission of Gravity,"

[@SonofSethoitae]

If you're going to start reading E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series, don't start with Triplanetary. Start with Galactic Patrol; it's a much better entry point.

[@rskeyesful]

I never read Murry Leinster but I have all those others in a box under my Champ in the garage.

[@lorensims4846]

These are great science fiction authors, though I mostly familiar go James Blish from his novelizations of Star Trek.

[@discobolos4227]

If I'm not mistaken, he passed away in 1975, so what did he novelize? TOS and/or TAS? And if so, then what exactly? I'd bet that there was no time to do all episodes. Or was it rather any kind of a composite work?

[@lorensims4846]

@@discobolos4227 The novelizations were collections of about half a dozen episodes each. I had most of the TOS books, but I'm pretty sure there were also TAS books at the time as well, since that's all the Star Trek we had back then.

[@mikemason9727]

TAS, by which I assume you mean the animated series, were novelized by Alan Dean Foster.

[@discobolos4227]

@@lorensims4846 👍

[@r0kus]

A really good list of worthy SF authors. While I'm not the biggest fan of E.E. "Doc" Smith, I recognize his early contribution to, perhaps the founding of, the space opera genre. He is definitely worth knowing about. I can think of two other authors of similar stature and talent. The first is Robert Sheckley. His novels are perhaps not as well known as the others, but his numerous short stories were often brilliant. He was known for wry endings and an in-your-face yet somehow understated satiric bent. The other is Alfred Bester. His novels _The Demolished Man_ and _The Stars My Destination_ (originally _Tiger! Tiger!_ ) stand firmly in the same league as all the others you mentioned.

[@jasperdoornbos8989]

I tried to download ‘Gateway’ (like I often follow up on your suggestions) only to learn that it will be published in 2035. If I want to make a reservation (pre order) 😂😂😂. Something very wrong with Amazon.

[@discobolos4227]

LOL!!!

[@meesalikeu]

a.e. van vogt, not e.a. van vogt 😂 but all good choices here 🎉

[@Larry660]

One of my favorite lines from the Lensman series is when the lead character is asking his girlfriend to take on a mission that needs to be done by a woman (and I may have a few words out of place, since it's been a decade or more since I read it). He cautions her, "I want you to be as careful as I would be." She responds, "I could be ever so much more careful than that and still be pretty reckless."

[@david124cherrington5]

Leinster was also a inventor. Jenks projection system.

[@subraxas]

...... 5. Top 10 Sci-fi Video Games with the Best Story 6. Top 10 Best Sci-fi Graphic Novels/Comics Series 7. Top 5 Best Star Trek Novels 8. Top 5 Most Idiotic Sci-fi Novels I've Ever Read 😀 9. Top 5 Best Sci-fi Themed Colouring Books of All Time 😀

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

Amazing suggestions!!! Thanks!!🙏

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

Thanks! I’m playing a great Star Trek video game atm and the story is pretty cool so far!

[@subraxas]

@@Sci-FiOdyssey ❤

[@subraxas]

@@Sci-FiOdyssey Well, "a great ST video game"? Hmm.... , there aren't that many. It could be either 'Star Trek: Starfleet Command III' or one of the two 'Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force' games. Otherwise, some Trekkies usually tend to joke around that the best Star Trek video game series of all time is 'Mass Effect'. 🙂

[@jasperdoornbos8989]

Top 5 ‘Alien artefact’ stories. (Great dumb objects)

[@Emdee5632]

Of these writers I've never read Smith. Of the others, I've read about a moderate bookshelf. It's not really that these writers have been forgotten, but in the decaded after them - the recent past and the present - new writers have appeared. Si fi works of the 20th century are competing with more recent novels and stories. Another aspect: certain types of sci fi age better than other types. Space opera hasn't changed much over the decades. But if you describe, say, the first human colonies on Mars before the year 2000 and they discover primitive yet intelligent life there, then it takes a lot more suspension of disbelief than it did 60 or 70 years ago. Or Venus where you walk around without a special suit, just a breathing apparatus. Anyway if the rest of the storytelling is good, I don't mind the anachronisms or wrong facts.

[@rondemkiw4492]

Goddard's ALPHAVILLE and AEON FLUX appear to have AE van Vogt's THE WORLD OF NULL A as their source material.

[@pprovost]

Alfred Bester anyone?

[@yw1971]

5:36 - There was a forgotten good anime movie based on 'The Lansman' books.

[@daxbashir6232]

Yeah, but the anime had next to nothing to do with the source material.

[@pehpa]

And also: where are these great images/drawings from that you use in this video?

[@mahatmarandy5977]

The 2nd and 3rd Cities in Flight stories were pretty great, but the first and fourth really kinda watered down the whole. I enjoyed reading them, but I think they would be better regarded were it not for the “and then the universe ends” conclusion

[@jaimeosbourn3616]

What about Roger Zelazny?

[@pattheplanter]

Surely revered by every SF reader? Though I am estimating from a sample of one.

[@mondostrat]

He's more of a 'New Wave' guy than 'Golden Age'. One of my all time favorites.

[@discobolos4227]

A wrong time period.

[@jaimeosbourn3616]

@@discobolos4227 True. But I still think he doesn't get enough respect.

[@agent47tobiasrieper85]

Could you please recommend short sci-fi novels and stories With space operas, action, thriller, mystery and time travel I am trying to find a book that intrigues and hooks me to read and finish the book which are easy and moderate reads for non avid book readers With no film or tv adaptations

[@IRosamelia]

Hi Darrel, youtuber Adam Something just uploaded a video called Russian propaganda is insane. It speaks a bit about current russian State sponsored sci fi. It's a topic you might want to look into; oh sugary sweet syrupy controversy! ❤

[@Sci-FiOdyssey]

Interesting!! I’ll check it out. Thanks 😀

[@EndingSimple]

Blish's over representation in the Star Trek novelizations caused me to over look his other contributions.

[@acaryadasa]

I hate to nit pick but it's A. E. not E. A.

[@subraxas]

Eeee!! Aaaa!! Spooorts!! It's in the gaaame!!! 😀

[@martinbarr9402]

I find Doc Smith Lensmen series is terribly dated. His treatment of women characters is, how shall I say, not up to today's standards. Great list though.

[@vilstef6988]

I read Skylark in the 70s and his treatment of women didn't hit the mark then, either!

[@BlueyH-wk4kb]

Yes. Galactic Patrol and the Lensman series was my entry into Sci-Fi books at around 10 years of age, and I devoured them. Going back to them now though is almost impossible, the misogyny makes them almost unreadable. Do they hold an important place in the history of science fiction writing? Yes. Are they, as described in the video, timeless? No. Nevertheles, Sci-Fi Odyssey is a super channel, loving the content.

[@TheRealPaulMarshall]

Forgotten? Srsly?