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The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-11-01 3:47 AM (#11652)
Subject: The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		This thread is for the Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge.

It's five months since I started the 60s challenge, and that was five months after the 50s, so I thought it was only fair to open a new decade for the faster readers. Although the books are getting longer now, so maybe the challenges should too.

(I will push the end date back when I am able to, since many of us aren't ready to start this one, yet, if we're doing the whole 50 years in order.)
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daxxh
Posted 2015-11-01 12:31 PM (#11662 - in reply to #11652)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		What happened in the 70's that there are fewer books? 1978 has only three to pick from and I've read them all. 1970 will be the hardest year for me since I don't own that many that I haven't read yet (I was trying not to reread anything). I guess I will have to scour the used book stores since the library doesn't seem to have that many old scifi books.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-11-02 3:21 AM (#11672 - in reply to #11652)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I intend to stick mostly with 50 and 60s SF in 2016,yet also want to continue with the Defining Books challenge. But looking through the 70s list what few books are available through the library are either rereads or books I dont fancy.One year it is down to a choice between Delany's Triton (I am so bored by his obsession with sex of all kinds.Books that set out to shock or be polemics become so old hat once that crusading time is over. Style isnt enough for me! lol) and the very downbeat and depressing eco-nove,fl Le Guin's Word for World is Forest.
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-11-02 7:23 AM (#11673 - in reply to #11652)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		It's definitely getting trickier to find things I think I'll like.
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jwharris28
Posted 2015-11-14 11:19 AM (#11823 - in reply to #11673)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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My friend Mike was telling me he had a harder time finding 1960s SF books at the library than 1950s SF books. And for some reason, 1980s books are the most popular at my blog. I feel 1970s did become different, but like the counter-culture 1960s bled into the 1970s for a few years, before the 1970s developed it's own identity, it was also true for science fiction. To me, what really started the 1970s, was the Ace Specials that begun in the late 1960s.  http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?31+3 - I hope this link comes through. Many of these books are forgotten now, but at the time they garnered some impressive reviews.
 

 

 



Edited by jwharris28 2015-11-14 11:21 AM
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DrNefario
Posted 2016-01-26 7:35 AM (#12500 - in reply to #11652)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I've just finished Keith Laumer's Dinosaur Beach for 1971. Not really the book I wanted to read, but the one I already owned (in the Baen omnibus/collection Odyssey.)

It was a fairly wild time travel romp. Short. Quite fun, but feeling a bit dated, even for 1971, I thought. It reminded me a little of The Big Time by Fritz Leiber.

Technically my third time travel book in a row for the chronological challenges, after Slaughterhouse-Five and The Year of the Quiet Sun, and I have The Man Who Folded Himself coming up soon, too.

For 1971, I had previously read To Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Lathe of Heaven. I was hoping to read some Silverberg or Zelazny, but decided just to go with the book in hand instead. Roger Zelazny's books are beginning to appear as ebooks, but Jack of Shadows is not available at the time of writing.

Next up is Beyond Apollo by Barry N Malzberg, which I don't really know anything about. I just happened to find it in a charity shop when I was looking for something for this year. For 1972 I have previously read The Gods Themselves and I'm sure I must have read The Fifth Head of Cerberus given how long I've owned it, and how much of a Gene Wolfe fan I used to be, but the synopsis doesn't sound very familiar.
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DrNefario
Posted 2016-02-26 7:36 AM (#12847 - in reply to #11652)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I'm up to 1973, now, having just read The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold. It was fairly good, but I didn't totally love it. In fact I haven't really been enthused by any of my 70s picks yet. Current trends seem to be time travel (4 of my last 5 books) and greater psychological depth when exploring SF tropes (Beyond Apollo and The Man Who Folded Himself).

For 1972 I read Beyond Apollo by Barry Malzberg, which was again merely OK. It reminded me somewhat of The Tomorrow People by Judith Merrill, which I read for 1960 some months ago. I'd previously read The Gods Themselves, which is possibly my favourite Asimov, but that's not really big praise from me, and (I'm almost certain) The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe, which I don't seem to be able to remember very clearly.

For '73 I had previously read The Embedding by Ian Watson, which I liked a lot; and Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke, which is pretty good, but see my comments about Asimov above (I'm not really a fan).

My next book will mark the half-way point of the whole 50-year challenge, although almost certainly not in page count. All 24 of my challenge books to date have been on the short side. The longest only just over 300 pages (Flowers for Algernon), with many under 200, and quite a few of those under 150. I have dodged (or previously read) some more substantial books, but only once did I deliberately pick a shorter book for speed (Slaughterhouse-Five vs The Jagged Orbit). I rather suspect my average book length is going to start increasing as I get to the 80s and 90s, and next up for 1974 I have the 560-page brick that is The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

Although I do also have the much shorter Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe by DG Compton...

Right now I don't have anything in the bank for 1975 and 1976. They're currently my last blank years until 1989. I'm probably going for The Wind's Twelve Quarters and Man Plus, but I haven't picked them up, yet.
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dustydigger
Posted 2016-02-27 1:34 PM (#12851 - in reply to #11652)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I am in the process of reading John Varleys The Ophiuchi's Hotline for 1977. I had hoped to almost be finished with the 70s by now,but my computer broke down,and several books ,including the above were wiped off my online reading,and I had to go on the waiting list,so I got delayed for a while. Still waiting to get PKDs A Scanner Darkly and Octavia Butler's Kindred if I want to complete the 12 Books which might see the 22nd century. Have read 10 of those 12 .
I intended to do only the basic 10 books,one for each year,but I have ended up doing 2 or even 3 in some cases whereas I could barely manage one book in some years,either because I didnt fancy the book,or had already read the best ones,or couldnt find a copy.. Thank heavens for Open Library nor I couldnt have done this challenge
So,my reads for 1970
1970 - read pre-challenge - Niven's Ringworld,which I liked a lot,Tau Zero which I found clumsily written and a bit dry,despite interesting ideas,and a personal favourite of mine,Herbert's Whipping Star,which I still havent fully fathomed after several readings!
My official read for 1970 was Jack Finney's Time and Again I was really charmed by Jack Finney's romantic take on time travel. Very little time trave actually,the details of the time transfers are sensibly glossed over.this is an elegy to 1880s New York. One little thing that gives us a bit of a frisson is that the Dakota building is repeatedly mentioned and admired,in a book written 9 years before John Lennon's death.Charming and romantic.I found it better written than Finney's more famous Body Snatchers.Also read Siverberg's Downwards to the Earth . I really liked it,good writing,lofty themes,fascinating world setting and interesting aliens.It was my first Silverberg.

Edited by dustydigger 2016-02-27 1:40 PM
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DrNefario
Posted 2016-07-21 1:05 PM (#14051 - in reply to #11652)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I've just completed another decade, with Octavia Butler's powerful Kindred. Another of those books, like Flowers for Algernon, where I felt I knew how it was going to go from just knowing the bare idea, but there was a lot more to the telling of it.

I think my book of the decade is between that and The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K Le Guin.

Onwards to the 80s, where the books get longer, and I'm more likely to have read the good ones.
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illegible_scribble
Posted 2016-10-17 4:33 PM (#14440 - in reply to #11652)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1970s SF Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Those of you who participated in this challenge may be interested in participating in a simulation of the 1980 Hugo nominations (which were for fiction published in 1979) for the purposes of testing the new nomination-tallying algorithms.

WWEnd Novels Published in 1979

WWEnd Novellas Published in 1979  

WWEnd Novelettes Published in 1979  

WWEnd Short Stories Published in 1979  

WWEnd Non-Fiction Published in 1979   

 

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