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The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-07-13 7:46 AM (#10940 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: UK		I read the whole of The Enemy Stars yesterday (it's only 140 pages) to complete this challenge. Whee! Only 40 more years to go. 40 more years of increasing book length.

I must admit I was kind of worried about this one. The only Poul Anderson book I'd previously read had left a very bad taste, and I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but I enjoyed it just fine. A pacy, marooned-in-space story with what looked like some serious numbers I glossed over. Also another slide rule. When will the last one appear?
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jwharris28
Posted 2015-07-23 12:26 PM (#11012 - in reply to #9162)
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The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Bracket is on sale at Amazon for $1.99. That's a great 50's SF classic if you read ebooks.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Tomorrow-Leigh-Brackett-ebook/dp/B00...
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Badseedgirl
Posted 2015-07-23 3:16 PM (#11014 - in reply to #11012)
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jwharris28 - 2015-07-23 12:26 PM

The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Bracket is on sale at Amazon for $1.99. That's a great 50's SF classic if you read ebooks.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Tomorrow-Leigh-Brackett-ebook/dp/B00...

I'm half way through this book, and it is so good! The last two I've read for this challenge have been better than average. (Caves of Steel, Asimov, and this one)
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jwharris28
Posted 2015-10-16 3:18 PM (#11504 - in reply to #9162)
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I decided to reread The Foundation Trilogy because they are available on audio book at my Scribd.com subscription library. I'm in the middle of the first book, Foundation, and it's painful to listen to, even though it has an excellent reader. The writing is primitive, which is to be expected because Asimov was very young, and he was writing for the pulps, but it's also bad because of the logic of the story. Nothing in the plot makes sense. Each story is set around a series of strawmen that Asimov has his character argue over, and then the actual solution is an unexpected twist. And to put so much faith in psychology is hard for us to believe now. Plus, there's lots of weird things to consider. How does the collapsing empire have interstellar space travel without atomic power? If the encyclopedia is a ruse, why is it quoted with so much reverence?

Edited by jwharris28 2015-10-16 3:20 PM
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jwharris28
Posted 2015-10-20 11:53 AM (#11528 - in reply to #9162)
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I'm looking for different ways to identify which SF books from the 1950s have remained popular.

http://scifilists.sffjazz.com/lists_books_rank1.html

Using this site, Ive extracted what 1950s SF books show up, and in order. This system is based on a poll, so it reflects current opinion. However, we have no statistics on the poll, other than to assume the population is one that likes to read science fiction and participate in the poll. These are the usual suspects again. You have to think who is getting left off. No Wilson Tucker, no Andre Norton. You have to assume the second 100 are books that are being forgotten, even though it has some famous books in it.

City and More Than Human were near the top of my system, but you can see they are fading. I doubt youll see either at a bookstore today.

#3 The Foundation Trilogy (1951) by Isaac Asimov
#7 Fahrenheit 451 (1954) by Ray Bradbury
#11 I, Robot (1950) by Isaac Asimov
#19 Childhoods End (1954) by Arthur C. Clarke
#22 The Martian Chronicles (1950) by Ray Bradbury
#30 The Stars My Destination (1956) by Alfred Bester
#32 The Caves of Steel (1954) by Isaac Asimov
#43 The Day of the Triffids (1951) by John Wyndham
#45 A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
#50 The End of Eternity (1955) by Isaac Asimov
#60 The Sirens of Titan (1959) by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
#65 The City and the Stars (1956) by Arthur C. Clarke
#67 The Demolished Man (1953) by Alfred Bester
#68 The Door Into Summer (1956) by Robert A. Heinlein
#81 Have Space Suit-Will Travel (1958) by Robert A. Heinlein
#82 The Chrysalids (1955) by John Wyndham
#90 I Am Legand (1954) by Richard Matheson
#93 City (1952) by Clifford Simak
#99 More Than Human (1953) by Theodore Sturgeon

If you use their expanded list, which contains the second hundred top books, wed get:

#104 Cities in Flight (1955) by James Blish
#120 The Man Who Sold The Moon (1950) by Robert A. Heinlein
#126 Double Star (1956) by Robert A. Heinlein
#127 Alas, Babylon (1959) by Pat Frank
#133 On the Beach (1957) by Nevil Shute
#140 The Grey Lensman (1951) by E. E. Doc Smith
#141 The Space Merchants (1953) by Pohl & Kornbluth
#151 Player Piano (1952) by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
#155 Mission of Gravity (1953) by Hal Clement
#158 Non-Stop (1958) by Brian W. Aldiss
#191 The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950) by A. E. Van Vogt

My hunch is The Foundation Trilogy remains popular because its a whole lot like Star Wars. They both have an appeal that touches a lot of fans. Who knew that folks would love galactic empires so much.

Jim


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pizzakarin
Posted 2016-01-06 7:25 AM (#12299 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: Austin, Tx		I just finished Of All Possible Worlds by William Tenn (1955) and was pleasantly surprised by it. The book is a collection of 7 short stories, all of which fit one of the classic "science fiction story" premises, but almost all of which manage to add something interesting to the premise. I will definitely be picking up Tenn's complete works at some point (there is a two volume set) since my copy of Of All Possible Worlds is falling apart after one reading (it was the 1955 edition and had a very fragile spine when I got it).
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pizzakarin
Posted 2016-01-30 9:47 AM (#12526 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: Austin, Tx		Yesterday I finished The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. I am usually not a fan of psychic power stories, but I didn't find this one too obnoxious. I definitely see why it's a classic.

Only three more left in the challenge!
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Beardie
Posted 2016-02-10 9:29 PM (#12644 - in reply to #9162)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: Fort Worth, Texas		Hi. New to the challenge, and new to the site as well. Just read The Man Who Sold the Moon for my 1950 selection. Found the story in an anthology of 40s and 50s sci fi stories at my library, but then found the paperback was scanned and available at openlibrary.org. It read better as part of a collection of Heinlein stories I think. And it wasn't bad for being so dated.

Edited by Beardie 2016-02-10 9:31 PM
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Beardie
Posted 2016-03-05 6:00 PM (#12901 - in reply to #9162)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: Fort Worth, Texas		Another Heinlein for my 1951 selection, Between Planets. Not a bad little space opera.

I'll probably be reading a few Heinlein juveniles for this challenge as I found an omnibus edition of several of them at my library, which should take me through 1954.



Edited by Beardie 2016-03-05 6:02 PM
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Badseedgirl
Posted 2016-03-05 7:42 PM (#12902 - in reply to #12901)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: Middle TN, USA		First off Beardie, a belated welcome, you'll find good people on this site. Without this challenge I would not have found out how much I enjoy these pulp stories. I am especially fond of E.E "Doc" Smith. Good luck with the rest of this challenge, and again, Welcome!
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Beardie
Posted 2016-03-20 10:30 PM (#13038 - in reply to #12902)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Thanks for the welcome!

I'm enjoying getting into this challenge. Finished 2 more Heinlein juveniles for 1952 and 53, The Rolling Stones and Starman Jones. I'm enjoying these, but think I'm ready to move on to something beside Heinlein in this challenge. Although, the books aren't bad, the little details (like slide rules or manually calculating flight paths) really show the age of the books. Makes an interesting reading experience.
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Badseedgirl
Posted 2016-04-08 8:20 PM (#13207 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: Middle TN, USA		Without really realizing it, I finished this challenge. I guess it is on to the 1960's challenge.
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pizzakarin
Posted 2016-04-14 7:05 AM (#13237 - in reply to #13207)
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Location: Austin, Tx		Congrats on finishing! I'm so close, 3 books out. I'm going to try to push through them before I get sent to FL for work (and inevitably only have my Kindle with me).
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dustydigger
Posted 2016-04-15 12:04 AM (#13242 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: UK		I find the kindle rather disappointing on the SF front. There are huge gaps in the vintage SF available,and the prices are too high.My fave author,C J Cherryh,is barely represented,unless you read German! lol,so that makes me so not a fan of the kindle!
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jwharris28
Posted 2016-04-15 12:07 AM (#13243 - in reply to #13242)
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I find the Kindle extremely useful. For years I've been collecting SF classics when they go on sale for $1.99. Got quite a collection now. Plus, all my books are available on my iPhone. If you follow SFSignal.com, they have a regular listing of on sale SF. Plus I get the Kindle Daily Deal email, and BookBub.
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illegible_scribble
Posted 2016-04-15 12:42 AM (#13244 - in reply to #13242)
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dustydigger - 2016-04-15 5:04 PM I find the kindle rather disappointing on the SF front. There are huge gaps in the vintage SF available,and the prices are too high.My fave author,C J Cherryh,is barely represented,unless you read German! lol,so that makes me so not a fan of the kindle!

Consider signing up for Open Road Media's Early Bird mailing list. They offer one freebie a day, usually an old Public Domain work (and sometimes these are SF), plus several $1.99 specials, which are often from SF authors' backlists (for example, I got Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's collection Scarborough Fair for $1.99). I've picked up quite a few vintage SF works this way -- but as I'm not really interested in reading vintage right now, they will just sit in my library until that changes.

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DrNefario
Posted 2016-04-15 4:38 AM (#13245 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: UK		Open Road never seem to extend their offers to the UK. I believe Eleanor Arnason's Woman of the Iron People is on offer right now, which is on my list of potential reads for the 90s version of this challenge, but it's still at its regular price here (which is a pretty good price by Open Road's UK standards anyway).
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jwharris28
Posted 2016-04-15 7:48 AM (#13246 - in reply to #9162)
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I found this site accidentally, http://www.uvulaaudio.com/stars.html - which has an audio edition of The Stars Are Ours! by Andre Norton, from 1954. I'm listening to it while doing some data entry. I'm surprised by it's theme, where scientists are outlawed by a politically repressive state.

Edited by jwharris28 2016-04-15 7:49 AM
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illegible_scribble
Posted 2016-05-23 12:06 AM (#13606 - in reply to #10643)
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.



Edited by illegible_scribble 2016-05-23 12:13 AM
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dustydigger
Posted 2016-05-23 1:50 PM (#13613 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: UK		Jim.I am reading The Stars are Ours right now on Open Library. I think there ws a lot of dislike of scientists around at that time. I remember in Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz the scientists were purged. And in The Long Tomorrow things werent going well for them either! lol.Of course the effect of Hiroshima (remember Oppenheimers famous quote ''I am Death,the destroyer of worlds'' ?) lead to the whole scientific community being looked on askance!No wonderthe SF of the time was so dystopic in view!
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jontlaw
Posted 2016-05-23 6:12 PM (#13615 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: Alief, TX		I started working on this challenge at the beginning of May. I started my eighth book of the challenge today. So far I have read -

1950 Voyage of the Space Beagle by A.E. van Vogt: Great stuff. Loved the episodic nature. Makes me wonder if Gene Roddenberry read it before Star Trek
1951 The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury: Bradbury is a true master of the short story medium
1952 The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester: Fantastic book. Went straight to my favorites list. To me, it compares with Frederick Pohl's The Space Merchants and Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
1953 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: Surprisingly, I'm a little disappointed. I just didn't feel this one like some of the others
1954 The Stars are Ours by Andre Norton: Surprisingly good. Her post-apocalyptic world really spoke to me
1955 Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick: Excellent, especially for a first novel. I really loved his dystopic world government
1956 The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester: Really good book. The end lost me, just a little, but still highly recommended
1957 Star Born by Andre Norton: Sequel to the prior book. I'm a third of the way through, and enjoying it

Still to come, Time Travelers by Andre Norton for 1958 and Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick for 1959.

I'm still considering bumping my commitment up to 15 books. I have the titles lying around, I just have to make the time. If I do, Martian Chronicles will make the list, as well as The Man Who Japed, Player Piano, and Philip Wylie's Disappearance. While I have the books, for some reason I find myself driven to complete this challenge without reading any new Asimov or Heinlein. I'm not sure why.

If you're looking for recommendations, I read for challenges in previous years The Canticle of Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, The Space Merchants by Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, and The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, and loved loved loved all of them.

Edited by jontlaw 2016-05-23 6:15 PM
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pizzakarin
Posted 2016-06-27 1:48 PM (#13854 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: Austin, Tx		I have finally finished. My last book, Dorsai! by Gordon R Dickson, was a terrible way to end what was mostly a positive experience. I found Dorsai! to be dull. Donal Graeme, the protagonist, didn't seem to encounter anything that he couldn't intuit his way out of. I never felt like he might fail. That's before the awful last chapter. And on top of that, lots of really outdated sentiments on a woman's place in the universe.

Looking back on it, I am so glad to have read The Martian Chronicles, I Am Legend, and The Stars My Destination. Additionally, I"m glad to have found the short fiction of Richard Matheson (at the back of my copy of I Am Legend) and William Tenn.
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DrNefario
Posted 2016-06-28 6:57 AM (#13859 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: UK		Congrats.

I didn't think much of Dorsai! either. I thought I'd read it for this challenge, but apparently not. It certainly wasn't too long ago.
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jontlaw
Posted 2016-10-13 7:38 PM (#14425 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: Alief, TX		Finished!! The summer was a wasteland for me, almost no reading done, but September has gotten me going again. My updated list:

1950 Voyage of the Space Beagle by A.E. van Vogt: Great stuff. Loved the episodic nature. Makes me wonder if Gene Roddenberry read it before Star Trek
1951 The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury: Bradbury is a true master of the short story medium
1952 The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester: Fantastic book. Went straight to my favorites list. To me, it compares with Frederick Pohl's The Space Merchants and Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
1953 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: Surprisingly, I'm a little disappointed. I just didn't feel this one like some of the others
1954 The Stars are Ours by Andre Norton: Surprisingly good. Her post-apocalyptic world really spoke to me
1955 Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick: Excellent, especially for a first novel. I really loved his dystopic world government
1956 The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester: Really good book. The end lost me, just a little, but still highly recommended
1957 Star Born by Andre Norton: Sequel to the prior book. Enjoyed it
1958 Time Traders by Andre Norton: I've never considered myself a time travel kinda guy, but this was good enough to continue the series
1959 Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick: Excellent! PKD never disappoints
extra Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury: Maybe the best of his that I've read.
extra Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut: He must have had a crystal ball for this one
extra Sargasso of Space by Andre Norton: A great little adventure novel. Another series I'll have to keep reading
extra The Man Who Japed by Philip K. Dick:
extra The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick: As I said, he never disappoints

On to the 1960's challenge. I've already finished one. From Philip K. Dick to Philip Jose Farmer
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DrNefario
Posted 2016-10-15 6:46 AM (#14428 - in reply to #9162)
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Location: UK		Nice work.

I went through a big PKD phase many years ago, and now I'm not sure what I've read and what I haven't.
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