Favorite Science Fiction Movies:
Forbidden Planet, This Island Earth, Star Wars, 2001, Darkstar, Alien, Star Trek: First Contact, Bladerunner, Men in Black, Robinson Crusoe on Mars,
Quatermass and the Pit, War of the Worlds, and so on....
Barsoom
Oh, these are great! Earthman transported to Mars magically, where he encounters green men with four
arms, egg-laying human princesses, sword-bearing technology that also has airships, horrible monsters
and villains. Totally absurd and great fun.
Darkover
The early ones, before the "femmes" took over the series, were excellent -- a lost Earth colony on a planet
with its own mystic environment where the survivors lapsed back into a sort of Celtic clan ethos.
Dune
There was an abominable movie made from this great book, and the sequel volumes the author wrote also
didn't measure up. Dune, the first one, was mind-blowing, with its desert world, Bedouin-type civilization (mixed with a pseudo-Roman degenerate galactic empire).
Perelandra
C.S. Lewis wrote a trilogy (Mars, Venus, and Earth) in a Christian allegorical vein, but if you ignore the
'message' they are extremely exciting and imaginative. The villain is a 'mad scientist' (who of course is
totally admirable to my taste -- his sin is that he is an atheist and has no 'moral values'). There has hardly
ever been as good descriptive writing of alien environments than is in these books, even if the Mars and
Venus are the fantasy visions, not the reality shown us by NASA.
Jack Vance
This author has several separate series in this vein (ranging from straight science fiction to a sort of
fantasy involving lots of weird local cultures) -- his typical novels are usually a sort of Hucklebury Finn travelogue, and there is very little quite like them in the literature. His imaginative invention of social habits in odd cultures is unparalled.
Gene Wolfe
A very peculiar author whose first claim to fame was The Shadow of the Torturer, the hero being the
official palace torturer and executioner and how he got there. A very Byzantine future society in the twilight
of the planet earth. Great stuff for a book or two (though he carried on the series beyond its original shock
and novelty value).
L. Sprague De Camp
A science-fiction and fantasy writer with a huge backlog of credentials in all subjects (including non-fiction
about Wonders of the Ancient World), with a very engaging style of writing. His world Krishna is a good place
to start if you are into the type of book referred to on this page. You should also try out his "Enchanter"
series in the fantasy realm.
Fritz Leiber
Mainly known as a horror story ("Burn Witch Burn") and fantasy writer (Ffahrd and Grey Mouser series), the
late lamented Fritz had some good science fictional stuff such as The Wanderer, where a race of cat people who are interstellar renegades come and pulverize the moon to refuel on their flight from the
posse. This somehow belongs on this web page, though it's hard to tell why -- maybe because the human
hero has sex with the cat lady (you will never forget this scene)?
Philip Jose Farmer
A cross between Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny, but with his own unique voice. Among all his other series, the Riverworld books stand out -- this world consists of a humongously long river along the banks of which EVERYBODY who ever lived is reborn (including the original cavemen) into some variety of village culture. So he has Mark Twain build a great paddle steamer to tour this river. Take it from there....
(until you just get bored with the idea, as I did after a couple of books)
