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Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
What's The Difference Between Space Opera and Military SF?
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The Rise And Fall — And Rise — Of Military SF
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siles.m
08/31/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
can any1 gimme some more information about CONSIDER PHLEBAS
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Grey_Area
08/31/09

@siles.m: This is a pretty old post but I happened to be auditing new commenters and saw your interest in Consider Phlebas. Do you want a summary of the plot? Some folks hate spoilers, but here's a taste...

The protagonist is the last of a race of shapechangers that has been working against The Culture, which is like Star Trek's Federation only way whacked out. It is controlled by powerful artificial intelligences called Minds. The Culture is at war with the Iridians, big three-legged bug guys, really tough and religious zealots too. One of these Minds has been lost in a space battle before it could be turned on and the race is on to find it.

Banks is great for the jaw dropping set pieces and can be very funny to boot. You'll read about space-pirates, a cannibal cult, a cruise ship so big it could use the Titanic for a life raft, an artificial world like Niven's Ringworld or Halo, a game where players manipulate each others emotions and bet with the lives of volunteers, and so much much more.

I really like this book. Banks wrote it when he was still fairly young and some people think it lacks the finesse that maturity gave his later books. I still say check it out!

I hope this helps and welcome you to io9. Have fun.
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SigmundTheSeaMonster
06/28/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
Asimov and Saberhagen: two authors that one pioneered machines that wanted to be man, and the other machines that wanted to eliminate man.
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Alex Krislov
06/27/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
Sorry, gents, but the title "Bladerunner" was purchased from Alan E Nourse, who used the title for a space-faring doctor.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/27/09

@Alex Krislov: Yeah, and I even read that novel as a kid, so was kind of confused when they announced the movie and it didn't have anything to do with alien medicine! :)

(The movie's credits even credit Nourse)
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Shinju
06/27/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
I'd like to put forward John Wyndham as an earlier writer of post apocalyptic fiction. The Kraken Wakes was 1953 and Day of the Triffids was 1951
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/27/09

@Shinju: Triffids! Yes!
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Michael_GR
06/27/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
I think I have a better candidate for the originator of the posthuman space opera (my favorite subgenre, by the way). It's Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix, which came out in 1983 I think. It includes every conceivable type of genetic and mechanical/electronic augmentation up to and including a woman who turns herself into a living, bio-mechanical space station. Also, some of the weirdest aliens ever, and even weirder humans.

I have an even earlier precursor, John Varley's _The Opiuchi Hotline_ and _The persistence of Vision_. Again it's a tale of strange posthumans doing strange things in space. Not a whole lot of AI though.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/27/09

@Michael_GR: Varley, good call. The Titan series too.
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John Joseph Adams
06/26/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
I agree CWuestefeld. No way ON THE BEACH should be credited in any way for the apocalyptic genre, except for being part of it. Besides EARTH ABIDES, which as he says predates it and eclipses it, there's also A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ--the "fix-up" novel didn't appear til 1960, but the three novellas that it's comprised of all appeared before ON THE BEACH.

Of course, you do mention THE LAST MAN--why dismiss it as not starting the sub-genre; clearly it did. But if you're going to skip over that and fast-forward to the post-atomic era, then clearly EARTH ABIDES is the choice for the "genre-launcher," though there are probably other (more minor) works that precede EARTH ABIDES but were published after the atomic bomb.

Other books that came before ON THE BEACH:

There's also THE LONG TOMORROW by Leigh Brackett (1955); NO BLADE OF GRASS (A/K/A THE DEATH OF GRASS) by John Christopher (1956); AFTER LONDON by Richard Jefferies (1886). I could go on.

If you'd looked in the back of WASTELANDS, you had a perfect research cheat-sheet right there. I didn't list pub dates in it, but it's a pretty comprehensive list of post-apocalyptic literature.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/27/09

@John Joseph Adams: Encyclopedia of SF&F about 15-20 years ago is nice too -- I can't remember the exact title and author, but I'm sure you do.
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BerdineAntelope
06/26/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
Even people who maintain that the time travel genre began with Edward Page Mitchell's "The Clock That Went Backward" (1881) will recall that in 1843, we met a ghost of Christmas Future, who took Scrooge forward in time, and a ghost of Christmas past, who took him backward.

But H. G.'s "Time Machine" is... "a gimme"? I don't think there are any "gimmes" in the study of literature, are there?
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Grey_Area
06/26/09

@BerdineAntelope: It's tricky. When does old lit stop being Fantasy and become Science Fiction? There's a late Ming Dynasty "addition" to Journey to the West (proto-fanfic?) where the Monkey King gets thrown back and forth in time and is subjected to implanted memories and gender swapping. This was written in 17th Century China.

If I remember correctly the villain behind all these machinations was an evil goldfish. Weirdness has always been with us.
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DEK46656
06/26/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
Space Opera: I would have thought that the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov would have been the acknowledged trend setter for that genre.
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Grey_Area
06/26/09

@DEK46656: Nah, Doc Smith had it going on with the Lensman stories long before Asimov ever thought of Trantor.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/27/09

@Grey_Area: 'xackly. Asimov as a young'un was a big Doc Smith fan.
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James7344
06/26/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
SLAN might qualify as the first mutant story.
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MinervaAlpaca
06/26/09

@James7344:

Nah, ODD JOHN by Olaf Stapledon predates SLAN by decades, I think.
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Mathmos
06/26/09

@MinervaAlpaca: last and First Men might also qualify for posthuman stories
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Grey_Area
06/26/09

@Mathmos: Stapleton deserves more credit than he gets from current audiences. Then again, his prose style is awfully dry. He is a tough but rewarding read.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/27/09

@Grey_Area: Let's just give it all to Stapeldon.

These kids today, not knowing who really started things.
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Malcolm Stanley
06/26/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
Also agreeing with mathmos:

SciFi perception is reality genre goes to PKD... Valis...
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Grey_Area
06/26/09

@Malcolm Stanley: Ever read Voyage to Arcturas by David Lindsey (1920)? It may not be all drug fueled as PKD, but that and many other early SF authors did some very trippy transcendetial stuff in the early 20th Century. Olaf Stapleton is one that leaps to mind.
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Malcolm Stanley
06/26/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
for post-Human Space opera, wouldn't Doris Lessing Canopus in Argos series be a good candidate? written pretty early on, and definitely makes one think.

Think as well you need to include a category for Gay SF, I would nominate Delaney with Dhalgren.

Also, generally sex with aliens: although it was explored a little bit in Ringworld and elsewhere, I think Tanith Lee really did her best to own that genre...

Finally, SF as newtonian astrophysics tutorial and SF as modern physics tutorial: Arthur C. Clarke and Neal Stephenson respectively.
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Grey_Area
06/26/09

@Malcolm Stanley: Sex with aliens? Probably Philip Jose Farmer was the first to get really down and dirty with that idea.
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Solipsistic Nation
06/26/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
I'm working on a documentary about Steampunk as a musical genre for my show, Solipsistic Nation ([solipsisticnation.com]). I interviewed Bruce Sterling because I thought he and Gibson invented Steampunk with their book, The Difference Engine. I was mortified when he told me that it was actually K.W. Jeter who is the originator of the genre. Doh!
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Purple Dave
06/27/09

@Solipsistic Nation:
See, and I always thought it was Jules Verne, with works such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days.
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Graviticvortex
06/26/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
Although im a big Iain M. Banks fan, i have to say that one of the best candidates for Posthuman Space Opera would be The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke

(1956).

It has all, different posthuman societys, really huge scale space travel, different AI-s etc...

Also, although 2001: A Space Odyssey is much more famous i still consider The City and the Stars best book by Clarke
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/26/09

@Graviticvortex: That's a valid point, although didn't he rewrite/expand it decades later?

It's been so long since I read it, but yep, it's Posthuman for sure.
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SplitEnz
06/26/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: Yeah, I think the rewrite is "Against the Fall of Night". It's been forever since I read either one though ...
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/27/09

@SplitEnz: Right, right.

Anyway, I would give the original the First Posthuman, as Graviticvortex said.

30 years before, as befits Sir ACC.
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Chris Hansen
06/26/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
That top image looks an awful lot like Ringworld, by Larry Niven, who's Known Universe stories predate 1987 by about 20 years.
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Grey_Area
06/26/09

@Chris Hansen: Banks has acknowledged Niven for the physical structure of Ringworld as inspiration for his Orbitals but the Culture owes nothing to Known Space.
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MinervaAlpaca
06/26/09

In reply to Science Fiction Books That Launched Their Own Genres
11) I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson, which pretty much created the entire "zombie apocalypse" genre. (George Romero has admitted on numerous occasions that he basically lifted NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD from I AM LEGEND.)
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
06/26/09

@MinervaAlpaca: Unstoppable hordes after society falls -- yep. True dat.
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