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The 10 Best Apocalypse Novels of Pre-Golden Age SF (1904-33)
A Comet Smashes into the Earth in 1931

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RAHfanboy
11/30/08

In reply to The 10 Best Apocalypse Novels of Pre-Golden Age SF (1904-33)
I think we work WAY too hard on these divisions within a genre.

Joshua writes a well thought out and enjoyable article, he sets his parameters, tells us why, and that's that.

I'm looking forward to more.
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afterthefallofnight
11/29/08

In reply to The 10 Best Apocalypse Novels of Pre-Golden Age SF (1904-33)
I think the "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley would be in my top ten list. It was a very powerful, depressing and in many ways prescient story.

I seem to recall another book, "We", by a Russian author (whose name I cannot recall) was published before Brave New World. This was another, communism gone berserk, story. It did not make as strong an impression on me as Brave New World. Perhaps it would warrant an honorable mention.
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Joshua Glenn
11/30/08

@afterthefallofnight: Those two novels will make an appearance when I do a post on the Top Ten Utopias and Dystopias of the Pre-Golden Age!
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Slatz_Grobnik
12/01/08

@Joshua Glenn: "We" toes the line pretty narrowly between the two.
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Meirelle
11/29/08

In reply to The 10 Best Apocalypse Novels of Pre-Golden Age SF (1904-33)
I've never read any of these. Thanks for the list! :) They all look interesting. Especially The Absolute at Large (hey, it was written in the land of my anscestors. I can't pass it up). And especially When Worlds Collide, because, hey, it represents my peeps, and my peeps frequently turn into half-naked mobs battling the National Guard (or something like that) when the Steelers lose a game.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
11/29/08

In reply to The 10 Best Apocalypse Novels of Pre-Golden Age SF (1904-33)
Check out a bunch of Asimov's anthologies titled "Before the Golden Age" vol. 1 through whatever... I've got 2 or 3. Think they were printed in the 80's, offered through the book club. Shorts thru novellas.

So instead of making up trendy TLA's that sound like golf tours, I've always just followed the Good Doctor's phrasing and called these stories "Before the Golden Age".
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Annalee Newitz
11/29/08

@Evil Tortie's Mom: So you say "BGA" instead of "PGA"?
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Joshua Glenn
11/29/08

Evil Tortie's Mom, I did ask io9 readers to come up with a better moniker than PGA, but that line seems to have been cut. Listen, I'll give away one of my precious PGA hardcovers to whichever io9 reader comes up with a moniker that I like. BGA is not an improvement!

I quote from one of Asimov's "Before the Golden Age" collections in this post. My series of posts for io9 isn't about stories, though -- just novels, and a handful of novellas, and maybe a play or two.@Evil Tortie's Mom:
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AmishJohn
11/29/08

@Joshua Glenn: The Golden Dawn?

Loved the Worlds Collide movie... Especially after landing on their new home... when you first see the alien foliage and abandoned city of the rapidly thawing world.
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goldfarb
11/29/08

@Joshua Glenn: why not follow other things like comics and just go with Silver Age?
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RAHfanboy
11/30/08

@Evil Tortie's Mom: I wondered when we were going to start golfing.
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Dormouse: Corporate Tool
11/29/08

In reply to The 10 Best Apocalypse Novels of Pre-Golden Age SF (1904-33)
War of the Worlds should at least get an honorable mention. 1898 isn't that far from 1904.
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Annalee Newitz
11/29/08

@Dormouse II: The Wrath of Gryphon: You should read Josh's justification for why he chose to pick books between those particular years: [io9.com]
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KhaiJB
11/29/08

@Annalee Newitz: I tried to read that, it made no sense to me whatsoever.. *shrug* suppose thats just me tho...
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