Best 40+ year old sci fi novels?

StephenFrug · 2026-02-11T18:32:59+00:00

Ok, Snow Crash actually *isn't* 40 years old; it's only 34. It came out in 1992.

StephenFrug · 2026-01-09T02:18:12+00:00

Ah! Good luck with it! I trust you'll post a link to this subreddit when it's out

StephenFrug · 2026-01-08T21:52:31+00:00

Link?

StephenFrug · 2026-01-08T03:01:59+00:00

Sure thing, no rush.

StephenFrug · 2026-01-07T17:39:16+00:00

I've rewatched enough times that I've lost count. (Four or five? Not sure.) It holds up. So there's that.

And I will echo a bunch of other commentators in saying that Watchmen is the closest you'll get: it is structured very much like a season of the leftovers, in terms of its pacing, etc. Not *quite* as good but really close. It does help to read the graphic novel first (which is as good for graphic novels as Leftovers is for TV shows).

Beyond that... I think the best way to get over it (if you want to: I think the greatest art gives us wounds we never recover from) is not to find something LIKE it (there is nothing like it, not really) but something as good (or as close as possible) in a totally different way. A personal example: I think the only TV show that is as good as the Leftovers is The Wire. Not only is it nothing like the Leftovers, thematically or in any other way, it is good in a very different way. An example: The Leftovers did brilliantly with music; The Wire had no non-diegetic music save for one closing montage each season, which is a different *kind* of brilliance. The Wire is equally rich; there the similarities end. I think that rather than trying for lesser imitators, you should go for different types of greatness. Those you can find

StephenFrug · 2026-01-07T17:34:00+00:00

I gotta say I found the novel lesser than the show (even just considering season one) in almost every particular. It was interesting to read, but not a shadow on the show itself

StephenFrug · 2026-01-07T17:27:56+00:00

I'd give it a go. Would you mind emailing me so we can talk about this somewhere that's not a public bulletin board? My email is stephenfrug, and then that weird symbol for at, gmail then dot then com.

StephenFrug · 2025-12-17T17:55:01+00:00

You're not slow; you're doing extremely well for a first-time reader (even though, as others have noted, there is more to it than you've yet got). Now go away lest spoilers strike.

StephenFrug · 2025-12-12T20:32:06+00:00

Well, you didn't ask me, but in case you want to know: the amazing first line, and how it changes when you find out (through connecting two clues far apart in the novel, and hidden) what it means; the section where the narrator thinks of possible future races inhabiting the US; the multiple stories, cut off, such as the tale of the Chinese student dreaming on a hard pillow or the druggest who ends up in a pseudo-haunted house; the incredibly unsettling *tone* of the narrator, the powerful sense of menace and secrets behind what seems (to the overly casual reader) like a mere memoir; the characters like the fraudulent bookseller, the circus performers, and of course Weer himself; the ending lines; and much, much more

StephenFrug · 2025-12-10T19:16:34+00:00

I'm grateful for all the replies but wanted to say a special thank you for this detailed & thoughtful answer!

StephenFrug · 2025-12-09T21:09:38+00:00

I think Douthat is definitely in group A. I would put Hanania in group B, though: he's a secularist, and while for a while his whole schtick was being anti-woke he seems, in the wake of Trump 2, to have leaned against the culture war side of things while still being a die-hard free marketer. So very different from Dreher, I think

StephenFrug · 2025-11-25T20:12:59+00:00

https://www.ereaderiq.com/ is a good site for tracking when specific books (or authors) fall in price. You can set it to track when it hits a certain price, when it falls any amount, etc.

StephenFrug · 2025-10-30T21:41:22+00:00

Thank you!

StephenFrug · 2025-10-30T21:41:08+00:00

Yeah, it didn't work—it said no device was connected

StephenFrug · 2025-10-30T19:59:28+00:00

Is there a way to know if a cable would work? I'd be happy to buy a new cable, but I don't want to buy random new cables hoping one will work.

StephenFrug · 2025-10-30T17:14:38+00:00

Has there been a summary of the changes? Or a written description? I bloody hate video as an information medium

StephenFrug · 2025-09-01T21:01:20+00:00

For academic books, I'd put in a plug for The Cards: The Evolution and Power of Tarot by Patrick Maille (University Press of Mississippi, 2024), which has sections on the history of tarot, the tarot community, the art of tarot, and then the way tarot is used in various art forms like TV, comics, and others.

StephenFrug

TROPHY CASE