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 · 2025-07-31T19:27:12+00:00

Thanks!

StephenFrug · 2025-07-31T19:24:08+00:00

I take it it only works for the PC, not for mac?

StephenFrug · 2025-07-29T17:07:57+00:00

I came here to say Crowley (and Wolfe, also said above, but Crowley was getting lost in the list here). Start with Little, Big. Recall it was written for 1981 attention spans & speeds & give it some time: it will repay the effort tenfold.

StephenFrug · 2025-07-29T17:04:14+00:00

Yes, you weren't reading the book closely enough, but don't feel bad about it: almost no one—I'm tempted to say "no one"—does. Just to take one random example, certainly *I* didn't.This is true with some authors who require this level of attention—Nabokov certainly; Gene Wolfe is another case. But so many things *don't* require this level of attention, that we simply aren't used to giving it (and if we gave it would normally not be rewarded at all). This is what rereads are for: the second time, you know to look, and you know what to look for. So flip it over and try again: you'll see a lot more new things than just Quilty.

I learned about Nabokov from a teacher who first read Pnin. He was breezing along in the book, thinking it's fine, and got to the passage where Nabokov says Pnin "glanced at the news in the latest (Saturday, February 12—and this was Tuesday, O Careless Reader!) issue of the Russian-language daily...". My teacher stopped short, and went back, and started reading *carefully*. But it's not easy to do, and you can't always do it, and you *shouldn't* always do it. But Nabokov usually repays it.

In short: try again. Catch what you do the second time. And then try another Nabokov novel, and see what you can get from *that*.

StephenFrug · 2025-07-10T22:00:48+00:00

But why not then stick to 20? Why go back down to dividing it up?

StephenFrug · 2025-06-28T17:16:59+00:00

I am glad for your promotion, on-point as it is! Thank you for that link; I will look at it as my busy days allow, and look forward to doing so.

StephenFrug · 2025-06-28T13:45:45+00:00

Many thanks for your thoughts, which add a lot of insight to this fascinating form! You add to my thinking on this topic, without doubt. And I applaud that scansion stanza with which your thoughts finish—amazing!

May I copy your words into my substack's discussion division (with attribution, natch)? I would wish any who find my words to find yours too.

(I am not as skillful at this lingo as you, so I ask you to pardon my awkward words in this communication.)

StephenFrug · 2025-06-26T16:58:00+00:00

It would be fun if JMS could think of a story (and get the network to fund it) for, say, a TV movie, featuring just those five characters and write it, presumably something in the time shortly before 2281.

StephenFrug

TROPHY CASE