My Top 5 Most Underrated 20th Century Science Fiction Novels #sciencefictionbooks #bookcollecting

The Outlaw Bookseller delivers an impassioned suggestion that the SF readership might want to tackle some more challenging titles that lie on the boundary of the genre. With typical iconoclasm, he highlights five titles from the last two decades that he feels really pushed the envelope in fascinating ways...

[athoszubiaur]

just getting around to some of your backlog, steve. great recommendations. and i couldn't agree with you more, i.e. science fiction needs to keep breaking new bounds. that doesn't seem to be happening much lately so we need to celebrate those we find. cheers!

[danieldelvalle]

I picked up recently a used copy of Arnott's The House of Rumour based on your recommendation. It's the edition you show in the video, and it's even signed by him, so I scored one. I read it, actually devoured it, and it is so rich and complex/confusing that I want to do a reread. Thanks again for the heads up. My SF reading has improved in quality from the usual space opera stuff.

[erikpaterson]

I found Atomised by Michel Houellebecq the blurb on the back sound intriguing, so I might start with that one while I track down others in his canon.
Great recommendations. Ta

[cb]

Great video. Subscribed. I completely agree with your take on the state of modern SF. I'll look forward to reading some of these.

[allanlloyd]

You are so right about the state of current sf. I have almost stopped reading new authors because so many are just writing space opera, and with the state of the world now, I am looking at the survival of the planet as a priority, not zapping around space to start new wars. SF should make you think and I shall be trying most of your recommendations. Strangely, I already own the Ings book but haven't got round to it yet. I liked Wolves and The Smoke very much and must reread them. I didn't know that Mercurio wrote fiction, and have only read early books by Arnott, so yet more purchases coming up. My shelves are full!

[CMZPICTURES]

Another fantastic list. I'll definitely be tracking a couple of these down. Thanks! Btw Jack Parson's also shows up in China Mievilles Last Days in New Paris.

[michaeldaly]

Lovely stuff as usual, more for the pile. A question - I just finished Le Tellier's 'The Anomaly' and really liked it. I know you spoke about it in one of your videos but damned if i can find it. Could you point me towards it if you remember which one it is please? Many thanks, keep on space truckin'.

[MeganHeath]

I'm always looking for botanical sf recommendations that are lesser known or impactful to the genre. Would you have any suggestions ?

[michaeldaly]

Love your stuff - always stimulating and eye opening. A pronunciation note you can do with what you will - Houellbecq is pronounced 'wellbeck'. Not sure I spelled his name right, mind.

[darklingeraeld-ridge]

That Richard Morgan scenario of car duels is an idea nicked from Harlan Ellison, who made a short punchy story of it, and moved on

[zetectic]

An interesting selection & would like to read the Mercurio.
Many years ago I read Down there by Huysman a volume in the Dennis Wheatley library of the occult. Regrettably I can recall a single thing about it but that it was a challenging read for a youngster who was a slow reader

[keithreynolds]

I was enthralled by 'Market Forces' and was really disappointed that I didn't get more of that kind of book from Morgan. I tried his fantasy works but found them too obvious. I haven't tried 'Thin air'... sounds a bit like Heinlein (I loved 'The Moon is a harsh Mistress' when I read it as a young teenager and 'Citizen of the Galaxy' introduced me to the concept of "hegemony". All the 'Star Wars' you need?). Thank you for leading me to so much more fruitful reading... shame my eyes prefer a 'Kindle' these days! When I find a book I love I do find a good hard copy for the shelf though, and I do enjoy 2nd hand discoveries, recently been finding John Brunner books.

[richardbrown]

Have you read Glister by John Burnside? A kind of literary cosmic horror novel.

[GypsyRoSesx]

The House of Rumour sounds excellent 👍

[ryanmahler]

Do you like Robert Anton Wilson's stuff?

[Bookpilled]

Love Submission. I thought it was a sympathetic portrayal of Islam, which took me by surprise coming from Houellebecq.

[Liopot]

Houellebecq isn´t a bad boy, he´s just bad.

[leakybootpress]

Tell me the old, old story! SF used to be a wide ranging field, as you rightly say, Steve, but a lazy readership, lazy autjors and lazy publishers have kept it marking time since about the mid 1980s. No value is placed on originality or new ideas, so most of what gets published now is space opera which, as you know, is not SF at all but what I call techno-fantasy. Space opera isn't based on the possible, which real SF should be.
I don't know if you've ever come across a series of anthologies published for academic use in the 1970s and early 80s, they had titles such as Anthropology Through Science Fiction and Sociology Through Science Fiction, and they demonstrated how SF was relevant to the real world and dealt with real world issues. Someone should update and reprint those.
I've read three of your five books by the way.