Looking way back into the early 1980s, I remember the wonderful “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” series by Douglas Adams as one of my first exposures to the world of science fiction. The books were hilarious and easy to read, and just happened to take place in a science-fictiony universe. From there, I moved on to Piers Anthony, with his “Incarnations of Immortality” series. As a young Andy, Piers became my favorite author. I thought I’d hit science fiction gold. This was incredibly riveting for a young techno-geek. High technology mixed with magic, who could ask for more?
There’s a lot more. In fact, Douglas Adams and Piers Anthony are just small parts of a mammoth iceberg. And as I read more, I realized that Mr. Anthony’s works… well, due to making my childhood more enjoyable, I won’t say they aren’t good. But I will say that if you focus only on the “brand name” science fiction, you’re missing out. Yes, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Piers Anthony, Terry Pratchett, Terry Brooks, Michael Crichton, Larry Niven and many more all have their places in mainstream science fiction and fantasy. They do enjoyable work – there’s a reason these writers are so popular.
Remember the aforementioned iceberg? Well all the authors just mentioned are the visible bits. Look at the rest of the iceberg, the stuff under the mainstream waters. There’s so much more!
With a brief tip of the hat to mainstream science fiction and fantasy writers, the “Great Science Fiction and Fantasy Works” website focuses on more of the unknown, overlooked, but still quality “speculative fiction”. The website states:
What we have here is a site dedicated to presenting works in the fields of science-fiction and fantasy–sometimes collectively called “speculative fiction”–that get high grades for literary quality without needing any bonus points just for being science fiction or fantasy. The books are judged as literature, not as “science-fiction books” or “fantasy books”.
The short version of my point? Go to the GSF&FW website for quality science fiction and fantasy book selections. With a page count in the five-digits (yes, that’s at least 10,000 individual web pages!), I find it hard to believe there’s a better resource available.