Mark Twains A Connecticut Kid in King Arthurs Court comes to mind.Which books that qualify as science fiction or speculative fiction, written by authors who did not consider themselves SF genre writers, would you consider worth reading? Let's stick to:
(1.) Authors who were not part of the US and UK science fiction scenes. So mainstream US and UK authors, yes, but also authors whose reputation was established in other genres (mysteries, westerns, etc.)
(2.) Books that were published during the era of SF classics, so books up through the 1970s (the decade when SF began to gain some respectability in mainstream culture, with both college courses in SF and SF writing workshops becoming common - and the decade when Hollywood made SF acceptable mainstream entertainment). So books that were at least a little bit of a risk for their authors, professionally, and books that publishers went out of their way to distinguish from all that SF stuff ("This is more like literature, folks!").
Obvious recommendations would be Brave New World, 1984, and The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent PLanet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength). But what else?
I'll start by recommending two books by Jack Finney: The Body Snatchers (which has an ending I like better than any of the movie version endings) and Time and Again. Both are superb SF novels, even if Finney wasn't one of "our" writers.
He also wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, as well as pure fantasy like The Magic Finger, the BFG, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, the Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar etc. In fact apart from some adult short fiction, and the risque My Uncle Oswald, he did not write much non- sf/ fantasy. Danny Champion of the World was a bit of an exception for his children’s fiction."The Sound Machine", "William and Mary", and "The Great Automatic Grammatizator" by Roald Dahl; in any event, his short stories tend to be non-genre.
He also wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, as well as pure fantasy like The Magic Finger, the BFG, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, the Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar etc. In fact apart from some adult short fiction, and the risque My Uncle Oswald, he did not write much non- sf/ fantasy. Danny Champion of the World was a bit of an exception for his children’s fiction.
"The Public Hating" by Steve Allen
Anyone who wants to be socially responsible, do self-examination, and not be a sheeple would appreciate it, I think.
The majority of people will be the haters in the story.
Also by MacDonald is The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything, though only for about half the girth do we get anything sci-fi.Wine of the Dreamers and Ballroom of the Skies are two 1950's SF novels by suspense writer John D. MacDonald.
Earth Abides (1949) by George R. Stewart. His only SF novel, and winner of the very first International Fantasy Award.
On another level entirely, Jacqueline Susann wrote one SF novel: Yargo (1979, written in the 1950's, published posthumously.)
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