Penguin have produced a seminal Sci Fi/Fantasy novels series! Create your own!

[Caliban]

Penguin are releasing their own collection of 6 classic Sci Fi and fantasy novels in new covers with introductions by Neil Gaiman. The selection they made is:

"The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
"Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein
"Dune "by Frank Herbert
"2001: A Space Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke
"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"Neuromancer" by William Gibson

Do you agree with the selection? What would you have picked if you were in charge (no more than 6)

I've only read numbers 1 and 5 out of those 6 and I enjoyed them both immensely. I'd definitely have to factor in More Than Human by Sturgeon for I was running it though. I'd perhaps swap it for SiaSL

 

[Wruter]

Only one fantasy. I think they should have dropped TOaFK for Asimov's Foundation and just called it a sci fi collection. And got rid of Gaiman...

 

[The Judge]

Yes, rather an uneven mix of SF and fantasy. But perhaps they were intimidated by the thought of all the 3+ volume fantasies out there -- the Herbert and Clarke can be read as stand-alones even though there are others following on from them. Perhaps one of the Earthsea books might have been better to represent Le Guin if they didn't feel they could have two by the same writer, though I note she's the only woman out of the six. Ho hum.

I've read them all but the White, and oddly enough I caught sight of The Once and Future King in Waterstones on Saturday and wondered about buying it at long last, but then didn't. I shall have to have another think about it.

 

[galanx]

Only one fantasy. I think they should have dropped TOaFK for Asimov's Foundation and just called it a sci fi collection. And got rid of Gaiman...

Sounds good to me, though I would have replaced 2001 with Childhood's End

 

[Overread]

I can't help but feel that an intro and new cover just isn't enough to really mark it as anything special. Long running classics get new covers all the time and intros by random people are always abundant (that's not a knock on Niel but more a fact that as someone not involved with any of the books its basically just getting his name on them to generate sales)

 

[MWagner]

Yes, rather an uneven mix of SF and fantasy. But perhaps they were intimidated by the thought of all the 3+ volume fantasies out there -- the Herbert and Clarke can be read as stand-alones even though there are others following on from them.

One of the problems is finding fantasy books that have been popular and around long enough to be regarded as classics. With the exception of Neuromancer, the SF books were all written before 1970. Fantasy is a young genre. Outside of Tolkien and Peake (who IIRC has already been published by Penguin), which fantasy classics fit the bill? I'd agree that A Wizard of Earthsea should have been there. Having trouble coming up with something else. The Dying Earth? One of the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books, maybe?

I can't help but feel that an intro and new cover just isn't enough to really mark it as anything special. Long running classics get new covers all the time and intros by random people are always abundant (that's not a knock on Niel but more a fact that as someone not involved with any of the books its basically just getting his name on them to generate sales)

That penguin logo is a stamp of legitimacy to a lot of readers who otherwise turn up their nose at genre fiction. When H.P. Lovecraft was published by Penguin it put his work in front of people who wouldn't think of browsing the Horror or Fantasy section of a book store.

 

[Chinspinner]

Wells, Asimov, Herbert, Clarke, Bradbury.

 

[Overread]

I would say Fantasy's problem isn't a lack of material or years but more a dominance of one or two titles that has an overbearing influence. Lord of the Rings - whilst fantastic and inspirational - is so regularly reprinted and marketed that it almost smothers most others. Game of Thrones is one of the few to get its head up along with Harry Potter in recent years. I think in part publishers are to blame in that fantasy doesn't get pushed as hard as some other markets; and of course without the push there's reduced demand which reduces the incentive to push it harder so its a repeating cycle.

 

[Randy M.]

One of the problems is finding fantasy books that have been popular and around long enough to be regarded as classics. With the exception of Neuromancer, the SF books were all written before 1970. Fantasy is a young genre. Outside of Tolkien and Peake (who IIRC has already been published by Penguin), which fantasy classics fit the bill? I'd agree that A Wizard of Earthsea should have been there. Having trouble coming up with something else. The Dying Earth? One of the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books, maybe?

Fantasy as a genre is young, but it was a dominant mode up until the 20th century.

The Man Who Was Thursday by G K. Chesterton?
Lud-in-the -Mist by Hope Mireless?
The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll?
Little Big by John Crowley? (Or Crowley's Aegyt cycle?)
something by Patricia MacKillop, perhaps?
Islandia by Austin Tappen Wright?
Lost Horizons by James Hilton?


I suspect the problem is more that the fantasy that might fit their bill is already in the hands of other publishers, and they aren't willing to take a chance on more obscure titles. That's true for their s.f. choices, too; pretty much what anyone with an awareness though not a passion for s.f. would pick if asked because they are well-known titles. If these go over well, then you might see a more adventurous reissuing of less famous works, which is pretty much what they did with their horror titles: First Frankenstein, Dracula, etc., with only one out-there title, a collection by Ray Russell, then a second round featuring Thomas Ligotti, Charles Beaumont and a Ray Russell novel.

That penguin logo is a stamp of legitimacy to a lot of readers who otherwise turn up their nose at genre fiction. When H.P. Lovecraft was published by Penguin it put his work in front of people who wouldn't think of browsing the Horror or Fantasy section of a book store.

True. It certainly didn't hurt his visibility, but probably Penguin's stamp of legitimacy helped Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany -- maybe even Clark Ashton Smith -- and maybe now Ray Russell and Thomas Ligotti even more. (Thank you S. T. Joshi and Guillermo Del Toro.)

Randy M.

 

[J-Sun]

"The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
"Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein
"Dune "by Frank Herbert
"2001: A Space Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke
"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"Neuromancer" by William Gibson

Do you agree with the selection? What would you have picked if you were in charge (no more than 6)

If I were trying to come up with a list of books that (a) have Big Time Reputations and (b) are by Big Name Authors and (c) sold very well and will sell very well, then it would be hard to top that list, other than with temporal balance. The one significant oddity to me that hasn't been mentioned is that all the SF but the Gibson (pole-vaulting all the way to 1984) is from the 60s.

Only one fantasy. I think they should have dropped TOaFK for Asimov's Foundation and just called it a sci fi collection.

This is the other significant oddity. I'd agree with your suggestion wholeheartedly except that Foundation is a trilogy of stories (plus later stuff) rather than a novel. So it depends on how rigidly "novel"-like we're being. If they didn't want to include that, I'd consider either Haldeman's The Forever War or Pohl's Gateway. If it was just "books" then I'd absolutely include The Foundation Trilogy and Heinlein's The Past Through Tomorrow and many other different things.

I note she's the only woman out of the six. Ho hum.

True, but history's history and I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a book by a woman from 1926-1984 that I'd throw one of the others off for (other than the White), as much as I like Brackett, Moore, MacLean, Cherryh, etc. Statistically, women in Big Name Big Rep Big Selling SF might round to 0 and 1/6 could be over-representation.

I would have replaced 2001 with Childhood's End

Agreed, qualitatively. I can see why they went with 2001, though, in terms of the book's name recognition value factored along with critical esteem/quality. 2001 is recognized in and out of the genre and has some esteem. Childhood's End is better, but not as widely known generally. Same reason I (think I) understand why they picked Stranger for Heinlein.

If I weren't trying to sell books as such, but just make what I thought was a good "SF addiction kit" and didn't duplicate the Penguin list and didn't mind being as biased towards the 50s as it was to the 60s (but trying to be a little more balanced and observing the same cut off at 1984), I might try

• The Space Merchants (1953) by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth (as the definitive "social satire" novel)
• Mission of Gravity (1954) by Hal Clement (as the definitive "hard SF novel," followed closely by Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg (1980))
• The Caves of Steel (1954) by Isaac Asimov (as the definitive robot and "SF/mystery hybrid" novel)
• Rogue Moon (1960) by Algis Budrys (as an excellent philosophical and the definitive "killer structure" novel)
• The Forever War (1975) by Joe Haldeman (as the great "time dilation" and "war translation" novel - edging Anderson's Tau Zero (1970) and Heinlein's Starship Troopers (1959))
• The Void Captain's Tale (1983) by Norman Spinrad (as the great, if much delayed, New Wave "style" novel with audacious ideas and compelling characters)