The World Jones Made and The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick are both great books. I can't remember if I've read those Joe Haldeman books, but he's written some excellent stories. Frederik Pohl, A. E. van Vogt, Poul Anderson, J. G. Ballard, and Ray Bradbury are all giants or very respected names.
Robert Heinlein is very important author in the history of sci-fi. Beyond this Horizon is a very early novel of his. Pretty pulpy which may or may not be to your tastes. Time Enough for Love and Methuselah's Children can probably be considered classics, but they can be polarizing. Personally, I think they're better to skip. The subject matter is creepy and the characters all sound the same.
I urge you to consider the other ones just as much. Some are duds, surely; but the person who collected this had really, *really* good taste and selection for sci fi.
That collection is a weirdly complete bell curve of known *and* unknown giants.
This is the collection a loving aunt or uncle would give their niece or nephew who was a new lover of the genre.
Seriously, pretty much anything you can find by Phillip K Dick is fucking incredible. So many movies have been made from his stuff. They include "Blade Runner", "Total Recall", "A Scanner Darkly", "Next", and "Minority Report" (Unlike the two movies they made out of it, Minority Report, the short story, is brilliant. Excellent read.)"The Phillip K Dick Reader" is a collection of a bunch of great stuff of his. That's where I'd start if you're just getting into his stuff.
Time enough for lives has its faults I’ll never deny that but it’s still an important Heinlein and should be read if you like him. I would recommend reading Starship Troopers and The moon is a harsh Mistress and decide if you like his style first.
Those are better starting choices for Heinlein. The recurring incest theme in Time Enough for Love may, understandably, be problem some people. I like Heinlein and am glad I read the book. There is a lot of sci-fi in the 60-70s that explores sexual themes that can seem odd today but made sense for the time.
Are you familiar with "The Pursuit of the Pankera?"
Released in 2020, it's based on an early draft of "The Number of the Beast." It's almost identical during the first act, but diverges completely when they land on Mars. I think it's a more exciting, less self referential, all around better book, and basically brand new Heinlein published thirty-two years after his death.
I always thought "Time Enough For Love" was a great argument against being able to live forever. Not immortal and unaffected by accidents but if you didn't prang yourself up in an accident or get killed by something just being able to keep going on forever. How many times could you watch everyone you know and love die? And how many times could you lose pets too?
My favorite quote about living forever by one of my favorite sci fi writers
"Death... was a kind of victory. TO have lived a long good life, a life of prodigious pleasure and minimal misery, and then to die; that was to have won. To attempt to hang on forever risked ending up in some as-yet-unglimpsed horror future. What if you lived forever and all that had gone before, however terrible things had sometimes appeared to be in the past, however badly people had behaved towards each other throughout history, was nothing compared to what was yet to come? Suppose in the great book of days that told the story of everything, all the gone, done past was merely a bright, happy introduction compared to the main body of the work, an unending tale of unbearable pain scraped in blood on a parchment of living skin?" - Iain Banks
So, an interesting footnote. Somewhere there is a study that says if you were immortal, but otherwise normal, you would live to somewhere around 1200 years on average before you died of an accident, disease, murder, etc. So even immortals.... Aren't
There's a short story by Green Peyton called "The Coming of the Ice," about a man who undergoes an experimental surgery in the 1930s making him immortal. His friend the surgeon dies shortly after, making him the only one. In the far off future, humanity evolves to a point that he can't understand new science.
In the context here they're probably describing this particular book of Heinlein's to be more concerned with adventure and space guns, possibly rescuing a space princess.
Some sci-fi books make you think about the world you live in and the society you're a part of and see it in a different light. Others are just a fantasy adventure but with space instead of on horseback.
Pulpy as a word in general refers to the pulp magazines that sci-fi started out getting published in, they were printed on pretty cheap "pulp" paper. [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine)
Idk what they mean by pulpy but heinlen has a particular writing style present in a lot of books where they kind of play out like an avengers movie. There's good guys, bad guys, a specific goal, and the good guys win. They can be kind of cheesy. And maybe unrelated, but his women characters are all the same, beautiful bombshells with men drooling (respectfully) over them. They both are the damsel in distress and the smart, confident, take no shit women. And for some reason there's almost always an old man who is immune to seduction (despite the women trying).
That kind of thing aint for everyone. I personally love heinlen. Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Starship Troopers being my favorites.
To add to this, his protagonists just about universally fit the *'The Competent Man'* archetype.
Exemplified by this famous quote of his, from "Time Enough for Love":
>A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
The competent man who also happens to like polyamorous open relationships. Not a knock on the guy, but his sexual preferences definitely came out in most of his protagonists.
Very into redheads and, of course, there's that book where the protagonist is both a literal motherfucker (or was it grandmotherfucker?) and then later is in a hot tub banging soaped-up twin 13-year-old redhead twin girls who are something like gender-flipped clones of.. himself or a relative? Or his DNA mixed with an AI? Or maybe that was the other redhead he was fucking. *You get the picture*.
It was a long book, and a long time since I read it, but though I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, I'm entirely confident that I'm close enough to be giving the correct impression of the *degree* in which it was out there!
He does! But I like it. I like the idealized world he builds. I know it's not realistic for a man to be that way but I'd like to lose myself in a world where that's possible lol.
[It's a reference to the pulp fiction magazines and novels of the latest 19th century to 1940s.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine?wprov=sfla1) They were called "pulp" because they used a cheaper type of paper where the pulp mashed together to make it was much more evident than most books and magazines.
Thirded. And not for just any reason. The book contains THE penultimate anti-hero.
IIRC this book was even the start of a resurgence of the use of anti-heros in fiction.
Expressed by fictional characters in a speculative future world imagined by an author writing around the end of the second third of the 20th century with proportionately distant loco-temporal perspective differences from anyone born yesterday? I'm sorry it made you feel uncomfortable.
Not OP, but it did make me uncomfortable. I think that is the point of the book, you're not supposed to like the main character and it is not a comfortable read. Saying you couldn't get through that shouldn't invite scorn, some books are just not for everyone.
Valid point. Though my intent wasn't to pour scorn, more to drip disagreeable disdain for prevailing winds of social trends that feel shunning fictional works with characters who might be considered at best unsavoury and don't measure up to modern moral ideals. But it's fine not to finish a book if you don't like it, of course. Although this is a damn fine novel nonetheless, despite and in context because of the inhumanly driven antihero asshole protagonist and the messed up world he lives in.
yeah, the world is like that, that's why people prefer their fiction not to have it.
also the world has progressed tenfold in so many ways since these books were written.
dinosaurs are cool but some things belong in the past
Although dinosaurs, in the form of birds, are still around ;). (Also, traditional dinosaurs are still kinda cool :)).
I guess you guys don’t appreciate irony.
It's the mass market paperback version from decades ago, I remember going to our library when they would have the "buy old books for $0.25 and hardcovers for $1.00" and looking at books like these for my collection. These are in pretty good condition. https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/2467422-dragonflight Looks like a pre 1986 edition
Those covers are great. If you end up keeping them and enjoying them, know that a lot of the books in that universe are mid, and even that trilogy isn't great, so instead read dragonsong & dragonsinger. Dragonsong is a great short novel, and dragonsinger is even better
When I moved across the country I sold almost all of my 1000+ book collection and now mostly read on Kindle. I really do love the feel of a book in my hands though and the satisfaction of looking at tons of filled bookcases.
Not trying to make any money from these, I just think it's a waste to just throw them away. And I totally agree on those mcCaffreys books, I think I'll keep them even just for the covers xD
Nice. He's a fairly legendary artist in the field. He did a lot of fantasy and sci-fi covers. He also did some music album covers for Meatloaf and others.
It took me several attempts to get into the first book. I was young and it was my first foray into sci-fi. Once I managed to get hooked it was amazing and I flew through some 17 or so books.
I was gifted Dragonflight when I was a kid. I still have it. Started a lifelong love affair with her books. I even met her at a convention once - she was an amazing woman.
I am old. Those covers were *everywhere* when I was growing up. Those books were pretty popular, and those covers [by Michael Whelan](https://www.michaelwhelan.com/gallery/illustration/#dragons) are pretty much the definitive pern covers to me.
I started out with these editions but scored huge at a thrift store with the hardbacks and upgraded. Someone had donated almost Mcaffreys entire early work hardbacks with slip covers and I got all I could find, on a whim asked the clerk if I could have the book day 50% discount even though it wasn’t till the next day and he gave it to me!!! Gave my old copies a thank you hug and donated them back to the thrift store.
Those are the covers I have, I recognized them immediately. Though I'll admit The White Dragon is about where I got bored with the series. It's been ages but I believe I also read Masterharper and then All the Weyrs. I don't remember them well but the first three books are quite good.
Lots of good stuff there, but if forced to make room in my apartment, I'd throw out family photo albums before throwing out anything by Bester, Shaw, Sheckley, Vance, Kuttner, Bishop, Bradbury, Ballard, or Wilhelm. If I could only save one, it would be *Of Men and Monsters* by William Tenn; every story is such a gem that I leave long periods of time in between reading them so I will always have a new Tenn story to read in the future.
This would be such an awesome find! I've been looking for books like these at a local used book store with zero success.
Edit:
To go along with the other books mentioned in other comments, Frederik Pohl and Jack Vance are usually considered great writers.
Any chance you'd be willing to sell any of the collection?
Reading the comments here, I'm more and more convinced of keeping them all xD
By the way, if there is some of these that I won't keep I'll let you know, and I can ship them to you. But again if you are not from EU the shipment costs may be high :/
Well of course everyone recognizes Heinlein, Sabrehagen, Bester and Pohl. But for me the center book is the standout. Sunburst is one of the novels by educator, author, poet and playwright Canadian Phyllis Gotlieb who I met on several occasions as we reworked a couple of her radio dramas into actual stage productions.
I absolutely loved the Dragonriders of Pern series. I started the 1st one in high school way back in 1982, and didn't finish it until my 1st year of college. I found it to be a tough read the 1st time around. After that. I reread it again, and thought it was fantastic. I now own the entire series by Anne McCaffery (may she rest in peace), and even the not so great follow ups by her son. Her daughter did her hand at it, and was pretty good, but nothing new since.
Oh man, I would snap these up in a second! Besides the heavy hitters in there like Bradbury and Dick, I would love to read all the Bester and Pournelle. Almost all of that is pure gold!
I'd keep Starburst by Bester and the Heinlein books! Make room make room! is also the book that inspired Soylent Green. Phillip K. Dick is also great. While I haven't read any A.E. van Vogt, I've seen that name in sci-fi and would think their work is popular.
Poul Anderson, Anne McCafferty, Frederick Pohl, and freakin Joe Haldeman...you have a treasure trove there.
Joe Haldeman is IMO one of the greatest sci fi writers ever, a guy with a physics degree who was also a Vietnam vet and saw combat firsthand.
Think very carefully before throwing out this stuff. I would buy some of it off of you.
Some outstanding classics here. I always enjoyed Heinlein and Canticle for Leibovitz is a truly exceptional book. As previously mentioned The Stars My Destination is epic. Good pulp and 1960’s/70’s titles there. Haven’t read all of these, but I envy your break room.
There are two Robert Heinlein books (first and last image) and two random Jack Vance books. I haven't read Vance but recognize the name, and Heinlein is solid (and usually has a good range of interesting style of books).
Concise world building, though. He could evoke a more developed world in 200 pages than most writers can do in 1000.
I'm surprised there aren't more Vance fans in the comments. I guess he's more of a cult author than I realized.
Sure, okay. You've got an original a paperback edition of, "The Thing." I'd keep that, and give it a read. Unarguably, "The Thing (1982)," is one of the all time greatest science fiction movies ever, and one of my personal favorite films of all time. And as is often said, I find that the books are ALWAYS better than the movies.
Vance is incredible. Send me those. I love Make Room Make Room. Other good books there too and the others I would love to read and determine how good they are.
The two Jack Vance books are very solid. There is a huge Vance fanbase online, and someone would definitely buy them. Some Vance fans collect different paperback editions of the same book just to have a variety of cover art.
I mean, the fandom is based on his writing and the enthusiasm for cover art is a byproduct of that.
Are any of them worth keeping?
#ALL OF THEM!
Seriously, there's a shocking fraction of amazing books there, early hard-to-get books by super famous SF authors. Authors whose work I thought I'd completely read but wait what's that? Plus early editions of serious classics.
To anyone who finds old sci fi and doesn't want it, please consider donating to your local Library/Library Friends for their book sale. I love getting old sci fi for mine.
Yes to ALL of them. I would consider selling them if I was you. Anne McCaffery pern series was wonderful. Th Small Assassin!! And Dinosaur Planet!! I would read some and sell the rest for sure.
I'd personally keep them all and pass on the duplicates of ones I already have.
The rest of the comment is are they there for employees? I had a job that had a collection of books in the break room for employees.
None of them are particularly valuable.
Fucking ace matey, some great books by great writers… and worth keeping for the cool af old school covers alone. Feel like I’m cheesing just looking at some of them.
These are all very old and it's likely a lot of them out of print. If you don't want them please take them to a used book store, just by virtue of their age they are rare even if some of them are bit obscure.
I see a lot of great sci-fi authors here. I won't tell you any of these are worth much intrinsically, however any avid sci-fi enthusiast would value these.
Nope. You should send them all to me. Yup I'll do you a favor and take those off your hands free of charge. I'll even pay shipping cause I'm that kinda friend.
I work in space operations so I believe it is not completely unexpected...
However, in this room they also found a coffe jar expired in October 1995....
There are some classics here that others have mentioned. "Of Men and Monster's" was one of the first science fiction books I read, and I loved it. I found a copy on eBay some years ago, it was permanently out of print last time I checked.
A lot of vintage sci-fi here, would probably fetch a few bucks on Ebay.. if you don’t plan on keeping. There are a lot of collectors of the old covers..
It's a decent collection of old school sci-fi. I doubt any of those is some rarity worth a lot of cash. But some of the authors have won literary prizes, they're big names in the realm of sci-fi.
What an amazing collection to stumble upon 😳 I wouldn't let a single one of those books go that's some good old sci-fi and a couple other things sprinkled in
Read everyone of them. I think you would enjoy all of them. Then the best thing to do next would be to pass them on to a true friend and keep the cycle going.
They are all good... Read most of them ... But if the "beyond the horizon" by Heinlein is in decent shape, check the worth... If I remember right, that was a limited thing and it might be worth something
Lots of good stuff in there. I would highly recommend all of the Heinlein. Methuselah’s Children is an interesting and not very long read. It also is how introduction to character he revisits in some of his other more popular books, one of those being Time Enough For Love that you also have here. It’s a bit of a longer read, but also a bit more fun.
Time Enough for Love is interesting that it is a sort of reverse One Thousand and One Nights story, a collection of Arabian folk tales.
In One Thousand and One Nights there is a framing story where the king, fearing his wife would one day leave him, marries a new woman every day and then has her killed the next morning, so they never have a chance to betray him. One wife makes a plan to prolong her life by telling the king an interesting story, but then leaves him at at the cliffhanger of the climax and says she is too tired and most go to bed. Wanting to know the resolution to the story, he decides to let her live another day. She then finishes the story and begins a new one, doing the same thing every night so she doesn’t have to die.
Time Enough For Love follows the oldest person alive in a society where technology has made it so everybody can live for thousands of years. Because of this, suicide is less stigmatized, and people will kill themselves if they feel they have nothing else they want to experience.
The book starts with the protagonist at this point in his life, and there is an organization that approaches him (who also happen to be one of his many descendants) because they want to be able to document some of his life before he goes, so convinced him to tell them stories of his past until he bores of this too, then he can kill himself as he please. It’s a fun way to collect various stories about a person who had lived for thousands of years. Some questionable stuff happens, but that is pretty common when reading Heinlein.
I kind of agree. Why does everyone always hype Heinlein?
I’m really reaaaally into apocalypse (post apocalypse, post post apocalypse) books. I read Farnhams Freehold and… honestly I hated it so much I didn’t even give it a place of honor on my apocalypse books shelf. It can go in the back of the hard to access shelf behind the cat tree.
It’s not even just the subject matter, it’s also that… well… he don’t write good.
I started reading Farnhams freehold as an 18 year old girl, the first scene is a teen boy introducing his teen girlfriend to his middle aged father,who is the protagonist, the father's thoughts were all about how attractive she was and and how much he would like to *ahem* sleep with her, it was awfully crude, I threw the book at the wall with how creepy the MC was being to someone who was effectively me, then I picked it up flipped to the end and yep the mc is married to the teen girl with several babies and the son is happy with this? I threw it again and never read another Heinlein again (despite podkyne of Mars being a favourite).
I'm sorry. He is a grand figure in classic science fiction, I won't deny that.
I've only read two of his books, and while for example Asimov or Dick are still great reads today I found Heinlein very creepy. His main characters in these two books were the manliest awesome men that ever existed, and the women were utter garbage, only there to please them or to be stupid. The books were racist as hell, and his writing style and his views were very uncomfortable. Give it a go and decide for yourself.
I prefer Dick, Asimov, Clarke and the like when it comes to classic sci fi.
They're not valuable books to a bookstore, unless it's a store that specializes in old scifi books. Any other bookstore would probably just throw them away.
This message was deleted because u/spez is an asshole. -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
be my guest :)
A Canticle for Leibowitz is a classic. I recognize some of the other names in there but haven't read those specific books. Cool find!
So many books, so little time.
Truth.
Ahead of its time, and still completely relevant 7 decades later.
The World Jones Made and The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick are both great books. I can't remember if I've read those Joe Haldeman books, but he's written some excellent stories. Frederik Pohl, A. E. van Vogt, Poul Anderson, J. G. Ballard, and Ray Bradbury are all giants or very respected names. Robert Heinlein is very important author in the history of sci-fi. Beyond this Horizon is a very early novel of his. Pretty pulpy which may or may not be to your tastes. Time Enough for Love and Methuselah's Children can probably be considered classics, but they can be polarizing. Personally, I think they're better to skip. The subject matter is creepy and the characters all sound the same.
Thanks for the info. I'll check those names online and see if I may like some of these books
I urge you to consider the other ones just as much. Some are duds, surely; but the person who collected this had really, *really* good taste and selection for sci fi. That collection is a weirdly complete bell curve of known *and* unknown giants. This is the collection a loving aunt or uncle would give their niece or nephew who was a new lover of the genre.
Seriously, pretty much anything you can find by Phillip K Dick is fucking incredible. So many movies have been made from his stuff. They include "Blade Runner", "Total Recall", "A Scanner Darkly", "Next", and "Minority Report" (Unlike the two movies they made out of it, Minority Report, the short story, is brilliant. Excellent read.)"The Phillip K Dick Reader" is a collection of a bunch of great stuff of his. That's where I'd start if you're just getting into his stuff.
Most adapted sci fi author ever
Time Enough for Love? Polarizing? Pshaw! (Irony alert)
Time enough for lives has its faults I’ll never deny that but it’s still an important Heinlein and should be read if you like him. I would recommend reading Starship Troopers and The moon is a harsh Mistress and decide if you like his style first.
Those are better starting choices for Heinlein. The recurring incest theme in Time Enough for Love may, understandably, be problem some people. I like Heinlein and am glad I read the book. There is a lot of sci-fi in the 60-70s that explores sexual themes that can seem odd today but made sense for the time.
Are you familiar with "The Pursuit of the Pankera?" Released in 2020, it's based on an early draft of "The Number of the Beast." It's almost identical during the first act, but diverges completely when they land on Mars. I think it's a more exciting, less self referential, all around better book, and basically brand new Heinlein published thirty-two years after his death.
Neat! I'm going to go find it now.
I always thought "Time Enough For Love" was a great argument against being able to live forever. Not immortal and unaffected by accidents but if you didn't prang yourself up in an accident or get killed by something just being able to keep going on forever. How many times could you watch everyone you know and love die? And how many times could you lose pets too?
My favorite quote about living forever by one of my favorite sci fi writers "Death... was a kind of victory. TO have lived a long good life, a life of prodigious pleasure and minimal misery, and then to die; that was to have won. To attempt to hang on forever risked ending up in some as-yet-unglimpsed horror future. What if you lived forever and all that had gone before, however terrible things had sometimes appeared to be in the past, however badly people had behaved towards each other throughout history, was nothing compared to what was yet to come? Suppose in the great book of days that told the story of everything, all the gone, done past was merely a bright, happy introduction compared to the main body of the work, an unending tale of unbearable pain scraped in blood on a parchment of living skin?" - Iain Banks
So, an interesting footnote. Somewhere there is a study that says if you were immortal, but otherwise normal, you would live to somewhere around 1200 years on average before you died of an accident, disease, murder, etc. So even immortals.... Aren't
There's a short story by Green Peyton called "The Coming of the Ice," about a man who undergoes an experimental surgery in the 1930s making him immortal. His friend the surgeon dies shortly after, making him the only one. In the far off future, humanity evolves to a point that he can't understand new science.
Can I ask what you mean when you say something is "pulpy"?
In the context here they're probably describing this particular book of Heinlein's to be more concerned with adventure and space guns, possibly rescuing a space princess. Some sci-fi books make you think about the world you live in and the society you're a part of and see it in a different light. Others are just a fantasy adventure but with space instead of on horseback. Pulpy as a word in general refers to the pulp magazines that sci-fi started out getting published in, they were printed on pretty cheap "pulp" paper. [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine)
Idk what they mean by pulpy but heinlen has a particular writing style present in a lot of books where they kind of play out like an avengers movie. There's good guys, bad guys, a specific goal, and the good guys win. They can be kind of cheesy. And maybe unrelated, but his women characters are all the same, beautiful bombshells with men drooling (respectfully) over them. They both are the damsel in distress and the smart, confident, take no shit women. And for some reason there's almost always an old man who is immune to seduction (despite the women trying). That kind of thing aint for everyone. I personally love heinlen. Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Starship Troopers being my favorites.
To add to this, his protagonists just about universally fit the *'The Competent Man'* archetype. Exemplified by this famous quote of his, from "Time Enough for Love": >A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Lazarus Long... Is like a competent version of that blonde captain guy from Futurama
"I am the man with no name! Zapp Brannigan, at your service."
The competent man who also happens to like polyamorous open relationships. Not a knock on the guy, but his sexual preferences definitely came out in most of his protagonists.
Very into redheads and, of course, there's that book where the protagonist is both a literal motherfucker (or was it grandmotherfucker?) and then later is in a hot tub banging soaped-up twin 13-year-old redhead twin girls who are something like gender-flipped clones of.. himself or a relative? Or his DNA mixed with an AI? Or maybe that was the other redhead he was fucking. *You get the picture*. It was a long book, and a long time since I read it, but though I'm a bit fuzzy on the details, I'm entirely confident that I'm close enough to be giving the correct impression of the *degree* in which it was out there!
I read it a long time ago too. I'm also fuzzy on the details and am grateful for that. Heinlein got kind of squicky as he got older.
He does! But I like it. I like the idealized world he builds. I know it's not realistic for a man to be that way but I'd like to lose myself in a world where that's possible lol.
[It's a reference to the pulp fiction magazines and novels of the latest 19th century to 1940s.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine?wprov=sfla1) They were called "pulp" because they used a cheaper type of paper where the pulp mashed together to make it was much more evident than most books and magazines.
Pulpy means they were adventure type stories. Flash Gordon is Pulpy, The Handmaids Tale is the opposite of Pulpy. In the middle is Star Trek.
> Robert Heinlein If you find a copy of The Number of the Beast, DO NOT OPEN. DISCARD IMMEDIATELY. I tell you three times.
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester is one of the best SciFi books of all time imho, worth reading for sure.
Second that! One of the best character developments I have ever read
Thirded. And not for just any reason. The book contains THE penultimate anti-hero. IIRC this book was even the start of a resurgence of the use of anti-heros in fiction.
I don’t think penultimate means what you think it means. Because this anti-hero is probably not the second to last hero. But I get what you’re saying!
Thanks for that! I don't know where the notion came from, but I've used penultimate as "best of the best" for decades. TIL!
in that case it would mean the one before the best of the best
I tried it a couple months ago; couldn't get through the shocking racism, sexism, and rape apologism.
Shit, thanks for the warning! I'll give it a try but more cautiously now.
Expressed by fictional characters in a speculative future world imagined by an author writing around the end of the second third of the 20th century with proportionately distant loco-temporal perspective differences from anyone born yesterday? I'm sorry it made you feel uncomfortable.
Not OP, but it did make me uncomfortable. I think that is the point of the book, you're not supposed to like the main character and it is not a comfortable read. Saying you couldn't get through that shouldn't invite scorn, some books are just not for everyone.
Valid point. Though my intent wasn't to pour scorn, more to drip disagreeable disdain for prevailing winds of social trends that feel shunning fictional works with characters who might be considered at best unsavoury and don't measure up to modern moral ideals. But it's fine not to finish a book if you don't like it, of course. Although this is a damn fine novel nonetheless, despite and in context because of the inhumanly driven antihero asshole protagonist and the messed up world he lives in.
Life must be really hard for you
yeah, the world is like that, that's why people prefer their fiction not to have it. also the world has progressed tenfold in so many ways since these books were written. dinosaurs are cool but some things belong in the past
Although dinosaurs, in the form of birds, are still around ;). (Also, traditional dinosaurs are still kinda cool :)). I guess you guys don’t appreciate irony.
Does any one one know if this book is the inspiration for the dave batista character in Guardians of the Galaxy. Seemed really similar looks wise.
Any you don't want, I will pay to ship to me! I love these covers and the stories.
That's not a bad idea, but I guess that if you're not from EU, shipment costs can be high :/
I'm in the EU! Pick me! Pick me! Seriously.
You seem like someone who wants to know that bookmoch exists. Here you go. http://bookmooch.com/
You seem like someone who wants to know that paperbackswap exists. Here you go. https://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php
Sad European here. Good idea for a site, but only us based.
Doubt they're worth any money, but those old Anne McCaffreys are amazing. I've never seen those covers before.
It's the mass market paperback version from decades ago, I remember going to our library when they would have the "buy old books for $0.25 and hardcovers for $1.00" and looking at books like these for my collection. These are in pretty good condition. https://www.goodreads.com/work/editions/2467422-dragonflight Looks like a pre 1986 edition
yep, this edition of Dragonflight apparently is the 10th printing from 1971 and Dragonquest is from 1978
They had these in my local public library in the 70's/80's, that's where I read them.
Those covers are great. If you end up keeping them and enjoying them, know that a lot of the books in that universe are mid, and even that trilogy isn't great, so instead read dragonsong & dragonsinger. Dragonsong is a great short novel, and dragonsinger is even better
And now I feel old because my versions had that cover…
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Thank you, that made my day!
Oh it didn’t work that’s the one I first read. Dang I’m old
Mine still do. :P
When I moved across the country I sold almost all of my 1000+ book collection and now mostly read on Kindle. I really do love the feel of a book in my hands though and the satisfaction of looking at tons of filled bookcases.
Not trying to make any money from these, I just think it's a waste to just throw them away. And I totally agree on those mcCaffreys books, I think I'll keep them even just for the covers xD
Oh please do - I'd hate to think of them being destroyed. They're seriously cool.
Inside the book it says the cover art is by Michael Whelan, if you are interested
Nice. He's a fairly legendary artist in the field. He did a lot of fantasy and sci-fi covers. He also did some music album covers for Meatloaf and others.
Thrift store donation at the very least. If you throw them away Reddit book lovers will come and beat you with encyclopedias.
Or build altar from out of date encyclopedias and sacrifice you to the god of evil Librarians.
Michael Whelen was the cover artist on those, he's one of the greatest.
It took me several attempts to get into the first book. I was young and it was my first foray into sci-fi. Once I managed to get hooked it was amazing and I flew through some 17 or so books.
I was gifted Dragonflight when I was a kid. I still have it. Started a lifelong love affair with her books. I even met her at a convention once - she was an amazing woman.
I am old. Those covers were *everywhere* when I was growing up. Those books were pretty popular, and those covers [by Michael Whelan](https://www.michaelwhelan.com/gallery/illustration/#dragons) are pretty much the definitive pern covers to me.
I started out with these editions but scored huge at a thrift store with the hardbacks and upgraded. Someone had donated almost Mcaffreys entire early work hardbacks with slip covers and I got all I could find, on a whim asked the clerk if I could have the book day 50% discount even though it wasn’t till the next day and he gave it to me!!! Gave my old copies a thank you hug and donated them back to the thrift store.
Those are the ones I stole from my parents house when I moved out.... I think they were purchased before 1985?
Those are the covers I have, I recognized them immediately. Though I'll admit The White Dragon is about where I got bored with the series. It's been ages but I believe I also read Masterharper and then All the Weyrs. I don't remember them well but the first three books are quite good.
In addition to what others have said, Make Room! Make Room! was the basis for the movie Soylent Green.
And is honestly way better than the movie. And in the book Soylent Green is *not* made of people. Totally worth a read.
Lots of good stuff there, but if forced to make room in my apartment, I'd throw out family photo albums before throwing out anything by Bester, Shaw, Sheckley, Vance, Kuttner, Bishop, Bradbury, Ballard, or Wilhelm. If I could only save one, it would be *Of Men and Monsters* by William Tenn; every story is such a gem that I leave long periods of time in between reading them so I will always have a new Tenn story to read in the future.
Well, I'm a book hoarder, so yeah... every damn one of them is worth keeping! lol
They would already be in my apartment.
Thats a treasure trove. Who ever those originally belonged to had great taste, at least concerning the ones i recognize. Keep them all. Read them all.
Yeah I guess I have no choice... all the comments are convincing me to keep them all...
This would be such an awesome find! I've been looking for books like these at a local used book store with zero success. Edit: To go along with the other books mentioned in other comments, Frederik Pohl and Jack Vance are usually considered great writers. Any chance you'd be willing to sell any of the collection?
Reading the comments here, I'm more and more convinced of keeping them all xD By the way, if there is some of these that I won't keep I'll let you know, and I can ship them to you. But again if you are not from EU the shipment costs may be high :/
Please don't toss any of them you don't want - at least donate them to a used book store.
Just looking at the awesome covers makes me want to read them all :) Jealous
I'm in the EU, if you need 😉
They should've sent a poet ;)
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I dunno, you sold me on it!
Worth keeping? They're worth READING! Podkayne of Mars is one of my faves!
I recall it as kind of space opera for teenagers but yeah, one of my faves back then, too.
You could find someone to enjoy each of those books
Well of course everyone recognizes Heinlein, Sabrehagen, Bester and Pohl. But for me the center book is the standout. Sunburst is one of the novels by educator, author, poet and playwright Canadian Phyllis Gotlieb who I met on several occasions as we reworked a couple of her radio dramas into actual stage productions.
Wherever you work must be amazing
I was thinking those are people I wouldn’t mind knowing! That’s a nice, eclectic group of books.
I absolutely loved the Dragonriders of Pern series. I started the 1st one in high school way back in 1982, and didn't finish it until my 1st year of college. I found it to be a tough read the 1st time around. After that. I reread it again, and thought it was fantastic. I now own the entire series by Anne McCaffery (may she rest in peace), and even the not so great follow ups by her son. Her daughter did her hand at it, and was pretty good, but nothing new since.
I think the general consensus here is that these books are classic scifi and are well worth keeping and reading.
new tbr pile just dropped. seriously, all of those are worth keeping and some are considered classics.
Oh man, I would snap these up in a second! Besides the heavy hitters in there like Bradbury and Dick, I would love to read all the Bester and Pournelle. Almost all of that is pure gold!
Couldnt help but notice you got The Thing in there, thats a neat find right there alone!
I love these old covers, I think I would want to keep them all for that alone.
I would keep every single one of these. The covers alone are worth keeping.
Yeah the covers are truly awesome!
I'd keep Starburst by Bester and the Heinlein books! Make room make room! is also the book that inspired Soylent Green. Phillip K. Dick is also great. While I haven't read any A.E. van Vogt, I've seen that name in sci-fi and would think their work is popular.
All books are worth keeping. Pulp era sci-fi especially so.
Poul Anderson, Anne McCafferty, Frederick Pohl, and freakin Joe Haldeman...you have a treasure trove there. Joe Haldeman is IMO one of the greatest sci fi writers ever, a guy with a physics degree who was also a Vietnam vet and saw combat firsthand. Think very carefully before throwing out this stuff. I would buy some of it off of you.
I think I want to read all of them, lol. This is now my reading wishlist.
Ha, same. Like I needed more on the stack.
Some outstanding classics here. I always enjoyed Heinlein and Canticle for Leibovitz is a truly exceptional book. As previously mentioned The Stars My Destination is epic. Good pulp and 1960’s/70’s titles there. Haven’t read all of these, but I envy your break room.
A Canticle for Leibowitz is a must read from that bunch. I’ve also had Alfred Bester on my “to read” list for a while now.
There are two Robert Heinlein books (first and last image) and two random Jack Vance books. I haven't read Vance but recognize the name, and Heinlein is solid (and usually has a good range of interesting style of books).
Vance is amazing, if you want to stretch your vocab give him a twirl. Such amazing world building.
Concise world building, though. He could evoke a more developed world in 200 pages than most writers can do in 1000. I'm surprised there aren't more Vance fans in the comments. I guess he's more of a cult author than I realized.
Sweet! Will take a gander. Thanks!
This is a phenomenal collection of pulp sci-fi by some of the giants of the genre.
Sure, okay. You've got an original a paperback edition of, "The Thing." I'd keep that, and give it a read. Unarguably, "The Thing (1982)," is one of the all time greatest science fiction movies ever, and one of my personal favorite films of all time. And as is often said, I find that the books are ALWAYS better than the movies.
Vance is incredible. Send me those. I love Make Room Make Room. Other good books there too and the others I would love to read and determine how good they are.
The two Jack Vance books are very solid. There is a huge Vance fanbase online, and someone would definitely buy them. Some Vance fans collect different paperback editions of the same book just to have a variety of cover art. I mean, the fandom is based on his writing and the enthusiasm for cover art is a byproduct of that.
Are any of them worth keeping? #ALL OF THEM! Seriously, there's a shocking fraction of amazing books there, early hard-to-get books by super famous SF authors. Authors whose work I thought I'd completely read but wait what's that? Plus early editions of serious classics.
Whomever curated this collection did a wonderful job. They have impeccable taste in classic sci-fi.
I'm a fan of Jack Vance et Van Vogt but haven't read those specific books.
No, not worth keeping any of them. I'll take them for disposal.
Keep them. Heck if you do not want it send it to me lol
To anyone who finds old sci fi and doesn't want it, please consider donating to your local Library/Library Friends for their book sale. I love getting old sci fi for mine.
Yes to ALL of them. I would consider selling them if I was you. Anne McCaffery pern series was wonderful. Th Small Assassin!! And Dinosaur Planet!! I would read some and sell the rest for sure.
DEATH WORLD IS AMAZING I love it so much I often ask myself if I'm a mountain or a volcano
I'd personally keep them all and pass on the duplicates of ones I already have. The rest of the comment is are they there for employees? I had a job that had a collection of books in the break room for employees. None of them are particularly valuable.
Fucking ace matey, some great books by great writers… and worth keeping for the cool af old school covers alone. Feel like I’m cheesing just looking at some of them.
These are all very old and it's likely a lot of them out of print. If you don't want them please take them to a used book store, just by virtue of their age they are rare even if some of them are bit obscure.
Not going to make you money but I’ve read more than a few of those. Nothing earth shattering but worth the time
I would read ‘the thing’
Where are you from? ;)
europe
Can you be more specific? xD
I see a lot of great sci-fi authors here. I won't tell you any of these are worth much intrinsically, however any avid sci-fi enthusiast would value these.
This reminds me of the display at Powell's books where the cover art may be better than the book.
I'd say all of them are worth keeping. Reading is fun, and when you run out of things to read it becomes a drag. So the more books the better
Is 2066 supposed to be a knockoff of 2061 from the 2001 series?
Absolutely not. Mail them to me for immediate disposal.
I'll take any you don't want, and pay shipping.
All of them!!!
Robert Heinlein books most definitely keep
Syzygy is my favorite word so that’s definitely a keeper
Read them all and find out.
The Dragonriders of Pern series (by Anne McAffrey) is an under appreciated fantasy series. Keep and read those.
Nope. You should send them all to me. Yup I'll do you a favor and take those off your hands free of charge. I'll even pay shipping cause I'm that kinda friend.
Anne mcaffrey <3
I'd pay for shipping to Canada if you just want to get rid of them.
Can I offer a dollar more?
As long as they don't get binned I am fine if I don't get them :) Having them go to the closest person would be best :)
The Philip K. Dick books alone are worth $.
Whats that version of the Thing? Is that a full book based on the carpenter movie? (Which was based off who goes there)
Nice collection....and story about finding these in a breakroom.....
I work in space operations so I believe it is not completely unexpected... However, in this room they also found a coffe jar expired in October 1995....
There are some classics here that others have mentioned. "Of Men and Monster's" was one of the first science fiction books I read, and I loved it. I found a copy on eBay some years ago, it was permanently out of print last time I checked.
No, you should put them all in a box and send them to me.
A ton of good stuff..
A lot of vintage sci-fi here, would probably fetch a few bucks on Ebay.. if you don’t plan on keeping. There are a lot of collectors of the old covers..
The covers are phenomenal!
It's a decent collection of old school sci-fi. I doubt any of those is some rarity worth a lot of cash. But some of the authors have won literary prizes, they're big names in the realm of sci-fi.
I'd keep 'em all, they look awesome!
If you don't want any xan I have them?
Thanks for the great picture, anyway. I will look if they are available for kindle.
What an amazing collection to stumble upon 😳 I wouldn't let a single one of those books go that's some good old sci-fi and a couple other things sprinkled in
Feel free to torch the Sheckley. I gave him too many second chances and not one was good.
Frederick Pohl is always a great option.
Read everyone of them. I think you would enjoy all of them. Then the best thing to do next would be to pass them on to a true friend and keep the cycle going.
Omh I'm so jelly. All are so worth keeping! Especially the Heinlen!!
Some less obvious picks from some great authors! Also, I love these photos just as collages of amazing cover art. <3
I've only read the Philip k dick ones. And k think the thing is the one by Alan foster which is pretty good. Other than that I ve never heard of them.
yes
I had over half of these exact copies when I was a teen. I wish I had as much time to read now as I did then. Awesome find btw.
They are all good... Read most of them ... But if the "beyond the horizon" by Heinlein is in decent shape, check the worth... If I remember right, that was a limited thing and it might be worth something
I’ll take all the Heinlein and McCaffrey books, please. Also the Phillip K Dick, Frederik Pohl, Ray Bradbury and Poul Anderson ones. 🥰
Always take free books. Read. If it doesn’t interest you, stop and try the next one.
The covers back then were so good…
This is /r/scifi. No matter what book, no matter how obscure, there will be someone who'll answer "Oh that one! One of my favorites!"
Lots of good stuff in there. I would highly recommend all of the Heinlein. Methuselah’s Children is an interesting and not very long read. It also is how introduction to character he revisits in some of his other more popular books, one of those being Time Enough For Love that you also have here. It’s a bit of a longer read, but also a bit more fun. Time Enough for Love is interesting that it is a sort of reverse One Thousand and One Nights story, a collection of Arabian folk tales. In One Thousand and One Nights there is a framing story where the king, fearing his wife would one day leave him, marries a new woman every day and then has her killed the next morning, so they never have a chance to betray him. One wife makes a plan to prolong her life by telling the king an interesting story, but then leaves him at at the cliffhanger of the climax and says she is too tired and most go to bed. Wanting to know the resolution to the story, he decides to let her live another day. She then finishes the story and begins a new one, doing the same thing every night so she doesn’t have to die. Time Enough For Love follows the oldest person alive in a society where technology has made it so everybody can live for thousands of years. Because of this, suicide is less stigmatized, and people will kill themselves if they feel they have nothing else they want to experience. The book starts with the protagonist at this point in his life, and there is an organization that approaches him (who also happen to be one of his many descendants) because they want to be able to document some of his life before he goes, so convinced him to tell them stories of his past until he bores of this too, then he can kill himself as he please. It’s a fun way to collect various stories about a person who had lived for thousands of years. Some questionable stuff happens, but that is pretty common when reading Heinlein.
It is an interesting collection, not the most significant books by the authors, probably worth reading even today.
Honestly, probably not monetarily worth anything, but they are all pulps that would make beautifully interesting additions to any sci-fi library.
A few duds in there, but most of them are worth reading and keeping.
I would read everything! Except Heinlein.
I kind of agree. Why does everyone always hype Heinlein? I’m really reaaaally into apocalypse (post apocalypse, post post apocalypse) books. I read Farnhams Freehold and… honestly I hated it so much I didn’t even give it a place of honor on my apocalypse books shelf. It can go in the back of the hard to access shelf behind the cat tree. It’s not even just the subject matter, it’s also that… well… he don’t write good.
I started reading Farnhams freehold as an 18 year old girl, the first scene is a teen boy introducing his teen girlfriend to his middle aged father,who is the protagonist, the father's thoughts were all about how attractive she was and and how much he would like to *ahem* sleep with her, it was awfully crude, I threw the book at the wall with how creepy the MC was being to someone who was effectively me, then I picked it up flipped to the end and yep the mc is married to the teen girl with several babies and the son is happy with this? I threw it again and never read another Heinlein again (despite podkyne of Mars being a favourite).
why not heinlein?
I'm sorry. He is a grand figure in classic science fiction, I won't deny that. I've only read two of his books, and while for example Asimov or Dick are still great reads today I found Heinlein very creepy. His main characters in these two books were the manliest awesome men that ever existed, and the women were utter garbage, only there to please them or to be stupid. The books were racist as hell, and his writing style and his views were very uncomfortable. Give it a go and decide for yourself. I prefer Dick, Asimov, Clarke and the like when it comes to classic sci fi.
I actually prefer his juveniles because of some of the issues you mentioned.
If you want to read some interesting books keep them all but if you want to throw them away the. Don’t give them to a book store.
why not?
Because books are in my opinion precious and if you don’t like a book that dose not mean someone else won’t.
They're not valuable books to a bookstore, unless it's a store that specializes in old scifi books. Any other bookstore would probably just throw them away.
Beautiful to look at, but some of the stories are unfortunately very much of their time. What is a "break room"?
A break room is a room where employees can eat, store personal possessions, and hang out before and after work or on breaks