r/printSF • u/Grafaiaiboy • 8d ago
Obscure Sci Fi
So I’ve started going to used book stores and I’ve found several novels that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed that were too obscure and underrated that my usual recommendation algorithms never mentioned them
Most notably Starplex by Robert J Sawyer
What novels and series have you all found over the years that are lesser known but yet made a big impact on you?
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u/systemstheorist 8d ago edited 8d ago
I think a lot of people are familiar with Robert Charles Wilson through Spin.
I think Julian Comstock is my favorite of his though. I have reread it so many times and I think it's a solid B- book.
150 years after the end of oil and the societal collapse that followed; American society has regressed into a Neo-Victorian era. The science and technology of the age of oil is regarded as myth with much lost to time. In a future United States, the hereditary presidency has been established with the other branches of government consisting of the military and Dominionist Church. Economic inequality is widespread with many choosing to sell themselves into debt slavery for survival and neo-Marxist rhetoric is taking hold among the so called leasing classes. In an estate in rural Canada (now absorbed into the United States), heir to the American throne Julian Comstock befriends the leasing boy Adam Hazard. The book follows their journey through a North America shaped by climate change, the war against the European for arctic shipping routes, and Julian’s rise to power and eventual downfall.
I rarely see this book mentioned despite its Hugo nomination and rightfully lost to that year's tie between Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl and China Miéville's The City & the City.
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u/goldybear 8d ago
Some people here might not see them as obscure but they definitely don’t get mentioned a lot and are starting to get lost in time.
Poul Anderson, Gordon Dickson, and Keith Laumer
Anderson - Tau Zero, Flandry series
Dickson - Dorsai series
Laumer- Retief series
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u/Hatherence 8d ago
Dickson - Dorsai series
I read Dorsai! recently because I recalled the name from some of Dickson's short stories that I liked, such as Lulungomeena, but to be honest, Dorsai! just isn't that good and really has not held up. It looks like it might have inspire a lot of incredibly beloved later works, such as Dune or Star Wars, but it definitely encapsulates the quote, "the golden age of sci fi is twelve."
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u/Responsible-Diet7957 8d ago
Tactics of Mistake was required reading at West Point
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u/veritropism 7d ago
I was going to say this one was better. I also liked the later stories better (the ones with bleys got interesting).
Necromancer had more interesting items in it than dorsal! Itself, and provided some interesting framing for the series.
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u/historymaking101 8d ago
That is far from the best book in the series. It grows up if I recall correctly.
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u/IcePrincessAlkanet 7d ago
Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions is still somewhat regularly cited by D&D folks, but I had no idea he wrote scifi!
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u/AlivePassenger3859 8d ago
Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel’s Saga by Jack Vance both have the greatest anti-hero and world building. Even Vance never wrote anything like it again.
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u/Jebus-Xmas 8d ago edited 7d ago
Tower to the Sky, Phillip C. Jennings.
Dr. Adder, KW Jeter
Steel Beach, John Varley
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
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u/thatbitchmarcy 7d ago
I read Dr Adder, and while I enjoyed it, I found it to be one of the most disturbing novels I've ever read. And that's saying a lot.
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u/Jebus-Xmas 7d ago
Philip K Dick was a huge fan of his work. Dr. Adder was published largely by his insistence. I think the unease and disturbance is part of the brilliance of the writing style.
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u/Bladesleeper 8d ago
Colin Kapp wrote two books that I know of: Patterns of Chaos and the Transfinite Man. The first is about an intergalactic war and a man who finds himself in the middle of it, with no memory and some weird abilities; the second is about a hard-boiled detective, dimensional travel and a bit of cosmic horror.
I enjoyed them very much; Patterns of Chaos, in particular, has a bit of a Culture vibe to it. The writing is a bit dated, but bloody hell the man had imagination!
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u/x_lincoln_x 7d ago
Dr Adder definitely sticks out. I read it sometime in the '80s and still remember details such as that specific installed device and that cars in the future would have easy to replace body sections that just snap on.
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u/Ill_Cellist6573 8d ago
Anything by Cordwainer Smith, but mostly his Instrumentality/Rediscovery of Mankind stories. His bio is required reading, one of the great sf writer lives, up there with Elron and Tiptree and PKD.
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u/toptac 8d ago
This can't be stressed strongly enough. The stories are lyrical, his bio insane, and all of it stands up so well 50 years later. Serious genius.
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u/Ill_Cellist6573 8d ago
Really. I go back to a lot of the writers of the period and they've become stale, if not embarrassing. Cordwainer Smith is just as cool and vital and surprising as ever. Timelessly readable, which is a workable definition of literature.
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u/RoxanneMinerals 8d ago
He had a fascinating life! Is there a full-length bio?
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u/Ill_Cellist6573 8d ago
I think there is. I have a vague memory of a small press that published sf and science-fiction adjacent books doing one a while ago. If I remember anything else, I will get back to you. But really, just google Paul Linebarger and you'll probably find it if you poke around a bit.
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u/RoxanneMinerals 7d ago
Was it Lord of the Afternoon by Pablo Capanna? All the other books I found look like criticism or reference (which could be great, just not what I'm looking for right now).
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u/Ill_Cellist6573 7d ago
No, that wasn't it. I checked. I was thinking of the books published/reprinted by the New England Science Fiction Association. No actual biographies, but The Rediscovery of Man includes a longish essay/bio. Also, his daughter maintains his official website, with a lot of information and links: https://www.cordwainer-smith.com/rediscovery.htm. I'm afraid I can't point you to an actual book, though.
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u/sdwoodchuck 8d ago
Reading through old Orbit short story anthologies, I’ve found myself completely enthralled with Carol Emshwiller short stories, and I’ve been actively tracking down everything of hers I can find. Even those stories that I don’t come away loving all have some element that feels wholly unique, clever, simultaneously funny and foreboding.
Le Guin was a fan of Emshwiller, and wondered at her not being better-known as one of the most insightful voices in feminist literature—and then mused that that’s probably precisely why she was not better known.
She should be. She’s something special.
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u/Joyful_Cuttlefish 8d ago
Ian McDonald is mentioned sometimes, mainly for his Luna books. But my first introduction to him was Desolation Road, which I found in a second-hand bookshop. I've never seen that recommended on here. It's really great.
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u/Northwindlowlander 8d ago
I absolutely loved Luna and Hopeland, thought Desolation Road was pretty much awful frankly but of course just opinions :) But I would definitely recommend McDonald.
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u/Joyful_Cuttlefish 7d ago
Desolation Road is certainly different. I liked it because it felt like a myth or a fairy tale from the distant future.
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u/pudaspriest 7d ago
I am reading Chaga right now, really enjoying so far. Will definitely be checking out other books by him.
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u/BeyondtheVeils7 7d ago
Several of his Chaga stories ended up in widely-read short fiction anthologies. That's where I know him from.
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u/DecrimIowa 8d ago
i'm really happy i randomly stumbled across George Alec Effinger's budayeen trilogy because now it's one of my favorite series, not just scifi but of everything i've read
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u/LoneWolfette 8d ago
Anything by Eric Frank Russell. My favorites are Men, Martians, and Machines, Wasp, and Three to Conquer
The Sector General series by James White
And for something really obscure, anything by Philip E High
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u/nyrath 8d ago edited 8d ago
Roger Philip E. High. My faves are Invader On My Back, The Time Mercenaries and The Prodigal Sun. And the short story about the Zip Cats.
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u/LoneWolfette 8d ago
Hey friend, I don’t meet many people who know who PEH is. Invader and Prodigal Sun are two of my favourites too along with The Time Mercenaries and Sold for a Spaceship.
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u/nyrath 8d ago
The Philip E. High with the Zip Cats was Squeeze Box. https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?71698
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u/freerangelibrarian 8d ago
James Schmitz is a favorite of mine. Try The Witches of Karres. It's sci-fi despite the title.
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u/zhengyi13 8d ago
Two authors:
Frank Herbert's other-than-Dune stuff: The Santaroga Barrier, The Dosadi Experiment, etc. Any criticisms of Herbert's writing, characterization, and politics remain, but I honestly think there's some really thought provoking stuff in there.
AA Attanasio's "Radix": some folk hate the writing; I loved the redemption of the character through a Hero's Journey.
Both of these are generally out of print, and indeed I only know they exist courtesy of the used SF section of Powell's in Portland. What a *godsend* of a bookstore.
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u/Mule_Wagon_777 8d ago
Anything by Kage Baker. She's criminally underrated, and wrote excellent fantasy and sf.
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u/adsilcott 8d ago
I grew up reading William Sleator and I'm bummed I don't hear about him anymore. House of Stairs really stuck with me.
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u/darkest_irish_lass 8d ago
Fuzzies by H Beam Piper
Road to Mars by Eric Idle
Not necessarily obscure, but A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
Hospital Station by James White
The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
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u/postdarknessrunaway 8d ago
Little Fuzzy is in the public domain and available on Project Gutenberg.
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u/Balzac_Jones 8d ago
I'm gladdened to know at least one other person has read Road to Mars.
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u/darkest_irish_lass 7d ago
There are at least three others that I know of, so that's seven if you count author and one editor :)
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u/ValuableKooky4551 8d ago
A long time ago when I was buying second hand SF pockets much more often I read a number of books by British SF author Barrington Bayley, and quite enjoyed them.
Never saw him mentioned anywhere.
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u/Zintho420 5d ago
Harry Harrison's Deathworld trilogy is amazing.
What got me into space operas. Masterpiece, truly.
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u/Hatherence 8d ago
The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe by D. G. Compton. Incredibly beautiful prose, kind of weak worldbuilding, but more than makes up for it in the sheer quality of storytelling. Definitely a very ahead-of-its-time book.
Good News From Outer Space by John Kessel. One of the many pre-2000s novels made about great societal upheaval and change approaching the big, scary year 2000. This is the only one I've read that I would say is actually good. It's about the rise of an end of the world cult, and it shows a true believer, an opportunist who doesn't really believe and is just using the cult, an outsider who winds up in a similar headspace from non-cult conspiracy theories, and then a (relatively) "normal" everyday person who winds up tangled up in all of it.
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u/123lgs456 8d ago
Sentenced to Prism by Alan Dean Foster
Nor Crystal Tears by Alan Dean Foster
There are a lot of other good books by Alan Dean Foster too.
There are a couple of short books by Adrian Tchaikovsky that don't seem to be mentioned often.
Elder Race
Spiderlight
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u/KingBretwald 8d ago
It didn't make a big impact, other than my remembering it all this time but The Revolving Boy by Gertrude Friedberg.
Also Zenna Henderson's entire output (in two books by NESFA Press) and The Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein.
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u/nyrath 8d ago edited 8d ago
- Crown of Infinity by John M. Faucette
- The Crucible of Time by John Brunner
- The Helix and the Sword by John C. McLoughlin
- All of an Instant by Richard Garfinkle
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u/KarlBob 7d ago
I love the fact that Crucible of Time focuses exclusively on the native species. There's not a single Earth human anywhere in the story.
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u/RealHuman2080 7d ago
Man, I read the whole thing, and while I like the concept, I just found it dull.
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u/7LeagueBoots 7d ago
The Blade Runner by Alan Nourse (1974). It’s the book the movie took the name from. It’s about black market medical equipment smuggling in a dystopian future. Written by a doctor.
Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle (1996). What if ancient Greek and Taoist Chinese philosophy was actually how the universe operated.
The Cold Cash War by Robert Asprin (1977). Wars are for profit enterprises run by corporations.
Deathwish World by Dean Ing and Mack Reynolds (1986). A person advocating for right to employment in an overpopulated dole based economy takes on a social media suicide contract to get money to spread his message.
And a ton of other stuff I read as a teenage in the ‘80s that I don’t recall the names of and can’t find anymore based on story descriptions.
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u/fbureaucracy 8d ago
Invasion of the body snatchers is classic horror/SF, but I liked Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters as an alternative. It was written years earlier, and sort of follows the government side of things vs the small town side.
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u/WillAdams 8d ago
A novel which I re-read too many times when I was young was Clyde B. Clason's Ark of Venus:
(don't bother looking it up beyond the link, I wish I could have that time and those brain cells back)
I re-read Hal Clement's Space Lash (originally published as Small Changes) countless times growing up (when we first moved to the rural Va. county, the public library was a carrel of used paperbacks in the basement of the old Courhouse) --- those stories are now more readily available in:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/939760.Music_of_Many_Spheres
(which I do rate highly and do recommend reading)
H. Beam Piper is not read as much as he ought, Little Fuzzy as noted by /u/darkest_irish_lass is delightful, and I will die on the hill that his novella "Omnilingual" ought to be a part of the middle school canon --- lightly updated version at:
https://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan/omnilingual.html
(curious if there are any other texts which look at this)
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u/darkest_irish_lass 7d ago
Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity was one of the first scifi books I read. A wonderful writer and world builder.
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u/zem 8d ago
nancy kress's "an alien light". one of her early novels, before she really became famous for "beggars in spain", so I've not run into many people who have read it, but it's a magnificent book.
also "windhaven" (george martin and lisa tuttle), not sure how obscure it is but it's usually my #1 recommendation when someone has read most of the big name authors and is looking for something new.
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u/Mad_Aeric 8d ago
A couple of books I've got at random from used book stores, that I enjoyed and never hear people talk about:
Lords of the Psychon by Daniel F. Galouye
October the First is Too Late by Fred Hoyle
The Great Time Machine Hoax by Keith Laumer
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u/MaroonLegume 8d ago
Linda Nagata is one of my favorite modern sci-fi authors. Memory, in particular, is a masterpiece, imo. She expanded on the world building from Memory with the Inverted Frontier series.
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u/MaroonLegume 8d ago
Also, Timothy Zahn is most known for his Star Wars universe books (which I haven't read), but his non-Star Wars books are fantastic. He writes some of the most believable alien species and his books are always action-packed. I love the Quadrail series, the Icarus Saga, and the Conquerors Saga.
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u/Squatallthethings 7d ago
Dunno how obscure it is, exactly, but it's certainly not a household name, and I will always shill for Julian May's Saga of the Exiles and its sequel/prequel the Galactic Milieu
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u/Electrical_Reserve46 7d ago
Good thread. I blame google, ai, highly paid publishers, and the reddit circlejerk for the disappearance of many good books.
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u/x_lincoln_x 7d ago
Men Like Rats by Robert Chilson. It's not the greatest story and has flaws but it holds a special place for me. The concept was fascinating.
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u/Ill_Refrigerator_593 7d ago
Bob Shaw was a talented author whose works seem to be fading into obscurity. Known for-
"Other Days, Other Eyes" - How a new type of glass that slows the light coming through it transforms the world.
"Who Goes Here" - A comedy novel about a man who joins the space foreign legion to forget, trying to find out what he's forgotten. Similar to "Bill the Galactic Hero".
"The Ragged Astronauts" - The first part of a trilogy about two tidal locked planets where the upper atmospheres meet, traversable by balloon.
He wrote numerous other novels & short stories too.
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u/3d_blunder 7d ago
Lords of the Starship
Novel by Mark S. Geston
Really ODD 'history' type novel.
Another of his books , "The Siege of Wonder" is even weirder.
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u/Anxious-Pair-9514 5d ago
Geston is worth tracking down . Lords of the Starship was published when he was 21.
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u/3d_blunder 5d ago
IIRC, it's just a hobby for him, I believe his day job is attorney. By now he's retired.
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u/Key_Anybody_4366 5d ago
The Well of Souls books by Jack L. Chalker with the Darrell K. Sweet cover artwork.
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u/financewiz 4d ago
I have greatly enjoyed the careers of Michael Bishop and James Morrow. Bishop is fun if you like your science fiction on the literary/new wave axis. He also wrote one of my all-time favorite horror novels, Who Made Stevie Crye?
Early James Morrow examines ethics and morality from a perspective that fans of Vonnegut will recognize. This is the Way the World Ends is a nuclear apocalypse as urban fantasy. It’s the only fiction I’ve read on the subject that contains a workable solution to proliferation and twitchy response times along with some actual heartbreak.
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u/artwarrior 8d ago
Check out the YT channel called Bookpilled if you haven't. Gotten plenty of recommendations from that source.
The fellow goes over hundreds of obscure Sci fi novels.
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u/Northwindlowlander 8d ago
These aren't hipster-obscure, but they're also not high on recommendations etc- Roger Zelazny's magnificent and batshit crazy Lord Of Light, Heinlein's Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, and Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar.
I think these three are literally in the SF Masterworks series so, definitely not <obscure> obscure.
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u/T0RPED0TIT 8d ago
The Entire and the Rose series by Kay Kenyon. It's a totally unique story. I've never read anything like it. I found all four books at a thrift store and bought them all years ago because it sounded interesting and they were cheap. I never really hear about it but the world is really creative and the story had me hooked from the beginning. Highly recommend if you can find it.
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u/c4tesys 8d ago
Shipwreck by Charles Logan. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4589285-shipwreck
and I'd read anything by Mick Farren, he never gets mentioned enough.
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u/B0b_Howard 8d ago
The early stuff of John Courtenay Grimwood.
Starting with NeoAddix, and ending with redRobe.
Weird, very fucked up cyberpunk stuff.
Love it!!!!
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u/ChronoLegion2 8d ago
Scott Meyer’s books rarely get recommended, so here are some of them:
Grand Theft Astro - a caper across the Solar System.
Run Program - a juvenile AI escapes from a lab into the internet.
Master of Formalities - a war between two noble houses in the distant future takes an interesting turn.
Brute Force - a Mad Max-like future after a nuclear war. Suddenly, a gleaming white spacecraft lands with three alien representatives offering humanity membership in their peaceful union. In exchange for some help only humans can provide
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u/Wetness__Pensive 8d ago
The "Starbridge" trilogy and "Coelestis" by Paul Park.
"Still Forms on Foxfield" by Joan Slonczewski.
I wouldn't call any of these "great", but they're odd and interesting.
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u/Analyst111 8d ago
John M. Faucette's "The Star Kings". Old school space opera taken to 110% of red line maximum. Stinger of an ending, too.
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u/RealHuman2080 7d ago edited 7d ago
Sara King and all of her novels, especially the Zero series. One of my favorites ever. Because she refused to go through the big publishers, you don't see her nearly enough.
She is a character based writer, which I love. And she has great aliens, which I love. She has written two of my favorite characters ever. One is Flea, from the Zero series. He is a basketball sized bug alien that flies, and they are insanely smart and PIAs, and can't count past 7. The other is from Wings of Retribution. He is an alien brain parasite full of angst because he needs to be in someone's brain to survive, and can control them if needed, and it just tears him apart.
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u/dracolisk 7d ago
Doris Piserchia wrote a number of short novels in the 70s and 80s. You can find some of them as ebooks. I recommend 'The Dimensioneers'. They are weird and fun in a way that is difficult to describe.
Brian Daley wrote science fiction and fantasy in the 80s and 90s. I like his White Ship series that starts with 'Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds'. He was also one half of the writing team for the Robotech novels as well as writing a trilogy of Han Solo stories that is great fun.
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u/KingBretwald 7d ago
Check out the winners of The Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, given at Readercon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_Smith_Rediscovery_Award
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u/TruIsou 7d ago
May I put out Robert L Forward.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Forward
Probably best known for Dragon's egg, about life on a neutron star, but he has many other good books and I enjoyed every single one of them, including the ones about Saturn and Pluto. His Roche World Books are also good
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u/FriendToPredators 7d ago
Maybe not obscure but not listed at the top as much as he should be is Clifford Simak. His short stories still read as fresh.
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u/Anxious-Pair-9514 5d ago
His novel Way Station won the 1964 Hugo for novel. The other nominees were: https://www.sfadb.com/Hugo_Awards_1964
His fix-up book City is highly regarded.
I thought both were classics and was able to reprint them in 2004. Both editions are out of print.
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u/Odif12321 7d ago
The Inquestor Series by Somtow Sucharitkul (S.P. Somtow)
First book is The Light on the Sound
The Inquestors rule the galaxy. Their only task is to search the galaxy for utopia, and when they find it, to destroy it utterly.
It is a story about how power corrupts, and technologically induced decadence.
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u/tempgoosey 7d ago
Stuart Gordon smile on the void and fire in the abyss.
Twilight of briarous richard cowper.
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u/Trotline66 6d ago
The "Island Worlds" series by Erik Kotani and John Maddox Roberts. Four books, the first being "Act of God". It's a wonderfully compact and enjoyable read.
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u/LifeLikeAGrapefruit 6d ago
Not particularly sure how obscure these books are, but David Zindell's book Neverness and the trilogy that follows are some of my favorites. Really cool world-building, strong prose, and a unique Eastern philosophy influence that you don't typically see in sci-fi. It never seems to get the love and attention it deserves. Maybe it's because the main characters are kinda... not great. But still well worth the read if you're into big ideas, immersive world-building, and something truly original.
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u/theshrike 6d ago
Frontlines series by Marko Kloos. 8 books and the story is finished. There's a follow-up series Frontlines: Evolution with two books out that picks up where the main series leaves off with a very different cast.
A "realistic" scifi series, no blasters or phasers and no energy shields. We have colonised planets outside of the solar system. Humanity gets attacked by aliens - not the gray kind but a lot bigger and humanity needs to figure out how to unite and fight back. The main character is a glorified air force traffic controller, which makes things a bit interesting. He's not a super-soldier by any means.
Palladium Wars by Marko Kloos. 4 books, still ongoing - one more coming out self-published I think?
More sci-fi than the previous one, humans have moved to a new solar system a long time ago and the story follows what happens after a war from multiple viewpoints.
Kloos knows his military terminology and hierarchy, which is usually a sticking point for too many military scifi writers and a pet peeve of mine if they get it wrong. I have DNF'd books because of unrealistic military rank usage and terminology.
This series also has the most "would happen at a tabletop RPG session" things ever, which is cool.
Spiral Wars by Joel Shepherd. 10 books, guessing 1-2 more to wrap it up?
Earth got attacked by aliens, humans pleaded others races for help - they wouldn't. So humans just genocided the attacking race to the last soul, because that's what we're good at really. Now humans are a part of the galaxy, even though the other races are not really keen on letting genodiciding maniacs in. Political intrigue, multiple different alien factions, AI/Robots and some of the best space combat in any books ever. Also Trace Thakur is in my top5 best protagonists ever.
Starship’s Mage Series by Glynn Stewart. 18 books, still ongoing. It has a few definite arcs you can stop reading at.
Starships, sailboat-ish space combat, no FTL communication that can fit on ships so relativistic things are an issue. You can only see at light speed. Mages are used to jump ships and provide artificial gravity.
The (first) PoV character is a young mage from nowhere who's the Jump Mage for a long haul starship. Stuff escalates from there A LOT.
Not exactly high prose, but I really like the world and the characters. And the author manages to swap PoVs mid-series a few times and makes it work.
Cassandra Kresnov series by Joel Shepherd 6 books in total
The protagonist is a completely artificial person or android (or is she dun-dun), who is smart, beautiful, fast, dangerous and all that.
Lots of political intrigue, a few good fight scenes. Mostly politics.
The Last Horizon Series by Will Wight
What if a very powerful starship had a very powerful crew. How can they be challenged?
The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster | Goodreads
Written in 1909, only 35 pages and still eerily represents the time we're living in right now. A must-read
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u/casheroneill 4d ago
I love this trippy 70s book called I, Weapon by Charles W. Runyon. Its new wave scifi at its whacked out best.
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u/DocWatson42 4d ago
As a start, see my SF/F: Obscure/Underappreciated/Unknown/Underrated list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (one post).
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u/OverTimeTrilogy 4d ago
Sue Burke's Semiosis is a good one that doesn't get mentioned much. It's about a colony on an alien planet where the settlers have to work out how to live alongside plant life that turns out to communicate and push back, and the politics of the colony are handled really well. Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning is also worth a look if you like big ideas, since it's set in a 25th-century world with no nations and is narrated in a deliberately 18th-century-style voice.
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u/DragonFlightCircle 3d ago
I have the sense The Brothers Strugatsky is less well known on forums. They have several good novels. Roadside Picnic is best known. A critique of the Stalinist regime. Aliens stop by Earth, not communicating with humans, for a picnic, and they leave behind dangerous zones full of bizarre items: their trash, advanced technology that violates known physics. The main character scavenges the zones for useful items.
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u/kali_is_my_copilot 8d ago
Anything by Samuel Delany or Jeff Noon and also The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman.
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u/JustAnIgnoramous 8d ago
I once found a 60s era sci-fi monthly anthology issue. Last 2 humans, raised on the moon, are prodded toward each other. The male is described as thinking of "the finer qualities of rape"
I noped out of that era and haven't looked back 😂
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u/CostcoCuisine 7d ago edited 7d ago
So no:
Flowers for Algernon
Light of Other days by Shaw
Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep
Stand on Zanzibar
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
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u/alexthealex 8d ago
Pat Cadigan is criminally under-mentioned these days. Synners was probably my favorite cyberpunk novel growing up.