Socialist SF Novels

F

fldsfslmn

excremental futurism
Holy crap, that's timely! For the past few days I've been totally obsessed with the literary potential of the post-apocalyptic (regular or zombie style apocalypse) novel/film, particularly the playing out of all the attendant political questions involved in "starting again." Unfortunately, I'm unable to access the link you posted at the moment.

Since discovering in my mid-teens that I'm hugely pretentious, I've found even the proximity of sci-fi novels quite repellant. But most of them are crap, aren't they? I hope I can access this link soon.
 
M

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
No, some are crap, but pleanty are amazing.

That's a great list. I'd like to read through all of them someday...
 
C

carlos

manos de piedra
i got a look at the list before the link went down- i've read a handful of those...

just to clarify though - the list is actually "Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read" - not the best socialist SF novels- which explains why The Fountainhead is on the list

i actually would like to see a list of socialist SF- specially some recent titles
 
J

jimet

Active member
Ken McLeod is as good a place as any to start. His Fall Revolution quartet is stunningly good and is entirely built by setting up different societies and having them bump into each other. So The Star Fraction is about a balkanised UK following the collapse of a socialist republic, The Stone Canal traces the roots of that republic to a schism in the Glasgow University Socialist Group in 1974, The Cassini Division constructs an anarcho-socialist economy and has it erode and The Space Road blows them all up. They're the most entertaining SF novels of the '90s.
 
B

blissblogger

Well-known member
big ommission

in that list is The Space Merchants by Frederick Pohl and CM Kornbluth which is this savage, hilarious satire of corporate capitalism set in a future where advertizing has run rife , resources are depleted (jewelry's made of wood cos it's more precious than gold) and there's a subversive underground group called the Consies ( short for Conservationists - Greens under the bed spoofting the Red Scares of when the novel was written)

also Rollerball, while not a book (well i expect there was a spin off novel) is quite an acute satire of corporate capitalism as neo-medievalism
 
B

Backjob

Well-known member
Hah! Yes, the Space Merchants is excellent, and extremely grotesquely funny - especially the bits involving the huge ever-growing chicken.

Another big omission is having any comics whatsoever e.g. Jodorowsky's "Incal"
 
C

Clubberlang

Well-known member
Theodore Sturgeon

He had a bunch, but def start with More Than Human and unfortunately titled The Cosmic Rape. I also second The Space Merchants which is just ridiculously well done.
 
A

adruu

This Is It
i guess bank's "use of weapons" was the inspiration for global communication's jungle alias, never knew that....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top