American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels: 1960-1966 (New Stuff Tuesday)

American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels: 1960-1966 Book Cover

The editor of this series, Gary K Wolfe, has experience with science fiction, having written several other works on the scifi genre and having co-hosted the Hugo-nominated Coode Street Podcast. He previously wrote two partner-volumes of this series covering the 1950s. Here he chose to write two volumes covering the 1960s, because that decade was a time of upheaval for science fiction writing. The decade said “bye-bye” to the pulp fiction of previous decades and “hello” to more literary and cross-genre novels that raised science fiction to new levels and with expanded readership.

Wolfe has selected these classics for this volume of American Science Fiction:

  • The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
  • Way Station by Clifford D Simak
  • Flowers for Algernon by Daniele Keyes
  • …And Call me Conrad (aka This Immortal by Roger Zelazny)

In spite of being a huge scifi buff, when I did a quick scan of the novels included in this volume I found that I’d only read one, Flowers for Algernon. It is a really amazing and moving novel about ethical and moral issues related to medical advances. A search for other titles in the volume brought up award finalists and winners and high accolades by reviewers. Seeing as in all four volumes I’d only read a few more of the novels, I’ve now got a much longer reading list. I think you might too. The American Science Fiction volumes would be a convenient place to start and we have them in the Andersen Library available to check o ut.

The books in the series are:

About Martha

Martha is a Reference & Instruction Librarian and the liaison to the Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Languages and Literatures, Mathematics, and Physics Departments
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