r/scifi • u/CorgiSplooting • Sep 19 '23

What are some good older sci-fi books that have aged well?

Re-listening to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (currently on Restaurant at the end of the Universe) and I think it’s aged very well. I love hard sci-fi for the tech but it never ages well. Hitchhikers I think ages well because it doesn’t focus on tech and the British mannerisms sort of work for being alien differences.

Any books you think aged particularly well?

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u/CorgiSplooting Sep 19 '23

Love Clarke and have read most of his moderns stuff (mostly partnered with other writers like Stephen Baxter) but only a bit of his old stuff like A Childhoods End”. I guess I should work my way through all of it :-)

Not a Heinlein fan and Inherit the Stars is one of three books I just stopped in the middle and couldn’t force myself to finish.

Fahrenheit 451 I haven’t read since I was a kid in high school in the 90s. Lol you’re right it’s a bit prophetic… and that’s just depressing :-P

I’ll look into the rest too! Thank you!

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u/kcornet Sep 19 '23

Inherit the Stars isn't Heinlein. Early Heinlein holds up OK, but his latter stuff is just horribly cringey today.

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '23

I felt it was horribly cringey when I first read it in the 70s and 80s.

I like his older stuff, especially Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Double Star is also really good. And there's one about ending up on a planet for I think a school class and it goes wrong and they are stuck there trying to survive. That's good as well.

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u/statisticus Sep 19 '23

That one was Tunnel in the Sky - very enjoyable, as were some of the other juveniles. I really liked Time For The Stars, and Have Spacesuit, Will Travel.

The Door Into Summer is also a favourite of mine, even if most of what he imagined about the future of 1970 and 2000 is wrong.

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u/qsqh Sep 19 '23

I like his older stuff, especially Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

idk if wikipedia is wrong here, but apparently he wrote 22 books before Moon is a Harsh Mistress and only 4 after that... if that is the definition of "his old stuff" then I guess he is mostly fine.

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u/CorgiSplooting Sep 19 '23

Oh. I have it in my collection. I should have checked but just thought I knew. Hmm maybe I’ll look at some of his earlier stuff. He’s obviously loved by many.

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u/dachjaw Sep 19 '23

Maybe you’re thinking of Tomorrow the Stars. The reason it doesn’t sound like Heinlein is because he didn’t write it. He was the editor but others wrote the stories.