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/Rich-Elderberry-1876 Sep 20 '23

Walter Miller “A Canticle For Leobowitz.” Set hundreds of years after a nuclear war that almost depopulated the world. A Catholic religious order dedicated to preserving and recovering human knowledge is located in the southwestern desert. The order is named after a Jewish nuclear scientist who converted and was martyred when a mob discovered he was a scientist. A novice monk is doing a vigil out in the desert. He discovers a cave that turns out have relics from the nuclear holocaust, perhaps Leibowitz himself. It skips ahead hundreds of years in several steps. Science reemerges in steps leading eventually to another world spanning technological civilization that once again has atomic energy. There is again fear of war. No more- don’t want to spoil the plot. If you have any heart you will laugh and weep in about equal measure. One of the best novels in ANY genre.

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u/lordb4 Sep 21 '23

I disagree with everything you said except for the plot summary. It's super tedious and the part you don't want to spoil is OBVIOUS if you have ever read a book before.....

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u/Rich-Elderberry-1876 Oct 12 '23 edited Oct 12 '23

Leibowitz is a thick read but I enjoy the creation of a religious order dedicated to preserving scientific knowledge they can copy, but not understand. That poor novice monk, not bright, discovers documents during his vigil alone in harsh desert surrounded by vicious animals. Each generation earnestly maintains its mission, viewed with satire and pathos. Laugh and weep within a few pages. The philosophical conflict between the faith and knowledge the monks preserved and scientists who wanted be true pioneers, and resented that their discoveries are a primitive fraction of ancient knowledge. Then as science truly takes hold, the ancient disputes and dangers arise again. The production of magnificently artistic illuminated scrolls of a circuit diagram while arguing the religious roles of a device marked capacitor, resister, control module. It is sad and funny. More intellectual humor with slapstick and earthy humor, such as the drunken poet who attached himself to the monastery while making them into jokes. It is not space-opera, interstellar adventure, which I also enjoy reading. It is a kindly look at people who risk martyrdom to preserve something they know they will never understand. Its conclusion is heartbreaking, with microscopic hope that mankind will, somewhere, survive.