The Best Unfairly Obscure Books of the 1980s

[james_davis_nicoll]

Once a year, a question gets asked on rec.arts.sf.written: what were the best books of a given decade? So far this has been asked about the '50s, '60s and '70s so I am going to compile a list of candidates for the next time. I'd like to single out the best books that -aren't- commonly known or which at least saw lousy distribution.

My top two are the Rosinante trilogy (Alexis Gilliland)[1] and The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook, which got buried by Warner thingie (Questar?) when they had it. I should go look at the copyright on my George Turners. I am sure he did Drowning Towers back then, but Beloved Son is too early.

What books would you folks push?


1: Which I will count as a single because! that's why! Just Because!

Comments

[rosefox]

How on earth do you keep track of when things were published? The only books whose pub dates I know have titles like "Best SF of the Year 1986". I read so many used books that I'm generally completely ignorant of when they were written and/or first saw the light of day.

I might nominate Terry Carr's "Best SF of the Year" from 1984, though; it may not qualify, being an anthology, but I think it's the single book in my entire library that I have read and reread and rereread the most.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

How do I keep track? Obsession. I forget people, places, why I am standing in my hallway, but I remember books.

When I was a kid, my parents used me as the family card catalogue.

Anything edited by Carr was gold. If he were still alive, he'd probably have livened up recent SF with something akin to the effect he had with the first and third Ace Science Fiction Specials.

[rosefox]

One of the great tragedies of being a golden-age SF fan born in 1978 is that all the people I really wanted to meet died before I went to my first con. Carr was at the top of the list. I collect his work near-obsessively. Merrill, too. *sigh* It makes it hard to read more modern collections, honestly. I've just been spoiled.

Of course, I guess I feel that way about a lot of what's written today of any length, though doing F&SF book reviews for the last couple of years has--contrary to my expectations--introduced me to a surprising number of new writers whose work I really like. Maybe once they're all done rehashing Arthurian legend to death, we'll see an upswing in good original tale-telling. In the meantime, I'll be over here with Ackermanthology!.

[thette.livejournal.com]

I think it was just the book mentioned above I bought in a small town used bookshop on the plains of Sweden. For what compares to less than two dollars, US or Canadian.

I mentioned to the shopkeeper how happy I was that she sold a science fiction collection with one of the best editors ever, and got a shrug and a nonchalant answer. Somehow, it offended me.