by Mark Twimbly

It’s a great thing that some of the coolest and most influential works of science fiction and fantasy are in the public domain and free to download and read. Sometimes, though, those works get overlooked a little because no one is trying to sell them! Let’s try to remedy that situation, shall we?

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Jules Verne was the creator of ‘straight’ science fiction – where the story centers around an invention. This story of mad Nemo and his submarine has all the elements of the classic genre.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Wells, a deep thinker on world events, can be said to be the father of ‘social’ science fiction. Though this story centers around an invention, Wells creates for us a society dealing with the dehumanizing effects of technology in general.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
In this scientific romance, the invention is life itself, and Shelley skillfully weaves the story of terror and adventure into a metaphor for all mankind, for each of us on our own journey of life and death.

Red Nails by Robert E. Howard
Howard is the undisputed father of Heroic Fantasy, and his stories of Conan set the pattern for the genre of the Hero alone on his quest, fighting against the world.

Flatland by Edwin A. Abbot
This strange tale is an exploration of theoretical physics and a critique of society at the same time. What would life be like in two dimensions, if someone gained access to the third?

Wood Beyond the World by William Morris
A poet and politician as well as a fantasist, Morris was one of the first to take elements of medieval romances and place them in worlds of his own imagining – exactly what ‘high’ fantasy writers do today.

A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
More ‘fantasy’ than ‘science’, this book is the most popular of the ‘planetary romances’ that spawned the likes of Flash Gordon, and Star Wars decades later. John Carter jas exciting adventures on a martian landscape not unlike the American west.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
What can a man from the nineteenth century accomplish in Camelot? Twain’s acerbic wit is put to good use in this dark adventure story.

The Skylark of Space by E.E. Doc Smith
The story that spawned the ‘space opera’ genre and one of the earliest modern stories of interstellar travel. Here we have the science fiction invention, but the story centers more around the journey to far away places.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
‘Oz’ is the seminal work of children’s fantasy. Even the wretched 1939 film can’t take away the enduring power of this journey through an alternate world.

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September 10, 2010 10:37 am

by Mark Twimbly

Some people are fond of saying that Science Fiction is dying, drowning under the tidal waves of Twilight and Urban Fantasy. But down under the mainstream are some of the best, most challenging works ever written in the genre, and far from being classics dug up from the past, they have all been written in the last few years.

1. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

2. The City & The City by China Mieville

3. Finch by Jeff Vandermeer

4. Light by M. John Harrison

5. Wake by Robert J. Sawyer

6. Green by Jay Lake

7. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

8. He Walked Among Us by Norman Spinrad

9. Anathem by Neal Stephenson

10. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemesin

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September 8, 2010 4:01 pm

by Mark Twimbly

Every few months I check the SFF bestseller list at Locus Magazine to see if there’s anything I want to read on it – and lately, every time I ask myself ‘Where’s all the SFF?’. It’s like looking at an alien landscape, with everything but the alien landscape. Their bestseller list doesn’t even feature the stuff they cover in their magazine, so what’s the point?

I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own list of best-selling SFF books that genre fans who tend to pan on young adult and ‘urban fantasy’ might be interested in. So no romantic werewolves or majickal kiddies. And I also excised media tie-ins as well. Which , to be honest, leaves very little in any of the official bestseller lists, but that’s life: sometimes, the rarer the better.

I do want to make it clear that this isn’t a value judgement. I’m not saying that those ‘other’ books aren’t good, just that they don’t belong on this particular list. If someone wants to make the case that the Sookie Stackhouse box set should be part of this list, let’s talk about it!

So without further pomp and circumstance, on to the inaugural edition of the Plutonian Times Really Real SFF Bestseller list:

The Gathering Storm, by Robert Jordan
World War Z, by Max Brooks
Dragon Keeper, by Robin Hobb
Star Carrier, by Ian Douglas
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
Blackout, by Connie Willis
Black Powder War, by Naomi Novik

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February 24, 2010 9:03 pm