Recommend me some old Bitish sci fi.

[rumple]

Recommend me some british sci fi, im thinking cold war stuff or older, it needs to be readable and availible on a Kindle, so to sum up, British sci fi from the 50's , 60's and 70', thanks.

[paolow]

check amazon for Edmund Cooper - i think some of his stuff is avail for kindle?

Start with 'Seahorse in the sky' its one of his best IMHO

Edited by paolow on Tuesday 28th August 17:27

[Silver]

John Wyndham:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_scat_341677031...

Some great sci-fi from the author of Day of the Triffids. I recommend The Kraken Wakes, The Midwich Cuckoos and the aforementioned Day of the Triffids.

[otherman]

Wyndam...sci fi? If he was alive today he'd lay into you for that.

I agree about Edmund Cooper. I particularly liked The Overman Culture and The Slaves of Heaven. They're all fairly lite tough.

How about Arthur C Clarke, and of course HG Wells. Certainly this is a thin area.

[BIGDAI]

Have a look at Fred Hoyle (also his son Geoffrey) - some great old stuff there.

[Silver]

otherman said:

Wyndam...sci fi? If he was alive today he'd lay into you for that.

Well, all the books I mentioned relate to alien intervention of some kind so I don't think it's an inaccurate description, even if Wyndham wouldn't have liked it!

Regardless of whatever genre you want to label them as, they're good reads.

[otherman]

Silver said:

Well, all the books I mentioned relate to alien intervention of some kind so I don't think it's an inaccurate description, even if Wyndham wouldn't have liked it!

Regardless of whatever genre you want to label them as, they're good reads.

I agree Wyndham can't exclude them from sci fi, and I agree they're good reads, but I don't think any of those three involve any alien interventions. He always leaves the origins of the foe unexplained.

[rumple]

Some great suggestions, What im after in books and film if im honest is the sort of creepy, mist ridden corny, 'Why proffessor, they look completely alien' sort of stuff, when we still thought of ourselves as a world power, instead of a 'friend in the shower' for the U.S.A. Ive heard some radio plays on Radio 4, I cant help thinking theres alot of Sci fi ive never heard of out there.

[TooLateForAName]

Stuff like John Christopher?

[TooLateForAName]

http://savethescifi.com/

[cardigankid]

Try Hugh Walters, intended for kids - I read them when I was about 10 - but absolutely brilliant.

[onomatopoeia]

cardigankid said:

Try Hugh Walters, intended for kids - I read them when I was about 10 - but absolutely brilliant.

I read them when I was about 10 as well! Keep meaning to go on Amazon and try to pick up a few second hand to see if they were as good as I remember.

[Roman]

My favourite BBC adaptations:

Espionage/Thriller:
John Le Carre (esp. Smiley series with the excellent Simon Russell Beale)

The Pschedelic Spy - Great cast that even features Charles Grey (Blofeld)!

Fatherland

Rogue Male

Sci Fi
Slipstream + some others with Rory Kinnear

Earth Search

Non BBC: Ascent by Jed Mercurio - excellent.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ascent-A-Novel-Jed-Mercuri...

[cardigankid]

onomatopoeia said:

cardigankid said:

Try Hugh Walters, intended for kids - I read them when I was about 10 - but absolutely brilliant.

I read them when I was about 10 as well! Keep meaning to go on Amazon and try to pick up a few second hand to see if they were as good as I remember.

They were but now the originals cost a bloody fortune.

[plasticpig]

JG Ballard and Michael Moorcock. The creators of new wave Sci Fi.

[anonymous-user]

plasticpig said:

JG Ballard and Michael Moorcock. The creators of new wave Sci Fi.

Yes, 2 great writers of sci fi and fantasy, another of my favorites is Christopher Priest. He has written some amazing stuff over the years including The Prestige that was made into the film of the same name. My favorite novel by him is called A Dream of Wessex which is absolutely mind mangling, the way he writes is best summed up by the quote below from a review of one of his books.


The novel features Priest's traditional narrative hallmark, namely being written in clear and readable prose through which the author laces several narrative and thematic time bombs that explode in the reader's face at key points (dubbed 'The Priest Effect' by David Langford), including several hours after you finish the book when you suddenly go, "Hang on, does that mean..." and you have to go scurrying back to re-read half the book to confirm your suspicions.

[Efbe]

not british, but from what you are after you may enjoy: H P Lovecraft.

[Silver]

otherman said:

I agree Wyndham can't exclude them from sci fi, and I agree they're good reads, but I don't think any of those three involve any alien interventions. He always leaves the origins of the foe unexplained.

Well, kind of. He doesn't explicitly say that it's alien intervention but I'd dispute that the interventions are human or could be inferred as human. I'd like to elaborate further but I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn't read it.

[biggbn]

The original sci-fi book, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Still readable, lots of subtext relating to the authors own dysfunctional upbringing, set against a changing industrial landscape, make of it what you will....

[irocfan]

Quatermass books (TV tie-ins but still period)