Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Nobody's mentioned Fritz Lieber yet.
Every time I think about modern politics, I think of Poor Superman.
I didn't mean to insult early Science Fiction, I just re-read Doyle's A Lost World a few weeks ago.
But I am looking at the "Cambrian Explosion" of Science Fiction, starting in the late 1930's.
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Fafhrd and the mouser, yes.
Among others.
But, oddly enough, the first book of his to come to mind after that, is CONJURE, WIFE.
The 30's is when SF began to be taken seriously and acquiring its modern forms and tropes but it was hampered by the distribution system. I tend to wonder what would those stories look like if the authors had the freedom of even two decades later. I suspect some of the episodic "novels" of the 30's and 40's would have ended up more polished. And longer.
The 50's, with the arrival of paperback originals is, for me, when the genre really started to mature. By the time the New Wavers were done (mid 70's) the field had coalesced into the forms we know today. Just in time for Star Wars to bring in massive attention.