Favorite scientific romances

[Lensman]

In the Victorian/Edwardian era, what we now term "science fiction" was sometimes called the "scientific romance". What are your favorite stories of the era? This thread will cover SF stories written in the Victorian/Edwardian eras and also those set in them.

Here's a list of mine:

Edwin Abbott Abbott
--Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Edgar Rice Burroughs**
--At the Earth's Core (and sequels in the Pellucidar series)

Arthur Conan Doyle
--The Lost World
--The Maracot Deep

Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill
--The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (graphic novel)

Christopher Priest
--The Space Machine

Jules Verne
--From the Earth to the Moon/ Around the Moon
--Journey to the Center of the Earth
--Mysterious Island
--Robur the Conqueror/ Master of the World
--20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

H.G. Wells
--First Men in the Moon
--The Invisible Man
--The Time Machine
--The War of the Worlds


**Technically ERB's writings were too late to qualify, but the *style* of writing seems to fit solidly into the late Victorian/Edwardian era.


I'd like to read some of the better-known "invasion jitters" stories of the era, such as Wells' The War in the Air. I have read his short story "The Land Ironclads", which was okay but nothing to rave about.

[nervouspete]

You might want to check out Jack Finney's wonderful, "Time and Again" which is about a man going back in time to mid 18th century New York. Quite a beautiful book, very romantic and quite thought provoking.

I echo your commendation of 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', I presume you've read the ace second volume with the martian invasion in it! Those tripods are something, aren't they?

I recommend G K Chesterton's 'The Napoleon of Notting Hill' and 'The Man Who Was Thursday', they're not science-fiction but they are something completely different to any genre at the time, a sort of action-romance-fantasy-philosophical religious allegory. Monty Python meets Indianna Jones meets Franz Kafka meets The Matrix meets The Bible.

I very much liked 'The Land Ironclads', Lensman. However I thought 'The War in the Air' unbearably clunky and preachy.

[Lensman]

nervouspete said:

You might want to check out Jack Finney's wonderful, "Time and Again" which is about a man going back in time to mid 18th century New York. Quite a beautiful book, very romantic and quite thought provoking.

I've heard several people rave about this book. I'm sorry to say I found it deadly dull. The plot advances with the speed of an arthritic, crippled snail. I also hate the plot contrivance of saying "The world will be destroyed!" and then later revealing it was only a building *called* "The World" (building) which was endangered. What a cheat on the author's part! Clearly I'm missing whatever it is that others love about this book.

nervouspete said:

I echo your commendation of 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', I presume you've read the ace second volume with the martian invasion in it! Those tripods are something, aren't they?

LXG was quite simply the best graphic novel I've ever read. I'd even rate it slightly above The Dark Knight Returns. However, regarding the WOTW tie-in sequel, I hate to be negative again, but this story was not to my taste, and I cared not at all for their depiction of the tripods. But, again, I know there are many who think this is excellent, so that's just me.
.

[Methos]

“Flatterland: Like Flatland only More So”