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Great Science Fiction that is Out of Print? 115

Posted by Cliff from the seeking-the-lost-words dept.
book_reader asks: "I recently came across a set of (the alas) out of print The Phoenix Legacy by M. K. Wren. This is/was an amazingly good classic space opera trilogy. So it got me thinking...what other great sci-fi books have vanished into the ether that I don't know about?"
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Great Science Fiction that is Out of Print? More

Great Science Fiction that is Out of Print?

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  • Stars and Under (Score:2, Interesting)

    by sunya ( 101612 )
    A whole series of fantastic short stories edited by edited by Edmund Crispin, titled "Stars and Under"... have been trying to find it for ages...

  • CS Lewis (Score:5, Interesting)

    by IainHere ( 536270 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @04:53AM (#5908688)
    They're not out of print, but also not widely read/known about. CS Lewis's trilogy "Out of the silent planet", "Perelandra" and "That Hideous Strength". I only came across them because I'm a fan of his non-fiction writing, which I strongly recommend.

    Like all of Lewis's writing, they're fairly Christian in outlook - that is, not endlessly talking of Jesus, but rather always relating things to a greater power. But they're easy to read and interesting. They get better as the books go on.

    Quick description (you'll find others online of course) bloke is taken to another planet my mad scientist (quite hackneyed, but honestly doesn't matter) and discovers a lot about mankind. Then goes to another planet, before spending a book on Earth arguing against dehumanising modernity. Yep, that about sums it up.
    • I'll give you two out of three - I didn't like Perelandra, much. Preachiest of the three.
      • "Preachy". Yes, that's the word I was looking for. They're all a bit preachy, and Venus is the worst, but the man could write and they're well worth a look.

        My other main criticism of the books is a little unfair, given they were written about 60 years ago, but he tends to ram the strange things on the other worlds down your throat - low gravity = stuff grows high. Repeat 300 times.

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @12:30PM (#5911017)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Hmmm... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cei ( 107343 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @05:16AM (#5908728) Homepage Journal

    I enjoyed Sterling Lanier's Hiero's Journey [iblist.com] and Unforsaken Hiero [iblist.com]...

    Most of Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero [iblist.com] books are sadly out of print...

    Most of the works of Clifford D. Simak seem to be unavailable...

    I can never keep up with what Harlan Ellison is available from what publisher at any given time. There's some good stuff that I was hoping White Wolf would re-publish when they were putting together the Edgeworks editions, but that series seems to have imploded.

    • Not to mention another great Harry Harrison satire, "Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers."

      Clifford Simak's "Way Station" leads my list of books I'd like to see made into a movie. Two reasons - because the plot is relevant today, and because I think the book could be done well as a movie. It seems that most good books suffer badly when movie-fied.
      • I always loved "Way Station". I think it would be great as a movie too. "City" would be interesting, too, but only if you hide who the narrators are until the end of the movie... :D
        Are Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld, specifically "To Your Scattered Bodies Go", out of print? I saw where Sci-Fi Channle made the movie, but that book used to be hard to find.
      • Is that the one

        _spoiler alert_

        where the girl runs off with something else, and the two boys competing for her realize they're gay?
        • Not someTHING, she runs off with the crusty old High School janitor, who turns out to have been a Soviet spy who through some sort of bizarre logic realizes that he's a true-blue American Hero and thus fit for the heroine.

          Vermont Cheddar cheese makes the BEST cheddite ray projector.

    • Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Informative)

      by egoff ( 636181 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @08:28AM (#5909204)
      Sterling Lanier's Hiero books are INCREDIBLE... They're some of the best sci-fi I've read.

      One good place I've found to get out-of-print books is at abebooks.com [abebooks.com]. They're UI isn't that great, but the selection is incredible; basically used book stores around the world load up their entire inventories.

    • I can never keep up with what Harlan Ellison is available from what publisher at any given time.

      The Dangerous Visions series, edited by Ellison, is a great collection of late 60's/early 70's speculative fiction (not necessarily SF) stories by authors whom you should know.

      The series is worth a read on its own, and has been out of print for a long time, so it qualifies as an answer to the original question. The first volume was released last year in a 35th anniversary edition available in all the usual p

  • ...by PD Ouspensky. Might be set for a reprint fairly soon - haven't checked. Fantastic sci-fi story from a Russian philosopher, about a guy who gets sent back in time to relive his life but with all the knowledge he has now. BUT... he finds himself still making all the same mistakes. Can he break free of "fate" or are we all just puppets of Circumstance?

    Read it NOW!

    • Isn't Ouspensky associated with the Gurdjieff cultish, religionist thingy?

      Great. Just what we need, another L. Ron Hubbard.

      • ...don't you get to spend staggering amounts of money defaming and generally trashing the lives of leading CoS personalities instead?

        Perhaps when Lafayette claimed to have multiple submarine kills off Oregon, he really meant Georgia, as in the bit of Russia next to Turkey? It has Black Sea frontage, and "next to turkey" could well be a short summary of Mr Hubbard's life.
      • Ouspensky met Gurdjieff after writing this book and for a while they worked together, but parted on bad terms eventually after disagreements.

        If you're worried about the book being tainted by his influence, then it's not - they hadn't even met then.

        There's nothing cultish about either of them, by the way. They're just a set of philosopies about how to combine eastern mystical traditions with modern western living. There's no 'charismatic leaders', money changing hands or enforced loyalty, which are what main

  • Pulp (Science) Fiction (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cei ( 107343 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @05:38AM (#5908752) Homepage Journal
    As I've been contributing to IBList [iblist.com] I've been digging through various bibliographies. One thing I came across that struck me as something I'd want to read was all the old short stories from the pulp science fiction magazines of the 40's and 50's. In particular, it seems that there were a couple of "house pseudonyms" used by the writers. I'd love to see the collected works of "Ivar Jorgensen [google.com]" (at various times, works by Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Randall Garrett, Paul Fairman and Richard Wilson) or "E.K. Jarvis [google.com]", (a pseudonym used by Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, Robert Silverberg, Henry Slesar, Paul Fairman and Robert Moore Williams).
  • ..if you're interested in Space Opera, his is the best; I recommend excession. Not exactly a niche market, but excellent science fiction nonetheless, and I guess it *would* be possible to pass him over.
    • And the whole series is out of print. I made the mistake of loaning out the books, and about half of them mysteriously disappeared. ("Dude, I returned it to you like a year ago...")

      I've been ordering used copies as I can find them, but it's a hit or miss proposition at best. A fantastic series though.

    • Iain M. Banks' Culture series is one of my favorites, and in the U.S., I can only find his 3 most recent books - Excession, Inversions, and Look to Windward. All the others are almost impossible to find - even in the used bookstores where I've looked. I guees everyone else likes them well enough to not sell them off.

      But, about a year ago I found a copy of Consider Phlebas in a Borders, along with 2 other titles, which I stupidly decided not to purchase. I was a bit annoyed to discover that it was only the

  • Daniel Keys Moran (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rjh ( 40933 ) <rjh@sixdemonbag.org> on Thursday May 08, 2003 @06:45AM (#5908917)
    Daniel Keys Moran wrote an extremely well-received SF trilogy: Emerald Eyes, The Long Run and The Last Dancer. Remarkable books, but due to a lot of Real Life stuff (divorce, birth of a son, new job, etc.) and the Woes of the Publishing Industry (contract disputes with Bantam, etc.), the succeeding novel, while written, has never been published.

    Check out some of DKM's stuff, if you like. It's not hard SF--DKM doesn't hold a candle to Vernor Vinge or Robert Forward[*]--it's definitely pretty firm SF. Just not quite hard.

    [*] Bob Forward is a great author of hard SF. Unfortunately, his dialog and characters are ... *cough* painful. Fortunately, DKM doesn't have that problem. :)
    • These books have a _lot_ of stuff in them: a UN (and de facto global government) run by the French (who everyone hates), people living in orbit, good technology (like a subplot about hacking the ecryption key out of the Moon's WAN in order to bust it out of government control), etc; given that the books were first published more than a few years ago, Moran developed some novel angles on fairly traditional sci-fi topics.
      I dig these out and re-read them every couple of years, they're so good.
      It looks
      • DKM's own Website is found at www.queenofangels.com. It generally has more current information than the Kithrup site, and you can probably even find Dan's email address in the site somewhere...

        Last I heard, Players: the AI War had actually been sold to a Russian publisher. So if you grok Russian, you're in luck...
    • Heh, I hit the comments of this article just to post about DKM's works. He's an incredibly good author who unfortunatly stopped writing. The other novel he wrote (which, with your list constitutes his entire list of works) is Armageddon Blues, which takes place in the same multiverse, a couple "doors down". Like Heinlein, he can do science, but perverts it for a good story, and lets the characters dominate.

      Armageddon Blues and Emerald Eyes are two fantastic books. I lent them to someone, they never cam

      • You forgot The Ring, which is a piece which Dan would probably like to forget he ever wrote. :)
        • Yeah, that's interesting. I read The Ring shortly after I read Emerald Eyes, The Long Run and Armageddon Blues. I thought it was great. It was kind of wierd, and had some overtones that might be questioned in this modern society, but overall I thought it was a great story.

          DKM is far and away my favorite sci-fi author. And, contrary to what's posted here, he hasn't stopped writing. He just published Terminal Freedom, co-authored with his sister Jodi. It's a hoot.

          And if you're up for some freeware s

      • I also lent my books and lost them forever. I monitored all his sites fairly closely for a time, but then I must admit, I grew fickle and lost interest.
      • Read the Long Run before you read The Last Dancer. It will make a lot more sense. And, if it's been a few years, re-read Emerald Eyes.

  • First I need some information... (Score:5, Funny)

    by jolshefsky ( 560014 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @06:48AM (#5908922) Homepage
    What other great sci-fi books have vanished into the ether that I don't know about?
    Please enumerate all books you don't know about and we'll pick the ones that are great sci-fi books that have vanished into the ether.
  • Without question, you should read the Witches of
    Karres. It was out of print for years, but a small print
    run occurred a few years ago. Amazon seems to
    have a few (it costs $30). This seems to have produced a
    glut of the older paperback copies (check bookfinder.com)
    -- before the new print run, it was almost impossible to
    find. This is fantastic old-school sci fi.
    • Thier was a recent edition printed in a bright yellow cover. You can pick that up cheap at www.bn.com and other.
      Thier is suppose to be a new book being up out set in this universe, hopefully next year or so. It is being written by Mercedes Lackey, David Freer, and Eric Flint.
  • It is no space opera. Lem always wrote 'serious' sci-fi. This one is about the contact with a multi-parts species and the lack of means to communicate. There is no happy end, there is no sad end either.
  • Not very widely known, but very good material.
    • The same Stansislaw Lem that wrote the novel "Solaris" whose movie adaptation was just recently remade with George Clooney?

      The same Stanislaw Lem that shows up constantly in the "fortune file", and that most geeks quote (even if they don't know it)?

      The same Stanislaw Lem that is the most published Polish author - ever?

      Out of curiosity, what's your idea of "widely known"?

  • I spent 7 years trying to find John Shirley's "A Song Called Youth" trilogy (Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, Eclipse Corona), which I consider one of the great earlier cyberpunk works. Apparently, it has recently been re-released.

    I would also recommend Norman Spinrad's Little Heroes, which is now out of print, but well worth hunting for.
  • These were good space opera, especially if you love martial arts and Eastern philosophy. Very well written, 4 books in all, revolves around a planet seeded with explorers from Earth. I never read anyhting else by this author, but this series was a favorite of mine at time.
    Also, Steve Perry, not sure if these are out of print, but, he had a series that started with "The Man Who Never Missed". It was also a great series for the martial arts enthusiast, but also laced with a lot of semi-political metaphors.
  • Just try to get books like the Foundation Novels (Prisoners of Stars, The Far Ends of Time and Earth, ...) or The Robot Novels, The Complete Robot, ...

    Just gone!!!

  • Three authors who really should stay in print:

    Stanley G. Weinbaum, most famous for the story "Martian Odyssey", a very early pulp writer who created an amazing array of alien life and worlds. Get his old "Best Of" Del Rey book (Alibris has some here [alibris.com]).

    The prolific Naomi Mitchison, who wrote in many genres, wrote two of the best scifi novels - "Memoirs Of A Spacewoman", which is a catalog of alien contacts with a memorable main character, and "Solution Three", an amazingly prophetic future history novel.

  • Jack Vance (Score:3)

    by GypC ( 7592 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @09:47AM (#5909652) Homepage Journal
    Jack Vance [jackvance.com] has written many excellent but out of print sci-fi and fantasy novels. But you can often find them at used-book stores. I recommend them highly; his mastery of the English language is astonishing, and his dialog is very witty.
    • His Dying Earth stuff has been reprinted, I grabbed a copy last year. It was the main influence for Gene Wolfe's series that started with "The Shadow of the Torturer", which has just been reprinted as well. Excellent stories from both of these authors.
    • Alright! Finally someone my favorite SF writer. Luckily the "Demon Princes" and "Planet of Adventure" books are back in print in two- and one-volume (respectively) collections.

      - adam

    • Talk about witty... Jack Vance is one of those Sci-fi writers who would have been a good writer in any genre. A great combination of emotion, playful ideas, humor, and linguistic ability. In fact he is one of the few writers I've read who had me laughing out loud.

      And I say this only after reading two of his stories: The Last Castle, and The DragonMasters. Got to get more.
    • Thanks to the Vance Integral Edition [vanceintegral.com], which reprints all of Jack Vance's work in a uniform edition of 44 hardback volumes. I just got my half of the set in the mail yesterday.

      Of course, at $1250 for the set, it's not exactly cheap...
  • should be on your list.

    I think it should be on everyone's list.

    A.
  • ... it would not be out of print.

    • You're assuming that every publisher over the last half century plus uses the same definition of "great" that we do. Not even close to true. I've been reading science fiction since the early 70s, and I can remember many books I thought were great but which disappeared after the first printing.

      SB
    • That's like saying, "If it was a good song, it'd be on the radio".

  • For a long time, at least according to my local bookseller, the second book in the great "Gateway [amazon.ca]" series, "Beyond the Blue Event Horizon [amazon.ca]," was out-of-print.

    It took me over a year to track down a copy (in the pre-Internet world I was living). I could never figure out why all the other ones were still be printed when the second one wasn't. Curiouser and curiouser.

  • Brunner's "Compleat Traveller in Black" is absolutely excellent, and in my opinion, well worth tracking down.

  • Goodness gracious- Used Bookstores! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SN74S181 ( 581549 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @10:51AM (#5910138)
    It's disappointing that anybody treats the Science Fiction genre as something that goes 'out of print.' That implies shopping only at new bookstores, and that is a serious error. Much of the great SF writing out there is only obtainable through used bookstores. This seems to have almost always been the case with authors like Harlan Ellison. Some of the better SF bookstores (i.e. Dreamhaven in Minneapolis) mix out-of-print classics in with the new books on the shelf because of this. It's disappointing to think that there are SF readers out there with a 'new book only' mentality.
    • Exactly. Unfortunately, it's a major shame that used bookstores are becoming more and more rare. There used to be 20 or so within an hours drive of here, now there's 3 (at least phone book listed ones, may be more but darned if I can find them!)

      One wish of mine is that once a book has been out of print for years, and it doesn't look like it will ever be in print again, that the author would release it to the public domain, so it can be read and enjoyed again and again. This would also help preserve a l
      • They haven't all disappeared-a whole lot of them simply went online because of the overhead in a b&m (brick & mortar). Good places to locate old friends in the book world:
        http://tinyurl.com/be6i Online Bookseller Directory
        http://tinyurl.com/be6q Steve Trussels site-lots of book links
        www.ioba.org Independent Online Booksellers Assoc/look for members list
        And for SF&F in general:
        http://www.locusmag.com/index//0start.ht ml Great SF&F e-zine

        Regards,
        Michelle
    • I used to work in a used book store, and the better (not necessarily popular) the author, the less likely people were to sell the book. Take me ofr instance, ive got some authors who Id never sell, juat because i enjoy reading their stuff too much.
  • It doesn't realy count as an all time great work of fiction.. but I happened to be looking recently for the third in a series by Jack Chalker called 'The Wonderland Gambit'.. all of which are out of print now after about 5 years. Can't find it anywhere for trying (used stores, even libraries! :P).. which is a shame, because it was a very clever series, and lots of fun to read.

    It's a VR-universe-jumping setup (predates the Matrix as a movie, but pays some homage to Gibsons stuff while adding a lot of it's

  • "Wasp" by Eric Frank Russell (Score:3, Informative)

    by AdamBa ( 64128 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @12:24PM (#5910954) Homepage
    The funniest (possibly the only really funny) sci-fi book I have read.

    - adam

  • Robert Heinlein isn't obscure, of course, but it's surprising that The Past Through Tomorrow (1967), an omnibus collection of almost his entire Future History stories and novels, has been out of print for years. The only source you can get a new copy is from the Science Fiction Book Club [sfbc.com].

  • Patricia McKillip (Score:3, Informative)

    by V. Mole ( 9567 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @12:59PM (#5911251) Homepage

    Mckillip's "Riddle of Stars" trilogy (Riddlemaster of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire and Harpist in the Wind) is terrific. Partly because it came out when fantasy was dominated by LOTR ripoffs (e.g. Shannara), but it holds up well after 20+ years. Or anything else by her. It's fantasy, rather than SF, but that's okay, since others have already referenced the CS Lewis trilogy.

    • Yeah, I've still got this series - I still reread it every few years.
    • The "Riddle of Stars" trilogy was just reprinted in a single volume as Riddle-Master: The Complete Trilogy and is still available.

      McKillip also wrote three science fiction books, all out of print: the standalone Fool's Run, and the "duology" Moon-Flash and The Moon and The Face. Fool's Run is quite good; very cleverly plotted. I've always liked her writing, but McKillip is a bit surreal for some.

      Sincerely yours,
      Jeffrey Boulier

      • Good to hear that the Riddle-Master is back in print. I've got Fool's Run, but had never heard of the other two, thanks for the pointer.

        I can't think of a McKillip that I thought was less than "pretty good".

  • Rudy Rucker once wrote a series of books that ended in *ware. There was software, wetware, freeware and I think a few others.

    I really liked them, but as one other poster noted, if they were great, they wouldn't be out of print.

    out.
    • The *ware books are all back in print. As are many of his other books. He seems to have been "rediscovered," as I have been able to find new paperback copies of many of his other great books-- The Hacker and the Ants, Spacetime Donuts, Gnarl!, White Light, Spaceland, Saucer Wisdom and so forth. At chain bookstores, no less. Amazon has quite a few in stock.

      I can't recommend him enough. Buy them all while you can!!

  • I recently came across a set of (the alas) out of print The Phoenix Legacy by M. K. Wren.
    Well darn. I was writing a historical documentary of the Mozilla/Phoenix/Firebird story, using that name. I guess I'll have to call it something like YABB (Yet Another Browser Book).
  • "A Canticle for Lebowitz" It's an interesting post-nuclear war senario. I'm pretty sure it's out of print. You can find paper back versions in the book swaps.

  • Jack of Shadows (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ashurbanipal ( 578639 ) on Thursday May 08, 2003 @02:06PM (#5911844)
    and Creatures of Light and Darkness, both by Zelazny and both blurring the boundaries of fantasy and SF.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Without a doubt one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read. Read "The Forge Of God" by Greg Bear. The sequel "Anvil Of Stars" is also excellent.
  • His stuff was totally original, in a different way from Philip K. Dick's oeuvre is different. Short stories "Scanners Live in Vain", "The Game of Rat and Dragon", "Queen of the Afternoon, "A Planet Named Shayol", and "The Dead Lady of Clown Town". Read about what Fremen would have been in a free society in the novel "Norstrilia", along with the trained spiders of Earthport, speiking and heiring, and laminated mouse-brain robots. He also wrote, as either Paul Linebarger (his given name) or Felix C. Forrest "
    • You can get his compilation of all his short SF stories in a book published by the NEFSA Press.
      Title: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith
      ISBN: 0-915368-56-0

      It has all the stories in the insturmentality series, except Norstrilia. It also has a few of his other stories; the original version of War No. 81-Q (which was not written for the Insturmentality setting); Western Science is So Wonderful; Nancy; The Fife of Bodidharma; Angerhelm; The Good Friends. I really reccomend CS for anyone w
  • Another (post-Bill TGH) Harrison series. Not exactly out of print... but the first one was a hoot (I haven't read all the others, so can't personally recommend).

    Have fun!

    OldFart
  • Was very enjoyable (at least when I read it for the first time, as a young teen). The latter books in the series tend to squishify (aka the 'Piers Anthony Syndrome)... but I recommend the first one 8-).

    Have fun!

    OldFart 8-)
  • Possibly everybody already knows this, but the web is a godsend for finding books your forgot to read when they were in print. I usually check alibris.com [alibris.com] first, but there are plenty of good online sources [google.com].

    When I go looking for an out-of-print Science Fiction title, I often end up with a volume discarded from a public library. Sometimes I remember seeing the very volume in my own public library, and passing it by. Gives one pause.

    More ontopic: of all the SF writers I've read, the one who most deserves b

  • The first Sci-Fi book I remember reading was a childrens book by Alexander Key called Sprockets: A Little Robot. I'd love to get a copy to re-read, but used copies are rare, and typically sell for over $100. It's a shame; it would be a great story to get kids interested in Sci-Fi.
  • Eric Frank Russell
  • This is a mix of SF, Fantasy, and Horror, and includes things I think are out of print:

    Novels
    Rats & Gargoyles - Mary Gentle
    The Werewolves of London - Brian Stableford
    Blood Music - Greg Bear
    Eon - Greg Bear
    The Glass Hammer - K.W. Jeter
    Moving Mars - Greg Bear
    Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, Eight Skilled Gentlemen - Barry Hughart
    The Hereafter Gang - Neal Barrett Jr.
    The Light at the End - John Skipp & Craig Spector
    Crucifax Autumn - Ray Garton
    The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman
    The Bridge - Iain Banks
    Evolution's Shore (a.k.a. Chaga) - Ian McDonald
    Holy Fire - Bruce Sterling
    Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
    Terminal Cafe (a.k.a. Necroville) - Ian McDonald
    The Night Watch - Sean Stewart
    Nifft the Lean - Michael Shea
    Fevre Dream - George R. R. Martin
    The Magic Wagon - Joe R. Lansdale
    Perfume - Patrick Süskind
    The Difference Engine - William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
    Synners - Pat Cadigan
    Lord of the Hollow Dark - Russell Kirk
    Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
    Door Number Three - Patrick O'Leary
    The Paratawa Trilogy - Christopher Hinz
    The Paper Grail - James P. Blaylock
    Firelord - Parke Godwin
    The Shaft - David J. Schow
    Empire of the East - Fred Saberhagen

    Collections & Anthologies

    The Hugo Winners (Volumes I & II)- Isaac Asimov, editor
    Strange Things in Close Up - Howard Waldrop
    Songs the Dead Men Sing (Dark Harvest version) - George R. R. Martin
    Vacuum Diagrams - Stephen Baxter
    San Diego Lightfoot Sue & Other Stories - Tom Reamy
    Night of the Cooters - Howard Waldrop
    By Bizarre Hands - Joe Lansdale
    Think Like a Dinosaur - James Patrick Kelley
    Dark Gods - T.E.D. Klein
    The Fire When It Comes - Parke Godwin
    Portraits of His Children - George R. R. Martin
    Book of the Dead - John Skipp & Craig Spector, editors
    Watchers at the Straight Gate - Russell Kirk
    The Last Defender of Camelot - Roger Zelazny
    Mirrorshades - Bruce Sterling, editor
    Slow Dancing Through Time - Gardner Dozois, et al.
    Seeing Red - David J. Schow
    Heatseeker - John Shirley
    Empire Dreams - Ian McDonald
    Patterns - Pat Cadigan
    Crystal Express - Bruce Sterling
    Before the Golden Age - Isaac Asimov, Editor

    Many of these are still available on the used book market. In fact I have many available at The Lame Excuse Books Web Page [io.com]
  • "And the Devil Will Drag You Under" by Jack Chalker
    "Waiting for the Galactic Bus" by Parke Godwin
    "Dark Star" by Alan Dean foster
    "The Damned" trilogy by Alan Dean Foster

  • by John Steakley. Not quite out of print, but hard to find. I think the last edition released was 1985-95. Enormously good book...the best science fiction book I've ever read.
    • Thankfully, someone else is a fan of ARMOR as well. For years, I've been combing used bookstores in my area to find copies to give to others. My favorite line:

      You are what you do when it counts - The Masao.

  • About his only work still in print is the Hellicona trilogy, which is a shame because his short stories are brilliant. Two compilations come to mind:

    Galaxies Like Grains of Sand is an utter classic. It's a series of short stories that chronicle the next few million years of human galactic history, including one in which archaeologists finally locate the ruins of the original Earth, which has been lost for eons, but are discredited as crackpots.

    No Time Like Tomorrow is another great one, but I only h
  • Since I noticed this article a couple of days late and enough people have mentioned my other favorite answer to this (Daniel Keys Moran) I'll mention M.A. Foster. Thoughtful, complex stories of ideas, if you like Frank Herbert's works you'll probably like these. All of these were published by DAW Books in paperback (remember the SF publisher with the yellow spines?)

    Two trilogies:
    The Gameplayers of Zan
    The Warriors of Dawn
    The Day of the Klesh

    The Morphodite
    Transformer
    Preserver

    Waves (a standalone novel in th
  • "Days of Atonement"
    "Aristoi"
    "Hardwired"
    "Angel Station"
    "Voice of the Whirlwind"
    "Facets", short story collection

    I think all of these have gone out of print now.

  • ...starting a "best of" list, but I'll confine myself to stuff that I'm pretty sure is out of print... since that was the question.

    The Worm Ouroborous by E.R.Eddison is an amazing story, though I suppose it leans a little more toward fantasy than science fiction.

    Anything by Philip K. Dick is good, I include him only because it's sort of hit-or-miss whether or not you'll see his books in a "new book" bookstore.

    Jack Vance has already been mentioned, but he deserves to be flogged again. If you are a fan

  • This series, written by the author of Trillion Year Spree and the Myst novels, is by far the most underrated Sci-Fi series of all time. At the very least, it's my very favorite collection of books (I have a whole bookshelf dedicated to nothing else).
    I learned of the series after a copy of the first novel fell into the hands of my father from a colleague, while on a family vacation over a decade ago. Each day, before his daily nap, my father would pick up the book and attempt to get past the 5+ page long ch

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