Martin Last (1929–2006)

I have an absurd amount of affection for this little book. I first purchased a copy in the early-mid-1990s, before I had Internet access, and it was (and still is) an enormously helpful resource. I recently left my old copy out when I was looking up information on an author in it and my cat got ahold of it and tore it to shreds; I immediately got on Amazon Marketplace and purchased another copy. It will probably have a space on my bookshelf for as long as I have one.

The one problem with this guide--and admittedly it's a big one--is that it was published in 1979 (and given how long it takes to put out a book, probably the cut off is somewhat earlier). You won't find Orson Scott Card here. Or William Gibson. Or Douglas Adams, Dan Simmons, Lois McMaster Bujold, John Scalzi. You will though on the "Seven Parsec Bookshelf" find many seminal writers in the genre that many a list neglect. Not just H.G. Wells and Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs but such show more writers as Olaf Stapeldon and E. E. Smith. I certainly found many a writer to love through this book. So although I might be reluctant to recommend it to someone looking for a guide to science fiction, it's keeping it's place on my shelves. show less

Invaluable, but now sadly dated, guide to the field. It's still tremendously useful for material published through 1980, and the lack of an updated edition covering the last quarter-century of SF literature is scandalous.

This is an old book but I loved it when I used it when I was a kid and thought Heinlein was the man. It introduced me to a number of authors I had never heard of seeing as no one else I knew read SF. Thankfully we have the Internet now.