New Wave Sci-Fi: 75 Best Novels of 1964–1983
New Wave science fiction from roughly 1964–1983 is revisited through a curated list of 75 works, prompting debate over what counts as “New Wave” versus hard SF and whether the list leans too heavily on Philip K. Dick and J. G. Ballard while underrepresenting others like Le Guin, Heinlein, or Pohl. Commenters argue over the purpose of SF (experimental, psychological, and literary vs. technology‑driven “hard” speculation), highlight overlooked gems and authors, and share auxiliary resources and reading orders for those wanting to explore the era’s more surreal, socially engaged, and stylistically daring works.
Overall reaction to the list
- Many readers like the list and enjoy this era, calling it when SF “gets interesting,” with lots of weird, hallucinatory, experimental work.
- Others dislike much of it, calling it a “winter” of SF, with many “DNF” experiences and a sense that only a few books are truly enjoyable.
- Some feel the list is shaped by a literary/academic sensibility rather than by core genre fandom.
New Wave vs other SF
- Multiple comments stress that this is a New Wave list, not a “best SF 1964–1983” list, explaining why many well-known hard-SF or “Golden Age” style works are missing.
- There’s debate over whether “New Wave” and “Golden Age” are meaningful boundaries vs. a gradual continuum of change.
- Several note that hard SF both predates and postdates this period, and that other movements (e.g., cyberpunk, transrealism) build on New Wave themes.
Views on specific works and writers
- One especially prolific writer from the era is widely discussed: some see them as a genius and foundational to modern dystopian and paranoid SF; others think they are over-represented, inconsistent, or hard to read now.
- Another major figure is praised for deep explorations of social and sexual identity; some feel they are under-represented on the list.
- There’s argument over which works “count” as New Wave and which are too traditional, too hard-SF, or more like fantasy.
Reading preferences: dark vs escapist
- Some readers value darker, psychologically intense books as sources of insight, including war- or trauma-inflected work.
- Others explicitly read SF to escape real-world problems and avoid “troubled minds,” preferring technologically grounded extrapolations over literary or allegorical experiments.
Suggestions, omissions, and related resources
- Various missing books and authors are proposed as deserving inclusion, while others are said to be misclassified or marginal to New Wave.
- A commenter provides the full list from the article in a machine-readable format.
- Several external resources are recommended: a large New-Wave-heavy anthology, a book-review blog focused on this era, and a Reddit project re-reading award winners.
Meta and nostalgia
- People reminisce about distinctive cover art and older reading setups (e.g., CRTs, noisy hard drives) as part of how these works were first experienced.
- Some note that certain “classics” are difficult or impossible for them to finish, while others repeatedly re-read them, underscoring how polarized responses to this era can be.