Thursday, October 21, 2010

Ten classic sci-fi books that were originally considered failures

At io9, Charlie Jane Anders and Michael Ann Dobbs came up with a list of ten classic science fiction books that were originally considered failures.

One novel on the list:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

While lots of Dick's books have fallen out of print (only to be re-issued later), his most well known (The Man in the High Castle, A Scanner Darkly, VALIS) have always been in print. Not so with Electric Sheep. Originally published in 1968, Signet published a 75¢ paperback in 1971. The book didn't reappear, until Ballentine published it 11 years later as Blade Runner (which would have put you back $2.75).
Read about another novel on the list.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? also appears on Robert Collins' top ten list of dystopian novels.

--Marshal Zeringue