Audible Has Granted Some of My 2018 Wishes

by James Wallace Harris, 4/13/26

When I joined Audible back in 2002, I wanted to reread (by listening) my favorite science fiction books I had read growing up. Audible did a fantastic job producing hundreds of science fiction novels first published in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. However, there were quite a few I kept waiting to hear. In 2018, I published a list of 67 science fiction books I hoped Audible would produce. I came across that list today. I thought I’d reprint it, annotating which wishes were granted.

Unfortunately, Audible has quietly dropped many old science fiction books from its catalog. On a discussion board today, one member described a visit to Barnes & Noble, where he looked to see how many old science fiction titles that Baby Boomers grew up reading were available for new readers to buy. I’m not sure he would find any of these books in B&N’s science fiction section. I do give Audible credit for keeping a great many mid-20th-century SF in print. Luckily, I bought hundreds of old science fiction books on Audible, and they’re still in my library, even if they are no longer for sale.

Here’s my wishlist from 2018. I link to Wikipedia for those titles that are now available at Audible. (It was the best way I could make them stand out.)

Per the comment below, I’ve looked for these books on YouTube, and marked those titles.)

1. A Voyage to Arcturus (1920) by David Lindsay (YouTube)
2. The World of Null-A (1948) by A. E. Van Vogt (YouTube)
3. The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950) by A. E. Van Vogt (YouTube)
4. The Legion of Time (1952) by Jack Williamson
5. The Long Loud Silence (1952) by Wilson Tucker
6. Marooned on Mars (1952) by Lester del Rey
7. Bring the Jubilee (1953) by Ward Moore
8. Children of the Atom (1953) Wilma H. Shiras
9. A Mirror for Observers (1954) by Edgar Pangborn
10. Mission of Gravity (1954) by Hal Clement
11. Cities in Flight (1955) by James Blish
12. Citizen in Space (1955) by Robert Sheckley
13. Rocket to Limbo (1957) by Alan E. Nourse (YouTube)
14. Wasp (1957) by Eric Frank Russell
15. The Enemy Stars (1958) Poul Anderson
16. The Lincoln Hunters (1958) by Wilson Tucker
17. The Fourth “R” (1959) by George O. Smith (YouTube)
18. The High Crusade (1960) by Poul Anderson (YouTube)
19. Hothouse (1962) by Brian W. Aldiss
20. Second Ending (1962) by James White
21. Davy (1964) by Edgar Pangborn
22. Simulacron-3 (1964) by Daniel Galouye
23. Earthblood (1966) by Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown
24. Empire Star (1966)
25. The Witches of Karres (1966) by James H. Schmitz
26. Lords of the Starship (1967) by Mark S. Geston
27. Camp Concentration (1968) by Thomas Disch
28. Of Men and Monsters (1968) by William Tenn (YouTube)
29. Omnivore (1968) by Piers Anthony
30. Past Master (1968) by R. A. Lafferty
31. Space Chanty (1968) by R. A. Lafferty
32. The Last Starship from Earth (1968) by John Boyd
33. The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets (1968) by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
34. Behold the Man (1969) by Michael Moorcock
35. Bug Jack Barron (1969) by Norman Spinrad
36. Macroscope (1969) by Piers Anthony
37. And Chaos Died (1970) by Joanna Russ
38. The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970) by Wilson Tucker
39. The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth (1971) by Roger Zelazny
40. The Fifth Head of Cerberus (1972) by Gene Wolfe (YouTube)
41. The Listeners (1972) by James Gunn
42. The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe (The Unsleeping Eye) (1973) by D. G. Compton
43. The Centauri Device (1974) by M. John Harrison
44. Orbitsville (1975) by Bob Shaw
45. The Female Man (1975) by Joanna Russ
46. The Shockwave Rider (1975) by John Brunner
47. Trouble on Triton (1976) by Samuel R. Delany
48. On Wings of a Song (1979) by Thomas M. Disch
49. Ridley Walker (1980) by Russell Hoban (YouTube)
50. No Enemy But Time (1982) by Michael Bishop
51. Native Tongue (1984) by Suzette Haden Elgin
52. Ancient of Days (1985) by Michael Bishop
53. The Falling Woman (1986) by Pat Murphy
54. Mindplayers (1988) by Pat Cadigan
55. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (1990) by James Tiptree, Jr.
56. A Woman of the Iron People (1991) by Eleanor Arnason
57. Sarah Canary (1991) – Karen Joy Fowler
58. Synners (1991) by Pat Cadigan
59. China Mountain Zhang (1992) by Maureen F. McHugh
60. Ammonite (1993) by Nicola Griffith
61. Galatea 2.2 (1995) by Richard Powers
62. Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson (1995)
63. Holy Fire (1996) by Bruce Sterling
64. The Book of the Long Sun (1993-96) by Gene Wolfe
65. Aye, and Gomorrah (2003) by Samuel R. Delany
66. Store of the Worlds (2012) by Robert Sheckley
67. The Future is Female (2018) edited by Lisa Yaszek

JWH