I am building a list of compelling, thought-provoking or even just fun novels/short stories set in this current decade but published before the year 2020.
Open to the full range of genres.
Some of my favorite examples:
The Running Man by Stephen King
The Parable series by Octavia Butler
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
Vulcan's Hammer by Philip K. Dick
A Friend of the Earth by T.C. Boyle
The Gold Coast by Kim Stanley Robinson
by Sognatore24
3 Comments
The Rocket Man by Ray Bradbury. It’s a short story, not a whole collection though. The year the story takes place is never explicitly stated, but it is mentioned that the narrator’s father was “a boy in 1997.” If we assume the father was around 10 in 1997 and the narrator is around 10 at the time of the story, then it could conceivably have taken place in the 2020s
I first read “The People” books by Zenna Henderson when I was a teenager. At the time I remember thinking these were cool. People with telepathic & telekinetic powers.
I’m 67 now and recently purchased the collected stories of “The People” (ebook). Call the “Ingathering”. To re-read a childhood favorite. Except what I didn’t remember was the drama and emotion of some of these stories. Some of them are real gut punch when taken in the context of adulthood. Wow, what a great re-read.
Zenna Henderson was a teacher and writer of science fiction, 1917-1983. Most of these tales range from the mid 1950’s through the 1970’s.
I highly recommend , “The Ingathering” for any pre 2020 collections.
[Seven Empty Houses by Samantha Schweblin](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60206505-seven-empty-houses)