Editing Norman Spinrad (section)

==Major works==
[[File:Spinrad Solarians.jpg|thumb|An early edition cover of ''The Solarians'']]

===''The Solarians''===
''The Solarians'' (1966), was Spinrad's first published novel. Unlike Spinrad's controversial later work, this novel is a mainstream [[space opera]] featuring space battles, faster-than-light spacedrives, and an alien enemy, the ''Duglaari''. The plot of the novel concerns a fleet commander named Palmer who makes contact with a race called the Solarians, who emerge from isolation to help humanity in its long war against the Duglaari.

===''Bug Jack Barron''===
''[[Bug Jack Barron]]'' (1969), a pre-[[cyberpunk]] tale of a cynical, exploitative talk-show host who gradually uncovers a conspiracy concerning an immortality treatment and the methods used in that treatment, was serialised in the British magazine ''[[New Worlds (magazine)|New Worlds]]'' during [[Michael Moorcock]]'s editorship. With its explicit language and cynical attitude to politicians, it roused one British Member of Parliament's ire at the magazine's partial funding by the [[Arts Council of Great Britain|British Arts Council]].

===''The Iron Dream''===
''[[The Iron Dream]]'' (1972) is an [[alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]] novel, the bulk of which is the middle part consisting of a fictional fantasy classic entitled ''Lord of the [[Swastika]]'', written by [[Adolf Hitler]], who took up science fiction after failing as a politician. The first part explains that the deceased author Hitler was a sci-fi writer and that this novel was widely praised by [[fandom]]. The third part is a critical review of the novel and its aftermath.<ref>''The World Hitler never made: Alternate History and the memory of Nazism'' by Gavriel David Rosenfeld. Cambridge University Press, 2005 (pp. 287–293)</ref> According to Spinrad,<ref>{{Cite interview |interviewer=Uwe Weiher |interviewer2=Horst von Allwörden |title=Norman Spinrad on SF, Iron Dreams and commercial censorship |url=http://www.zauberspiegel-online.de/index.php/english-interviews-multilingual-491/6136-norman-spinrad-on-sf-iron-dreams-and-commercial-censorship |access-date=March 16, 2016 |work=Online Zauberspiegel |archive-date=March 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326003255/http://www.zauberspiegel-online.de/index.php/english-interviews-multilingual-491/6136-norman-spinrad-on-sf-iron-dreams-and-commercial-censorship |url-status=live }}</ref> the book was banned for twenty-five years in Germany, but was finally exonerated after appeals. More accurately, the book was indexed by the [[Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons]], thus the sale of the book was permitted, but the public display of the book or its covers was prohibited, despite the fact that there were no swastikas on the cover of the first German edition. The Iron Dream won a [[Prix Tour-Apollo Award]], and was nominated for an [[American Book Award]].{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}

===''A World Between''===
''[[A World Between]]'' (1979) tells of a mildly turbulent period on the planet of Pacifica, a [[Utopia|utopic]], democratic electronically mediated society, on which lands a ship from each of the two factions in the "Pink and Blue War": the patronizingly paternalistic Institute of Transcendental Science on the one side, and the rabidly man-hating lesbian Femocrats on the other. Nobody suffers a worse fate than political embarrassment, and status quo is restored by the simple fact of Pacifican society being better than that of either of the off-world factions.

===''The Void Captain's Tale''===
''[[The Void Captain's Tale]]'' (1983) takes place three or four thousand years in the future in an era called the Second Starfaring Age, a setting Spinrad revisited in the 1985 novel ''Child of Fortune''. The book contains elements of confession, love story, eroticism, and horror.

===''Child of Fortune''===
''[[Child of Fortune]]'' (1985) deals with the adventures of a young woman, Moussa, in her search for her true calling. In Moussa's culture, young people of her age and class undertake a [[wanderjahr]] during which they wander from planet to planet, free to go wherever and do whatever they wish. While on their travels they are known as Children of Fortune, and are treated with indulgence and kindness by most in memory of their own wanderjahr. The Children of Fortune blend elements of [[Names of the Romani people#Gypsy and gipsy|gypsies]], [[hippies]] of 1960s America, and other groups and legends, including [[Peter Pan]]. While some parents give their children a great deal of money for the trip, Moussa's parents believe that she will learn more with a true wanderjahr rather than a subsidized tour, so they give her little but a voucher for a one-way ticket home. Moussa becomes a "ruespieler" or storyteller, and takes the name "Wendy" in honor of Pater Pan, the man she meets, loves, and loses during her wanderjahr. The wanderjahr bears a superficial resemblance to the [[Grand Tour]] which many upper-class young men undertook after finishing school, the difference being that Children of Fortune are expected to have explored themselves as well as the world during their travels, and to come home knowing who they are and what place they want for themselves.

===''The Druid King''===
''[[The Druid King]]'' (2003) is a historical novel about the conflict between [[Vercingetorix]] and the [[Roman Empire]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0375411100.asp |title=Bookreporter review of ''The Druid King'' |access-date=2010-09-12 |archive-date=2010-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100203053652/http://bookreporter.com/reviews/0375411100.asp |url-status=live }}</ref>