Future Visions Books

There once was a bookstore in Houston that catered to the science fiction/fantasy/horror crowd. My nerdy friends and I enjoyed hopping in the car on the weekend and making the trek out to the northwest side of town. The first bit of fun, I remember, was trying to cross lanes of traffic to hit the Mangum/Dacoma exit. If you managed to make the exit, the bookstore was just to the right in a small strip center (10570 Northwest Freeway).

The store wasn't huge, but it was clean, well-organized, and had a decent collection of books in the genres I was most interested in at the time. Yeah, there were other bookstores that sold similar books, but this store catered especially to the interests of the geek community, much like Nan's did for comics and games.

The store sold new and used books. They had many used books in plastic wrapping. These were usually the older, first edition books. From what I remember, the prices were very reasonable. We would usually browse for half an hour and come away with 2-3 books apiece (even some with the plastic wrapping).

The store was also memorable for bringing writers in for signings. I was actually able to get Douglas Adams to sign my copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Fritz Leiber to sign a couple of books in his series with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

The northwest store first opened in 1986. In 1987, another store opened in The Village (5925-H Kirby). Future Visions stayed in business for about 10 years, closing shop toward the end of 1996, beginning of 1997. It's one store I miss.

Here's a list of some of the writers who came to Future Visions over the years:

11-19-1988
Fritz Leiber
Justin Leiber

Justin is Fritz's son. He's also a sci-fi writer, but he's probably known better in Houston circles as the slightly-quirky, highly-entertaining philosophy professor at the University of Houston. I had the pleasure of taking several classes of his, including the philosophy of science fiction.

After doing a little research, it looks like Justin left UH last year and is now at Florida State University!

3-17-1989
Douglas Adams

3-18-1989
Greg Bear

They lured Greg out of Seattle by offering him a private tour of NASA.

10-15-1989
Roger Zelazny

3-24-1990
Terry Brooks

11-10-1990
Robert Jordan

7-16-1991
Orson Scott Card

10-24-1992
Douglas Adams
Dan Simmons

8-8-1993
Mercedes Lackey

8-22-1993
Martha Wells

10-13-1993
David Drake

10-5-1994
Jack McDevitt

10-15-1994
Mercedes Lackey

12-3-1994
Harlan Ellison

2-21-1995
R.A. Salvatore

5-28-1995
Walter Jon Williams

6-2-1995
Eric Nyland

6-11-1995
Octavia Butler
Barbara Hambly

6-25-1995
C.J. Cherryh
Lynn Abbey
Jane Fancher
Martha Wells

7-9-1995
Billie Sue Mosiman
Sean Stewart

1-14-1996
Dan Simmons

2-17-1996
Bill Baldwin

4-21-1996
Harry Harrison

4-27-1996
Elizabeth Moon
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel

7-24-1996
Buzz Aldrin

9-13-1996
George R.R. Martin
Bradley Denton

10-10-1996
David Feintuch

10-14-1996
K.W. Jeter