Hmmm, this is an excellent question. In a lot of ways it begs the difference between "things I liked 20 years ago" and "things I like now that are old".
Weber's Mutineer's Moon is definitely that old, as is On Basilisk Station and the next couple of Harrington books.
C J Cherryh's The Pride of Chanur et seq., Downbelow Station, and much of the rest of the Alliance/Union universe, date to that period.
Chris Stassheff's The Warlock in Spite of Himself...
Robert Lynn Asprin's Thieves' World shared-universe stuff
Barbara Hambly's 'Darwath' trilogy
I was a big fan of Mercedes Lackey's 'elves in modern day' stuff, back then... Still find it readable
Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed, one of the early "diplomatic" sci-fi stories
The first two volumes of P C Hodgell's 'Kencyrath' stories, and the first three of Miller & Lee's 'Liaden' universe, are all excellent
Herbert's Dune, of course.
I could probably add a dozen more, I was a voracious reader even then....
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Weber's Mutineer's Moon is definitely that old, as is On Basilisk Station and the next couple of Harrington books.
C J Cherryh's The Pride of Chanur et seq., Downbelow Station, and much of the rest of the Alliance/Union universe, date to that period.
Chris Stassheff's The Warlock in Spite of Himself...
Robert Lynn Asprin's Thieves' World shared-universe stuff
Barbara Hambly's 'Darwath' trilogy
I was a big fan of Mercedes Lackey's 'elves in modern day' stuff, back then... Still find it readable
Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed, one of the early "diplomatic" sci-fi stories
The first two volumes of P C Hodgell's 'Kencyrath' stories, and the first three of Miller & Lee's 'Liaden' universe, are all excellent
Herbert's Dune, of course.
I could probably add a dozen more, I was a voracious reader even then....
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.