SCI FI Book list

[mikekn]

From danabren:

The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1953-2002 according to Sci-Fi Book Club.

Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien*
The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov*
Dune, Frank Herbert*
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein*
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley*
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe*
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.*
The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
Cities in Flight, James Blish
The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison*
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams*
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
Little, Big, John Crowley
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny*
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
On the Beach, Nevil Shute
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
Ringworld, Larry Niven*
Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien (I was in middle school at the time...)
Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson*
Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein*
Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock*
The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
Timescape, Gregory Benford
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer*

Hmm... I may have found a source to help me choose what book to read next.

Comments

[danabren.livejournal.com]

You haven't read the Earthsea series by LeGuin? Ignore the crap version that was on cable recently that ignored the whole bit where he was black.

I really enjoyed Dhalgren the first time I read it, but for some reason, about 3 months ago, I disliked it so much that I threw it across the room and it promptly went into the "donate to the library" bag.

And Rice's vampire series is readable until about the 3rd book or so, and then it just ...devolves...

[mikekn]

Earthsea is one that's been sitting on my shelf for years and I've just never gotten to it. Same with most of Anne McCaffery's stuff.

Anne Rice's stuff never really caught my eye (I prefer my vampires and such from Tanith Lee). Dhalgren, I've never even heard of before this (checked it out on Wikipedia - seems Ellison had a similar reaction to your second reading).

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

The Earthsea books are very quick reads. And if I remember correctly (it's been a long time since I read them without knowing what happens in the next book) they stand alone pretty well, so you can read one and set the others aside for a while.

[mikekn]

Cool, good to know. It's getting to the end-of-year-rush-to-read-more :)

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

I have had a very hard time finding Timescape by Gregory Benford at a library, and I'm not sure I want to buy it because I only buy books I'm going to re-read.

[mikekn]

Most of these I'll probably try to get through PaperBackSwap.com. I see they have several copies of Timescape right now, but I just used up the last of my credits so I'll have to wait until some requests another of my books (I'm not ready to pay $2.75 for more credits)

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

Maybe if I had a collection as large as yours I'd consider lending my books to strangers, but with a collection as small and well-loved as mine, I rarely lend books to friends. Of course, I also always forget about ILL when I'm looking for books in local libraries.

[mikekn]

The PaperBackSwaps aren't loans, so I only list books that I want to get rid of. Usually stuff I've had for years and don't think I'll ever read.

I have no problem lending books to folks who I see with some regularity (I've only lost a few that way - most all easily replaced).

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

Ah. That makes it even less appealing to me as I tend only to buy books I want to reread over and over. If I ever end up living in one residence for more than 2 years, this may relax a bit, but for now, it's a good thing I keep my book collection under some control.

[lissa510.livejournal.com]

on the beach was very good...it made me cry...about atomic war...

[mikekn]

That's another one I've never heard of before this list. (must read more!)

[nicosomething.livejournal.com]

My 7th or 8th grade teacher assigned us "On the Beach" without having read it herself. This was around 1984, when full scale nuclear war was still a very real threat and movies like "Wargames" were actually scary.

Yeah. She finished reading the book and said we didn't have to keep going. I still did.

[nicosomething.livejournal.com]

I didn't see the date on this list at first. If it had been compiled this year "Lord of the Rings" wouldn't be on it since the last book was published in 1955. Kind of amazing to think about.

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

What books published since 2002 do you think should replace those published before 1957?

Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, might be on my list. Other things might be, but not until I read them first :)