SF Bookery Meme

[erikred]

Ganked from rimrunner:

This is a (suspect) list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction 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.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien *

2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov

3. Dune, Frank Herbert *

4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein

5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin *

6. Neuromancer, William Gibson *

7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke

8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick*

9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe

12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.

13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov

14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras

15. Cities in Flight, James Blish

16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett*

17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison

18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison

19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester

20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany

21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey

22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card*

23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson

24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman*

25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl

26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling

27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams*

28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson*

29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin *

31. Little, Big, John Crowley*

32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny *

33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick*

34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement

35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon

36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith

37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute

38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke

39. Ringworld, Larry Niven

40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys

41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien*

42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut*

43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson *

44. Last Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner

45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester *

46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein

47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock*

48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks

49. Timescape, Gregory Benford

50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

 

Comments

[narwhale.livejournal.com]

The Science Fiction Book Club is on crack if this is their list.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Coming from DC, this must be taken as expert testimony.

Also, yeah, pretty much.

[ophymirage.livejournal.com]

there is NO octavia butler on this list!! Dude, she's so groundbreaking!!

[kali921.livejournal.com]

...no Octavia Butler or Dan Simmons!?

Jesus, at least they remembered Gene Wolfe.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Jesus, at least they remembered Gene Wolfe.

This is doomed, DOOMED, to become a motto.

[tagryn]

I consider Simmons' "Hyperion" to be one of the best books I've read, SF or no SF. Unfortunately, the list is for "significant" rather than "best", and I don't know that his work has had the popular appeal of, say, Tolkien's or McCaffrey's stuff.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

While I'm not as big a fan of Simmons' Hyperion, I would make a similar argument in favor of the inclusion of China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. In fact, I would go so far as to say that PSS was certainly more significant than Harry Potter.

[ophymirage.livejournal.com]

One of the arguments i will make in favor of Harry Potter & influence: it got an entire generation of kids, kids who would normally never consider reading fantasy, reading fantasy. ;-) And they go on from HP to Philip Pullman & Christopher whatsisname writing the dragon series, maybe even eventually to Tolkien. There's a whole lot of that next generation that will be more susceptible to our influence fantasy readers because of HP, no matter what we think about the quality of the story. :-)