the sf books meme

[fileg]

This is the Science Fiction Book Club's list of the fifty most significant science fiction/fantasy novels published between 1953 and 2002. (I was born in 1952, so this really covers me) Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished (you won't find much of that here - I only learned to learn do it in the last 15 years or so) and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.



**1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
I don't even need to tell you about this - if you're here, you already know.

2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
not the Asimov I love, but good

3. Dune, Frank Herbert
I was torn about the asterisk here - I am inordinately fond of the first book, but I have issues...

4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
I have this thing about Heinlein. I read all the early ones, could not put them down, and yet hated the way he treated all his female characters. (That is, he often made them good characters, strong and independant, and *still* had them cave for the men at the end - as though it was more fun to screw up the lives of smart women) This one - I really liked it, all the way to the last chapter. That last page spoiled the entire thing for me.

5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
Can I give this a half-terisk? I loved the series when I first read it, but when I re-read it recently, I discovered that none of the favorite parts that were stuck with me over the years are actually in the book. And considering how much I love her wordsmithing, I even found that flat and dull. (*too many* geographical lists of islands that we know nothing about and never will - read like the begats for gods sake)

6. Neuromancer, William Gibson

7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
I hate the ending of this *so much* it's on my very short list of books I would un-read if I could.

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

9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Why no asterisk? I dunno... I do love it, but - I'm a tough grader.

*10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Not my very favorite of his books, but I liked all the ones I read

*11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
There were parts of this that made me so uncomfortable I could hardly read it, and yet it never occured to me to stop...

**12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
and the Michael Bishop sequel, The White Otters of Childhood

13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
and I can sing the entire story filk:
In the future when the towns are Caves of Steel
Down from Boston, Massachusetts to Mobile
There's a cop, Elijah Bailey
Who's the hero of our tale, he
Has a spacer robot partner named Daneel....

14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras

**15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
oh. yes.

16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
Jim loves them, and often reads them to me when he's reading them. I like them when I'm reading them, but I've never made it through one. I should remedy that.

17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
Uneven, but it would have been worth it just to read The Man Who Went to the Moon — Twice

18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
It's likely I did read this, since I read most of his stuff - I just don't remember it

19. *The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
I love Bester!

20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
Oh what an impact this book had on me. I love all the early Delany - so much that when I was married to my first husband and found this, newly released, in the bookstore, I bought it on the spot, leaving me with no money to get home. I began reading it while walking home, and hated it almost from the first page.

21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
I've read them all, I think, and I liked them.

22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
Chris loves Card and always tries to get me to read him. His politics of religion annoy me so much, I can't.

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

24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
I liked this, but it scarred me with the phrase "turgid purple organs." The concept was very moving, though I like it better as Voices From A Distant Star

25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl

26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
Ok, I've read them now. And just when I was starting to admit that as a series they were better than I had expected, I pretty much loathe book 6. I still think the first book is very weak and I can't understand how the hoopla originally got started.

27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
I still like the original radio plays the best.

28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
I've never read this, and I hate it anyway. It's just not my genera. It's a genera that, in general, squicks me.

30. *The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
but I still like Lathe of Heaven better

**31. Little, Big, John Crowley
wow

32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
Jack of Shadows is my Zelazny, though

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
Anything by Cordwainer Smith. Everything by Cordwainer Smith. Scanners Live In Vain. Must climb bookshelf, now...

*37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
Not my favorite Shute, but a longtime favorite. I think the era I grew up in made this do it for me. And, I have this thing about submarines, which you might already know...

38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke

*39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
Another book Jim and I bonded over.

40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys

**41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
The day this was released, Jim left work early so that he could have it in his hand when he picked me up from work. I've never managed to become as at ease with it as with LoTR, but that leaves it at number 2 on my list

42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
though God Bless You Mr Rosewater was my favorite

43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson

44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
This will be on Jim's list, I think. I wonder why I never read it?

*45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
bester! bester! bester!

46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein

**47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
I know the writing could have been better. I don't care - I was a kid and I loved it

48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
One of the very first books to make me crazy without reading anything but the covers in the store

49. Timescape, Gregory Benford

50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
maybe not my favorite Farmer - but certainly nudging the top.



I'm pretty old school, so I was surprised how many of my own formative/ favorites made the list, though with a few glaring exceptions: Way Station by Clifford D. Simak; The Broken Sword and/or The High Crusade by Poul Anderson; The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge; Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz... and to keep myself from making a list longer than the original - pretty much all the original Ballentine adult fantasy series (except the James Branch Cabell - I just never got it.)

Comments

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Little, Big made the list! That's all it takes to make me happy, really. :D

[fileg.livejournal.com]

Little, Big was not a book I loved right off the bat, but it grew into me with every single page.

[elicia8.livejournal.com]

Wow! You've read so many!

I would like to recommend Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It might not be exactly your thing (in fact, probably not), but the story is short, plasticky, and claws at you like a robotic hand fitted with rusty screws. The spider scene alone left an enormous impact on my thirteen-year-old self.


but I still like Lathe of Heaven better

Have either you or Jim ever seen the PBS movie version of this? Nobody believes me that it existed. :P

[fileg.livejournal.com]

I don't read as much fiction these days (and it tends to be historicals or mysteries) but I sf was my genera of choice for many years.

We have seen Lathe of Heaven - more than once. My friend he-Fritz ( as opposed to my friend aspidites or she-fritz) taped it at the time. I'd like to see them do it again, considering the advances in what you can do with film now.

[mikekellner.livejournal.com]

I read 6 of the top 10, 1,2,3,4,7, & 10

Loved the top 4 & agree.

Others I would include:

The Lensman Series: Doc Smith

Starship Troopers: Heinlein

1984: Orwell

Brave New World: Huxley

I am a major fan of Ringworld, though I only read it once. That would be top 10 on my list.

Dracula: Does that count as fantasy? My second favorite book after LoTR.

mk

[fileg.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. I don't even think of Orwell or Huxley as Genera fiction, but yes, both of those would be on the top of my list. I think 1984 is in many ways the better of the two, but Brave New World is my personal favorite, because of my often mention preference for language that makes me burst. Huxley died the same day that JFK was assassinated - there you have the trauma of my young life.

Dracula should count indeed, and is also a favorite of mine for language, though Frankenstein, with its Prometheus connection had a greater effect on me.

[bell-witch.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't be surprised at how few I've read, especially hard sci-fi. I am amused at Haldeman's inclusion and am massively ashamed to say that I've never read any of his work despite his association with Icon and the Science Fiction League of Iowa Students. I can only wonder if turgid purple organs had anything to do with lime jello (though I well know they didn't) and move right along.

I do fail massively at reading genre fic and I should be ashamed of myself. Did you actually read the Shannara book? It's not bolded.

[fileg.livejournal.com]

Genera fic is such a matter of taste. Science Fiction / Fantasy was my comfort food for years, but what makes this list work for me is that it covers the same era that I was really into reading it. I seldom read anything in the SF genera these days unless someone brings a particular title to me attention, or I have the urge to re-read an old favorite. Mystery is my current genera, and I would show abyysmally on a simliar quiz because I haven't got the background years.

I did not read the Shannara book. It seems excessive to express it this way, but I was actually offended by it's cover blurb in the store (though I would be hard pressed to say if that was because I felt like my formative mythilogy was being ripped off, or because of the "fuck, if you don't have to write your own book, I could be an author too" feeling. Probably both.)

[kodiak-tyr.livejournal.com]

It's bell_witch in another RP journal. Sorry for replying this way. I left off commentary of Shannara because it did not appear that you'd read it. I merely would have suggested that you not bother. Terry Brooks takes himself far too seriously and, though it's been such a long time since I bothered with the thing (years and years) I understand you can almost exactly parallel the original trilogy with LotR to a disgusting level. So... I know it's sold a lot and people know it and I've read it, but Shannara doesn't belong on this list and isn't worth reading. I can state that with confidence, having read it.

I did read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy but I wasn't reading a lot of hard sci-fi. I tried the first Pern book but could never get into it. I just feel so lost because I am a fangeek but haven't actually read a lot of the material considered classic in the circle.

I'm too long-winded

[notarysojac.livejournal.com]

My comment was too long so I had to make my own entry

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

I love Lthe of Heaven.

That'll have to do for the eighteen page reaction I have to this meme...