The *best* sci-fi?

[resonant]

I've read 38 of Phobos' Index of the 100 science fiction books you just have to read.



1. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
2. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
3. Dune by Frank Herbert
4. Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
5. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
6. Valis by Philip K. Dick
7. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
8. Gateway by Frederick Pohl
9. Space Merchants by C.M. Kornbluth & Frederick Pohl
10. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
11. Cuckoo’s Egg by C.J. Cherryh
12. Star Surgeon by James White
13. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
14. Radix by A.A. Attanasio
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
16. Ringworld by Larry Niven
17. A Case of Conscience by James Blish
18. Last and First Man by Olaf Stapledon
19. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
20. Way Station by Clifford Simak
21. More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
22. Gray Lensman by E. E. “Doc” Smith
23. The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
24. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
25. Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
26. Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
27. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
28. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
29. Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley
30. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
31. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
32. Slan by A.E. Van Vogt
33. Neuromancer by William Gibson
34. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
35. In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman
36. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
37. Eon by Greg Bear
38. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
39. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
40. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
41. Cosm by Gregory Benford
42. The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A.E. Van Vogt
43. Blood Music by Greg Bear
44. Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
45. Omnivore by Piers Anthony
46. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
47. Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
48. To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
49. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
50. The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
51. 1984 by George Orwell
52. The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl And Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
53. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
54. Flesh by Philip Jose Farmer
55. Cities in Flight by James Blish
56. Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
57. Startide Rising by David Brin
58. Triton by Samuel R. Delany
59. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
60. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
61. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
62. A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller
63. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (when these two are on a list, they're always together!)
64. No Blade of Grass by John Christopher
65. The Postman by David Brin
66. Dhalgren by Samuel Delany (repeatedly)
67. Berserker by Fred Saberhagen
68. Flatland by Edwin Abbot
69. Planiverse by A.K. Dewdney
70. Dragon’s Egg by Robert L. Forward
71. Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh
72. Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
73. Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein
74. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
75. Forever War by Joe Haldeman
76. Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
77. Roadside Picnic by Boris Strugatsky & Arkady Strugatsky
78. The Snow Queen by Joan Vinge
79. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
80. Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
81. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
82. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
83. Upanishads by Various
84. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
85. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
86. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
87. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
88. Mutant by Henry Kuttner
89. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
90. Ralph 124C41+ by Hugo Gernsback
91. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
92. Timescape by Gregory Benford
93. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
94. War with the Newts by Karl Kapek
95. Mars by Ben Bova
96. Brain Wave by Poul Anderson
97. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
98. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
99. Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch
100. A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs


I don't know about this. I've read "Mission of Gravity," and I would call it a curiosity, not a must-read. I have serious doubts that "Snow Crash" is still going to be on lists like this in fifty years. And ... would you -- would you really -- go out today and pick up a copy of "A Princess of Mars" or "Flatland" or "The Day of the Triffids" and read it just for pleasure? And if we're going to go the 'historical importance' route, where's de Bergerac's "Voyages to the Sun and Moon"?

And if we're only going to get 100 sci-fi books, do we really need three Heinleins and three Asimovs? Two Van Vogts, two Philip Jose Farmers? When we've excluded James Tiptree Jr. and Zenna Henderson and Sturgeon's short stories (it does say "books" and not "novels") and "We" and "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "Watership Down" and "The Gate to Women's Country" and "The Famale Man" and "The Sparrow" and "Becoming Alien" and "Riddley Walker"?!

I'd like to see the equivalent list of fantasy books. No, actually, I wouldn't, since I don't find the distinction between fantasy and sci-fi all that useful, unless you're a reader with a phobia ("Eeeek! Space ships!" "Eeeek! Dragons!"). So what I'd really like to see is a Top 200 Speculative Fiction Books. So I could quibble with that, too.

Comments

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

i've only read about five of these, and that's if i finished flowers for algernon, which i frankly don't remember so i should probably not include it. (the others are hitchhiker's guide, alice in wonderland, jeckyl and hyde, and frankenstein -- the last two of which i hated, actually, because That Era of prose and i aren't really pals.)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I adored "Jekyll and Hyde," but "Frankenstein" sort of left me cold. I think we're done with the era of The Dangers Of Too Much Science and well into the era of The Dangers Of Too Much Stupidity.

And no way can I justify calling "Alice in Wonderland" sci-fi. It all turns out to be a dream, for god's sake! I don't know quite what it is -- some new category like Linguistic Fantasia, maybe -- but it is not sci-fi.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

for real! i was wondering about alice, but i'm (as you see) hardly an expert, so i don't feel like i had a leg to stand on with challenging the list-compilers. :-)

for what it's worth, i put alice (momentary digression for nit-picking: alice's adventures in wonderland, dudes -- on this, i have legs) in the same category as coleridge's "xanadu" (okay, not really) or barrie's original peter pan (really really).

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

I'm glad "Dragon's Egg" made the list, but otherwise, I agree with your quibbles. I also consider the line between "speculative fiction" and "science fiction" to be rather spurious, so I'd include "The Handmaid's Tale," "1984," etc., and junk the Triffids.

I think "The Left Hand of Darkness" is on there, though --

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Oh, "1984" is on there too. But if they want to explain why "The Handmaid's Tale" isn't sci-fi when "1984" is, they're welcome to try.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Wow, I hadn't actually looked at this list before, and I'm sort of surprised that I have read quite a lot of them. I agree with many of your quibbles.

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

And ... would you -- would you really -- go out today and pick up a copy of "A Princess of Mars" or "Flatland" or "The Day of the Triffids" and read it just for pleasure? And if we're going to go the 'historical importance' route, where's de Bergerac's "Voyages to the Sun and Moon"?

Um? *raises hand* I have - for "Triffids" and "Voyages", anyway.

/geekiness

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

I am baffled, baffled, baffled at the inclusion of 'Alice in Wonderland'. What kind of crack-addled reasoning could POSSIBLY justify that as SciFi? It's about as SciFi as 'Jane Eyre', for God's sake.

Now Jeff Noon's Automated Alice (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0552999059/qid=1092361848/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-3520027-2730032) you could try to make an argument for, but it would be a crappy argument, because even if he's a SF writer it STILL isn't SciFi.

Ahem.

I'm just bad tempered because I've only read a handful of the books on the list, damn it. Am sucky SF fan.

[strangerian.livejournal.com]

Well, I've read 62 of them -- some when I was too young to know know better and had more stamina than I do now -- and I'm baffled by the inclusion of Alice as well. There's a high proportion of Musty Old Classics here, the sort of thing an SF historian might feel obligated to read, but which are mostly a matter of taste as to actual audience appeal in 2004. If you aren't a fan of slightly antiquated swashbuckling Princess of Mars isn't worth much, and if you aren't at least vaguely acquainted with stellar physics, Dragon's Egg isn't going to mean anything.

The list seems to alternate between very specific examples of Golden-age SF in all its pulpy glory, and books that seriously build on or fuck with reality, or at least try to in the terms of the time they were written. No doubt that's where Alice squeaked in, though I agree it's over the line and if we're including fantasy, there are some Dunsany and Tolkien and Eddison names missing.

I wonder if fantasy as a separate genre was ignored because so much of it builds on myths and folktales instead of inventing something -- whether structured speculation on alternate realities or merely a gimmick like taking the exotic warrior princess to Mars -- based on present-day understanding of the universe. (In which case, what is Dragonflight doing on the list?) It seems to ignore style, too.

Where's James Branch Cabell? And Terry Pratchett?

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

Yes, Dragonflight is SciFi only by the skin of its teeth. Some of the later Pern books, you could make an argument for, but Dragonflight is essentially fantasy, with the most cursory 'Oh, er, and it's all in the future on another planet' gloss.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I would definitely buy a new copy of either Princess of Mars or Flatland. Must dig out and reread my Burroughs. I'm overdue for a visit with the peerless Dejah Thoris, the incomparable Vad Varo and others.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

I must actually share in the love of the Flatland.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Huh. Maybe I'm missing something, then. (I've actually got it on my to-read list, but I've never been able to find it.)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

the peerless Dejah Thoris, the incomparable Vad Varo

Will never again mock a Mary Sue's name.

[panisdead.livejournal.com]

The Andromeda Strain?! What on earth?

[copracat]

And ... would you -- would you really -- go out today and pick up a copy of "A Princess of Mars" or "Flatland" or "The Day of the Triffids" and read it just for pleasure?

Yes. It's a bizarre odd list though. So much that is not there and too much double up of some, well. Heinlein. You only need one.

Quibbling is fun. I've always liked the name Earnest Quibbler.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

And ... would you -- would you really -- go out today and pick up a copy of "A Princess of Mars" or "Flatland" or "The Day of the Triffids" and read it just for pleasure?

Triffids, yes. I've read several Wyndhams, and I enjoyed them, inasmuch as one can enjoy reading about 10 different takes on the end of the world. :-)

ER Burroughs, though I haven't read him, might get a regain in popularity, as I read that book of his is getting a movie adaptation. (Ah, Hollywood. Ever so quick to snatch up those hot properties!)

...and I still maintain that 28 Days Later should have been more open about Wyndham's influence, because he could have used one of these, too.

My take on the meme is here (http://ide-cyan.livejournal.com/488421.html).

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Completely off-subject, but I've been staring at your icon for the longest time and can't quite figure... is that... Kate Mobley in the straight-on shot? Who's in profile? She looks so familiar!

.m

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Ha! Who's Kate Mobley? (ObGoogle...)

It's a still from Chocky's Children, a TV series (http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0202722/) based on a novel by Wyndham. (Chocky was an adaptation of the novel of the same title; Chocky's Children and Chocky's Challenge were sequels to that adaptation.)

It features Andrew Ellams (straight on, as Matthew Gore) and Anabel Worrell (in profile, as Albertine Meyer).

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Kate Maberly, whose poor name I totally mangled, is the star of the 1993 Secret Garden (http://www.dreamstarlets.com/features/!bios/kate_maberly22.jpg), and I swear in the movie she looks a lot like that little boy. *G*

These kids are very cute! :)

.m

[qe2.livejournal.com]

what I'd really like to see is a Top 200 Speculative Fiction Books.

Me three. So write it, eh? Your writing rocks in general, and your lists specifically are hilarious. (One of the first slash-related things I ever read was The Big List of Small Dogs (http://web.archive.org/web/20010425102300/http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Taping/5963/rnr/dogs.html), and it marked me irretrievably. Thank God.) Who better?

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Here here. I just looked over your Big List of Small Dogs. It's quite funny.

Anyhow, I think you should start a meme with the Top 200 Speculative Fiction Books. Maybe I will have actually read a majority of the books and heard of the rest -- or even want to read the books I never heard of!

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

I find I'm inevitably out of sync with lists like this. I guess I just value vastly different things in my specfic than the listmakers do (for example, the age of the book means absolutely nothing to me, so many of those books included because they are "classics" are things I don't consider must-reads at all).

Of course, I'm also of the opinion that lists of "must reads" for the genre of speculative fiction are rather defeating the purpose. That could just be me, though.

quibbles

[ubixtiz.livejournal.com]

Hmm...I'd be interested to see how your list would turn out. I suppose you could just make it an extension of the meme though, right? "Strikeout one (two? three?) book(s) you think shouldn't be on the list, and add the same number of books you think really should be mentioned at the end."

[ladyclio16.livejournal.com]

I'm just amazed that I am Legend by Richard Mattheson made it on the list. It was out of print for years so I'm always shocked to find others who have read it. Though I'm really not sure they have read it. Since it's not a sci-fi novel. It's a horror novel. It's been turned into two schlocky horror movies.

This is a list that includes Alice in Wonderland though. So....

[chaneen.livejournal.com]

Actually, I Am Legend was reprinted recently with a bunch of Matheson's short stories. I don't know if it's currently available, but I got my copy about two or three years ago at Borders. And I can see how one could argue it as sci-fi, but I've always thought of it as horror.

[ladyclio16.livejournal.com]

I know it was reprinted. I saw you could order it on amazon.com quite a while back. After I spent years trying to get a copy of it. I'd read the graphic novel (comic book) and read the copy of the book my local library had. You could argue it as sci-fi a little bit, but it's a horror novel in my mind too.

[kaneko.livejournal.com]

Puppet Masters -- wtf. Who wrote this list - I bet he was like 80 years old. I bet it was Robert Silverberg.

[timian.livejournal.com]

Ringworld by Larry Niven

That's actually the first book I ever read. I think I was in the second grade, and to Child Me, it was awesome. Looking back however, I see that he's pretty damn misogynistic. Still, it's an interesting book with an incredible central premise.

[aynatonal.livejournal.com]

No Left Hand of Darkness? This list is a travesty and a sham and I reject it!

[helvirago]

Indeed, no Tepper at all? Or Tanith Lee? Actually, now that I think of it, surprisingly few people seem to have read Tepper. And her sexual politics can be overpowering, but she's got such a talent for actually coming up with original worlds -- Grass being my personal favorite in that respect.

I do understand having at least two Heinleins, given that his concerns differed enough at different stages to be like two different authors -- whether they'd both be "must-read" authors is a different conversation.

Heritage of Hastur? Never heard of it.

But, uh, Left Hand of Darkness IS on there, isn't it?

[raucousraven.livejournal.com]

I've read Heritage of Hastur, and my fourteen year old self declared it good, but that is all. And as for Asimov, yadda yadda Foundation yadda -- where the hell are the Lije Bailey and Daneel books?! Or, indeed, Tepper or Atwood or even Bujold?

I say we generate our own lists. Purely for self-satisfaction, of course. (Also, think of the quibble room!) And damn canonicity, because best-of book lists are (should) not be History of SF course reading thingamabobbers.

[delurker.livejournal.com]

Personally I'm hate lists about books I *have* to read (a little voice always goes, 'or what? make me!').
I think it's tied into the idea of the Canon - ie. 'This is the Canon for sci-fi! We have literary credibility!' Which would explain the inclusion of much of the older books, and perhaps even Alice.
(Don't mind me, I'm doing Lit this semester.)

Anyway, just stopped by to say 'Hey! Love your writing!' and to friend you.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you're right about the canon. Personally I'm *way* beyond needing to have it proven to me that sci-fi can be taken seriously -- to me it's the realest of real writing -- so the inclusion of the old curiosities seems pointless to me.

And hi! Welcome to the monkey house.

hope you don't mind a belated comment

[hyperfocused.livejournal.com]

... but I just came across this today, while following a path from the Fraser/Ray K entry on Shipper's Manifesto to more of your fic to your LJ. (I'd been reading your work for years, but the recent rec made me get reacquainted)

Anyway, I had to comment when I saw you'd mentioned Zenna Henderson as among the missing on that list. She's a real favorite of mine, and I rarely find people who know her. (I've been toying with attempting a Smallville AU set in The People's universe, but hadn't yet because I figured no one would know the setting.)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Wow, that would be a really interesting crossover -- seems to me those two universes would mix very well. But you're probably right about most people not understanding the Henderson references.