(no subject)

[athelind]

This is a 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. 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

Huh, that's 30 out of 50 -- maybe a couple more. I'm honestly not sure if I did fail to finish Rama, and I might have read one or the other of the Ellison collections.

"Hated" may be a bit strong a term for Covenant and Shanana. Disliked, maybe.

Comments

[rikoshi.livejournal.com]

You've never read "I Am Legend"?

I thought you were the one who was talking to me about that one. Unless my memory is broke.

(And don't worry, I didn't finish Rama either.)

[araquan.livejournal.com]

I think I've read all of five or six of them. Every time I try reading The Silmarillion... I fall asleep somewhere around page 30.

[tephra]

A Canticle for Leibowitz was boring. The premise was good but the writing was so very dry.

[jakebe.livejournal.com]

Hooray, you hated Thomas Covenant too!

This is another list of books I'll have to add to my "I will read this someday" pile.

-J

[jirris-midvale.livejournal.com]

I feel like a dofus for not having read more of these. So many of these are on my 'to do' list.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

I never get why Slaughterhouse Five is on this list, hehe. I mean, it's a book I tremendously admire, but it's about a man suffering brain damage who relives events from his life out of sequence as a way of suggesting how warfare continues to damage people long after the war is done. The science-fiction element is nothing of the sort -- it's that Billy Pilgrim is suffering acute psychological and physical trauma! It's presence on sf lists continues to baffle me, hehe.

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

You know you've read one of the Ellison collections if you're depressed for a long time afterewards (both those collections are very very bleak)

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Gosh, and here I thought I was depressed because I'd been reading the news.

[hedgegoth.livejournal.com]

See, his books make the news look optimistic and cheery.