Citegeist

This post is for my good friend, Bri the Sci Fi Guy. (NB: I just noticed that except for the top 10, the list is alphabetized. What sort of order is that?? this librarian asks..)

“Below is a Science Fiction Book Club list most significant SF novels between 1953-2006. The meme part of this works like so: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.”

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

And now I have a reading list to last me for the next 10 years. And I call myself a sci-fi fan. I’m disgusted that I haven’t read more of these. I get stuck with authors that I like, so I have read everything written by William Gibson and J.K. Rowling, nearly everything by Orson Scott Card, all sci-fi by Neal Stephenson (who has since moved on), etc.

I guess I was advised to read the wrong Heinleins, Terry Brookses, and Robert Zelaznys, because I hated the ones I did read. There’s a lot of great sci-fi that’s not on this list, either: Sheri Tepper, Connie Willis, Neil Gaimon, Vernor Vinge, Peter Hamilton, Jack Finney, Corey Doctorow, Matt Ruff, Brandon Sanderson… and I’m not even a prolific reader. Check librarything or my own dated list if you want to see what I have spent my time reading. (I’m currently reading The Baroque Cycle Vol 1: Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson and The Tapir’s Morning Bath by Elizabeth Royte. Neither is SF.)

Anyway, thanks to the Librarian in Black for this meme. I gotta meet her sometime.