Book meme
Nov.16, 2006, filed under Miscellany
This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club.
Bold = read it.
Strikethrough = hated it.
* = loved it
underline = own it but haven’t read it yet
! = heard so much about it I feel that I’ve read it.
Italics = couldn’t finish it.
To spread the meme copy the list and format accordingly.
I’ve decided to treat these as commutative. Therefore, if something is strikethrough and has an exclamation mark I will not be reading it ever because I’ve heard enough about it and probably glanced at the first few pages (or read another book in the series), which is sufficient to decide I hate it. J.K. Rowling I dislike on principle.
Frood and I are both in agreement that this is not a very good list. The problem here is that they are being listed as “significant” rather than “good”. Presumably, for instance, Rowling gets a look-in because she has been made Saint Rowling after saving global literacy or some such rot. The Silmarillion is in there because it was written by Tolkien and thus has to be on the list. It has to be. Not too sure what’s significant about Stormbringer. They should have gone for the Dancers At The End of Time – significant because they show you can get any old rubbish published if you’ve already got an agent.
Very surprised to see no mention of Octavia Butler. Very surprised. Wild Seed is a fantastic work and I’m about to settle down with Fledgling after overdosing on later Pratchett (mostly to do with the Watch, because that’s his best stuff).
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** (I read this when it was called “Tiger, Tiger”)
!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
Snaffled, in case you were wondering, from Estara.
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Singularity
~something that is singular as (a) a separate unit, or (b) unusual or distinctive manner or behavior; PECULIARITY;
~the quality or state of being singular;
~a point at which the derivative of a given function of a complex variable does not exist but every neighborhood of which contains points for which the derivative exists;
~a point or region of infinite mass density at which space and time are infinitely distorted by gravitational forces and which is held to be the final state of matter falling into a black hole. Sight
