50 SF Books meme
Nov. 16th, 2006 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustTurning up all over the place, but this is ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
desperance's version, which I like because it has the preamble: This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club.
ETA: Thanks tosartorias for pointing to this clarification from james_nicoll: "significant" means 'Not exactly "best" and not exactly "most popular," but somewhere in the middle, with as much wiggle room as we could build in. Basically, they were books that we thought were important to the history of the field, for various reasons.'
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.
Assartorias says, it's not the answers that are interesting, but the questions: where do these lists come from? I note that this one allegedly lists "significant" books rather than good ones - which maybe explains why I have read as many of them as I have: we don't know what's significant and what isn't until it's had time to settle, so that inevitably skews the list towards older works.
Even so, let's quibble: I suppose Harry Potter is "significant" through sheer popularity. But why The Silmarillion? Because it's such a perfect example of how not to do it? I note that it's one of the very few books on this list that I actively hated, and conclude that it takes a lot to make me finish a book that I am really not getting on with (being the long-awaited sequel to Lord of the Rings would do it) and - looking at how few books I've started and abandoned - that it also takes a lot to make me even start to read a book that doesn't draw me in to some extent.
I began by thinking that that "significant" bit is also why they list the wrong Pratchett (important because it's early, it's the start of something - but he improves so much later). But then, I have the opposite problem with the Delany (too late!) and, unless I'm confused here, the Gene Wolfe...
Sins of commission, sins of omission: I'm not a fan of John Wyndham, but shouldn't he be on this list? And Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud? And where are the comics - no, that's a whole 'nother game...
desperance's version, which I like because it has the preamble: This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club.ETA: Thanks to
sartorias for pointing to this clarification from james_nicoll: "significant" means 'Not exactly "best" and not exactly "most popular," but somewhere in the middle, with as much wiggle room as we could build in. Basically, they were books that we thought were important to the history of the field, for various reasons.' 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.
- The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien*
- The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
- Dune, Frank Herbert
- Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein*
- A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin*
- Neuromancer, William Gibson
- Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
- The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
- Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
- The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
- A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.*
- The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
- Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
- Cities in Flight, James Blish
- The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
- Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
- Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
- The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
- Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
- Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
- Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
- The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson
- The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
- Gateway, Frederik Pohl
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
- I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
- Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
- The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin*
- Little, Big, John Crowley
- Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny*
- The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
- Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
- More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
- The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith*
- On the Beach, Nevil Shute
- Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
- Ringworld, Larry Niven
- Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien- Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
- Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
- Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner*
- The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein- Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
- The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
- Timescape, Gregory Benford
- To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
As
sartorias says, it's not the answers that are interesting, but the questions: where do these lists come from? I note that this one allegedly lists "significant" books rather than good ones - which maybe explains why I have read as many of them as I have: we don't know what's significant and what isn't until it's had time to settle, so that inevitably skews the list towards older works.Even so, let's quibble: I suppose Harry Potter is "significant" through sheer popularity. But why The Silmarillion? Because it's such a perfect example of how not to do it? I note that it's one of the very few books on this list that I actively hated, and conclude that it takes a lot to make me finish a book that I am really not getting on with (being the long-awaited sequel to Lord of the Rings would do it) and - looking at how few books I've started and abandoned - that it also takes a lot to make me even start to read a book that doesn't draw me in to some extent.
I began by thinking that that "significant" bit is also why they list the wrong Pratchett (important because it's early, it's the start of something - but he improves so much later). But then, I have the opposite problem with the Delany (too late!) and, unless I'm confused here, the Gene Wolfe...
Sins of commission, sins of omission: I'm not a fan of John Wyndham, but shouldn't he be on this list? And Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud? And where are the comics - no, that's a whole 'nother game...
