SF and me

As I have mentioned before, I started reading dystopias at eight. This naturally led to my reading science fiction or SF (never scifi) and the third book was, as I have said, Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men, in the Wellsian tradition.

But it wasn't all literary. Dreck. I craved dreck! As someone once said, it's time to get SF out of the universities, and back in the gutter where it belongs. So I was intrigued by this list of best SF of the last 50 years, at tikistitch, via Pharyngula. The titles I have read are in bold.

The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1953-2002

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 First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, 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



But where is No enemy but time? by Michael Bishop? Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward? And why include the ones I marked in italic as SF? Fantasy ain't SF, dude.

Late change: I read the Wikipedia entry for Children of the Atom, and I recall the story line, so I added it.

Tags

More like this

Once again, my sheep-like characteristics manifest themselves and I find myself dutifully following Orac, PZ, Bora, Joseph, John, Rob, and Afarensis in listing (in bold) those of the "Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years" that I have read. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R.…
Tikistitch has put up a list of the "Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years" (hey, as old as I am!). Put the ones you've read in bold — I've put my list below the fold. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov Dune, Frank Herbert Stranger in a…
So many wonderful books! I was surprised. As much as I love science fiction, I've only read about a quarter of books on this "most significant science fiction" list that's been floating around. No bother, though... that's just more that I get to read at some later date. Here's the list, with ones I…
This is from a meme; Tikistitch has put up a list of the " href="http://tikistitch.livejournal.com/570773.html">Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years".  I got this from href="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2006/08/essential_science_fiction.php">Coturnix, who got it…

What amazes me is that I've read almost all the SF books you have and I'm not a fan. The other interesting thing: very few of these books were published in the last decade or two. Where are the recent SF books that are worth reading?

"Where are the recent SF books that are worth reading?"

It's not guaranteed, but following the major awards sometimes suggests books worth investigating.

These include:
* Nebula Awards (peer review, voted on by Active Members of Science Fiction Writers of America)
* Hugo Awards (people's choice, by paid members of the World Science Fiction Convention, mostly fans)
* John W. Campbell awards
* Theodore Sturgeon awards
* Philip K. Dick awards
* James Tiptree, Jr. awards
* Locus Poll and Awards (readers of Locus, the magazine of the science fiction industry)
See, for example:

The Locus Index to Science Fiction Awards

http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/

I'm not sure about the criteria for classification, but I guess that both of Neal Stephenson's trilogies will make it into the list in the future.

Well, it does say "SF and Fantasy" in the original list...

Anyway... Neal Stephenson and Greg Egan are the current writers who I feel have best explored our techonological future. If we ever do colonise the solar system, Ben Bova and Stephen Baxter may well be cited as influential.

Of the list above, I've read 36 of them.

You don't think the ones in italics could be part of the fantasy side of "The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years" do you?

Oh, and I guess the reason there are so few recent books is because it takes time for a book to become influential.

Bob

The last time fantasy was worth reading was Fritz Leiber. Donaldson is crap. Even the Raymond Feist stuff stopped being interesting after about five books.

I agree with Stephenson and Egan. But Greg Bear ought to be remaindered before he;s even published.

I would suggest reading Alaistair Reynolds. Hard SF with some really good story lines

Reynolds got me reading hard SF again after a couple of years of burn-out (for which I blame Egan's 'Diaspora', I'm afraid). He's good, and I find that his style is slightly better than Baxter's. John Meaney's 'To Hold Infinity' is also worth it.

Paul (J) McAuley is also worth it; he's one of those rare sf authors who's trained as a biologist and it shows. The same goes for Brian Stapleford -- his 'Architects of Emortality' sequence is quite neat.

Adam Roberts is good at wrongfooting the reader. Bit of an acquired taste, though.

I'm tempted to recommend Hal Duncan's 'Vellum' and 'Ink', though strictly they're Sam Delaney-style soft sf/fantasy (very, very modernist) with Sumerian overtones, as they're the best things I read in the last year or so, but they might not be to everyone's taste. (Duncan has a deep dislike of sub-genre distinctions, so it follows that everything gets a bit wierd. But good though. Very, very good.)

By Iorwerth Thomas (not verified) on 11 Mar 2007 #permalink

Some in the more recent-and-brillliant category

1.Peter Watts (a marine biologist, and it shows)
2.Alastair Reynolds (an astrophysicist; ditto)
3.Iain Banks (ummm...an English major with deep respect of and good knowledge of, science?;)
4.Greg Egan (a physicist/computer scientist, and it shows).
5.Ken McLeod (a foul-mouthed Scottish anarchist, and it shows;))

Enough already!

The aforementioned ones can also write well(-ish); something not every one of the scientist-SF writers has been capable of (e.g. Clement or Clarke--I love both of them, but their style is...atrocious?)

"Greg Bear ought to be remaindered before he's even published."

John Wilkins: are you saying that you don't like the speculative genetics in "Darwin's Radio"? Or the bio-nanotechnology of Blood Music? Or don't like what he did in his posthumous Foundation novel in Asimov's universe? Or don't like his style?

Enquiring minds want to know...

There are about 5 that haven't read. Most I read before I was 15.

And why include the ones I marked in italic as SF? Fantasy ain't SF, dude.

I think I stopped caring about that when I was 19 or so.
I suggest you read some good old-fashioned sword-and-planet, like Leigh Brackett's The Ginger Star , The Hounds of Skaith , The Reavers of Skaith , so you can see how pointless it is to look for distinctions a significant portion of readers will agree on.

C.J. Cherryh's "Foreigner" series is brilliant. Real SF. Aliens! Space Travel! Plot!

By Susan Silberstein (not verified) on 11 Mar 2007 #permalink

Two points, the most important first:

Go find a copy of Crowley's Little, Big. It's fantasy, not science fiction at all, but it's rich and beautiful and sad and sweet and one of the best damn things I've ever read.

Second recommendation for Peter Watts. Three of his books are available as downloads at rifters.com (http://rifters.com/real/shorts.htm). Warning: Don't look for happy talk. Reviewer James Nicoll says, "Whenever I find my will to live becoming too strong, I read Peter Watts." On the other hand, his slide show "Vampire Domestication" at http://rifters.com/real/progress.htm is hilarious.