Top 10 SF novels of the 21st Century?

[yaron]

Anyone have a good list of the best science fiction from the past 15 years?

 

[Bick]

A question like that on here is like a red rag to a bull (despite the fact we've had numerous very similar threads before), so expect to get plenty of suggestions. Personally, I'd have to get my thinking cap on, as mostly I've spent my time reading stuff older than that, but I daresay I'll be back. Expect lots of suggestions of Reynolds, Banks, Scalzi, Bujold, Baxter, Egan, Stross, Asher, etc. I'll see if I can come up with some from left field...

 

[Brian G Turner]

I asked this question a while back - some interesting replies there, in case of help:
http://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/550412/

 

[DrMclony]

Thanks for the link - I'll check that out. I have been wondering what gems I may have missed in recent years so perhaps that will point me at some!

Wouldn't it be nice if a few people from the chrons made it onto that list over the next few decades?

 

[Connavar]

Really not many of those SF books i have read from this short so far century would be something i would think of as best of. Too many imo way overrated SF authors like Reynolds,Banks etc around these days.

The only book im sure of its future classic rep imo is Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. A hardcore version of some of those great PKD novels that deal with what is human, android,clones, near future dystopic worlds.

Surprisingly as someone who prefer SF to fantasy i have read more modern fantasy novels i would say its one of the best in the genre in the last two centuries.

 

[yaron]

Thanks all! My own list is not quite at ten yet, but includes the following:

Anathem - Stephenson
Embassytown - Mieville
Zoo City - Lauren Beukes
The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
Light - M. John Harrison
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

I liked Altered Carbon but wouldn't elevate it to the level of the above...

 

[Bick]

I don't really see The Road as being SF, and I thought Zoo City barely met my requirements for the genre (and it wasn't my cup of tea at all - I didn't even finish it).