# Most influencial / important Sci Fi works...



## phase38 (Oct 4, 2006)

Hi guys,

Just wondering what people think are some of the most influencial pieces of sci fi work? Things which set the scene for others.

Im in the UK, so am a little biased about things like Quatermass, Day of the Triffids etc...

But what do you guys think?


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## Harpo (Oct 4, 2006)

"Last & First Men" by Olaf Stapledon
Analog magazine
Orson Welles' "War Of The Worlds" radio broadcast


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## j d worthington (Oct 5, 2006)

As Brian Aldiss (among others) has argued, Mary Shelley's *Frankenstein* is the first novel to be truly cast as science fiction, and lord knows it's had an influence ever since, both beneficial and baleful. Then there's H. P. Lovecraft, who blended the gothic horror tale with modern science, and has influenced many sf writers and fantasists since, especially as he himself wrote what are quite arguably science fiction stories, such as "The Colour Out of Space", *At the Mountains of Madness*, "The Shadow Out of Time", "The Dreams in the Witch-House", etc.

John W. Campbell influenced an entire generation of sf writers from 1939 on, with his editorship of *Astounding Science Fiction* (later *Analog*); and then *Galaxy *and *The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction* took the field into new directions by publishing writers more given to the literary than scientific side, such as Alfred Bester and Theodore Sturgeon. There's also Ray Bradbury, who has certainly been an influence on no few sf writers; and Harlan Ellison, who had a major influence on the writers of the latter part of the 1960s through the Cyberpunks, and Judith Merrill, with her quirky *Best of* anthologies and the even quirkier *England Swings SF*; Michael Moorcock with his editorship of *New Worlds*; J. G. Ballard, who brought an entirely new level to the surrealistic elements of sf with such stories as *The Drowned World*, *The Drought*, *The Crystal World* and *The Atrocity Exhibition*, not to mention several others; Asimov's robot stories have influenced the view of robots ever since by making them more scientifically plausible, machines rather than metallic humans; and Eando Binder's *Adam Link, Robot*, heavily influenced Asimov, as well.

And, of course, the granddads of 'em all, Herbert George Wells and Jules Verne, with more "scientific romances" than I can possibly enumerate, notably *The War of the Worlds*, *The Food of the Gods*, *The Time Machine*, *The Shape of Things to Come*, *Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea*, *From the Earth to the Moon*..... Stanley G. Weinbaum, who wrote Campbellian sf pre-Campbell, and made plausible alien landscapes and lifeforms, and fired many of the "Golden Age" sf writers with his short stories such as "A Martian Odyssey" or his novel *The New Adam*. *Dune*, of course, has been massively influential with bringing ecological concerns to the fore in sf. *Star Trek* and *Star Wars*, whether for good or ill, have had a major impact on the field, as well.

And then there are the things that some people are reluctant to admit are actually sf: *1984*, by George Orwell, *Brave New World* by Aldous Huxley, and *On the Beach*, by Nevil Shute. And, again, for good or ill, on the other end of the spectrum, there were *Amazing Stories* and its progenitors edited by Hugo Gernsback, who truly separated science fiction from the mainstream and made it, unfortunately, a rather insular genre -- and whose influence we still feel to this day with the ghettoization of sf from the mainstream, and the fanatical devotion to it from its fans.


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## Tau Zero (Oct 5, 2006)

I agree with all that JD stated.  I will add a few more.  

I think Robert Howard was instrumental in creating the "Sword and Sorcery" style of fantasy.  It didn't really exist before him, yet many authors (and readers) embraced the style after.

Gibson's *Neuromancer* should be mentioned a the book that led the cyberpunk genre and even introduced words into the English language that we use today.


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## Nesacat (Oct 5, 2006)

Just one more to add to that. Isaac Asimov's Robot books.


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## Harpo (Oct 5, 2006)

I wonder how many people first get into Sci-Fi via watching Futurama?


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## Briareus Delta (Oct 5, 2006)

Agree with all the previous nominations.

I would add the 1927 film *Metropolis*. George Lucas often cites it as one of his influences in making Star Wars.

And *The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy* - surely the first and last words in the sci-fi/comedy genre. And where would we be without it?


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## phase38 (Oct 5, 2006)

Star Wars  is argued to not be Science Fiction, as its based around fantasy and magic...Im not sure i agree though. 

I`ve not read 1984 yet, but am familiar with it. It sums up the intelligence and slightly spookiness of some of the author's abilities to predict near accurate events...

I`d say ET was a big influence on me... and Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind.


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## j d worthington (Oct 5, 2006)

phase38 said:
			
		

> Star Wars is argued to not be Science Fiction, as its based around fantasy and magic...Im not sure i agree though.


 
While I'd agree with the reasons, I'm afraid that, throughout a large portion of sf's history, those very elements of mysticism and such were a part of the field ... certainly in a lot of the earlier writing. Regardless, *Star Wars* has had a huge impact on the field, whether one wishes to accept it or not as sf itself.


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## Dave (Oct 5, 2006)

That was a great list from JD Worthington. There was a few there I've not read and will have to get around to. And I agree with Tau Zero to add Neuromancer.

I would also like to add Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451' having just re-read it. It is incredibly prophetic. Maybe Harry Harrison's 'Make Room, Make Room, Anthony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange' and Larry Niven's 'Ringworld'.

Going further back, isn't Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' a candidate. When do we consider that SF originated? Is that really the Supernatural or Horror genre? Is Edgar Allen Poe? What about Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' and 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'? Or, even Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' Without those, I don't think we would have had Herbert George Wells.


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## Specfiction (Oct 5, 2006)

> And then there are the things that some people are reluctant to admit are actually sf: 1984, by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and On the Beach, by Nevil Shute.



On the Beach by Nevil Shutes is one of the best books I've ever read in any genre. It is a work that has many lessons for us today as to what life really means.


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## Leandra (Oct 5, 2006)

Dave said:
			
		

> Going further back, isn't Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' a candidate. When do we consider that SF originated? Is that really the Supernatural or Horror genre?



I was at a con in June and there was a lecture about Dracula - one of the best ones I've ever heard. The literary critic who held it said that Dracula could just as well be science fiction, because practically the whole story is written through the aid of a typewriter (Mina being a typist and writing the letters on it).

I don't agree, but it's an original idea.


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## j d worthington (Oct 5, 2006)

Leandra said:
			
		

> I was at a con in June and there was a lecture about Dracula - one of the best ones I've ever heard. The literary critic who held it said that Dracula could just as well be science fiction, because practically the whole story is written through the aid of a typewriter (Mina being a typist and writing the letters on it).
> 
> I don't agree, but it's an original idea.


 
Yes, I've come across that one, as well. I'm afraid I don't really accept those that follow that premise, though, as the stories listed hinge on supernatural events rather than extrapolation from a scientific (or even pseudo-scientific) premise, that being the distinction, I think. This is not to say, however, that they did not influence some of the major writers in the field -- they often did, especially as the earlier writers (such as Wells) began writing their "scientific romances" long before there even was such a thing as "science fiction" as such ... their books were published by major publishers and accepted as general literature, long before the extreme divisions into genres became so concretized. (Yes, there was some division; the Gothics, the novels of sentiment, etc. prove that... but it was neither so pervasive nor so rigid as it became around the time that the term "scientifiction" and, later, "science fiction" were coined.)


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## mightymem (Oct 5, 2006)

The 1950 and 60 also produced famous authors which produced ground breaking books. Authors such as Robert A Heinlein (Stranger in a strange land, Puppet master, starship troopers, glory road), Frank Herbert (Dune series, many other books but cannot remember the titles at the moment), Richard Matherson (I am Legend, Shrinking man).


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## phase38 (Oct 6, 2006)

This list is phenomal... would be cool to put all these in a chronological list.


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## Who's Wee Dug (Oct 6, 2006)

And there is the Author who influenced Tolkien, George McDonald


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## j d worthington (Oct 7, 2006)

On this one, I'll be a bit pedantic:  Tolkien remarked on more than one occasion that he detested MacDonald because his work was consciously allegorical; he was much fonder of William Morris, E. R. Eddison and even, to some degree, Robert E. Howard. Nonetheless, I definitely second Wee Dug's recommendation, not only as a general influence, but also because he wrote some marvelous books. Lilith is something no lover of imaginary worlds should miss, and it is by no means the only such among his writings....


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## davlaurjen (Oct 18, 2006)

Jules Verne,HG Wells,George Orwell


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## Valko (Oct 22, 2006)

Arthur C Clarke 2001: A Space Odyssey


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## Valko (Oct 22, 2006)

Sorry finger slipped on the keys


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## phase38 (Oct 23, 2006)

Valko said:


> Sorry finger slipped on the keys


Ah... the book or the film?


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## Pyar (Oct 23, 2006)

I don't think Mary Shelley wrote *Frankenstein* with the intent of it being a science fiction novel.  From what I understand, she was on vacation with some of her friends and they all decided to see who could write the scariest horror novel.  She had a dream about a gigantic monster which inspired the novel.  The book was more of a Gothic novel with romance elements.  The science part of the book, in my opinion, was just used by Mary Shelley as a means to represent a her own pain and suffering.  While some critics are quick to label it as a science fiction novel, anyone who has read in depth in this genre would imediately notice that *Frakenstein* doesn't fit into the typical archetype.


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## j d worthington (Oct 24, 2006)

Pyar -- no, she didn't write it as a science fiction novel, because the field of science fiction didn't exist at that point. In fact, there was no such label until the late 1890s, when it was "scientific romance", then the 1920s, with Gernsback's "scientifiction", and then the 1930s it became the more familiar "science fiction". But when people like Brian Aldiss see it in hindsight as the first true science fiction novel, they mean (and quite accurately) that it was the first novel that was truly that bifurcation between using the supernatural as the motivation for the happenings, and using science and its results (good or bad) as the explanation. That's a very important difference, and whether she intended it or not, it was the birth of what would later become science fiction rather than fantasy, horror, or even the more vague "speculative fiction".

And yes, she and Shelley were visiting Byron at the Villa Diodati, where they took turns reading a set of stories from a book called *Fantasmagoriana* (if I remember the title correctly), and then a competition was set in place to see who could write the best ghost story. Shelley did not produce any prose works from that (though he had earlier written two short Gothic novels, *St. Irvyne* and *Zastrozzi*), Byron began but did not complete a novel, and John Polidori rather stole Byron's idea and wrote a piece called "The Vampyre", basing the titular character quite obviously on Byron, with whom he'd had a falling-out -- and then published it in such a way that it was accredited to Byron (who was _not_ amused). Mary's tale was the only one to reach full development, and it took well over a year. However, it went from being a "ghost story" to being a very complex novel using much of her scientific and philosophical reading of the time (for anyone that interested, there is an account of her and Shelley's reading matter that can be consulted; it may have actually been published by an academic press) -- something she continued to do with *The Last Man*, which relies heavily on Burke's *Reflections on the Revolution in France*. (Both *The Last Man* and *Frankenstein*, as well as the earlier novels of Ann Radcliffe, were heavily influenced by his essay *A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful*.) In this way, too, she began the trend that created what we know as science fiction, as her novel used the fantastic and horrific to examine social and political issues of the time, and extrapolate upon them; which has long been one of the main uses of sf, as it is one of the few fields that was not censored to prevent such, being dismissed as "fairy tale" sort of stories during the 1940s and 1950s for example, during the Second World War and the McCarthy era, thus allowing writers to write cautionary tales about where we were headed as a society at a time when criticism of certain public figures could well end one's career.

So, while it cannot be said that it was written as such, it nonetheless can be pointed to as the very first true sf novel, as it was the branching off point where we broke with the medieval tradition of magic being the motivating force, and began to use science and its effects in its place.


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## Valko (Oct 24, 2006)

Thanks for clearing that up JD. I was always under the assumption that she became fixated with death and re-animation after her husband died.

Another urban myth laid to rest


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## j d worthington (Oct 24, 2006)

Valko said:


> Thanks for clearing that up JD. I was always under the assumption that she became fixated with death and re-animation after her husband died.
> 
> Another urban myth laid to rest


 
No, though the death of Victor's younger brother at the creature's hands is a reflection of the loss of their son.... In fact, only one of the children she and Shelley had survived childhood. Her life makes fascinating, if painful, reading, as in a very few years she lost nearly everyone dear to her.


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## BAYLOR (Mar 31, 2021)

*Earth Abides *by George R Stewart   It was originally written in 1949 . A place Wipes out most of mankind . Among the survivors  man named Isherwood Williams and goes on a question to find survivors and restart civilization.  This is a book is relevant now as was the it was originally published.


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## Serendipity (Mar 31, 2021)

If you want a timeline summary of most influential science fiction books, look up the Ward Shelley Infographic - take your time - it is rather detailed. Visual History of Science Fiction 
There is also the fun NPR flowchart of science fiction and fantasy book choices. See https://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/09/flowchart_for_navigating_nprs_top_100_sff_books/

However both of these only go up about 2010. I think it is about time someone with more understanding of the science fiction and fantasy genres than me put together an addendum to the Ward Shelley diagram for the last decade.


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## Rodders (Mar 31, 2021)

I would add the late great Sir Terry Pratchett to the list of most influential people. I'd imagine the Discworld series probably brought many fans to the genre.

I'd also include Stan Lee for his Marvel work, which has to be one of the biggest genre brands on the planet.

Concept artists such as Syd Mead and Ralph McQuarrie all had a hand in the visualization our childhood as well as Boris Valejjo and Chris Foss for their instantly recognizable book cover art.

Video games such as Doom, Zork, Half-Life, Mass Effect, KOTOR or Zelda. World of Warcraft had a huge influence on how MMORPG's are designed.

Marvel and DC comics should also be on the list. I'd love 2000AD in there as well, but it's a mostly British thing. (It was influential enough to me, though.)


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## farntfar (Mar 31, 2021)

Asimov's robot stories have set the tone for the future. In particularly the 3 laws of robotics have been taken as a standard by my later authors.


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## paranoid marvin (Mar 31, 2021)

As a modern piece of literature, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy really has to be up there when it comes to the influence of scifi comedy, or just comedy in general.


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## BAYLOR (Apr 6, 2021)

paranoid marvin said:


> As a modern piece of literature, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy really has to be up there when it comes to the influence of scifi comedy, or just comedy in general.



Also *Callahan's  Crosstime  Saloon* series by Spider Robinson


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