50 "Must-Read" Science Fiction Books

[merritt]

Hey Clovis, I like your list better!

Of course, I could do a list but I am to lazy!

Also, I think some books are just fantastic when you are young.

Example: Give " A Plague of Demons" - Keith Laumer, to a teenage boy, see how he likes it, then read as adult - huge difference.

I find as I reread old favorites they sometimes hold the fascination, sometimes not.

Best, Merritt

 

[Rothgar]

1956 - Double Star - Robert Heinlein

I just picked this one up recently. I'll have to make it my next read.

 

[gully_foyle]

Obviously whoever compiled the list didn't read much after Neuromancer. "We" know there have been some absolute corkers published since then, but this person doesn't seem to. I'd go with the SF Masterworks list any day, plus a few more recent arrivals.

 

[Parson]

Clovis, Man now that's a good list!

 

[Fried Egg]

How many of the books which "stood the test of time" on that list are still in print? The Poul Anderson? The Aldiss? The Andre Norton? I think not...

"Hothouse" by Brain Aldiss is still in print. Or at least it is at the moment.

clovis-man

Interesting list.

 

[littlemissattitude]

I've only read 10 of the books on the list. Of the rest, I've never even heard of 16 of them. And I was brought up on science fiction. So, I'm kind of wondering what the criteria were for getting on the list.

 

[clovis-man]

Re Campbell's Who Goes There?:

I didn't realise there was also a collection with that title. One to look out for, then.

That could be difficult. Copies are out there. But older editions are very pricey and even reprints aren't cheap.

 

[clovis-man]

I've only read 10 of the books on the list. Of the rest, I've never even heard of 16 of them. And I was brought up on science fiction. So, I'm kind of wondering what the criteria were for getting on the list.

LMA, that's a fair question. Unfortunately, the books introduction (aside from assuring me that the reviewers who made the picks come from all walks of life and different age groups) do not explain their criteria.

And don't feel bad. I've read 21 of them and feel guilty about the ones I haven't read.

 

[littlemissattitude]

LMA, that's a fair question. Unfortunately, the books introduction (aside from assuring me that the reviewers who made the picks come from all walks of life and different age groups) do not explain their criteria.

And don't feel bad. I've read 21 of them and feel guilty about the ones I haven't read.

Thanks for that.

And, I refuse to feel guilty for books I haven't read.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Re Campbell's Who Goes There?:



That could be difficult. Copies are out there. But older editions are very pricey and even reprints aren't cheap.

So I see. However I often find hard-to-get things remarkably cheap in the thriving, but essentially clueless second-hand shops here in Bangalore.

 

[littlemissattitude]

So I see. However I often find hard-to-get things remarkably cheap in the thriving, but essentially clueless second-hand shops here in Bangalore.

The same thing is sometimes true of the pretty much clueless second-hand shops here in Fresno, to my delight.

 

[iansales]

Clovis, not a bad list but too much Asimov - Foundation yes, but nothing else by him. And I wouldn't put The Stainless Steel Rat anywhere near such a list - I reread it recently and thought it was terrible. For Silverberg, I'd probably pick A Time of Changes. I'd also include something by Ballard, The Centauri Device by M John Harrison, A Case of Conscience by James Blish, lose the Brin and perhaps add in a Dorsai book by Gordon R Dickson, Take Back Plenty by Colin Greenland, A Maggot by John Fowles, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and, although they're terrible, I'd have to include at least one Lensman book...

 

[thatollie]

Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

There are too many great SF writers to make a list of 50.

 

[iansales]

It's certainly not easy - and my attempt at a list below has a few I'm not sure about, but...

The War of the Worlds - HG Wells
Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon
Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell
The Weapon Shops of Isher - AE van Vogt
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
City - Clifford D Simak
Childhood's End - Arthur C Clarke
The Sword of Rhiannon - Leigh Brackett
Mission Of Gravity - Hal Clement
A Case of Conscience - James Blish
Have Spacesuit, Will Travel - Robert A Heinlein
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller
Rogue Moon - Algis Budrys
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Green Brain - Frank Herbert
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Nova - Samuel R. Delaney
Stand On Zanzibar - John Brunner
Pavanne - Keith Roberts
Emphyrio - Jack Vance
The Left Hand Of Darkness - Ursula K Le Guin
Ringworld - Larry Niven
A Time of Changes - Robert Silverberg
The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe
Rendezvous With Rama - Arthur C Clarke
The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin
The Centauri Device - M John Harrison
Dhalgren - Samuel R Delaney
The Female Man - Joanna Russ
The Ophiuchi Hotline - John Varley
Gateway - Frederick Pohl
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Affirmation - Christopher Priest
The Many-Coloured Land - Julian May
Cageworld - Colin Kapp
Helliconia Spring - Brian Aldiss
Neuromancer - William Gibson
A Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
A Maggot - John Fowles
The Sea and Summer - George Turner
Metrophage - Richard Kadrey
The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Take Back Plenty - Colin Greenland
White Queen - Gwyneth Jones
Stations Of The Tide - Michael Swanwick
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Miss Smilla's Sense of Snow - Peter Høeg
Aztec Century - Christopher Evans

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

The Affirmation is an excellent choice. Such a deftly written novel, subtly wrong-footing you every time you think you have it all worked out.

I like Aztec Century but I am not sure it is a must-read.

 

[Fried Egg]

Clovis, not a bad list but too much Asimov - Foundation yes, but nothing else by him. And I wouldn't put The Stainless Steel Rat anywhere near such a list - I reread it recently and thought it was terrible. For Silverberg, I'd probably pick A Time of Changes. I'd also include something by Ballard, The Centauri Device by M John Harrison, A Case of Conscience by James Blish, lose the Brin and perhaps add in a Dorsai book by Gordon R Dickson, Take Back Plenty by Colin Greenland, A Maggot by John Fowles, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and, although they're terrible, I'd have to include at least one Lensman book...

I know we never agree about Asimov but I actually think, if you were going to put any single book of Asimov on such a list, that "The Gods Themselves" is the one.

Good call with "A Time of Changes" and "A Case of Conscience". I don't agree with "Centauri Device" though. It's the only M John Harrison I've read and my worst SF Masterworks experience so far. It's put me off reading anything else by him.

 

[thatollie]

I know we never agree about Asimov but I actually think, if you were going to put any single book of Asimov on such a list, that "The Gods Themselves" is the one.

Good call with "A Time of Changes" and "A Case of Conscience". I don't agree with "Centauri Device" though. It's the only M John Harrison I've read and my worst SF Masterworks experience so far. It's put me off reading anything else by him.

What was it about Centauri that put you off? Then I could tell you whether it'd be worth you reading another MJH book.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I know we never agree about Asimov but I actually think, if you were going to put any single book of Asimov on such a list, that "The Gods Themselves" is the one.

I'd choose that novel too, if only one Asimov book had to be included. The Foundation books may be more popular; the Robot stories are certainly among the best and most influential of their kind; the Elijah Bailey novels are brilliant SF mysteries; but this is the novel where Asimov somehow punched through to a different level, 'writing above my own head' as I think he once put it, while delivering all the requisite Asimov qualities.

As to M. John Harrison, do give him a second shot, perhaps with Viriconium or Light.

 

[thatollie]

@Knives: Surely Nova Swing is the most accessible.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

@Thatollie: fair enough, although Viriconium was my own intro to Harrison.