Essential Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading (with poll)

[BionicGriff]

Just a note, I accidentally left the poll at 30 total votes allowed, but it should be 20. If you end up taking the poll before the moderators get a chance to fix it, please try and limit your total to 20. Thanks

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Just a note, I accidentally left the poll at 30 total votes allowed, but it should be 20. If you end up taking the poll before the moderators get a chance to fix it, please try and limit your total to 20. Thanks

And about that -- the poll will not let the allowed votes be decreased, so it will have to stay at 30. I've edited the explanatory bits to note that. Sorry.

 

[J-Sun]

3. I tried to catch all of the duplicate entries, however if I missed any, the results for the duplicated entries will be combined in the final tally, so don't worry about which one you voted for (if you do notice a duplicate, a comment in the thread regarding such would be appreciated).

I noticed one:

Various - The S.F. Hall of Fame Anthologies
Various - SFWA SF Hall of Fame (3 Volumes)

That's quite a poll! I hope a lot of people participate and aren't scared off. I'll start working on my picks.

 

[BionicGriff]

And about that -- the poll will not let the allowed votes be decreased, so it will have to stay at 30. I've edited the explanatory bits to note that. Sorry.

No worries TheDustyZebra, I appreciate your help. We can certainly make do with that. Could you do one more thing for me and just delete my comment about the impending change that you responded to (comment #41), just to eliminate any confusion.

 

[BionicGriff]

I noticed one:

Various - The S.F. Hall of Fame Anthologies
Various - SFWA SF Hall of Fame (3 Volumes)

That's quite a poll! I hope a lot of people participate and aren't scared off. I'll start working on my picks.

Thanks J-Sun, I'll watch for those at the end of the poll should they both get votes.

 

[J-Sun]

Thanks J-Sun, I'll watch for those at the end of the poll should they both get votes.

Welcome! Noticed a couple more: Stewart's Earth Abides is on twice and Vinge's "Deep"/Zones of Thought books are listed one and half times, so to speak.

Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep
Vernor Vinge - Deepness Duo

That raises an issue: many series are listed as one item but others have parts listed. For instance, while Asimov's Robot stories and novels are mostly distinct, they are part of the same basic series (which is, in turn, part of a super-series) so, e.g., Clarke's "Space Odyssey Series" is listed as one thing, whereas Asimov's "I, Robot" and "Caves of Steel" are listed separately and might well be splitting votes or people (like me, probably) will spend two votes on both of them. Likely too late to do anything now, poll-wise, but maybe something to keep in mind as you construct your reading list from it.

 

[BionicGriff]

Welcome! Noticed a couple more: Stewart's Earth Abides is on twice and Vinge's "Deep"/Zones of Thought books are listed one and half times, so to speak.

Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep
Vernor Vinge - Deepness Duo

That raises an issue: many series are listed as one item but others have parts listed. For instance, while Asimov's Robot stories and novels are mostly distinct, they are part of the same basic series (which is, in turn, part of a super-series) so, e.g., Clarke's "Space Odyssey Series" is listed as one thing, whereas Asimov's "I, Robot" and "Caves of Steel" are listed separately and might well be splitting votes or people (like me, probably) will spend two votes on both of them. Likely too late to do anything now, poll-wise, but maybe something to keep in mind as you construct your reading list from it.

Some good thoughts there. The Vernor Vinge example is simply ignorance on my part, I wasn't familiar with the author or books on that case. The Asimov case, I was familiar with and did some debating on, ultimately I decided in that case to make them separate, as while they are all related to some degree, they do stand alone, for example you can read Caves of Steel without I, Robot and not get lost, but I can totally see going the other way with that one as well.

I think ultimately though, in the case where a series is listed as a part, rather then the whole, odds are I'll likely end up going with the whole series.

Hopefully giving 30 votes to people will help reduce the impact of some of these errors. I put this together while at work this morning so I was in a bit of a rush.

 

[Bick]

I did the poll and only ticked about 20 anyway - I personally don't care too much with lots of things on it (at least they're not essential) and there are screeds of better books not mentioned. That's the problem with polls I guess... if someone read the top books on this poll they would miss some of the best SF I've read.

 

[J-Sun]

there are screeds of better books not mentioned.

So mention them! It's too late for the poll but this thread was originally a list/discussion thread prior to the poll being added anyway. I don't think the OP would mind more suggestions.

 

[BionicGriff]

I did the poll and only ticked about 20 anyway - I personally don't care too much with lots of things on it (at least they're not essential) and there are screeds of better books not mentioned. That's the problem with polls I guess... if someone read the top books on this poll they would miss some of the best SF I've read.

Thanks for taking the time to do the poll! I agree with you pretty much all around, I think in a poll like this, finding only the essential, less is definitely more. I went about this with the assumption their would be a good amount of overlap, so I went with the number of votes sink

So mention them! It's too late for the poll but this thread was originally a list/discussion thread prior to the poll being added anyway. I don't think the OP would mind more suggestions.

Absolutely, I was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it!

 

[BionicGriff]

I did the poll and only ticked about 20 anyway - I personally don't care too much with lots of things on it (at least they're not essential) and there are screeds of better books not mentioned. That's the problem with polls I guess... if someone read the top books on this poll they would miss some of the best SF I've read.

I appreciate you taking the time for the poll. In a case of coming up with a list of truly essentials I think less is definitely more, so I can respect your selecting less then what you were able to. I knew there would be some overlap in the selections, but I didn't want to constrict people to much either.

 

[Extollager]

My votes reflect my reading history, which fails to include quite a few of the nominations. However I did try not to overlook, say, Mission of Gravity, which I haven't read, but which seems to be cited again and again. Thanks for developing this poll.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I did the poll also but I think we should explain why something is essential science fiction rather than just list them. But then what can make something essential fantasy? How can they possibly have the same criteria?

If you Google, "Science fiction becomes reality" you get 500,000 hits.

sci-fi can become the future.

psik

 

[BionicGriff]

Looks like a had a partial comment saved when I responded to @J-Sun , didnt see it when typing on my phone, sorry for the repeat.

 

[BionicGriff]

I did the poll also but I think we should explain why something is essential science fiction rather than just list them. But then what can make something essential fantasy? How can they possibly have the same criteria?

If you Google, "Science fiction becomes reality" you get 500,000 hits.

sci-fi can become the future.

psik

There is definitely a degree of vagueness in this, I was thinking of essential as a combination of being both influential within the genre, as well as popular or highly regarded among most readers, but it can easily be interpreted very differently by different people.

When I first started this it was more just searching for some recommendations to read next. Once I started getting a lot of recommendations I started thinking a poll could be fun. Done in a different order this could probably have been done in a much more clearly defined, and organized format.

I really do appreciate everyone's contributions and participation thus far despite any shortfalls.

 

[Extollager]

Apropos of Mission of Gravity:

Black Gate » Articles » Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement

 

[clovis-man]

Welcome! Noticed a couple more: Stewart's Earth Abides is on twice and Vinge's "Deep"/Zones of Thought books are listed one and half times, so to speak.

Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep
Vernor Vinge - Deepness Duo

I intentionally voted for the duo because A Deepness In The Sky wasn't listed separately.

 

[Extollager]

Too late now, I guess, but Walter M. Miller should be represented with A Canticle for Leibowitz and Best of (with "Conditionally Human" and other very fine novellas and short stories).

 

[BionicGriff]

I intentionally voted for the duo because A Deepness In The Sky wasn't listed separately.

Thanks for taking the time to vote, sorry for the inconsistencies with some of the submissions, I'm still pretty new to most classic SF/F. Working on remedying that as we speak!

 

[BionicGriff]

Too late now, I guess, but Walter M. Miller should be represented with A Canticle for Leibowitz and Best of (with "Conditionally Human" and other very fine novellas and short stories).

I don't recall if it was possible or not, but if it was, an "other" spot where you could enter an additional item may have been handy.