What would be our Top 100 Sci Fi books?

[Dave]

I like looking at lists like this one:

http://listsofbests.com/list/29/

But as I said in the 'What's ur fav book?' thread, I can only vouch for those books that I've read, and there are many that I have not read yet. The Hugo and Nebula award winners as well as lists like that are a good starting point though, but ultimately they are still subjective, and someone elses opinion. Also, I think to be on that list they probably need to still be in print (as they are linked to Amazon) many good books are no longer in print.

So, I thought that we could make up our own list.

My problem with that list would be that it has only one Larry Niven book and no Iain M Banks. I've read about 26 of the 100, and I'd agree with those all being included.

 

[little smaug]

I've read exactly 3 of those books. I feel deprived. :crying:

One question - why isn't Lord of the Rings on there?

 

[Dave]

I was going to say "because there is no fantasy on that list" (though the distinction between scifi and fantasy is one that I wouldn't like to draw the line between) but since the list does include Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, and Lewis Carrol (and if 'Alice in Wonderland' isn't fantasy then 'Lord of the Rings' is Hard Scifi) I don't have an explanation.

I've just realised that there is no 'Stainless Steel Rat' either. Big omission IMHO. Also Harry Harrison's 'Make Room, Make Room' should be there.

As I said, we need to make our own list...

 

[Highlander II]

I think I've read about 3 of them -- Frankenstein being my fave - and a definite 'include' -

but - as I haven't really read all that much scifi - not even sure where I'd begin to add others -

btw - you can read the entirety of Frankenstein online -- from what I can see - it's okay for it to be there --

Personally - I prefer paper-books to online - it's really hard to sit at a PC for long bits of time to read -- whereas, I can sit and turn pages all day - and that probably has a lot to do with it - the sense of accomplishment with the page turning - but that's another discussion alltogether ---

 

[Coops]

I have read 45 of those books (and have them in my collection).
But where is:

Ken Grimwood; Replay
James P. Hogan; Inherit the Stars
Robert J. Sawyer; Calculating God
Charles Sheffield; Tomorrow and Tomorrow

 

[ray gower]

I'm up at 37.
Think I would dispute Wyndham, especially Midwich Cuckoos, Krakhen Wakes is better but has an even more abrupt end than Day of the Triffids.
Would prefer to see Johns, Kings of Space in the place of one, simply because they are an excellent way to get kids into Sci/Fi.

Perhaps Vernes, Master of the World or Wells Shape of Things to Come in place of the other.

Perhaps Feintuch in place of Brin's, Mars.

I guess that Tolkein is not there for the same reason that Pratchett is missing. They are straight fantasy?

 

[sarah2040]

I've read 5 of those books,all of which are pretty good books. I tend to read fantasy rather than sci-fi so if the list included them then it would have to include books by David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey, David Gemmel and Raymond E. Feist. Superb authors. Not forgetting, of course, the master himself, Tolkein.

 

[greyhorse]

I'll be geeky and say I've read 18.3 of the books, having only started 'The Man in the High Castle', and having lost 'Gateway' on the train, while only partway thru it.

I read 'The Martian Chronlicles' last month, and was amazed by it. First published in 1950, the Mars of the book hardly resembles the real thing as we now know it to be. It, however, captures the sort of wonder and hope, space must have held to space enthusiasts back then.

I'm certain part of this has to do with the lack of sciency detail we are used to seeing in modern SF. With only imagination to go on, Bradbury created a fairly romantic world of peaceful and cultured aliens, with delicate ships sailing across vast Martian canals. Works like this are sadly no longer possible to write without ignoring all that we have learned about space. Sad, because I find most modern SF lacks that childlike sense of wonder more common with older works.

It might be interesting to come up with a list of must-read classics, in addition to this top 100 list of all-time bests. After reading 'The Martian Chronicles' I know I'd like to read some of Bradbury's other works. I have very few people I can ask for advice on SF books to read, so it'd be great to have a list (or two) to consult. Practically all of my SF reading comes from lists like this or books that have won awards.

 

[greyhorse]

Dave,

How do we go about making a list on this forum? I suppose a moderator with unlimited post-editting authorization would have to keep updating the first post of the appropriate thread or something. How about it Ray? I guess this might fall on your shoulders, but would it be ok?

 

[Dave]

There is a series of books in the UK called 'SF Masterworks'. They are classics that deserve to be in print and kept there, rather than languishing as 'Out of Print' titles. They are published monthly by Millennium, which is an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group, a UK publisher whose other imprints include Dolphin, Orion Media, Phoenix and Victor Gollancz and the number is now up into the high 50's. I don't have a full list but this site has them:

http://www.sfsite.com/lists/orion01.htm

I've bought a few of those, most are Nebula or Hugo award winners, or else old classics.

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by greyhorse
Dave,

How do we go about making a list on this forum? I suppose a moderator with unlimited post-editting authorization would have to keep updating the first post of the appropriate thread or something. How about it Ray? I guess this might fall on your shoulders, but would it be ok?

We could keep editing the first post of a thread. Unfortunately, the polls option only allows you a single vote. I can make a poll with a hundred options but you could only vote once. I can add votes to a poll though.

This vBulletin software is quite old now. We are using version 2.0.0 but there are many upgrades as well as a new version 3. When we get it there is all kinds of stuff.

 

[greyhorse]

Ah, the SF Masterworks Series, I'd forgotten about them. There was a bunch of those at bookstores I used to go to when I was still living in Japan. My lost copy of 'Gateway' was from that series actually. Unfortunately, I don't see them much here in Toronto. From what I remember, they all had the lovelist covers, and helped stimulate the imagination. Neato, there's my next thread idea.

 

[ray gower]

Originally posted by greyhorse
Dave,
How do we go about making a list on this forum? I suppose a moderator with unlimited post-editting authorization would have to keep updating the first post of the appropriate thread or something. How about it Ray? I guess this might fall on your shoulders, but would it be ok?

I'm game, it would be interesting to put together a list of highly recommended books.

Only problem I see is that we are going to end up with 300 different titles with one recommendation each.
So I think a list in the first post might prove better than a poll.

 

[Dave]

Top Geek Books

Another Poll here:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technol.../what_are_the_top_20_geek_novels_updated.html

Admittedly, not a huge sample, but with some different ideas. I think they need to define 'Geek' though.

This is their list:

Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
Catch 22 -- Joseph Heller
Cloud Atlas -- David Mitchell
The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
Giles Goat-Boy -- John Barth
The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
The Left Hand of Darkness -- Ursula K Le Guin
The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
Neuromancer -- William Gibson
Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
Orlando -- Virgina Woolf
The Shockwave Rider -- John Brunner
Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
Stand on Zanzibar -- John Brunner
Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
Woman on the Edge of Time -- Marge Piercy

 

[ray gower]

Hmm.
High prevalence of old fashioned 50/60s end of the world style sci/fi in the list, as one might expect.
But for Stephenson, a somewhat stodgy writer, to have two in the list, over the likes of Clarke?

 

[Dave]

Bearing in mind that list is for geeks, whatever exactly a geek is, and assuming you can be a geek without being a scifi fan, and vice versa, then I don't see a problem with no Clarke.

What do you mean by 'stodgy writer'? Too much padding? I think I would agree in some of his books. I like Stephenson, I've read everything except his new trilogy, but I agree some of his books are overly long. 'Diamond Age' is one of them, but 'Snow Crash', which deserves to be on any top scifi list, never stops from the first page, and I couldn't describe it as 'stodgy' at all. (Unless you mean all that cryptological explanation, but that is the whole point of the story.)

No Asimov on that list though, that does seem strange.

 

[Datastream]

OK - here's the Asimov!

"The end of eternity". I keep re-reading it for the logical conundrums.