Austarnet.com has a user-updated list of the Top 100 Sci-Fi Books; new users can vote for ten books off of a list of about 150. The current Top 10 is about as solid a list as one could expect:
1 Orson Scott Card Ender's Game [S1] 1985
2 Frank Herbert Dune [S1] 1965
3 Isaac Asimov Foundation [S1-3] 1951
4 Douglas Adams Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy [S1] 1979
5 George Orwell 1984 1949
6 Robert A Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land 1961
7 Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 1954
8 Arthur C Clarke 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968
9 Isaac Asimov [C] I, Robot 1950
10 William Gibson Neuromancer 1984
Tell me what's missing? What's here that shouldn't be? How should the order be changed?
Friday, August 15, 2008
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2 comments:
It's hard to argue with that list. I'm proud to say that I have read nearly all of those. I was never a big Asimov person, but it would be impossible to argue against his impact. And the fact that I still need to read I, Robot fills me with some shame.
For my tastes, I would have a Philip K. Dick book in there, but that presents 2 problems. 1. What do I take off the list? 2. Which book would I put on?
This is where P.K. Dick would present me with a problem. As good as he was, and as much as I enjoy his work, nothing he did was as iconic or important as those books. Would The Man in the High Castle (Dick's only Hugo award) really beat out say 2001?
2001 could be argued against because it was written in parallel to the film, and much of the impact of the book could easily be attributed to the film. But if a person were to discuss the two, few would know what The Man in the High Castle was even about, or if it even qualifies as SF in the traditional sense.
Overall I have to say the list is pretty good. Nothing blatantly omitted.
Isodore68 -
Asomiv's impact was tremendous; he filled the Tolkein role in Sci-Fi with his sweeping Foundation trilogy. Give I, Robot a try; it's a collection of short stories and it's a great read.
Asomov's weakness was prose; he told great stories but used minial description and mostly eschewed evocative language. For some that's a turn off; I know it took me a while to adjust.
I might put a Philip K. Dick novel in the top 10 just to compensate for his HUGE impact in the field; without his work I don't know if Sci-Fi movies would have been accepted as mainstream as early as they were. Bladerunner and Total Recall both come straight out of his work, and cyberpunk really owes much to his vision of a dark and dirty future. If forced to choose, I'd probably select Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep; it's a good novel and so many folks are familiar with the story.
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