meme - SFBC 50 significant books.

[dagibbs]

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

*1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
*3. Dune, Frank Herbert
*4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
*5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
*6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
*12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
*17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
*18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
*19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson (Finished 1.5 books worth the first time. Read the first book a second time, cause it was assigned reading in a university course, so had to re-read it for the course.)
*24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
*30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
*32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
*44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks (I read about 50 pages, decided it was too derivative of Tolkien, and stopped. Why the heck is it on the list? Unless because it influenced others to write endless derivative fantasy series?)
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Given their list, I'm pretty well read in this field, I guess. Doesn't actually surprise me.

Of course, I also believe that if you ask any 10 fans for a list of the 50 most significant works in sf/f, you'll get at least 20 different lists. :)

Comments

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

I would guess that The Sword of Shannara is on the list due to sales. A lot of people bought the book(s), and itw as a NY Times bestseller.

Also one note on Dangerous Visions...According to Bink, it came into existance when Harlan had a running bet with another SF writer that there was no anthology, not even one of the worst, unsalable stories he could find, that he could not sell. He won the bet.

ttyl

[beable]

I think my favourite thing in either Dangerous Visions or Again Dangerous Visions (I forget which of the two anthologies this occurs in) is that one of the two of them has stories by both Kate Wilhelm and James Tiptree Jr.

Harlan's introduction to the Kate Wilhelm story calls her "the female voice of our generation". His introduction to the James Tiptree Jr. story calls him "the male voice of our generation".

Little did he know ...

[foms.livejournal.com]

If Lord of the Rings was the seed, then some say that Shanana was the fertilizer. It's said that the fantasy fiction industry mightn't have been what it is if not for its massive sales.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I like your analogy, cause we all know what you fertilize fields with...

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I don't remember that, but I remember there was an essay/intro by (I think) Poul Anderson who argued about the essentially masculine voice of the writings of James Tiptree Jr.

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

Umh....I think you are confusing people...James Tiptree Jr.'s real name was Alice Bradley Sheldon, not Kate Wilhelm. The full quote of Harlan's comment in A,DV is:

"Wilhelm is the woman to beat this year, but Tiptree is the man."

ttyl

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I don't think she was. She may have been mis-remembering the quote, but she is not confusing the people.

[beable]

What DGibbs said.

I didn't (oh horrors, I am SOOOOO scandalized) have either book handy at my office to quote exactly, but what we posted was pretty similar. At least in my universe.

Not to mention that everyone knows that Alice Sheldom wrote under the pseudonym Jerry Pournelle and was married to James Tiptree Jr. (a pseudonym that Larry Niven used when he wanted to branch out). Hell, I think Kate Wilhelm officiated at their wedding!

[horsetraveller.livejournal.com]

So of all the Anne McCaffrey novels, why Dragonflight? I can't even recall what it was about.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Dragonflight was the first of the Dragonriders of Pern trilogy, and so the first of her famous Pern novels. (Dragonflight, Dragonquest, The White Dragon was the Dragonriders trilogy, Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums was the Harper Hall Trilogy. IIRC publishing order was DR1, DR2, HH1-3, DR3. Then things went down hill with Moretta, and I stopped reading them.)

But, if one is going to pick a McCaffrey book, this one actually does make sense.

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

She most certainly is!

From the The Internet Speculative Fiction Database:

"James Tiptree, Jr. - Summary Bibliography (Long Works)
* Legal Name: Sheldon, Alice Bradley
* Birthplace: USA
* Birthdate: 24 August 1915
* Deathdate: 19 May 1987
* Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tiptree%2C_Jr
* Bibliographic Notes: Author:James Tiptree, Jr. "
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?James_Tiptree,_Jr.

From: http://davidlavery.net/Tiptree/
"Julie Phillips' James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon to be published in August by St. Martin's.James Tiptree, Jr. (August 24, 1915 – May 19, 1987) was the pen name of American science fiction author Alice Bradley Sheldon, used from 1967 to her death. She also occasionally wrote under the pseudonym Raccoona Sheldon (1974–77). Tiptree/Sheldon was most notable for breaking down the barriers between writing perceived as inherently "male" or "female" — it was not publicly known until 1977 that James Tiptree, Jr. was a woman."

[beable]

I am? What, did I telepathically phone you and tell you that Kate Wilhelm and James Tiptree were the same person? No? I didn't think so.

Why don't you read next time.

[horsetraveller.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.
I read the Harper Hall books first, so the dragonriders books didn't stand out as well (from each other) for me. Except the White Dragon of course, that one was easy to remember.