Baaa....

[jeregenest]

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.

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
Dune, Frank Herbert
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin *
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr. *
The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
Cities in Flight, James Blish
The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin *
Little, Big, John Crowley *
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick *
Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
On the Beach, Nevil Shute
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson 
Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock *
The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
Timescape, Gregory Benford
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer


Very straightforward list with few unexpected books there.

Comments

[kniedzw.livejournal.com]

In curious why you didn't like the following:

• Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
• The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
• Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
• Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
• Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke

I can imagine why you weren't keen on them, but I'm not entirely sure. ...and of what I've read of each of these left me with a generally positive impression, so I figure I might as well ask.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

• Dangerous Visions: That was a formatting error. Fixed.
  
• the Forever War: I should like the book, it has the right themes but frankly it was torture to finish.
  
• Childhood's End: I don't like Clarke, I find most of his fiction slow and plodding and his characters are msotly nonexistent.
  
• Ender's Game: Horrible morality drowned in terrible hack writing. I'm with Norman Spinard on this one.

[kniedzw.livejournal.com]

I'm more or less with you on Clarke, though the lack of characterization is a brush with which I often paint the whole of Golden Age SF. Hienlein wasn't always as bad in that regard, though I found his misogyny to bubble a little too close to the surface a little too often.

I think Ender's Game was something that I read at just the right time at just the right age for it to resonate. At the time, I viewed it as a moral quandry ill-resolved, but with genuinely believable characters and an interesting premise. It's sure as hell a lot better than some of his later stuff (Folk of the Pines, anyone?).

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Heinlein got worse as he got older.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Gods yes. I actually quite like Clarke's work, but not so much with Heinlein. His early stuff and his juveniles were pretty fun when I was a kid, but the utter horridness of Number of the Beast and everything after is quite impressive. He did write one good non-juvenile novel though, Double Star is surprisingly good.

I'm pleased to find someone else who doesn't like Pratchett and impressed that you have read Children of the Atom. I've never even seen a copy although I've heard of it. What didn't you like about it?

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

I agree, Ender's Game is one of those books that's perfect to read when you're 12 or 13, and loses steam thereafter. And then, Card himself becomes more problematic with age.

I loved Childhood's End. But Rama was a bust.

[jovianconsensus.livejournal.com]

I read Ender's Game in college, after a fairly peaceful high school experience, and I thought it was quite good. Make of that what you will.

[peaseblossom.livejournal.com]

You're such a geek!

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

And you love me for it, or despite it, or something.

[peaseblossom.livejournal.com]

Or something. Also, wasn't Stormbringer an Elric book? You loved those? Weird.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

I will always have a soft place in my heart for the Immortal Champion in all his incarnations.

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

Corum was my favorite.

[bruceb.livejournal.com]

Dunno if you saw this, but Del Rey's going to be reprinting the Elric stories in publication order. I am very stoked about this.