Top 50 SF/F Booklist

This list is going around the science blogosphere. It seems de rigueur to comment on the choices and mark the ones you’ve read. This is a book meme I can support – although I was surprised I’d missed so many. I thought I was fairly well read in these genres.

The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1953-2002

*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
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
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
*50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

*Bold/asterisk: I read it, and remember what it was about!

Italic: I tried to read it and got bored before I finished . . .

Plain: I didn’t read it, or I read it, but promptly forgot the point.

I don’t read much in these genres now – I mostly choose nonfiction. There’s just not enough time in one’s life for all the books one ought to read. Almost all the books in bold, I read before entering college (except for Wolfe, Stephenson, and of course, Rowling – “we didn’t have Harry Potter when I was a kid; nor did we have email, cell phones, or TiVo. It was a dark and dreary age, and we all walked barefoot in the snow to school 6 miles uphill both ways!”)

My first read from this list was LOTR (third grade). I was incredibly lucky to read the “original” 20th century fantasy epic before stumbling on any of its derivatives, and at a formative age, too. It was no coincidence that my college English thesis was on medieval lit, and cited Tolkien. . .

I think the best single novel from this list (that I’ve read) is probably Ender’s Game. Whatever you think of Card’s politics, that is one fine book. But the entire Book of the New Sun is one of the best works of fiction I’ve ever read. It’s the one I’d recommend most – if you like a challenge. Not one of the friends I’ve given it ever finished the first book, so be warned.

Via The News Blog, and many others