Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
The SF meme
I’m up at 1:43 AM, can’t sleep, which tells you a lot. Tells me a lot, anyway.
From Jon Hansen’s blog:
“Behold, the SF Book Club’s list of The 50 Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books, 1953-2002. And no list like that can go without someone somewhere turning it into a meme. Shocking, this internet.
So, the rules: Bold the ones you have read, strike through the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.”
Follow me below the cut . . .
Let’s make this at least marginally interesting. Any books here I haven’t read which you consider an absolute MUST?
- 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 — I read and loved Nova; does that count?
- 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 — even with the silly computer shrink, it’s a fine book.
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 — what, only one by Vonnegut?
- *Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson — Listen to Reason.
- 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
Ooof. Lots of blanks up there — is it any small wonder I’m writing romance these days rather than SF?
Wow, this was about as exciting as cleaning ear wax. Now it’s 2 AM and I’m still not tired. I’ll futz with the timestamp so this will post later.
D.
awww poor doug. hot milk! chamomile tea! tylenol PM! mmmmm…
Interview with the Vampire is considered SF? Oooook.
And seeing this list/meme (again) reminds me of how very little I’ve ever read in this genre. Very, very little.
Damn. I’ve read more of those than you have!!
I really liked the Gene Wolfe books, but that doesn’t mean you will.
The ones I’ve read (or started to read):
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien (a gazillion years ago)
Dune, Frank Herbert (ditto)
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
Neuromancer, William Gibson
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 (how about a bunch of other Gene Wolfe books? Will they count?)
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett (and a bunch of others)
Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
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 Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
On the Beach, Nevil Shute The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein (just reading it now because the boys told me to)
Well, that’s not SO many more than you. But there’s no Tanith Lee? I’d take her over MZB. And no whatshisname, the assassin. Can’t recall his name but like his books–maybe it’s Zelazny.
AND no Rrrobert Jordan, thank the guud lorrd.
It’s amazing to me how many of these I know I’ve read and I’ve entirely forgotten. Dune…cinnamon. Yup, that’s about all I remember and I read more than one book in the series.
If you’re going to have damn Harry Potter, then you have to have every book by Diane Wynn Jones and the trilogies by phillip Pullman or Jonathan Stroud. Dammit. And maybe Lloyd Alexander (Chronicles of Prydain)
What an incomplete list! However, based on what you’ve got here, that which you haven’t read, I’d recommend The Caves of Steel and The Stars My Destination.
And I’d give Ender’s Game another chance, if I were you. That’s a favorite of mine. But maybe that’s just me…
So, I read a lot of insignificant books. Like GRR Martin, Guy Gavriel Kay, Lois McMaster Bujold, SL Viehl …. 😉
The ones I read:
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien ** (one of my favourite books ever)
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett*
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
46. Starship Trooper, Robert A. Heinlein
Read and hated (as in watching a trainwreck)
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
The ones I gave up on:
22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
The rest I never checked out.
fiveandfour: the list includes fantasy, too. (I know, I know . . . Vampire doesn’t seem to fit that category, either.)
M E-L: thanks for the rec!
Kate, I would expect no less from the author of Futurelove.
IL, I hated, HATED, Ender’s Game. Was it the obvious, predictable, Twilight Zoney plot? The not so subtle moral/ethical underpinnings? The fact the author seemed so proud that military schools were using his book as an educational tool? All the above. Sorry.
Gabriele, I liked the Covenant series in college. When I looked at it recently, thinking Hmm, I wonder if Jake would like this, I cringed at the writing. Um, overwriting.
Overwriting, and one whiny bastard as MC. I can take bastard, but not whiny. 😀
Yeah, I’d forgotten the “Oh, woe is me, I have leprosy and no one loves me anymore” MC. Yeesh. I also disliked how everyone called him “white gold wielder.” My wedding ring is white gold, too. You don’t see me putting on airs.
A lot of these are the bookshelves, but I’ve not read them, they belong to the Hubs who keeps saying “You would like this one,” and I go “Ok when I’m done with this one…” although he does the samer about any of the books I really loike. The only book we’ve both agreed was awesome was To Kill a Mockingbird.
I can’t believe you didn’t like HPPS – dish up on the hate or direct me to the rant.
Okay, I played. I read 18 & gave up on 1. More than I expected. Mostly, when people talk sf/f, I’m completely lost, even though for years that’s almost all I read. I’m still not sure how I missed all the famous ones.
What? No Cherryh?
_Downbelow_Station_ is a must read for hard
SF fans. She does great character.
Best new/recent: _Market_Forces_ by
Richard K. Morgan. Near future investment
strategy: Finance a minor war for profit.
Also good characters.