50 significant books

[vilakins]

Before I go to bed (after far too much to eat at Café Jazz for our anniversary), here's another one of those book lists, this one from kernezelda.
The most significant SF and Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years (1953-2002) according to the Science Fiction Book Club.

Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicise those you started but never finished, and underline the ones you loved.

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

Some of my underlines date back to my teenage years, some authors like Niven whom I adored back then have completely lost the plot and, I suspect, their marbles, and some series like Pohl's Gateway lost their way. Some, like all of Cordwainer Smith, I have read again and again and will always love. I'd have picked others in some cases though, like Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Comments

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. I must do this meme myself.

[filius-lupi.livejournal.com]

You haven't read Stormbringer!? Shocking! It's in the fantasy masterworks compilation of the Elric stories (imaginatively named "Elric") [hint hint ;-P]

I'm also suprised that Brooks' "Shannara"'s on there, and Fritz Leiber isn't!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I usually prefer SF to fantasy, and I tend to avoid those huge series that I don't think I'll find all of. Do I have to read all the Elric stories for them to make sense? I shall note that however and look for it at the library. :-)

My favourite fantasy novel is Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen which is really three novels in one volume in my edition: The Broken Lands, The Black Mountains, Ardneh's World).

[filius-lupi.livejournal.com]

All the Elric stories together total about 400-600 pages; it's wonderful 60s stuff. The quality over the course of the series is quite varied, but "Stormbringer"'s pretty good, as is the very first of them, "The Dreaming City" also known as "Elric of Melniboné" - the naming of the books is confusing, as there are several alternative titles for each of them, cut versions, and some are made up of several "independant" sub-stories. Basically, the FMW edition claims to have them all in, as does the appropriate volume of the enormous Eternal Warrior compilation of Moorcock's writing, but they have different contents lists...

Anyway, I ought to go and write a timed essay on eleventh century welsh politics now...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll see if I can find the lot in one volume then. [looks in on-line library catalogue] Damn. They don't have it. They do have other Elric collections, but not with 'Stormbringer'. I will have to investigate further.

Have fun!