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50 most significant SF books

edit David Janes 2006-12-09 22:30 UTC 5 comments

Tenser has a list of the 50 most significant SF books, with comments. My notes:

  • No "A Fire Upon the Deep"? This is the book that made deep-space SF readable again.
  • "Nine Princes in Amber" is missed, though "Lord of Light" is an inspired choice and is highly rcommended.
  • "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" is an excellent choice for the list; I like the immediate set of sequels. I'll have to dig these books out of storage
  • "Sword of Shanara"? WTF? Was this list edited by retarded munchkins?
  • I like "Ringworld", though Known Space is more important as a collection than as any one individual book.

There's lots of stuff I read years ago and I'll have to dig out and read again; I may pick up a few more of these just to check it out, though I find a lot of pre-70's SF kind of tedious.

Comment #1 — Mike C

2006-12-10 14:36:31

Interesting list.  I'm covered on the top 3 at least!  (and a few others, but not many)

We had a cool English teacher in Grade 10 and we did Fahrenheit, 1984, Ayn Rand's "Anthem" and a book called "Alas, Babylon" about life in central Florida following a nuclear war - the people in this small town watch Miami and Tampa go up in smoke on day, are cut off from any communication and carry on.  After many years, I was in touch with him this past year and he mentioned that some parent complained that 'Alas, Babylon' frightened her stupid kid and he ended up dropping it.  I remember liking it but have no idea if I'd like it now.  I want to reread Fahrenheit and 1984 - I don't think 15 year old Me had much of a clue about anything.

I must admit that I've read The Mists of Avalon and the first 3 of those Shanara books.  Only remember glimpses of them - I remember that they tried to slot a LotR-ish tale into each book and that the plots were basically identical.  Ugh.

My brother loved the Thomas Covenant books but I never picked them up.

Dick - only read Man in the High Castle.  This is sci-fi?  Yeah, whatever.

I'm pretty weak on this list.  Oh well, I've hopefully got about 40 or 50 years left to go! Glad to see the good review on Snow Crash.

Comment #2 — Steven

2007-03-01 22:15:40
I'm a big SF fan and I think that is a really good list. I agree with you on ""A Fire Upon The Deep", that is one really good book. I totally agree with Tenser on putting  The Lord of The Rings on number one, the book is a work of a genius.

Comment #3 — Mike Campbell

2008-06-26 21:38:55

I just started "A Fire Upon the Deep".  Thanks to you guys for the recommendation.  Hooray!

Comment #4 — David Janes

2008-06-26 22:57:35

Don't forget to immediately follow it up with A Deepness in the Sky, as there's an important link. Enjoy!

Comment #5 — Mike C

2008-07-18 20:42:58

Hey, loved 'Fire Upon the Deep'.  The ending was sublime.  The Tines, the Zones, the Powers ... that's all excellent stuff.  I will read Vinge's other stuff.

If you missed John Christopher's "The Tripods" series, I thought it was pretty cool.  Sort of marketed as 'teen scifi' but, tellingly, I liked it when I read it a few years back.  Pretty much a War of the Worlds scenario but the aliens don't get sick and die; they stick around and rule.

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