Skiffy meme

[gervase_fen]

As seen on parrot_knight's journal.


"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, and add a question mark if you can’t remember for sure."

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

It struck me, going through the list, that I read most of my selections in the 1980s, and some even earlier than that - 5 and 7 came from the children's section of the Emsworth library, when I would have been eight or nine years old. I bought #22 from Waterstone's in Bath in 1987. I own #44, and have got 100 pages into it at least three times, before being distracted - I bought it because I'm a big fan of The Sheep Look Up. I've been through phases of enthusiasm for Arthur C Clarke, Michael Moorcock and Isaac Asimov and read as much of their work as possible. My Dad is a huge fan of #50, and we used to have US import copies of the Riverworld series in the house, which I think he must have lent out (or have not survived various house moves).

I must ask - no Anubis Gates? The Space Merchants? Earth Abides?

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

There must be enough to build an alternative list; I don't know about influential but I'd expect the just-read The Owl Service to have a school of followers, and it's certainly fantasy to all but the most obtuse, I would have thought. Pratchett fans are always assuring me that The Colour of Magic isn't representative of the rest of his work; so perhaps one or more of the other Discworld novels deserve to replace it on the list?

[gervase-fen.livejournal.com]

Ah, a quick check on Wikipedia reveals that Earth Abides was published in 1949, and The Space Merchants was serialised in 1952 in Galaxy. (Another one of my all-time favourites, The Day of the Triffids, misses the cut by two years.)

However significant they may be, "Dangerous Visions" and "Deathbird Stories" aren't novels!

I agree about The Owl Service - I'd love to see a top 50 listing of British SF novels.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I'm just embarking on A Dream of Wessex - not just right now as it would be healthier to be dreaming more conventionally than the members of Christopher Priest's Wessex Foundation. Very 1970s, though, with its scientific base inside Maiden Castle - I wonder who first thought of that motif?