As a huge sci-fi nerd, I’m always looking to fill in gaps in my experience of “the classics”.
Here’s what I’ve read so far that I consider “classics,” with *'s by my faves
*Dune-Chapterhouse:Dune (I have no interest in the prequels, but may get around to “book 7” eventually)
2001-3001
Rendevous with Rama - Rama Revealed
*Childhood’s End, Songs of Distant Earth
Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers
*Starship Troopers, *The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Friday, Number of the Beast, I will Fear No Evil, Stranger in a Strange Land
*Hitchhikers’ Guide - Mostly Harmless, Dirk Gently-Salmon of Doubt (also Meaning of Liff and Last Chance to see, though those aren’t sci-fi. No interest in the non-Adams hitchhikers’ sequel)
The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds
*Lensman series, 1st 3 books. (I’ve got the next three in one volume, on deck)
Ender’s Game-Xenocide, Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon
I, Robot
1984
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451
Neuromancer, Count Zero, Burning Chrome
A Canticle for Leibowitz
A Wrinkle in Time - Swiftly tilting planet
The Man in the High Castle
I know my Asimov is lacking. I tried reading Foundation once and recall it being very dry. Maybe I’ll give it another go. Worth it? Should I delve into Vonnegut or Dick instead? Any glaring omissions?
Maybe some Niven. Larry Niven can be incredibly dry when writing alone, so try one of the books he co-wrote with Jerry Pournelle. Lucifer’s Hammer, still one of the best ever in the asteroid-impact subgenre, or The Mote In God’s Eye, a great first contact story, or The Legacy of Heorot, a colonization story set on another planet with strong undertones of Beowulf.
If you like Heinlein’s boys books (Space Cadet, Farmer in the Sky, and so on) try John Varley’s Red Thunder. It’s not more than twenty years old, but it feels just like Heinlein’s old stuff.
Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War is a nice counterpoint to Starship Troopers written by a Vietnam draftee.
Your Heinlein is also lacking: I don’t see any of his juveniles on that list. Almost all of them are good; take your pick.
I’m also seeing a shortage of short story collections, which some might argue are the most natural medium for science fiction. One good tactic is to just pick any volume of The Hugo Winners. If any stories stand out for you as particularly good, or you keep seeing the same names over and over, you know that those are writers you need to keep an eye out for.
Foundation is, indeed, pretty dry. If that’s a problem for you, then it’s probably just not going to be your thing. If you want to take a stab at another of Asimov’s novels, you might want to try The Caves of Steel.
**Chronos **said what I wanted to say.
I find Asimov a bit dry in general, I really don’t care for his works much. Even the great ones could be better.
Try reading some of Heinlein’s juveniles, written in the 1950s or so. In particular, The Rolling Stones and Podkayne of Mars. Heinlein wrote two endings for Podkayne, and the editor considered the first one too dark, so he had to write a happier ending. The story works better with the darker ending, though. If possible, get an edition with both endings.
Asimov IS quite dry, and if you didn’t like Foundation, you might never like him. Asimov was very good with short stories, though. I think that I liked his Black Widower series best of all, though they were mystery, rather than SF.
Asimov has some stuff that’s more fun. I would recommend The End Of Eternity and …The Gods Themselves.
If you liked Harsh Mistress, then read John C. Wright’s Golden Age trilogy. More recent and not well-known, but fantastically imaginative and solidly grounded at the same time.
Connie Willis’ time-travel novels thoroughly invigorate that genre. They all share the same universe but differ sharply in tone and mood. And if you really like time travel, read Robert Charles Wilson’s The Chronoliths for a perspective on what today’s world looks like when time travel is invented in the near future.
Short stories are a good recommendation. Any collection is likely to be pretty good. I have a pet theory that the reason that science fiction books are less subject to becoming long, bloated series of books in desperate need of an editor’s red pen than fantasy books is that so many of the authors in this field cut their teeth writing short stories for the science fiction magazines. God knows that older authors who have the leverage to force their editors to back down can make some horrible, bloated crap, but I do think that there’s less of in in SF than in fantasy.
Some David Brin would be good. The Practice Effect is a good light stand-alone novel. Startide Rising, Glory Season, or Kiln People are more openly SF.
The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester, along with the first 2/3rd of The Computer Connection (the novel falls apart after that). Davy by Edgar Pangbourn The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Leguin Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement Neuromancer by William Gibson The Dragonriders of Pern (first trilogy) by Anne McCaffrey Gateway and Man Plus by Fred Pohl. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
If you really want some challenging reading, look for Samuel R. Delany: Nova, Babel-17, The Einstein Intersection, Dhalgren and Triton.
For Clarke, also read “The City and the Stars” which is much more far future than most, and still not outdated. Plus, as I discovered with surprise when I reread it, Clarke invented video games.
Two really excellent books are “The Demolished Man” and “The Stars My Destination” by Alfred Bester.
Of course the list changes occasionally, and then I may have something new to discover - darn it.
I do not see Bester mentioned above. I don’t think he is for everybody and like other items in your list it may seem a little dated at this point, but I enjoy his work. In the same vein, there is quite a bit of H Beam Piper available from Project Gutenberg. Even if you don’t like it, it was worth what you paid for it.
(And not one but two people mention Bester while I was writing this. That is what happens when I get distracted by that list site.)
