I’m not a big Heinlein fan, but I do think SiaSL is one of Heinlein’s most influential novels and should be on the list.
One item that might need to be on the list: James SA Corey’s Leviathan Wakes. It may not qualify, since it was only Hugo-nominated, and I’m not sure how much press it’s gotten, but it’s a recent space opera with a major release, and it’s a pretty great read.
And one that definitely needs to be on the list: Octavia Butler. Her Xenogenesis series is the most overtly SF of her work, but I find the energy of Wild Seed to be her most compelling. Kindred, a time-travel novel, is apparently her best-seller.
Oh, and should there be some New Weird on the list? It’s one of the biggest movements in SF in the last decade, and while it often manifests in fantasy, there’s plenty of weird SF out there.
My suggestion for New Weird: China Mieville’s The City and the City. I think it’d be a great pairing with The Yiddish Policeman’s Union.
These would be my 3 choices, as well. In fact, they are. I personally only own three of Clarke’s books, and these are they. I used to own a copy of 2010 that I had heavily annotated with connections to 2001, but it’s long gone.
ok, well, it should be at minimum, things that are impossible but based on science at the time the author wrote the work. right? 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 don’t have this.
This is a lot closer IMO. There does need to be some sort of nonexistent McGuffin in the story, I’d say, (and FWIW I think calling Yiddish Policeman’s Union science fiction is stretching the term to its breaking point), but some SF such as Star Wars are not remotely based in science, and others hew so closely to what’s possible under current knowledge that the “impossible” part doesn’t work (consider the many asteroid-hits-earth stories).
In my opinion, for a book to be science fiction the science has to be integral to the plot. There are plenty of books out there set in the future, but with a plot that could be told as a western without much change.
Post-apocalyptic fiction doesn’t count if the nature of the apocalypse is irrelevant to the plot of the story. If a story about characters living on an island after an alien invasion destroyed everything could be told the same way if everything had been destroyed by an earthquake or an asteroid hit or a nuclear war, it’s not science fiction. But if the story revolves around stealing alien science to reclaim the planet, it’s science fiction.
If you’re looking for horror SF, one book that comes to mind is “Watchers” by Dean Koontz. Science is very much integral to the story, and it’s one of his best books. I’m not sure I’d put it on the list anyway, as I don’t know that it rises to the level of ‘essential’ science fiction.
As for Heinlein, I think “Stranger in a Strange Land”, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”, and “The Past through Tomorrow” is an excellent set if you are limited to three books. SIASL is by no means my favorite Heinlein, but the three books pretty much cover all of Heinlein’s major periods and themes. It would be nice to add ‘Starship Troopers’, but if I had to leave one off of those four that would be the one. However, its cultural impact has been growing instead of shrinking because of the movies, TV series (and I understand yet another remake is being produced - this time closer to Heinlein’s original book). It’s quite possible that in another generation it’ll be the only book that everyone remembers if you mention Heinlein. So that might warrant an entry on the list.
Personally I think several of his juveniles are as good as other books on the list, but hopefully there will be some of those in the children’s section.
Four other women that might be considered for the list (not that that’s your goal, but right now the list is pretty overwhelmingly white dude, and it might be nice to include more of the nonwhitedudes that have made the field what it is):
James Tiptree, Jr.: more famous for her short stories; perhaps her novella, “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” is available in some format.
Sherri S. Tepper: One of the more political SF writers, and I don’t much care for her work, but she’s pretty widely read I think.
Marge Piercy: her novel Woman on the Edge of Time is a pretty classic feminist utopia with plenty of sf elements.
Anne McCaffrey: Okay, so if Yiddish Policeman’s Union stretches the SF definition in one direction, Dragonsong stretches it in the other. But I’d say her work fits within sf, since it occurs on another planet, and the threads are alien life-forms, and IIRC (and it’s been nearly 30 years since I read her work so I might not) she does situate everything within a colonizing-another-plant framework. And boy howdy is her work important. Your YA exclusion might keep her out, though.
Also, for Le Guin, I’d also consider putting The Dispossessed on the list. Le Guin deserves two places!
The City and the Stars is a solid choice for fourth. (When I recently reread it I found that Clarke had envisioned video games in the early 1950s.) The city of Diaspar is a great creation. I’d put it above 2001, but 2001 needs to be included for the movie tie-in factor.
Thoughts about Stranger in a Strange land could take a whole thread by itself (maybe it’s been done in the hx of the Dope, wouldn’t surprise me). Personally, I find that while it probably had the greatest impact of RAH’s books at the time of publication, it’s position in my pantheon of the importance of his works erodes over time as I get older. I don’t think it will stand the test of time as well as Mistress, Troopers, or some others ( I see that Methuselah’s Children, introducing L. Long and issues of eugenics, and Puppet Masters don’t seem to have been mentioned yet!)
For me, SIASL is when RAH started to go off the rails, taking his ‘novel as a vehicle for social commentary’ too damned seriously. If Stranger had bombed, I for one imagine his later works would have been the better for it, although of course we’ll never know.
I’m loving this thread, and there are books I’ve not read, so I will be referencing it for some time.
Thanks for all the feedback. I am eagerly reading it and working on some changes to the list. In the meantime, I have researched what exactly the library has and doesn’t have of the list of 47 that I posted. Things are worse than I thought. I will make a longer post later but work beckons.
With regard to Stranger in a Strange Land - the fact that everybody has so much to say about it demonstrates to me that it must be on the list. Heinlein’s getting his 4. (stoopid sexy Heinlein!)
Waaaaaaaay back in the 60’s, a few of us girls were into science fiction, yes, hard to believe. We only had a handful of books at the public library - a couple of Heinleins, a couple of no-name missle-to-Saturn type novels. A couple of Ursula LeGuins. “Star Mans Son” by Andre Norton. “Podkayne of Mars”. Maybe some Ray Bradbury?.. The pickings were slim, this was just before sci-fi really took off. Wish we’d had more to choose from. We wrote our own science fiction stories and just loved Star Trek.
I think some Kim Stanley Robinson needs to be included. The Mars series (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars) is the obvious choice, but my recommendation would be Icehenge.
As for Neil Stephenson, my recommendation would be Anathem, which I think will hold up for future generations much better than Snow Crash, as iconic as the latter is.
As for Isaac Asimov, you really should include The Gods Themselves and drop the Foundation series, in my opinion.
Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles would be on my list.
Yet another recent must-have, IMO: The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. It’s a magnificent book, and moreover has more cultural impact than most SF; I see it mentioned on booklists by a broad swath of friends, remember hearing the author interviewed on NPR (Speaking of Faith, I think), and so on.
This one is definitely at least in group B and a contender for A.
I LOL’d at that one. I do have an actual answer for this one though…but if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you. Or worse, make you read it.
Leviathan Wakes is getting some good press. It’s just too new for the a-list, IMHO.
Anathem might get bumped up. The other 3 mentioned are in group B.
Icehenge may be “better,” but the Mars books are much well-known and highly regarded and thus are a better choice for the purposes of the list. Remember that this isn’t really about which books we like better ourselves. If it were, Red Mars would be banished to the discard pile.
I’ll include mention of it on the list as part of Hyperion’s entry. Incidentally, while I was looking stuff up in the library’s system, I found that Fall of Hyperion was shelved in a different section than the other 3. Oy.
I read once Brad Pitt was supposed to be in, or produce, a film of The Sparrow. Fell through, obviously. That’s a shame, they can do wonderful things with CGI now.
I will make a longer post later but work beckons.