I am trying to put together a reading list of 15-20 classics of science fiction. This was inspired by a conversation with someone who mentioned a book that he claimed was a science fiction classic, which I had never heard of. I decided that if I’m going to consider myself a fan of science fiction, I should make sure I’ve read the books that are considered to be the most famous, influential, noteworthy, and/or genre-defining. The trouble is, the ones I can think of are mostly ones I’ve already read. I need help coming up with the rest of them! Please feel free to offer suggestions, or tell me that something I’ve listed here is actually pretty irrelevant to the genre.
So far I have:
Foundation trilogy
Brave New World
1984
Farenheit 451
The Call of Cthulhu
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Dune
Probably at least one book by Heinlein?
Something by Arthur C. Clarke?
My essentials up to the mid 1970s (some books are not Science Fiction from a modern point of view but they are milestones in the development of the genre)
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley (1818)
The War of the Worlds
by H.G. Wells (1898) The Machine Stops
by E.M. Forster (1909)
A Princess of Mars
by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1917)
R.U.R.
by Carel Capek (1920)
Last and First Men
by Olaf Stapledon (1930)
When Worlds Collide
by Edwin Balmer & Philip Wylie (1933)
Odd John
by Olaf Stapledon (1935)
Star Maker
by Olaf Stapledon (1937)
Earth Abides
by George R. Stewart (1949)
The Martian Chronicles
by Ray Bradbury (1950)
Childhood’s End
by Arthur C. Clarke (1953)
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury (1953)
More than Human
by Theodore Sturgeon (1953)
The Demolished Man
by Alfred Bester (1953)
Mission of Gravity
by Hal Clement (1953)
A Case of Conscience
by James Blish (1958)
Alas, Babylon
by Pat Frank (1959)
Starship Troopers
by Robert Heinlein (1959)
A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1960)
Solaris
by Stanislaw Lem (1961)
Stranger in a Strange Land
by Robert A. Heinlein (1961)
The Drowned World
by J.G. Ballard (1962)
The Man in the High Castle
by Philip K. Dick (1962)
Cat’s Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut (1963)
Way Station
by Clifford D. Simak (1963)
Babel-17
by Samuel R. Delany (1966)
Make Room! Make Room!
by Harry Harrison (1966)
Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes (1966)
The Crystal World
by J. G. Ballard (1966)
The Moon is a harsh Mistress
by Robert A. Heinlein (1966)
Stand on Zanzibar
by John Brunner (1968)
The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
Ringworld
by Larry Niven (1970)
Rendesvous with Rama
by Arthur C. Clarke (1972)
Roadside Picnic
by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky (1972)
The Forever War
by Joe Haldeman (1974)
The Mote in God’s Eye
by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle (1974)
Arthur C. Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama
Isaac Asimov - I, Robot
Robert Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land
John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids
Ursula le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Walter M. Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz
Frank Herbert - Dune
Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles
H.G. Wells - The Time Machine
A.E van Vogt - Slan
Clifford D. Simak - City
Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity
Joe Haldeman - The Forever War
Cordwainer Smith - The Instrumentality Of Mankind
My 20 Favorite Science Fiction Long Works (greater than 25,000 words)
Olaf Stapledon First and Last Men and Starmaker
Philip Jose Farmer The Riverworld Series (To Your Scattered Bodies Go, The Fabulous Riverboat, The Dark Design, The Magic Labyrinth, and Gods of Riverworld)
Frank Herbert Dune
Walter Miller A Canticle for Leibowitz
Alfred Bester The Stars My Destination
Ursula K. Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness
Philip K. Dick The Man in the High Castle
Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth The Space Merchants
I would favour The Dispossessed over seeming fan favourite The Left Hand Of Darkness for Le Guin (or why not both :))
and add CJ Cherryh’s Downbelow Station
Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
Edgar Pangborn, Davy
Frank Herbert, Dune (do not read any of the sequels)
Robert Heinlein, Double Star (considered by many to be his best)
Ursula K. Leguin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Samuel R. Delaney, Babel-17 (his most accessible major novel; Dhalgren is his masterpiece, but it’s not to everyone’s taste)
Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
Norman Spinrad, Bug Jack Barron
Poul Anderson, Tau Zero
Larry Niven, Ringworld
Robert Silverberg, Dying Inside
William M. Miller, A Canticle for Lebowitz
Don’t forget short stories, which in some ways are a more natural format for science fiction than the novel is. A good way to get a nice broad sampling is through collections of the Hugo winners.
And for the novels, you could do a lot worse than starting with Heinlein’s juveniles. You’ll want more than just Heinlein, of course, but they’re a good start.
All great suggestions here. I had the same thought as Chronos about short stories.
One of my favorite collections is the “Women of Wonder” series, which collected short stories by female authors. These two books have a lot of great (and some not-so-great) sci-fi from some authors you know and many you don’t but should. Also, it broadens what is almost always a near-exclusively male-written list of important works.
Most of my sci-fi books have already been listed by others in this thread, but I do want to say: Philip Dick’s short story collections are pretty awesome and are highly recommended. The collections I have are by Citadel Press (If you buy collections from different publishers they might have the same stories).
Also highly recommending The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem. It’s a collection of short stories along the lines of Greek Mythology, but told by robotic beings. It’s interesting and hilarious.
Signal to Noise and other books by Eric S. Nylund
Version 43 by Philip Palmer
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
White Noise by Don Delillo
Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man Ahead of its time and very well written
Arthur C Clarke A Fall of Moondust Very suspenseful - a challenge to not read in one sitting
Frederik Pohl Gateway Unusual narrative structure and psychologically intense. Avoid the sequels though
Robert Heinlein Red Planet The best of the “juveline” novels, imho
I’m researching robots, so I’ll throw out some stories I think are especially good and/or important that haven’t been mentioned.
E. T. A. Hoffmann, “The Sandman” (1817)
Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, L’Eve Future (1886)
William Wallace Cook, A Round Trip to the Year 2000, or A Flight Through Time (1903)
Eando Binder, Adam Link - Robot (collects stories from 1939-1942)
C. L. Moore, “No Woman Born” (1944)
Jack Williamson, The Humanoids (collects stories from 1947-1948)
A little tidbit. The first Adam Link story was called “I, Robot.” It made a huge impression on the young Asimov. However, he never wrote a story with that title. It was imposed on his collection of robot stories by his publisher, over his objections. One of which was that it would diminish Binder. And it came to pass…
Seconding the recommendations for the Women of Wonder series, and for short stories in general - some of the masters of the genre work(ed) almost exclusively in that format. Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, James Tiptree Jr (Alice Sheldon), to name three of the most prominent.