…but not necessarily the BEST ten SF books. I’m a little into SF and my husband is WAY into the genre. I’d like to hear opinions as to what are the more influential/notorious/whatever books, or at least those most likely to come up when talking about SF literature. George has suggested some books to me,like Asimov’s “Foundation” series and I gather reading “Dune” and “The Lord of the Rings” would be good due to the popularity or anticipation of the movie versions. So what ten books would you most recommend I read so I can better hold my own in a SF conversation?
Are we talking only SF as in Science Fiction? or do you mean SF in the broader (and rarely used) Speculative Fiction? Tolkien isn’t science fiction, for instance.
The Incarnations of Immortality series
The Blue Adept series
Both of the above by Piers Anthony
Eon by Greg Bear
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Most of the other books I remember enjoying reading are more fantasy than sci-fi. Like the very first Dragon Riders of Pern. My son is very much into the Mossflower series. He raves about it.
One of the most eye opening series I read was another Piers Anthony - Bio of a Space Tyrant
I don’t want to give anything away but when I read that at 15, I was shocked and swept away.
Ringworld by Larry Niven (poses some good engineering questions)
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
The Mars series (Red, Blue, Green) by Kim Stanley Robinson (very thoughtful expose of Mars colonization)
The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan (fun)
Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
1.I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.
2.Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert E. Heinlein.
3.Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke.
4.Dune by Frank Herbert.
5.Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
6.The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
7.Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
8.Neuromancer by William Gibson.
9.The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.
10.Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
As lists go, this one’s pretty cliched, but it covers most of the important stuff.
I would definitely recommend *Time Enough For Love,*by Robert A. Heinlein. I read this at age 13, and it got me hooked on sci fi. (There’s a prequel to it–Methusela’s Children–but it’s not necessary to read it first.)
As a 40+ year reader of SF who has attended a few conventions, met and talked with a few of the writers, I would have to say that **Alessan ** has done an excellent job with the basics, though I would replace #10 with Spider and Jeanne Robinson’s *Stardance * and #9 with Theodore Sturgeon’s *More Than Human * but that’s my taste, yours may indeed vary.
If you want to “hold your own at an SF convention,” then it’s hard to improve on Alessan’s excellent list. I would only suggest that you could read either the Foundation Trilogy or I, Robot; either Stranger in a Strange Land or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,; either Childhood’s End or Rendezvous with Rama. I haven’t read #9 or #10, and in their place I would have suggested:
Gateway, Frederik Pohl Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick The Cyberiad, by Stanislaw Lem.
Oh, and you absolutely must read Ringworld. It’s a classic example of “hard SF.”
While we’re at it, there’s a series of anthologies called (IIRC) The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. A number of classic golden-age SF stories are collected into volumes 1 and 2 (the latter books tend to be more modern SF, which is less to my liking and less essential to the SF “core curriculum.”) If you read nothing else, reading the first two volumes will give you an excellent cross-section of classic SF.
Sometimes it just seemed like I was the only one who ever read those books. What a wierd, yet excellant and amazing concept. There have been a couple ‘guest’ writer novels where they speculate on others in that world, some good, some not. Definately a fun place to work out your writing ability if you enjoy writing.
Great suggestions. For really really modern good stuff, check out the works of Stephen Baxter. Manifold Time is great. It deals with, among other things, how to deal with the ultimate heat death of the universe.
For really really old, dated stuff, check out the Lensman series, by E.E. “Doc” Smith. It’s really very entertaining. Classic space opera at its best. And it’s still the only series I’ve ever read where the ship’s navigator whips out his slide rule to calculate the trajectory to the next galaxy.
Oh, and as my own PSA, stay the HELL away from anything written by L. Ron Hubbard. His garbage is the literary equivalent of bowel surgery.
Add my votes for Stranger in a Strange Land, The Left Hand of Darkness and something by Philip K. Dick.
I can’t believe nobody has listed anything by Stanislaw Lem. Go with Solaris, which many consider his best SF. And as a good counterpoint to all this SF, see if you can find a copy of Lem’s essay “Science Fiction: A Hopeless Case—with Exceptions”, which may or may not have been responsible for him being thrown out of the Science Fiction Writers of America.
Also, add Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle to the list.
The Honor Harrington series from David Weber
The Vorkosigan series by Bujold
When Androids Dream of Electric Sleep
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Time Machine
The Ugly Little Boy, Isaac Asimov
anything ever written by Eric Russell (the British one ;)), Ben Bova, Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein, or C.J. Cherryh (sp?)
The Integral Trees
younger readers:
Have Spacesuit Will Travel
the whole Tom Swift, Jr. series
Perry Rhodan
That’s all I can think of without seeing my bookshelf.
Ben I agree with your revised list, but want to quibble on a very, VERY minor point: Niven ain’t “hard” SF. At most, he’s medium. (That doesn’t mean that he’s not great to read, Protector is one of my favorite novels of all time, and his Known Space stories are always in my “reread” pile), but he makes too many biology errors and every now and then, (unlike “true” hard SF) Niven’s story gets in the way of his science lectures.
For “real” hard SF, try Robert L. Forward( Dragon’s Egg is fantastic) or Stephen Baxter (who I don’t care for at all, but…) or James Hogan (before his brain melted and he became (really) a Velikofsky-oid)
Lem was never actually thrown out of SFWA. He had inadvertanly been given a membership that he was not qualified for. He was and is welcome to join at any time.
My list of essentials probably duplicates others, but they should be:
Single novels:
“The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” – Robert A. Heinlein (his best is “Double Star,” but this is close)
“Childhood’s End” – Arthur C. Clarke (not all that good, but essential reading)
“The Stars My Destination” – Alfred Bester (one of the best of all time)
“Davy” – Edgar Pangbourne (criminally underrated – a book years ahead of its time)
“The Left Hand of Darkness” – Ursula K. LeGuin (a landmark in characterization)
“The Martian Chronicles”-- Ray Bradbury
“The Man Who Folded Himself” – David Gerrold (the ultimate time travel novel)
“Dhalgren” or “The Einstein Intersection” – Samuel R. Delany (intellectually challenging, but well worth it)
“Dune” by Frank Herbert (don’t bother with the sequels, though).
“Mission of Gravity” by Hal Clement (the first true “hard SF” novel by the man who invented the genre)
Series (note: SF series tend to deteriorate as the book count increases. These go the longest before you want to throw the damn thing across the room )
“Foundation” by Isaac Asimov (absolutely essential, though it’s a bit dated now)
“The Dragonriders of Pern” by Anne McCaffrey
“‘Known Space’ series” by Larry Niven (“Ringworld,” “World of Ptavvs,” “Protector,” plus several short story collections.)
“Corpus Dei” novels by James Morrow (“Only Begotten Daughter,” “Towing Jehovah,” “Blameless in Abbedon,” and “The Eternal Footman.”)
“Book of the New Sun” by Gene Wolfe
Short story collections should be:
“Dangerous Visions” – Harlan Ellison, ed.
“The Persistance of Vision” – John Varley
“San Diego Lightfoot Sue” – Tom Reamy
“The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories” – Gene Wolfe
“The Hugo Winners” – Isaac Asmov, ed. (quite a few volumes)
“Nebula Awards” – Various editors
“Nightmares and Geezenstacks” – Fredric Brown
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