15 November 2006

46

Perhaps I can do a bit better with this list, which I found on line (here, to be precise): the top 100 SF books.

Instructions: Mark the selections you have read in bold. If you liked it, add a star (*) in front of the title; if you didn't, give it a minus (-). Then, put the total number of books you've read in the subject line.

Dune – Frank Herbert
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
Foundation – Isaac Asimov (read half of the first sequel, then got distracted and never returned to the series)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (couldn't get past the first chapter)
1984 – George Orwell
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A Heinlein (tried reading this twice; the second time, I think, I made it into the second chapter; one of only two by RAH I couldn't finish)
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
- Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
* Starship Troopers – Robert A Heinlein
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
Neuromancer – William Gibson
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K Dick
- 2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C Clarke
* Ringworld – Lary Niven (wasn't impressed by the sequels, though)
The Time Machine – H G Wells
Childhood’s End – Arthur C Clarke
Hyperion – Dan Simmons
* Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C Clarke (didn't like the sequels at all)
Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
The War of the Worlds – H G Wells
* The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A Heinlein
Speaker for the Dead – Orson Scott Card
The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
- The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K Le Guin
Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
* The Mote in God’s Eye – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Ender’s Shadow – Orson Scott Card
- A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle (as I recall, I enjoyed it in fourth grade, but I find it unreadable now)
- The Man in the High Castle – Philip K Dick
Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny
* The Caves of Steel – Isaac Asimov
Gateway – Frederick Pohl
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Solaris – Stanislaw Lem
Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson
The Stars My Destination – Alfred Bester
Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter Miller
Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
The Gods Themselves – Isaac Asimov
Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
UBIK – Philip K Dick
Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Time Enough for Love – Robert A Heinlein (though parts of it were good)
A Fire Upon the Deep – Vernor Vinge
The End of Eternity – Isaac Asimov
- The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut
Red Mars – Kim Stanley Robinson
* Lucifer’s Hammer – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
The Dispossessed – Ursula K Le Guin
The Shadow of the Torturer – Gene Wolfe
The Demolished Man – Alfred Bester
Eon – Greg Bear
- Battlefield Earth – L Ron Hubbard
The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton’
- To Your Scattered Bodies Go – Philip Jose Farmer
Player of Games – Iain M Banks
Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne
Contact – Carl Sagan
Startide Rising – David Brin
Use of Weapons – Iain M Banks
The Reality Dysfunction – Peter F Hamilton
The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch – Philip K Dick
The City and the Stars – Arthur C Clarke
The Stainless Steel Rat – Harry Harrison
* The Chrysalids [aka Re-Birth] – John Wyndham
* The Puppet Masters – Robert A Heinlein
* Have Space Suit – Will Travel – Robert A Heinlein
Burning Chrome – William Gibson
* The Door Into Summer – Robert A Heinlein
The Uplift War – David Brin
Doomsday Book – Connie Willis
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court – Mark Twain
The Invisible Man – H G Wells
Way Station – Clifford Simak
The Lathe of Heaven – Ursula K Le Guin
* Citizen of the Galaxy – Robert A Heinlein
The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenberger
The Postman – David Brin
VALIS – Philip K Dick
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
* Earth Abides – George R Stewart
More Than Human – Theodore Sturgeon
City – Clifford Simak
Stand on Zanzibar – John Brunner
Blood Music – Greg Bear
The Cyberiad – Stanislaw Lem
Titan – John Varley
* Alas, Babylon – Pat Frank
* A Princess of Mars – Edgar Rice Burroughs (the fourth book in this series was my introduction to SF; I've read all eleven)
Pattern Recognition – William Gibson
Out of the Silent Planet – C S Lewis (hated the sequels)
Ilium – Dan Simmons
Revelation Space – Alastair Reynolds
Roadside Picnic – Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

Still less than half, though....

2 comments:

Dave S. said...

Damn, I need to read more.

That's one thing I miss about the boat...raiding the ship's crappy library for something to read in the chow line and having it turn out to be a book that isn't half bad.

Anonymous said...

I am disappointed that Dragon Riders of Pern did not make the list.