(no subject)

[nolly]

The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1953-2002
(according to the Science Fiction book club)

bold are the ones I've read
italic I might've read but I'm not sure

The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
Dune, Frank Herbert
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke (I'm fairly sure I own it in an omnibus, but I'm not sure if I've read it. I've read other CLarke, and he's not one of my favorites.)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
Cities in Flight, James Blish
The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison (except that one Philip Jose Farmer story. I found it unreadable.)
Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
Little, Big, John Crowley
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
On the Beach, Nevil Shute
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
Timescape, Gregory Benford
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Comments

[redbird]

The Mists of Avalon? The Sword of Shannara?!!

How are they defining significant?

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Haven't a clue and the site doesn't say, either. Introducing people to the genre is probably one factor -- those were both quite popular among my classmates in junior high/high school.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

And where's The Female Man? Or Parable of the Sower? Or Body of Glass? Or Power of Three? Or, if they're counting "Introduced people to the genre" what about the first half-dozen Pern novels, before McCaffrey went dull on us? And why no graphic novels? What happened to Michael Moore's Watchmen or the Sandman sequence? It looks to me, frankly, like a collection of publisher's cliches.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Who are Body of Glass and Power of Three by? I've read The Female Man and the Parable books, but I don't know the other two.

McCaffrey's Dragonflight is on the list.

It looks to me, frankly, like a collection of publisher's cliches.

It's from SFBC. You expected cutting edge?

[gymgeek.livejournal.com]

I recommend Gateway by Frederick Pohl. It uses a plot device I like seeing in sci-fi. Humans don't invent anything cool. We find or steal it. In the case of the Hee Chee series, we find faster-than-light ships, but we don't even find out how they work. We just go where they are programmed to go where the pilots last left the ship millenia ago. He also has written some stuff involving Dyson Spheres.

[firecat]

I loved Childhood's End when I was a kid.

Of the others you haven't read, I highly recommend:
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I think at least one of the Bester books is already on the to-read shelf. Which means I'll hopefully get to it sometime this lifetime...

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Those would probably be my top three recommendations to her. And the one book I'd most want to add is Silverberg's Dying Inside.

[textivore.livejournal.com]

Out of this list, I have read:
LotR . . . 'cept I need to finish the last volume. erk.
Foundation trilogy
Dune
Stranger iaSL
Neuromancer
Childhood's End
err, I haven't finished Mists, it's on my "start again from the beginning, hopefully this year" list
Farenheit 451
some of Book of the New Sun
Dragonflight
Ender's Game
Gateway
Harry Potter
Hitchhiker's Guide
I Am Legend (for some reason, I couldn't stand this one, and finishing it and getting on with my life was like returning to air after being held underwater . . . but my opinion seems to be very much the minority)
Interview
The Left Hand of Darkness
Man in the High Castle (which I'm now tempted to read again, something I almost never do with books once I've completed them)
Mission of Gravity
Rediscovery of Man . . . I think, at least (I haven't read Smith of any stripe in a lot of years)
started On the Beach, never finished it
Rendezvous w/Rama
Slaughterhouse-5
Snow Crash
Starship Troopers
Stormbringer
Timescape
To Your Scattered Bodies Go

So you've read 23 off the list confirmed, same with me as far as finished volumes . . . but there's a fair divergence on which ones we've hit. FWIW

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Because graphic novels are a different sort of thing--not better, not worse, different.