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50 Essential Science Fiction Books
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Fried Egg
Posted 2013-01-29 5:43 AM (#4639)
Subject: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Anyone seen this list posted on Abe Books:

http://www.abebooks.com/books/features/50-essential-science-fiction...

I saw it on Ian Sales' blog where he responded with his own list (in two parts):

http://iansales.com/2013/01/28/ians-50-essential-sf-novels-part-1/
http://iansales.com/2013/01/29/ians-50-essential-sf-novels-part-2/
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Administrator
Posted 2013-01-29 8:52 AM (#4642 - in reply to #4639)
Subject: RE: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Location: Dallas, Texas		I haven't seen the Abe Books list but the Ian Sales list looks interesting though I've only had time to skim it.  What do you think of it?
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2013-01-29 10:30 AM (#4643 - in reply to #4639)
Subject: Re: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Very interesting lists. I liked Ian Sales a lot and the 2 other alt. lists he mentions are quite provocative. The abebooks is a bit ho-hum.
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Fried Egg
Posted 2013-01-29 10:37 AM (#4644 - in reply to #4639)
Subject: Re: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Of the Abe Book list I have read 19. Of Ian's I have read only 12.

Naturally I can't comment on the books I've not read but were included but I notice that the Abe list list has fewer obvious omissions and is not as skewed towards modern SF as Ian's. Then again, in some cases, I think Ian made better choices (for instance, good call putting PKD's "Scanner Darkly" in there rather than the more obvious but inferior choice (IMO) of "Do Android's Dream..." ).

Personally, I think I am still a little shy of enough reading experience within the genre to make an informed list myself.

Edited by Fried Egg 2013-01-29 10:39 AM
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Scott Laz
Posted 2013-01-29 3:38 PM (#4646 - in reply to #4639)
Subject: Re: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Location: Gunnison, Colorado		Sales isn't shy in pointing out that this represents his tastes, and only includes books he's actually read, so it's not meant to be completely comprehensive. I really like the books on it that I've read, so I guess that means I think he has good taste! We now also have this offering from Pornokitsch:

http://www.pornokitsch.com/2013/01/50-essential-science-fiction-nov...

I enjoy these debates, and even when I don't agree with lists like these (and how could you ever entirely agree with someone else's list?), I'd rather look at the top books chosen by a well-read individual than what turns up in a popular poll.
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Fried Egg
Posted 2013-01-30 8:47 AM (#4649 - in reply to #4639)
Subject: Re: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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For what it's worth then, here's my list:

"The Island of Dr. Moreau" - H.G. Wells (1896)
"We" - Yevgeny Zamytin (1920)
"At the Mountains of Madness" - H. P. Lovecraft (1931)
"Brave New World" - Aldous Huxley (1932)
"Lost on Venus" - Edgar Rice Burroughs (1935)
"The Voyage of the Space Beagle" - A. E. Van Vogt (1939)
"The Humanoids" - Jack Williamson (1948)
"Nineteen Eighty-Four" - George Orwell (1949)
"Sea Kings of Mars" - Leigh Brackett (1949)
"Earth Abides" - George R. Stweart (1949)
"The Silver Locusts" - Ray Bradbury (1950)
"More Than Human" - Theodore Sturgeon (1953)
"Bring the Jubilee" - Ward Moore (1953)
"The Space Merchants" - Fredrick Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth (1953)
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" - Jack Finney (1954)
"I am Legend" - Richard Matheson (1954)
"The Death of Grass" - John Christopher (1956)
"The Stars My Destination" - Alfred Bester (1956)
"The Midwich Cuckoos" - John Wyndham (1957)
"The Black Cloud" - Fred Hoyle (1957)
"Starship Troopers" - Robert Heinlein (1959)
"Flowers for Algernon" - Daniel Keyes (1959)
"A Canticle For Leibowitz" - Walter J. Miller (1959)
"A Fall of Moondust" - Arthur C. Clark (1961)
"The Stainless Steel Rat" - Harry Harrison (1961)
"Way Station" - Clifford D. Simak (1963)
"The Drowned World" - J. G. Ballard (1963)
"The Blue World" - Jack Vance (1966)
"Lord of Light" - Roger Zelazny (1967)
"I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" - Harlan Ellison (1967)
"The Left Hand of Darkness" - Ursula Le Guin (1969)
"The Black Corridor" - Michael Moorcock (1969)
"Slaughter House 5" - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
"Tau Zero" - Poul Anderson (1970)
"The Book of Skulls" - Robert Silverberg (1971)
"The Gods Themselves" - Isaac Asimov (1972)
"The Forever War" - Joe Haldeman (1974)
"Inverted World" - Christopher Priest (1974)
"Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang" - Kate Willhelm (1976)
"A Scanner Darkly" - Philip K. Dick (1977)
"White Light" - Rudy Rucker (1980)
"Mockingbird" - Walter Tervis (1980)
"Helliconia Spring" - Brian Aldiss (1982)
"Cuckoo's Egg" - C. J. Cherryh (1986)
"The Player of Games" - Iain M. Banks (1988)
"Grass" - Sherri Tepper (1989)
"The Gap into Conflict" - Stephen Donaldson (1990)
"Vurt" - Jeff Noon" (1993)
"K-Pax" - Gene Brewer (1995)
"Perdido Street Station" - China Mieville (2000)

As I said, I'll readily admit that I'm too well read with SF.
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Scott Laz
Posted 2013-01-31 4:47 PM (#4657 - in reply to #4639)
Subject: RE: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Egg: Thanks for going to the effort to come up with that! It's as interesting as the others that have been linked to. All these individual lists are fun to read because of the inclusion of well-recognized classics with more idiosyncratic individual picks. "White Light" and "Cuckoo's Eggs" seem like great picks to me, but don't usually show up on these kinds of things. And I haven't read it since I was 13 or so, but "Lost on Venus"? I haven't come up with something this extensive yet, but did make a list of 20th century favorites for the recent Locus Poll. My top ten is here: https://www.worldswithoutend.com/mbbs22/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=6...

 

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jfrantz
Posted 2013-01-31 8:27 PM (#4658 - in reply to #4646)
Subject: Re: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Scott Laz - 2013-01-29 4:38 PM - I enjoy these debates, and even when I don't agree with lists like these (and how could you ever entirely agree with someone else's list?), I'd rather look at the top books chosen by a well-read individual than what turns up in a popular poll.


I like that thought! It's fun to see how my own idiosyncratic picks rank with others and the top few in any ranking are bound to be real nuggets. The overall makeup of the list isn't so important as the comparison, the perspective of the creator, and which books mean so much to someone that they would put them at the top of an attempt at an inclusive list.
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Fried Egg
Posted 2013-02-01 4:15 AM (#4660 - in reply to #4657)
Subject: RE: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Scott Laz - 2013-01-31 10:47 PM

Egg: Thanks for going to the effort to come up with that! It's as interesting as the others that have been linked to. All these individual lists are fun to read because of the inclusion of well-recognized classics with more idiosyncratic individual picks. "White Light" and "Cuckoo's Eggs" seem like great picks to me, but don't usually show up on these kinds of things. And I haven't read it since I was 13 or so, but "Lost on Venus"?


"White Light" I came to after reading Rucker's non-fiction work: "Infinity and the Mind". "White Light" was a kind of companion work, an attempt to illstruate some of the bizzare abstract concepts he explored in the other book, but in a fictional setting. I don't think there's much else like it and should appeal to anyone interested in abstract mathematical concepts.

"Cuckoo's Egg" I just thought was a great story although someone pointed out to me that it was somewhat derivative of another work.

"Lost in Venus"...well, I wasn't alone in placing something by Burroughs and I chose that particular book because I thought it actually struck a good balance between his usual light hearted, action packed adventures and also including some thought provoking stuff (when Napier visits the city that has eugenically engineered their citizens to remove all undesirable traits).

Edited by Fried Egg 2013-02-01 4:17 AM
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dustydigger
Posted 2013-02-01 5:14 AM (#4661 - in reply to #4639)
Subject: Re: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Location: UK		I saw and bookmarked the list recently,butam too busy at the moment to spare the time to make up a top 50 of my own.Lots of tinkering involved,adding and subtracting.But I will get back to it eventually.
I have read 24 of the Abe book list,wih 6 sitting on my TBR shelf. Its a populist list for the general SF reader.Sales is much much more heavy duty,pretty intimidating in fact! I have only read 12,with perhaps half a dozen on my to read horizon.
Liked Fried Egg's list.I've read 19 of them,am actually reading three more at this moment,and have about another half dozen pencilled in for later in the year
But seeing these lists always makes me want to kick myself.Over 20 years away from reading this genre.Imagine how many I would have read if I had kept up with SF.I would probably have given Dr Nefario and Gallyangel a run for their money,but I'll never catch up now!
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Badseedgirl
Posted 2013-04-22 12:47 AM (#4968 - in reply to #4639)
Subject: RE: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Location: Middle TN, USA		Man I suck! I have only read 5 of the Abe Books and 6 of the Sales. Ok, it's not that I really suck, it's mostly because I love to read crap novels and make it no secret. Oh yeah, I love to read bad fiction, and I'm not in any hurry about it. How else can you explain waiting 2 months on the Library waiting list for "Beautiful Creatures". I will say this, if I was ever able to make a top fifty list, I would have to include "The Forever War", "The Haindmaids Tale", "Dune", "Lucifer's Hammer", and my new favorite The City, Not Long After. (Thank You WOGF)
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Tim_Eagon
Posted 2013-04-22 8:34 AM (#4969 - in reply to #4968)
Subject: RE: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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Badseedgirl - 2013-04-22 12:47 AM

Man I suck! I have only read 5 of the Abe Books and 6 of the Sales. Ok, it's not that I really suck, it's mostly because I love to read crap novels and make it no secret. Oh yeah, I love to read bad fiction, and I'm not in any hurry about it. How else can you explain waiting 2 months on the Library waiting list for "Beautiful Creatures". I will say this, if I was ever able to make a top fifty list, I would have to include "The Forever War", "The Haindmaids Tale", "Dune", "Lucifer's Hammer", and my new favorite The City, Not Long After. (Thank You WOGF)


Don't feel so bad, I've only read 5 of the Abe Books and 2 of the Sales books (probably because I read more fantasy than sci-fi).
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htaccess
Posted 2013-07-06 10:45 PM (#5389 - in reply to #4639)
Subject: Re: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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I like both thse lists a lot, the abe list has a good spread and a couple of unusual suspects to keep it interesting. Ian's is quite unconventional and clearly a list composed by an individual but he has some good choices and some interesting looking reads.

+1 to adding them both (with a preference for the abe list).*

* I love lists so I'm going to +1 most credible lists that have clearly had some work put in to them.
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htaccess
Posted 2013-07-06 10:50 PM (#5390 - in reply to #4639)
Subject: Re: 50 Essential Science Fiction Books



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@ Fried Egg

I like your list, theres about 40 first rate books in there, a few I dont know and one total abomination.

"The Gap into Conflict" - Stephen Donaldson (1990)

Is the one of the worst SF books I ever (tried to) read. I hate not to finish a book but I just couldn't finish that one
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