I was just reading the sci-fi meme over on Five Public Opinions. The idea is that you reproduce the list and bold what you've read. Here's my record:
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 (I was unable to finish it)
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
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 (maybe)
Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
Cities in Flight, James Blish (maybe)
The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett (? - his run together for me)
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany (maybe)
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 (maybe)
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 (probably)
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 (maybe)
The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks (maybe)
Timescape, Gregory Benford
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
But this list is missing too many important writers to be of much interest to me. It also aims too much at the best-sellers (c'mon - Anne Rice? - although I'm pleased to see Theodore Sturgeon in the list). Off the top of my head, to have any credibility it must include:
James P Blaylock
Steven Brust
Emma Bull
Tim Powers
Kate Wilhelm
Connie Willis
John Wyndham
3 comments:
You put me to shame with the amount of SF you've read!
I remember reading Wyndham's The Chrysalids in Year 8 or 9. The Chrysalids tends to resonate in the minds of Australian readers, because it must be the only work of fiction where New Zealand is represented as the pinnacle of civilisation. :)
I'm almost afraid to reread Wyndham because I thought he was so great when I was a teenager... will he be as good now? I particularly liked The Kraken Wakes (but his publisher changed all his titles). When I was a teenager I thought Heinlein was the best, and when I reread him later...eeyuck.
I think you're OK with Wyndham. Some stuff (Triffids) is a little hokey '50s in parts, and don't look for egalitarian sex roles, but (from a few years ago) Chrysalids stands up pretty well, and Midwich Cuckoos too.
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