My Somewhat-Arbitrarily-Numbered Top 50 SF Books

[D_Davis]

My Somewhat-Arbitrarily-Numbered Top 50 SF Books

I've never made an official book list before. Seems hard. This list was birthed from the general book thread, in which I declared my apathy towards 1984 and Brave New World. I think that, for many people, these two books (along with Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451) represent their only exposure to the SF genre. These three books are taught in many American high schools, and many people hold them in high regard.

I don't.

And I love SF.

Think of this list as a syllabus I might create if I were teaching a SF class. The numbering will be mostly arbitrary - I won't even promise you that book #37 is better than book #45, nor will I try to quantify the rankings. Some of these books are in here because they are "important" works of genre-lit, while others are on here simply because they spin a fantastic yarn.

Another way to look at this list:

50 SF Books I Like More Than 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451


Master List

50. Dangerous Visions - ed. Harlen Ellison (1967)
49. The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison (1961)
48. City - Clifford D. Simak (1952)
47. A Treasury of Great Science Fiction (1959) - ed. Anthony Boucher
46. The Tripods Trilogy (1967-1968) - John Christopher
45. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1982 - 1994) - Hayao Miyazaki; Akira (1982 - 1990) - Katsuhiro Otomo; Grey (1985-1987) - Yoshihisa Tagami
44. The War of the Worlds and The First Men in the Moon (1898 and 1901) - H.G. Wells
43. Destroying Angel (1992) - Richard Paul Russo
42. Out of the Silent Planet (1938) - C.S. Lewis
41. Gateway (1977) - Pohl
40. The Adventures of Samurai Cat (series) (1984-1998) - Mark Rogers
39. The Gods Themselves (1972) - Isaac Asimov
38. RIM (1994) - Alexander Besher
37. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955) - Jack Finney
36. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) - Douglas Adams
35. Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb (1965) - Philip K. Dick
34. Mindbridge (1977) - Joe Haldeman
33. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison
32. The October Country (1955) - Ray Bradbury
31. Headcrash (1995) - Bruce Bethke
30. The Ware Series (1982-2000) - Rudy Rucker
29. Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
28. Souls - Joanna Russ
27. The Dreaming Jewels (1950) - Theodore Sturgeon
26. Calculating God (2000) - Rober J. Sawyer
25. The Big Jump (1955) - Leigh Brackett
24. Flowers for Algernon (1959) - Daniel Keyes
23. Martian Time Slip (1964) - Philip K. Dick
22. Ship of Fools - Richard Paul Russo
21. Virtual Unrealities (1997) - Alfred Bester
20. The Forever War (1974) - Joe Haldeman
19. City Come A-Walkin' (1980) - John Shirley
18. The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. LeGuin
17. Godbody - Theodore Sturgeon
16. The Martian Chronicles (1950) - Ray Bradbury
15. UBIK (1969) - Philip K. Dick
14. Concrete Island (1975) - JG Ballard
13. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr.
12. The Demolished Man (1953) - Alfred Bester
11. More Than Human (1953) - Theodore Sturgeon
10. The Ninth Configuration (1978) - William Peter Blatty
9. White Light (1980) - Rudy Rucker
8. A Scanner Darkly (1977) - Philip K. Dick
7. Einstein's Dreams (1992) - Alan Lightman
6. Way Station (1964) - Clifford D. Simak
5. Sirius (1944) - Olaf Stapledon
4. To Marry Medusa (aka The Cosmic Rape) (1958) - Theodore Sturgeon
3. The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (1977)
2. The Stars My Destination (1956) - Alfred Bester
1. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) - Philip K. Dick

[Eleven]

And I love SF.


Yeah, well, you've never given us this impression before!

[D_Davis]

Yeah, well, you've never given us this impression before!

Quiet you!

:)

[Eleven]

Quiet you!

:)

Next thing is you'll be saying you like kung-fu flicks!

On with the list!

[D_Davis]

50. Dangerous Visions - ed. Harlen Ellison (1967)

http://www.fantascienza.com/blog/stranoattrattore/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/dangerous-visions.jpg

An instrumental and monumental force in the realm of SF. These stories helped usher in the New Wave; they helped to move SF out of the realms of rocket ships, laser blasters, and juvenile adventure stories into territories marked with strong social commentary and darker narratives. These stories touch upon topics such as the taboo of incest (Theodore Sturgeon's "If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Mary Your Sister?") and others written by authors who were doing their part to break down the walls many people had built around SF and what it could accomplish in terms of narrative and literary style.

This is one of those important SF books, and while there are a few miss-fires included, it is none-the-less a worthy read. You can also find copies of this for next to nothing at almost any used book store.

[D_Davis]

49. The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison (1961)

http://blogs.abc.net.au/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/22/stainlesssteelrat.jpg

At the complete opposite end of the literary spectrum from Dangerous Visions comes Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat. While Harrison is no stranger to socially conscious SF (Make Room! Make Room! aka Soylent Green), he has more fully embraced the pure pulp style of rambunctious yarn-spinning.

James Boliver DiGriz, aka Slippery Jim, aka The Stainless Steel Rat, is the universe's most bad ass thief and all around scallywag, but with a heart of gold; I'd bet dollars to donuts that old Jim was the basis for Han Solo. This is the first book in a long series of tales, although they were written out of chron order, and they don't connect in anyway except for the recurring characters.

It's James Bond, meets Lupin III and Han Solo in space, mixed with a ton of high-flying adventure, and some great jokes. Sure, the books are juvenile, but they're just so much fun. Purely a guilty pleasure that delivers the goods.

[Qrazy]

You know which book pissed me off? Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil. Man that sucked. Stranger in a Strange Land was great though.

Have you read any Greg Bear D? Eon is out of this world! Har har chuck chuckle.

[Qrazy]

I haven't read any Harlen Ellison but after seeing A Boy and his Dog I'd be willing to give him a whirl.

[Melville]

You know which book pissed me off? Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil. Man that sucked. Stranger in a Strange Land was great though.
Stranger in a Strange Land also sucked.

[D_Davis]

And I should point out that I do not consider myself an expert in the field of SF lit. Not even close. For every book I've read and loved, there are a dozen that I should read. And my exposure to the tried and true "classics" is somewhat limited, especially the stuff from pre-1960. I've always gravitated towards certain authors and styles, and it's only been in the last few years that I've expanded my SF horizons.

[Qrazy]

Stranger in a Strange Land also sucked.

It was great when I read it as a child so there.

[D_Davis]

I haven't read any Harlen Ellison but after seeing A Boy and his Dog I'd be willing to give him a whirl.

I've got an Ellison collection coming up on the list that is worth checking out.

His story in Dangerous Visions, The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prowler_in_the_City_at_the _Edge_of_the_World), is pretty good.

I can only read so much Ellison before I start to get really angry and pissed off at the world. His world view and mine don't often match up - he's so misanthropic, and dark. However, in small doses he is amazing.

[D_Davis]

You know which book pissed me off? Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil. Man that sucked. Stranger in a Strange Land was great though.

Have you read any Greg Bear D? Eon is out of this world! Har har chuck chuckle.


Stranger in a Strange Land also sucked.

I haven't read a ton of Heinlein. That dude was insanely prolific. And it appears to me that a lot of the stuff he wrote was kind of crappy. I don't know - probably shouldn't make any judgments, yet. I've liked some his short stories I've read, one of his novels will appear here, but I've disliked more than I've liked. I read Stranger in high school and I don't remember how I felt about it.

I finally finished Eon - it took me a couple of tries to crack, and read it in chunks over a long period of time. I liked it. It was epic. I'd like to read more Bear, although I am not super into the hard SF stuff.

[D_Davis]

48. City - Clifford D. Simak (1952)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/City%28Simak1stEd%29.jpg

Clifford D. Simak is totally old school. Imagine if Norman Rockwell and Garrison Keillor teamed up to write SF. That's Simak. His pastoral style is steeped in old fashioned Americana, brimming with nostalgia, and a possesses a longing for the good old days, even when those days are in the future.

If you dig this sort of thing you will dig Simak. I do.

City is part of a sub-genre of SF known as future-history. These are stories that present a survey of the future of mankind. This, along with Olaf Stapledon's Darkness and the Light and Last and First Men are among the most popular examples of this sub-genre.

City is a collection of connected novellas detailing mankind's last days on Earth, and our relationship with the robots we built and the intelligent, talking dogs we genetically created. The novellas are connected through a series of small vignettes told from the POV of a canine historian who is looking back at the legends of humankind.

While it starts off a little slow, City picks up momentum by the 2nd novella and continues to be interesting and entertaining through the end.

[Qrazy]

I haven't read a ton of Heinlein. That dude was insanely prolific. And it appears to me that a lot of the stuff he wrote was kind of crappy. I don't know - probably shouldn't make any judgments, yet. I've liked some his short stories I've read, one of his novels will appear here, but I've disliked more than I've liked. I read Stranger in high school and I don't remember how I felt about it.

I finally finished Eon - it took me a couple of tries to crack, and read it in chunks over a long period of time. I liked it. It was epic. I'd like to read more Bear, although I am not super into the hard SF stuff.

Check out Blood Music. It's a short read and a great concept. I've also read the sequel to Eon, Eternity. It wasn't nearly as good as the first but it was worthwhile as a continuation of the general mythos. I guess I might as well read the last book.

I quite like hard sci-fi but I haven't read that much. I think I've read more Fantasy than sci-fi but I read both before I approached art systematically so I'm sure I read a lot of mediocrity that I thought I was good. I think I should dive back into both genres and try to hit up some of the major names now that I'm a bit older.

[D_Davis]

I'll add Blood Music to the list.

Have you read any Alastair Reynolds? He seems to be a modern favorite of hard SF.


I think I should dive back into both genres and try to hit up some of the major names now that I'm a bit older.

I started doing this awhile ago. I started reading through the Hugo and Nebula winners to expand my stable of authors.

Like Sturgeon's Law says: 99% of everything is crap. And there is a lot of crap in SF. It's hard to wade through it all to get to the good stuff.

[Qrazy]

I'll add Blood Music to the list.

Have you read any Alastair Reynolds? He seems to be a modern favorite of hard SF.

Nope. I'll try to check it out. I should just go to the library but I haven't in a long time. I have a bookstore near me and just tend to purchase random books I've heard of that happen to be in the dollar section.



I started doing this awhile ago. I started reading through the Hugo and Nebula winners to expand my stable of authors.

Like Sturgeon's Law says: 99% of everything is crap. And there is a lot of crap in SF. It's hard to wade through it all to get to the good stuff.

Yeah I think I just won't revisit the old stuff and let it live on fondly in nostalgia (Stranger in a Strange Land).

[D_Davis]

47. A Treasury of Great Science Fiction (1959) - ed. Anthony Boucher

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/t0/t1116.jpg

If you want to get into classic SF, there probably isn't a better place to start than with this two-volume anthology. I haven't read everything included, so I can't vouch for all of the stories, but what I have read has been great, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

This really is a great place to start a literary journey. Boucher compiled a killer list of authors for this collection, including: Sturgeon, Wyndham, Bester, Clarke, Anderson, Dick and many others.

While most (all?) of these stories have been published elsewhere, it's just great to have so many classics in two-volumes.

Also included is the complete Bester novel The Stars My Destination - one of the all time great SF books (to appear on this list much later) - and Theodore Sturgeon's novella The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff - a great example of Sturgeon's didactic style that explores his theme of love and asking the next question really well.

[D_Davis]

46. The Tripods Trilogy (1967-1968) - John Christopher

http://ina.lunarmania.com/%7Etuibo0/sites/default/files/Tripods%20cover_2.jpg


***WARNING***WARNING***
***NOSTALGIA ALERT***

I read these books as a kid and loved them. I have not read them as an adult, and so I cannot vouch for them now. However, based upon my recollection, my fond memories, and based upon other people who have read them as adults, I think it is safe to declare the greatness of these books.

I was first introduced to this world in the Boy Scout's magazine Boy's Life. The novels were serialized in comic form. I soon discovered that my mom had the original books, and so I read them. And I loved them.

The narrative is a classic tale of friendship, betrayal, survival, and revolution. It's a Boy's Own adventure styled tale with a number of great protagonists and even better antagonists. It's a great alien invasion story, fast paced, suspenseful, and tense.

[Mara]

46. The Tripods Trilogy (1967-1968) - John Christopher

http://ina.lunarmania.com/%7Etuibo0/sites/default/files/Tripods%20cover_2.jpg

WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!

Have reread these a few times, and they remain very cool. I think The City of Gold and Lead is my favorite.

[D_Davis]

Have reread these a few times, and they remain very cool. I think The City of Gold and Lead is my favorite.

That book is so depressing. I remember feeling really heavy while reading it. The heat and oppression was palpable.

[megladon8]

Sweeeet. I will be writing many titles down, me-thinks.

[D_Davis]

45. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1982 - 1994) - Hayao Miyazaki
Akira (1982 - 1990) - Katsuhiro Otomo
Grey (1985-1987) - Yoshihisa Tagami

http://www.concretebadger.net/images/blog/nausicaa-on-a-hill.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Ginza/8126/akira18.gif

http://www.mangafox.com/store/manga/3516/cover.jpg


I'm a little leery of including comic books here. Not because I dislike comic books and not because I don't think they have any artistic worth. It's simply because I think they are different from novels, and I don't like to compare the two. I don't think we need to cram the 'graphic' novel in with the prose novel in order to sing its praises.

However, when it comes to SF stories, some of the best examples are comic books, and these three are my favorite in terms of story and art, and all for different reasons.

Nausicaa exists in a classic sub-genre of SF: the ecological disaster sub-genre. Man versus nature is a common trope in fiction, and Miyazaki's tale is a classic example. The narrative is epic, and the art is unique, owing more to the styles of the French than it does to its Japanese brethren.

Akira is one of my favorite post-apocalyptic tales. It's interesting to think that Japan is the only post-apocalyptic nation on Earth. That is remarkable. So it should come as no surprise to discover that some of the best example of this sub-genre come from Japan. Japanese culture is fascinated with the depictions of the destruction of Japan, and boy does Akira ever destroy Japan. Akira is a marvel in every regard. It's narrative is epic, the characters are well written, and the art is evocative and detailed.

Grey is a very small story. It's creator, Yoshihisa Tagami, is more known for his horror manga Horobi. However, it is Grey that I love. The main character in this powerful tale of survival is named Grey Death. His mission is to enter the military and fight in a war so that he may become a citizen and enjoy a life of relative luxury. Along the way he looses friends, most of his body, and just about everything else that is important to him. And his final discovery is a revelation made in hell.

All of these could probably rest easily in the post-apocalyptic sub-genre of SF. Akira deals with it more directly, where as Nausicaa deals with it in the distant past, and Grey looks at it in terms of modern warfare.

[D_Davis]

I'm also going to include one more, non-Japanese, comic later. I just realized that it needs to be mentioned.

[D_Davis]

A couple of big, fatty, experimental and important SF books I need to read:

Delany's Dhalgren and Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar.

Both are considered classics of the New Wave. Delany's book has no beginning or end. It starts in the middle of a sentence and ends with the beginning of that sentence. There are supposedly many points throughout the novel that you can jump in at. Brunner's novel utilizes a number of post-modern techniques including commercial breaks, news reports, and random "found" writing. It sounds more like a deejay construct than a proper novel.

[megladon8]

D, how does the film version of Nausicaa compare to the book? Do you prefer one over the other?

[D_Davis]

D, how does the film version of Nausicaa compare to the book? Do you prefer one over the other?

I like them both equally, but they are different beasts. The book is far, far more epic. It enjoys the luxury of length; it's more of an epic war story. However, the movie is more concise, and more personal, and it is greatly enhanced by the production values, especially the music and deep colors.

[D_Davis]

44. The War of the Worlds and The First Men in the Moon (1898 and 1901) - H.G. Wells

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/sci_nat_mars_mania/img/4.jpg

http://www.daviddarling.info/images/First_Men_in_the_Moon_cover.jp g


These two short novels are true classics of the genre. They deserve all the praise thrust upon them, and each is an example of a common genre convention.

War of the Worlds is the classic alien invasion story. This common convention has generated a number of great narratives, and most of these owe a huge debt of grattitude to Mr. Wells.

The First Men in the Moon is a space-discovery story. It details mankind's first journey to that strange orb in our night sky: the moon. The technology that makes this possible is pretty silly, but the sense of discovery is awe inspiring.

I first read these only a couple of years ago. Thinking that they wouldn't have anything to offer my modern mind, I was reluctant to give into their narratives. However, I was proven wrong. While the language is dated by today's standards, and much of the science/tech is laughable and silly, the narratives are still gripping and the conventions are timeless.

[Kurosawa Fan]

LOVED War of the Worlds. I don't understand how two film versions screwed up the most imperative feature of the novel, in that it's set in the late 1800's/early 1900's and people had no defense for this type of thing. I believe there was a moment where Wells notices villagers throwing pots and knives at the tripods, because that's all they have to defend themselves. To me, that was the most frightening aspect of the novel.

[D_Davis]

LOVED War of the Worlds. I don't understand how two film versions screwed up the most imperative feature of the novel, in that it's set in the late 1800's/early 1900's and people had no defense for this type of thing. I believe there was a moment where Wells notices villagers throwing pots and knives at the tripods, because that's all they have to defend themselves. To me, that was the most frightening aspect of the novel.

It's true. It's one of the best depictions of mankind being invaded by something that is totally more powerful. And yet Wells doesn't make it come off as magic or fantasy. It's really well done.

[D_Davis]

43. Destroying Angel (1992) - Richard Paul Russo

http://trashotron.com/agony/images/2005/05-news/11-21-05/russo-carlucci.jpg


Destroying Angel is book one of the Carlucci trilogy, a series of hardboiled, detective-themed SF. While books two and three of the series feature Detective Carlucci as the main character, this first book focuses on a PI named Tanner. The narrative details a Summer-of-Sam-like series of murders that take place in a futuristic, dystopian San Fransisco. It's like Seven meets Bladerunner meets Ghost in the Shell, but it's not just a knock off of these well known stories.

The best part about this book, and the real reason it's on this list, is the atmosphere. I rarely come across a book in which the atmosphere and oppression are so tangible. While reading it I could practically smell the delapidated city and its inhabitants. Russo writes with an understated style, and with great skill. And as the winner of multiple Philip K. Dick awards, he is definitely an author to keep an eye on.

[D_Davis]

42. Out of the Silent Planet (1938) - C.S. Lewis

http://foxywriter.com/images/2008/1015_outofthesilentplanet.jpg

This was one of the first SF books I ever read, part of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy. It, along with the Hobbit, was my introduction into the realms of SF and Fantasy. My mom loved both genres, and she encouraged me to read as much as possible. I am also a big fan of religious-based SF, and SF stories that examine humankind's relationship with God-like entities. Most of these examples are written by men and women who are not religious, or at least not in the traditional sense. Lewis was Christian, and thus his religious-themed SF narrative examined space and planetary exploration using Christian allegory.

I haven't read the Space Trilogy since I was a kid. This is the book I remember the most. I plan on rereading them this year, and I am hoping I gleam more out of the narrative.

[Mara]

I haven't read the Space Trilogy since I was a kid. This is the book I remember the most. I plan on rereading them this year, and I am hoping I gleam more out of the narrative.

They gain in confidence as they go on, I think. The first one may be the most plot-driven, but the emotion of the third one knocks me out of the park. Brilliantly done.

[megladon8]

I can't look at that title "Out of the Silent Planet" without singing it in my head in Bruce Dickinson's awesomely hardcore voice.

[D_Davis]

I can't look at that title "Out of the Silent Planet" without singing it in my head in Bruce Dickinson's awesomely hardcore voice.

Heh... :)

[D_Davis]

41. Gateway (1977) - Pohl

http://media.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2007/oct/pearl_books/gateway_200.jpg

While reading this, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it. I knew it was good, I was into the characters, and the drama was tangible. However, I kept waiting for something big to happen. I kept waiting for a big reveal, and that reveal never really came. When I finished the book, I was a tad disappointed. But some time later, I looked back at it, and it started to grow on me.

It really is all about the character development. SF is not (EVER!) reliant upon any certain setting, or technology, or era. SF is all about speculation, and using fantastic devices as lenses through which an author is able to examine our society with a different perspective. Gateway is the perfect example of this convention.

While sequels were written, and the world of the humans and the aliens was touched upon in greater detail, I really have no desire to read more. The book works wonderfully by itself (it was never meant to be a series), and I feel totally satisfied by it.

[D_Davis]

40. The Adventures of Samurai Cat (series) (1984-1998) - Mark Rogers

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Samuraicat.jpg


***WARNING***WARNING***
***NOSTALGIA ALERT***

This should have been much lower on the list; don't think that this is somehow better than Dangerous Visions, or any of the others really. Such is the nature of this quickly-thrown together Top 50. However, if you like your SF with a mega-dose of irreverent humor, pop-culture satire, and lampooning, then Samurai Cat is your feline.

Basically, Rogers takes a samurai furry, along with his sub-machine totin', cigar smokin' sidekick, and puts them in a series of movie spoofs in which they fight Darth Vader, Hitler, Cthulhu, and other baddies, whilst parodying Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Conan and other beloved SF&F franchises.

Each book contains a number of beautifully painted pictures by Rogers. I wish I still had my small collection, but unfortunately they were damaged awhile ago and I threw them out.

I can't say that these are great books, or that I would love now as much as I did when I was a kid, but they are fun, and if you like having a good time with a little mischief and carnage mixed in, check them out. It's kind of like Mad Magazine meets old Cerebus the Aardvark and Boris the Bear.

[D_Davis]

39. The Gods Themselves (1972) - Isaac Asimov

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Bk08k-CuuO0/SPbXVKgKFhI/AAAAAAAAB5Y/uN_94hORiUU/s400/389px-TheGodsThemselves%281stEd%29.j pg

Let's now return to something more serious. You really can't get any more serious than Asimov. Asimov was a no nonsense kind of SF writer, and a prolific one at that; thinking of all the Asimov stuff there is to read is overwhelming, and I haven't even scratched the surface. He was also into the hard science, being an actual scientist and a writer. While I like some of his stuff, I often feel that his stories can be cold and lacking in emotion. Perhaps this is because of our clashing world views. He being a secular humanist and me being a religious person means that we don't often see eye to eye. But that's cool. I like his robot stories a great deal, but I'm not into the Foundation books at all.

This book represents Asimov's attempt at something more new wave in style, and it is a total success. The narrative is told in three connected novellas, and is presented out of chronological order. It's also one of his warmest stories in terms of humanity and emotional understanding. It deals with the sexual relations of an alien species, and a trade union between the humans and these aliens who exist in a parallel universe. It's all quite good.

[megladon8]

"Gateway" is one I've seen on countless "best sci-fi" lists, but still haven't gotten around to reading. Once I get through my various PKD and Sturgeon books that are sitting on my shelf unread, I'll try to get to that one.

Asimov is an author I am very sadly under-read with.

[D_Davis]

"Gateway" is one I've seen on countless "best sci-fi" lists, but still haven't gotten around to reading. Once I get through my various PKD and Sturgeon books that are sitting on my shelf unread, I'll try to get to that one.

Asimov is an author I am very sadly under-read with.

I think you'll dig Gateway. It has staying power.

I'm in the same boat with you regarding Asimov. There's just so dang much out there. It's a daunting task.

[megladon8]

I think you'll dig Gateway. It has staying power.

I'm in the same boat with you regarding Asimov. There's just so dang much out there. It's a daunting task.


I found an Asimov book at the used books section of the library a few months back, and was really excited to read it.

Then I found out that it was part 2 in a 3 part story, and my dreams were shattered.

[D_Davis]

The nice thing about Asimov and other classic SF writers is that you can find super cheap versions of their books at just about any used book store or thrift store.

[Qrazy]

Yeah I've only read The Foundation series (the core five books) which I quite like... I Robot and Prelude to Foundation. I enjoyed all of them.

[Raiders]

I can only assume that The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch will be #1 on this list. Or maybe More Than Human.

I got no complaints on the list so far. Though I've only read Dangerous Visions and The War of the Worlds.

[D_Davis]

I can only assume that The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch will be #1 on this list. Or maybe More Than Human.


Both of these are on the list, and you might be right about which one is #1.

[D_Davis]

38. RIM (1994) - Alexander Besher

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n4513.jpg

One of my favorite cyberpunk novels. Full of everything that makes the genre so attractive: computers, technology, a world overrun by large Japanese corporations, AI, VR, you name it.

It also contains one of the most memorable things I've ever read in a SF book. The book depicts a world in which millions of people are habitually jacked-in to a VR-like construct that is a kind of MMRPG-ARG-Net thing. These trodeheads live plugged in, and when they walk around IRL, they are lead around by canine companions. When a catastrophe strikes and basically "kills" the net, all of these trodeheads become lifeless shells of men and woman, their comatose bodies being dragged around by dogs.

Such a cool image.

The problem with cyberpunk is how dated it often is. Cyberpunk is a genre that examines the here and now - it deals with the present-future. It's tough to go back and read some older CP because of this, but RIM stands the test of time. It's fun, exciting, and in light of popular MMRPGS like WOW it is still timely and poignant.

It's not the best the genre has to offer (a few more to be mentioned later), but it is very, very good.

[megladon8]

If I remember correctly, you're not too fond of William Gibson's "Neuromancer", correct? I know it's considered quite an important cyberpunk work, and I did like it, but I just cannot get behind its enormous reputation.

This "RIM" looks great. I'll mark it down.

[D_Davis]

If I remember correctly, you're not too fond of William Gibson's "Neuromancer", correct? I know it's considered quite an important cyberpunk work, and I did like it, but I just cannot get behind its enormous reputation.

This "RIM" looks great. I'll mark it down.

I don't like Neuromancer at all. It's practically unreadable today, as far as I'm concerned. There's a hardcore cyberpunk book published 4 years before Neuromancer that is far better, more poignant, and infinitely more readable that will be appearing later on this list.

Gibson has written far better books since then.

[megladon8]

Why do you say it's practically unreadable?

As I said I don't think it's legendary as many do, but I saw nothing unreadable about it. That's a pretty strong word.

[D_Davis]

Why do you say it's practically unreadable?

As I said I don't think it's legendary as many do, but I saw nothing unreadable about it. That's a pretty strong word.

There's practically zero story or characterization. It's almost all tech jargon and postulating about the very near future. It's dry, and uninteresting, with very little for me to grab on to. For something that is supposed to have a 'punk' attitude, it's light on pathos and energy. Compare it to John Shirley's City Come A-Walkin, or Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, grounds zero and pre-zero of the cyberpunk movement, and it's lack of verve and attitude is apparent. Those are books that scream revolution, while Neuromancer merely whispers.

At the time of its release, the ideas were novel and interesting, thus people could over look the book's glaring faults in narrative and character. However, it's ideas are no longer interesting today. They've been co-opted by authors who've turned them into much stronger stories with better narratives and characters. There's just nothing going for it now.

However, even when I first read the book, it was around '90 or so I think, it still didn't blow me; I really had a hard time getting through it. Having already been exposed to PKD and some of the other early authors of pre-cyberpunk, Neuromancer's threadbare narrative failed to capture my attention.

Although I was in love with the stuff that it inspired. I do, in fact, appreciate it, or respect it for pushing the genre forward, and for giving us RPGs like Shadowrun.

I spent a long time resenting Gibson. While he was getting praised, it seemed to me that PKD was getting overshadowed. I did however grow out of that silly phase. Gibson has really come into his own, and has since written some wonderful books.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I stopped after about forty pages of Neuromancer for many of the reasons you cited, D. It was awfully flat, too in love with its inventions and ideas to actually buckle down and tell a story.

I've read very little of what you mentioned so far - possibly just one. Which is War of the Worlds, which is great fun.

I hope to see a little of Arthur C. Clarke on this list. In the meantime, I'm gonna see if I can track down a cheap copy of The Stars My Destination.

[D_Davis]

I hope to see a little of Arthur C. Clarke on this list. In the meantime, I'm gonna see if I can track down a cheap copy of The Stars My Destination.

Haven't read a lot of Clarke, and what I have read I only merely liked - didn't love. I definitely plan on reading more though, and have quite a few of his books in my queue.

Pay whatever you need to for The Stars My Destination (but it can be picked up for cheap) - it is a bona fide masterpiece. I have no problems with all the people who declare it the best SF book ever written. It shames almost anything its compared to. Bester is untouchable.

[megladon8]

D, have you read Gibson's book "Spook Country"? It got great reviews, and since it's been out for about 2 years now, all the hardcover copies are on the reduced racks at bookstores now, often for $3 or $4.

I've passed up buying it several times.

Another author I'm curious to know your stance on is Larry Niven. I really loved "Ringworld".

[D_Davis]

D, have you read Gibson's book "Spook Country"? It got great reviews, and since it's been out for about 2 years now, all the hardcover copies are on the reduced racks at bookstores now, often for $3 or $4.

No - but I want to. His book Pattern Recognition is also really good.


Another author I'm curious to know your stance on is Larry Niven. I really loved "Ringworld".

I've only read some Niven short stories, never one of his novels. However, I have Ringworld, and I plan on reading it.

[megladon8]

I practically have this thread book-marked.

Give me mooooore!

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/6370/moarr.jpg

[D_Davis]

37. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955) - Jack Finney

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/dell-books/599-1.jpg

A classic that deserves it's status. It's simultaneously entertaining, well written, poignant, and topical. While it's social commentary was originally focused on the communist scare, it is none-the-less still relevant today. There will always be an 'other' to be made fearful of, and humanity has a tendency to find this 'other' in our immediate surroundings. After 9/11 the 'other' in America are the terrorists; they are the ones (who are they, anyhow?) our government is telling us to fear. Your neighbor could be one! You could be one and not even know it!

Fear is a powerful tool, and Finney explores this concept with great skill.

The narrative is gripping and thrilling, sometimes bordering on horror. It's just good fiction.

[megladon8]

Yes! Wonderful choice, D.

I have a beautiful hardcover copy of it from the Science Fiction Book Club. They had a thing for a while (may still be ongoing) where they were releasing horror classics under the "Stephen King Horror Library", and King wrote intros and notes in all of the books in the series.

[D_Davis]

36. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) - Douglas Adams

http://logn.org/uploaded_images/Don%27t-Panic-795930.png

Nothing really needs to be said about this one. It's funny, insightful, and really cynical. It's almost too cynical for me, but I still love it. I don't believe humanity is nearly as stupid as Adams did (so long as I stay away from YouTube comments), but then again Adams and I would disagree on just about everything that is important.

However, it doesn't change the fact that this book is awesome. It's clever and inventive, irreverent and snarky.

My favorite version of the story is the original radio drama, although I also like the BBC television mini-series, the Hollywood movie, and the old text adventure.

[megladon8]

Another great choice!

Someone stole my copy :sad:

[D_Davis]

35. Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb (1965) - Philip K. Dick

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0a/DrBloodmoney%281stEd%29.jpg/200px-DrBloodmoney%281stEd%29.jpg

The first of many PKD novels to appear on this list, and one of the best post-apocalyptic novels I've read. I remember when The Road was on everybody's mind, and I read reviews of it in which the reviewers would write stuff like, "FINALLY! Sci-Fi we can take seriously!" or "FINALLY! Someone has elevated the Post-Apocalyptic genre to a literary level!" Or other such nonsense (I'm sure I'm exaggerating a bit, but not by much).

I haven't read The Road, and I don't know if I ever will (although I'm pretty sure I'd dig it - CM is a great writer). But what I do know is that SF authors have been writing great post-apoc-lit for many decades; both this and a soon-to-be-mentioned novel are more than worthy of any reader's time. I always have a problem with mainstream authors who try their hand at genre fiction, because they always seem to get the critical and mainstream praise while so many genre authors just as deserving remain in the ghetto.

Anyhow, if you enjoyed The Road and want to read another post-apoc book teeming with interesting characters and pathos, written by an author who truly understood human beings at the their wits ends, then check out PKD's Dr. Bloodmoney.

This novel is amazing. Simply stunning. It's bursting with ideas.

What I said in my original review:


If you've ever wondered what kind of stories Garrison Keillor might write if he were a drugged-out, paranoid new-wave science fiction author living in Berkley, California, during the 1960s, well I reckon old Phil Dick's Dr. Bloodmoney is a close approximation.

It's a post-apocalyptic home companion.

A slice of this post-nuclear American life.

It has a pastoral feel to it, bringing to mind the works of William Saroyan and John Steinbeck, if, of course, those authors wrote about deformed characters with powerful mental abilities, mutant animals, botched space flight, and nuclear war.

It's among Dick's richest books in terms of character; it is quite “literary” in the way it deals with the drama. This book is not driven by a thrilling plot or any kind of strong SF impetus beyond the end of the world scenario and some mutant-like things born from the destruction. Instead, Dr. Bloodmoney is entirely character driven, and each character, out of a very large cast, is given the time and room to grow.

Dr. Bloodmoney is a post-apocalyptic novel, although one that is as different from Mad Max and other more mainstream examples as is Walter M. Miller Jr.'s A Canticle for Liebowitz. It is most definitely a product of its time; the fear of the Cold War hangs heavy over Dick's narrative, and the constant threat and promise of nuclear devastation is demonstrated expertly. Dick creates a frightening sense of chaos and destruction once the bombs start dropping, and he also illustrates his post-apocalyptic society with an equal amount of skill.

While Dick's version of the scenario is bleak and rife with turmoil, he does not predict a total breakdown of human society. Instead, he takes a decidedly optimistic approach to the tragedy of a nuclear-war torn world. Dick presents a group of survivors who retain their humanity towards one another even when faced with outlandish and dire circumstances. Not all of the characters are as eager to get along as the best of them, but enough are that I would place the book among Dick's more hopeful and positive works. There is actually a gleam of hope in the book, one that rings with strong emotional truth.

Many of Dick's more important works (which this is) deal with God, religious mysticism, and Gnosticism. I find it strange that here, in one of his only truly post-apocalyptic offerings, Dick seems to skirt the subjects all together - he focuses only on humanity, not offering any kind of divine intervention. It is as if in Dick's mind, the destruction of the world has divorced his characters from any kind of Godly influence - the characters never even mention God; out of sight, out of mind. The characters in this novel seem to be in some kind of purgatory, one where only their physical bodies have survived.Dr. Bloodmoney - just read it.

[D_Davis]

34. Mindbridge (1977) - Joe Haldeman

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n2265.jpg

I'm not usually a fan of action in books. I hate reading about big battles - it's so totally boring. However, Mindbridge contains the single greatest scene of action of I've ever read in a book. It's only a few pages long, and it's the only scene of action in the entire book. It's like this big extremely-well executed exclamation point right in the middle of the book that turns the tables on the situation and demands your full attention. It's crafted with the expertise of a true wordsmith; it's tense, short, and exciting.

The rest of the book is just as good.

Haldeman, forever scarred by his time spent in Vietnam, knows how to write military-based SF that focuses on the characters and their personal drama, and not military tech or jargon.

I don't know which book I like best: this, or The Forever War. On this list I'm ranking the later a bit higher, if only because of its legendary status. However, Mindbridge is just as good, and it's not as widely read.

[Qrazy]

Stranger in a Strange Land also sucked.

Actually I'm going to need more than this because I remember liking it quite a bit and many consider it a classic, so what did you dislike about it?

[Qrazy]

So D I downloaded a torrent which includes 13,000 Science Fiction and Fantasy books. I just finished Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and onto the fourth and fifth books now since I'd already read the first and third.

[D_Davis]

So D I downloaded a torrent which includes 13,000 Science Fiction and Fantasy books. I just finished Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and onto the fourth and fifth books now since I'd already read the first and third.

You're a book pirate!


:)

Cool stuff. I've never read the 4th and 5th books from cover to cover. I always loose interest at this point.

[megladon8]

D, have you read Haldeman's "All My Sins Remembered"?

[D_Davis]

D, have you read Haldeman's "All My Sins Remembered"?

Nope - but I have it.

I've read:

Mindbridge
Forever War
Forever Peace
The Hemingway Hoax
Dealing in Futures

[Qrazy]

How do you feel about these lists?


One. (http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books_rank1.html)

Two. (http://www.listology.com/list/david-pringles-best-100-science-fiction-novels)

[D_Davis]

How do you feel about these lists?


One. (http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books_rank1.html)

Two. (http://www.listology.com/list/david-pringles-best-100-science-fiction-novels)

#1 looks pretty good, although there is way to much Heinlein on there. Only 1 Sturgeon, and no Ballard? No Ballard is simply insane. However, many of those books are great. Good selection of years and styles. Of course I disagree with a lot of their placements, but such is the nature of lists. Also, a couple of never heard of, so that's cool.

Pringle's List (#2) is one I've consulted many times. Although placing 1984 at #1 is baffling. It's just not that good. That he includes Simak of couple of times is great. Lot's of Dick, a couple of Sturgeon's, and lot's of Ballard - including Ballard automatically makes his list better. Pringle's list is one of my favorites. I've got lots of stuff from it that I still need to read; he includes some more unqiue entries. Although it does contain a number of books that I don't really care for: The Unreasoning Mask, Neuromancer, The Fifth Head of Cerebus, Non-Stop, Nova, A Case of Concious...

His list feels more personal, and I like that.

I'd say go with my list first....then Pringle's, then the other one.

;)

[D_Davis]

33. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison

http://blog.r4nt.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/i-have-no-mouth.jpg

The title story of this short story collection is one of the famous and widely read stories of the genre. It should be one of the most famous and widely read stories regardless of genre. It's a true classic, a bona fide masterpiece of short fiction.

It's also incredible grim, brutal, depressing, frightening, and frustrating.




HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 287.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICROSECOND FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.

You will never forget AM. Quite possible the most evil antagonist ever committed to the printed page.

Only Joe R. Lansdale gives Ellison a run for his money in the misanthropy department. Each of these guys makes Mark Twain look like a friendly, cuddly old wisecracker.

Buy this book for the title story, and then stick around for the rest.

[megladon8]

I love all the covers you've been choosing to display each title, D.

[D_Davis]

32. The October Country (1955) - Ray Bradbury

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5f/October_country_first.jpg

One of the author's best collections. The October Country contains a number of Bradbury's darker and more sinister tales. It begins with a story that has haunted me for 10 years, since I first read it: "The Dwarf." Nobody captures the milieu of carnivals and circuses like Bradbury, and this is one of his best. The stories continue from this point to get stranger and more macabre. Imagine being attacked by your own skeleton, or imagine if you were raised to be God. My favorite story is "The Small Assassin." It's a twisted little tale, the less said the better.

If you ever need proof of Bradbury's acclaim and greatness, of why he is often considered among the (if not the) best author of short fiction of his generation, then start here. You won't soon forget.

[D_Davis]

I love all the covers you've been choosing to display each title, D.

I wish I had all of these books with those covers. It's true that old SF covers were often better. Especially in the '60s.

[megladon8]

I wish I had all of these books with those covers. It's true that old SF covers were often better. Especially in the '60s.


So were old sci-fi movie posters.

If I ever won the lottery, I'd have a room in my house covered from floor to ceiling in vintage sci-fi and horror movie posters.

[D_Davis]

31. Headcrash (1995) - Bruce Bethke

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0446602604.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

In 1980, Bruce Bethke wrote a short story called "Cyberpunk."

I'll let that sink in.

In 1995, in his debut novel, Bethke coined the word "Spam" to define electronic junk mail.

This novel also won the Philip K. Dick award.

It's been referred to as Dilbert meets Neuromancer, and that is a great description. One of my least favorite things about the cyberpunk sub-genre as a whole is how damn serious it all is. All too often cyberpunk authors depict their subjects without an ounce of humor, treating their stories and characters with very little humanity. That is not the case here; Headcrash is hilarious. And it's also very entertaining.

It does suffer from the all too familiar problem associated with the sub-genre. Like a PC, once opened and enjoyed the ideas and narrative are somewhat out of date; the jargon is tired, and the tech seems silly now.

The story takes place in 2005...it's now history.

However, I think enough time has passed now that we can look back at Headcrash as a relic of its time and appreciate it for what it was. It's a witty, fast paced, irreverent, and hard hitting look at the immediate future as seen from a techno-shaman during the 1990s, a time of pure energy and excitement during the Information Age.

[Dukefrukem]

Next thing is you'll be saying you like kung-fu flicks!

On with the list!

Firs time posting in this thread. I LOLed at this.

I'd start my own list, but I know I'd never finish it. I can't even finish my comic book movie list.

[Melville]

Actually I'm going to need more than this because I remember liking it quite a bit and many consider it a classic, so what did you dislike about it?
I remember the first half being an unremarkable thriller and the second half being a powerfully lame advocatory exposition of sexual liberation and New-Age spirituality.

[Qrazy]

I remember the first half being an unremarkable thriller and the second half being a powerfully lame advocatory exposition of sexual liberation and New-Age spirituality.

Yes, his end points and advocations are lame but many of his examinations of social mores are interesting (specifically the relationship between religion and politics, death and cannibalism). Although perhaps less interesting once one has developed a strong philosophical background. The brief section about the nature of laughter stuck with me the most at the time I read the book. Although I now find it to be a bit too much of a generalization.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Eon from a physicists perspective.

[Melville]

Yes, his end points and advocations are lame but many of his examinations of social mores are interesting (specifically the relationship between religion and politics, death and cannibalism). Although perhaps less interesting once one has developed a strong philosophical background. The brief section about the nature of laughter stuck with me the most at the time I read the book. Although I now find it to be a bit too much of a generalization.
I don't remember any of those examinations except the one about laughter, which seemed kind of profound when I read it (when I was 11 or 12, I think), but which now seems like it's overgeneralized to the point of being just plain false.


I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Eon from a physicists perspective.
500 pages? Get outta here.

I'd never heard of it before you mentioned it a few days ago. What's its deal?

[Qrazy]

I don't remember any of those examinations except the one about laughter, which seemed kind of profound when I read it (when I was 11 or 12, I think), but which now seems like it's overgeneralized to the point of being just plain false.


500 pages? Get outta here.

I'd never heard of it before you mentioned it a few days ago. What's its deal?

"Events in Eon take place in the early 21st century, when the USA and USSR are on the verge of nuclear war. In that tense political climate, a 300 km asteroid appears within the solar system following an unusual supernova, and moves into a highly eccentric Near-Earth orbit. The two nations each try to claim this mysterious object (dubbed "the Stone" by the Americans and "the Potato" by the Soviets), with the US and NATO allied nations succeeding. The asteroid itself is an elongated prolate spheroid which appears to be virtually identical to Juno, a large asteroid in the main belt. It has been hollowed out along its long axis, and subdivided into seven vast cylindrical chambers. It rotates to provide artificial gravity."

Anything further would likely be a significant spoiler, I suggest not reading the wiki entry. The plot basically revolves around a few people exploring the seventh chamber and what that exploration and the seventh chamber itself entails.

[Melville]

"Events in Eon take place in the early 21st century, when the USA and USSR are on the verge of nuclear war. In that tense political climate, a 300 km asteroid appears within the solar system following an unusual supernova, and moves into a highly eccentric Near-Earth orbit. The two nations each try to claim this mysterious object (dubbed "the Stone" by the Americans and "the Potato" by the Soviets), with the US and NATO allied nations succeeding. The asteroid itself is an elongated prolate spheroid which appears to be virtually identical to Juno, a large asteroid in the main belt. It has been hollowed out along its long axis, and subdivided into seven vast cylindrical chambers. It rotates to provide artificial gravity."

Anything further would likely be a significant spoiler, I suggest not reading the wiki entry. The plot basically revolves around a few people exploring the seventh chamber and what that exploration and the seventh chamber itself entails.
That sounds a lot like Rendezvous with Rama, which I thought was terrible. Does anything interesting happen in that prolate spheroid?

[D_Davis]

30. The Ware Series (1982-2000) - Rudy Rucker

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n1/n5483.jpg

Given Rudy Rucker's background, one might think that he would write some of the most serious hard-SF ever. He's a mathematician interested in philosophy, and he's been a computer science professor working at a number of universities. He's written two textbooks (one being Geometry, Relativity, and the Fourth Dimension), a number of interesting non-fiction books (The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality (HIGHLY recommended - pure genius), and Infinity and the Mind, among others), and he has been an instrumental force in the development of AI (he suggests Artificial Instinct, not intelligence) and gnarly computation (I almost considered putting his non-fiction books here because they are awesome, and many of them have helped me appreciate SF more).

He also wrote the manifesto for an entire genre of fiction he coined, Transrealism (http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/rucker/transrealistmanifesto.pdf).

The dude is just amazing. One of the true greats, and we're lucky to have him living and writing right now.

So it might come as a surprise that his books are actually insanely funny, and sometimes just downright insane. Rucker is like The Mad Hatter meets Kafka by way of Ray Kurzweil, Philip K. Dick and Hunter S. Thompson. He is purely gonzo, and a total riot. And that he uses his novels to explore some of his far out theories and ideas is even more awesome.

The Ware books represent his entry into the cyberpunk sub-genre (most of his stuff I would classify as Transrealism, or even mathpunk), and are some of the very best the sub-genre has to offer. The first two books - Software and Wetware - each on a Philip K. Dick award, and they are the best (although I've never read the fourth).

The books are fast paced, totally entertaining, somewhat thought provoking, and infinitely readable. They just rip.

And guess what? His best book is still to be mentioned....

Rucker is one of my favorites.

You can also check out some audio stuff here:

http://www.gigadial.net/public/station/17434

He's a great speaker.

[Qrazy]

That sounds a lot like Rendezvous with Rama, which I thought was terrible. Does anything interesting happen in that prolate spheroid?

I haven't read Rama but I checked wiki and I think it's quite different. So yeah narratively at least some very interesting things happen in the seventh cylinder. I don't know if you'll like it or not. The Foundation series might be a better bet. What are some of your favorite sci fi's?

[Melville]

I haven't read Rama but I checked wiki and I think it's quite different. So yeah narratively at least some very interesting things happen in the seventh cylinder. I don't know if you'll like it or not. The Foundation series might be a better bet. What are some of your favorite sci fi's?
I have read very little sci-fi. Here's everything I could think of that might qualify:

1984, Orwell - 10
Dune, Herbert - 8.5
A Clockwork Orange, by Burgess - 8
Brave New World, by Huxley - 8
The Invisible Man, by Wells - 7.5
Fahrenheit 451, by Bradbury - 7
A Scanner Darkly, by Dick - 6
Ender's Game, by Card - 6
Slaughterhouse 5, by Vonnegut - 5.5
The Time Machine, by Wells - 5.5
Xenocide, by Card - 4.5
2001, by Clark - 4
Player Piano, by Vonnegut - 3.5
Dune Messiah - 3
Speaker for the Dead, by Card - 3
Podkayne of Mars, by Heinlein - 3
Double Star, by Heinlein - 3
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Adams - 3
Rendezvous with Rama, by Clark - 2.5
Stranger in a Strange Land, by Heinlein - 2
The Children of Dune, by Herbert - 2
God Emperor of Dune, by Herbert - 1
2010, by Clark - 1
2064, by Clark - 1
3001, by Clark - 1
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Ellison - 1
A bunch of Michael Crichton books - 1

[Milky Joe]

You should read VALIS, Melville.

[D_Davis]

I started John Brunner's Total Eclipse last night. And after reading about 25 pages, I think I'm done. It's terrible. The prose is wretched, and Brunner has a nasty habit of injecting the narrative with the inner thoughts of all the characters, who happen to think so totally on the nose as to strip the story of any nuance. It reminded me of watching a bad high school stage production.

It's just poorly written.

I thought Brunner was supposed to be one of the heavy hitters of the new wave? Ugh. This has not left me in a good position to tackle To Stand on Zanzibar, his massive 600 page tome.

[Melville]

You should read VALIS, Melville.
Yeah, I might read either that or Ubik someday.

[D_Davis]

1984, Orwell - 10
.
.
.
.
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Ellison - 1

Heh...

We couldn't be more opposite (on just about everything there is in the entire universe) if we tried to be.

[Melville]

Heh...

We couldn't be more opposite (on just about everything there is in the entire universe) if we tried to be.
Don't I know it.:P

[D_Davis]

Don't I know it.:P

We both have minimal b&w avatars!

[Melville]

We both have minimal b&w avatars!
:pritch:

[D_Davis]

:pritch:

I think your best bet is with Stanislaw Lem, especially some of his more surreal stuff. I wouldn't start with...

[megladon8]

Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We" is another sci-fi must-read.

[D_Davis]

29. Solaris - Stanislaw Lem

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n0/n3638.jpg

Like Gateway, I wasn't in love with Solaris whilst reading it. I enjoyed my time spent with it, but for some reason I wanted more.

However, after I was done with the book it continued to haunt me. I found my mind wandering back to many of its passages, and I found myself thinking of the dire situations the characters found themselves in.

Solaris is both incredibly romantic and somber. It is melancholy, full of sadness, and longing.

Any book that stays with me like Solaris did is a book worth mentioning on this list. It's a powerful experience. Lem is very good (one of the best), and Solaris is a great SF story. Out of all of the SF authors, Lem is probably the one to be treated the most seriously by the scholarly literary crowd.

Solaris is one of Lem's most pure SF stories, and that's why I've chosen it for this list. I could probably also go with his greatly celebrated The Cyberiad, but I haven't finished it yet.

Someday, I'd like to record an album based on Solaris.

[D_Davis]

Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We" is another sci-fi must-read.

I definitely need to read this at some point.

[Melville]

I wouldn't start with [Solaris]
Really? It seems to deal with the themes most important to me (identity, intersubjectivity, the individual's relationship with the world), so I figured it would be the best bet.

[D_Davis]

Really? It seems to deal with the themes most important to me (identity, intersubjectivity, the individual's relationship with the world), so I figured it would be the best bet.

I don't know. I guess I just see it as one of his most "SF" in terms of setting and plot. You're right, it deals with some complex themes, that's a fact.

I guess I just have a hard time suggesting a SF novel to someone who dislikes the genre so much, or at least to someone who hasn't found their entry point into the genre. I think the later is more appropriate, because the SF genre is so wide and varied - you're bound to eventually find a niche that suits you.

You'd might even like Theodore Sturgeon quite a bit - especially his short stories. Check out his book, More Than Human.

[megladon8]

Some of those ratings are criminally low. It hurts :cry:

[Qrazy]

I have read very little sci-fi. Here's everything I could think of that might qualify:

1984, Orwell - 10
Dune, Herbert - 8.5
A Clockwork Orange, by Burgess - 8
Brave New World, by Huxley - 8
The Invisible Man, by Wells - 7.5
Fahrenheit 451, by Bradbury - 7
A Scanner Darkly, by Dick - 6
Ender's Game, by Card - 6
Slaughterhouse 5, by Vonnegut - 5.5
The Time Machine, by Wells - 5.5
Xenocide, by Card - 4.5
2001, by Clark - 4
Player Piano, by Vonnegut - 3.5
Dune Messiah - 3
Speaker for the Dead, by Card - 3
Podkayne of Mars, by Heinlein - 3
Double Star, by Heinlein - 3
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Adams - 3
Rendezvous with Rama, by Clark - 2.5
Stranger in a Strange Land, by Heinlein - 2
The Children of Dune, by Herbert - 2
God Emperor of Dune, by Herbert - 1
2010, by Clark - 1
2064, by Clark - 1
3001, by Clark - 1
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Ellison - 1
A bunch of Michael Crichton books - 1

Check out Zamyatin's We, Lem, Strugatsky, some other Bradbury, some other Huxley and the Foundation series. If you don't like the first Foundation probably better not to read the rest. I predict you would give Eon something like a 5. You may also not want to read any more sci fi because you seem to hate it.

[D_Davis]

28. Souls - Joanna Russ

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c2/c13342.jpg

Joanna Ross is most famous for her book on feminism in the literary world titled How to Suppress Women's Writing. She's also known for her amazing SF novella, Souls, and rightly so. Souls is captivating, and it was practically tailor made for me. I love SF the deals with the ideas of religion, and Souls does it well. In a brisk 50 pages it examines faith, humanity, violence, kindness and compassion, all wrapped up in a well written SF narrative. It reminded me a lot of Simak's great novel Way Station in its atmosphere.

There are not enough female authors in the genre. As a matter of fact, the few female authors there were writing SF in the '50s and '60s often disguised the fact they were female by writing under different names. The few that are well known are highly regarded: Russ, Le Guin, Butler, Brackett, etc. However, it would be nice to see more, and I definitely want to read more in the future.

[D_Davis]

27. The Dreaming Jewels (1950) - Theodore Sturgeon

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/TheDreamingJewels%281stEd%29.j pg

It's a well established fact the Bradbury is a superb writer of short fiction. He is highly regarded by both SF fans and fans of general lit, by both the SF community and the academic community. He's enjoyed mainstream success during his own lifetime.

So what can be said about the man whose talent Bradbury is jealous of? What can be said about the man whom Bradbury admired like a mentor? What can be said about Theodore Sturgeon, the incredible author of hundreds of short stories and a half dozen novels. What can be said about Sturgeon the man - the man who loved humanity with all of his heart, the man who saw the greatness in people, the man who believed in the power of love and goodness? What can be said about the man who was among the first (perhaps the first) to write positively about homosexuality in SF, the man who dared to always "ask the next question," in order to get to the true heart of the matter?

I'll tell you.

Not enough.

I could easily fill this list with only Sturgeon stories. That his name is not synonymous with the same quality as someone like Bradbury, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Saroyan, or any other great American author is one of the literary world's great tragedies.

Because he is that good - and that's a fact.

Someday he will be greatly celebrated. Only now are all of short stories back in print. And one day, in the distant future, people will rediscover him. And I'll just shake my head and ask them what took so damn long.

Anyhow...

The Dreaming Jewels tells the story of a young boy named Horty Bluett. Horty is caught doing something gross at school, and once again finds himself the victim of his step-parents' abuse. Sturgeon never shied away from presenting his readers with dark and twisted events and characters. On the contrary, he often dove head-first into such territories. The first couple of chapters here are harrowing; violent physical and emotional child abuse is depicted bluntly. While Sturgeon never candy-coated his portrayals of nastiness, he never utilized unnecessary shock value.

In desperation, Horty does what many young boys in his situation dream of doing: he, along with his toy Junky, a jack-in-the-box with jeweled eyes, runs away and joins a traveling circus. His new family consists of: a deaf and mute alligator-skinned man named Solum; a fat little midget boy named Havana; an albino girl named Bunny; and a tiny little woman named Zena. Horty and Zena quickly develop a strong bond; their relationship matures and becomes passionate without being romantically active. They are like mother and son, brother and sister, and lovers all at the same time. Zena soon learns of Junky's jeweled eyes and she tells Horty to keep them hidde from the circus ringleader, a dark and mysterious man known as the Maneater.

The Maneater is fascinating, one of my favorite literary villains. Sturgeon paints him with disturbing detail; he is more than a mustache twister and more than a mere monster. This is especially true in his origin chapter, where we learn of the passion that drives the Maneater, and in which we first learn of the strange crystal jewels at the vortex of the narrative. The Maneater is a jewel hunter, and has devoted his life to capturing and experimenting with the strange crystals to unlock their true potential. Sturgeon presents the Maneater's lust in a vibrant and fearful way, and the obsession found in the character makes for an interesting and frightening antagonist.

The Dreaming Jewels is Sturgeon's most straightforward novel. Where he sometimes had the tendency to be didactic, and to really examine his motto (“Ask the next question.”), The Dreaming Jewels is basically a straight up, dark and fantastic, twisted little thriller. It contains elements of SF, horror, and coming of age story all wrapped up in a short, action packed, and extremely well written novel. The novel's pacing is relentless, and, like To Marry Medusa, it moves along in a whiz-bang fashion. There is a lot going on within the narrative, and Sturgeon packs the pages with details.

What I found most fascinating is how the narrative evolves. It starts out as one kind of story, and slowly morphs, organically, into something else. Sturgeon builds an elaborate and nuanced tale and examines a number of fascinating ideas here, all while keeping the plot focused and moving. Like a slowly budding flower, as each chapter is read, the story opens up to reveal something more mysterious until the center is finally exposed and the reader truly understands the narrative's nature. This really is an expertly crafted story, and it makes sense that Ray Bradbury is so jealous of it's allure and of Sturgeon's craft.

Now that I've read all of Sturgeon's major SF novels, I am actually kind of sad. I still have a ton of short stories to devour, but I will never again be able to read a Sturgeon novel for the first time. I enjoyed coming around full circle, and rereading the book that introduced me to this amazing author. I can't recommend The Dreaming Jewels enough; it is fascinating, intelligent, thrilling, emotional, and a finely crafter novel. I would love for many more people to pick this up, I think it is a fantastic entry point for anyone longing to start a great literary journey.

[Melville]

You'd might even like Theodore Sturgeon quite a bit - especially his short stories. Check out his book, More Than Human.
I just read the first page on Amazon. The prose is pretty good, so I'll definitely keep that one in mind. Thanks.


Some of those ratings are criminally low. It hurts :cry:
I'm a sadist.

Which ones are painfully low? I thought Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the only really beloved book that I gave a low rating on there.


You may also not want to read any more sci fi because you seem to hate it.
Well, that's certainly a viable option, and it's the one I've been pursuing for at least ten years (up until this afternoon, when I read that Ellison story). But I figure there are at least a few sci-fi books out there that I'd really like; 2001 and Tarkovsky's Solaris are, after all, both in my top ten favorite movies. And it's nice to have a variety of different types of books to choose from.

[D_Davis]

I just read the first page on Amazon. The prose is pretty good, so I'll definitely keep that one in mind. Thanks.


Sturgeon had it all - great style, deep themes, and gripping narratives.

Some of Your Blood is my favorite book of his, but it's more horror/drama than SF, and so it won't be included on this list.

[D_Davis]

Sturgeon was also a part of one of the greatest literary hoaxes of all time.

http://sniggle.net/libertine.php

The I, Libertine Hoax

http://sniggle.net/Images/libertine.jpg

http://web.archive.org/web/20020427051336/flicklives.com/Articles/Wall_Street_Journel/8-1-56/8-1-56.jpg

That is so awesome it hurts.

[megladon8]

I'm a sadist.

Which ones are painfully low? I thought Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the only really beloved book that I gave a low rating on there.


All of these ratings are incredibly low in my opinion...


A Scanner Darkly, by Dick - 6
Ender's Game, by Card - 6
Slaughterhouse 5, by Vonnegut - 5.5
2001, by Clark - 4
Player Piano, by Vonnegut - 3.5
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Adams - 3
Rendezvous with Rama, by Clark - 2.5
Stranger in a Strange Land, by Heinlein - 2
2010, by Clark - 1


Particularly the Dick and Vonnegut books and "Ender's Game", which I not only consider one of the greatest pieces of sci-fi out there, but would also make my top 25 greatest books ever read list.

[megladon8]

Sturgeon was also a part of one of the greatest literary hoaxes of all time.

http://sniggle.net/libertine.php

The I, Libertine Hoax

http://sniggle.net/Images/libertine.jpg

http://web.archive.org/web/20020427051336/flicklives.com/Articles/Wall_Street_Journel/8-1-56/8-1-56.jpg

That is so awesome it hurts.


I want to track down a copy of the book and read it.

[D_Davis]

I want to track down a copy of the book and read it.


There's one on Amazon now for $44 - cheapest I've seen.

[Qrazy]

Well, that's certainly a viable option, and it's the one I've been pursuing for at least ten years (up until this afternoon, when I read that Ellison story). But I figure there are at least a few sci-fi books out there that I'd really like; 2001 and Tarkovsky's Solaris are, after all, both in my top ten favorite movies. And it's nice to have a variety of different types of books to choose from.

Yeah but you read 2001 and didn't like it haha.

[Melville]

All of these ratings are incredibly low in my opinion...


A Scanner Darkly, by Dick - 6
Ender's Game, by Card - 6
Slaughterhouse 5, by Vonnegut - 5.5
2001, by Clark - 4
Player Piano, by Vonnegut - 3.5
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Adams - 3
Rendezvous with Rama, by Clark - 2.5
Stranger in a Strange Land, by Heinlein - 2
2010, by Clark - 1


Particularly the Dick and Vonnegut books and "Ender's Game", which I not only consider one of the greatest pieces of sci-fi out there, but would also make my top 25 greatest books ever read list.
Well, I moderately liked A Scanner Darkly and Ender's Game, and I didn't dislike Slaughterhouse 5. But Dick's prose is way too workmanlike for me to really love his book, and I've explained my dislike of Vonnegut in the book discussion thread. Ender's Game just seems somewhat unremarkable to me; why do you consider it to be so great? (Ignore me if we've had this conversation before, which I think we might have.)


The I, Libertine Hoax
That's pretty funny.


Yeah but you read 2001 and didn't like it haha.
Clark is no Kubrick.

[D_Davis]

If you're a firm believer in prose over, or even at the same level as, story/ideas, then I would wager you won't find a lot to be gained from your time spent in the SF genre. There are a few great stylists out there (check out Gene Wolfe), but for the most part I think you'll find that the genre tends to fall flat in terms of prose.


Although you love 1984, and I thought the prose in that novel was about as bland as it gets.

[D_Davis]

When I want style, I'll turn to authors like Dashiell Hammett, or Raymond Chandler, or even Hemingway, Saroyan, Steinbeck, etc. However, I'm rarely captivated by their ideas. I'm more into big ideas and speculation, which is why I've always gravitated towards SF for my reading kicks.

But that's not to say that I can overlook terrible prose, because I can't. Heck, I just stopped reading that Brunner book because it was written so poorly - the story was grabbing me either, though.

[Mara]

That I, Libertine story is fantastic.

[D_Davis]

That I, Libertine story is fantastic.

I know - I love stuff like that. They should turn that into a movie.

[Melville]

If you're a firm believer in prose over, or even at the same level as, story/ideas, then I would wager you won't find a lot to be gained from your time spent in the SF genre. There are a few great stylists out there (check out Gene Wolfe), but for the most part I think you'll find that the genre tends to fall flat in terms of prose.
I definitely think quality prose is essential. But what I like most is prose, story, and themes that all reinforce one another; I like it when the style itself conveys ideas. Otherwise I usually prefer to just read a philosophy book.


Although you love 1984, and I thought the prose in that novel was about as bland as it gets.
I remember it being simple but precise. Mind you, I read it so long ago that I really only remember the ideas it explored. But even if it lacks in prose style, it does some interesting things with its structure: I really liked how it took a lengthy break from the "plot" to show excerpts from a political treatise; especially since we eventually find out that the treatise is a hoax, or that it doesn't even matter whether or not it's a hoax.


When I want style, I'll turn to authors like Dashiell Hammett, or Raymond Chandler, or even Hemingway, Saroyan, Steinbeck, etc. However, I'm rarely captivated by their ideas. I'm more into big ideas and speculation, which is why I've always gravitated towards SF for my reading kicks.
As you might guess from our exact-oppositeness, I don't think any of those authors are great prose stylists—especially not Hemingway or Hammett. But I'm not captivated by their ideas either. For ideas, I go to Borges, Melville, or Dostoevsky. Especially Dostoevksy.

[D_Davis]

As you might guess from our exact-oppositeness, I don't think any of those authors are great prose stylists—especially not Hemingway or Hammett.

Wait a minute. Hammett - not a great prose stylist? He practically invented a style singe-handedly! A style the people still try to ape today. He was ground zero for the hardboiled style. I can understand not liking him, but you've got to at least recognize his style. Come on now!

;)

You may also want to check out Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany. He is a SF author often praised for his prose. I don't like him, so I imagine he will quickly become your new favorite author.

:)

http://www.amazon.com/Dhalgren-Samuel-R-Delany/dp/0375706682/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250178498&sr=1-1

Check out the first few pages - you may dig it.

[Melville]

Wait a minute. Hammett - not a great prose stylist? He practically invented a style singe-handedly! A style the people still try to ape today. He was ground zero for the hardboiled style. I can understand not liking him, but you've got to at least recognize his style. Come on now!
Okay, okay. But I think Chandler did it a whole lot better: much punchier and wittier. Also, you could defend Hemingway's prose on the same grounds of it being original and extremely influential—but that doesn't make me like it!


You may also want to check out Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany. He is a SF author often praised for his prose. I don't like him, so I imagine he will quickly become your new favorite author.

:)

http://www.amazon.com/Dhalgren-Samuel-R-Delany/dp/0375706682/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250178498&sr=1-1

Check out the first few pages - you may dig it.
Yeah, that's good stuff. Though I guess it depends on what he does with that impressionistic style.

[D_Davis]

Okay, okay. But I think Chandler did it a whole lot better: much punchier and wittier. Also, you could defend Hemingway's prose on the same grounds of it being original and extremely influential—but that doesn't make me like it!


I like Chandler and Hammett, although, yes, I like Chandler's stories better.

I also like Hemingway's style - you know I'm a huge fan of brevity - but I cannot stand his stories or most of his characters. I wanted to punch every character in The Sun Also Rises - a bunch of whiny artists sitting around complaining. Ugh.

[Melville]

I also like Hemingway's style - you know I'm a huge fan of brevity - but I cannot stand his stories or most of his characters. I wanted to punch every character in The Sun Also Rises - a bunch of whiny artists sitting around complaining. Ugh.
I like Hemingway's style to some degree: it has a nice spare, open quality to it. But it often seems very awkward, and all the run-on sentences get on my nerves, especially since he seems to switch between terse sentences and long run-on ones kind of haphazardly. I generally think he does a good job with characterization, though, and I thought The Sun Also Rises was a pretty memorable portrait of the Lost Generation in general and of male impotence in particular (though making the character literally impotent was probably a bit much). Have you read The Old Man and the Sea? I think that book works best with his style.

[D_Davis]

Have you read The Old Man and the Sea? I think that book works best with his style.

Yes, and I like it quite a bit. It has a poetic quality to it, and is a near perfect marriage between his style and the narrative.

[Melville]

Yes, and I like it quite a bit. It has a poetic quality to it, and is a near perfect marriage between his style and the narrative.
Nice. I guess all we need is a few pages/days of discussion to find some things we agree on.:)

[D_Davis]

Nice. I guess all we need is a few pages/days of discussion to find some things we agree on.:)

I know, right? Two times in one day even.

[Qrazy]

You're a book pirate!


:)

Cool stuff. I've never read the 4th and 5th books from cover to cover. I always loose interest at this point.

I just finished the fifth book. I now feel the need to unearth Adams so that I can punch his corpse right in the fucking face.

It should have stayed a trilogy.

[D_Davis]

I just finished the fifth book. I now feel the need to unearth Adams so that I can punch his corpse right in the fucking face.

It should have stayed a trilogy.

That bad, eh?

I did like the part (can't remember which book) where Arthur is trapped in the past and that alien comes to insult him. Wasn't that in the 4th or 5th book? What about Bistro Mathematics? It's been so long....

[Qrazy]

That bad, eh?

I did like the part (can't remember which book) where Arthur is trapped in the past and that alien comes to insult him. Wasn't that in the 4th or 5th book? What about Bistro Mathematics? It's been so long....

Those are both in the third book which I like a lot.

4 and 5 have their moments but ultimately they're very weak and five has one of the worst endings to a series ever. 4 is just a love story about Arthur primarily on Earth with a half-assed explanation at then end about why the Earth still exists and a lame sub-plot about Ford Prefect. At the end of the book he cribs from the first two with a 'big question' revealed that happens to have a stupid answer, then he kills off a major character. 5 craps on everything that happened in 4 and the book then meanders around haphazardly until the end with a few cool ideas here and there and then and then one of the worst endings ever.

[D_Davis]

Maybe I've never read any of books 4 and 5 now that you mention those plot points. Not ringing a bell at all.

[Qrazy]

Maybe I've never read any of books 4 and 5 now that you mention those plot points. Not ringing a bell at all.

Yes well, I suggest not reading them and taking the 'Increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy' tagline to heart.

[D_Davis]

26. Calculating God (2000) - Rober J. Sawyer

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n4/n23071.jpg


This is another one that should have been lower on the list. But oh well...


So a couple of aliens land in Canada, right in front of a national history museum. They get out of their craft and ask to be taken to the nearest paleontologist. The aliens discuss the origins of life with the scientist, and then are shocked to find that he (Thomas Jericho) has not calculated "God" into his thoughts and theories about the origin of life.

What transpires is an incredibly entertaining and thoughtful examination of science, religion, sociology, and space exploration, all in search of the origins of life in the universe and "God." It's all very well done.

Sawyer's SF often examines science, reason, religion, and mysticism, and many of his novels feel more like mysteries or thrillers than straight up SF. But that's cool. I've read a bunch of his books, and while many of them are pretty good, this is by far his best.

[D_Davis]

25. The Big Jump (1955) - Leigh Brackett

http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/Ace%20singles/sG-series/G-683.jpg


The inclusion of this book is anomalous for 2 reasons:

1. I'm not a big fan of space opera
2. I don't read very many female SF authors

Space Opera is the sub-genre that I think most outsiders think of when they hear the term science fiction; they think of westerns or fantasies in space: Star Wars, Flash Gordon, Firefly etc. I think you'll find that, once this list is complete, most of the books I enjoy are terrestrial-based, more focused on humanity. I'm far more into the sociological SF than I am the space faring adventure stories.

I also don't read enough SF written by women. Now, to be fair to myself there really aren't very many women SF authors. However, I should read more. I definitely want to read more Leigh Brackett, because from what I can tell from this novel and the few short stories I've read, she is awesome.

This novel is very short, and very good. It's a small story of space exploration surrounding a mystery of a disastrous expedition that left an entire flight crew dead. What killed them out there? A new crew is assembled to investigate, and thus the adventure begins.

[Mara]

I'm trying to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It's my first PKD and I'm really bothered by his female characters. It might sound minor, but it's kinda a stumbling block for me. It's hard for me to ignore.

[D_Davis]

I'm trying to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It's my first PKD and I'm really bothered by his female characters. It might sound minor, but it's kinda a stumbling block for me. It's hard for me to ignore.

Dick did not have a good relationship with or view of women.

I'm working on a major project called Dick and the Dark Haired Girl, exploring this facet of Dick's life.

It's one of his major themes, and a force that shaped his entire career. He tried to remedy the situation with his later books, especially The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, his last published novel, and his only novel to be told from a female POV. It's quite good. It's also his only mainstream novel to get published during his lifetime. While part of the VALIS trilogy, there isn't really anything SF about it.

You're either going to have to deal with it and accept it, or move on to another author. Because it gets much, much worse. Women were his demons.

Many of the themes in his novels were autobiographical in nature, so try to look at it these terms: Dick was trying to cope with his feelings, and these feelings manifested themselves in his novels. He's not promoting a world view, but instead he is simply trying to understand his own.

With that said, I do not think that Do Androids... is one of his strongest novels. For all of its acclaim, I rank it as mediocre.


If you want solid female characters in SF, I'd look to Theodore Sturgeon. He was gender progressive, and explored sexuality in all of its facets with great skill.

[Mara]

I'm going to finish the book, I think, but I might try Sturgeon next.

[megladon8]

Hey, I never knew that about PKD.

[megladon8]

D_Davis, I demand that you check out John Wyndham.

[D_Davis]

D_Davis, I demand that you check out John Wyndham.

I've got Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids in my too read pile.

Soon my friend, soon.

[megladon8]

I've got Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids in my too read pile.

Soon my friend, soon.


Put those both aside and read "The Kraken Wakes" first.

[D_Davis]

24. Flowers for Algernon (1959) - Daniel Keyes

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/FlowersForAlgernon.jpg

I know that SF is really all about humanity. It's why I read the genre. I love the speculation and the examination of humanity when filtered through a SF lens. However, when many people think of SF they think of outer space; they're actually thinking of space opera, a small sub-genre. If anyone ever doubts that Sf is, first and foremost, a genre devoted to the examination of humanity, I'll point them to Flowers for Algernon.

While it's not my favorite SF book, it is a great one. It is also a book that people often forget about when they think of SF. But really, it is truly a pure SF novel. It uses a fictional device/idea to examine humanity as we are now. This is SF. This is the kind of novel Anthony Burgess was thinking about when he wrote his introduction to JG Ballard's short story collection, in which he argues that Sf is the most important kind of fiction being written.

It was the best book I read in my high school SF class, easily beating out 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 for a spot amongst my favorites.

[D_Davis]

23. Martian Time Slip (1964) - Philip K. Dick

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/philip-k-dick/210-1.jpg

Mara mentioned being a bit distraught over PKD's portrayal of women.

She's right.

PKD did not have a good relationship with or view of women - for the most part.

However, rather than view it as PKD condoning a certain world view, it is best to view it as PKD working through his own distorted perceptions. Many of his prevalent themes are autobiographical in nature. He is, after all, the author who believed he was a secret Christian living in the non-defunct Roman Empire, and the author who learned this truth after being beamed by a pink light from outer space called VALIS. Given the nature of Dick's persona, his views of women should come as no surprise - he was a deeply troubled individual, and his troubling nature helped him create some of the most fascinating SF ever written. His strong distrust of the fairer sex helped to shape many of his narratives.

I mention this here because Martian Time Slip is especially plagued, or highlighted by this trait. It also deals greatly with the ideas of perception and of how people see the world differently, especially people who are in a disparate states of mental well-being. In this case, Dick examines an extreme case of autism. He was one of the first authors to tackle autism in such a way, and it is truly a fascinating subject seen through the eyes of this visionary author.

While Dick's style was often workman-like in quality, he did sometimes stumble upon some decent prose, and Martian Time Slip is one of his best written novels. It's also one of his darkest and most depressing. It should come as no surprise that these two aspects would intersect. I believe that Dick was most comfortable when he was darkest, especially during the mid 1960s, a time of his life that was wrought with psychological disturbances, drugs, and domestic chaos.

[D_Davis]

22. Ship of Fools - Richard Paul Russo

http://www.playtime-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/shipoffools.jpg

Ship of Fools, a space opera teeming with theological themes, is the apostolic account of Bartolomeo Aguilera, an adviser aboard a generation ship called the Argonos. The Argonos has been floating through space for what seems like, and what may actually be, an eternity. Its mission is unknown; its purpose is a complete mystery. Its crew and inhabitants are born, live, and die on the ship, and have done so for many untold generations. At the heart of the ship is a massive cathedral, a worship place for a futuristic sect of Christianity. The ship seems to have been built around this massive structure. The ship’s bishop believes that the ship had no beginning — it always was, and always will be. For all we know, the ship represents all that is left of the human race.

Russo initially impressed me with Destroying Angel (the first part of the Carlucci trilogy) and he has since impressed me more with Ship of Fools. I simply couldn’t get enough of this book, and I devoured it in only a few sittings. His prose is simple and easy to read without being fluffy and vapid, and he knows how to weave an entertaining adventure. Ship of Fools is wonderfully told, with a gripping narrative full of mystery and suspense, and populated by interesting characters. But my favorite thing about it is its ability to remain interesting and engaging while still being ambiguous about its themes and conclusions. It is devoid of infodump, and hardly anything is neatly tied up or over explained. Like a real life theological mystery, there are no easy answers for the characters in Ship of Fools, there are only trials and tribulations from which they must learn and grow while discovering their own paths.

[D_Davis]

21. Virtual Unrealities (1997) - Alfred Bester

http://images.indiebound.com/831/767/9780679767831.jpg


The first story in this 1997 collection of Bester's best is Disappearing Act, which just so happens to be my all time favorite short story. It's a hilariously frustrating satire of the military mind that deals with the process of creativity and of what art means to humanity. It's absolutely brilliant. While it may be a bit short on nuance and subtlety, it is teeming with ideas. It's didactic nature may be a put off for those of you with a more traditional literary mind, it is, none-the-less, a classic of the SF genre.

VU is really a "best of" collection, and thus it contains a number of his greatest hits including Adam and No Eve; Oddy and Id; Starlight, Starbright; Fondly Farenheit, and many others. Like JG Ballard, Bester is an author who excelled at the short format, and also like Ballard, Bester examined humankind's relationship with the very things we've created and built.

Bester is a bona fide master of the genre. He worked in pubilshing, television, comic books, and magazines, winning awards and accolades in all. His ideas and style enhanced the golden age, ushered in the new wave, and gave birth to the cyberpunk movement. He was, without a doubt, one of the most important writers in the field. He also died a poor and lonely man, leaving his scant few possessions to his bar tender.

[megladon8]

I still have Bester's "The Demolished Man" on my to-read pile.

And it's awesome that you're giving some love to Richard Paul Russo. He's not one that's often praised - at least I haven't seen his name on many lists like this.

[D_Davis]

Russo is awesome. He lives in Seattle somewhere, I'd love to bump into him.

[D_Davis]

20. The Forever War (1974) - Joe Haldeman

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YhrLAYLQ8So/SYNVTw35LcI/AAAAAAAAH0s/jsQP734roN8/s400/The+Forever+War.jpg


While the title is certainly relevant today given the United States' current situation in Iraq, it was in fact inspired by those hellish years our boys spent in Vietnam. I guess we never learn, do we? Perhaps more people should read this masterpiece.

The Forever War looks at the future of war, and how time displacement affects strategy and moral. Because of time displacement, hyperspace travel effects the relative time of those on board the space cruisers differently than it does those on space stations or planets - time becomes subjective. For instance, a quick jump through a series of stargates might only take the soldiers a few months, where as decades, or longer, might pass elsewhere. However, this also poses an interesting problem concerning the war itself. Because the fighting takes place across the furthest reaches of the universe, the humans and the aliens are constantly jumping back and forth between different stargates and different subjective times. Sometimes, the humans appear to come from the aliens' future, while other times the humans appear to come from the aliens' past, and vice-versa. This reeks havoc on the relative effectiveness of different military tactics and technologies.

The biggest impact associated with time displacement is seen through the main character's point of view. Through all the jarring changes he endures, it is surprising that the dude doesn't off himself. He goes from being a Private, a grunt, leaving a world familiar to him, a world he calls home, to being a Major, and a total social outcast. While he is away, jumping from one stargate to the next, mankind undergoes cataclysmic changes, changes that impact morality, society, sexual practices, and individual freedom on an extraordinary level, at least relative to his frame of reference. When he returns to Earth under the empty-promises of civilian life, he barely recognizes the place, and once back in space, hundreds of years later, he barely recognizes humanity at all. Mandella is caught in a kind of personal stasis field, in which all he can do is hope to understand a fraction of what he experiences while everything around him changes at a mind numbing speed.

If you haven't read this yet, do it.

[D_Davis]

19. City Come A-Walkin' (1980) - John Shirley

http://i.biblio.com/z/910/581/9781568581910.jpg

Author John Shirley was involved with the American punk rock scene, and he expertly captures the attitude and pathos of the movement in his novel, City Come A-Walkin', ground zero for the cyberpunk movement. This is a book filled with angst and passion, heart and soul, and a desire to do things differently. Because of this, I would not hesitate to say that this is the most punk of all the genuine cyberpunk I've read. It is real punk, down to its very core, and contains the ethos that made the movement a vital part of modern society. It is not punk in surface only; it doesn't simply go through the motions touching upon all the things a cyberpunk novel is supposed to.

Some may read this now and wonder just what is so cyberpunk about it? There are no modems, no A.I., no V.R., no hacking, and none of the stuff that made Shadowrun so cool in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is not a neo-noir in the vein of Bladerunner, and it does not deal with techno-jargon like Gibson's Neuromancer. Because it does not date itself with either of these conventions it is actually far more timeless. One of the problems with cyberpunk is that the genre is often overly concerned with the very near future; because many of these novels rely so heavily on tech and jargon that has become dated, they feel anachronistic and tired rather than forward-thinking and daring.

Shirley's novel is cyberpunk because of its themes, and how it deals with the ideas of modern urban living, not because of the tech. City Come A-Walkin' is so concerned with the ideas of the proverbial city that the city - in this case San Fransisco - itself becomes a character, quite literally. Just imagine if the city you live in were able to manifest itself into a single entity possessing the collected conscious of all its inhabitants. What kind of person would your city be? How would the zeitgeist of your city shape and form its persona? Depending on your location, this could be a frightening proposal.

[D_Davis]

This thread seems really dead....but I shall finish!

18. The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin

http://www.genrebusters.com/images/lathe.jpg

Le Guin's book pulses with a pounding rhythm, it is a tensely paced novel full of plot and ideas; it glances at notions that other books would base their entire premise around. It focuses on two central characters, George Orr (an allusion to George Orwell, perhaps?) and Dr. Haber. Orr has a peculiar problem, namely, his “effective dreaming.” He is able to create reality and shift the space time continuum by dreaming. Orr does not want this power, and wants to escape the responsibility of changing things that impact everything and everyone around him. After being caught using other peoples' pharmacy cards to get drugs (drugs to stop him from dreaming), he is sentenced to “voluntary” therapy, and finds himself under the watchful gaze of Dr. Haber. Dr. Haber is a kind and boisterous man, blinded by misplaced ambition, and soon discovers that Orr's problem is very real and incredibly powerful. Through a series of sessions assisted by the Augmenter, a device Haber invents to guide Orr into prolonged effective dreaming, the two men find themselves entangled in a battle of wits involving a rapidly evolving universe, an alien invasion, an interstellar war, and Armageddon.

[D_Davis]

17. Godbody - Theodore Sturgeon

There are no good scans of the cover online.

If I've ever read a work of fiction with a premise that could change the world for good it is Theodore Sturgeon's, Godbody. It tells the story of Godbody, a messianic figure who comes to a small town to teach people how to love one another and how to express their love through passionate, healthy, and uninhibited sexual intercourse. He heals the perception towards sex of those who have been sexually mistreated, and fosters a new appreciation for love making in those who have forgotten its joys. Each chapter is told from the point of view of a different character touched by the work of Godbody, and details how his mysterious ways shape a new kind of connectedness between love, humanity, and God.

Godbody is, at first, highly pornographic. It is the most erotic book I've ever read. Personally, it was a challenge to read at times because I am not often comfortable with this kind of material. But, then again, this kind of material often lacks real purpose beyond titillation, and through Strugeon's insight and understanding of humanity, the novel becomes something much more than a series of detailed sexual encounters. Making his readers uncomfortable was part of Sturgeon's modus operandi; he is, after all, the author that gave us a paradise of incest, defended homosexuality in the early 1950s, and presented to us physically and mentally abused characters with deep-rooted problems and broken spirits.

Theodore Sturgeon spent his entire life writing to us about love and compassion, and that his most didactic and candid book would be published after his death possesses a strange kind of irony. He was never around to hear the ensuing gasps of shock, the backlash from those who were offended, or the feelings of pure joy from those who received its message. Just as his final creation, the messianic Godbody, died before his message was spread, so too did Sturgeon.

[megladon8]

I want to read "Godbody" so badly :(

[Qrazy]

I've heard Lathe of Heaven was adapted into a pretty good film. I haven't read it. I might read Flowers for Algernon next.

[D_Davis]

I've heard Lathe of Heaven was adapted into a pretty good film. I haven't read it. I might read Flowers for Algernon next.

I've never seen the movie - it was a BBC production, no?

I've seen Charley, the movie based on Flowers for Algernon. It's pretty good.

[Qrazy]

I've never seen the movie - it was a BBC production, no?

I've seen Charley, the movie based on Flowers for Algernon. It's pretty good.

I think there are at least two versions. This is the one I've heard praised.

"The Lathe of Heaven is a 1979 film (released in 1980) based on the 1971 SF novel The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin. It was produced in 1979 as part of New York City public television station WNET's Experimental TV Lab project, and directed by David Loxton and Fred Barzyk.[1] Ursula Le Guin, by her own account, was involved in the casting, script planning, re-writing, and filming of this production[2].

The film stars Bruce Davison as protagonist George Orr, Kevin Conway as Dr. William Haber, and Margaret Avery as lawyer Heather LeLache."

[D_Davis]

16. The Martian Chronicles (1950) - Ray Bradbury

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/TheMartianChronicles%281stEd%2 9.jpg

This collection of thematically connected short stories is a classic. Everyone's heard of it. It's great. It chronicles humankind's journey from a troubled Earth to a troubled Mars. I haven't read it in many years, so my memory on the details is very rusty. However, I trust my memory of it, and I plan on reading it again soon.

[megladon8]

YES! A great entry, D.

I haven't read nearly enough Bradbury, but this I have, and it's a truly great collection of stories.

[D_Davis]

15. UBIK (1969) - Philip K. Dick

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Ubik%281stEd%29.jpg

UBIK - It's salvation in a handy spray bottle!
UBIK - It tastes just like regular coffee!
UBIK - It's the best bra a woman can ask for!
UBIK - A revolutionary plastic coating - it's completely non-toxic!
UBIK - It's nutritious, delicious, and easy to prepare!

UBIK - It's Philip K. Dick at his most absurd!
UBIK - It's Philip K. Dick at his most action packed!
UBIK - It's Philip K. Dick exploring the world of corporate marketing!
UBIK - It's Philip K. Dick exploring the metaphysical world of life after death.

UBIK - What is real? What is unreal? Who can say?

UBIK can!

UBIK - Try it Today! Your satisfaction is guaranteed, or your money back!*




*You will not get your money back, nor is your satisfaction guaranteed.

[D_Davis]

14. Concrete Island (1975) - JG Ballard

http://www.jordanhoffman.com/archives/concrete1-250.jpg

JG Ballard understands the plight of modern man more so than any other author I've read. He understands the irony of our urban isolation, the effects of modern technology on the human psyche, and of how humankind copes with the very things we've created. He possessed an uncanny ability to examine our modern world through an acutely focused speculative lens. Ballard's fiction single-handedly argues for the use of the term Speculative Fiction rather than Science Fiction.

Concrete Island examines the feelings of urban isolation - it explores an extreme situation in which a man becomes lost in a strange world, isolated from his fellow citizens by only a few dozen feet and the constant noise of his surroundings; he's surrounded by activity but completely unable to escape.

Concrete Island is frightening and poignant, and like most of Ballard's fiction it hits own with the force of a megaton bomb.

[D_Davis]

13. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr.

http://www.genrebusters.com/images/canticle.jpg

Walter M. Miller Jr. was a catholic. He was also a bomber pilot in WWII. During one of his missions he took part in the total destruction of a beautiful monastery, The Benedictine Abbey. The bombing of this holy structure haunted him for the rest of his life, that is until he committed suicide.

A Canticle for Leibowitz was birthed from the trauma he experienced in WWII.

A Canticle for Leibowitz is Walter M. Miller's post-apocalyptic science fiction masterpiece. It is wholly unlike any post-apocalyptic book or film I have ever read or seen. It is not populated with disparately armored road-warriors fighting for gasoline, or mutant-monsters blood-thirsty for human flesh, or clans of horsemen waging war on one another in barbaric and violent fashions. While there are rumors and mumblings of these sorts of actions and cliche, Leibowitz is, smartly, devoid of almost every convention this particular sub-genre is known for.

Instead, the book focuses on the most unlikely of heroes: a small group of Catholic monks living in an abbey in Utah after the great deluge of fire and destruction. Miller traces the course of new-human history through the monks' point of view: a journey spanning thousands of years. The narrative moves from the time known as The Simplification, a dark age where literacy and scholarly knowledge are punishable by death, through a new time of reformation and enlightenment, and into the distant future where technology, spacecrafts, and nuclear-knowledge again cause humanity to repeat their past mistakes.

[D_Davis]

12. The Demolished Man (1953) - Alfred Bester

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/The_Demolished_Man_first_editi on.jpg

As much as I am a champion of genre related things, there are some problems with these classifications. One of the main problems stems from the stigma those outside of the appeal of genre often thrust upon books associated with a particular genre. That is to say, those who read only “literature” rarely, if ever, travel within the genre-ghettos, even if it means they may miss some truly great and profound works of fiction.

Place a book in the science fiction section of a book store and you automatically dictate the majority of your audience while simultaneously ostracizing a large portion of potential readers. One book that has suffered tremendously from these genre barriers is Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man: an illustrious example of fiction regardless of where one happens to find it shelved.

Within the first few pages it is clear that the reader is in the hands of a vastly superior writer, one whose prose ignites the imagination with brevity and concrete language. Bester's prose is like a reduction of the English language, reminiscent of Dahsiell Hammett's and Raymond Chandler's. It resides in the pulp-stylings of the hardboiled detective yarns, and yet it transcends these genre conventions with powerful passages that linger in the reader's mind; passages such as:

Run, or I'll miss the Paris Pneumatique and that exquisite girl with her flower face and figure of passion. There's time if I run. But that isn't the Guard before the gate. Oh Christ! The Man With No Face. Looking. Looming. Silent. Don't scream. Stop screaming...

But I'm not screaming. I'm singing on a stage of sparkling marble while the music soars and the lights burn. But there's no one out there in the amphitheater. A great shadowed pit...empty except for one spectator. Silent. Looming. The Man With No Face.

Prose without plot, however, is akin to literary masturbation, a problem that Bester does not fall victim to. For within Bester's masterful use of language, and physical placement of words upon the page to to create visual allure, lies a story thick with memorable characterizations and a sizzling narrative burgeoning with imagination and contemplation. While the science and psychological ramblings are dated, the ideas and the characters stand the test of time.

The Demolished Man is an elegant detective story mired within the genesis of the cyber-punk milieu. This is science fiction! This is speculative fiction! This is an expertly told tale of a future teeming with paranoia, corruption, and humans with mind-altering abilities.

[D_Davis]

11. More Than Human (1953) - Theodore Sturgeon

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/MoreThanHuman%281stEdPB%29.jpg

More Than Human is a labyrinth of emotional detail and subtlety, punctuated with moments of violence, callousness, sadness, and triumph. What we are experiencing within this narrative is the genesis of a new kind of thought, a new kind of being, and all of the pains of growing up are accounted for. Sturgeon traces the formation of the homo gestalt from its conception through its first steps into actuality, into learning to live as a whole. More Than Human took me to places I've never dreamed of, and through Sturgeon's incredible prose I was introduced to characters and a world teeming with life and nuance.

[D_Davis]

Coming up, the ten best books ever written in all of human history.*








*not really, but you cannot go wrong with any of them.

[Winston*]

Hey I've read two of the last three and also just bought More than Human the other day. High five, Daniel!

[D_Davis]

Hey I've read two of the last three and also just bought More than Human the other day. High five, Daniel!

High five!

[Dead & Messed Up]

I bought The Stars My Destination this weekend. Haven't started it yet, though.

[D_Davis]

10. The Ninth Configuration (1978) - William Peter Blatty

http://www.abandomoviez.net/db/foto/Ninth_configuration.jpg

Within the short length of this tersely written tome, Blatty examines topics such as Christianity, the existence of God, the horrible effects of war, the crippling power of nightmares, and the psychology of those messed up by an abusive system. And as heavy handed as all this sounds, Blatty never forgets to illustrate the comedy found in the absurd situations. The Ninth Configuration is as funny as it is relevant, and it is as entertaining as it is thought provoking.

Because of it's short length, Blatty expertly conveys feelings of immediacy. The reader is aware that there is only a short amount of time for the author to get to the point, and so every moment carries with it weight and meaning. Each page is jam-packed with plot and characterization. Blatty wonderfully illustrates his characters' personalities through their actions, and through their actions and dialog he tells the story.

It's heavy on show, light on tell.

The narrative deals with a group of psychologically damaged military officers stationed in a remote mental hospital. One of the patients is adapting Shakespeare for dogs. Another patient punishes the atoms in the walls with a sledge hammer for not granting him passage. And yet another believes he is actually on an alien planet, and that everything he is experiencing is some kind of hallucination. Blatty does an excellent job at making these crazy characters come alive, and he conveys them in such a way that they become more than a collection of quirky idiosyncrasies.

The Ninth Configuration is thrilling to its very core. I don't know about you, but sometimes (perhaps all too often) when I read a “thriller” I am less than thrilled. Usually this has to do with the length of the book. It's hard to stay thrilled for 300-plus pages. I believe that thrillers should be boiled down to their barest essentials. Get in, thrill the heck out of me, and get out - wham, bam, thank you ma'am. Blatty does this, and he does it incredibly well. But he also does more, so much more, and in less than 150 pages.

[megladon8]

I just can't help but have been a little let down with "A Canticle For Liebowitz".

[D_Davis]

I just can't help but have been a little let down with "A Canticle For Liebowitz".

It's understandable.

[bac0n]

This has nothing to do with nothing, but when I browse the main matchcut page and this thread has the latest post in the literature section, the topic is truncated to My...

Which immediately makes we want to sing... My.... baloney has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R, my baloney has a second name it's M-E-Y-E-R...

Discuss.

[D_Davis]

9. White Light (1980) - Rudy Rucker

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n2/n10550.jpg

White Light is Rudy Rucker's transrealist masterpiece. Written during a time when Rucker was first writing his text books on infinity and the fourth-dimension, while teaching math at Heidelberg University, White Light tells a semi-autobiographical (a convention of transrealism) tale about Rucker (although here he is called Felix Rayman) traveling to infinity and beyond. You might look at this as Rudy Rucker in Mathemagical Land, although with more Devil, Jesus, drugs, and strangeness.

Rucker has always used his fiction to explore his non-fictional ideas, and White Light is no different. Here he explores ideas such as set theory, aleph-null, absolute infinity, the cardinality of the continuum, and the Banach–Tarski paradox among others.I am not a math-wiz, and don't fully understand everything that Rucker discusses, but he makes at all so very entertaining.

This is total mathpunk, to its core. Felix Rayman climbs an infinite mountain, stays at a hotel with an infinite number of rooms and an infinite number of guests, goes to infinity's heaven, is rescued from hell, and befriends a giant cockroach, all while on a mission from Jesus.

It's Kafka meets Bukowski by way of Burroughs and Lewis Carroll, but I like it more than anything I've read by those authors. It's The Holy Mountain meets 2001 meets Pi - but better. This book is sublime. It's one of the best. Rucker is completely nuts, and his gonzo style serves a purpose for both form and function. I am always shocked and dismayed that his name is not celebrated more outside the niche of his small following, because it deserves to be.

[Melville]

Rucker has always used his fiction to explore his non-fictional ideas, and White Light is no different. Here he explores ideas such as set theory, aleph-null, absolute infinity, the cardinality of the continuum, and the Banach–Tarski paradox among others.I am not a math-wiz, and don't fully understand everything that Rucker discusses, but he makes at all so very entertaining.

This is total mathpunk, to its core. Felix Rayman climbs an infinite mountain, stays at a hotel with an infinite number of rooms and an infinite number of guests, goes to infinity's heaven, is rescued from hell, and befriends a giant cockroach, all while on a mission from Jesus.
That sounds pretty cool. The Banach-Tarski paradox is great. So is Hilbert's Hotel.

[D_Davis]

That sounds pretty cool. The Banach-Tarski paradox is great. So is Hilbert's Hotel.

Yeah - I really liked the Hilbert's Hotel part. It was cool.

You may like his nonfiction as well. His book Saucer Wisdom is really cool. It's half fiction, half nonfiction.

[ledfloyd]

i love 'the fourth dimension' i've never read any of rucker's fiction. i should do that sometime.

[D_Davis]

i love 'the fourth dimension' i've never read any of rucker's fiction. i should do that sometime.

You've read some of his nonfiction?


I started re-reading The Martian Chronicles a couple of days ago. Wow, it's really great. It's a perfect marriage of form and function: the old school prose style perfectly captures the milieu of the narrative. I also love how twisted it can be. Bradbury is a master of injecting stories with hints of horror and the macabre. One of the stories here ends with a mass suicide, something you just wouldn't expect from a 1950s SF story.

[D_Davis]

8. A Scanner Darkly (1977) - Philip K. Dick

http://www.turbulence.org/Works/beatingheart/blog/A-Scanner-Darkly-1.png

This is one of Philip K. Dick's most personal novels (it's dedicated to all the victims of drug abuse he knew), and it is easily Dick's funniest book. It demonstrates how tragedy and comedy can often be seen hand-in-hand. I've read this novel at least 5 times, and it never fails to floor me. While the prose may be workmanlike in quality, it's ideas are nothing short of brilliant, and here Dick once again proves his grasp on the human condition.

One could easily strip out the SF-ness of the book, and the novel would still be a fantastic examination of the drug and counter-culture to which PKD belonged. It's overflowing with trippy imagery, paranoia, drug-addled pontifications, and the kinds of characters that could only come from America during the late '60s and early '70s. However, the added element of the future-tech allows Dick to examine even further the ability drugs have to destroy minds, cripple emotional connections, and lay waste to the fragile existence of the human psyche.

[D_Davis]

7. Einstein's Dreams (1992) - Alan Lightman

http://www.thebookpirate.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/edreams.jpg

Like Rudy Rucker, Lightman is a man of science who also dabbles in philosophical SF. While Rucker uses his background in math as a launching point for his fictional excursions, Lightman is a physicist examining the metaphysical aspects of dreams, the soul, and ultimate meaning.

Einstein's Dreams is a very special book. It is the only book I try to read once a year. It is very short, and can easily be read in a single sitting. It is also incredibly poetic, beautiful, and insightful. It is a fictional dream journal of Albert Einstein, and each entry uses a variety of allegories, metaphors, and dream-symbols to examine a different aspect of relativity.

Einstein's Dreams is surreal, provocative, and calming. Reading it is akin to listening to some great ambient music, as it pulls the mind, body, and heart into its dreamtime milieu.

[megladon8]

I read that one on your recommendation, D. For a book swap, I believe.

It was fantastic. I didn't love it as much as you do, but a wonderful book nonetheless.

[D_Davis]

I read that one on your recommendation, D. For a book swap, I believe.

I know - I sent it to you.

:)

It's a good book.

[D_Davis]

6. Way Station (1964) - Clifford D. Simak

http://www.genrebusters.com/images/way.jpg

Enoch Wallace is the Earth's representative, the liaison between humankind and non-humankind. For decades, things have gone well for Enoch, his strange house and his otherworldly career. But things change, and soon he finds himself in the midst of an intergalactic social snafu that could determined the fate of the Earth's status in the planetary congress.

Clifford D. Simak's Way Station reads like an X-Files episode penned by John Steinbeck or William Saroyan. With the rural country side of Wisconsin as the backdrop, Simak paints a pastoral picture that bursts to life with Americana, antique relics, old houses and a simpler, but not simple minded, way of life. Way Station is teeming with passages depicting Enoch's natural surroundings, and I longed to experience the place for myself. I envied Enoch's life, his long walks throughout the forests and meadows, and his contemplative mood birthed from the immense amount of time he has been alive.

What an existence! As if near-immortality isn't miraculous enough, he also gets to meet hundreds of alien species, talk to them, exchange gifts with them and learn of the universe in all of its capacity. Of course, such a life has a dark side. All too soon I found myself empathizing with Enoch as his amazing life began to crumble.

Enoch Wallace is an amazing character. One of my all-time favorites. I loved every moment I got to spend with him. I would love to meet someone like him in the real world. The name Enoch is a fascinating one, one that carries with it deep rooted spiritual connotation. It is a Biblical name, the name the angel Metatron had before his heavenly ascension. Metatron acted as the voice of God, he was God's liaison with humankind, a heavenly voice box if you will.

The name also has importance in the occult. The Enochian Language is said to be the language of the angels. This idea was popularized in the early 16th Century by Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelly, two occult magicians, some say charlatans, who tried to decipher and discover a great spiritual power. In each of these mythologies, the name Enoch is defined as some form of language, or a kind of communication, and Simak expertly infuses his character with these qualities.

Simak's prose is deceptively simple. It is hard to write in such a concise and powerful manner. By avoiding flowery and ornate description, Simak's writing expertly mirrors the mannerisms of Enoch. As the POV character, Enoch is direct, he gets to the point, says what he means, and doesn't mess around; throughout his long life, he has learned to chose his words wisely.

Simak constructs his sentences in the same manner - form follows function here. Isaac Asimov once said that he couldn't help but notice the simplicity and directness of Simak's writing - "the utter clarity of it,” and so “[Asimov] made [his] mind up to imitate it.” And it's true. Reading Way Station was a breath of fresh air. It is so direct, so terse, so engaging that I simply couldn't put it down, and I read the entire thing in a single sitting, in around six hours.

[megladon8]

I still have that and "City" on my shelf to read.

[D_Davis]

5. Sirius (1944) - Olaf Stapledon

http://www.genrebusters.com/images/sirius.jpg

Sirius is a profound work of fiction. It actually made me cry in public - on the bus on the way home from work one night. Damn this book. When I told my wife this anecdote, she called me a woman. Thanks a lot Olaf.

Sirius is an exquisite book. Stapledon presents to his reader a Frankenstein-like story, but he elevates the emotion and humanity to an all new level. While I like Shelley's original tale, it never really resonated with me on deep emotional level. I didn't feel for the monster like I thought I was supposed to. Such is not the case with Sirius. I have never felt as much empathy with and sympathy for a character as I did here.

This is because Sirius, the title character, the “monster,” is a dog. Yes, Stapledon plays the canine card. Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows have met their match.

The book tells the story of a dog named Sirius, a new breed of super-canine created by a scientist named Thomas Trelone. Sirius is a very special kind of sheep dog. He has the ability to think, reason, and emote at the same level as a human being. However, he is not simply in possession of a human mind - that is, he is not a man trapped in a dog's body. No, he is more complex than this. He is actually a dog capable of complex thought, all filtered through his unique canine perspective. This grants Stapledon the ability to examine us, humankind, through a different lens, and he uses this SF impetus to great effect.

This is basically a biography of Sirius; it chronicles his entire life, or at least all of the major events in it. Sirius is born at the same time as the Trelone's own biological daughter, Plaxy. Together, the human and canine infant grow and learn. The family treats them both as equals, and encourages them to grow together while fostering a deep and lasting relationship between the two. Sirius is never to be treated as just a dog (unless secrecy dictates), and Plaxy is never to be treated better than her canine brother.

Throughout the narrative, the relationship between the human female and male canine is examined in great detail, and is illustrated with authenticity and compassion. And yes it does venture into some taboo territory, but it is never in poor taste, and nothing is ever done simply to provoke or shock. Stapledon demands that we evaluate Plaxy's and Sirius' relationship with new eyes, those not tainted by our own societal norms. I was constantly reminded of Theodore Sturgeon whilst reading this book, and I imagine that Stapledon must have been a great influence.

In addition to this interspecies relationship, we also witness Sirius' discovery of music and religion, two topics very near and dear to my own heart. Stapledon crafts a handful of wonderful and touching musical moments in the book. Because Sirius is a dog, he is able to hear tone and pitch far better than his human companions; thus the imperfection of human music is hard for him to appreciate - but he tries. He also composes and performs his own unique brand of canine music, and one such sequence in particular had me close to tears. Just thinking about it now I can feel the emotion welling.

Simply put, Sirius is a fascinating tale of personal growth and discovery. And while the style is a bit dated - lots of telling, very storybook-like - Stapledon's prose is clear and concise. He conveys emotion expertly, and each vignette is wonderfully composed. For the brief time I spent with this book, I truly felt as if I was sharing a life with another being. I grew very fond of Sirius and his human family. But what's more, the book actually changed the way I look at my own dogs, and my own life. I've always been a dog person - I love my two dogs dearly - and after I was finished with Sirius, I just wanted to love them more. This book filled me with passion, and it is an experience I hope to never forget.

[bac0n]

Einstein's Dreams is easily in my top five fave books of all time.

[D_Davis]

Einstein's Dreams is easily in my top five fave books of all time.

It's in my top 7.

:D

That's awesome that you love it, too. I don't think I've ever come across another person who loves it as much as I do.

[D_Davis]

4. To Marry Medusa (aka The Cosmic Rape) (1958) - Theodore Sturgeon

http://www.genrebusters.com/images/medusa.jpg

Most SF fans will call me crazy for placing this novel above Sturgeon's classic More Than Human. But, what can I say? I do like it more. This novel stunned me. It deals with a similar theme - a gestalt human - but it does so from a vastly different perspective.

Like Godbody, this novel is told from the point of view of a number of different protagonists, and Sturgeon expertly captures each of their personalities and thoughts. He really is a master of crafting distinct POV characters.

To Marry Medusa takes the concepts of an alien invasion, and wraps around this simple convention a vibrant exploration of humanity. At it's core are the themes important to Sturgeon: loss, loneliness, love, abuse, and passion. More so than any other genre author I have read, I get the sense that Sturgeon truly loved mankind, like it was his dream to see us evolve into something more. Even while he was writing about despicable characters doing nasty things to one another and themselves, he never comes across as being misanthropic. He was not pointing out these biological and social blemishes to show how us faulty we are, but, rather, he was showing us the directions in which we should aim our compassion, love, patience, and understanding. Sometimes it is hard for us to see the humanity under the grotesque surface, but Sturgeon could, and I believe that he wanted to help lift this veil so that we might experience something good and awesome.

[D_Davis]

3. The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (1977)

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c0/c2146.jpg


Here it is. The best book of short stories I've ever read. This book blew my mind when I first read it. Ballard climbed inside my head and destroyed every notion of what I thought SF was.

The book is simply overflowing with amazing fiction:

The Concentration City
Chronopolis
The Voices of Time
The Subliminal Man
The Drowned Giant
The Assassination of JFK Considered as a Downhill Motor Race
Plan for the Assassination of Jacqueline Kennedy
Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan

The stories here move from examples of pure science fiction, into Ballard's experimental prose, and his fascination with time, modern urban environments and the media politician.

It blows my mind that the writer of Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women, two of my favorite mainstream novels, would also write some of the most hard-hitting, poignant, and expertly crafted SF ever written. But it's true. Whatever genre Ballard chose to write in, he did so the the skill of a master prose stylist.

For those of you wanting to discover Ballards best work, check this out:

http://library2.risingshadow.net/images/books/17620.jpg

It comes out in a couple of weeks. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393072622)

It's only about $25, and it is awesome. Well, I've read many of the stories in it, so I'm sure the rest are just as awesome. It's 1216 pages of writing from one of the true masters of speculative fiction. It'll probably take the place of this entry.

[D_Davis]

I'm having a really hard time numbering my number 1 and 2 picks. Not sure which one to put at number 1....

One of them I've reread recently, and so I am leaning towards that one, although the other one is also amazing....

[D_Davis]

The choice has been made....

2. The Stars My Destination (1956) - Alfred Bester

http://www.genrebusters.com/images/stars.jpg

Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The stars my destination.


This was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living, and hard dying...but nobody thought so.

The Stars My Destination is punk-effing-rock. It's a primal scream of prose, written with verve, skill, style, and a desire to tear down established norms - it's controlled insanity. It gives the big middle finger to the science fiction genre, punches it in the face, curb stomps it, steals its car and drives away with its girlfriend.

The Stars My Destination possesses an edge sharp enough to slice through an atom. It's an unrelenting trek through the stars, and beyond, spearheaded by a man bursting with unbelievable energy and emotion. With these two novels (The Demolished Man, the other, a book I used to like more than this one), Alfred Bester helped to bridge the gaps between the pulps and the new wave; he was at the vanguard of literary science fiction, genre fiction that made outsiders pay attention.

The Stars My Destination benefits from this transitional period. It possesses a rip-roaring, hardboiled adventure yarn and probes deep into more experimental territories with the use of typographical manipulation and a nearly post-modern attitude. What's most astonishing is how dangerous it still is. This is a daring book, one that takes chances, and it is bolstered by its unwillingness to conform. For all that is said about the cyberpunk sub-genre, I find it a little telling that its most brave, interesting, and punk-rock example was written three decades before the term was even coined.

[D_Davis]

1. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) - Philip K. Dick

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/TheThreeStigmataOfPalmerEldrit ch%281stEd%29.jpg

God promises eternal life. We can deliver it.

The brilliant novel captures everything that made PKD the true master of SF. It benefits from being pretty much right in the middle of his career, possessing the more action-packed elements of his earlier novels along with the more esoteric ideas from his later novels. It explores the world of drugs, synthetic life, gnosticism, religion, corporate espionage, and characters teetering on the edge of psychotic meltdown.

The less said about the plot, the better. It's a book that simply needs to be experienced. I recommend working up to this one with a couple of the previously mentioned PKD titles, because I think it is a book that benefits from having a little bit of PKD knowledge.

[dreamdead]

PKD's Stigmata and Einstein's Dreams are now on my radar. The latter looks especially interesting.

The Stars My Destination is a marvel. Just quality characters that make you constantly question your loyalty to them both in terms of how they relate to Foyle and how we as readers regard Foyle himself. It's a fascinating project to alienate us to Foyle's humanity with his central bigotry and (sexual) violence being what we first see, but if we go with that character arc it makes his growing ontological awareness that much more powerful. And once Bester starts experimenting with modernist modes of writing and drawing in the last third of the book it becomes far more interesting as an exploration of psychological development via prose itself. Masterful stuff. I'll try to get to the other two above this year sometime...

[D_Davis]

Gully Foyle is one of the most interesting protagonists I've ever encountered.

[Sven]

Many thanks for the many recommendations. There wasn't a book on here that I've read that I disagree with its placement, except perhaps Flowers for Algernon. I thought the book was rather mawkish.

[D_Davis]

Many thanks for the many recommendations. There wasn't a book on here that I've read that I disagree with its placement, except perhaps Flowers for Algernon. I thought the book was rather mawkish.

Thanks for reading and enjoying!

:)

I'm not sure which I like best, the short story or the expanded novel of Flowers. I think I need to reread them both, because it's been a long time since I've looked at them.

[D_Davis]

I like the list because it's a good mix of bona fide classics with some more personal choices.

[D_Davis]

I'm also going to include one more, non-Japanese, comic later. I just realized that it needs to be mentioned.

Just realized I forgot this entry...

Well, in case anyone was wondering:

51. Ed the Happy Clown - Chester Brown

http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/imagesProduct/a451152386c6eb.jpg

[megladon8]

A wonderful list, D.

I really need to catch up on a lot of these. Sci-fi literature is phenomenal, there are several books in the genre that have changed my life, or at least profoundly affected me.

[D_Davis]

Thanks Meg - glad you liked the list.

I had fun putting it together.

[Mara]

Really intriguing list-- lots I haven't read! I need to make a list to check out.

[bac0n]

It's in my top 7.

:D

That's awesome that you love it, too. I don't think I've ever come across another person who loves it as much as I do.

My wife is in a book club, and I kept recommending it to her until she finally gave in and recommended it when it was her turn to pick the book. The group loved it. Yay is me!