Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Classic SF Books Memery

I picked up a copy of John Clute's excellent Illustrated Encyclopedia of Science Fiction in a chairty shop in Poole last week and, flicking though, came across a section which lists the essential and classic sf texts which you really should have read.

And I was a bit surprised to see how few of them I'd actually read, given that most people I know would say I was a sf geek; and also a bit surprised at the amount of Robert Heinlein in the list, frankly.

So in a fit of minor memery, here's the list:

[Books I've read in bold, books I own but have never read in italics and the rest waiting to be picked up.]

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
After London - Richard Jefferies
From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne
A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur - Mark Twain
The Time Machine - HG Wells
Two Planets - Kurd Lasswitz
War of the Worlds - HG Wells
A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
RUR - Karel Capek
Ralph 124C 41+ - Hugo Gernsback
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Dawn of Flame - Stanley Weinbaum
Swastika Night - Murray Constantine
Out of the Silent Planet - CS Lewis
Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Slan - AE Van Vogt
Skylark of Space - EE Doc Smith
Consider Her Ways - Frederick Grove
Dark Carnival - Ray Bradbury
Beyond This Horizon - Robert Heinlein
Sixth Column - Robert Heinlein
The World of A - AE Van Vogt
1984 - George Orwell
Earth Abides - George R Stewart
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
City - Clifford D Simak
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Childhood's End - Arthur C Clarke
The Space Merchants - Pohl and Kornbluth
More than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
Brain Wave - Poul Anderson
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Double Star - Robert Heinlein
Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement
Tiger! Tiger! - Alfred Bester
The Green Odyssey - Philip Jose Farmer
Andromeda - Ivan Yefremov
A Case of Conscience - James Blish
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller
Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Martian Time-Slip - Philip K Dick
The Burning World - J G Ballard
The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K Dick
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Einstein Intersection - Samuel Delany
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
This Immortal - Roger Zelazny
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Stand of Zanzibar - John Brunner
Rite of Passage - Alexei Panshin
Camp Concentration - Thomas Disch
Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K Le Guin
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Ringworld - Larry Niven
A Time of Changes - Robert Silverberg
A Maze of Death - Philip K Dick
To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Philip Jose Farmer
The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov
334 - Thomas Disch
Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
Rendevous with Rama - Arthur C Clarke
The Embedding - Ian Watson
The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin
The Mote in God's Eye - Niven and Pournelle
The Female Man - Joanna Russ
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
The Condition of Muzak - Michael Moorcock
Man Plus - Frederick Pohl
The Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C Clarke
Gateway - Frederick Pohl
Engine Summer - John Crowley
Timescape - Gregory Benford
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
The Snow Queen - Joan D Vinge
Lanark - Alisdair Gray
Foundation's Edge -Isaac Asimov
Downbelow Station - CJ Cherryh
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
The Helliconia Trilogy - Brian Aldiss
Blood Music - Greg Bear
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Through Darkest America - Neal Barrett Jr
Cyteen - CJ Cherryh
Islands in the Net - Bruce Sterling
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
The Uplift War - David Brin
Queen of Angels - Greg Bear
The Difference Engine - Bruce Sterling & William Gibson
Take Back Plenty - Colin Greenland
Sarah Canary - Karen Joy Fowler
Stations of the Tide - Michael Swanwick
Steel Beach - John Varley
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robonson
White Queen - Gwyneth Jones
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
Coelestis - Paul Park
Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
Beggars in Spain - Nancy Kress
The Broken God - David Zindell
Somewhere East of Life - Brian Aldiss
Brittle Innings - Michael Bishop
The Ultimate Egoist - Theodore Sturgeon
Feersum Endjinn - Iain M Banks

I wonder if the gap after Neuromancer co-incides with my leaving university or my getting back into Doctor Who?

Go on, have a go...

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