Here's a kickass meme.

[katster]

again, stolen from Kevin Fox

The Science Fiction Book Club has come out with their list of The 50 Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1953-2002.

We'll contine like Kevin did, and mark them this way: books I've read and books I started:

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
   
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
    
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
    
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
    
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
    
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
    
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
    
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
    
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
    
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

I think I need to do more reading.

Comments

[chamelaeon.livejournal.com]

...oh, fuck dammit.

*adds most of those to The List*

[miggy.livejournal.com]

Well, damn. The only ones on that list I've actually finished are Farenheit 451, Dragonflight, Thomas Covenant, and Slaughterhouse-5. Looks like I need to go back and make myself finish some of those titles.

[miggy.livejournal.com]

Oops. And Hitchhiker's, of course.

[netdancer.livejournal.com]

I can't say often enough: Cordwainer Smith. Anything at all in his 'Rediscovery of Man/Instrumentality' universe. That's how we got turned on to 'sociological' SF.

[damienroc.livejournal.com]

Read: LotR, Colour of Magic, Dragonflight, Ender's Game, Gateway, Harry Potter, Ringworld, Snow Crash, and Starship Troopers.

Started: Foundation, Dune, Neuromancer, Wizard of Earthsea (god, that was a long time ago), Canticle for Liebowitz, Thomas Covenant, Hitchikers.

And I may have started Farenheit 451 and Stormbringer. I'm not really sure at this point.

It's kind of odd, but in a few cases, I'd argue that other books by some of the authors were much better. IMNSHO, The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring both are far better than Ringworld. And Dragonsdawn was probably the best Pern book I read (I've been rather out of date, though, so more recent ones may have topped it.)

However, in a discussion of general significance, "quality" (at least compared to other works the author has put out) probably isn't the primary concern.

And, at least regarding Gateway and the other Heechee books (if not Pohl overall) it is the best one.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Don't bother with some of the later Pern novels, she's just writing to pay the bills now, and obviously suffering from too strict deadlines. Last one of hers I read [Rebels of Pern] was half a book and some notes, and they damn well published it!
It stopped being good at "All the Wyers of Pern".

I am geek, fear me !

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Read them all, and the only one I didn't finish was Anne Rice [gah!] Not that I don't like vampires, I don't like Anne Rice. I can understand that YMMV but her style just sends me to sleep, or irritates me, depending on what she's doing.

Yes I do have a life btw, I just read fast and had a job requiring a large amount of time commuting on the bus. [well, that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it!]

[tangaroa.livejournal.com]

Finished: Stranger in a Strange Land, Fahrenheit 451, Ender's Game, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ringworld, Starship Troopers, the Sword of Shannara

Started: The Foundation Trilogy

Saw the Movie: Dune, Slaughterhouse 5, 2/3 of LotR


Thanks, that makes a nice to-do list.

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

I fell in love with Cordwainer Smith when I read "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" in the _Cats in Space_ antho. I have a complete collection of his short stories waiting for me to read it. I think that IS _The Rediscovery of Man_?

(pardon, am sleep-typing.)

For me, it was the rhythms of his language. I want to be him when I grow up and have those kinds of writing chops. :)

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

See my LJ; posted your meme there. with relevant or not so relevant notes. and I do agree with some of the comments about "What the heck were they thinking?" when they picked some of those books. specifically the read-once books. and _Cities in Flight_ -- I really didn't like it, as I was left wondering what the point was.

[lirazel.livejournal.com]

Err... the points of Cities in Flight were to 1)let James Blish sell a lot of individual stories to magazines like Analog and then issue them as a separate book, thus making a nice little pile of cash and 2)let James Blish rant like Asimov about Life, the Universe, and Everything--particularly the virtues of capitalism, risk-taking in business, and so on. At the end, if memory serves, the Alpha Male reboots the universe, discorporating in the process. The Virtuous (if slightly Ditzy) female reboots a different universe, where everything is Nice, but we don't get to see that, as it would obviously be Inferior.

No, I wasn't that cynical back then. I rather liked Cities in Flight. My memories of it, however, indicate that I've gotten older or something...

::makes note to do a review of the List herself, at home::

[zorbathut.livejournal.com]

I find it deeply amusing that "Lord of the Rings" is #1, but "The Silmarillion" is #41.

I mean, if it wasn't listed it might mean "well, we decided to refer to the entire series", but . . . they didn't.

They just thought "The Silmarillion" was only #41.

[phenyx.livejournal.com]

I would say that its significance suffers due to the fact that not that many people have read it. I've heard it compared to trying to read the Bible cover to cover. YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS OF ELVISH HISTORY!