From Sci-Fi Lists, here's the Top 100 Sci-Fi Books of all time. See if you agree with the top 10 picks:
1. Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)
2. Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game (1985)
3. Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951)
4. Douglas Adams: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
5. George Orwell: 1984 (1949)
6. Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
7. Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)
8. Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (1954)
9. William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)
10. Robert A Heinlein: Starship Troopers (1959)
Which is to say, I agree with it.
Sorry, I have a degree in this shit, and it tends to rankle.
Which is to say, I agree with some of it, disagree with some of the rest.
But The gods themselves, lucifer's hammer and red mars shouldn't have made the list, and good books like The Kraken Wakes, The rest of the rama series and 2061: Oddysey 2 are missing.
I'm surprised Consider Phlebas isn't on there either, I prefer it to use of weapons and player of games.
Poor Stephen Baxter gets left out entirely, there's no Sunstorm, no Light of Other Days, no Raft.
here you can check my sci-fi collection:
http://www.inblinks.com/content/blogcategory/1/5/
Just click on the show, choose your episode, lean back and enjoy
I need to read more Philip K. Dick. Except that VALIS was such a waste of time.
/Diamond Age NEEDS to be moved up about 59 places! One of the best BOOKS I've ever read, including everything, not just Sci-Fi.
Robert Heinlein - a classic, but too full of himself. Stranger in a Strange Land sucked big time. The worst of his novels.
I'm surprised Arthur C Clarke isn't Top Ten. H.G. Wells not in the Top Ten? Who decided this list, anyways?
You just can't beat the older classics, and, sorry, most of them were written by men. Even when women started to really break into it, they started more with fantasy, didn't they?
First of all, Mary Shelly wrote one of the first science fiction novels. Frankenstein was not exactly fantasy, and it's taught in most college-level science fiction course I know of... Also, women started into SF a good bit earlier than you give them credit for, and they didn't "just start in fantasy." I suggest you look up Octavia Butler, James Tiptree Jr, Joanna Russ, C.L. Moore and Judith Merril before shooting your mouth off...
The list is not just "the classics," and it includes a good number of books that have had little to no influence in the genre. I don't know why all of Neal Stephenson's books seem to be included, while nothing of Nalo Hopkinson's or JG Ballard's show up... Like I said in my previous comment, it seems to be a popularity contest more than a "best of" list. If I were to put such a list together, I would look at who's influenced changes and trends in the genre, who's being researched the most and why. In short, it wouldn't be a list of who's had movies made out of their books...
Like I said, I have a degree in this crap.
For example :
Arthur C Clarke - 2001
Herbert - Dune
Philip K D!CK, Heinlein, etc
NB: all of which deserve to be represented.
People voting from a long list of great Sci Fi are just going to pick the 10 they have maybe actually heard of little though read.
And if the great female Sci Fi writers are not part of the choice in voting then there is no surprise that they are not represented.
I like the list for its broad appeal, however it is as silky points out a poularity contest, and not a literary merit based list.
Obviously more Hugo etc award winning authors and works are going to appear merely for the fact they are more widespreadly known and for having won the award in the first place.
Earlier works may not be represented as much either because they are not currently fashionable or in print recently, perhaps the newer generation are fresher in peoples minds.
Just my thoughts...
Dude, I think ted was the only one who knocked Dune here, and he referenced the movie, so... yeah. No one's really saying Herbert is overrated. It's just ted. He barks sometimes.