important historical SF
POSTED BY: annik
UPDATED: Thursday, July 1, 2004 06:36
VIEWED: 10645
PAGE 2 of 5
I definitely consider A Canticle for Leibowitz to be a classic of the genre, need to read that again one of these days, if I didn't already have too many other books stacked up and waiting for me. The following list is not comprehensive by any means, but here are a few of my favorite classic SF novels, alphabetical by author only:
Earthworks by Brian W. Aldiss
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
A Case of Conscience by James Blish
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch
To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer
When Harlie Was One by David Gerrold
Everything by Robert A. Heinlein
Not This August by C. M. Kornbluth
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Heritage Universe by Charles Sheffield
Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree Jr.
Steel Beach by John Varley
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny
wo men ren ran zai fei xing.
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Ursula LeGuin The Lathe of Heaven
What happens when someone's dreams can become reality and someone else decides to use him to fix the world
Robert Heinlein The Door into Summer
Just because I like Petronius the Arbiter.
Harlan Ellison I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream A masterful storyteller.
Tanith Lee Kill the Dead
She said she was inspired by Avon from Blake's 7 and I was and am a fan of that show. Classic? Maybe not. Entertaining? Definitely.
Under non science fiction I'd put Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. Hard to get into (they're beyond dense with characters, history, language, dialogue) but I couldn't put them down once I was into them. I read one of them (all 575 pages) in one sitting.
I don't know if all these fall under the "before CD and CGI" but they're good reads. There are others, but those spring to mind.
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What happened to the original lead post on this thread, and the other replies that came before the one I posted not more than ten minutes ago?
Not gonna redo my list now since I gotta get to work.
wo men ren ran zai fei xing.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Gunhand:
(snipped)
I know before long someone will come in and say Azimov but to my great chagrin I have to admit I've never finished a book he's written. Just something about his writing style jars with my brain and I can't manage to get through them for the trying.
I agree with you here ... I can't get through his books at all, with the exception of his scientific essays ... those are nicely-explained for a non-scientist-type like myself. Many of his short stories are good, but I can't help wondering how much better many of these would have been with a little less items published and a little more time working on revisions and fine-tuning. Just MHO, of course.
Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.
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Not exactly old sf but somebody mentioned David Gerrold. His Star Wolf books are very cool military type SF, and his Chtorr books are totally cool.
He also wrote the most fascinating time travel story, it's called The Man Who Folded Himself, and since it's from the early 70's I guess that counts as old now. Dang.
I haven't read enough of the old stuff, Starship Troopers is a genre defining classic. I liked the movie, but for totally diferent reasons, Kinda like Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
I loved The Martian Chronicles. Bradburry's writting is beautiful and poetic. Really great stuff.
"And the Moon Be Still As Bright" 
"The cosmic baker took us out of the oven a little too early, and that's the reason we're as crazy as we are..."
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While someone did mention Starship Troopers, no one's mentioned Heinlein's future
history collection The Past Through Tomorrow or IMHO his greatest single work Time Enough for
Love.
Then there's the book that turned me into a confirmed sci-fi fan, Stranger in a Strange Land.
****************************************************
If history is remarkably clear on one point,
it's that people don't learn from history.
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Seems kinda obvious, but no one has mentioned the Dune books. I like the last three better than the first three. Especially God Emperor.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
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Quote:
Originally posted by thatweirdgirl:
Seems kinda obvious, but no one has mentioned the Dune books. I like the last three better than the first three. Especially God Emperor.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
Dune is great stuff, despite the weakness (and misogyny) of the second and third books.
Just about any Phillip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, or Issac Assimov is worth at least a look.
I would say of the stuff not mentioned yet here, George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails, Neil Stephenson's Snowcrash and of course The Hichhiker's Trilogy is never to be missed.
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One of the best is Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clark. I loved this book because it was so true to the science, right down to the Coriolis force that the astronauts experience.
And of course there is the Foundation series, a story that builds on Asimov’s notion of determination.
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Quote:
Originally posted by thatweirdgirl:
Seems kinda obvious, but no one has mentioned the Dune books. I like the last three better than the first three. Especially God Emperor.
www.thatweirdgirl.com
I enjoy the entire series very much ... except all the new prequels by Brian Herbert (a decent writer but stylistically very different than his father) and Kevin J. Anderson (a not-particularly-good-writer) ... it seems to me that if you're going to add to an existing epic you should take time to a) write in the same style as the original books and b) ensure you keep continuity with the existing stories.
Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.
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