Thursday, January 31, 2013

50 Essential Sci-Fi Books (most of which I haven't read)

Sarah posted this list of the 50 Essential Science Fiction Books as decided by Richard Davis over at AbeBooks. I love lists so OF COURSE I decided to post the list here and see how I did. Not well, is the answer, but here we go anyway. Bolded titles are the ones I've read
  1. A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
  2. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
  3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  4. When Worlds Collide by Edwin Balmer
  5. Odd John by Olaf Stapledon
  6. 1984 by George Orwell
  7. Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
  8. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
  9. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
  10. The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
  11. Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak
  12. Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
  13. The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
  14. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
  15. The Death of Grass (or No Blade of Grass) by John Christopher
  16. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
  17. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
  18. Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
  19. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
  20. Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon
  21. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
  22. The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
  23. Hothouse by Brian Aldiss
  24. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
  25. Dune by Frank Herbert 
  26. Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison
  27. Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan
  28. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
  29. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
  30. Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
  31. Ringworld by Larry Niven
  32. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
  33. Roadside Picnic / Tale of the Troika by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky
  34. The Female Man by Joanna Russ
  35. Man Plus by Frederik Pohl
  36. The Stand by Stephen King
  37. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  38. Nor Crystal Tears by Alan Dean Foster
  39. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  40. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
  41. Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
  42. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
  43. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
  44. Ribofunk by Paul Di Filippo
  45. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
  46. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
  47. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
  48. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
  49. Acme Novelty Library #19 by Chris Ware
  50. Embassytown by China Mieville
So 6 out of 50 (I must have miscounted before when I commented on Sarah's post). I'm surprised it's so low given I did take an entire class on Sci-Fi lit in college. But I suppose that focus was more on short stories. There are a few on here I've wantched to check out for awhile (Do Androids Dream) but I honestly haven't even heard of a lot of the titles on here.