Thursday, February 28, 2008

20 Science Fiction Novels that will change your life

From IO9:

Whether it's because they've altered the course of science fiction writing, or simply provide a genuinely alien perspective on ordinary life, these are novels that will rearrange how you think. Check out our list below.

Frankenstein (1818), by Mary Shelley

The Time Machine (1895), by H.G. Wells

At the Mountains of Madness (1931), by H.P. Lovecraft

I, Robot (1955), by Isaac Asimov

The Dispossessed (1974), by Ursula LeGuin

Kindred (1979), by Octavia Butler

Wizard (1979), by John Varley

Consider Phlebas (1987), by Iain M. Banks

He, She, and It (1991), by Marge Piercy

Sarah Canary (1991), by Karen Joy Fowler

A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), by Vernor Vinge

The Bohr Maker (1995), by Linda Nagata

The Sparrow (1996), by Mary Doria Russell

Cryptonomicon (2000), by Neal Stephenson

The Mount (2002), by Carol Emschwiller

Perdido Street Station (2002), by China Mieville

Pattern Recognition (2003), by William Gibson

Newton's Wake (2004), by Ken MacLeod

Glasshouse (2006), by Charles Stross


Click here for a synopsis of each book

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Off the top of my head, quickly, I would have included (in my own list):

Foundation (Asimov)
Martian Chronicles (Bradbury)
The Boat of a Million Years (Poul Anderson)
Forever War (Haldeman)
The City and the Stars (Clarke)

Paul, what say you?

Also, I'd be interested (perhaps in a future separate blog entry) to list favourite short storties and novellas...

Anonymous said...

I will do that Shaun, we get a couple more people weighing in and I will split it off.
For Me? Pretty close to you.
Foundation....(that wasnt in the original list? whats up with that?
Martian Chronicles (for sure, would even add The Illustrated Man but thats a hard call for SciFi.
Tau Zero, Brian Aldiss
Cities in Flight James Blish
Forever War Jack Haldeman
DUNE Frank Herbert
Dalegren Samuel R. Delaney
Now yes, some of my favorites...but these novels changed how I thought about Science Fiction