The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

I ran across this compilation of classic science fiction books and thought I'd share it with the group. This particular listing is sorted by year of publication.

http://classics.jameswallaceharris.co...

I was cleaning up some old files & ran across this list of the "Top 100 SF Audio Books". I'm not sure where it came from or how old it is. The first 25 don't contain publication dates & it also only contains 99 books, still I find it interesting.

01 - Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
02 - Frank Herbert - Dune
03 - Isaac Asimov - Foundation
04 - Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
05 - George Orwell - 1984
06 - Robert A Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land
07 - Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
08 - Arthur C Clarke - 2001 - A Space Odyssey
09 - Isaac Asimov - I, Robot
10 - Robert A Heinlein - Starship Troopers
11 - Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
12 - William Gibson - Neuromancer
13 - Larry Niven - Ringworld
14 - Arthur C Clarke - Rendezvous With Rama
15 - Dan Simmons - Hyperion
16 - H G Wells - The Time Machine
17 - Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
18 - Arthur C Clarke - Childhood's End
19 - H G Wells - The War of the Worlds
20 - Robert A Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
21 - Joe Haldeman - The Forever War
22 - Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles
23 - Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five
24 - Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
25 - Ursula K Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
26 - The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K Le Guin - 1969
27 - Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card - 1986
28 - Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton - 1990
29 - The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick - 1962
30 - The Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov - 1954
31 - The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester - 1956
32 - Gateway - Frederik Pohl - 1977
33 - Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny - 1967
34 - Solaris - Lem Stanislaw - 1961
35 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne - 1870
36 - A Wrinkle in Time - Madelein L'Engle - 1962
37 - Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut - 1963
38 - Contact - Carl Sagan - 1985
39 - The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton - 1969
40 - The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov - 1972
41 - A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge - 1991
42 - Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson - 1999
43 - The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham - 1951
44 - UBIK - Philip K Dick - 1969
45 - Time Enough For Love - Robert A Heinlein - 1973
46 - A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess - 1962
47 - Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson - 1992
48 - Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
49 - A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller - 1959
50 - The End of Eternity - Isaac Asimov - 1955
51 - Battlefield Earth - L Ron Hubbard - 1982
52 - Frankenstein - Mary Shelley - 1818
53 - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne - 1864
54 - The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin - 1974
55 - The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson - 1995
56 - The Player of Games - Iain M Banks - 1988
57 - The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F Hamilton - 1996
58 - Startide Rising - David Brin - 1983
59 - The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut - 1959
60 - Eon - Greg Bear - 1985
61 - Ender's Shadow - Orson Scott Card - 1999
62 - To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Philip Jose Farmer - 1971
63 - A Scanner Darkly - Philip K Dick - 1977
64 - Lucifer's Hammer - Niven & Pournell - 1977
65 - The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - 1985
66 - The City and the Stars - Arthur C Clark - 1956
67 - The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison - 1961
68 - The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester - 1953
69 - The Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe - 1980
70 - Sphere - Michael Crichton - 1987
71 - The Door Into Summer - Robert A Heinlein - 1957
72 - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K Dick - 1964
73 - Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds - 2000
74 - Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert A Heinlein - 1957
75 - Doomsday Book - Connie Willis - 1992
76 - Ilium - Dan Simmons - 2003
77 - The Invisible Man - H G Wells - 1897
78 - Have Space-Suit Will Travel - Robert A Heinlein - 1958
79 - The Puppet Masters - Robert A Heinlein - 1951
80 - Out of the Silent Planet - C S Lewis - 1938
81 - A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs - 1912
82 - The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K Le Guin - 1971
83 - Use of Weapons - Iain M Banks - 1990
84 - The Chrysalids - John Wyndham - 1955
85 - Way Station - Clifford Simak - 1963
86 - Flatland - Edwin A Abbott - 1884
87 - Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan - 2002
88 - Old Man's War - John Scalzi - 2005
90 - The Road - Cormac McCarthy - 2006
91 - The Postman - David Brin - 1985
93 - VALIS - Philip K Dick - 1981
96 - The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle - 1912
97 - The Many-Colored Land - Julian May - 1981
98 - Gray Lensman - E E 'Doc' Smith - 1940
99 - The Uplift War - David Brin - 1987

Thanks Buck and Jim. This has helped me to find something to nominate this month!

Regardless of when, why or where it came from, it's a good list.

It is a good list. A long-time fan of science fiction will have read, or heard, most of them.

Jim wrote: "I was cleaning up some old files & ran across this list of the "Top 100 SF Audio Books". I'm not sure where it came from or how old it is. The first 25 don't contain publication dates & it also onl..."


The majority of these titles are in New York Public Library Overdrive! Scott Brick, Stefan rudnicky, Simon vance, etc narrates them. :)

It is good. Kind of bothers me that it's been kicking around in my files for so long & I didn't know about it. Glad to turn everyone on to it.

Whoops, 98 titles? I just noticed:
25 - Ursula K Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness
26 - The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K Le Guin - 1969

I'm familiar with almost all of them, read most, & listened to about a third, I guess.

#31 on the list is The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. I gave it 4 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It was a blast from the past in many ways, but pretty amazing & even inspiring. I don't remember many older books with such a nasty main character.

Agreed. That, the complex unlikable character, Gulliver Foyle, in that novel, is why it deserved that Hugo. We don't like him. He is not a nice guy. But shit man, they abandoned him in space! And Bester creates such a wild 'yarn' based on this idea. It is an absolute masterpiece of the genre.
My review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I agree with you both, Foyle is such an unlikeable character it almost makes it difficult to read. I can't think of many novels with an anti-hero but I guess to make it work you really have to write really well else people will just stop reading.

Looking at your list in more detail, i've been meaning to read Flatland for ages. I don't think i've ever thought of it as sci-fi. If I don't read it before I will be nominating that when we go back to early sci-fi!

Great lists.

I should have posted this here since it is #34 on the list. Solaris by Stanisław Lem is supposed to be one of the classics of SF. I was underwhelmed & could only give it 2 stars in my review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Just for fun, I went through the list I posted in #2 & found there are only a couple of dozen that I'm not familiar with.

15 - Dan Simmons - Hyperion
24 - Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
38 - Contact - Carl Sagan - 1985
40 - The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov - 1972
41 - A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge - 1991
42 - Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson - 1999
44 - UBIK - Philip K Dick - 1969
47 - Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson - 1992
50 - The End of Eternity - Isaac Asimov - 1955
54 - The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin - 1974
55 - The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson - 1995
56 - The Player of Games - Iain M Banks - 1988
57 - The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F Hamilton - 1996
58 - Startide Rising - David Brin - 1983
60 - Eon - Greg Bear - 1985
65 - The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - 1985
69 - The Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe - 1980
70 - Sphere - Michael Crichton - 1987
72 - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K Dick - 1964
73 - Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds - 2000
75 - Doomsday Book - Connie Willis - 1992
76 - Ilium - Dan Simmons - 2003
83 - Use of Weapons - Iain M Banks - 1990
86 - Flatland - Edwin A Abbott - 1884
90 - The Road - Cormac McCarthy - 2006
93 - VALIS - Philip K Dick - 1981
97 - The Many-Colored Land - Julian May - 1981
99 - The Uplift War - David Brin - 1987

Of these, I may read half. I'm not a fan of some of the authors or their writing styles. I may give them & some I haven't read in a long time a try in audio format. That can make a difference.

Hyperion is ok, but anticlimactic - and the sequel is ridiculous.

Ubik, Flatlands and End if Eternity are all pretty good. I wasn't particularly fond of The Dispossessed though. Didn't think it was bad, but I didn't really like it (if that makes any sense).

I haven't read any of the others.

Jim wrote: "Just for fun, I went through the list I posted in #2 & found there are only a couple of dozen that I'm not familiar with.

15 - Dan Simmons - Hyperion
24 - Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
38 - Contac..."

I've read all but a dozen of these. I liked Hyperion, but I don;t think it's the best of the series of four.

The Doomsday book is perhaps the best Connie Willis I've read.

The gods Themselves, is not among Asimov's best, IMO. The End of Eternity is much better.

UBIK is pretty good, but I didn't like VALIS. I've read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, but it left no impression.

I think I tried reading Flatland & didn't care for it. I'm not particularly interested in any more Banks, LeGuin, or Phillip K. Dick. I may have read the Asimov, probably did, but it was so long ago that I can't bring it to mind, so it will likely be worth rereading. I've avoided McCarthy because I've read that he doesn't use proper punctuation or does stream-of-consciousness. Can't recall which, but I detest both.

Jim wrote: "I think I tried reading Flatland & didn't care for it. I'm not particularly interested in any more Banks, LeGuin, or Phillip K. Dick. I may have read the Asimov, probably did, but it was so long ag..."

I've read The Road and it's really good but it's so bleak, and I say that as someone who generally enjoys books with a dark outlook. I read the Many Coloured Land series many years ago and remember enjoying them but I think they are as much fantasy as sci-fi.

Jim wrote: "I've avoided McCarthy because I've read that he doesn't use proper punctuation or does stream-of-consciousness. Can't recall which, but I detest both.."

I also don't much care for those styles. I've read a couple of McCarthy books, Blood Meridian and The Road. I liked The Road better of the two. It doesn't contain the irksome styles you had been warned about. It's a rather dismal post-apocalyptic story, pretty well written. Blood Meridian isn't in the genre.

Thanks, Buck. I'll probably read "The Road" then. At least listen to it.

I have not read a lot of science fiction lately, but discover that I have read 27 titles from the list. I am a big John Wyndham fan, and have read a lot of Vonnegut. I didn't like The Sirens of Titan very much, but I loved Cat's Cradle. I have read all of the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books except one, which was a collection of short stories.
I recently reread 1984 and found it a daunting read because of its unrelenting dark tone. It is book that should be read by more people as a warning.

Rosemarie wrote: "I have not read a lot of science fiction lately, but discover that I have read 27 titles from the list...."

That's a pretty good number. IIRC, the only ERB Barsoom book that is short stories is John Carter of Mars. It's just 2 short stories & they were bundled into an 11th book. JC is on Jupiter & Saturn (Jasoom & Sasoom?). They were awful. Skip them. I was so excited when I found that book & so terribly disappointed in the quality. Save yourself the anguish.

Jim, I think I read about 5 pages and you are right, they were terrible.

They're especially bad coming right after Llana of Gathol which is possibly my favorite in the series.

20 OF THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS OF ALL TIME
by Caitlin Hobbs, Aug 10, 2022
https://bookriot.com/best-science-fic...

She starts off by defining what "Best SF" means:
The best science fiction books of all time — at least the ones on this list — are the ones that remain highly rated, are incredibly popular, or have made some sort of mark on the science fiction genre or its various sub-genres, even mainstream culture as a whole.

There are quite a few new books on this list including one from 2021, so I think she just picked out those she liked a lot. Still, there are some I agree with & might add to your reading list.

Jim wrote: "20 OF THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS OF ALL TIME."

An interesting list, not sure whether Japanese manga really fits there, but otherwise I agree with a lot of choices