Man, it seems like forever since I’ve run across a good meme — I suspect that they were probably just another Internet fad that’s now largely run its course. Still, that doesn’t mean we won’t run across one from time to time, right? Courtesy of Lou Anders, here’s one based on the the Science Fiction Book Club’s list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels published between 1953 and 2002.
Like other book-related memes I’ve done before, the idea here is to indicate which ones you’ve read and what you thought of them, to demonstrate your erudition and good taste, no doubt. Or your lack thereof. Or to at least give you something to do on the boring work-day before a long holiday weekend. Here we go:
First, The Key:
Bold the ones you’ve read.
Strike out the ones you hated.
Italicize those you started but never finished.
Put an asterisk (*) beside the ones you loved.
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. *The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. *The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. *Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. *Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. *Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
Some observations:
I’ve read fewer of these than I would’ve imagined, only 17 of the 50, although, curiously, I own quite a few more of them that I have just never gotten around to reading. Also, many of the titles I haven’t read and don’t own are on my “need-to-read-one-of-these-days” list, for whatever that’s worth.
Of the titles I have read, most of them were so long ago that I no longer clearly remember them, which made the “love-hate” tagging a bit difficult. I can’t recall actually hating any of these books, although I do remember that Gibson’s Neuromancer, which I read back in college sometime, didn’t do much for me. I didn’t despise it, but it — and indeed, all of the cyberpunk sub-genre that was so trendy at the time — just wasn’t my cup of tea.
Of the five books I clearly remember loving, I can see no common theme: two military SFers (Starship Troopers and The Forever War, which is a kind of repudiation to Troopers), a Gothic character study (Interview with the Vampire), a “hard SF” adventure (Ringworld), and a rollicking parody of space opera (The Hitchhiker’s Guide). Guess my tastes are pretty eclectic, eh?
One final thought: in considering this list, I realized that I don’t read much SF&F anymore, at least not the way I used to. There was a time when I wouldn’t crack a cover that didn’t have a starship or a muscle-bound barbarian on the cover, but that time has long since passed, it seems. With only a couple of exceptions (John Scalzi and my wonderful discovery for this year, Chris Roberson), I don’t even know who’s current in the SF&F scene anymore. That makes me sad in a way, but probably not the way you would expect. I find I don’t miss the actual science fiction literature all that much — there are so many wonderful things to read out there that turning away from any one genre hardly leaves one feeling deprived. However, I do miss being able to identity myself as a reader of science fiction. That used to be a big part of how I saw myself; I had a favorite area in the library or the bookstore, a preferred genre, a community of fellow fans if I chose to interact with them. I don’t feel that sense of connectedness anymore, and I define myself as having lots of disparate interests instead of one narrow focus. These days, you might find me in any corner of the bookstore, and sometimes it hits me that I haven’t been over by the SF&F in months, and that realization brings with it some really weird feelings.
My horizons have broadened, yes, but at the cost of losing the comforting, familiar trappings of my childhood and adolescence. No, that’s not quite right. I didn’t lose them. I chose to put them aside. And most of the time, I don’t think about them, don’t miss them. And I feel sort of bad about that.
But then, I guess that’s life, isn’t it?
