No doubt my teenage self would be surprised and disappointed to learn this, but the truth is I don’t read a lot of science fiction anymore, and even when I did, my interests tended toward the less-respectible, less-than-serious stuff: movie tie-ins, old pulp heroes like Doc Savage and John Carter, and space opera. So-called “hard” SF or the tomes with literary and/or philosophical aspirations rarely caught my interest. Which means I’m usually at something of a disadvantage when I’m confronted by those lists of the Great Works that occasionally circulate, because I just haven’t read many of the Great Works. Even so, I always feel the compulsion to throw in my two cents anyway because, you know… they’re lists. And lists, by their very existence, demand that you comment on them, because they’re inevitably just some other person’s ideas of what constitutes greatness, and we all know that mileage varies. Especially when you’re contrary by nature, as I tend to be.

Anyhow, here’s one such list of 100 SF books that everyone supposedly needs to read, discovered and meme-ized by the always-reliable Jaquandor. Following his lead, I shall bold the titles I’ve read, italicize those I own but haven’t gotten around to reading, and color red the ones I do not own but hope to read one of these days. I’ve also added a twist by striking out the handful of titles that I know I never want to read. And of course, there will be commentary. So… onward!

1. The Postman – David Brin
   (I never saw the reviled Kevin Costner film, but I hear many good things about its source material.)
2. The Uplift War – David Brin
3. Neuromancer – William Gibson
   (I reacted rather violently against this book when I first read it back in college. I found its dystopian setting and focus on computers and hacking and weird brain implants and virtual spaces downright repellent, and more than a little confusing, to be honest. Now that cyberpunk tropes and ideas have become more-or-less mainstream, however, I would like to try this seminal novel again sometime.)
4. Foundation – Isaac Asimov
5. Foundation and Empire – Isaac Asimov
6. Second Foundation – Isaac Asimov
7. I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
   (Fond memories of this one — my mother bought me a paperback copy of I, Robot one day when I was home from school, sick. She figured I’d like it because it was about robots, and she knew I loved Artoo and Threepio in Star Wars. Needless to say, Asimov’s robots weren’t much like Artoo and Threepio, but I did enjoy the book. And yes, I still have it…)
8. The Long Tomorrow – Leigh Brackett
9. Rogue Moon – Algis Budrys
10. The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
    (I’ve owned a copy of this since the fifth grade — it was my freebie selection from the RIF book fair, as I recall. I think I’ve read it, but it was so long ago I no longer remember, so I’m putting it in the “own but need to read” category.)
11. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
12. Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
13. Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke
14. The City and the Stars – Arthur C. Clarke
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
    (I had to read 2001 to try and figure out what the hell happened at the end of the movie.)
16. Armor – John Steakley
17. Imperial Stars – E. E. Smith
18. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
19. Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
20. Speaker for the Dead – Orson Scott Card
21. Dune – Frank Herbert
22. The Dosadi Experiment – Frank Herbert
23. Journey Beyond Tomorrow – Robert Sheckley
24. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
25. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
26. Valis – Philip K. Dick
27. A Scanner Darkly – Philip K. Dick
28. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch – Philip K. Dick
29. 1984 – George Orwell
30. Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
31. Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
32. The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells
33. The Time Machine – H. G. Wells
34. The Island of Doctor Moreau – H. G. Wells
35. The Invisible Man – H. G. Wells
36. A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller, Jr.
37. Alas, Babylon – Pat Frank
38. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
39. A Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne
40. From the Earth to the Moon – Jules Verne
41. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
    (I seem to be fairly well-versed in the progenitors of the genre, at least, i.e., Verne and Wells.)
42. Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
    (I really enjoyed this one and its sequels, but it seems a little too recent to be on a list like this. It’s only five years old. I don’t know, though. Perhaps there are those who consider it an instant classic.)
43. Nova Express – William S. Burroughs
44. Ringworld – Larry Niven
45. The Mote in God’s Eye – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
    (I really grooved on Niven at one point in my life — late high school/early college — and I’d like to re-read his stuff, but I’m half afraid it wouldn’t work for me any longer.)
46. The Unreasoning Mask – Philip Jose Farmer
47. To Your Scattered Bodies Go – Philip Jose Farmer
    (I picked this one up at a library sale for a quarter, entirely because I saw on the first page that its protagonist is none other than Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, the real-life Victorian adventurer and explorer who has fascinated me since my early twenties. I really need to get this onto the “read soon” stack.)
48. Eon – Greg Bear
49. Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
50. The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
    (Crichton. Man. I used to be a tireless defender of him, because I found his books both immensely entertaining and thought-provoking. Then things changed. And now… well, I enjoyed these books in their time. Let’s put it like that. I won’t be re-reading them. I can’t think of any other author I’ve had such a complete — and visceral — change of heart about.)
51. Lightning – Dean Koontz
52. The Stainless Steel Rat – Harry Harrison
    (I read this in middle school, as well as several of its sequels, and thought they were all delightful. I they probably haven’t held up very well, though.)
53. The Fifth Head of Cerebus – Gene Wolfe
54. Nightside of the Long Sun – Gene Wolfe
55. A Princess of Mars – Edgar Rice Burroughs
56. Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson
57. Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
58. The Stars My Destination – Alfred Bester
59. Solaris – Stanislaw Lem
    (Baffling book. I never could make heads or tales of what was happening in it.)
60. Doomsday Book – Connie Wills
61. Beserker – Fred Saberhagen
62. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
63. The Word for World is Forest – Ursula K. LeGuin
64. The Dispossessed – Ursula K. LeGuin
    (Weird. I’ve always understood the must-read LeGuin book was The Lathe of Heaven. I’ve heard of The Dispossessed, at least, but that other one? Complete mystery…)
65. Babel-17 – Samuel R. Delany
66. Dhalgren – Samuel R. Delany
67. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
68. The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
69. Star King – Jack Vance
70. The Killing Machine – Jack Vance
71. Trullion: Alastor 2262 – Jack Vance
72. Hyperion – Dan Simmons
73. Starship Troopers – Robert A. Heinlein
74. Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein
75. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
    (I’ve long been a fan of Heinlein’s “juveniles” — of which, Starship Troopers is the last, marking the transition point into the next phase of his writing –- as well as his early “future history” short stories and novellas, but I’ve never gotten around to his later, longer, and by all accounts weirder stuff. One of these days…)
76. A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
    (A childhood classic that I revisited a few years ago. My thoughts on that occasion are here.)
77. More Than Human – Theodore Sturgeon
78. A Time of Changes – Robert Silverberg
79. Gateway – Frederick Pohl
80. Man Plus – Frederick Pohl
81. The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
82. Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement
83. The Execution Channel – Ken Macleod
84. Last and First Men – W. Olaf Stapledon
85. Slan – A. E. van Vogt
86. Out of the Silent Planet – C. S. Lewis
87. They Shall Have Stars – James Blish
88. Marooned in Realtime – Vernor Vinge
89. A Fire Upon the Deep – Vernor Vinge
90. The People Maker – Damon Knight
91. The Giver – Lois Lowry
92. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
93. Contact – Carl Sagan
94. Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
95. The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand
    (Okay, here’s a pair of novels I have zero interest in reading. Everything I’ve heard about Rand and her philosophy — which I understand is basically “I got mine, screw you” — suggests that I wouldn’t be able to get through one of her books without hurling it across the room. My blood pressure is already too high because of my job, I don’t need to add to it.)
96. Battlefield Earth – L. Ron Hubbard
    (And again, I’ve heard too much about Hubbard’s “religion” to have any interest in his fiction.)
97. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court – Mark Twain
98. Little Brother – Cory Doctorow
    (Like Old Man’s War, this is too recent to rank alongside something like Dune or Foundation as one of the “must-reads,” but it’s supposed to be really good, and I’ve enjoyed Doctorow’s writing on Boing Boing.)
99. Invasion of the Body Snatchers – Jack Finney
100. Planet of the Apes – Pierre Boulle
     (You know… this may be blasphemy in some eyes, but I think I prefer the movie version to Boulle’s novel. The 1968 Charlton Heston movie, I mean, not Tim Burton’s abysmal remake, which was somewhat closer to the novel, but still a mess.)

And there you have it. A curious list, really… I’ll confess I haven’t even heard of many of the titles. But as I said, I’ve been out of the genre for a while, and anyway this is all just some guy’s opinion…