I just stumbled across a list of 20 Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life on the io9 blog. While I haven’t read all the books there are some great choices there and I thought I should share it with my readers as well. Whether you agree or not, this is an interesting list;
- 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
- Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003), by Cory Doctorow
- Pattern Recognition (2003), by William Gibson
- Newton’s Wake (2004), by Ken MacLeod
- Glasshouse (2006), by Charles Stross
For those of you not familiar with io9, it’s a blog part of the gawker network that focuses on the subjects of science fiction, futurism and advancements in the fields of science and technology.
Hey Chazz (it’s me in my alter ego)
I don’t know that I agree with all their choices. It’s an interesting list, but it’s heavily focused on really recent fiction. There’s some great older stuff, too. And where is Arthur C. Clarke? Samuel Delaney? Ben Bova? I can’t believe “A Canticle for Liebowitz” didn’t make their cut. They had a great list a long time ago that mentioned a French sci-fi novel from the 1950s, and I haven’t been able to remember the name of it or find the list again, but apparently it was a real game-changer in the field. I guess any list like this is going to be highly subjective, I mean for god’s sake, where is Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy? Oh well, it’s always fun to see these things. I like io9, very good site.
Hi Chazz,
I joined Stumbleupon on your recommendation and came across this site http://www.readprint.com/ that has thousands of classics online. I thought of you.
Best Regards,
Tammi
I hope stumble will help you increase traffic like it has for me. That site reminds me a lot of Project Gutenberg
I know who you are DD,
I don’t think I would agree with the list either but I did think it might of sparked some interesting conversations.
Yes, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, should of at least made the list. I’m surprised none of the following made it too;