[Kamakhya]

Lemming brought this up on the fantasy thread and I though it was good enough to bring here! Sorry, Lemming, I am an impatient sort. :)

So, like the SFBC list, how many have you read? Is there something missing? Do any novels not belong on the list? What do you think of this list?

Pringle's List (http://http://www.strangewords.com/weirdbooks/scifi100.html)

Kamakhya

P.S.: How do you post a link with a neat title instead of the lengthy web address?

[Kamakhya]

Wow, what an eclectic list! :)

I've only read 34 and may have read an additional 7. I know of the vast majority and many are on my to read pile.

It is an interesting list as it does not contain many of the "classics," rather he seems to like some more obscure fiction. My dad's favorite author (aside from H.G. :) ) is J.G. Ballard and I noticed that he had multiple listings on this list. I am not overly familiar with him.

This does not seem like a list for everyone, but there are some mighty fine books listed and I think I will make it a point to seek many of them out!

Kamakhya

[Llama]

I once made it a point to read every book on that list and did, with the exception of Broderick's book, which I have lying around somewhere, and of Wilhelm's JUNIPER TIME. Guess it was time I finished them off....

[alan empty]

Only 24. More than on the Fantasy list, but not as many as I would have expected. I'm hoping that I would do better on a post-84 list.

I hadn't even heard of many of them which was a bit of a shock as well. I thought I was better informed that that :mad:

Llama, you've read 98 of them? Your mind must work differently to mine - if I'd made it through that many I'd HAVE to finish the list! Get to it.

[Mamb]

Kamakhya: To get text for a link, you click on the "http://" button on the left hand side of the toolbar (near Bold, etc) and it prompts you to type in your custom text. When you have done this, click OK and the type in the URL in the next box that appears.

[lemming]

Righty... so here's a new link if anyone had trouble clicking that one:

Pringle's Best 100 SF Books (http://www.strangewords.com/weirdbooks/scifi100.html)

No problem bringing it up over here Kamakhya... :) ... and the answer is... only 21 for me. A couple of the rest are on my list (like Day of the Triffids, now that I find John Wyndham to be so charming, and Tau Zero for the end-of-the-universe stuff).

I do have to wonder what Crash by J.G. Ballard is doing there. That wasn't SF at all, it was more like porn, and rather nasty porn at that. The single idea in the book was that car crashes could be fetishized... and that single idea got old for me fairly early in the book. :b On the other hand, some of his other novels sound like they might actually be good. Anyone have an opinion on him?

[Rob B]

Sheesh, I'm embarrassed. I've read only 11 (and mostly the Dick books) of these books. A number of them I've been hunting for in used bookshops for a while with no luck.

[lemming]

I recommend bookfinder.com (http://www.bookfinder.com) for that kind of problem... I've found some very obscure stuff that way. :)

[Hemingway]

Slightly more than the fantasy list surprisingly (fantasy 22) (sci-fi 26). More of Farmer should be up there...way more! I agree with the Bradbury choices, especially Martian Chronicles. Ive read all of Heinlein's books so that catapulted my number of read books a bit. One of the books up there that is very underrated is The Paradox Men by Charles Harness, awesome book!

Ring Around the Sun by Clifford Simak is also pretty incredible. Of course Neuromancer is one of the best sf books of all time. Clockwork Orange is really good. Everything Philip Dick writes is great.

Now to the gripes- Tau Zero doesn't deserve to be up there, or even near the 1000 best, and Frederik Pohl's Man Plus isn't anything to write home about.

[Rumfuddle]

Well, only 18.
But some so intensely tbr you wonder if that might count :D There were a few I'd never even heard of like John Calvin Batchelor (Great name, very suggestive) or Marge Piercy.

Polemic: What the h* is Pohl's Man Plus doing in there instead of Gateway? What sort of critical criterion is that?