Top Ten Science Fiction Books of All Time

[FitzChivalry]

Well, it usually takes time for one to see if new works are ready to be put on that kind of list, I wouldn't put any film after the eighties on my top ten list through all the times just because overall there are very few that has even a chance that I have seen. With time though, word might spread and the good might come through the debris.

I think 20 years are a lot of time, if you really stopped reading SF 20 years ago, what are you doing blogging about it?

[JunkMonkey]

War of the worlds? Did you mean the original written in like 1930?

I tried reading this and it was the most boring book i have EVER read.

Not enough pictures to colour in I suspect.

[tantric]

A Billion Days of Earth by Doris Piserchia

Wow. I had no idea anyone else admired this book as much as me.

• Dune
  Hyperion
  Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood
  Sherri Tepper's Raising the Stones
  A Billion Days of Earth
  Pliocene Exile - Julian May
  The Dispossessed - LeGuin
  War Against the Chtorr - David Gerrold
  Lord of Light - Zelazny
  Culture Novels - Iain Banks

[Patrick Sanders]

Off the top of me head-

Dune
The Stars My Destination
The Man in the High Castle
The Book of the New Sun
The Demolished Man
The Martian Chronicles
Martian Time Slip
The Left Hand of Darkness
Fahrenheit 451
The Diamond Age

[nquixote]

How about:

A Deepness in the Sky
Falling Free
The Dispossessed
Startide Rising
Hyperion
I, Robot
Anathem
Neuromancer
Mirror Dance
1984

[Ropie]

Wow. I had no idea anyone else admired this book as much as me.

It sounds interesting and thanks to your enthusiasm, I just bought myself a copy

[owlcroft]

Doris Piserchia produced a spate of quirky, original, and usually good to excellent books, over a relatively short span ("thirteen novels and nearly a score of short stories between 1966 and 1983", from what it says is her official web site), then stopped writing.

A Billion Days of Earth is doubtless her best, but all deserve reading; other notable titles are Earthchild, Doomtime, and her first, Mr. Justice (which ends a little strangely because her editor changed length requirements mid-stream).

[Jeroen]

Of what I have read so far...

Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun (Im always in doubt whether I should call this fantasy or science fiction. Some people call it science fantasy, others have classified this book as science fiction disguised as fantasy. But let me not start the SF/F debate, hehehe)
George Orwell - 1984
Olaf Stapledon - Last and First Men & Star Maker (the Silmarillion of science fiction)
Walter M. Miller - A Canticle For Leibowitz (I was really impressed with this one. This guy can write.)
Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. You love it or you dont. I think Doug is a genius with very intelligent silly humour.
Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination Very energetic
Frank Herbert - Dune
Italo Calvino - Cosmicomics :-)
Arthur C. Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama Ultimate book that glorifies journeys of discovery.
Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles

honorable mentions:

Isaac Asimov - The Foundation Trilogy
Ursula K LeGuin - The Left hand of darkness
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
Dan Simmons - Hyperion

There are lots of books I havent read yet

edit: maybe Charles Stross - Accelerando might sneak into this list, but im not sure yet

[cgw]

Dune-Herbert
Lord of Light - Zelazny
This Immortal - Zelazny
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vinge
Hyperion - Simmons
Ender's Game - Card
Startide Rising - Brin
Foundation Trilogy -Asimov
Mirror Dance - Bujold
Ringworld - Niven

Comments:
Stranger in a Strange Land - I read it so long ago that I do not remember it well. My opinion of Heinlein is based positively on Moon iaHM and Double Star and negatively by Starship Troopers and the beginning of Friday.
The Time Machine & War of the Worlds , 1984 - Read too long ago in grade school. To me almost a different genre.
Flowers for Algernon – did not read
Fahrenheit 451 – did not read, I should correct this over sight
2001: A Space Odyssey – did not read. The Fountains of Paradise and Rendezvous are good.
I – Robot – I like Asimov’s foundation and empire stuff but not the robot stuff

Over rated? - When you (whom ever is saying over rated) say over rated, what do you mean? For example if Dune is over rated does that mean that instead of being the best scifi book it is only the second best?

[cgw]

This guy seems to have stopped reading SF around 1991, his list is pretty irrelevant.

So what published after 1991 belongs on the list?
(I have a couple so let's say - So what published after 1994 belongs on the list?)

[FitzChivalry]

So what published after 1991 belongs on the list?
(I have a couple so let's say - So what published after 1994 belongs on the list?)

I'd add (post 1991 books):
David Brin - Heaven's Reach
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
Peter F. Hamilton - The Naked God
M. John Harrison - Light
Dan Simmons - The Rise of Endymion or Endymion
Robert Charles Wilson - Spin
C.S. Friedman - This Alien Shore

Just from the top of my head


I'd leave on the list: The Foundation Trilogy, Ender's Game and Flowers for Algernon


It's not really my top 10, i'd have to think a lot harder for that, just some suggestions from the 90s and 2000s

[cgw]

I'd add (post 1991 books):
David Brin - Heaven's Reach
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
Peter F. Hamilton - The Naked God
M. John Harrison - Light
Dan Simmons - The Rise of Endymion or Endymion
Robert Charles Wilson - Spin
C.S. Friedman - This Alien Shore

Of the above I have read Spin. It is pretty good but not close to knocking anything off my list. I wll check out the others.

[bearcatmark]

1A. Hyperion
1B. Ender's Game
1C. Speaker for the Dead
4. Dune
5. Use of Weapons
6. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
7. Illium
8. Brave New World
9. Consider Phlebas
10. The Rise of Endymion

[Werthead]

So what published after 1991 belongs on the list?
(I have a couple so let's say - So what published after 1994 belongs on the list?)

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton
Brightness Reef by David Brin
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle
Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks
Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds
River of Gods by Ian McDonald
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
Black Man by Richard Morgan
Brasyl by Ian McDonald
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I think that about covers it. My earlier point about Ender's Game and Hyperion being the most recent 'indisputable' SF classics is that they are the most recent books that seem to have entered the canon of great SF works and are regularly cited in books etc. A lot of things more recently than that are heavily disputed. However, I strongly suspect that River of Gods, Red Mars and The Road, at the very least, will be seen as canonically great SF works by future generations, whilst Black Man will remain contentious for as long.

[Randy M.]

In no particular order,

City by Clifford Simak
Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.
His Share of Glory by Cyril Kornbluth
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The Best of C. L. Moore
The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin
Star Light, Star Bright by Alfred Bester
The Nine Billion Names of God by Sir Arthur C. Clarke
The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith

Disclaimer: There are three that I'm still working on, but what I've read so far suggests they'd have to tail off badly for me to drop them.

Randy M.