Top Ten SF Novels - list 'em

[pokerfan]

Dune - Frank Herbert
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller
Ringworld - Larry Niven
Time Enough For Love - Robert A. Heinlein
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

1. You got my top 3 there- Asimov, Card, and Heinlein.

Good call :thumbsup:

[Swede]

2. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester will always be #1 for me.

Hmmm,this is harder than I thought. Here are some in no order.


Dan Simmons - Hyperion
Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep
H G Wells - The Time Machine

[mainegreen]

4. Oooh Hyperion

good call.

[pokerfan]

8. Brain farted Stars My Destination

needs to be in my top ten.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

32. Great book........

Gully Foyle is one of my favorite anti-heroes.

[Babel_17]

63. "I kill you filthy"

for forgetting him! lol, jk! :)

[mainegreen]

3. Wow. Hard question

Dune for sure
Heavy Planet (Hal Clement)
Foundation
Job: A comedy of justice (mildly sci-fi)
VALIS (philip k dick)
The Penultimate Truth (philip k dick)
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (duh)
The Perfect Storm (David Brinn. It was so timely when it came out. Not sure how it's aged)


and there are others, but I'm to lazy to go on.
Someone else I'm sure will cover most of the good ones!

[eppur_se_muova]

17. "Mission of Gravity" by Hal Clement, you mean ?? nt

[mainegreen]

33. Yes.

Sorry!
I have the bound edition that also has a second companion story. I always call it by the edition name.
D'oh!
"Mission of Gravity".
Love that story!

[deepthought42]

42. I second that duh!

Hello! Would YOU go hitchhiking around the galaxy w/o a towel!? I think not!

[RetroLounge]

5. Well, if you want any of them

see my sig line...

:hi:

RL

[Blue_In_AK]

6. I'm not a huge science fiction fan

but I loved "The Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula Leguin.

[Oeditpus Rex]

54. I was gonna start throwin' stuff if nobody mentioned that one

Marvelous book. I've read it three or four times, and I have the movie on VHS. (The original, not the dog-awful A&E remake.)

[Lautremont]

7. Some, in no particular order (a very eccentric list):

I like Dune.
Bug Jack Barron, by Norman Spinrad
FROOMB! - "Fluid Is Running Out Of My Brakes!" by John Lymington
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick
The Day The Oceans Overflowed, by Charles Fontenay
A Strange Manuscript Found In A Copper Cylinder, by James De Mille
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. Bug Jack Barron very nearly appeared on my list.

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. How can you choose just ten?

Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Holy Fire, Bruce Sterling
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Phillip K. Dick
Accellerando, Charles Stross
Anything by Theodore Sturgeon and Harlan Ellison
2001, A Space Oddyssey, Arthur C. Clark
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
The "Manifold" trilogy, Stephen Baxter
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin

Rudy Rucker and Vernor Vinge should be on any list as well. Octavia Butler and Iain Banks are very very nearly on the list.

[eppur_se_muova]

20. Iain Banks "nearly" ? I'd try to squeeze in TWO of his ...

"Consider Phlebas" and "Player of Games". I've always loathed SF plots built around games, so I never bought POG until I found it used, and was blown away. Dayyam, what a setting The Culture is!

[eppur_se_muova]

21. Rucker's "Master of Space and Time" ! The ULTIMATE happy ending! nt

[Dr. Strange]

41. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch?

Awesome choice! Wouldn't have expected that to show up on anyone's list. But I definitely think there has to be at least one PKD book on any best of list. I'd probably either choose that one or Do Androids Dream...

[Fire Walk With Me]

44. I forgot to include Roderick by John Sladek and either Dhalgren or

Stars in my pocket like grains of Sand or Titan by Delaney.

[hfojvt]

61. and no Poul Anderson or Clifford Simak

I think books like "Way Station", "All Flesh is Grass" and "Time and Again" are pretty great.

[tigereye]

69. we are reading The Demolished Man now

my husband read it when he was a teen and we have been reading it during family story time to the tween...

we had fun explaining why Bester was the name of the psi-guy on Babylon Five...

[graywarrior]

11. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

[tigereye]

70. I've never met anyone else other than me who liked her books...

beautiful and terrifying. Excellent books!

:hi:

she has a new book out, I just saw it at the bookstore...

[Richardo]

12. It's been a long time sone I read sci-fi, but my favorites were:

2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
The Riverworld Trilogy - Philip Jose Farmer
Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
1984 - George Orwell (when I read it, 1984 was still in the future)
Ringworld - Larry Niven
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
2010: Odyssey Two - Arthur C. Clarke

That's only nine - but it's been a long time....

[Rowdyboy]

13. I've always loved post-apocalyptic novels so they predominate my list....

Some of these I haven't read in nearly 40 years but here's my list

Alas Babylon.....Pat Frank
Earth Abides.....George Stewart
Lucifer's Hammer....Larry Niven
A Canticle for Lebowitz...Walter Miller
The Martian Chronicles...Ray Bradbury
Vault of the Ages....Poul Anderson
The Lords Pink Ocean...David Walker
Swan Song....Robert McCammon
Tunnel in the Sky...Robert Heinlein
Time Enough for Love...Robert Heinlein

runner up because I ran out of spaces....Stranger in a Strange Land....Robert Heinlein

[Swede]

14. I was thinking of Swan Song,too.

Time to re-read it.

[Rowdyboy]

15. It reminds me of Stephen King's "The Stand" but for some reason I liked

"Swan Song" more. Guess there's no accounting for tastes.

It really is a nice read. I ought to dig it out of whatever box its stashed in and read it again myself.

[Swede]

16. I liked both.

I burned through King,McCammon,Koontz and Straub back in the day.

[krispos42]

27. "Tunnel in the Sky"

Oh, I read that in middle school!!!

They had a lot of his stuff for that age group in mine! :-)

[Rowdyboy]

31. That and Anderson's Vault of the Ages were the two books that hooked me

on science fiction as a 12 year old. Though I haven't read them in over 40 years, I still remember them with great fondness.

[krispos42]

43. My hook...

...was the "Conrad Stargard" series of time-travel books by Leo Frankoski. My mom got the first three of them for me at a church book sale. I think they were brand new. I read those three books literally dozens of times, over and over again. Then I finally found the fourth book, so I have to reread alll FOUR books over and over again. Then a while later, he added a fifth book to the "4 book series", so there I was again, reading all five books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Stargard

[raccoon]

34. I like post-apocalyptic novels too.

I'd have put ALAS, BABYLON at the top of my list. Oh, well, here goes:

1. ALAS, BABYLON by Pat Frank
2. EARTH ABIDES by George R. Stewart
3. THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells
4. PARABLE OF THE SOWER by Octavia Butler
5. FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON by Daniel Keyes
6. THE SHEEP LOOK UP by John Brunner
7. STAND ON ZANZIBAR by John Brunner
8. THE FOREVER WAR by Joe Haldeman
9. THE DOOR INTO SUMMER by Robert Heinlein
10. DYING INSIDE by Robert Silverberg

[Rowdyboy]

53. Several you mention are new to me. Thanks. You might like WAR DAY by Whitley Strieber

and James Kunetka

I'm rereading it for the first time in 30 years and while not as gripping as I remember, its still a good page-turner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warday

The novel opens with Strieber's account of a nuclear attack on New York City. He is traveling in a bus when he is blinded by a flash of light. The series of warheads detonated with a combined force of 20 megatons of TNT. The explosion rips through the city, igniting Brooklyn. Another series of warheads are detonated at sea, creating tidal waves that flood the subways with seawater. Making his way through the wreckage, Strieber reaches his son's school, where he meets with his wife and son. The family stays in the school for two weeks, suffering from radiation sickness. Eventually, when it is safe to escape, Strieber leaves the city with his family.

As revealed in an interview with a former Undersecretary of Defense, in the months before the nuclear attack the United States was on the verge of deploying an advanced anti-ballistic missile system known as "Spiderweb". The system threatened to negate almost any potential Soviet nuclear attack, utilizing an orbitting particle beam to destroy warheads as they left their delivery vehicles (a clear reference to the Strategic Defense Initiative proposed by the Reagan administration, colloqually known as "Star Wars"). Panicked by the threat of an American military operating without fear of reprisal, during initial deployment of Spiderweb by the Space Shuttle Enterprise the Soviets destroy the Shuttle and its cargo using a hunter-killer satellite. The conflict escalates rapidly from this point, beginning with the Soviets detonating a set of four large nuclear warheads 100,000 feet above the US, causing a massive electromagnetic pulse that cripples computers, electronics, and car ignitions across the country. Immediately after, NORAD detects a series of Soviet satellites deploying warheads. Faced with this, the President (who is aboard NEACP) orders a limited strike on the USSR to eliminate Moscow, Leningrad, and the administrative capitals of the Soviet Republics, thereby destroying the Soviet government. In thirty-six minutes, the war is over. Only the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are directly affected by the blasts.

The cities of Washington, D.C., San Antonio and the Brooklyn borough of New York City suffer direct hits and are completely razed. In addition, ICBM missile fields - and the surrounding countryside - in North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming are vaporized (Omaha comes out of the conflict unscathed despite public knowledge that the Soviets had - circa 1982 - over two dozen warheads targeted for the area's military command & control centers). The attack is therefore considered "limited" because only the administrative and critical military centers are destroyed, excluding the majority of other American cities. However, the nation suffers nevertheless. The remaining part of New York City is evacuated and eventually allowed to fall into ruin. The dusting of the Midwest and Central Plains by radioactive materials causes a famine that kills millions of people. Also, less than a year after the war, a new strain of influenza known as the Cincinnati Flu quickly reaches epidemic levels, taking additional millions of lives throughout the United States. Even after these catastrophes, a constant danger of radiation is present even for those far away from the blasts, as well as a new disease called Non-Specific Sclerosing Disease, or NSD.

As well as the human cost, the war left its mark on the economy and politics of the country. Due to electromagnetic pulses from the bomb blasts, virtually all bank accounts, transactions, and other electronic assets simply vanish. Because of this, money undergoes a rapid deflation: the cost of a home is reduced to 800 gold dollars. In addition, electronic machinery and devices are rendered useless, which further limits the economy. Since the federal government was critically reduced due to the bombing, individual states like California and Texas form de facto independent nations, with autonomous military forces and currency. Also, a new Hispanic/Native American nation named Aztlán is brought into existence through a violent revolution and, apparent, ethnic cleansing of the Anglo population of El Paso, far western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Aztlán is portrayed as a socialist nation.

[raccoon]

66. Thanks--I may look into that.

Of my list, none except 1 & 2 are really post-apocalyptic. The John Brunner books are apocalyptic, but not post-.

#4, PARABLE OF THE SOWER, takes place in the near future and is chillingly believable.

[Fire Walk With Me]

45. Swan Song was great, but I'd characterize it as fantasy. You should read Bear's "Forge of God"

if you like bleak endings. That and Baxter's "Moonseed".

[XemaSab]

56. Swan Song is a good one

He's a good author. I read all his stuff a few years ago.

Boy's Life is one of my all time favorites.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

18. I dunno about ten, but...

Nova - Samuel Delany
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
Stand On Zanzibar - John Brunner
Ringworld - Larry Niven
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton
The Lathe Of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
Journey To The Center Of The Earth - Jules Verne
Stranger In A Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein

Whadda ya know- made it to ten! :thumbsup:

[Kutjara]

19. My list:

(1) Dahlgren - Samuel Delaney
(2) River of Gods - Ian McDonald
(3) Neuromancer - William Gibson
(4) Accelerando - Charles Stross
(5) Hyperion Cantos - Dan Simmonds
(6) The Light of Other Days - Arthur C. Clark & Stephen Baxter
(7) Permutation City - Greg Egan
(8) The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
(9) The Xeelee Sequence - Stephen Baxter
(10) Use of Weapons - Ian M. Banks

[FlyingSquirrel]

22. I really don't want to make a list 'cause I'd leave too many out

but I'll add Piers Anthony's "Bio of a Space Tyrant" series to the list, and Madeline L'Engle's "Wrinkle in Time" should probably be in there... Maybe we could compile a top-100 list or something. Oh, what was that series with the HeeChee? Frederick Pohl, first one was called "Gateway". Great series.

[FloridaJudy]

23. You need some more recent stuff there

I agree with your picks being great novels. I don't know who I'd dump to add Snowcrash and Perdido Street Station, but Stephenson and Mies belong in the canon, as well as LeGuin and Tepper.

Ten's too few: can I go for twenty-five? Let me think and get back to you on that.

[Giant Robot]

47. You might want to give

"The Gods of Whitechappel" a try. I am pulling this from memory right now so I may have the title wrong. Author might be S.M. Peters. Fun read in the modern sci-fi vein like "Perdido Street Station" although I have to admit I found that hard to get through.

[DUlover2909]

24. I have the first ever hard cover Dune print from 1965.

The Dune books together represent the greatest achievement of science fiction. God Emperor of Dune, in my opinion, is the best. It seems to be the point at which Herbert's philosophy blooms and solidifies the epic as relevant and important.

I am not a huge fan of Sci-fi, but I love Dune. My favorite books: Dune novels, Lord of the Rings novels, War and Peace, and Tom Clancy.

[Dr. Strange]

37. I'm with you there!

God Emperor of Dune is the pinnacle of science fiction.
:thumbsup:

[radfringe]

25. my favorites in no particular order

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
I Will Fear No Evil - Robert Heinlein

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series - Douglas Adams

Edgar Rice Burroughs - Mars series:
1. A Princess of Mars (1917)
aka Under The Moons Of Mars
2. The Gods of Mars (1918)
3. The Warlord of Mars (1919)
4. Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920)
5. The Chessmen of Mars (1922)
6. The Master Mind of Mars (1928)
7. A Fighting Man of Mars (1931)
8. Swords of Mars (1936)
9. Synthetic Men of Mars (1940)
10. Llana of Gathol (1948)
11. John Carter of Mars (1943)

[krispos42]

26. "The Mote in God's Eye"

I can't believe nobody's mentioned that yet (grumble grumble)

Ummm, I don't know about top 10 ever, but some that I really liked, that stuck with me and that I re-read several times or more...

Ringworld, also very good. Mine-expanding concepts in there, yes indeed.
Rendezous with Rama, by Clarke.
Final Frontier by Diane Carey
Starship Troopers by Heinlein
Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch
The Legacy of Herot by Niven and Pournelle
Lucifer's Hammer, also by Nive and Pournelle

[YankeyMCC]

28. 10 Good ones

I'm not sure these are the 10 best.

1. I'll cheat a little and list Robot and Foundation Novels by Asimov as one entry - this is definitely one of the top 10
2. City - Clifford Simack
3. Learning the World by Ken MacLeod
4. 1984 by Orwell
5. Frankenstein by Shelly
6. Pushing Ice by Alistair Reynolds
7. Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
8. Red/Green/Blue Mars novels by Kim Stanley Robinson
10. Must Mentions: "Enemy Papers" by Barry Longyear, Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein and "Fahrenheit 451" by Bradbury, Rama books by Clarke

[Spider Jerusalem]

29. My list (not ranked ordinally)

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
Infinite Jest, David Foster Walace
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Watchmen, Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons (graphic novel)
Neuromancer, William Gibson
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K Dick
Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein

[Spacemom]

30. Some of the first SciFi I ever read

Was The Titan Trilogy by John Varley. Definately top 10 worthy. :D

[meegbear]

35. Here are my SF books ...

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
City Limits by James Toland
The Lost Gold of San Francisco by Michael Castleman
1906: A Novel by James Dalessandro
White Rabbit: A Mystery by David Daniel
Sinner's Paradise by Scott Lettieri
The Privileges of Beauty by Eugene Drabent
The Man With the Heart in the Highlands by William Saroyan, Herb Caen
Police and Thieves by Peter Plate

[Bridget Burke]

38. Add Fritz Leiber's "Our Lady of Darkness" to your list....

Leiber was a Grand Master of SF, fantasy (he INVENTED the phrase "Swords & Sorcery") & horror.

Leiber’s Our Lady of Darkness is one of the best horror novels to come out of the 1970s. Curiously enough, many aspects of this work of fiction are fact-based, even autobiographical.

During the mid-1970s, Leiber lived at 811 Geary, apartment 507. In Our Lady, the protagonist (which Leiber modeled upon himself) lives at the same address, one flight up in apartment 607. (This is a popular device with San Francisco writers, apparently. Fifty years earlier, Dashiell Hammett set The Maltese Falcon in his own apartment building, at the corner of Post & Hyde.)

www.mikehumbert.com/Fritz_Leiber-s_Our_Lady_of_Darkness_page_1.html

I loved my only visit to San Francisco. But Sutro Tower gave me a chill, since I'd read this book....

[Arkham House]

36. My List:

DUNE, Frank Herbert
FOUNDATION TRILOGY, Isaac Asimov
THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, Robert A Heinlein
MORE THAN HUMAN, Theodore Sturgeon
THE STARS MY DESTINATION, Alfred Bester
TIME BOMB, aka TOMORROW PLUS X, Wilson Tucker
THE ANUBIS GATES, Tim Powers
STARDANCE, Spider Robinson
SLAN, A E van Vogt
TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE, Robert A Heinlein

[SteppingRazor]

39. No Neuromancer/Count Zero/Mona Lisa Overdrive?

:wtf:

[unpossibles]

40. great list

although I would have to include Stranger in a Strange Land instead of Ender's Game, which I felt was over-rated.

[pokerfan]

48. YMMV

I created the list so that I can track down some other titles to read. If it's in someone's top-ten list, it pretty much has to be decent.

I am a Heinlein freak and couldn't put Stranger in my top ten. I thought it was somewhat overrated but it would be in my top ten of Heinlein novels but behind TEFL, Mistress, Troopers, Fear No Evil, Citizen of the Galaxy, Glory Road and Job. Maybe I should read it again.

[ET Awful]

46. I don't know about top ten, but the list should definitely include "Stranger in a Strange Land" n/t

[mitchum]

49. That one set in a dystopian future...

y'know...that one

[Arugula Latte]

50. OMG I'm such a dumbass. I thought you meant "San Francisco" novels.

:banghead:

[Perry Logan]

51. "The Time Machine" - H.G. Wells, "Solaris" - Stanislaw Lem.

[HamstersFromHell]

52. Gonna fudge a bit here...

...and include multi volume things as one item.

Ringworld (and sequels) - Larry Niven
The Mote In God's Eye (and The Gripping Hand) Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Foundation Trilogy (plus prequels and sequels) Isaac Asimov
Stranger In A Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
Gateway (and sequels) Frederik Pohl
Riverworld Trilogy - Philip Jose Farmer
2001: A Space Odyssey (also 2010, 2061, 3001) Arthur C. Clarke
Rama Series (Clarke again)
The Engines Of God (and the rest of his "Hutch" novels) Jack McDevitt
Towing Jehovah - James Morrow

and last but not least...not a novel, but "I, Robot" for the rules that inspired a thousand other writers.

[hfojvt]

60. second mention of a Riverworld trilogy

I remember five volumes of that, but the fifth one was kinda ridiculous.

Too many people putting Heinlein in their lists. Bleaugh.

I think both "Watchers" and "Lightning" by Dean Koontz are excellent science fiction novels.

I would also add -

3. Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury
4. There will be time - Poul Anderson
5. All flesh is grass - Clifford Simak
6. The dispossessed - LeGuin
7. Stand on Zanzibar - Brunner
8. The End of Eternity - Asimov
9. Bridge of Ashes - Zelazny
10. Ringworld - Niven

Admittedly though, I have not read a number of the books on some of these lists.

[HamstersFromHell]

64. My bad there...

While I was always an avid reader of science fiction, I never read any of the Riverworld series until I was working in a book bindery who had a contract for binding Easton Press' series "The 100 Greatist Science Fiction Novels Of All Time" (nice deluxe bound editions of some real classics). Only the first 3 in the Riverworld novels made it to publication in that series, hence my mistake.

A lot of novels listed here by others were included in the series however.

You're right, it was 5...and if you include Riverworld War and the "original" (River Of Eternity) from which "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" was written (re-written?) we have 7

And even though I don't consider Koontz to be sci-fi, he's an excellent read, as is "Swan Song" as others have mentioned.

Don't get me wrong, I like Heinlein, if for no other reason than he's probably the most "quotable" author in the genre, but I don't consider most of his work to be in the "top 10" or "epic" catagory.

Lastly, limiting a list of this type to 10 is damn near impossible...I just pulled up the 10 or more that I've recently re-read.

[hfojvt]

67. Koontz ought to be considered sci-fi

although he does not always stay in that genre, but Asimov wrote mysteries and sci-fi mysteries ("Caves of Steel" and "Tales of the black widowers") "Lightning" is clearly a time travel book and "Watchers" is about bio-engineering. Even with books like "Dragon Tears" and "The Bad Place" he relies on technical (if perhaps far-fetched) explanations for the powers of the villains. Since there is no supernatural element involved, many of his works could be considered at least as much science fiction as the "Wildcard" series, for example. Certainly not a huge jump for a genre which is often juxtaposed with the fantasy genre.

[chknltl]

55. 20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea, 2001 A Space Odyssey, The Wizard Of Oz

Actually I think you picked well pokerfan, as others have pointed out here, it is truly impossible to pick a top ten Sci Fi novel list. Hell it is almost impossible to pick a top ten list of Sci Fi authors much less their books.

Authors deserving of mention that I may have missed in other posts for this thread:
Steven Spielberg, E.E.Doc Smith, Jules Verne, Julian May, Andre Norton, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The author of the Flash Gorden series whose name escapes me at the moment, David Brinn, Jerry Pournell, Ray Bradbury, and another whose name escapes me: Majel Barret's deceased husband, (he created Star Trek before marrying Nurse Chapel and went on to write quite a few books...yeah that guy and yes I really can not remember his name!!!!)

[Art_from_Ark]

59. The Wizard of Oz wasn't so much science fiction

as it was an economic commentary on the gold versus silver debate, disguised as a children's book. "Oz" came from the abbreviation for "ounce" (of gold or silver). The Wicked Witch of the East was supposedly Grover Cleveland, while the Wicked Witch of the West was supposedly William McKinley. The Yellow Brick Road (gold standard) was fraught with dangers, and the Emerald City was Washington, D.C. The flying monkeys were likely Eastern bankers.

[chknltl]

72. WOW! Thanks for that!

I knew that Tolkien used recent history and current events in his creation of The Lord Of The Rings but I had no idea that the Wizard Of Oz was done similarly. It makes sense though. So who would the "wizard" be?? Roosevelt? Hoover?
Thanks again, I LOVE such revelations!

[Hardrada]

57. Also Handmaiden's Tale

and The Martian Chronicles (not a novel but cumulative effect is the same).

[Art_from_Ark]

58. The Island of Dr. Moreau-- H.G.Wells

The Invisible Man-- H.G.Wells
War of the Worlds-- H.G.Wells
The Time Machine-- H.G.Wells
The Lost World-- Arthur Conan Doyle
From the Earth to the Moon-- Jules Verne
Journey to the Center of the Earth-- Jules Verne
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea-- Jules Verne

[Babel_17]

62. Lord of Light by Zelazny

The Long Run by Daniel Keys Moran

Walter Jon Williams, John Varley, two authors you should get to know.

Varley has an fabulous site, he and his wife are amazing people and very progressive.

http://www.varley.net/ Tons of archived material. WJW has a nice site. http://www.walterjonwilliams.net/

On My Way To Paradise by Dave Wolverton

When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger

Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks (sinfully underrated imo) What Milla Jovovich is to sci fi movies, Sharrow is to female sci fi protagonists. Iconic, and with a strong presence. And she's just a fraction of what makes it great. Imo the novel can be appreciated by anyone but if you've read tons of great science fiction you'll pick up a lot more from it. It deconstructs a slew of sci fi themes and reassembles them gloriously. Then again, it might be the case that the novel resonates for me in a fashion others won't get.

[AllegroRondo]

65. My faves

Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein
Foundation - Asimov
The Martian Chronicles - Bradbury
1984 - Orwell
the Handmaids Tale - Atwood
Dune - Herbert
Cryptonomicon - Stephenson
Otherland - Williams
Rendezvous with Rama - Clarke
Gap series - Donaldson

[blindpig]

68. A few that I don't think have been mentioned

Nova, Samuel Delaney

Dalghren, Samuel Delaney

The Sheep Look Up, John Brunner

Light, Peter F Hamilton

[tigereye]

71. Hyperion -Dan Simmons ( no particular order)

A Wrinkle in Time - L'Engle

Ender's Game - Card

Neuromancer - GIbson

Sheri Tepper - The True Game series, and Raising the Stones...

Dune - Herbert

Le guin - The Lathe of Heaven

Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow

Marge PIercy - Woman on the Edge of TIme

Canopus in Argos series - Doris Lessing

and for old times sake, Heinlein - Stranger in A Strange Land