The SF Signal list:
So, as I mentioned in my last post, SFSignal contacted me to ask me to contribute to a "What Science Fiction Books Should Be in Every Fan's Library?" discussion. This was moderately surprising, since a couple of short stories aside, I don't feel very much like a science fiction writer, and I'm certainly not even a minor voice in the science fiction community. At best, I'm a tiny, tiny whisper.
With that said, I do wish to note that my list was written in a great hurry and with little if any thought: Things are Happening around here that do not exactly create ideal conditions for thinking of lists of recommended books, so if you are thinking, wow, that sounds like a list written in a great hurry and with little if any thought, you would be right. About my only thought, in so far as having one, was to focus on not including Heinlein, a thought reinforced after mentioning this list to a few people, all of whom responded with "Heinlein!" following this with "You can't have a list like this without Heinlein," to which I answered "Oh, yes I can." In fact, I could expand this list and still leave Heinlein off it.
I should clarify: it's not that I don't like, or haven't enjoyed, Heinlein, but that I find his ongoing placement on pretty much every single science fiction list, like, ever, baffling. It's been awhile since I spent much time with the traditional Science Fiction Greats, but as I recall, Bradbury, Vonnegut, Clarke, Bester, Delany, LeGuin and Russ greater and more original thinkers (and with the exception of Clarke and possibly Bester, also better stylists); and Asimov had much better robots. (My science fiction knowledge tends to focus on robots.) Even if we're thinking influential, I'd argue that McCaffrey, Herbert, Norton, and Cherryh are much better read; you could certainly argue that McCaffrey and Herbert in particular spawned mini industries.
Meanwhile, if you are thinking that it's quite sad that my list of science fiction books does not contain a single work from this century and was filled in with two 19th century books, I agree with you. But the truth is, I don't actually read that much science fiction, and then only when recommended by trusted friends.
But if I had had a chance to think about it, and argue that really, no list should be restricted to just ten books anyway, here's some science fiction books I would have added to my list:
Elizabeth Moon, The Speed of Dark
Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others
Samuel Delany, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
Nancy Kress, An Alien Light
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
Anne McCaffrey, Crystal Singer (ignore your thoughts about what happened to the Pern books and in fact what happened later in this series, and just focus on this one)
William Sleator, House of Stairs
Wilo Davis Roberts, The Girl With the Silver Eyes (not sure if this is actually a great book or not, but I loved it when I was a kid)
Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed (although truth to tell I prefer her fantasy to her science fiction)
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents
Mary Shelley, The Last Man (Sacrilege, I know, but I could never get into Frankenstein. I think The Last Man is a much better book.)
Connie Willis, Passage (if I had my book collection with me instead of in storage, I suspect that this, not To Say Nothing of the Dog, would have been on my list, but that's what happens when your books are in boxes. On the other hand, I suspect most of you would enjoy To Say Nothing of the Dog more.)
Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (I left this off since I already had H.G. Wells on there and the list was old enough.)
Tobias Buckell, Crystal Rain (I haven't read the sequel.)
Sheri Tepper, Grass, Beauty (although as I recall I had some issues with that one), Singer From the Sea.
And this list is still brutally incomplete. Sigh. I think the overall lesson here is that I should stop trying to do these sorts of lists.
With that said, I do wish to note that my list was written in a great hurry and with little if any thought: Things are Happening around here that do not exactly create ideal conditions for thinking of lists of recommended books, so if you are thinking, wow, that sounds like a list written in a great hurry and with little if any thought, you would be right. About my only thought, in so far as having one, was to focus on not including Heinlein, a thought reinforced after mentioning this list to a few people, all of whom responded with "Heinlein!" following this with "You can't have a list like this without Heinlein," to which I answered "Oh, yes I can." In fact, I could expand this list and still leave Heinlein off it.
I should clarify: it's not that I don't like, or haven't enjoyed, Heinlein, but that I find his ongoing placement on pretty much every single science fiction list, like, ever, baffling. It's been awhile since I spent much time with the traditional Science Fiction Greats, but as I recall, Bradbury, Vonnegut, Clarke, Bester, Delany, LeGuin and Russ greater and more original thinkers (and with the exception of Clarke and possibly Bester, also better stylists); and Asimov had much better robots. (My science fiction knowledge tends to focus on robots.) Even if we're thinking influential, I'd argue that McCaffrey, Herbert, Norton, and Cherryh are much better read; you could certainly argue that McCaffrey and Herbert in particular spawned mini industries.
Meanwhile, if you are thinking that it's quite sad that my list of science fiction books does not contain a single work from this century and was filled in with two 19th century books, I agree with you. But the truth is, I don't actually read that much science fiction, and then only when recommended by trusted friends.
But if I had had a chance to think about it, and argue that really, no list should be restricted to just ten books anyway, here's some science fiction books I would have added to my list:
Elizabeth Moon, The Speed of Dark
Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others
Samuel Delany, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
Nancy Kress, An Alien Light
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
Anne McCaffrey, Crystal Singer (ignore your thoughts about what happened to the Pern books and in fact what happened later in this series, and just focus on this one)
William Sleator, House of Stairs
Wilo Davis Roberts, The Girl With the Silver Eyes (not sure if this is actually a great book or not, but I loved it when I was a kid)
Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed (although truth to tell I prefer her fantasy to her science fiction)
Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents
Mary Shelley, The Last Man (Sacrilege, I know, but I could never get into Frankenstein. I think The Last Man is a much better book.)
Connie Willis, Passage (if I had my book collection with me instead of in storage, I suspect that this, not To Say Nothing of the Dog, would have been on my list, but that's what happens when your books are in boxes. On the other hand, I suspect most of you would enjoy To Say Nothing of the Dog more.)
Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (I left this off since I already had H.G. Wells on there and the list was old enough.)
Tobias Buckell, Crystal Rain (I haven't read the sequel.)
Sheri Tepper, Grass, Beauty (although as I recall I had some issues with that one), Singer From the Sea.
And this list is still brutally incomplete. Sigh. I think the overall lesson here is that I should stop trying to do these sorts of lists.