The List

What I've collected of the list so far ...

I've always been a bit of fan of science fiction literature since high school and recently I decided that I should familiarise myself with the classics of the genre I haven't yet read. After finding a number of great science fiction review blogs, I decided I would set up my own, the idea being to record my thoughts and impression on the novels as I read them. I've found quite a lot of "top science fiction" lists online and after reading a few I decided to shortlist the ones that appeared frequently and set myself the task of reading them all one-by-one!

The list is composed of both books I've already read, but typically too long ago to remember them well, and those I've never read. Here's my starting list:



"Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams
"Tau Zero" by Poul Anderson
"I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov (read)
"The End of Eternity" by Isaac Asimov
"Eon" by Greg Bear (read)
"The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
"The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury
"Stand on Zanzibar" by John Brunner
"A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess
"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
"The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon
"Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke
"Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke
"A Fall of Moondust" by Arthur C. Clarke
"2001: A Space Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke
"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline
"Babel-17" by Samuel R. Delany
"The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick
"Ubik" by Philip K. Dick
"Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said" by Philip K. Dick
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick (read)
"A Scanner Darkly" by Philip K. Dick
"Neuromancer" by William Gibson
"The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman
"Starship Troopers" by Robert Heinlein
"Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein
"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein
"Dune" by Frank Herbert
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
"The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem
"A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller
"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger
"Ringworld" by Larry Niven
"1984" by George Orwell
"Gateway" by Frederik Pohl
"The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars)" by Kim Stanley Robinson (read)
"The Years of Rice and Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson (read)
"Air" by Geoff Ryman
"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley
"Hyperion" by Dan Simmons
"The Rediscovery of Man" by Cordwainer Smith
"Last and First Men" by Olaf Stapledon
"Snow Crash" by Neil Stephenson
"Twenty-thousand Leagues under the Sea" by Jules Verne
"A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge
"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
"Cat’s Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut
"The Time Machine" by H. G. Wells (read)
"The War of the Worlds" by H. G. Wells (read)
"Spin" by Robert Charles Wilson
"The Day of the Triffids" by John Wyndham (read)
"The Chrysalids" by John Wyndham

Update (04/08/2012): I've added four more titles after a bit more searching ("Neuromancer" by William Gibson, "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, "Snow Crash" by Neil Stephenson and "Twenty-thousand Leagues under the Sea" by Jules Verne).

Fifty-seven titles in total of which I've read eight! Most of the titles were written in the last fifty years with a few, such as "The Time Traveler's Wife", "Air", "Spin", "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" and "Ready Player One", being very recent; I decided to add these five because they have consistently been well-received in other reviews and will perhaps be regarded as classics in future years (I'll see if I agree after I read them!). I will add more to the list as I begin to read.