1001 Sci-Fi List for LT?

A 1001 list was composed a while back for fantasy novels by LT members; I'm wondering if anything similar has been done for sci-fi?
http://www.listsofbests.com/list/84468-1001-fantasy-books-to-read-before-you-are...

The same group did this list - 111 Science Fictions Books to Read Before a Supernova Kills Us All

http://www.librarything.com/topic/81223

At some point I'll add it to List of Bests if there is interest. Probably not in the next couple of months though. I can send an Excel spreadsheet to whoever is interested and sends me a private comment.

As much as I love science fiction, I doubt that there more than a few hundred books that are worth reading. The same is probably true of fantasy. Many books make a splash and then fade into a well-deserved obscurity. The purpose of must-read lists seems to be to drag them out into the light again so we can see how awful or mediocre they truly are.

#4 - Do you include your own work in that assessment?

The same could be said about pretty much any set of books (fiction, mystery, horror, poetry, biography, etc.) after a few decades. I mean, consider how many fiction (non-sf/fantasy) have been published in the last 200 years. Now, how many are "worth reading"? It's going to be a percentage that rounds down to zero.

"Do you include your own work in that assessment?"

I hope that question wasn't just an attempt to start an argument. I doubt that my work will be remembered. What little I've published so far is part of my learning process (still very early), so I don't expect it to make a splash at all. Maybe someday, when I'm a better writer, there will be a bit of a splash.

Might I suggest a compromise to this before it devolves?

Rather than complaining that nothing works for a list, why not say - 1001 rereadable science fiction books? Many times, I find that the "blah books to read before blah" are books that people find that they can reread and enjoy.

So let's try that. List your top five science fiction books that you've read multiple times. (as in more than once.) We can consider each post a "vote" for those books. multiple posts by a person with the same books can invalidate their "vote." Then we can begin to establish a list.

I'll bite. Here are 5 favorites that I have read more than once:

- Dune by Frank Herbert
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem

Tough job to narrow it down to five but here is a list of favourites I have read more than once (in no particular order).

The Fresco by Sheri S. Tepper
Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
Red Mars (trilogy including Green Mars and Red Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson
Helliconia Spring (trilogy including Hellionia Summer and Helliconia Winter) by Brian Aldiss
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

Hope it's not cheating to include trilogies and a four book omnibus.

That is tough to narrow down. Here's my 5:

Canticle for Leibowitz
Ender's Game
Dragonriders of Pern
Old Man's War
Gate to Women's Country

1984
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The Day of the Triffids

There are two others that I have read multiple times only because they were assigned in classes. Other people might think highly of them but I will not even mention their titles.

I have also read Lord Foul's Bane several times but it is fantasy and I keep those separate from true science fiction.

Dune
Brain Child George Turner
Shockwave Rider
Earth David Brin
Ender's Game

An additional five, because five doesn't really do it.

Canticle for Leibowitz
Beggars in Spain
Oryx and Crake
Distraction
Shikasta

Vacuum Diagrams
1984
Diaspora
the Dispossessed
Look to Windward
Nova Swing
The January Dancer
Starship Troopers
Brass Man
Hull Zero Three

There. That's ten.

Dhalgren
The Devil Is Dead
Godbody

I must say, I'm not much of a re-reader. And even for those who are, this principle prejudices against more recent works.

Dune
Dhalgren
Coelestis
The Left Hand of Darkness
Kairos
Angel with the Sword
The Female Man

Cyteen
Stand On Zanzibar
The Left Hand Of Darkness
Helliconia (the trilogy is been published in one volume so I don't feel bad about including it)
The Day Of The Triffids

Canticle For Leibowitz
Timescape
Riddley Walker

However I think that this process will punish more recent books I would include on a best of list. I don't tend to reread very soon after the first read, it often takes a years before I will re-read. Also the reason why a book is re-read may not be because it is particularly good (it may just be because it is warm and comforting like a favourite jumper).

Okay . . . with the caveat that I've read SF of greater literary merit, but these are the ones I've felt drawn to reread . . . here are my five:

The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
The Callahan Chronicals by Spider Robinson
The Quiet Pools by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
All the Myriad Ways by Larry Niven
Tomorrow, the Stars edited by Robert Heinlein

Honorable mention for a particularly spectacular (childhood) example of the "rereading doesn't equate to literary merit" principle: Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert Heinlein. :-)

This thread made me realize that I'm more likely to reread fantasy multiple times, than SF. Hmm. But there are still quite a few.
I had only four obvious frontrunners:
Dune - Herbert
Book of the New Sun (starting with The Shadow of the Torturer) - Wolfe
Engine Summer - Crowley
The Pride of Chanur and the rest of that series - Cherryh

Then came up with four runners-up for fifth:
The Snow Queen - Vinge
The City and the Stars - Clarke
The Martian Chronicles - Bradbury
Grass - Tepper

I couldn't figure a good way to keep the list from devolving into an argument. This was my best solution at the time... I am not admitting to it being good, just that it was a suggestion. As such, I kinda expected someone to offer a different thoughts so we could establish a positive guideline.

Especially since I have only two books for my own criteria:

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Blade Dancer by S L Viehl

I might get no vote, because I never read a book twice. Okay, almost never, but I've never read sci-fi twice. I remember prompting this whole discussion by wondering whether I'd find Magister Ludi on such a list, so I guess I'd like to see whether that makes it onto any new list you create.

Would it be fair to institute a rule that no author may appear more than once? You'd get a much broader range of works that way that wouldn't skew towards anyone's favoritism. Granted it might not objectively become a "best" list in that case, but it would be a finer list to review for offering potentially new discoveries.

The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold

>22 Cecrow: I like the idea of "best of" list in which no author appears more than once. I like to read broadly, so such a list might help pinpoint that one book by that author I really should read, if I haven't already.

My five top sci-fi reads so far (I'm fairly new serious sci-fi reading), discounting the re-read rule, as like lots of others, I hardly ever re-read (I think you could very truthfully argue the statement "Life's too short to re-read a book!")

1. The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
2. Stand On Zanzibar - John Brunner
3. Look To Windward - Iain M. Banks (hard to pick a single Banks, but I think this is my favourite)
4. River Of Gods - Ian McDonald
5. Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke

#25 said: "I hardly ever re-read (I think you could very truthfully argue the statement "Life's too short to re-read a book!")"
I think it could be argued either way. Certainly as I get older I appreciate the limited amount of time. One thing I've changed is that I'm much less likely to finish a book I don't like (I used to slog on through, unwilling to "waste" the time already invested). But my feeling about rereading is that life is too short NOT to reread favorites. It would be like saying I should only eat a great recipe once -- or only listen to a good piece of music once -- or look at a great painting once.

By the way, for someone who's "fairly new" to SF reading, you came up with a great list of titles!

Thanks! Most of these were books I stumbled across by luck, although I've also found the SF Masterworks series an invaluable guide to good Sci-Fi - I think it's still the case that I've enjoyed every book I've read on that list. And LT has of course broadened my horizons considerably!

I take your point about re-reading. I do have a lot of books that I would love to re-read, but I hardly ever find the time. I still try to persevere with books I'm not enjoying, so perhaps I will take your advice and quit sooner on those, thus freeing up some time to re-read a few of my favourites!

>26 rshart3: I do enjoy rediscovering an old favorite but enough time has to have passed for me to have almost forgotten the book. I'm finding I'm rereading now a lot of books I first read in college or shortly thereafter, so I'm on about a 20-year cycle. That definitely does preclude any new science fiction from making my list of favorites.

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe
Hyperion / Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Neuromancer - William Gibson

I've not re-read that much SF,

cyteen - well all of CJ Cherryh's works
dune - surely this is on everyone's list
revelation space
earth - but many others of Brin's works too, the postman equally impressive, just not re-read as often.
the real story and sequels of course

hmm
the myriad needs an honourable mention
as does hitchhikers
only forward
diamond age
cities in flight
evergence
riddley walker

top 5 way too hard to choose. And then there are many contenders I haven't yet got around to re-reading, but will do so.

Wonder what I posted in the GD thread?

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned one of my all time favorites - I've read the entire series several times.

Foundation/Robot series by Isaac Asimov

Also...

Dune
Ender's Game
The Eyre Affair and Thursday Next series
A Canticle for Leibowitz - can't say I cared much for the sequel
Fahrenheit 451
Brave New World
1984
A Wrinkle in Time - started me on my sci-fi journey!!

Seems like I ought to have mentioned an Arthur C Clarke. Robert Heinlein, or Larry Niven in there too. I've probably read several of each of their books over - but I guess I can't say they stick out as my favorites.

My favorite short story - Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

...HMMM - noticing a little bit of a world being run by a "big brother" type in my favorites...

#32 ...HMMM - noticing a little bit of a world being run by a "big brother" type in my favorites...

I think you only have to worry about this if the character you empathise with is predominantly the "Big Brother".

Or if they are starting to resemble real life..

Big Brother has been here since that late cold war. He's only been dressed up in "we are doing this for your own good". :-/

Have people here seen NPR's list of the top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy books:

https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fant...

It is a good starting point for any discussion, I think. 5,000 nominations. 60,000 votes.

I was pleased to see a lot of my favorites on the NPR list...but still quite a few that I have not yet read. I guess I better get started.

It's not a very good list - it's bit random as to whether a series is on it, or a single book from a series. It also includes Watchmen, which is superhero comic.