50 Books

(2006 continued...)

There's a list of science fiction and fantasy books making the rounds. Let's see how I do. Bold means I read it and liked it, italics means I read it and did not like it, plain old text means I have not read it.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Let's see...Sword of Sha-na-na. A great pastiche of both Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. But...great fantasy? Wizard of Earthsea. LeGuin I either like or intensely get bored by. This was not one I liked. Interview with a Vampire? One of the more overrated pieces of bilge that I've ever read. Stephen Donaldson? I liked them the first time I read them. I couldn't finish the second set. I haven't bothered to buy the start of the third set.

I was asked by a person who left a comment why no mention of Snow Crash. Stephenson is one of those folks who I took several books to like. I tried Snow Crash and a few of his earlier books, but they left me cold. It wasn't until Cryptonomicon that I got hooked. If you'll look in the past Year in Books entries, you'll see that The Baroque Cycle became one of my picks for year's best (best in the year I read it, which is not the same as the best for the year of publication!). Someday I'll try Snow Crash again, but I was so underwhelmed by the first chapter or so that I have never finished the book.

The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith is only the latest collection of Smith's works. I recommend that you search his stuff out under any title.

Some day I'll get my own best fiction list finished. There are already more than 50 titles there.

Posted by Fred Kiesche at July 16, 2007 01:03 PM