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What are the essential scifi novels?

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Space Cadet

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Having a complete change of direction in my planned research for graduate school; I'm moving away from postmodern literature into a scifi specialization. I have read some of the bigger scifi novels, Neuromancer, Dune, Brave New World, really that is all I can think of right now. I am reading Stranger in a Strange Land currently, but I need to know where to go from here. I have also read a lot of the serialized fantasy/scifi stuff as a kid/teenager, but I am looking for the more influential works.
 
2001 is next on my list; does it differ much from the movies? Also, I have seen a ton of scifi movies...seems to be where my interest is coming from.

Asimov...is that the Foundation author?
 
Jules Verne.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Around the World in Eighty Days

H.G. Wells

Island of Dr. Moreau
The Invisible Man
War of the Worlds
The Time Machine
 
Friend of mine implores me to read Ender's Game. Nowadays, though, I'm afraid I can no longer read it without the author's deplorable politics sticking in the back of my head. Are those fears at all realistic or should I start reading asap?
 
Asimov
The Original Foundation Trilogy

LeGuin
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
The Lathe of Heaven

Card
Ender's Game

All quite seminal sci-fi novels, with a few Hugos and Nebulas.
 
Farmboy said:
Friend of mine implores me to read Ender's Game. Nowadays, though, I'm afraid I can no longer read it without the author's deplorable politics sticking in the back of my head. Are those fears at all realistic or should I start reading asap?
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A professor at my college just wrote an article on Ender's Game and Card's views on homosexuality. Card seems like an asshole.


BorkBork said:
All quite seminal sci-fi novels, with a few Hugos and Nebulas.
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Should I just look at those award lists and read the winners?
 
Ender's Game is a fantastic, classic work of SF, so is Speaker For The Dead (though, for different reasons).

I read all 8 (now 9) books for the first time in my freshman year of HS. All the political stuff in the later books didn't phase me because, frankly, I didn't notice it. It went over my head.

I reread them last year and all that stuff sticks out now. Didn't hamper my enjoyment too much, but I certainly noticed it. Alot.
 
Farmboy said:
Friend of mine implores me to read Ender's Game. Nowadays, though, I'm afraid I can no longer read it without the author's deplorable politics sticking in the back of my head. Are those fears at all realistic or should I start reading asap?
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Personally I don't see the big deal. For me it's easy to enjoy a work by someone whose opinion doesn't mesh with mine.
 
Rendezvous with Rama and pretty much anything by Arthur C. Clarke

Also Ringworld by Larry Niven and Gateway by Frederik Pohl. Gateway in particular is a very interesting book.
 
I'd definitely read the following:

The Stars My Destination - Bester

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Dick

War of the Worlds - Wells

1984 - Orwell

Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein
 
Space Cadet said:
Should I just look at those award lists and read the winners?
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Maybe a good place to start, but there's probably a lot of stuff out there that's worth a read. The ones I listed are just ones I really really enjoyed, some are actually genre transcending, and they were coincidentally winners.
 
- The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
- Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov (or any other novel by him)
- Manifold Trilogy (Space, Time and Origin) by Stephen Baxter
- Culture novels (like Consider Phlebas) by Ian M. Banks
- Anything by Philip K. Dick (my favorite book by him is actually very light on sf and much more a novel on drugs: A Scanner Darkly)
 
A Canticle for Leibowitz may well be the definitive post-apocalyptic epic of all time.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is an absolute fucking must, and I would strongly recommend the little known sequel The Mysterious Island.

1984 obviously has the dystopia subgenre on lockdown.
 
Falch said:
- Culture novels (like Consider Phlebas) by Ian M. Banks
- Anything by Philip K. Dick
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I just started the Culture novels, but Phlebas is considered the most poorly written. (I'm still enjoying it)

And frankly, I find Philip K Dick to be somewhat hit and miss. However, he probably has had more sci-fi novels turned into movies than any other author. Just saying that you might want to tread carefully when looking at all of his works.
 
Not exactly the topic per se, but Philip K. Dick's collected stories are must-read. They're really original and thought-provoking, and weird even if the plots don't always have an orthodox structure or ending.
 
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheap? by Philip K. Dick
2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood's End, and Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
The Dig by Alan Dean Foster
 
You MUST read some H.G Wells novels! Time Machine and War of The Worlds are the most important ones, imo. 1984 by Orwell should be on your list as well. ;)
 
Great Rumbler said:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheap? by Philip K. Dick
2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Dune by Frank Herbert
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The Dig by Alan Dean Foster
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Excellent list. Rendezvous with Rama is a masterpiece.
 
The Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson is a great series on the hard science fiction side of things.
 
DieNgamers said:
You MUST read some H.G Wells novels! Time Machine and War of The Worlds are the most important ones, imo. 1984 by Orwell should be on your list as well. ;)
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True, HG Wells is one of the greats. Funny, I've only read his other two big novels, The Island of Dr. Moreau and Invisible Man.

Dr. Moreau is truly a short-list classic, at the time it was a very cutting commentary on the recent theory of evolution.
 
No way. I haven't read much Verne, but I can't imagine he put out anything that manages to be as entertaining a read and at the same time contain some very thought-provoking ruminations on God and man's role in evolution (Dr. Moreau).
 
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe is one of my favorite books.

There is another book by Gene Wolfe that I love called The Fifth Head of Cerabus. It consists of three novellas that have interrelated and overlapping stories. Stylistically it always reminded me of The Sound and the Furry.

I would also check out Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
 
Teddman said:
No way. I haven't read much Verne
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I've read much of both. Give 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island, and Journey to the Center of the Earth a try and get back to me. Even in translation Verne's prose beats Wells, his technological foresight is nothing short of amazing, and his plots are both gripping and thought provoking. A true once-in-a-generation genius.
 
Another vote for Asimov. The original Foundation trilogy is classic, but I'd put Prelude to Foundation up against any in the trilogy. Also, you'll want to look at a collection of his short stories. I, Robot is a good place to start, but Robot Dreams/Robot Visions is another one to look for.
 
Ctrl + f Hitchhiker's

GAF, you disappoint me.

EDIT: Oh, you specifically asked for the influential stuff. Would be Asimov, Philip K. Dick and Jules Verne then, I guess.
 
BreakyBoy said:
Another vote for Asimov. The original Foundation trilogy is classic, but I'd put Prelude to Foundation up against any in the trilogy. Also, you'll want to look at a collection of his short stories. I, Robot is a good place to start, but Robot Dreams/Robot Visions is another one to look for.
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I quite enjoy Prelude, but I don't think I'd put it quite up with the Trilogy. I would put in Edge and Earth in there.
 
What do you mean by "influential"? Asimovs novels are a nice read, but they are (at best) only influential regarding the sci-fi genre. There are alot of novels which could be considered (by the majority) as "real" literature and influential beyond their own genre. Books not mentioned so far which spring to my mind instantly would be Samjatins "We" (1920) and Morus "Utopia" (1516). Another one is certainly "Fahrenheit 451" (1953) by Bradbury. All of them are very quick reads (less than 300 pages)

One of the most influential book I ever read would be Huxley's "Island", which hasn't got very much attention (perhaps because of drug use and the spotlight on BNW etc), but that's - as always - open to discussion.
http://www.amazon.com/Island-Perennial-Classics-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0060085495/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258493755&sr=1-1
 
Ignis Fatuus said:
I've read much of both. Give 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island, and Journey to the Center of the Earth a try and get back to me. Even in translation Verne's prose beats Wells, his technological foresight is nothing short of amazing, and his plots are both gripping and thought provoking. A true once-in-a-generation genius.
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I think it depends on what you prefer. Wells was more about making a point about mankind, the social implications of the application of science, and hidden levels of meaning in his stories, less about technical detail and high adventure. But I enjoy a good straightforward adventure sci-fi novel as much as anyone, so I'll check out more Verne when I have time.
 
I've only read one Verne novel (I'll get to more eventually), 20,000 Leagues.

The version I have has a forward by some author saying to skip the endless description of animal life :lol .

I did.
 
gdt5016 said:
Oh Christ.

I hate that "Asimov is not real literature" line.
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Well, he's just no Dostoevsky, too bad. I enjoyed his work immensely, but would you really consider his work as being "influential" literature like "1984" or "Brave New World"? I wouldn't, but that does not make his work obsolete.
 
gdt5016 said:
The version I have has a forward by some author saying to skip the endless description of animal life :lol .

I did.
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Why was there no foreword in Lord of the Rings telling me to skip the endless descriptions of fucking shrubberies and scenery bullshit?

I love Tolkien's works, including LotR, but come on
 
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