Posts Tagged ‘Sci-Fi’
Fanfics of Dune
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hen I first started travelling, I read nothing but histories and books of political discourse. The longer I travelled, the more I started leaning towards historical fiction and literature (Barnes & Noble Classics, FTW).
As miles racked up, I was drawn toward ever more escapist reading. Which is not to say I didn’t sprinkle a little Sci-Fi in all along, but I doubt I would’ve read the entire Harry Potter series if I hadn’t flown 150,000 miles in a year.
I have for some time been basing new reading recommendations off of this list of Top 100 Sci-Fi Books. My goal has never been to read all 100 of the books on the list, rather to use the list as a guide to navigate the most popular authors in Sci-Fi and become a more well-rounded geek.
Two examples: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy & 1984. Haven’t read them, not planning on reading them. I feel like pop culture has so heavily digested them that I wouldn’t really be discovering anything new for myself.
Of the remaining, I’ve read 25 to date, complete list below. And I haven’t really disagreed with the list in terms of quality. In terms of ranking, however, I would strongly argue Ender’s Game being above Dune. I liked Ender, reading from Ender’s Game to Xenocide, but I read Dune immediately afterward and the contrast was stark. Put simply, Dune felt like a book for adults, it felt like Sci-Fi literature.
Would you make changes? What should I read next?
| Author | Title | ||
| √ | 1 | Orson Scott Card | Ender’s Game |
| √ | 2 | Frank Herbert | Dune |
| √ | 3 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation |
| 4 | Douglas Adams | Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | |
| 5 | George Orwell | 1984 | |
| √ | 6 | Robert A Heinlein | Stranger in a Strange Land |
| √ | 7 | Ray Bradbury | Fahrenheit 451 |
| 8 | Arthur C Clarke | 2001: A Space Odyssey | |
| √ | 9 | Isaac Asimov | I, Robot |
| √ | 10 | Philip K Dick | Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? |
| 11 | Robert A Heinlein | Starship Troopers | |
| 12 | William Gibson | Neuromancer | |
| √ | 13 | Larry Niven | Ringworld |
| 14 | Arthur C Clarke | Rendezvous With Rama | |
| 15 | Dan Simmons | Hyperion | |
| √ | 16 | H G Wells | The Time Machine |
| 17 | Aldous Huxley | Brave New World | |
| 18 | Arthur C Clarke | Childhood’s End | |
| 19 | Robert A Heinlein | The Moon is a Harsh Mistress | |
| √ | 20 | H G Wells | The War of the Worlds |
| 21 | Joe Haldeman | The Forever War | |
| √ | 22 | Ray Bradbury | The Martian Chronicles |
| √ | 23 | Kurt Vonnegut | Slaughterhouse Five |
| 24 | Neal Stephenson | Snow Crash | |
| 25 | Ursula K Le Guin | The Left Hand of Darkness | |
| 26 | Niven & Pournelle | The Mote in God’s Eye | |
| √ | 27 | Orson Scott Card | Speaker for the Dead |
| √ | 28 | Michael Crichton | Jurassic Park |
| 29 | Philip K Dick | The Man in the High Castle | |
| √ | 30 | Isaac Asimov | The Caves of Steel |
| 31 | Alfred Bester | The Stars My Destination | |
| 32 | Roger Zelazny | Lord of Light | |
| 33 | Frederik Pohl | Gateway | |
| 34 | Stanislaw Lem | Solaris | |
| √ | 35 | Jules Verne | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
| √ | 36 | Madeleine L’Engle | A Wrinkle In Time |
| 37 | Michael Crichton | The Andromeda Strain | |
| √ | 38 | Kurt Vonnegut | Cat’s Cradle |
| 39 | Carl Sagan | Contact | |
| 40 | Isaac Asimov | The Gods Themselves | |
| 41 | Vernor Vinge | A Fire Upon the Deep | |
| 42 | Philip K Dick | UBIK | |
| √ | 43 | Neal Stephenson | Cryptonomicon |
| 44 | John Wyndham | The Day of the Triffids | |
| 45 | Anthony Burgess | A Clockwork Orange | |
| 46 | Robert A Heinlein | Time Enough For Love | |
| 47 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Red Mars | |
| √ | 48 | Daniel Keyes | Flowers for Algernon |
| 49 | Walter M Miller | A Canticle for Leibowitz | |
| 50 | Isaac Asimov | The End Of Eternity | |
| 51 | L Ron Hubbard | Battlefield Earth | |
| √ | 52 | Mary Shelley | Frankenstein |
| 53 | Jules Verne | Journey to the Center of the Earth | |
| 54 | Ursula K Le Guin | The Dispossessed | |
| 55 | Neal Stephenson | The Diamond Age | |
| 56 | Iain M Banks | Player Of Games | |
| 57 | Peter F Hamilton | The Reality Dysfunction | |
| 58 | David Brin | Startide Rising | |
| √ | 59 | Kurt Vonnegut | The Sirens of Titan |
| 60 | Greg Bear | Eon | |
| √ | 61 | Orson Scott Card | Ender’s Shadow |
| 62 | Philip Jose Farmer | To Your Scattered Bodies Go | |
| 63 | Philip K Dick | A Scanner Darkly | |
| 64 | Niven & Pournelle | Lucifer’s Hammer | |
| 65 | Margaret Atwood | The Handmaid’s Tale | |
| 66 | Arthur C Clarke | The City and the Stars | |
| 67 | Harry Harrison | The Stainless Steel Rat | |
| 68 | Alfred Bester | The Demolished Man | |
| 69 | Gene Wolfe | The Shadow of the Torturer | |
| 70 | Michael Crichton | Sphere | |
| 71 | Robert A Heinlein | The Door Into Summer | |
| 72 | Philip K Dick | The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch | |
| 73 | Alastair Reynolds | Revelation Space | |
| 74 | Robert A Heinlein | Citizen Of the Galaxy | |
| 75 | Connie Willis | Doomsday Book | |
| 76 | Dan Simmons | Ilium | |
| √ | 77 | H G Wells | The Invisible Man |
| 78 | Robert A Heinlein | Have Space-Suit – Will Travel | |
| 79 | Robert A Heinlein | The Puppet Masters | |
| 80 | C S Lewis | Out of the Silent Planet | |
| 81 | Edgar Rice Burroughs | A Princess of Mars | |
| 82 | Ursula K Le Guin | The Lathe of Heaven | |
| 83 | Iain M Banks | Use of Weapons | |
| 84 | John Wyndham | The Chrysalids | |
| 85 | Clifford Simak | Way Station | |
| 86 | Edwin A Abbott | Flatland | |
| 87 | Richard Morgan | Altered Carbon | |
| 88 | John Scalzi | Old Man’s War | |
| 89 | Arkady & Boris Strugatsky | Roadside Picnic | |
| √ | 90 | Cormac McCarthy | The Road |
| 91 | David Brin | The Postman | |
| 92 | John Brunner | Stand on Zanzibar | |
| 93 | Philip K Dick | VALIS | |
| 94 | Stanislaw Lem | The Cyberiad | |
| 95 | James Blish | Cities in Flight | |
| 96 | Arthur Conan Doyle | The Lost World | |
| 97 | Julian May | The Many-Colored Land | |
| 98 | E E ‘Doc’ Smith | Grey Lensman | |
| 99 | David Brin | The Uplift War | |
| 100 | Greg Bear | The Forge of God |
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Update
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Last minute addition: Goodnight Dune.
