cahn | SF books with impact

There's this Esquire 75 best SF books of all time meme going around (I think

thistleingrey first posted about it on DW in meme-form here) and the Esquire list annoyed me so very much (it leaves off all kinds of interesting books that I love) that instead of doing the meme I made my own list :P I used Jo Walton's Informal History of the Hugos (which is even better than I remember, btw) as a major source for finding books to put on my list. The list also has turned into more of a "SF books that had a nontrivial impact on me" rather than "best SF books" but eh.

Books where I agree with the Esquire list:
Snow Crash (Stephenson)
A Clockwork Orange (Burgess)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Heinlein)
A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle)
The Stars My Destination (Bester)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams)
A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller)
A Memory Called Empire (Martine)
Ancillary Justice (Leckie)
Oryx and Crake (Atwood)
Red Mars (Robinson)
Brave New World (Huxley)
1984 (Orwell)
The Left Hand of Darkness (Le Guin)
The Fifth Season (Jemisin)
Martian Chronicles (Bradbury)
Dune (Herbert)

Books the Esquire list has that I imagine should belong but which I haven't read yet: (in all cases except Miéville I have read something by the author, but not any book-length SF)
The Claw of the Conciliator (Wolfe)
Neuromancer (Gibson)
Ammonite (Griffith)
Engine Summer (Crowley)
The City & The City (Miéville)

Authors the Esquire list has, but I would put in a different book (sometimes because I haven't read the one on the list):
City (Simak) - I haven't read Way Station but I don't think it would overtake City in my head
Cyberiad (Lem) - I haven't read Solaris
The Bridge (Banks) - I thought I should have one Iain Banks in here, and I've read this one
Babel-17 (Delany) - I haven't read Dhalgren but I adore Babel-17
None So Blind (Haldeman) - I haven't read The Forever War, but I probably should - but this collection of short stories is pretty great
Cat's Cradle (Vonnegut)
Foundation (Asimov) - idk - I think conceptually it just edges out the Robot stories for me, though it's a coin flip because Susan Calvin is my fave
A Scanner Darkly (Dick) - I like this one more than Electric Sheep
Stories of Your Life and other stories (Chiang) - I like this more than Exhalation
Dawn (Butler) - I mean isn't this obvious??

Authors that don't appear on the Esquire list at all:
Stand on Zanzibar (Brunner) [how is this not on the list]
Memory (Bujold) [I MEAN]
Ender's Game (Card) [kinda surprised this is not on the list, honestly - as it's in print and has got crowd appeal]
Cyteen (Cherryh) [HOW]
Doomsday Book (Willis) [WHY]
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (Tiptree) [HOW IS THERE NO TIPTREE]
The Dispossessed (Le Guin) [Le Guin is the only time I've put in two from the same author which I can see the original list was trying to avoid but... yeah]
A Fire upon the Deep (Vinge) [come ooooon!]
The Rediscovery of Man (Smith) [HOW IS THERE NO CORDWAINER SMITH]
Some Desperate Glory (Tesh) :P
Ingathering (Henderson)
The Wounded Sky (Duane) [I'm making this list, it's going in]
Arslan (Engh)
Web of Angels (Ford)
Beggars in Spain (Kress) [RIGHT?]
Hexwood (Jones)
Dreamsnake (McIntyre)
Gideon the Ninth (Muir)
The Real Story (Donaldson) [also probably a personal choice]
Flowers for Algernon (Keyes)
Perhaps the Stars (Palmer)
Dangerous Visions (ed. Ellison) [no really HOW IS THIS NOT ON THE LIST]
Behold the Man (Moorcock) [I hated this book when I first read it but boy did it have an impact on me]
Cards of Grief (Yolen) - well - mostly because I couldn't resist putting Yolen on this list
The Steerswoman (Kirstein)
Permutation City (Egan)
In the Garden of Iden (Baker)
Joanna Russ should probably be on this list though I've never read an actual book by her, unless you count Souls

omg, we could fight about this list, it's clearly a list tailored to me personally and I'm sure everyone reading this will quibble about things that I've put on or left off (and please do) -- I noticed, for one thing, that apparently I read no SF published from around 2000-2010, except for Bujold -- but maybe the idiosyncrasy will make it more interesting :P

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

hamsterwoman

I used Jo Walton's Informal History of the Hugos (which is even better than I remember, btw)

I also had the impulse to cross-check the list against Jo Walton's Hugo book :) (but didn't actually do it)

Agreed with most of the books you would keep that I have also read (I think you can guess what one of my disagreements is, heh)

Cyberiad (Lem) - I haven't read Solaris

Having read both, I get why Solaris is on the list and Cyberiad isn't, but I love Cyberiad a lot more! I prefer Lem as a humorous writer in general.

Cat's Cradle (Vonnegut) -- I hadn't read the one they had on the list, but that's the one I was expecting to see.

Foundation (Asimov) - idk - I think conceptually it just edges out the Robot stories for me, though it's a coin flip because Susan Calvin is my fave

I was also surprised to see Robots over Foundation, because I do think of Foundation as his grander work, even though I'm personally meh on it and adore the Robot stories/books.

Stories of Your Life and other stories (Chiang) - I like this more than Exhalation -- 100% agreed! (and this seems a common sentiment)

Memory (Bujold) [I MEAN]
Ender's Game (Card) [kinda surprised this is not on the list, honestly - as it's in print and has got crowd appeal]
Cyteen (Cherryh) [HOW]
Doomsday Book (Willis) [WHY]

Yes on all of these actually! I forgot about Ender's Game, but I think it absolutely should be there. No Bujold and Willis at all on their list is so WEIRD! And Cyteen is the only thing by Cherryh I've read so far, but would certainly not object to seeing it on a list like that.

Flowers for Algernon (Keyes) -- ooh, another one I didn't notice as missing, but now that you mention it, should totally have been on there.

Perhaps the Stars (Palmer) - <333

The Steerswoman (Kirstein) -- ooh, good call! (or maybe Tchaikovsky's Elder Race. But I feel like this subgenre ought to be represented at any rate.)

From:

primeideal

But I feel like this subgenre ought to be represented at any rate.

I strongly agree, but I think Gene Wolfe might be this? IDK I'll read him and report back soon :P

From:

hamsterwoman

Ooh, maybe! I don't actually know what the Book of the New Sun (that's what that book was form, right?) is, subgenre-wise, just that I've heard it highly praised by SFF authors whose books I like, so I do want to read it one of these days, but it sounds like quite an undertaking... So happy to vicariously read your thoughts instead :))

From:

primeideal

Yeah, their pick was from Book of the New Sun; Tchaikovsky also cites "Trip, Trap" (short story?) as being an influence on "Elder Race."

From:

hamsterwoman

*looks up "Trip, Trap"* ooh, I can definitely see how this would be an influence on Elder Race, and now I want to remember to track down the Gene Wolfe story, because I really like that conceit!

From:

cahn

I think I can guess one of your disagreements! ;)

I know it might be weird to have Perhaps the Stars instead of Too Like the Lightning, but Perhaps the Stars was the one where I was like, "...wow!"

Ugh, I keep meaning to read Elder Race, and I just keep not reading it even though I like Tchikovsky's shorter work that I've read. I think because they look like Epic Doorstoppers, which I've mostly given up on :) ETA: Oh no wait, I'm totally mixing up Elder Race and some other series he wrote! Yes, I love Elder Race :) Of course the one I always think of is Semley's Necklace, but that's a short story.

Edited Date: 2024-07-26 08:22 pm (UTC)

From:

hamsterwoman

I know it might be weird to have Perhaps the Stars instead of Too Like the Lightning, but Perhaps the Stars was the one where I was like, "...wow!"

Perhaps the Stars makes perfect sense to me as the pick for Terra Ignota! To start with, I do feel TLTL suffers from being only half a book -- I'd be far more on board with the combo of TLTL + 7 Surrenders (as it was intended to be the first volume) -- but also, yeah, Perhaps the Stars was the book that blew me away most of the four, and the fact that it stuck the landing with that complex a setup is the thing that makes the whole series most extraordinary for me. So, I'm in complete agreement there!

I think because they look like Epic Doorstoppers, which I've mostly given up on :)

Heh, yeah, the reason I've read and loved Elder Race and have yet to finish anything else by Tchaikovsky is that the rest of them that are interesting to me do look like Epic Doorstoppers, and I mostly can't deal with those anymore, except where I've already invested the time in the series.

Of course the one I always think of is Semley's Necklace, but that's a short story.

Oh right, for some reason I keep completely forgetting about Semley's Necklace. That too! Though I guess they already had Ursula LeGuin on the list and it's not like one can argue Left Hand of Darkness is unworthy.

From:

cahn

Haha, yeah, and I even put a second Le Guin on my personal list so I suppose it can't ALL be Le Guin (although if it were, I'd also maybe put the story "Nine Lives" on there... :) And maybe Lathe of Heaven as an alternate-universe story?)

From:

hidden_variable

Having read both, I get why Solaris is on the list and Cyberiad isn't, but I love Cyberiad a lot more! I prefer Lem as a humorous writer in general.

Yes, same! I read Cyberiad first, and then Solaris was... totally not what I was expecting.

From:

cahn

Ha, okay, I shall have to read it. (And, of course, it was M that got me to read Cyberiad :) I think he tried to get me to read Solaris too and I never got around to it...)

From:

hidden_variable

it was M that got me to read Cyberiad

Haha, I thought that might have been the case, but wasn't sure. :)

So we are packing up boxes for moving, and today I found a big stack of Lem books in M's bookcase. Some of them are in Polish, which is not helpful for me, but there were at least a couple of English ones that I don't remember having read. Now they are in a box, though, so I'll have to wait on them for a while.

From:

cahn

Oh, neat. I'll be interested to see what you think of them. And good luck with moving! (In the same general area, I presume? Or not?)

From:

hidden_variable

Thanks! Yes, the move is not too far. We bought the house a while ago, but it needed a lot of renovation. It looks like it will finally be ready to move in by the end of the summer.