THIS IS NOT A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL (THE GUARDIAN LIST)

[defrog]

ITEM: The Guardian has compiled a list of 1,000 novels you MUST read. And they have a science-fiction/fantasy section.

Mind, they’re a bit loose on the criteria for what constitutes SF/F – certainly there’s some room for debate whether dystopian and speculative fiction should count, but in my mind it’s a bit of a stretch to classify, say, Lord Of The Flies, Beloved, The Shining or any story featuring Satan as a character as science-fiction/fantasy.

Still, there’s plenty of books that sound like they’re worth checking out that I might not have otherwise thought to investigate. So it's a list worth reading.

For the record, here’s the books on the SF/F list I’ve already read (except for the two in boldface, which I haven’t read but are in the “to read” pile next to my desk):

Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
Greg Bear: Darwin's Radio (1999)
Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)
William Burroughs: Naked Lunch (1959)
Lewis Carroll: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)
Arthur C Clarke: Childhood's End (1953)
GK Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)
Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)
Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)
William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)
William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954)
Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)
Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)
Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)
Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006)
Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995)
Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)
JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)
Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)
Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1889)
Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)
Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (1924)

Reading is fun,

This is dF

Comments

[jasonfranks.livejournal.com]

... apparently, JURASSIC PARK and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN are crime novels.

I admit, they got me on the wrong foot by introducing the section with PD James describing the mysteries as the be-all and end-all of the crime genre. They do list some novels that are not mysteries in this section, but... JURASSIC PARK has nary a criminal in sight.

Fie on the Guardian.

-- JF

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

I noticed that too. I'm guessing they only bothered with genre breakdowns because no one's going to look at a list 1,000 items long in one go, or to make sure the list had a little variety in it instead of being biased to the usual and obvious classics. It's messy and imperfcet, but again, as a suggested reading list I got a few good recommendations out of it.

[jasonfranks.livejournal.com]

... fair enough, too. Right off the top of the SF list, I'm ready to hunt down DARWIN'S RADIO. I haven't read Greg Bear since I was in high school.

-- JF

[thelastaerie.livejournal.com]

I read the "Wind-up Bird Chronicle" in Chinese translated version and it has been a big effort to finish.

[dinopollard.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say all novels with Satan shouldn't be classified as fantasy. Hell, the Bible reads like fantasy anyway and while he's mostly used in the context of horror, he's also been used in quite a few fantasy settings as well. The one that occurs right off the top of my head is To Reign In Hell.