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So just wondered if there is a list of the most progressive and inspiring sci-fi books from the past up to now. Just for fun.
<edit, oops, misread title>
For classics, have a look at the SF Masterworks series.
the most progressive and inspiring sci-fi books from the past up to now.
I'm sure there are such lists, but as is always the case with 'best lists', they're always totally subjective, and often coloured by the opinions of those collating such lists.
Especially when you start from the early days of speculative fiction, when even the very definition of what constitutes SF becomes very subjective!
Problem is with older seminal books is that they inspire so much later work they seem dull and trite to us.
The first issue I have with the Clarke Award list is William Gibson is only nominated once. And for a book which isn't his best work.
So for that reason I call BOBBINS.
😉
As said up there ^^^^ it's probably a too subjective to find a list that anyone could agree on.
Dunno about top 50 'progressive' books but this [url= http://scifilists.sffjazz.com/lists_books_rank1.html ]Top 100[/url] covers a lot of great ground, there is 100 after all, but you'll need to sort the chronologic order out (helpfully included the published date). Thoroughly enjoyed listening to the majority, and used it as a spring board to authors I'd not read. TBH most other similar lists include the same books or authors, just in a different order.
That list is pretty good, it has a few I would have suggested. It didn't mention Wasp by Erik Frank Russell though which IS a classic.
One of my favourite earlier sci fi books (1950s) is The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester.
Great story of revenge (a la count of monte cristo) set in a few hundred years when we've learned to teleport.
What I like about it is that the protagonist is a bad guy, he does bad things and it all works out for him. No redemption/happy ending.
SF - The 100 best novels, a compendium by David Pringle is good. He's a SF critic and editor and writes an insightful piece about each pick - his list is here:
[url= https://www.worldswithoutend.com/lists_pringle_sf.asp ]https://www.worldswithoutend.com/lists_pringle_sf.asp[/url]
It was written a while ago, though, and covers 1949 - 1984 (appropriately). So nothing contemporary or any of the really old Victorian stuff, but for covering the golden age of the field I don't think you'd see much argument with his picks.
He also did one for fantasy novels which was similarly good.
Bookmarking for later....
Some excellent stuff on this list.
[url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks ]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks[/url]
Thanks all.
Let's make our own list of
the most progressive and inspiring sci-fi books from the past up to now. Just for fun.
Top Three:
Dune
Neuromancer
Accelerando - Charles Stross
The first ones that came into my head - I could obviously go on (all day)
OT, but I wonder how few years it will be before Neuromancer reads like history rather than sci-fi?
OT, but I wonder how few years it will be before Neuromancer reads like history rather than sci-fi?
Oddly enough, that thought did occur to me, the last time I read it, and Gibson himself acknowledges that with his more recent books, the 'Bigend' trilogy, the speed of development in technology has meant it's increasingly difficult to anticipate how things are going to change, so his books are becoming a bit more noir-ish, with any tech being much more things that we're already familiar with, but with a bit of a twist to them.