Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 19:30:39 -0500
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Old School
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Michael Walsh wrote:

>
> Which brings to mind.... are the books that one should have read to be
> fully informed about the genre?  Sort of, let's say, "The 100 Essential
> SF Books You Need To Have Read"?
>
> Note: this has nothing to do as to why books are OP, why publishing is
> quite often stupid, or the like.

Hoo boy!  Talk about an  open ended question!

Caveat -- some of these are pretty terrible, but they are important as
an example of a genre, or were influential on later SF.

Lessee, off the top of my head:

The Time Machine -- H. G. Wells
 From Earth to Moon (or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) -- Jules Verne
The King of Elfland's Daughter -- Lord Dunsany
The House on the Borderland -- William Hope Hodgson
A Princess of Mars -- Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Skylark of Space -- E. E. Smith
I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
The Foundation Trilogy -- Isaac Asimov
The Caves of Steel -- Isaac Asimov
Slan -- A. E. van Vogt
The Great Explosion -- Eric Frank Russel
Retif's War -- Keith Laumer
Way Station -- Clifford Simak
Time is the Simplest Thing -- Clifford Simak
Cities in Flight trilogy -- James Blish
When Worlds Collide & After Worlds Collide -- Philip Wylie
Conjure Wife -- Fritz Leiber
A Canticle for Leibowitz -- Walter M. Miller Jr.
Brain Wave -- Poul Anderson
Lord of the Rings -- J. R. R. Tolkein
A Wizard of Earthsea -- Usrula K. LeGuin
The Left Hand of Darkness -- Usrula K. LeGuin
The Lathe of Heaven -- Usrula K. LeGuin
The Martian Chronicles -- Ray Bradbury
Mission of Gravity -- Hal Clement
Needle -- Hal Clement
Ophiuchi Hotline -- John Varley
The Rolling Stones -- Robert A. Heinlein
Starship Troopers -- Robert A. Heinlein
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress -- Robert A. Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert A. Heinlein
Childhood's End -- Arthur C. Clarke
The Towers of Utopia -- Mack Reynolds
Blood Music -- Greg Bear
Neuromancer -- William Gibson
Snow Crash -- Neil Stephenson

And this leaves out the short works by Lovecraft and Tenn and Cordwainer
Smith and Sturgeon and Ellison and Anvil and Schmitz and Brown and
Wellman and ...

Your mileage will almost certainly vary.

I'll have to get off my duff and go look through the library.

--
Steve Smith                                    sgs at aginc dot net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."