21 Books That Changed Science Fiction And Fantasy Forever

[Halb]

21 Books That Changed Science Fiction And Fantasy Forever
1) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
2) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
3) Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney
4) Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
5) War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
6) Foundation by Isaac Asimov
7) Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
8) Dangerous Visions, Edited by Harlan Ellison
8) Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
9) Ringworld by Larry Niven
10) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
11) Neuromancer by William Gibson
12) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
13) A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
14) Kindred by Octavia Butler
15) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
16) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
17) Wind-Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
18) The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
19) Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
20) The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
21) Dune - Frank Herbert
http://io9.com/21-books-that-changed-science-ficti...

[slow_poke]

Why is Fantasy, or even Science Fantasy if you must, always lumped in with Science Fiction.

Hate that. Love Scifi, hate SciFan.

Well, not hate SciFan, just hate it being lumped in with SciFi.

Interesting list.

[Pebbles167]

Add "Do androids dream of electric sheep - Phillip K. Dick" to that.

Good list

[Mutley]

Pebbles167 said:

Add "Do androids dream of electric sheep - Phillip K. Dick" to that.

Good list

Totally agree about Do androids dream.

[HRL]

Agree with about 80% of the list.

What the hell are the Hunger Games, A Game of Thrones and Harry Potter doing in there though. Changed science fiction for ever? No way IMO.

[marshalla]

HRL said:

Agree with about 80% of the list.

What the hell are the Hunger Games, A Game of Thrones and Harry Potter doing in there though. Changed science fiction for ever? No way IMO.

They did - but not necessarily in a good or improving way.

[Mutley]

marshalla said:

HRL said:

Agree with about 80% of the list.

What the hell are the Hunger Games, A Game of Thrones and Harry Potter doing in there though. Changed science fiction for ever? No way IMO.

They did - but not necessarily in a good or improving way.

If you open the link, it explains eachs books inclusion.

Game of Thrones is one that I sort of agree with being there, it removed the Black/White of protagonists, and replaced each with shades of grey.

Potter and Hunger Games, I can't see, but they are Kids/Young Adult books.

[slow_poke]

Mutley said:

marshalla said:

HRL said:

Agree with about 80% of the list.

What the hell are the Hunger Games, A Game of Thrones and Harry Potter doing in there though. Changed science fiction for ever? No way IMO.

They did - but not necessarily in a good or improving way.

If you open the link, it explains eachs books inclusion.

Game of Thrones is one that I sort of agree with being there, it removed the Black/White of protagonists, and replaced each with shades of grey.

Potter and Hunger Games, I can't see, but they are Kids/Young Adult books.

Refer to my post - they're not SciFi, they're Fantasy, and it's a "SciFi & Fantasy" list. So fair enough that they're in there, I just don't get why Fantasy is lumped in with SciFi.

[Halb]

They are the twin derivatives of romantic fiction.

[havoc]

I've read 15 of those, although 2 out of the missing 6 are Harry Potter and Hunger Games, which are pulp fiction not anything game-changing - their only reason on the list is because of the volume sold and the film connection*.

PKD SHOULD be on the list somewhere - DADOES is his most famous, but there's other stuff equally compelling by him.

That said, I think it's a very narrow list - beyond two cyberpunk novels and Windup Girl it's all very old, and I'd suggest there's a lot of modern sci-fi that's equally important/worthy and HAS influenced many writers, but just hasn't become legendary yet - thinking Kim Stanley Robinson, Greg Bear and David Brin for starters, possibly Peter F Hamilton too...


Yet another missed opportunity...



* Same could arguably be said of GoT, to be fair...

[onomatopoeia]

If they're going to have Neuromancer, they should acknowledge the importance of The shockwave riders that came before and was effectively a cyberpunk novel, before the term was invented.

Don't understand why The windup girl is on there. It's very good, but not sure about "changing forever".

[Blue383]

Two very worrying omissions.

Gullivers Travels - Swift . Space opera and world hopping in a time when we really were going where no man has gone before.

The Tempest - by some Warwickshire bloke.

[Inny]

I would add The Road by Cormack McCarythy, although that could move us into the dystopian genre with 1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid's Tale, Farenheit 452, Oryx and Crake the like.

Genre's a tricky subject.

[VeeDubBigBird]

Surprised not to see Discworld. I feel like it added a lot more than Harry Potter, which kind of hits every wizard cliche Rowling could find.

[singlecoil]

Skylark Duquesne should have been on that list, the climax of the Skylark series. Epic stuff.

[DJRC]

How the hell is PTerry not on that list?
And Steam punk? Seriously?

[ChemicalChaos]

No mention of Ender's Game?

[T1berious]

Yup, SCi Fi and Sci Fan really should have some kind of massive concrete dividing wall.

Game of thrones out

Culture novels in

[TheJimi]

...and why is Flowers For Algernon missing from the list?!

[Chiefbadger]

I think the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan should be there for sure. Influenced so much modern fantasy and remains unmatched in my view.