I was thinking about leaving it off because it is really, really bad for anyone who actually reads Sci-Fi. I put it on the list because despite the fact that it's almost completely unreadable because the Wal*Mart set needs their Sci-Fi too. I wanted the list to cover as broad a spectrum of sci-fi as I could without making it 100 items long.
I left off a lot of greats including:
Vernor Vinge Dan Simmons Arthur C Clarke Iain M. Banks
and other works by Stross and a few others
Why is Rand on this list? Well, besides the Bible (go figure) Atlas Shrugged is apparently the most influential book ever written. Do I agree with the whole Objectivist shtick? Not hardly but it is still worth mentioning.
The Giver? Like Anthem it's Sci-Fi for grade schoolers, worth mentioning because a lot of people were introduced to Sci-Fi with books like this.
Leave suggestions, as many as you want. If you don't see it on the list it probably would have been there if I had remembered it while I was compiling.
I personally love Stanislaw Lem's books. Two of my favorites:
- The Cyberiad: a set of short stories that read almost
like silly little fairy tales, complete with
probabalistic dragons, poetry machines, and kings,
and electroknights.
- His Master's Voice: A rather cynical look at
deciphering a message from the stars.
Also, I've heard some people describe Lem's "Solaris" as one of the few science fiction novels that also qualify as great literature, although I must admit I didn't enjoy it as much as Cyberiad.
I was thinking about leaving it off because it is really, really bad for anyone who actually reads Sci-Fi. I put it on the list because despite the fact that it's almost completely unreadable because the Wal*Mart set needs their Sci-Fi too. I wanted the list to cover as broad a spectrum of sci-fi as I could without making it 100 items long.
I left off a lot of greats including:
Vernor Vinge Dan Simmons Arthur C Clarke Iain M. Banks
and other works by Stross and a few others
Why is Rand on this list? Well, besides the Bible (go figure) Atlas Shrugged is apparently the most influential book ever written. Do I agree with the whole Objectivist shtick? Not hardly but it is still worth mentioning.
The Giver? Like Anthem it's Sci-Fi for grade schoolers, worth mentioning because a lot of people were introduced to Sci-Fi with books like this.
Leave suggestions, as many as you want. If you don't see it on the list it probably would have been there if I had remembered it while I was compiling.