essentialism

[calimac]

Here's a list of 50 essential SF books that I consider rather depressing, as I've only read half of them, and, of those, only about five of them did I really enjoy, and, of those five, two are sufficiently old and quaint that I'd be reluctant to recommend them, and two are not my favorites by their authors. That leaves The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Also, at least one of my favorite SF novelists isn't on the list, not to mention several favorite short-story writers who aren't at their best in novels (a circumstance also true of several writers who are on the list). Also, I've only read two of the books published in the last 30 years, and one of those I purely hated.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The one thing such a reader would not get a reasonably accurate sense of is what I find attractive about SF, to the extent that I do, and that's why I find the list personally distressing. That, of course, is my problem, not necessarily anyone else's, but it does suggest to me that the list is more of an expression of its creator's personal tastes, and less representative of the essential outline of SF as a whole, than may appear at first glance.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I think that criterion is one that, in the nature of things, could hardly be met by anyone but you. At least, it would be a happy surprise to me if anyone came up with a list of "fifty essential works" that exactly targeted my sense for what sf novels have been most rewarding to read (for some examples, Memory, The Pride of Chanur, Courtship Rite, A Deepness in the Sky, Lord of Light), and I imagine your tastes must be every bit as personal and quirky as mine.

The one book on the list, of those I've read, that strikes me as clearly wrong is The Stand. It starts out as near-future epidemiological hard sf, to be sure, but about a third of the way in it takes a sharp turn into apocalyptic fantasy (and in this case I don't mean just "end of the world fantasy," but the exact religious sense of apocalyptic). And to be sure that's a legitimate genre, though not my favorite, but it's not sf of any sort.

I'm not sure if Atwood and Gibson are meant to be part of the list or are there as lagniappe (it looks as if there are fifty without them), but I might be tempted to take Atwood at her word and not count her fiction as sf.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I'm not expecting it to be my perfect list. But I would hope that a list that included respected and important books that I didn't particularly enjoy, like Dune or Man Plus, would also include a few books like Lord of Light or Lest Darkness Fall or Dying Inside.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Lest Darkness Fall isn't one of my personal favorites, but certainly on grounds of influence within the genre it absolutely deserves to be included. I don't know if it's the founding work of the time travel robinsonade, but it's certainly the outstanding reference point for that particular subsubgenre. And it may be the best known science fiction novel by de Camp, who is a substantial enough figure to deserve representation.