James W. Harris and Michael Jorgensen have put a tremendous amount of work into identifying which SF novels might be considered as classics. I like the pure textual list at their website, but if you prefer a site which presents covers for it, you can consult the Worlds Without End’s list.
I cover the list here to link my own reviews (r is for read without review, GR for GoodReads review, blank is for unread)
Year | Title | Author | Link to Review | |
1 | 1965 | Dune | Frank Herbert | review |
2 | 1959 | A Canticle for Leibowitz | Walter M. Miller Jr. | review |
3 | 1969 | The Left Hand of Darkness | Ursula K. Le Guin | r |
4 | 1953 | Childhood’s End | Arthur C. Clarke | r |
5 | 1949 | Nineteen Eighty-Four | George Orwell | r |
6 | 1950 | The Martian Chronicles | Ray Bradbury | r |
7 | 1951-53 | The Foundation Trilogy | Isaac Asimov | |
8 | 1984 | Neuromancer | William Gibson | review |
9 | 1957 | The Stars My Destination | Alfred Bester | r |
10 | 1974 | The Dispossessed | Ursula K. Le Guin | review |
11 | 1953 | The Demolished Man | Alfred Bester | review |
12 | 1970 | Ringworld | Larry Niven | r |
13 | 1989 | Hyperion | Dan Simmons | review |
14 | 1962 | The Man in the High Castle | Philip K. Dick | review |
15 | 1985 | Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Card | r |
16 | 1961 | Stranger in a Strange Land | Robert A. Heinlein | GR |
17 | 1966 | Flowers for Algernon | Daniel Keyes | r |
18 | 1975 | The Forever War | Joe Haldeman | review |
19 | 1973 | Rendezvous with Rama | Arthur C. Clarke | review |
20 | 1953 | Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury | |
21 | 1992 | Red Mars | Kim Stanley Robinson | review |
22 | 1895 | The Time Machine | H.G. Wells | |
23 | 1992 | Doomsday Book | Connie Willis | review |
24 | 1979 | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | r |
25 | 1977 | Gateway | Frederik Pohl | review |
26 | 2006 | The Road | Cormac McCarthy | |
27 | 1932 | Brave New World | Aldous Huxley | GR |
28 | 1968 | Stand on Zanzibar | John Brunner | r |
29 | 1898 | The War of the Worlds | H.G. Wells | |
30 | 1953 | More Than Human | Theodore Sturgeon | |
31 | 1992 | Snow Crash | Neal Stephenson | GR |
32 | 1967 | Lord of Light | Roger Zelazny | r |
33 | 1980-87 | The Book of the New Sun | Gene Wolfe | r |
34 | 1992 | A Fire Upon the Deep | Vernor Vinge | GR |
35 | 1985 | The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret Atwood | |
36 | 1966 | The Moon is a Harsh Mistress | Robert A. Heinlein | review |
37 | 1959 | Starship Troopers | Robert A. Heinlein | review |
38 | 2009 | The Windup Girl | Paolo Bacigalupi | r |
39 | 1818 | Frankenstein | Mary Shelley | |
40 | 1970 | Solaris | Stanislaw Lem | |
41 | 1968 | Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Philip K. Dick | r |
42 | 1995 | The Diamond Age | Neal Stephenson | r |
43 | 1962 | A Clockwork Orange | Anthony Burgess | |
44 | 1963 | Way Station | Clifford D. Simak | GR |
45 | 1949 | Earth Abides | George R. Stewart | |
46 | 1980 | Timescape | Gregory Benford | |
47 | 2008 | The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins | r |
48 | 1954 | Mission of Gravity | Hal Clement | |
49 | 1975 | The Female Man | Joanna Russ | |
50 | 2005 | Old Man’s War | John Scalzi | review (German) |
51 | 1952 | City | Clifford D. Simak | |
52 | 1983 | Startide Rising | David Brin | GR |
53 | 1969 | Ubik | Philip K. Dick | review |
54 | 1956 | The City and the Stars | Arthur C. Clarke | review |
55 | 1930 | Last and First Men | Olaf Stapledon | |
56 | 2013 | Ancillary Justice | Ann Leckie | review |
57 | 1996 | The Sparrow | Mary Doria Russell | r |
58 | 1971 | To Your Scattered Bodies Go | Philip José Farmer | |
59 | 1958 | A Case of Conscience | James Blish | |
60 | 1953 | The Space Merchants | Frederik Pohl, C.M. Kornbluth | GR |
61 | 1951 | The Day of the Triffids | John Wyndham | GR |
62 | 1972 | The Gods Themselves | Isaac Asimov | |
63 | 1950 | I, Robot | Isaac Asimov | r |
64 | 1963 | Cat’s Cradle | Kurt Vonnegut | |
65 | 1959 | The Sirens of Titan | Kurt Vonnegut | |
66 | 1999 | A Deepness in the Sky | Vernor Vinge | r |
67 | 1968 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | Arthur C. Clarke | r |
68 | 1969 | Slaughterhouse-Five | Kurt Vonnegut | |
69 | 1986 | Speaker for the Dead | Orson Scott Card | |
70 | 1917 | A Princess of Mars | Edgar Rice Burroughs | |
71 | 1937 | Star Maker | Olaf Stapledon | |
72 | 1954 | The Caves of Steel | Isaac Asimov | GR |
73 | 1972 | Dying Inside | Robert Silverberg | |
74 | 1988 | Cyteen | C.J. Cherryh | review |
75 | 2002 | Altered Carbon | Richard K. Morgan | r |
76 | 1975 | Dhalgren | Samuel R. Delany | |
77 | 1988 | The Player of Games | Iain M. Banks | r |
78 | 1974 | The Mote in God’s Eye | Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle | r |
79 | 1985 | Blood Music | Greg Bear | review |
80 | 1990 | The Fall of Hyperion | Dan Simmons | r |
81 | 1870 | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea | Jules Verne | |
82 | 1962 | A Wrinkle in Time | Madeleine L’Engle | |
83 | 1966 | Babel-17 | Samuel R. Delany | review |
84 | 1987 | Consider Phlebas | Iain M. Banks | review |
85 | 1962 | The Drowned World | J.G. Ballard | r |
86 | 1924 | We | Yevgeny Zamyatin | |
87 | 1981 | Downbelow Station | C.J. Cherryh | review |
88 | 1946 | Slan | A.E. van Vogt | |
89 | 2003 | The Time Traveler’s Wife | Audrey Niffenegger | |
90 | 1989 | Grass | Sheri S. Tepper | review |
91 | 1992 | China Mountain Zhang | Maureen F. McHugh | GR |
92 | 1972 | Roadside Picnic | Arkady and Boris Strugatsky | |
93 | 1970 | Tau Zero | Poul Anderson | |
94 | 1991 | Barrayar | Lois McMaster Bujold | GR |
95 | 1980 | The Snow Queen | Joan D. Vinge | review |
96 | 1982 | No Enemy But Time | Michael Bishop | |
97 | 1956 | Double Star | Robert A. Heinlein | |
98 | 1896 | The Island of Doctor Moreau | H.G. Wells | |
99 | 1864 | Journey to the Center of the Earth | Jules Verne | |
100 | 1993 | Ammonite | Nicola Griffith | review |
101 | 1982 | Helliconia Spring | Brian W. Aldiss | r |
102 | 1977 | A Scanner Darkly | Philip K. Dick | |
103 | 1998 | To Say Nothing of the Dog | Connie Willis | |
104 | 1938 | Out of the Silent Planet | C.S. Lewis | |
105 | 1986 | A Door into Ocean | Joan Slonczewski | |
106 | 1979 | The Fountains of Paradise | Arthur C. Clarke | r |
107 | 1954 | I Am Legend | Richard Matheson | GR |
108 | 1985 | The Postman | David Brin | |
109 | 1968 | Dragonflight | Anne McCaffrey | GR |
110 | 1967 | Dangerous Visions | Harlan Ellison | |
111 | 1968 | Pavane | Keith Roberts | |
112 | 1990 | Her Smoke Rose Up Forever | James Tiptree Jr. | review |
113 | 1993 | Parable of the Sower | Octavia E. Butler | |
114 | 1941 | Lest Darkness Fall | L. Sprague de Camp | |
115 | 1935 | Odd John | Olaf Stapledon | |
116 | 1966 | The Crystal World | J.G. Ballard | |
117 | 1957 | The Door into Summer | Robert A. Heinlein | GR |
118 | 1967 | The Einstein Intersection | Samuel R. Delany | review |
119 | 1960 | Rogue Moon | Algis Budrys | |
120 | 1978 | Dreamsnake | Vonda N. McIntyre | review |
121 | 1991 | Synners | Pat Cadigan | |
122 | 1865 | From the Earth to the Moon | Jules Verne | |
123 | 1951 | The Illustrated Man | Ray Bradbury | |
124 | 1976 | Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang | Kate Wilhelm | review |
125 | 1968 | Camp Concentration | Thomas M. Disch | |
126 | 1970 | Cities in Flight | James Blish | |
127 | 1972 | The Fifth Head of Cerberus | Gene Wolfe | r |
128 | 1946 | Adventures in Time and Space | Raymond J. Healy, J. Francis McComas | |
129 | 1949 | The Humanoids | Jack Williamson | |
130 | 1948 | The World of Null-A | A.E. van Vogt | |
131 | 1962 | Hothouse | Brian W. Aldiss | |
132 | 1979 | Kindred | Octavia E. Butler | |
133 | 1968 | Rite of Passage | Alexei Panshin | |
134 | 1955 | The End of Eternity | Isaac Asimov | |
135 | 1966 | This Immortal | Roger Zelazny | |
136 | 1889 | A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court | Mark Twain | |
137 | 1897 | The Invisible Man | H.G. Wells | |
138 | 1971 | The Lathe of Heaven | Ursula K. Le Guin | r |
139 | 1923 | R.U.R. | Karel Čapek |
Andreas, you’ve read a lot of science fiction, but I’m kind of surprised by what you’ve missed. Like The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, Frankenstein, Earth Abides, and The Foundation Trilogy
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Don’t be surprised! It’s similar to short fiction: my hometurf starts at New Wave. Anything older is an exception, up to unreadable for me. I don’t enjoy Jules Verne or Wells, and can’t bear Asimov. His Caves of Steel was a good example which I simply hated.
I‘d rather read the highbrow classics than SF works of that time.
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The only Asimov novel I like by him is The Naked Sun. It has a neat premise. A planet full of agoraphobic people who can’t stand to get near each other has a murder.
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Funny premise! Now I wonder why you wondered why I didn’t read Foundation 😁 Ah, I kind of read it now, as in Apple TV‘s show.
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v. 5 of the Classics of Science Fiction list is back up. Since you like lists, it has a list builder feature that lets you create customized lists.
https://csfquery.com/
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Thanks for the link! The novels seem to be slightly reordered. Is there anything new in it?
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