Classics of Science Fiction

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