ext_99581 ([identity profile] ericmvan.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] sovay 2009-01-23 01:46 am (UTC)

In Contrast

Here are the 18 sf novels that placed in the top 50 in the last Locus reader's poll and were also included in separate lists of the c. 100 greatest sf novels of all time by John Clute, David G. Hartwell, and David Pringle. Bold titles were omitted from the Guardian list:

Bester, Alfred: The Demolished Man
Bester, Alfred: The Stars My Destination
Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451
Brunner, John: Stand on Zanzibar
Clarke, Arthur C.: Childhood's End
Dick, Philip K.: The Man in the High Castle
Gibson, William: Neuromancer
Herbert, Frank: Dune
Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Left Hand of Darkness
Miller, Walter M., Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz
Shelley, Mary: Frankenstein
Stapledon, Olaf: Last and First Men
Stapledon, Olaf: Star Maker
Sturgeon, Theodore: More Than Human
Wells, H. G.: The Time Machine
Wells, H. G.: The War of the Worlds
Wolfe, Gene: The Book of the New Sun

And here are the 32 novels named by three of the above four authorities. They missed 19 of them:

Asimov, Isaac: The Foundation Trilogy
Benford, Gregory: Timescape
Blish, James: A Case of Conscience
Bradbury, Ray: The Martian Chronicles
Brin, David: Startide Rising

Burgess, Anthony: A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott: Ender's Game
Cherryh, C. J.: Cyteen
Clarke, Arthur C.: The City and the Stars
Clement, Hal: Mission of Gravity

Dick, Philip K.: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.: Ubik
Disch, Thomas M.: 334
Farmer, Philip José: To Your Scattered Bodies Go

Haldeman, Joe: The Forever War
Heinlein, Robert A.: Starship Troopers
Heinlein, Robert A.: Stranger in a Strange Land
Huxley, Aldous: Brave New Word
Keyes, Daniel: Flowers for Algernon
Moorcock, Michael: The Cornelius Chronicles
Niven, Larry: Ringworld
Orwell, George: Nineteen Eighty-Four
Pohl, Frederik: Gateway
Pohl, Frederik & Kornbluth, C. M.: The Space Merchants
Russ, Joanna: The Female Man
Simak, Clifford D.: City
Simak, Clifford D.: Way Station

Simmons, Dan: Hyperion
Smith, Cordwainer: Norstrilia
Stewart, George R.: Earth Abides

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.: The Sirens of Titan
Wyndham, John: The Day of the Triffids
Zelazny, Roger: Lord of Light

And finally, here are the 42 novels named by two of the four authorities, of which they inlcude a whopping eight:

Aldiss, Brian W.: Hothouse
Asimov, Isaac: The Gods Themselves
Ballard, J. G.: The Crystal World
Bishop, Michael: No Enemy But Time
Brackett, Leigh: The Long Tomorrow

Budrys, Algis: Rogue Moon
Burroughs, Edgar Rice: A Princess of Mars
Capek, Karel: R.U.R.
Cherryh, C. J.: Downbelow Station
Clarke, Arthur C.: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Arthur C.: Rendezvous with Rama
Crowley, John: Engine Summer
Delany, Samuel R.: Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.: Nova
Dick, Philip K.: Martian Time-Slip
Dick, Philip K.: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

Disch, Thomas M.: Camp Concentration
Heinlein, Robert A.: Double Star
Heinlein, Robert A.: Have Space Suit -- Will Travel
Heinlein, Robert A.: The Door Into Summer
Heinlein, Robert A.: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert A.: Time Enough for Love

Hoban, Russell: Riddley Walker
Lassswitz, Kurt: Two Planets
Lem, Stanisalw: Solaris
Lewis, C. S.: Out of the Silent Planet
Niven, Larry & Pournelle, Jerry: The Mote in God's Eye
Pangborn, Edgar: A Mirror for Observers
Panshin, Alexi: Rite of Passage
Pohl, Frederik: Man Plus
Roberts, Keith: Pavane
Schmitz, James H.: The Witches of Karres
Silverberg, Robert: Dying Inside

Twain, Mark: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Van Vogt, A. E.: Slan
Van Vogt, A. E.: The World of Null-A
Verne, Jules: From the Earth to the Moon
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.: Slaughterhouse-Five
Watson, Ian: The Embedding
Wolfe, Gene: The Fifth Head of Cerberus

Wyndham, John: The Day of the Triffids
Zamiatain, Yevgeny: We

While they have an obvious (thought not consistent) bias against hard sf whose qualities are not the traditional "literary," they also have huge holes in the literary end. It's just a massively uninformed list.

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