100 Best lists can be aggravating, but I find them useful because they introduce me to titles and names I'm not familiar with. The only problem is the attempts at ranking, which ignore factors that make straight comparisons difficult. For my list of SF novels (with a few Fantasy and Horror thrown in) I've put them into what I hope are helpful categories.
UNDENIABLE CLASSICS
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) Walter Miller
Dune (1965) Frank Herbert
Left Hand of Darkness (1969) Ursula LeGuin
SINCE I'M CHOOSING ONLY ONE NOVEL PER AUTHOR
Time Out of Joint (1959) Philip Dick
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) Kurt Vonnegut
Carrie (1974) Stephen King — (Controversy Alert!)
CLASSICS BEST READ WHEN YOU'RE YOUNGER
The Foundation Trilogy (1951-53) Isaac Asimov
The Puppet Masters (1951) Robert Heinlein
Childhood's End (1953) Arthur Clarke
WE'VE COME TO KICK SOME LITERARY ASS
Limbo (1952) Bernard Wolfe
The Demolished Man (1953) Alfred Bester
Snow Queen (1980) Joan Vinge
THEY CERTAINLY DON'T NEED ME SHILLING FOR THEM
The War of the Worlds (1898) H.G. Wells
Fahrenheit 451 (1953) Ray Bradbury
The Forever War (1974) Joe Haldeman
A BIT DRY, BUT OH-SO-DAMN GOOD
Earth Abides (1949) George Stewart
Bring the Jubilee (1953) Ward Moore
This is the Way the World Ends (1985) James Morrow
WELL, THAT SURE TO HELL WAS DEPRESSING...
Johnny Got His Gun (1939) Dalton Trumbo
Flowers for Algernon (1966) Daniel Keyes
The Sheep Look Up (1972) John Brunner
I CAN'T TURN THE DAMN PAGES FAST ENOUGH
I Am Legend (1954) Richard Matheson
Ghost Story (1979) Peter Straub
Red Dragon (1981) Thomas Harris
COULD THIS PLOT BE ANY COOLER? I THINK NOT
Lest Darkness Fall (1941) L. Sprague de Camp
Tau Zero (1970) Poul Anderson
Replay (1987) Ken Grimwood
THAT'S SOME BITTERSWEET SHIT HAPPENING THERE
Year of the Quiet Sun (1970) Wilson Tucker
Time and Again (1970) Jack Finney
Dying Inside (1972) Robert Silverberg
Article comments