Xi'an's Og

For a reason I cannot fathom, I received a link to this list from the World of Eldrith, a blog I had never heard of previously. Highly classical (and male dominated), most of whom I have read:

1. Dune, by Frank Herbert (1965) [read it a long long time ago, along with the sequels, and liked it very much, if not ranking it first]
2. The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin (2008) [read it as a massive chore, finding the alien parts terribly clumsy]
3. Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson (1992)
4. The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks (1988) [I read other books in the Culture series, impressive in its complex construction]
5. Foundation, by Isaac Asimov (1951) [read it a long long time ago, along with the sequels, and liked it very much, esp. the psychohistory concept that appeals to the statistician in me!, even though later volumes temper down its performances]
6. The Warrior’s Apprentice, by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986) [given my recent distasteful brush with this author, unlikely I try another of her books]
7. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (1979) [thanks for all the fish]
8. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein (1966)
9. The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson (1995) [one of the monuments of cyberpunk I read when it appeared]
10. The Martian, by Andy Weir (2011) [I literally fainted watching the movie, did not want to repeat the experience with the book]
11. Contact, by Carl Sagan (1985)
12. Leviathan Wakes, by James S. A. Corey (2011)
13. Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell (1949) [does not really belong to the list as it is less SF than a great political manifest served as a dystopia. Just like Animals Farm denounces Stalinism within a Children Tale.]
14. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke (1968) [definitely the classic, albeit I prefered Rendez-vous with Rama]
15. Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card (1985) [another classic, although the massive jolt from the final revelation cannot be reproduced on subsequent reads]
16. The Mote in God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle (1974)
17. The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells (1895) [again more of a dark allegory than a genuine SF work]
18. A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959) [what a pleasant surprise to see this fantastic, original, book included]
19. The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham (1951)
20. Accelerando, by Charles Stross (2005)
21. Last and First Men, by Olaf Stapledon (1930)
22. From the Earth to the Moon and a Trip Around It, by Jules Verne (1865) [given the many SF books written by Verne, this would not have been my volume of choice]
23. Neuromancer, by William Gibson (1984) [presumably the top of the list imho, which I first read in its French translation in early 1986—as my first volume in La Découverte SF books]
24. The Rowan, by Anne McCaffrey (1990)
25. Blindsight, by Peter Watts (2006)

There are also a few short story collections

• Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick, by Philip K. Dick [many of which I read long time ago, to the exception of Blade Runner, which I read after watching many times the movie]
• The Complete Robot, by Isaac Asimov [high school reads, very fond memories]
• Outer Space, Inner Lands, by Ursula K. Le Guin [definitely deserves a high position in the list]
• Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
• The Nine Billion Names of God, by Arthur C. Clarke
• Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang [a modern, philosophical approach to SF I enjoyed very much]

As an additional experiment, I also asked Claude to propose a top five list based on this blog entries and it came with

• Hyperion, by Dan Simmons (1989) [a masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales of SF!]
• The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe (1980–1983) [unique, extraordinarily intricate construction and literary style]
• Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie (2013) [won five major awards for obvious reasons]
• Neuromancer, by William Gibson (1984)
• The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (2006) [arguably borderline SF but one of my favourite novels]

due to my taste for “literary fiction using speculative premises to explore fundamental questions. Well-done, Claude!

This entry was posted on November 13, 2026 at 12:26 am and is filed under Books with tags Ann Leckie, Arthur C. Clarke, blog, book list, Cixin Liu, Cormac McCarthy, Dan Simmons, Douglas Adams, Dune, Frank Herbert, Gene Wolfe, George Orwell, H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Jules Verne, La Découverte, Neal Stephenson, Neuromancer, not a book review, Orson Scott Card, Philip K. DIck, science fiction, The Martian, The Road, The Three Body Problem, Ursula Le Guin, Walter Miller, William Gibson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.