The Science Fiction Masterworks – how many have you read?

A bunch of lunatics have decided to review all the books in the Gollancz Science Fiction and Fantasy Masterworks series. These series were actually started by the Millennium publishing group about a decade or so ago, but taken over by Gollancz a few years later. Before that it had published its own short series of masterworks, all in the classic yellow Gollancz Science Fiction jacket. (It used to be I could spot any likely sf book in the local library just by looking out for that colour…)

Anyway, this is why there are two list of science fiction masterworks down below. The first list are the original Gollanzc novels, the second list the true Millennium/Gollancz series. It would’ve been a bit much to also add the Fantasy Masterworks, which are another fifty titles or so and which is no longer being added to. As per usual, in bold are the ones I’ve read, italic means I’ve got them in my library and both means the obvious.

• I – Dune – Frank Herbert
• II – The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
• III – The Man in the High Castle – Philip K. Dick
• IV – The Stars My Destination – Alfred Bester
• V – A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• VI – Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke
• VII – The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
• VIII – Ringworld – Larry Niven
• IX – The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
• X – The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham

A fairly conservative list of established classics that nobody can have great problems with. Some traditional work from Niven and Heinlein, some British classics from Clarke and Wyndham, some New Wave.

• 1 – The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
• 2 – I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
• 3 – Cities in Flight – James Blish
• 4 – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
• 5 – The Stars My Destination – Alfred Bester
• 6 – Babel-17 – Samuel R. Delany
• 7 – Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny
• 8 – The Fifth Head of Cerberus – Gene Wolfe
• 9 – Gateway – Frederik Pohl
• 10 – he Rediscovery of Man – Cordwainer Smith
• 11 – Last and First Men – Olaf Stapledon
• 12 – Earth Abides – George R. Stewart
• 13 – Martian Time-Slip – Philip K. Dick
• 14 – The Demolished Man – Alfred Bester
• 15 – Stand on Zanzibar – John Brunner
• 16 – The Dispossessed – Ursula K. Le Guin
• 17 – The Drowned World – J. G. Ballard
• 18 – The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut
• 19 – Emphyrio – Jack Vance
• 20 – A Scanner Darkly – Philip K. Dick
• 21 – Star Maker – Olaf Stapledon
• 22 – Behold the Man – Michael Moorcock
• 23 – The Book of Skulls – Robert Silverberg
• 24 – The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells
• 25 – Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes

Multiple Dicks but only one woman in the first twentyfive books in the series. Much “legacy” science fiction (Wells, Stapledon, Matheson, Stewart) and a tendency towards the more literary end of science fiction, though all established enough to not be controversial. Some strange choices though — why The Book of Skulls as the first Silverberg?

• 26 – Ubik – Philip K. Dick
• 27 – Timescape – Gregory Benford
• 28 – More Than Human – Theodore Sturgeon
• 29 – Man Plus – Frederik Pohl
• 30 – A Case of Conscience – James Blish
• 31 – The Centauri Device – M. John Harrison
• 32 – Dr. Bloodmoney – Philip K. Dick
• 33 – Non-Stop – Brian Aldiss
• 34 – The Fountains of Paradise – Arthur C. Clarke
• 35 – Pavane – Keith Roberts
• 36 – Now Wait for Last Year – Philip K. Dick
• 37 – Nova – Samuel R. Delany
• 38 – The First Men in the Moon – H. G. Wells
• 39 – The City and the Stars – Arthur C. Clarke
• 40 – Blood Music – Greg Bear
• 41 – Jem – Frederik Pohl
• 42 – Bring the Jubilee – Ward Moore
• 43 – VALIS – Philip K. Dick
• 44 – The Lathe of Heaven – Ursula K. Le Guin
• 45 – The Complete Roderick – John Sladek
• 46 – Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said – Philip K. Dick
• 47 – The Invisible Man – H. G. Wells
• 48 – Grass – Sheri S. Tepper
• 49 – A Fall of Moondust – Arthur C. Clarke
• 50 – Eon – Greg Bear

Two women this time, more Dicks, more Clarke and Wells. The Aldiss entry is again a minor work.

• 51 – The Shrinking Man – Richard Matheson
• 52 – The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch – Philip K. Dick
• 53 – The Dancers at the End of Time – Michael Moorcock
• 54 – The Space Merchants – Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth
• 55 – Time Out of Joint – Philip K. Dick
• 56 – Downward to the Earth – Robert Silverberg
• 57 – The Simulacra – Philip K. Dick
• 58 – The Penultimate Truth – Philip K. Dick
• 59 – Dying Inside – Robert Silverberg
• 60 – Ringworld – Larry Niven
• 61 – The Child Garden – Geoff Ryman
• 62 – Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement
• 63 – A Maze of Death – Philip K. Dick
• 64 – Tau Zero – Poul Anderson
• 65 – Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C. Clarke
• 66 – Life During Wartime – Lucius Shepard
• 67 – Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang – Kate Wilhelm
• 68 – Roadside Picnic – Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
• 69 – Dark Benediction – Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• 70 – Mockingbird – Walter Tevis
• 71 – Dune – Frank Herbert
• 72 – The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
• 73 – The Man in the High Castle – Philip K. Dick
• 74 – Inverted World – Christopher Priest
• 75 – Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
• 76 – The Island of Dr. Moreau- H.G. Wells
• 77 – Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke
• 78 – The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
• 79 – Dhalgren – Samuel R. Delany – (July 2010)
• 80 – Helliconia – Brian Aldiss – (August 2010)
• 81 – Food of the Gods – H.G. Wells – (Sept. 2010)
• 82 – The Body Snatchers – Jack Finney – (Oct. 2010)
• 83 – The Female Man – Joanna Russ – (Nov. 2010)
• 84 – Arslan – M.J. Engh – (Dec. 2010)

Three women in the last thirtyfour books of the series. Still not very much and a lots of repeats again in the authors that appear. A bit too conservative in the end, even if every book in the series is worth reading.