{"id":2297,"date":"2010-07-07T15:09:36","date_gmt":"2010-07-07T20:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/2010\/07\/07\/the-science-fiction-masterworks-how-many-have-you-read\/"},"modified":"2010-07-07T15:35:32","modified_gmt":"2010-07-07T20:35:32","slug":"the-science-fiction-masterworks-how-many-have-you-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/2010\/07\/07\/the-science-fiction-masterworks-how-many-have-you-read\/","title":{"rendered":"The Science Fiction Masterworks &#8211; how many have you read?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\nA bunch of lunatics have decided to review <a href=\"http:\/\/sffmasterworks.blogspot.com\/\">all the books in the Gollancz Science Fiction and Fantasy Masterworks series<\/a>. 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&#8230;)\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAnyway, 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&#8217;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 <b>bold<\/b> are the ones I&#8217;ve read, <i>italic<\/i> means I&#8217;ve got them in my library and both means the obvious.\n<\/p>\n<ul class=\"nobullet\">\n<li><b><i>I &#8211; Dune &#8211; Frank Herbert<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><i>II &#8211; The Left Hand of Darkness &#8211; Ursula K. Le Guin<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b>III &#8211; The Man in the High Castle &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>IV &#8211; The Stars My Destination &#8211; Alfred Bester<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><i>V &#8211; A Canticle for Leibowitz &#8211; Walter M. Miller, Jr.<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b><i>VI &#8211; Childhood&#8217;s End &#8211; Arthur C. Clarke<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>VII &#8211; The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress &#8211; Robert A. Heinlein<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>VIII &#8211; Ringworld &#8211; Larry Niven<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>IX &#8211; The Forever War &#8211; Joe Haldeman<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>X &#8211; The Day of the Triffids &#8211; John Wyndham<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nA 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.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b><i>1 &#8211; The Forever War &#8211; Joe Haldeman<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li>2 &#8211; I Am Legend &#8211; Richard Matheson <\/li>\n<li><b><i>3 &#8211; Cities in Flight &#8211; James Blish<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><i>4 &#8211; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b><i>5 &#8211; The Stars My Destination &#8211; Alfred Bester<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>6 &#8211; Babel-17 &#8211; Samuel R. Delany<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>7 &#8211; Lord of Light &#8211; Roger Zelazny<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><i>8 &#8211; The Fifth Head of Cerberus &#8211; Gene Wolfe<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b><i>9 &#8211; Gateway &#8211; Frederik Pohl<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><i>10 &#8211; he Rediscovery of Man &#8211; Cordwainer Smith<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b><i>11 &#8211; Last and First Men &#8211; Olaf Stapledon<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li>12 &#8211; Earth Abides &#8211; George R. Stewart<\/li>\n<li><i>13 &#8211; Martian Time-Slip &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b><i>14 &#8211; The Demolished Man &#8211; Alfred Bester<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>15 &#8211; Stand on Zanzibar &#8211; John Brunner <\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><i>16 &#8211; The Dispossessed &#8211; Ursula K. Le Guin<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>17 &#8211; The Drowned World &#8211; J. G. Ballard<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>18 &#8211; The Sirens of Titan &#8211; Kurt Vonnegut<\/i><\/li>\n<li>19 &#8211; Emphyrio &#8211; Jack Vance<\/li>\n<li>20 &#8211; A Scanner Darkly &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/li>\n<li><i>21 &#8211; Star Maker &#8211; Olaf Stapledon<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b><i>22 &#8211; Behold the Man &#8211; Michael Moorcock<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>23 &#8211; The Book of Skulls &#8211; Robert Silverberg<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>24 &#8211; The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds &#8211; H. G. Wells<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li>25 &#8211; Flowers for Algernon &#8211; Daniel Keyes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nMultiple Dicks but only one woman in the first twentyfive books in the series. Much &#8220;legacy&#8221; 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 &#8212; why <cite>The Book of Skulls<\/cite> as the first Silverberg?\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>26 &#8211; Ubik &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/li>\n<li><i>27 &#8211; Timescape &#8211; Gregory Benford<\/i><\/li>\n<li>28 &#8211; More Than Human &#8211; Theodore Sturgeon<\/li>\n<li><b>29 &#8211; Man Plus &#8211; Frederik Pohl<\/b><\/li>\n<li><i>30 &#8211; A Case of Conscience &#8211; James Blish<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b><i>31 &#8211; The Centauri Device &#8211; M. John Harrison<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li>32 &#8211; Dr. Bloodmoney &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/li>\n<li><i>33 &#8211; Non-Stop &#8211; Brian Aldiss<\/i><\/li>\n<li>34 &#8211; The Fountains of Paradise &#8211; Arthur C. Clarke<\/li>\n<li><i>35 &#8211; Pavane &#8211; Keith Roberts<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b><i>36 &#8211; Now Wait for Last Year &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>37 &#8211; Nova &#8211; Samuel R. Delany<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>38 &#8211; The First Men in the Moon &#8211; H. G. Wells<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li>39 &#8211; The City and the Stars &#8211; Arthur C. Clarke<\/li>\n<li>40 &#8211; Blood Music &#8211; Greg Bear<\/li>\n<li>41 &#8211; Jem &#8211; Frederik Pohl<\/li>\n<li><i>42 &#8211; Bring the Jubilee &#8211; Ward Moore<\/i><\/li>\n<li>43 &#8211; VALIS &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/li>\n<li><i>44 &#8211; The Lathe of Heaven &#8211; Ursula K. Le Guin<\/i><\/li>\n<li>45 &#8211; The Complete Roderick &#8211; John Sladek<\/li>\n<li><i>46 &#8211; Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>47 &#8211; The Invisible Man &#8211; H. G. Wells<\/i><\/li>\n<li>48 &#8211; Grass &#8211; Sheri S. Tepper<\/li>\n<li><b><i>49 &#8211; A Fall of Moondust &#8211; Arthur C. Clarke<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>50 &#8211; Eon &#8211; Greg Bear<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nTwo women this time, more Dicks, more Clarke and Wells. The Aldiss entry is again a minor work.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>51 &#8211; The Shrinking Man &#8211; Richard Matheson<\/li>\n<li>52 &#8211; The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/li>\n<li>53 &#8211; The Dancers at the End of Time &#8211; Michael Moorcock<\/li>\n<li><b>54 &#8211; The Space Merchants &#8211; Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>55 &#8211; Time Out of Joint &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/b><\/li>\n<li>56 &#8211; Downward to the Earth &#8211; Robert Silverberg<\/li>\n<li><i>57 &#8211; The Simulacra &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/i><\/li>\n<li>58 &#8211; The Penultimate Truth &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/li>\n<li>59 &#8211; Dying Inside &#8211; Robert Silverberg<\/li>\n<li><b>60 &#8211; Ringworld &#8211; Larry Niven<\/b><\/li>\n<li>61 &#8211; The Child Garden &#8211; Geoff Ryman<\/li>\n<li><b><i>62 &#8211; Mission of Gravity &#8211; Hal Clement<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li>63 &#8211; A Maze of Death &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/li>\n<li><i>64 &#8211; Tau Zero &#8211; Poul Anderson<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b><i>65 &#8211; Rendezvous with Rama &#8211; Arthur C. Clarke<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><i>66 &#8211; Life During Wartime &#8211; Lucius Shepard<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>67 &#8211; Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang &#8211; Kate Wilhelm<\/i><\/li>\n<li>68 &#8211; Roadside Picnic &#8211; Arkady and Boris Strugatsky<\/li>\n<li>69 &#8211; Dark Benediction &#8211; Walter M. Miller, Jr. <\/li>\n<li>70 &#8211; Mockingbird &#8211; Walter Tevis<\/li>\n<li><b><i>71 &#8211; Dune &#8211; Frank Herbert<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>72 &#8211; The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress &#8211; Robert A. Heinlein<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>73 &#8211; The Man in the High Castle &#8211; Philip K. Dick<\/b><\/li>\n<li><i>74 &#8211; Inverted World &#8211; Christopher Priest<\/i><\/li>\n<li><i>75 &#8211; Cat&#8217;s Cradle &#8211; Kurt Vonnegut<\/i><\/li>\n<li><b><i>76 &#8211; The Island of Dr. Moreau- H.G. Wells <\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>77 &#8211; Childhood&#8217;s End &#8211; Arthur C. Clarke<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><i>78 &#8211; The Time Machine &#8211; H.G. Wells<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<li><i>79 &#8211; Dhalgren &#8211; Samuel R. Delany &#8211; (July 2010)<\/i><\/li>\n<li>80 &#8211; Helliconia &#8211; Brian Aldiss &#8211;  (August 2010)<\/li>\n<li><i>81 &#8211; Food of the Gods &#8211; H.G. Wells &#8211;  (Sept. 2010)<\/i><\/li>\n<li>82 &#8211; The Body Snatchers &#8211; Jack Finney &#8211; (Oct. 2010)<\/li>\n<li><i>83 &#8211; The Female Man &#8211; Joanna Russ &#8211; (Nov. 2010)<\/i><\/li>\n<li>84 &#8211; Arslan &#8211; M.J. Engh &#8211; (Dec. 2010)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nThree 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts-interesting-only-to-me","category-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2298,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions\/2298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}