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January 22nd, 2009
03:30 pm - Guardian's 150 SF novels The Guardian have been posting '1000 books everyone must read' in instalments by genre this week. This has made me realise how much I dislike what they call 'state of the nation' novels. For some reason they infuriate me. But how much I love the books in the SF and Fantasy list. Of the 150 books on the list I have read 75, and many of them are among my most favourite novels.
I have bolded those I really loved. Many of the others I just haven't got round to reading yet.
Douglas Adams : The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Brian Aldiss : Non-Stop Isaac Asimov : Foundation Margaret Atwood : The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood : The Handmaid's Tale Paul Auster : In the Country of Last Things JG Ballard : The Drowned World JG Ballard : Crash JG Ballard : Millennium People Iain Banks : The Wasp Factory Iain M Banks : Consider Phlebas Clive Barker : Weaveworld Nicola Barker : Darkmans Stephen Baxter : The Time Ships Greg Bear : Darwin's Radio William Beckford : Vathek Alfred Bester : The Stars My Destination Ray Bradbury : Fahrenheit 451 Poppy Z. Brite : Lost Souls Charles Brockden Brown : Wieland Algis Budrys : Rogue Moon Mikhail Bulgakov : The Master and Margarita Edward Bulwer-Lytton : The Coming Race Anthony Burgess : A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess : The End of the World News Edgar Rice Burroughs : A Princess of Mars William Burroughs : Naked Lunch Octavia Butler : Kindred Samuel Butler : Erewhon Italo Calvino : The Baron in the Trees Ramsey Campbell : The Influence Lewis Carroll : Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll : Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There Angela Carter : Nights at the Circus Angela Carter : The Passion of New Eve Michael Chabon : The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay GK Chesterton : The Man Who Was Thursday Arthur C Clarke : Childhood's End Susanna Clarke : Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (feel like double-bolding this) Michael G Coney : Hello Summer, Goodbye Douglas Coupland : Girlfriend in a Coma Mark Danielewski : House of Leaves Marie Darrieussecq : Pig Tales Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry : The Little Prince Samuel R. Delaney : The Einstein Intersection Philip K. Dick : Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick : The Man in the High Castle (should have been Scanner Darkly) Thomas M. Disch : Camp Concentration Umberto Eco : Foucault's Pendulum Michel Faber : Under the Skin John Fowles : The Magus Neil Gaiman : American Gods Alan Garner : Red Shift another double-bold William Gibson : Neuromancer William Golding : Lord of the Flies Joe Haldeman : The Forever War M. John Harrison : Light Nathaniel Hawthorne : The House of the Seven Gables Robert A. Heinlein : Stranger in a Strange Land Frank Herbert : Dune Hermann Hesse : The Glass Bead Game Russell Hoban : Riddley Walker James Hogg : The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner Michel Houellebecq : Atomised Aldous Huxley : Brave New World Kazuo Ishiguro : The Unconsoled Shirley Jackson : The Haunting of Hill House Henry James : The Turn of the Screw PD James : The Children of Men Richard Jefferies : After London; Or, Wild England Gwyneth Jones : Bold as Love Franz Kafka : The Trial Daniel Keyes : Flowers for Algernon Stephen King : The Shining Frederik Pohl & CM Kornbluth : The Space Merchants Marghanita Laski : The Victorian Chaise-longue Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu : Uncle Silas Ursula K. Le Guin : The Earthsea series Ursula K. Le Guin : The Left Hand of Darkness Stanislaw Lem : Solaris Doris Lessing : Memoirs of a Survivor MG Lewis : The Monk CS Lewis : The Chronicles of Narnia David Lindsay : A Voyage to Arcturus Ken MacLeod : The Night Sessions Hilary Mantel : Beyond Black Richard Matheson : I Am Legend Charles Maturin : Melmoth the Wanderer Patrick McCabe : The Butcher Boy Cormac McCarthy : The Road Jed Mercurio : Ascent China Miéville : The Scar Andrew Miller : Ingenious Pain Walter M Miller Jr : A Canticle for Leibowitz David Mitchell : Cloud Atlas Michael Moorcock : Mother London William Morris : News From Nowhere Toni Morrison : Beloved Haruki Murakami : The Wind-up Bird Chronicle Vladimir Nabokov : Ada or Ardor Audrey Niffenegger : The Time Traveler's Wife Larry Niven : Ringworld Jeff Noon : Vurt Flann O'Brien : The Third Policeman Ben Okri : The Famished Road George Orwell : Nineteen Eighty-four Chuck Palahniuk : Fight Club Thomas Love Peacock : Nightmare Abbey Mervyn Peake : Titus Groan Charlotte Perkins Gilman : Herland John Cowper Powys : A Glastonbury Romance Terry Pratchett : The Discworld series Christopher Priest : The Prestige Philip Pullman : His Dark Materials François Rabelais : Gargantua and Pantagruel Ann Radcliffe : The Mysteries of Udolpho Alastair Reynolds : Revelation Space Kim Stanley Robinson : The Years of Rice and Salt (should have been the Mars trilogy) JK Rowling : Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Salman Rushdie : The Satanic Verses Joanna Russ : The Female Man Geoff Ryman : Air José Saramago : Blindness Will Self : How the Dead Live Mary Shelley : Frankenstein Dan Simmons : Hyperion Michael Marshall Smith : Only Forward Olaf Stapledon : Star Maker Neal Stephenson : Snow Crash Robert Louis Stevenson : The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde Bram Stoker : Dracula Rupert Thomson : The Insult JRR Tolkien : The Hobbit JRR Tolkien : The Lord of the Rings Mark Twain : A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court Kurt Vonnegut : Sirens of Titan Horace Walpole : The Castle of Otranto Robert Walser : Institute Benjamenta Sylvia Townsend Warner : Lolly Willowes Sarah Waters : Affinity HG Wells : The Time Machine HG Wells : The War of the Worlds TH WHite : The Sword in the Stone Gene Wolfe : The Book of the New Sun John Wyndham : Day of the Triffids John Wyndham : The Midwich Cuckoos Yevgeny Zamyatin : We Angus Wilson : The Old Men at the Zoo Virginia Woolf : Orlando
A lot of the others I liked a lot. About the only one there that I have read and was actually disappointed by is Weaveworld - perhaps just not my kind of thing.
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This has made me realise how much I dislike what they call 'state of the nation' novelsI noticed your comment on nwhyte's journal. Those state of the nation ones were my favourites! You know how I was saying on snowking's post that I get a little thrill of recognition from the SF books; but the political novels made me feel pissed off. Even Vineland is the Pynchon novel that pisses me off. I like Vanity Fair and Shirley, to be fair. I too love "state of the nation" novels...I am sure y'all are shocked!!! you two are obviously political animals 'books that make me tired just thinking about them' is a good way of describing some of those other lists. have you read Years of Rice and Salt? I liked it, but I loaned it to a Buddhist friend and she hated it, she gave it back to me with a shudder. Interesting that when this sort of list doesn't consider things like Erewhon and The Man Who Was Thursday to be SF or fantasy, I get annoyed; but I'm also slightly put out when - as in this case - they're included. A kind of grumbly "look there are plenty of brilliant books in the genre without your having to bundle in bloody Orwell again to make it look respectable". I know just what you mean. I am not sure if SF fans are justified in feeling defensive, but I know I generally do :-) There were some strange choices in there - it's great to see Ken MacLeod in there for instance (though why no Charles Stross?) but Night Sessions instead of anything from the Fall Revolution or Engines of Light? As for Rice and Salt over the Mars trilogy, that just smacks of someone wanting to look really contrarian but not wanting to really risk it by putting Icehenge or The Memory Of Whiteness on there.
And one book that better be in the 'war' section tomorrow go explain its absence from this list is Slaughterhouse-5 or I shall be having serious words with The Guardian... Yes, Rice and Salt is a strange choice, but perhaps trying to give an idea of the range of fantastic fiction? Slaughterhouse 5 is inexplicable unless they have it in tomorrow. you have been warned Rusbridger |
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