Science Fiction Canonization
September 13, 2008
Started September 2002
So, my 2 cents on books for canonization follows. If a book was really
cool at the time and place when I read it, it makes this list. If you see
something your library doesn't have a copy, nag them until they get
one. I, myself, have had trouble finding copies of several
of the books below even in ``large'' libraries.
- Tim Reluga
- A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
- Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne
- Flowers for Algernon(The short story) - Daniel Keyes
- Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
- The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
- Invisible Man - H. G. Wells
- War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
- 1984 - George Orwell
- Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
- The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton
- Dune - Frank Herbert
- Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
- Hyperion,Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
- The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
- Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
- The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
- Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
- Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
- Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents
- Octavia Butler
- Slan - A. E. Van Vogt
- The doors of his face, the lamps of his mouth, and
other stories - Roger Zelazny
- TransHuman Space - David Pulver
- Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
- Spin - Robert Charles Wilson
- The Listeners
- - James Gunn (1972)
First contact novel comparable to Contact, Childhood's
end, and His Master's voice. In this particular
telling, Gunn is systematic, limiting himself to the
ordinary science of the day, and addressing the roles of
people and the implications for society in a careful and
measured manner building on that period in American
history. There is very little action in the story, and
the aspirational style blunts the few tensions in the
novel. Perhaps I would have preferred something with a
hard-science edge, but it is a real-science utopian take
on first contact, and for that I admire it. Gunn is
better known for his excellent anthologies and teaching.
- More than Human
- - Theodore Sturgeon (1953) The
beginning of this novella is beautiful written. Put
with the rest of the book, it's a well-told story,
without the clutter of technology or pseudoscience,
mildly triumphant but more emphatically disturbing in a
depiction of human transcendence. Yet Sturgeon tells
the tale without the naivety of Childhood's End but with
an impartial eye, leaving the judgments to the reader.
I don't like the world he sees.
- Vacuum Flowers
- - Michael Swanick (1987) This is
the story of the adventures of a young woman in a solar
system colonized haphazardly by various forms of
reprogrammable humans. It doesn't carry the excitement
of an epic and the characters are a little flat, but the
ideas, with strong cyberpunk elements, are interesting.
In particular, as a pre-internet publication
investigating the broader implications of computer
programming. The core premise is that individuals can
voluntarily have their personalities reprogrammed, and
can even buy personalities off the shelf. Interesting
implications abound, but Swanick doesn't quite capture
the internal passions and conflicts that something like
this is sure to generate. Pay attention to changes in
perspective within the third-person limited narration.
- Candle
- - John Barnes (2000)
This short adventure is set at the end of the 21st
century, and recounts the War of the Memes and its
aftermath from the perspectives of two old soldiers.
How would daily life work in a human world dominated by
a meme? How would it compare to an Orwellian world?
Can a program really fix the human conflicts of a
Brunnerian world? Can a massive emergent intelligence
be stable, and if not, what kind of instabilities will
appear?
Slow at some points, with its back-woods setting,
but also with surprises and some bite.
- Stand on Zanzibar
- - John Brunner (1968).
Actually, this
one needs some comment. It is very under appreciated,
particularly at this point in history. Brunner's
science was incremental, not prophetic. Today's high
school students know more genetics. Television fades to
the internet. But the scientific details have little
importance. The book's strength is it's societal
breadth. The closest above work is 1984. But where
Orwell gives evil an incarnation in Big Brother, Brunner
depicts more clearly that evil is an intangible. There
is no monolithic Sauron who is the fountain head of all
evil. We alone, as individuals and as society, share
responsibility for the suffering and tragedy we decry.
Not some mythical source of tyranny. And the questions
raised by comparison to contemporary history are very
interesting. Is terrorism an incarnation of the muckers
Brunner predicts. How do we handle the challenge of
species improvement? And what do we do with so many of
us that we do not fit on Zanzibar? This is a good
starting point for understanding of the world before
jumping off into the battle for improvement, a good read
for all college freshmen.
- Beggars and Choosers
- - N. Kress. Sequel to
``Beggars in Spain''. Kress's hard scifi depiction
of the near future is alien and uncomfortable despite
her very human characters. A world where the choices of
a few can redefine us all. The originality of this pair
of short novels makes them essential reading for all scifi
fans, and will likely place them in the cannons of many
readers.
- City
- - C. D. Simak (1952). This is an interesting work.
It didn't enthrall me, but it did hold my interest all
the way to the end. City is a more
process-oriented take on transcendence than Arthur C.
Clark's. Simak is more concerned with what man leaves
behind. The structure of 8 short stories works very
well to convey the myth of man. Published in 1952, this
work's recent prehistory was WWII and the cold war. The
future City sees is perceptibly colored in
accordance, but is much more balanced and constructive
than Miller's Canticle for Leibowitz. Miller tells us
of our doom along one path. Simak does not disagree, but
points out that there are other paths and different
people will choose different paths. My main
objection was that the book's focus was a little too
narrow and dated, but I'm being picky. It really is a
good piece of work.
- The Book of the New Sun
- by G. Wolfe. A tetralogy
including The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the
Concilliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The
Citadel of the Autarch. This dying-earth(far-future, failing
sun, science plus minor fantasy) work has a realized
setting with strong medieval overtones. The style is similar to
that of Zelazny, but the writing is very subtle in places, and
went completely over my head in the first book. Much of the story
lies in the narrator himself, and the story folds back on itself
more than I yet understand. It almost certainly demands a second
reading some day. As a unified work, it was a more satisfying if
less spectacular saga than Tolkien's. There are a few spectacular
sequences in the tetralogy, 1 in the first book and 1 in the third
book specifically, which richly blend emotion, drama, and
adventure. The rest of the work is slow but seldom boring.
In an otherwise solid work, I was troubled with the
author's unnecessary employment of time-travel references in the
final volume. The postqual has elements of worth, but
can be skipped without much fuss.
- The Left Hand of Darkness
- by Ursula K. LeGuin.
As the author says, less sci-fi, more thought experiment. Well
written with some good imagery. Didn't fascinate me as I read
it, mostly because it is a meditation on the human condition and
tosses off some complex scientific issues hap-hazardly as background, but
the author does a good job with the task she set herself.
- Have space suit - will travel
- by Robert A. Heinlein.
This is a very pure space adventure, colored(to its
disadvantage) by standard 1950's postwar attitudes and
science. There is enough real science(and math!) to keep the
work believable. The adventure is fun and well-written,
holding itself together where weaker or more fantastic
authors would have fallen apart. I think it's a good
book for a highschool freshman, but lacks meat for those
with more seasoning in the ways of the world.
- Startide Rising, Uplift War
- - David Brin - interesting
idea of genetically engineered future but otherwise a
standard if dramatic adventure piece. I have not read the
originating novel, Sundiver, but have heard it lacks
luster, but that the sequels(Infinity's Shore,...)
are improvements.
- The Man in the High Castle
- - Philip K. Dick. Schitz
alternate history. Too self-referential, perhaps.
- Childhood's End
- - Arthur C. Clark. I don't buy
transcendence, and some issues were resolved unsatisfactorily,
but the story is well told.
- The Crystal World
- - J. G. Ballard. The descriptions in
this story are spectacular. In literature, there are parallels
with The Heart of Darkness. But in the end, I couldn't
identify with the protagonist. I wouldn't have guessed
that before reading the story, though.
- The Fifth Head of Cerberus
- - Gene Wolfe. This very
well written. It consists of 3 intertwining novella's set on
a pair of colony worlds. The stories are deep, with strong
existentialist tones. I don't know what they mean.
The illusions were too vague for me to grasp on a first reading.
Even the significance of the title alludes me.
- Snow Crash
- by Neal Stephenson. A real fun piece of
pulp, but less refined than his more recent works. Probably
would have been cooler if I'd read it when I was 16.
- Foundation
- (first two only) - Isaac Asimov
- The Relic
- - Excellent pulp. The sequel is lower
quality, but still fun.
- Ringworld
- - Larry Niven. Good science, lousy story.
- Rendezvous with Rama
- - Arthur C. Clarke. Good science,
not much story.
- A Canticle for Leibowitz
- - Walter M. Miller. This is a decent
work, but the style of the subject matter presentation didn't move me.
The horrors of nuclear war which drive this story are never related in
moving emotional manner they deserve. Written near the dawn of the cold
war(1959?), Canticle focuses on the deeper philosophical currents that
had lead to the existence of a cold war. Its edge is tempered, however,
by our existence in a post-coldwar world, where all that was prophesied
by this work has not come to pass.
- The Crystal Egg - H. G. Wells (not sure why I liked this so much)
- The New Prime - Jack Vance
- The Dragon Masters - Jack Vance(why didn't he make a book of this one?)
- This Moment of the Storm - Zelazny
- Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell (his only good story, legend has it)
- Darwinian by Robert Charles Wilson (1999)
A brilliant aspiration that falls flat when the author
couldn't figure out where to take the story. I lost
interest on reading the first interlude, and hadn't
recovered any when I finished. I'd hoped for something
the same quality as Spin but maybe I was looking in the
wrong direction.
- A Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)
An adventure where most of the action occurs in a
medieval setting. The depiction of powerful AI is
the best part.
- Halting State by Charles Stross (2007).
Told from the perspectives of three narrators from
different corners of the near future, tangled together
by plan and chance, this turns out to be a
Bond-adventure where Jack Bauer is replaced
by Jack-the-computer-geek. Starts with an interesting
premise and has some interesting fun depictions of large
online role-playing games of the future, but fails
to finish strong or with any clear vision of the new
world. The second-person narrative is initially
jarring; you get used to it, but it's never satisfying.
- Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge (2006).
An exciting depiction of life in a networked world of
wearable computers and a patchwork of medical
revolutions. Useful, but ultimately limited in scope.
- Old Man's War by John Scalzi (2005).
Immortalist martial utopian propaganda, but very well written propaganda.
Compare to Haldeman's Forever War.
- Ilium and Olympus by Dan Simmons (2003,2005).
Not great sci-fi, but great fun to read. Simmons
employs some standard tools in his depiction of a
far-future solar setting, but does so expertly, and with
great breadth. The characters stretched far beyond
their initial selves in learning to deal with the world
the author has created for them. The plot is crucially
hinged on a few ideas that I think are fantasy, not
science, but why let that get in the way of a great story.
- Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein (1968?).
An interesting premise that suffers from adolescent-male
syndrome, and sacrifices science in favor of plot
convenience. Maybe most enjoyed by teenage guys.
- Orbital Resonance by John Barnes (1991).
Set on a orbital transfer ship, this is a
coming-of-age story with a social engineering twist.
Uncomfortable at times, but interesting, though
there were some parts I didn't believe.
- Contact, by Carl Sagan (1985).
The original story, upon which the movie of the same
name is based. I saw the movie years before reading the
story, and perhaps that took out some of the umph.
Sagan focuses heavily on the emotional life of a 70's
contemporary protagonist. This is understandable, since
Sagan was a scientist and public figure trying to bridge
the gap into literature. He pull's it off
reasonably well too. But for me, this was a
disappointment. I had high expectations for a depiction
of the social and political complexities of a
first-contact scenario. But the story kept turning in
on Eli(the main character) when I kept wanting it to turn out on the world
at large. It's a good story, and I'm happy I read it.
The depiction of a successful female scientist from
a 60's and 70's perspective (many aspects of which
probably still have contemporary significance) is
interesting (though I'd like to read depictions of the
same situation by female scientists with first-hand
experience of the period). But I'm definitely looking
for a better hard-scifi depiction of first contact from
a global socio-economic perspective.
- To Your Scattered Bodies Go, by Philip Jose Farmer (1971).
The first book in the Riverworld Saga, this book
introduces the reader to an afterlife where all of
human history must live together and that the characters
must learn to make their own. With a heavy dose of 60's
sensibilities, I found this one rather bland, with
flat characters, but easy and fun to read.
- Queen of Angels, by Greg Bear (1990). This is a collage.
The near-future nanotech setting has moments of
brightness, but Bear's narrative
is one of individuals struggling with personal demons
in an impersonal world. I'd place it as a weaker
work in the vain of Helliconia series and Left Hand.
- Limits of Vision, by Linda Nagata (2001). An appropriately
named work. Nagata studies one scenario of how
technology may escape its traditional frame and change
the world. The author deserves credit for a near-future
setting that may come to pass, and depicting the
evolution of a very interesting form of post-human life.
Nagata's depiction of the human characters is narrow, and
has a utopian quality, while the scientific equation
was left unbalanced (a detail that I might overlook
usually, but here it feels like the author is afraid to
ask those questions). However, Limits departs in important
and refreshing ways from the presentation styles of
older authors like Blish and Miller, and its genre
broadening efforts are worth while.
- The Seedling Stars, by James Blish(1957). One of
the earliest works focusing on pantropy, though the
author credits Olaf Stapledon and predecessors. The
book juxtaposes the conflicts of man vs. nature and
Christian burning, and nicely closes the cycle. Some
plot devises are far fetched (an all powerful port
authority) if entertaining (particularly the microbial
world). I still don't understand how some authors (see
Conan Doyle's Lost World also) selective morality in the
depiction of genocide, in this case, rotifer.
Ultimately, the book relies on a romantic but failing
premise similar to that of GATTICA - singularity of the
human spirit. I think Simak was closer to the truth.
- A Case of Conscience, by James Blish. A work
where science fiction is used as a crucible for the
study of catholic faith. Not compelling from my
philosophical perspective.
A Canticle for Leibowitz and Childhood's End are of
a related vain.
- Brightness Reef, Infinity's shore, Heaven's reach
- Book of the Long Sun
- Sphere, Harvest, Footfall , The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
Nemisis, Prey
- The Dying Earth, Araminta Station
- Tau Zero
- The Forever War by Haldeman - This is mildly interesting,
the main character is engaging, but I didn't think it was anything
special.
- Helliconian Spring - by Brian Aldiss. This is an interesting
tale, and finely written, but never caught my
imagination (though the alternate biology is very
interesting). While
the theoretical setting is the far future, on a distant world, the
actualized setting is bronze-age. I classify this work not as
scifi but as lateralist...contemporary protagonists in
different but potentially real world. To its credit, I found myself
surprisingly sympathetic to several of the main characters.
Aldiss's novel enriched my understanding of this place and
time, but never pointed the way forward.
- On the Beach - Shute. Just because it is the end
of the world does not mean it is science fiction.
- Lest Darkness Fall - This is a romp, without serious
introspection, and a pale shadow of Mark Twain's Yankee. I
wouldn't qualify either of these works as Science Fiction,
though.
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain
- Lost race of Mars by Robert Silverberg and Leonard P. Kessler
I've found several sites useful in pursuing this project. They
are the following:
- Arslan, by M. J. Engh
- Revolt on Alpha C
- The Last Castle by Zelazny
- The Last and First Men - Stapledon
- Bruce Sterling, Schizmatrix and Holy Fire
- William Gibson, Neuromancer
- Charles Stross Accelerando
- Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
- Peter Watts' Starfish Trilogy
- The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
- The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
- Gateway (Heechee Saga) by Frederik Pohl
- Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
- Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
- Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
- The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance
- Planet of Adventure by Jack Vance
- Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
- Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
- The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
- The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
- Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
- The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl
- Axis by Robert Charles Wilson
- A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge
- True names by Vernor Vinge
- Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
- The three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Dick
- The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein
- Cities in Flight by James Blish
- Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One by Robert Silverberg
- Market Forces, Richard Morgan
- In War Times, Kathleen Ann Goonan
- Mindscan, Robert J. Sawyer
2008-09-13