I was poking around Amazon and saw this under the sci-fi/fantasy book section so I though I’d see how many of the 100 I’ve read so far.

When I hit #16 I began to wonder if this list is just based on buyer preference or how many of each has sold. If it’s preference it’s a completely relative scale that probably won’t accurately reflect what’s considered by readers, critics and scholars as 100 best Classics, and neither will how many of each has sold because books like Fahrenheit 451 are used constantly in schools and so they sell immense amounts just for class work.

But then I got thinking some more about how to decide what’s the best of anything and I don’t think it’s possible with such a gigantically broad subject as all sci-fi titles.  You’d have to break it down quite a bit to be able to come to any sort of reckoning, because some of the original sci-fi books were revolutionary for their times but they’ve been mimicked to death and now no one likes that type of story.  Then they’re is also different types of sci-fi: far future, space operas, near future, alternative history, contemporary, and so on.

But then who do you get to pick the best?  Scholars?  Fellow Authors?  Readers?  It’s kind of a toss up cause it’s not like there is an exceptionally large body of scholars who specialize in science fiction.  Give it 50 more years and we’ll finally start seeing more classes about it in colleges and more books will become canonized perhaps, but today not so much.

So what I’m getting at is I’m not gonna follow someone else’s list of what’s the best, I’m gonna read as much as I can and decide for myself ^^

I just wish they’d (the industry) would hurry up and make that electronic paper cheaper so we can do away with physical books; they take up to much darn room XD Plus, who the heck doesn’t want to be able to carry around all their books with them all the time.

1. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury – Read & Own
2. 1984, George Orwell – Read & Own
3. Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
4. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess – Seen the movie, but who hasn’t
5. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood – Seen the movie
6. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card - Read & Own
7. Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis – Read & Own
8. Frankenstein, Mary Shelly
9. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
10. Dune, Frank Herbert – Read & Own
11. Speaker for the Dead, OSC – Read & Own
12. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, Edwin A. Abbott
13. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
14. Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein – Read & Own
15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
16. I Am Ledgend, Richard Matheson – Are the serious?
17. The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton – Read
18. Lucifer’s Hammer, Larry Niven
19. Hyperion, Dan Simmons
20. The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut
21. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
22. A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought), Vernor Vinge
23. The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks
24. Xenocide, OSC – Read & Own
25. Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clark – Read & Own
26. Caves of Steel (Robot City), Isaac Asimov
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams – Read & Own
28. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
29. The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
30. Foundation, Isaac Asimov
31. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut – Read & Own
32. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clark – Read & Own
33. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
34. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein – Read
35. The Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
36. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke – Read & Own
37. Ilium, Dan Simmons
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley Read & Own
39. A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge
40. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
41. The Diamond Age; Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, Neal Stephenson
42. Valis, Philip K. Dick
43. Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton - Read & Own
44. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
45. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein - Read & Own
46. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
47. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes - Read
48. Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
49. Shadow & Claw: The First Half of ‘The Book of the New Sun’, Gene Wolfe
50. Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
51. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
52. Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
53. The Dispossessed, Ursula K. LeGuin
54. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller Jr.
55. The Door into Summer, Robert Heinlein
56. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
57. Neuromancer, William Gibson - Read & Own
58. The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham
59. The Reality Dysfunction Par I: Emergence, Peter F. Hamilton
60. The Gods Themsleves, Isaac Asimov
61. The Mote in God’s Eye, Larry Niven
62. Ender’s Shadow, ORS - Read & Own
63. A Scanner Darkly, Philip K. Dick
64. A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs
65. The Uplift War, David Brin
66. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
67. I, Robot, Isaac Asimov - Read
68. The Cyberiad, Stanislaw Lem
69. Citizen of the Galaxy, Robert Heinlein
70. Burning Chrome, William Gibson - Read & Own
71. Way Station, Clifford D. Simak
72. Ringworld, Larry Niven
73. The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells
74. The Postmand, David Brin
75. Time Enough for Love, Robert Heinlein - Read
76. Startide Rising, David Brin
77. His Master’s Voice, Stanislaw Lem
78. Contact, Carl Sagan - Read & Own
79. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle - Read & Own
80. The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke
81. Use of Weapons, Iain M. Banks
82. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Philip K. Dick
83. The Incredible Shrinking Man, Richard Matheson
84. City, Clifford D. Simak
85. Fiasco, Stanislaw Lem
86. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
87. The City and the Stars and the Sands of Mars, Arthur C. Clark
88. Puppet Masters, Robert Heinlein - Read & Own
89. Eon, Greg Bear
90. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells - Read & Own
91. The Stainless Steel Trio, Harry Harrison
92. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells - Read & Own
93. Gray Lensman, Edward E. Smith
94. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Vern - Read
95. Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Jules Verne
96. Have Space Suit, Will Travel, Robert Heinlein - Read
97. The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. LeGuin
98. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain
99. Blood Music, Greg Bear
100. The Chrysalids, David Harrower

31/100 not bad I guess