21 Books That Changed Science Fiction And Fantasy Forever

21 Books That Changed Science Fiction And Fantasy Forever

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Halb

Original Poster:

53,012 posts

182 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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21 Books That Changed Science Fiction And Fantasy Forever
1) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
2) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
3) Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney
4) Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
5) War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
6) Foundation by Isaac Asimov
7) Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
8) Dangerous Visions, Edited by Harlan Ellison
8) Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
9) Ringworld by Larry Niven
10) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
11) Neuromancer by William Gibson
12) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
13) A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
14) Kindred by Octavia Butler
15) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
16) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
17) Wind-Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
18) The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
19) Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
20) The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
21) Dune - Frank Herbert
http://io9.com/21-books-that-changed-science-ficti...

slow_poke

1,855 posts

233 months

Saturday 26th July 2014
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Why is Fantasy, or even Science Fantasy if you must, always lumped in with Science Fiction.

Hate that. Love Scifi, hate SciFan.

Well, not hate SciFan, just hate it being lumped in with SciFi.

Interesting list.

Pebbles167

3,417 posts

151 months

Saturday 26th July 2014
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Add "Do androids dream of electric sheep - Phillip K. Dick" to that.

Good list wink

Mutley

3,178 posts

258 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
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Pebbles167 said:
Add "Do androids dream of electric sheep - Phillip K. Dick" to that.

Good list wink
Totally agree about Do androids dream.

HRL

3,329 posts

218 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
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Agree with about 80% of the list.

What the hell are the Hunger Games, A Game of Thrones and Harry Potter doing in there though. Changed science fiction for ever? No way IMO.

marshalla

15,902 posts

200 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
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HRL said:
Agree with about 80% of the list.

What the hell are the Hunger Games, A Game of Thrones and Harry Potter doing in there though. Changed science fiction for ever? No way IMO.
They did - but not necessarily in a good or improving way.

Mutley

3,178 posts

258 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
quotequote all
marshalla said:
HRL said:
Agree with about 80% of the list.

What the hell are the Hunger Games, A Game of Thrones and Harry Potter doing in there though. Changed science fiction for ever? No way IMO.
They did - but not necessarily in a good or improving way.
If you open the link, it explains eachs books inclusion.

Game of Thrones is one that I sort of agree with being there, it removed the Black/White of protagonists, and replaced each with shades of grey.

Potter and Hunger Games, I can't see, but they are Kids/Young Adult books.

slow_poke

1,855 posts

233 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
quotequote all
Mutley said:
marshalla said:
HRL said:
Agree with about 80% of the list.

What the hell are the Hunger Games, A Game of Thrones and Harry Potter doing in there though. Changed science fiction for ever? No way IMO.
They did - but not necessarily in a good or improving way.
If you open the link, it explains eachs books inclusion.

Game of Thrones is one that I sort of agree with being there, it removed the Black/White of protagonists, and replaced each with shades of grey.

Potter and Hunger Games, I can't see, but they are Kids/Young Adult books.
Refer to my post - they're not SciFi, they're Fantasy, and it's a "SciFi & Fantasy" list. So fair enough that they're in there, I just don't get why Fantasy is lumped in with SciFi.

Halb

Original Poster:

53,012 posts

182 months

Thursday 31st July 2014
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They are the twin derivatives of romantic fiction.

havoc

29,927 posts

234 months

Sunday 31st August 2014
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I've read 15 of those, although 2 out of the missing 6 are Harry Potter and Hunger Games, which are pulp fiction not anything game-changing - their only reason on the list is because of the volume sold and the film connection*.

PKD SHOULD be on the list somewhere - DADOES is his most famous, but there's other stuff equally compelling by him.

That said, I think it's a very narrow list - beyond two cyberpunk novels and Windup Girl it's all very old, and I'd suggest there's a lot of modern sci-fi that's equally important/worthy and HAS influenced many writers, but just hasn't become legendary yet - thinking Kim Stanley Robinson, Greg Bear and David Brin for starters, possibly Peter F Hamilton too...


Yet another missed opportunity...



* Same could arguably be said of GoT, to be fair...

onomatopoeia

3,469 posts

216 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
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If they're going to have Neuromancer, they should acknowledge the importance of The shockwave riders that came before and was effectively a cyberpunk novel, before the term was invented.

Don't understand why The windup girl is on there. It's very good, but not sure about "changing forever".

Blue383

86 posts

116 months

Wednesday 3rd September 2014
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Two very worrying omissions.

Gullivers Travels - Swift . Space opera and world hopping in a time when we really were going where no man has gone before.

The Tempest - by some Warwickshire bloke.

Inny

456 posts

196 months

Thursday 4th September 2014
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I would add The Road by Cormack McCarythy, although that could move us into the dystopian genre with 1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid's Tale, Farenheit 452, Oryx and Crake the like.

Genre's a tricky subject.

VeeDubBigBird

440 posts

128 months

Thursday 4th September 2014
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Surprised not to see Discworld. I feel like it added a lot more than Harry Potter, which kind of hits every wizard cliche Rowling could find.

singlecoil

33,311 posts

245 months

Friday 12th September 2014
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Skylark Duquesne should have been on that list, the climax of the Skylark series. Epic stuff.

DJRC

23,563 posts

235 months

Monday 22nd September 2014
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How the hell is PTerry not on that list?
And Steam punk? Seriously?

ChemicalChaos

10,360 posts

159 months

Wednesday 24th September 2014
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No mention of Ender's Game?

T1berious

2,242 posts

154 months

Monday 22nd December 2014
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Yup, SCi Fi and Sci Fan really should have some kind of massive concrete dividing wall.

Game of thrones out

Culture novels in

TheJimi

24,860 posts

242 months

Monday 22nd December 2014
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...and why is Flowers For Algernon missing from the list?!

Chiefbadger

417 posts

197 months

Sunday 28th December 2014
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I think the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan should be there for sure. Influenced so much modern fantasy and remains unmatched in my view.