Don’t Ask Me What I Think Of You

I might not give you the answer you want me to…

SF Signals’ Mind Meld feature is a popular and regular feature that I’ve participated in on several occasions. The conceit is that the Signal uses its prominence and contacts to pose a question and gather up a bunch of informed answers from experts in the field. (Now all I need is one of Lester Del Ray’s business cards with his name crossed out.)

Recently the Signal posed the question of what ten novels should be on everyone’s bookshelves. Despite a seemingly simple question, the ways in which it has been answered has raised no small degree of controversy – everything from ‘what do you mean by book?’ to ‘what do you mean by ‘up to’ ten?’

Considering that we’re dealing with genre personalities – editors, writers, artists and such – it comes as no small surprise that the rules have been bent. Indeed, I often think that flouting the rules is an inherited genetic trait of fans (and those fans who go on to become pros).

Regardless, the list of respondents grew so long that Signal had to break them up into a two-parter, the second of which went public today. Part 1 Part 2

I was quite struck by the huge number of oldy, moldy, dusty and crusty works that were recommended and, as is my wont, I decided that it would be fun to compile a comprehensive list of all of the suggestions, an uber list from those working in the field of what you all ought to be reading.

Considering the offerings, I’d suggest that fans who have a problem with “the classics”, stories by those characterless, big idea afflicted, pulpy hacks, might want to curtail their criticisms when in the presence of their current new-gen faves, cause it looks like just about everyone of them likes, recommends and perhaps are even trying to emulate those very works.

So here is the list, in alphabetical order by title. The contributors are linked at the end. Where works have been recommended more than once the total is noted in parenthesis after the author’s name.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- Adams(3)
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Adams*****
The Gabble and Other Stories – Asher*
The Skinner – Asher
Oryx & Crake – Atwood***
The Caves of Steel – Asimov
The Complete Robot – Asimov*
The Foundation Series – Asimov******
I, Robot – Asimov(3)
Use of Weapons – Banks
Cosmos Latinos – Bell/Molina-Gavilan*
Fahrenheit 451 – Bradbury(2)
The Martian Chronicles – Bradbury(2)
The Sword of Rhiannon – Brackett
The Stars My Destination – Bester(2)
The Locus Awards – Brown/Strahan(2)*
Shards of Honor – Bujold
Vorkosigan Saga – Bujold*****
A Clockwork Orange – Burgess
Lilith’s Brood – Butler******
Parable of the Sewer – Butler
Ender’s Game – Card****
Stories of Your Life and Others – Chiang
Childhood’s End – Clarke(2)
Needle – Clement
Dhalgren – Delaney
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Dick(2)
The Man in the High Castle – Dick
Ubik – Dick(2)
Valis – Dick
The Count of Monte Cristo – Dumas
World of Tiers – Farmer******
The Final Reflection – Ford**
Neuromancer – Gibson(3)
The Forever War – Haldeman(2)
Mindbridge – Haldeman
Have Spacesuit, Will Travel – Heinlein
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Heinlein(3)
The Past Through Tomorrow – Heinlein*
Starship Troopers – Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land – Heinlein
Dune – Herbert(6)
Riddley Walker – Hoban
Flowers For Algernon – Keyes
A Wringle in Time – L’Engle
The Dispossessed – Le Guin(3)
The Left Hand of Darkness – Le Guin(6)
The Cyberiad – Lem
The Stone Canal – MacLeod
The Automatic Detective – Martinez
Dragonflight – McCaffrey
The Dragonriders of Pern – McCaffrey
China Mountain Zhang – McHugh
A Cabticle for Leibowitz – Miller(3)
The Best of C L Moore – Moore*
Market Forces – Morgan
1984 – Orwell
Pavane – Roberts
Stone – Roberts
Red Mars – Robinson(2)
Women of Wonder – Sargent
Calculating God – Sawyer
The Android’s Dream – Scalzi
Frankenstein – Shelley(3)
City – Simak
They Walked Like Men – Simak
Way Station – Simak
Star Maker – Stapledon
Diamond Age – Stephenson
Accelerando – Stross
Grass – Tepper
Six Moon Dance – Tepper
Dark Matter – Thomas*
Finch – VanderMeer
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Verne
A Fire Upon the Deep – Vinge
Cat’s Cradle – Vonnegut
Welcome to the Monkey House – Vonnegut*
Blindsight – Watts(2)
Starfish – Watts
The Time Machine – Wells(2)
The War of the Worlds – Wells
Implied Spaces – Williams
Bellwether – Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog – Willis
A Woman’s Intuition – Willis/Williams*
Soldier of the Mist – Wolfe
The Day of the Triffids – Wyndham
Lord of Light – Zelazny(3)

Contributors:
Jim Freund
Jennifer Marie Brissett
Alan Beatts
Minister Faust
Mary Turzillo
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Cat Sparks
John Klima
Laura Anne Gilman
Michael A. Burstein
Ken MacLeod
Aliette de Bodard
Gavin C. Pugh
Mari Ness
Sarah A. Hoyt
Edward Willett

* – not a novel – collection or anthology
** – written in a shared universe
*** – shouldn’t be included because the author says it isn’t SF
**** – shouldn’t be included because the author is an asshat
***** – omnibus edition
****** – series

And now, the analysis:

89 individual works (with some overlap)
65 different authors
(1.37 works per author)

Biggest surprise – only one entry for Arthur C Clarke.
Another surprise – Alexander Dumas

The really biggest surprise: 36 of the 65 authors are ‘old school’ 55%. Another goodly amount would be from what I would consider to be the ‘middle school’ period – late 80s to mid 90s. The entire list is heavily tilted towards the older works/authors.

Faves:

Works recommended by more than one contributor (in descending order):

6 x Dune
6 x The Left Hand of Darkness
4 x The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
3 x I, Robot
3 x Neuromancer
3 x The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
3 x The Dispossessed
3 x A Canticle for Leibowitz
3 x Frankenstein
3 x Lord of Light
2 x Fahrenheit 451
2 x The Martian Chronicles
2 x The Stars My Destination
2 x The Locus Awards
2 x Childhood’s End
2 x Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
2 x Ubik
2 x The Forever War
2 x Red Mars
2 x Blindsight
2 x The Time Machine

21 works recommended more than once

Most works by a single author:

5 by Heinlein
4 by Asimov
4 by Dick
3 by Willis
2 by Bradbury
2 by Bujold
2 by Butler
2 by Haldeman
2 by Le Guin
2 by McCaffrey
2 by Roberts
2 by Tepper
2 by Vonnegut
2 by Wells

and

broadest representation (most works recommended the most times)

Heinlein – 5 works recommended 7 times (35)
Asimov – 4 works recommended 6 times (24)
Dick – 4 works recommended 6 times (24)
Le Guin – 2 works recommended 9 times (18)
Bradbury – 2 works recommended 4 times (8)
Haldeman – 2 works recommended 3 times (6)
Watts – 2 works recommended 3 times (6)
Wells – 2 works recommended 3 times (6)

Very, very interesting. Of course, time has a way of spreading a work out over a much wider audience, which may contribute to the old masters appearing so frequently here, but I prefer to look at things a different way:

No matter how much literary analysis and criticism you want to heap on the pulp & golden age SF authors and works, they are and will always remain important, exciting and influential, because an SF story is not based on style or technique alone. An author who can successfully engender that sensawunda can overcome clumsy writing, poor characterization and even out-dated concepts and technologies, because no matter how much you want to shout at the world from an ivory tower to the contrary, SF is all about the BIG IDEA.