For the past month I have been excitedly working on a video project to list my favorite 150 Science Fiction Novels of all time. I am considering from among the …
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Top 150 Science Fiction Books List – Preparation & Considerations
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David Wiley
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
Oh my goodness, I honestly CANNOT wait for this!
Booktube Goddess
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
Very ambitious!!
JeremyFee
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
I like the phrase "no judgement, but…" LOL. I'm looking forward to your list. BTW, I imagine the hidden books are just another 100 copies of Dune. š
Larry Has Opinions
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
oof, a lot of work, good luck, i look forward to it š
David Wiley
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
Okay, first of all I realize now that I've read FAR more Fantasy in my lifetime than Science Fiction. I need to remedy that – I went through a Goodreads list of 500 Sci-Fi books ranked and after about that first 200 there weren't many I've read or heard of beyond that. There's a few series that I've read (Ender, Foundation, Hitchhiker) but most of them need a reread to remember the exact ranking.
Second, I am so excited for the video (or series of videos) and might just decide to read all 150 of the books you list as a long-term reading project. It'd be fun to read (and reread in some cases) and chat with you about them as I go!
Original tag? Yes, please!
Here's a tentative shot at what would make my top 10 (in no order)
Fahrenheit 451, Ender's Game, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1984, The Martian Chronicles, The Forever War, The War of the Worlds, Foundation, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Frankenstein
Blue Black
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
I admire your devotion and your memory to do such a list and looking forward to it.
Book Buds
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
This is awesome! I have several science fiction books on my TBR but donāt feel Iāve read too many. I read mostly fantasy but I know they overlap. Ones that Iāve read and enjoyed that fit the category or overlap the twoā¦. Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy, Divergent series, Matched series, A Wrinkle in Time, The Time Travelerās Wife. Soon on my TBR Iāve got Dune- I canāt wait to see what all the hype is about. Fun project!
TheShadesofOrange Booktube Channel
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
I really enjoyed this video because I've found a love of booktube ranked lists (making & watching them) and so I have thought about similar challenges and musings. I filmed my top 10 scifi books back at the beginning of the year and honestly nearly scrapped it because I so badly wanted to redo the entire thing. It's so hard to decide what counts as scifi enough, weighing personal enjoyment vs literary merit, considering recency basis etc. I am very excited for your video when it is ready
Jellicle
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
I love lists and that everyone's list is different. What you said about context is so important. No one's list is objective. My GoodReads shelf has about 75 books in the science fiction category, I have read some classics but mostly contemporary. The books in my top ten are a lot of similarities so I guess I have a very particular 'type'. My top 10: Ready Player One, Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits (by David Wong), Ender's Game, All Systems Red (by Martha Wells), Wool (by Hugh Howey), Sand (by Hugh Howey), A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (by Becky Chambers), A Memory Called Empire (by Arkady Martine), The Martian, and the last one The Passage by Justin Cronin (which people may argue is not science fiction per se but it is my list so I am counting it haha). If I were to expand to the top 20 it would have Artemis, Leviathan Wakes, Red Shirts, Fuzzy Nation, Snow Crash, How to Live Safely in a Science-fictional Universe, Doomsday Book, The Rook and two classics Foundation (Asimov) and The Waystation (Clifford Simak). More context – Snow Crash and The Waystation are the only books I have read by those two authors; if these books aren't their 'best' they still stand out among what I have read.
Lynette Zozette
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
Just of the top of my head – my top 100/150 would include (not in any order)
War of the Worlds by HG Wells
The Bobiverse books
Project Hail Mary, The Martian
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
the Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Catās Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick
Earth Abides by George R Stewart
Out of the Silent Planet by CS Lewis
ā14ā and āThe Foldā by Peter Clines
Venus on the Halfshell by a Philip Jose Farmer
Einsteinās Dreams by Alan Lightman
Plod On, Sleepless Giant by MP McVey
A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers
The End of Men by Christina Sweeney Baird
The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
One point I have to make is that I prefer Earthbound/planet bound science fiction rather than books set on spaceships. I do not like most military scifi. I also do not generally like long series.
Looney Mooney fun times
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
That's going to be some work mate !!
Scientist's Reading World
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
That is a great idea š I can't wait to see the final list! It would be my sci-fi based list to pick books ^^
T C
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
Do you have a Goodreads page? āŗļø
Cappuccino Crafts
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
Love your new intro! This is an ambitious project. Yes, we love lists! I am excited to see yours and will definitely use it as a resource. I have not read a huge number of SciFi books and am not a super fast reader, so realistically won't get to all of them that are out there. Looking to target what is most worth my time and also get some fresh ideas.
Cappuccino Crafts
August 6, 2021 at 11:52 pm
Oh, just out of curiosity. Would you consider The Broken Earth Trilogy as SciFi or as Fantasy. I think it is truly a blend of both, but how will you approach SciFantasy or other genre bending books in your list? I think Klara and the Sun is sort of literary blended with some SciFi elements, but not deeply in a genre space.