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My Hall of Shame

 


I am a science fiction reader. I read lots of other things too, but science fiction is my genre of choice. I consider myself extremely well read in science fiction. I have read the old masters like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Mary Shelley, Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jules Verne, and the newer masters like William Gibson, Ann Leckie, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Simmons, N. K. Jemisin, John Scalzi, Cixin Liu. And many, many more. But . . .

There are some important works of Science fiction that I have not read (Well, they are supposed to be important, but since I haven’t read them, I just have to go with my gut). This is my list of shame. This is your chance to say, “you call yourself a science fiction fan and you haven’t even read _________” So, here is my Hall of shame. The list of books that all worthy science fiction afficionados should have read by this point in their life.

 

Contact – Carl Sagan

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle

Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keys

Children of Men – P D James

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton

Okay, in this first group of seven, I have seen the movies made from them. I know that doesn’t count. Of course, it doesn’t count! Books are always a completely different experience than movies. So, watching the movie in no way removes it from my list. But it has somewhat reduced my imperative to read them.  The list continues:

A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet – Becky Chambers

Station Eleven – Emily St John Mandel

Children of Time – Adrian Tchaikovsky

Snow Crash – Neal Stephanson

The Stars my Destination – Alfred Bester

The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell

More than Human – Theodore Sturgeon

Binti – Nnedi Okorafor

Nova – Samuel R. Delany

Mona Lisa Overdrive – William Gibson

The Rise of Endymion – Dan Simmons

This particular list will be getting shorter because I have started to read Children of Time and have purchased the Becky Chambers series.

The list of books that every science fiction fan should read is as subjective as any other list of what is good and what is not. Since you don’t know what I have read and what I have not, you will just have to take my word for it and accept that this is my list of the books I should have read. You would have a different list.

What’s in your hall of shame?

Star Liner

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