The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years
Filed under: Book Reviews, Epic Fantasy Itself — webmaster @ 5:17 pm
I ran across this list of books in the science fiction book club listings and thought it was pretty interesting. I just had to take a look and see how many of them I read and how I felt about their listing. The first thing that struck me was how they call these books “The Most Significant” which is an interesting way to phrase it. It leaves a lot of latitude and leaves it open to interpretation. Does it mean sales? Impact? Theme? etc. etc.

I guess it is a pretty tough task to compile a list like this because there are always going to be criticisms. For the most part I agree with the list and there were some things I was glad to see.

The Lord of the Rings is of course Number one and rightfully so. Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer barely squeaked onto the list at 50. I could disagree with this but at least it’s on the list. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone came in at 26 and as much as I am not a big fan of Harry Potter I have to think that if the operative qualification here is “Significant” then this book should be higher on the list. It seems to have taken a whole generation by storm.

Fantasy books are reasonably well represented in the list with A Wizard of Earthsea in 5th place -and deservedly so. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant come in at 23rd which is great. It’s a maginificent series of books.

A few other notables: Dragonflight is 21 and the Sword of Shannara is 48.

There is one thing that surprised me about the fantasy books on this list. With the exception of Harry Potter not one single fantasy book is less than 20 years old! We haven’t had a significant fantasy work in 20 years? What does this say about the genre? Is it a used up genre just swallowing itself in repetitions of the same old cliches?

The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1953-2002

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer