stryder100

Consider Phlebas, on the other hand is a huge disappointment. It's a jumble of unsympathetic characters that are introduced and killed off for no apparent reason. The story moves from one tedious cliche to the next and what little actual ideas are there are not developed in the story but left for the appendix. Oh, and the last quarter of the book reads like at bad video game. So, no, it did not change my life.

orie

atfon

---
Sci Fi Addict

scifiaddict

Love her or hate her Constantine was writing post human and transhumanist sf years before it was a mainstream concept. Her style in her early novels was weird and wonderfully creative. I don't know if she belongs on a best list but if you can get hold of hermatech, or the first wraeththu trilogy they are well worth a read.

It is great to see so many great suggestions along with the great list. For me I would have loved to have seen Heinlein, MM Smith, Huxley's "brave new world," Vonnegut, Bester, Atwood (not JUST to annoy her), and well so many more it makes any list too long so I guess you gotta leave someone out.

scottbp

I'm not going to say "what about....?!" because I know that this was not in any meant to be definitive.

Folks, write your own blog if you think something should be listed with these suggestions.

Chindi

bookwrm1

ElizabethD

bookwrm1

zenpoet

ralfy

sflover101

Rasselas

Rasselas

loudambiance

neispace

In regards to Spook Country, mentioned by several, finding it a slow slog to get thru. Do not find it at the level of his other works.

fant0mas

-emory-

The SF books that already did change my life - or made it fuller - are David Zindell's Requiem for Homo Sapiens (no mentions here - not surprised ;); Simmons's Endymion/Rise of Endymion ([nasty aside]which is the one that has the message, unlike the style-stuffed Hyperion[/nasty aside]); and Brin's Uplift Saga, the whole six-volume enterprise (bar The Uplift War, which bored me). To a lesser extent: The Stars My Destination; and Lord of Light. I guess The Neverending Story and The Last Unicorn don't fit in here. ;)

And yes - it all depends on when you've read them. :)

Kalin

nrwfos

icyone

fullerenedream

manjisan

However, the titles by Stephenson, Vinge, LeGuin, Russell, are right on!!!!

jailbird

PK Dick choice: Time Out of Joint. The premise has been much used of late, but at the time. Damn.

Bradbury all the way - Farenheit 451 - despite the fact that it's often taught in school, it remains a life changer.

Paul DiFillipo's Steampunk Trilogy is pretty damn brilliant to boot.

If someone wants a graphic novel on the list forget Watchmen, a brilliant book in it's own right - try Akira!

drift_marlo

Liz Henry

@moff you have me intrigued with Deathstalker - I'll give it a try.

Liz Henry

Cryptonomicon is an interesting choice. Great novel, but not sure I would have gone with that one. I would definitely include I, Robot and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

I haven't seen anyone mention Solaris. That book stands out on so many levels.

gocitizen

'Nother good story about people and aliens merging is anything by Kristine Smith.

And Ender's Game should definitely be on here.

Schez

moff

moff

moff

moff

But I know you know that Roger Zelazny is one of the very few who, as an actual writer, sentence by sentence, can nearly stand up to Le Guin.

Choire

newtype69

sparkyjk

Cryptonomicon: a good book, but life changing? IMHO, it does not belong on such a list.

NO JOE HALDEMAN? "The Forever War" is an amazing book--not only entertaining, but man, did it make me think... about physics, war, culture, and dammit I am going to say it... love.

Flesher

Maybe you should do like Jalopnik's Fantasy Garage and have a "50 Greatest Sci-Fi Novels of All Time" voted in or out by the readership.

Littlebitsofpaper

Orphu

Xmann

nman

Also, Dune changed my life because I was about 10 or 11 when I first read it, and I can honestly say my outlook was never the same after that.

golemnist

toxa26

As has been pointed out by other posts, there's a lot of great sci-fi that was written prior to 1990.

wwday3

1369ic

ggroves

>> The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and
>> Jerry Pournelle. Another first contact story
>> with a truly alien race.

As they put it in When Harry Met Sally: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Although I would say the poignancy of the story comes from the way the Moties display fatal flaws that humans share: the status imperative, territoriality, and irrepressible drive to reproduce. Like Moties, we're prisoners of our nature. Good luck to us.

tekna2007

EricaJoy

But what about the guys changing Sci-Fi as we speak...Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, Broken Angles and Woken Furies...mind blasting uber-violent future tek...This guy is the future of Sci-Fi...just finished Thirteen and I think it's his best work.

vr6john

Eugenia

kulpims

topherz

honeybuzzer

grey_goo

The wildest of the wild, short stories taken from his "Xeelee Sequence". Truly mind melting. Takes place over the course of the life of the universe and then some. Haven't you always wanted to go visit the Great Attractor and chase Photino Birds (you know... the beings that make up dark matter) across galaxies?

Pham Nuwen

podcast411

And if you're going to include Mieville as Sci-Fi...
- The Physiognomy, by Jeffrey Ford

Ender's Game - always a crowd favorite - is a great story, but it's neither the "hard" nor "edgy" sci-fi that makes up lists like these, usually. Just my opinion.

zeejay

Sirens of Titan should be here.

Also, I second the complaints about Neuromancer's position being usurped by Pattern Recognition.

I was super happy to see Cory Doctorow make the list, too.

Icarus One

frostfire451

Also, Cryptonomicon is good, but Snow Crash is even better. It's a fast paced adrenaline rush of cyberpunk, and yet represents a quirky alternative "Franchise Future" that seems more and more like reality every time I read it.

Either way, now it lookslike I have more books to add to my list.

pulpherojm

But, one that is a more modern brain teaser is Lisa Mason's "Summer of Love".

Pitchok

Tim Faulkner

moff

But really, as the number of comments indicates, there are so many good sci-fi books that you could just do a "Book of the Day" (or week) feature on io9 and have awesome stuff to talk about for years.

tk.

Of course, mine would be different.

You really, really need some Theodore Sturgeon on there. His books and stories have impacted my life more so than any other author. He was a sci-fi author who truly understood humanity, and our capacity to love.

There is a reason why Sturgeon is so worshiped by so many sci-fi authors.

D_Davis

Vonnegut
Adams
Herbert
Clarke
Asimov
Heinlein

I could go on and on.

bourbononthrocks

My favorite is when Green uses clunky exposition to remind us of something that happened fifty pages previous. "Hazel, remember my friend _______ and how he betrayed us? You should -- it only happened an hour ago. Also, it was kind of a big deal."

@braak: I finished the first, five-book series and then started the second, three-book series only to discover that it was exactly the same story. Still, I'll get around to reading the last couple eventually. They are fun!

@Tim Faulkner: Um, before you invest any serious money, my decency as a human being compels me to point out this addendum to my earlier comments.

moff

The first 3 to be read when young. They fill your soul with such vivid pictures they do change lives.

CityGuySailing

Delany
Brunner
Moorcock
Anderson
Sturgeon
Orwell
Huxley

Not so sure I could agree, but different strokes for different ..... well you get the idea.

bourbononthrocks

Witness

Freddie Freelance

MarlboroTestMonkey7

MarlboroTestMonkey7

@moff: "Note: The part about reimbursing you is a baldfaced lie." Yeah, that part. Oh well, That's strong praise, I guess I'm in, too. DAMN YOU, Moff.

@Annalee Newitz: "Dick's A Scanner Darkly . . . Adams' A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

Funniest junkie novel, any genre, but not his most lifechanging... Damn straight, The Guide has to be in. A mere comment is like putting Baby in the corner.

Absolutely to War of the Worlds. 1984.

For the xenophobic (Annalee): Capek, War of the Newts (glad someone gave it a shout out). Zamyatin, We. Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog. Solaris, something of Lem's, dammit.

@darcymcgee: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

If we go that far afield, Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, which probably fits any genre. And Animal Farm. And Metamorphosis. I don't think that's the point, but nothing wrong with good books.

And WTF! No Vonnegut? Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse, or Breakfast of Champions. OH, there's too many... (particularly fond of Sirens too, which seems so pulpy but is quite brilliant) even late gems like Galapagos.

Probably no Verne though. On the other hand, maybe include, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

Some are old, many will be read when you are young, and a fair bit of repetition of themes (particularly dystopias), but all life changers, yes.

I would probably cut Doctorow first to get back to, what, 58 Best Scifi Novels that will change your life.

@Nicholas Carlson: The problem being many of us know most of these even if Nick doesn't. Better that Annalee aschews the easy to encounter, but come one, No Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or War of the Worlds?!

Tim Faulkner

wordweaverlynn

Before I put anything that Niel Stephanson on the list I would put George Allec Effinger - his Gravity Falls novels are amazing.

ewsleight

Andrew

Poormojo

Curse you for mentioning Courtship Rite before I could. Possibly the best book ever.

Other people who probably ought to be on there: C.J Cherryh, David Brin, Howard Waldrop, Cordwainer Smith... many more I'm forgetting.
-Kle.

Klebert L. Hall

Many have mentioned Arthur C. Clarke's conspicuous absence here. I second (or third... or tenth...) that and also submit that his novel "The City and the Stars" may be the best work of SF I have ever read. It left me with the sense of wonder at the possibilities of our universe and society like I feel SF should.

wundermint

chrishopper

Cent 1) Over half the list is books that are less than 20 years old.

Cent 2) My version of this list would have Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men on it somewhere. Its cosmic perspective successfully imparts the feel of thousands and millions of years passing better than any other book I've ever read.

rhorsman

Matt S.

Rasselas

golemnist

Also, I'd argue that Cryptonomicon was just fine as it was. I think the people who got bored with it just wanted more shiny sci-fi, because Stephenson was actually a much better, and even *tighter*, writer with Cryptonomicon than with Snow Crash or The Diamond Age (do you all *remember* the Librarian? The hundred or more pages of that book that were rambles about Sumerian mythology and whatnot?). Though I do admit Snow Crash hit me at a more formative time, so changed my life a bit more.

Vonnegut definitely changed my life (as he will that of most anyone who reads him as an early adolescent), and Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle are both definitely science fiction (regardless of Vonnegut's comment that he (iirc) "dislikes being placed in the drawer marked science fiction, since so many critics seem to mistake it for a urinal")

My Butler choice might be Parable of the Sower, but maybe that's just because I need to go back and reread Kindred.

Crash Launching

I saw a couple of references to Canticle for Leibowitz in the comments, and have to second those. If I had to convince a non-reader of science fiction to read science-fiction, and could compel them to read only one book, it would be Canticle.

Don't bother with the sequel, however, despite the fact that it was completed by Terry Bisson. It's a mess.

Thanks again for your list. I've missed some of these, and now I'm going looking for them.

KyBear

enerdream

Rasselas

According to my friend who reads all of Mieville's work, his politics are more apparent in Iron Council, the third Bas-Lag novel.

Lampbane

futurpunk

Childhood's end did for me what my 10th grade English class tried to do with the chrysalids. It's short and sweet, and taught me to be more discerning with the history I accept at face value. Also that the picture of my ancestor's past i choose to believe, however complete, was a major source of cultural bigotry that went unnoticed.

enerdream

SupervenientMan

wotthehell

"Also, no one should ever read a book by anyone named 'Storm Constantine.' "

Seconded.

Hekkashesh

Hekkashesh

...A-AND i don't wanna here "ain't science-fiction, Nixon" from any of you zoot-suiters. Nuclear war counts, people. We can thank the gods that we still live in a wolrd where nuclear war counts as science fiction.

DSTRYA

Rasselas

DSTRYA

kniffler

AmishJohn

Would like to add E. E. "Doc" Smith and his Lensman series written in the 1930's.

Smith was a chemical engineer by trade and called these books scientific fiction. It was very interesting to see the 1930's viewpoints on gender roles put into the context of a futuristic setting. A "computer" in these novels was a person good at doing mental calculations, not a machine! Any other Smith fans out there?

@Annalee: how about making a total list at the end of the day for us?

Chrysla

But where's Lem (e.g. "The Invincible")!? How about "Brave New World", "1984", "Pavane", "A Canticle for Leibovitz", "On the Beach"... "Consider Phlebas" is excellent, but "Use of Weapons", "The Bridge" or "The Player of Games" are even better. For Le Guin, I could'n decide between your choice, "Four Ways to Forgiveness" and "Left Hand of Darkness" (but certainly not, say, "The Word for World is Forest")...

See, that's why I take a year's supply of books on one week vacation :)

bonzi

Also, no one should ever read a book by anyone named "Storm Constantine."

braak

Battey137

> Where's the Dick?!"

A woman I met in college walked into my apartment for the first time, looked at my bookshelf and said "Oh, good! Moorcock and Dick!" Very interesting nine year relationship out of that!

Reference the questions about life changing, yes it's possible. Stranger in a Strange Land and Dune definitely changed my life, and formed the basis for my attitudes toward religion and authority. And Bradbury and Cordwainer Smith taught me what perfect art the short story and science fiction can be.

Shandon

Just to name a few:

Stars my destination
Nova
Dune
Stranger in a strange land
Do androids dream of electric sheep
Female Man
Hyperion

gaucher

Strangeite

While I very much agree with many of the suggestions listed above (e.g. A.C. Clarke (I'd go with "Childhood's End" rather than the 2001 series myself), Dick, Herbert, Bradbury, etc...) I'd suggest that "1984" should be firmly entrenched in any list of this sort.

Or is that not considered science fiction any more?

Frankenstein

Canticle is the biggest mind blower I've ever read. Not because of some impressive, zany techno-future, but because of it's honest look at the future of humanity.

The conclusions of the book lead to the author committing suicide, albeit 20 years after writing it. If that doesn't qualify as life-changing....

kneeker

Nicholas Carlson

All of those books have more impact than some dude who posts his books as pdfs for free. Although said dude would be more likely to link to your list on his big blog if you mentioned his work, so I can see why you'd put him up there.

Y'all might want to separate 'SciFi Books That Changed the Genre' and 'SciFi Books That Will Change Your Life' in to two categories. One doesn't always mean the other.

Plus we get more books to read! Win-win!

robocop_is_bleeding

AgtShadow

Worst. Ever. Description.

Of Varley's Wizard. Not saying that doesn't happen in the series, but that's not even remotely the main focus.

cenotaph

They are a fun series. Much like Steve Perry's first three Matador books.

braak

makyo

As for Gibson, I liked Pattern Recognition and Spook Country fine, but got a bit tired of the awed reverence that the reader is supposed to have for Hubertus Bigend and his advertising agency.

Rasselas

Mouser_UK

BlondeGrlz

Spakkenkhrist

Jamie

Cryptonomicon isn't SF? Hmm... I'd say any book that has Alan Turing as a minor character sits firmly in the SF world.

I would add--partially just to piss her off, god love her--Atwood's Oryx and Crake to this list. I love teaching it.

Slothrop

Jaffey

I bought Fire upon the deep because it had cover art with cool looking ships. WHICH had nothing to do with the story. Where is Stranger in Strange Land? Where is Dune? Cryptonomiacon is great, but it's not SF. Replace that pick with Snow Crash.

Jeff-Minor

clausd

dave the wet sprocket

annia316

Tim Faulkner

Thanks for the love! They're 2 of my favorite writers. "As She Climbed Across The Table" was nothing short of amazing really. That book blew me away. A girl falling in love with a black hole? Priceless. Jonathan's newest book (You Don't Love Me Yet) is the only one of his works that I wasn't absolutely nuts over. Everything else I've loved to death. His newest book is supposed to be super Philip K Dick inspired! I can't wait!

Also, I haven't seen anyone mention "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said", which I think is one of Philip K Dicks best works. Definitely check that one out if you haven't already.

dead_red_eyes

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" - ditto - although this one hasn't been done enough.

Naumadd

Okay, maybe shameful is too strong a word. Neglectful? Bradbury's protestations against pigeonholing aside.

magsman

Er, maybe that didn't help the case for Chronicles' inclusion here (fantasy? really?), but it looked like he didn't protest the genre too much when he was called "the world's greatest" at it. But it's an old copy of the book. Now I'm curious what newer taglines say!

Kaila Hale-Stern

You want changed your life?

Dune made one of my friends lose religion.

Seriously.

Evdor

And yes, I've officially been roped-in by a listicle and the debate such attempts at being definitive engender. Love it!

Jackson West

Kaila Hale-Stern

Annalee Newitz

Everyone has mentioned great additions to the list. I'd add Greg Benford's Timescape for being one of the few novels to deal in a reasonable way with the sticky issue of time travel and multiple time lines.

magsman

cuiusquemodi

"The Twenty Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life... That Are Actually Relevant to This Day and Age"

Which would go a long way towards explaining why Title "what-have-you" wasn't included on the list. So many excellent, classic and prescient works that laid the foundation for the genre but weren't actually what this article was referring to.

Still, an awesome list, and doubly-so for including Mieville's PSS, which isn't technically SF but will change your life anyway. Actually, as far as Mieville goes, I'd say that "Iron Council" would change your life far more that PSS would, but that's just me.

Again, awesome list!

Hobbyns

dOk

Nilkimas

I'd second a place for Ender and Philip K. Dick, too, without whom a lot of other books wouldn't have happened.

I know I'm in a minority here, probably alone, but I've never felt more let down by a book's ending than that of The Sparrow. For a story so intricately and finely wrought, so insanely wound up to the breaking-point, to resolve on what struck me as a sourly small-minded note still makes me sad.

Kaila Hale-Stern

@scfaulkner: Illuminatus!, like Dhalgren, is one of those books where I finished it, blown away, and could not for the life of me figure out how they'd managed to pull that shit off. The sheer audacity, I declare.

moff

Where's Arthur C. Clarke on this list?

MISS MERCY STREET

SgtSpaceWizard

I just read AFUtD last month and was stunned by it, amazing book.

quartzjer

nobodysent

But wow, I remember the first time I read The Sparrow; as a Catholic-by-birth, and graduate of a Jesuit high school, it was just damn perfect.

JosephFinn

scfaulkner

I'm a big fan of Stephenson but that book was such a departure from his usual work and is one of the few times a favorite author of mine has done so for the worst with a new work.

KraZe

Not that I don't loooove that book, (I would totally have China's babies, with eggs dropped from the left ovary, of course), but it seems like io9 officially takes a stand against writing about other forms of fantastic fiction besides science fiction, yet includes horror and fantasy and action/adventure when convenient (especially in the comics posts). It's something I would love to see resolved about this site, and I for one would prefer to see y'all be inclusive rather than exclusive.

Stepping back off the soapbox, this is an awesome list and I may print it out and take it with me to the bookstore because I am hardcore like that.

Inkymonkey

My serious adds to the list would be:
* Blish: Cities in Flight
* Brunner: Stand on Zanzibar
* Ryman: The Child Garden (I haven't read 'Air' yet)
* Lem: let's say 'Fiasco'

PS @Primitiv: That's GREG Bear's 'Blood Music'.

hitmouse

jonsequitur

Cantonkid

user_21938