Classic SF – Must Reads.

Stephen from This Week at the Library recently asked me for a list of recommended SF Classics. I read LOTS of this sort of stuff in my youth (which is why you don’t see much of it reviewed here) so should be able to provide a pretty good list. So (in no particular order) here it is:

1984 – George Orwell
Dune – Frank Herbert
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
Inverted World – Christopher Priest
City – Clifford Simak
Deathworld One – Harry Harrison
Why call them back from Heaven? – Clifford Simak
The Day After Tomorrow – Robert Heinlein
One Step From Earth – Harry Harrison
The Dragon in the Sea – Frank Herbert
Night Walk – Bob Shaw
Childhood’s End – Arthur C Clarke
The City and the Stars – Arthur C Clarke
Beyond this Horizon – Robert Heinlein
The Martian Way – Isaac Asimov
A Fall of Moondust – Arthur C Clarke
Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C Clarke
Tau Zero – Poul Anderson
The Eyes of Heisenberg – Frank Herbert
Slan – A E Van Vogt
The Sands of Mars – Arthur C Clarke
Foundation – Isaac Asimov
2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C Clarke
The Gods Themselves – Isaac Asimov
Flow my tears, the Policeman said – Philip K Dick
War with the Robots – Harry Harrison
The Mote in God’s Eye – Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Ringworld - Larry Niven
Lucifer’s Hammer – Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
A Scent of New Mown Hay – John Blackburn
A Martian Odyssey – Stanley G Weinbaum
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
The War of the Worlds – H G Wells
The Man who Awoke – Laurence Manning
The Man in the High Castle – Philip K Dick
The Dosadi Experiment – Frank Herbert
The Time Machine – H G Wells
The First Men in the Moon – H G Wells
To Your Scattered Bodies Go – Philip Jose Farmer
The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
Non-Stop – Brian Aldiss
We Can Build You – Philip K Dick
Tactics of Mistake – Gordon R Dickson
The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
Hothouse – Brian Aldiss
Starship Troopers – Robert Heinlein
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement
Bring the Jubilee – Ward Moore
The Death of Grass – John Christopher
The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
A Case of Conscience – James Blish
The Lovers – Philip Jose Farmer
The Dispossessed – Ursula K LeGuin
The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham
Make Room, Make Room! – Harry Harrison

A fairly long list, but hardly an exhaustive one I’m afraid. There’s probably a ton of books I’ve left off the list for a whole host of reasons but this should give anyone new (or reasonably new) to the genre a good idea of where to start.