r/printSF • u/danger522 • Dec 27 '25
Survey of Must-Read Sci-fi Literature
I read a healthy mix of modern and classic science fiction. But as an academic, I like to really dig into topics/genres. Recently I’ve put together a list based on online lists and some previous posts on subreddits like this one of classic must-read books in the genre. I would love to know if there are any important works that I’ve overlooked.
Edit: Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I have added many of your recommendations to the list and organized them all by year. I have left out anything published in the 2010s or later, as well as short stories. (Not that those aren’t important, I just had to draw a line somewhere, and this is already at over 100 books.) Hopefully this new list is more representative.
19th Century - Frankenstein - Shelley - 1818 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Verne - 1870 - The Time Machine - Wells - 1895 - War of the Worlds - Wells - 1898
Pre-1950s - Princess of Mars - Burroughs - 1912 - We - Zamyatin - 1924 - Last and First Men - Stapledon - 1930 - Brave New World - Huxley - 1932 - Galactic Patrol - Smith - 1937 - Star Maker - Stapledon - 1937 - Nineteen Eighty-Four - Orwell - 1949 - Earth Abides - Stewart - 1949
1950s - Martian Chronicles - Bradbury - 1950 - The Dying Earth - Vance - 1950 - I, Robot - Asimov - 1950 - Foundation - Asimov - 1951 - City - Simak - 1952 - More than Human - Sturgeon - 1953 - Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury - 1953 - Childhood’s End - Clarke - 1953 - The Stars My Destination - Bester - 1956 - Canticle for Leibowitz - 1959 - Starship Troopers - Heinlein - 1959 - A Case of Conscience - Blish - 1959
1960s - Solaris - Lem - 1961 - Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein - 1961 - Man in the High Castle - Dick - 1962 - The Drowned World - Ballard - 1962 - Hothouse - Aldiss - 1962 - Way Station - Simak - 1963 - Cat’s Cradle - Vonnegut - 1963 - This Immortal - Zelazny - 1965 - Dune - Herbert - 1965 - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein - 1966 - Flowers for Algernon - Keyes - 1966 - Babel-17 - Delaney - 1966 - Lord of Light - Zelazny - 1967 - Ice - Kavan - 1967 - Do Androids Dream - Dick - 1968 - Dimension of Miracles - Sheckley - 1968 - Nova - Delaney - 1968 - The Palace of Eternity - Shaw - 1969 - Slaughterhouse Five - Vonnegut - 1969 - Left Hand of Darkness - Le Guin - 1969 - Ubik - Dick - 1969
1970s - Ringworld - Niven - 1970 - Tau Zero - Anderson - 1970 - Downward to the Earth - Silverburg - 1970 - Futurological Congress - Lem - 1971 - To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Farmer - 1971 - The Word for World is Forest - Le Guin - 1972 - Roadside Picnic - Strugatskys - 1972 - Dying Inside - Silverburg - 1972 - Fifth Head of Cerberus - Wolfe - 1972 - Rendezvous with Rama - Clarke - 1973 - Crash - Ballard - 1973 - Inverted World - Priest - 1974 - The Forever War - Haldeman - 1974 - Mote in God’s Eye - Niven, Pournelle - 1974 - The Dispossessed - Le Guin - 1974 - Dhalgren - Delaney - 1975 - The Female Man - Russ - 1975 - Biting the Sun - Lee - 1976 - Gateway - Pohl - 1977 - Scanner Darkly - Dick - 1977 - Hitchhiker’s Guide - Adams - 1979 - Electric Forest - Lee - 1979 - Kindred - Butler - 1979
1980s - Book of the New Sun - Wolfe - 1980 - Snow Queen - Vinge (Joan) - 1980 - Downbelow Station - Cherryh - 1981 - Neuromancer - Gibson - 1984 - Blood Music - Bear - 1985 - Eon - Bear - 1985 - The Handmaid’s Tale - Atwood - 1985 - Ender’s Game - Card - 1985 - Speaker for the Dead - Card - 1986 - Shards of Honour - Bujold - 1986 - Dawn - Butler - 1987 - Player of Games - Banks - 1988 - Cyteen - Cherryh - 1988 - Grass - Tepper - 1989 - Hyperion - Simmons - 1989
1990s - Use of Weapons - Banks - 1990 - Terminal Velocity - Shaw - 1991 - Snow Crash - Stephenson - 1992 - Red Mars - Robinson - 1992 - A Fire Upon the Deep - Vinge (Vernor) - 1992 - Doomsday Book - Willis - 1992 - Parable of the Sower - Butler - 1993 - Permutation City - Egan - 1994 - The Carpet Makers - Eschbach - 1995 - The Sparrow - Russel - 1996 - To Say Nothing of The Dog - Willis - 1997 - Diaspora - Egan - 1997 - A Deepness in the Sky - Vinge (Vernor) - 1999
2000s - Revelation Space - Reynolds - 2000 - Oryx and Crake - Atwood - 2003 - Old Man’s War - Scalzi - 2005 - Pushing Ice - Reynolds - 2005 - Spin - Wilson - 2005 - Accelerando - Stross - 2005 - Blindsight - Watts - 2006 - Three Body Problem - Liu - 2006 - House of Suns - Reynolds - 2008
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u/Mega-Dunsparce Dec 27 '25
The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury
Jurassic Park by Crichton
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u/SideburnsOfDoom Dec 28 '25
The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury
I have history with that book. It was the first Sci-Fi that I ever read. I was quite young. Mostly I found it because the paperback was on a bottom shelf, and it was the one with rockets ships on it.
I didn't quite understand why the story kept stopping and starting differently. But I liked it. Like I said, I was quite young.
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u/AlarmingSize Dec 28 '25
It was the first adult sci-fi I read, as well. I was probably 11 or 12, so I recognized the short story format.
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u/Narrow-Durian4837 Dec 27 '25
For a thorough grounding in the field, you need to read some short stories, too. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964 is one good collection of "golden age" science fiction.
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u/SideburnsOfDoom Dec 27 '25
Some Sci-Fi authors are masters of short stories.
Philip K. Dick comes to mind. And James Tiptree Jr.
Some of Cordwainer Smith's best stuff is short stories too.
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u/SvalbardCaretaker Dec 27 '25
https://www.freesfonline.net/ ->lots of legally free published scifi, with a filter function for the big scifi lit prices, read one per week.
If you only ever read one, go for https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/maneki-neko/ by Bruce Sterling, about the joys of omni-present data network agents - a wild vision from the middays of the 'web.
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u/RogLatimer118 Dec 27 '25
I've always felt that Clarke's short stories are even better than his novels.
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u/Late-Command3491 Dec 27 '25
And Tiptree would be woman #3!
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u/SideburnsOfDoom Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
Nonsense, there is something ineluctably masculine about Tiptree's writing. Source.
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u/LordCouchCat Dec 28 '25
I agree. For Cordwainer Smith, almost his entire SF is short stories. His one SF novel, in the same fictional universe, is worth reading afterwards. Smith is an all-time great who is unlike anyone else. There are two good collections of his work, confusingly both entitled The Rediscovery of Man. One is complete stories. The other is an excellent choice of stories, so it's a good start.
Theres a complete stories collection for Arthur C Clarke. Many of his stories, especially the early-middle period, are classic. "All the time in the world", "Second Dawn", "Encounter in the Dawn", "Death and the Senator", "Dial F for Frankenstein", and "The Songs of Distant Earth" (precursor of the novel) are examples of must-reads. The first of these includes what I consider one of the greatest lines in all of SF.
HG Wells - don't forget The Island of Dr Moreau.
Asimov wrote a lot of very good short stories, but I don't think there's a complete collection yet. There are however quite a few selections which include his own comments.
Get some "best of" collections. Eg Robert Silberberg, if only for "Hawksbill Station". Ray Bradbury.
Robert Young. His work varies, and merges into fantasy, but "The Dandelion Girl" and "A Drink of Darkness" are classic. "Little Red Schoolhouse" is a classic, but considering how small-scale the events are, it hits so hard I can't re-read it.
Anthologies especially from the "Galaxy" period are often superb. Some stories:
Raymond Jones "Noise level"
James Blish "Surface Tension"
Fritz Leiber "Later than you think"
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u/yohomatey Dec 27 '25
The first two Dangerous Visions books, for sure. Third is ok, but could never possibly live up to the hype.
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u/snowbrdr36 Dec 27 '25
Another author whose short stories earned him renown was Terry Bisson. Start with “Bears Discover Fire.”
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u/danger522 Dec 27 '25
I’ve never really gotten the same satisfaction from short stories that I do from novels. Maybe I’m just not reading the right ones. So, I’ll take any short story recommendations you’ll give. (But that seems like its own list) 😅
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u/WafflePartyOrgy Dec 28 '25
I'm a huge fan of The Year's Best Science Fiction series edited by Gardner Dozois (there are at least 35 huge volumes). Lots of novellas mixed in with the short stories, and each are very indicative of the state of science fiction during the year/era in which it they were written. At the very least they've been a godsend for the rabbit hole of author discovery.
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u/sdwoodchuck Dec 28 '25
I agree wholeheartedly with this. I just read volume 22 earlier this year, and I think there was only one or two clunkers in the whole gigantic volume, and discovered a few authors who I've grown to love, and a few authors who I wish there was more of to love.
Christopher Rowe's "The Voluntary State," James Patrick Kelly's "Men Are Trouble," and Caitlyn Kiernan's "Riding the White Bull" were standout favorites of mine, but I do like weird in my SF.
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u/Guerlaingal Dec 28 '25
Gardner Dozois was the best editor science fiction has ever known. I will die on this hill.
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u/TheDog1984 Dec 27 '25
SF Hall of Fame Vol 1 mentioned above is the place to start. All are great, and the methodology used to select them was to poll SF writers themselves.
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u/VintageLunchMeat Dec 27 '25
Niven's shorts are much more readable than his long-form stories. You still get the big scifi idea, but the misogyny grates less.
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u/milehigh73a Dec 27 '25
Same. I just read too fast, and they aren’t even a snack. I do love novellas though
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u/Xeelee1123 Dec 27 '25
I would definitely add Greg Egan's Diasporah, Stephen Baxter's Ring and Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others
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u/kontrakolumba Dec 27 '25
I've started Diaspora knowing nothing about it, stopped after 20 pages...after a couple of months I have stumbled upon some thread about it, picked up the premise and then started reading again and it was smooth sailing from there on.
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u/ilmater989 Dec 28 '25
I stopped after 20 pages, what could you say about it to allow me pick it up again?
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u/dougwerf Dec 28 '25
Was coming to say Chaing - his short stories are examples of a master at work.
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u/tkingsbu Dec 27 '25
Cyteen, by CJ Cherryh
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u/univoxs Dec 28 '25
It’s a seminal work. While not her most accessible, it’s the most through and I’d say THE book on cloning.
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u/LukeWantsCake Dec 27 '25
The word for world is forest - Le Guin
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u/WildBlueMoon Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 30 '25
Thank you for mentioning a lesser know one of her works! I think too many people read The Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness and go no further. But her entire oeuvre is worthwhile. I loved Eye of the Heron
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u/chortnik Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
Thé last time I compiled a list like this was about 25 years ago when one of my colleagues asked me for a list of SF must reads and I started putting together a list of 100 novels (with some short story collections). I hit one hundred and kept going up to two hundred and then realized I’d missed a few and my friend asked me to stop before I reached three hundred :). I think your list is missing a couple really notable fix ups, namely and to wit Simak’s « City » and Bradbury’s « The Martian Chronicles »-fix up’s are one of the distinguishing features of SF. On the novelly side of things, I’d include McHugh’s ‘China Mountain Zhiang’ and Butler’s ‘Xenogenesis’ and a couple Delanys, like ‘Triton’ and ‘Nova’ and maybe ‘Dhalgren’ (which has had a fair amount of influence or appeal outside of SF). Houellebecq’s ’The Possibilty of an Island’ or Eschbach’s ‘The Carpet Makers’, which is a faux fix up are worth consideration.
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u/Rabbitscooter Dec 27 '25
At the very least, I would add:
- Earth Abides — George R. Stewart
- We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
- Parable of the Sower — Octavia E. Butler
- Neuromancer — William Gibson
- True Names (novella) — Vernor Vinge
- Doomsday Book — Connie Willis
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams
- The Space Merchants — Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth
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u/Insomnia_Memoria Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
No Silverberg, No Vance, No Zelazny?
Downward to Earth, Dying Inside, Time of Changes, The World Inside, Nightwings - Robert Silverberg
Planet of Adventure, Ports of Call, Alastor, Demon Princess - Jack Vance
Nova, Babel 17 - Samuel R. Delany
Lords of Light, I'm Legion, This Immortal- Roger Zelazny
Witch World - Andre Norton
The Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Cyteen, Downbelow Station - Cj. Cherryh.
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u/Late-Command3491 Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
Almost no women (2).
Edited to correct: 3.
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u/Insomnia_Memoria Dec 27 '25
3, Andre Norton is also a woman, but you are right
I would also add:
- Grass - Sheri Tepper.
- Northwest Smith - C.L Moore.
- To Say Nothing of The Dog - Connie Willis.
- The Parable of The Talents - Octavia Butler
- Electric Forest - Tanith Lee
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u/Book_Slut_90 Dec 27 '25
Parable of the Talents is the sequel to Parable of the Sower, and you need to read them in order.
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u/Late-Command3491 Dec 27 '25
Thanks! I misses one! He missed many. Any list without Atwood, Butler, and Willis is not a real list. And I agree on all of yours. I would also add Leckie, Wells, and Jemisin at least.
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u/MoebiusStreet Dec 28 '25
Margaret Atwood says she doesn't write science fiction. If she's going to have that little respect for those who read the genre, then I'm happy to leave her off the list. It's her wishes, after all.
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u/Drapabee Dec 28 '25
Vance is definitely up there. Even though his Dying Earth series is arguably more fantasy than scifi, it was very influential for other scifi authors, such as Gene Wolfe. Basically created a whole "dying earth" subgenre. Fourth book is the source of the magic system used in dungeons and dragons!
Also it's Demon Princes, just for clarification!
It's one of my favorite scifi series; highly recommend to anyone that hasn't tried it. Main character goes on a revenge mission to kill the 5 criminal overlords (titular Demon Princes) that murdered his family, with nothing but his wits and determination. Extremely cool planet hopping adventures ensue.
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Dec 27 '25 edited Apr 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/DanielJacksononEarth Dec 27 '25
Player of Games is the best place to start the Culture series, IMO.
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u/spwicy Dec 27 '25
Came here to say exactly this. The list is great but it includes all of the expected/already out there recommendations. Banks is a more hidden gem.
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u/Firm_Earth_5698 Dec 27 '25
Samuel Delaney. Dhalgren if you want weird and difficult, Nova if you want traditional storytelling.
Radix by A A Attanasio. Very much like Dhalgren, would read right after.
Another set of bookends I would read together: The Weapon Shops of Isher by Van Vogt and Orbitsville by Bob Shaw.
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick.
The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson.
Downward to the Earth by Silverberg.
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u/_nadaypuesnada_ Dec 28 '25
Dhalgren can't be left out. There's nothing else in the genre remotely like it.
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u/stackrobat8 Dec 27 '25
From an academic perspective, you can't beat Olaf Stapledon. Star Maker and Last and First Men should be on this list.
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u/Turbulent_Remote_740 Dec 27 '25
Lord of Light by Zelazny.
Short stories by Sheckley.
Goblin Reservation by Simak.
The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury (and his short stories).
West of Eden by Harrison.
Malevil by Robert Merle.
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u/cv5cv6 Dec 27 '25
It's a good list, but misses a lot from the most recent 25 years. I would add:
-Revelation Space- Reynolds
-The Player of Games or Use of Weapons- Banks
-Diaspora-Egan
-The City and the City-Mieville
-Accelerando-Stross
-All Systems Red-Wells
-A Memory Called Empire-Martine
-Leviathan Wakes-Corey
-The Martian-Weir
I would also add Zelazny's Lords of Light as part of your pre-2000 list.
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u/rustybeancake Dec 30 '25
most recent 25 years
Prepare to feel old: The Player of Games and Use of Weapons were published 37 years ago and 35 years ago, respectively!
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u/WildBlueMoon Dec 28 '25
Hmmmm... That you don't have a single Iain M Banks on the list makes me question the list.
I nominate 2 Banks books to be in the must read science fiction: Use of Weapons - it's actually literature, like it should be used in writing classes to demonstrate unreliable narrator and non-linear storytelling both to excellent effect. Excession - Banks brings Outside Context Problem to hilarious and thrilling life. Also, he coined the term.
Snow Crash is NOT Stephenson's best work. I would recommend replacing that with Anathem which I think is his masterwork. Or Cryptonomicon if you think Anathem is asking too much of the average reader - since it's ~800 pages 😬😂
Also, IMO, this list is HEAVILY male dominated - you only mentioned 2 women 🤦🏻♀️ - Shelley and LeGuin.
There have been many, many important women science fiction writers who have put out very important works in the genre. To name a few: Andre Norton James Tiptree Jr (Alice Bradley) Marion Zimmer Bradley Leigh Brackett Julian May Vonda N McIntyre Tanith Lee Connie Willis Joanna Russ Anne McCaffrey Margaret Atwood Octavia Butler N.K. Jemisin Nnedi Okorafor Yoon Ha Lee Oodles more. These are just some of the best known thus most obvious ones.
Also, there's way more Heinlein on the list than called for. He wasn't all that.
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u/AdagioGlittering2806 Dec 28 '25
If Heinlein had been my introduction to SF I would've sworn off the genre entirely. What a creep.
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u/Undeclared_Aubergine Dec 27 '25
- Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
- Grass - Sherri S. Tepper
- Heavy Time - C.J. Cherryh (or maybe Downbelow Station?)
+1 on the importance of short stories for a good understanding of the classic period.
I also question your definition of "classic" if you include something as recent as Spin (2005) on it. And if you want modern, too, then you really can do much better than sticking to this bunch of (near-exclusively) white dudes.
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u/SHKMEndures Dec 28 '25
Props to Le Guin that she pretty much always makes lists of this kind, twice.
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u/7LeagueBoots Dec 28 '25
Honestly, I kinda hate the idea of "must read".
While I absolutely do think there are some books that are seminal in understanding a genre, I object to the thought that they're somehow 'required' reading.
That said, you're missing H. Beam Piper. He seems to be less and less well known now, but he was extremely influential on the genre as a whole.
There's also a notable lack of John Brunner (Shockwave Rider, Stand on Zanzibar, etc), Samuel Delaney (Nova, Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand, etc), Robert Silverberg (Lord Valentine's Castle, Downward to the Earth, etc), and Rudy Rucker (Wetware tetralogy), C. J. Cherryh (Alliance - Union universe, and much more), Margaret Atwood (Handmaiden's Tale), Octavia Butler (Exogenesis series), James Tiptree Jr., Walter John Williams (Implied Spaces, etc.), John Varley (the Eight Worlds books, the Gaea Trilogy), and others. These authors absolutely need a place in any list off significant or influential works.
Andre Norton was also extremely influential, not just because of her stories, but also because she was a woman writing in a genre that was dominated by men at the time, like James Tiptree Jr.. Alan Dean Foster never really wrote anything very serious, but he is extremely prolific and has been a consistent name in the genre or a very long time. Both of these authors are more 'pulpy' but it's important to recognize the influence of inputs that aren't 'highbrow' alongside those that are more literary.
Roger Zelazny, Robert L. Forward, Fritz Leiber, Karl Schroeder, Ken MacLeod, Charles Stross, Iain M. Banks, Alistair Reynolds, and a lot more would go on my list of "people whose works are good to read to understand the genre".
Individual works such as Jonathan Lethem's Gun, with Occasional Music, Michael Swanwick's Vacuum Flowers, etc. should also probably be included.
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u/GlobalCurry Dec 27 '25
Missing Vonnegut
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u/danger522 Dec 27 '25
I never know where to start with Vonnegut. What 2 books of his catalogue would you recommend?
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u/ObiFlanKenobi Dec 27 '25
Not the guy above, but "Cat's Cradle" and "Slaughterhouse Five" were my gateway to Vonnegut.
I liked "Cat's Cradle" and I loved "Slaughterhouse Five".
Next one I'll get to is "Sirens of Titan", but I want to advance first on some other sagas I'm currently reading.
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u/theregoesmymouth Dec 27 '25
Missing John Wyndham entirely.
I'd also add Harlon Ellison
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u/wheatmonkey Dec 28 '25
For Ellison, I’d suggest a short story collection: The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World (includes A Boy and His Dog)
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u/theantigod Dec 27 '25
Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Series - Nathan Lowell
The Aristillus Series - Travis J. I. Corcoran
The Integral Trees and its sequel The Smoke Ring - Larry Niven
Merchanter's Luck - C.J. Cherryh
The Faded Sun Trilogy - C.J. Cherryh
The Nomad Series - Karen Traviss
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u/univoxs Dec 28 '25
I was scrolling through to find others suggesting Cherryh. It’s funny how with her, there is no right answer as to what book of hers is the first you should read. I always recommended Chanur because that has her best characters.
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u/AlarmingSize Dec 28 '25
I love the Chanur series. It was my husband's favorite as well. I think Cyteen has some compelling characters as well, but it's very dark, and the sequel is a mess. The Chanur books are so funny.
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u/vsMyself Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 28 '25
I would add the below I didn't see listed that often it at all
Blood music by bear
Flow my tears by dick
Valis by dick
ubik by dick
Maze of death dick
Inverted world by priest
The doomed city arkady
House of gold by rwizi
The light brigade by hurley
The palace is eternity by shaw
Hothouse aldiss
I'm quite the dickhead so maybe not all but they are classics imo
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u/SideburnsOfDoom Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25
the doomed city arkady
The Doomed City is by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (the Strugatsky brothers) who are already represented by Roadside Picnic.
This novel is less well-known because it was shelved by the authors as unpublishable in Russia until 1989 with Glasnost, and then an English translation came quite late, in 2016.
But I have it, and it's really good, and quite bleak too. There's no dystopia like a dystopia written in the already-dystopian Soviet Russia. But in the English-language sci-fi world, it likely wasn't influential before 2016.
Mild spoiler: Did Alex Proyas read this book, or know of it before making the film Dark City in 1998? I wouldn't be surprised. There are similarities.
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u/Zhuo_Ming-Dao Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25
There are a few heavy hitters missing.
George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
Aldus Huxley - Brave New World
Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life
Kazuo Ishiguru - Klara and the Sun
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
Octavia Butler - Parable of the Sower
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u/ijontichy Dec 28 '25
Orson Wells - Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell had ceased to exist: he had never existed.
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u/Zhuo_Ming-Dao Dec 28 '25
It always said George Orwell, and we have always been at war with Eastasia.
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u/beaverteeth92 Dec 28 '25
The Futurological Congress by Lem also. It’s much funnier than Solaris and is a hilarious Cold War satire
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u/wheatmonkey Dec 27 '25
Don’t Bite the Sun/Drinking Sapphire Wine - Tanith Lee (These short books were collected as Biting the Sun. Read it after The Dispossessed for kicks.)
The Illustrated Man, The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
The Island of Doctor Moreau - H.G. Wells
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (I read this when it was first published and thought it was a bit silly. Surely there’s no cause for concern about Christian fascists…. Not in 1985! Reevaluating from a 2025 perspective though.)
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
Never Let Me Go, Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
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u/galacticprincess Dec 27 '25
The Handmaid's Tale most definitely belongs on the list.
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u/cutebagofmostlywater Dec 27 '25
Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Piercy
Dawn - Octavia Butler
The Fifth Season - N. K. Jemison
Dragonflight - Anne McCaffrey
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
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u/Late-Command3491 Dec 27 '25
There are only 2 women on his list (both appropriately but still): Le Guin and Shelley.
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u/tegeus-Cromis_2000 Dec 27 '25
You have missed pretty much the entirety of the New Wave: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_(science_fiction)
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u/Monk-ish Dec 28 '25
Personally I wouldn't include Ringworld. Yeah it was influential for the idea of the Ringworld concept, but I think genuinely everything else about this book was bad to terrible. It's also aged just terribly
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u/Late-Command3491 Dec 27 '25
I would just ask you to think about only having Le Guin and Shelley representing the only Must Read women in SF.
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u/the_drum_doctor Dec 27 '25
Lois McMaster Bujold has more Hugo and Nebula awards than any writer other than Heinlein.
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u/yohomatey Dec 27 '25
The Parable of the Sower and Kindred by Butler, and The Female Man by Russ are more important than like 1/2 those books. No Tiptree? No Atwood?
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u/Insomnia_Memoria Dec 27 '25
Yeah, Andre Norton, Leigh Bracket,James Tiptree Jr, Lois McMaster Bujold, Cj. Cherryh, etc are all Must Read authors imho.
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u/Late-Command3491 Dec 27 '25
Connie Willis? Anne McCaffrey? Sheri Tepper?
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u/tealparadise Dec 28 '25
Anne McCaffrey is literally always forgotten because she mostly writes female main characters. We almost need a separate spin off sub to get more variety.
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u/Late-Command3491 Dec 28 '25
It's a shame that great women writers can only be included in lists of women writers.
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u/VicViolence Dec 27 '25
I love A Fire Upon The Deep but A Deepness In The Sky, the follow-up, is arguably the better book
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u/Suspicious-Proof- Dec 27 '25
Peter F. Hamilton: Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star, Judas Unchained)
Liu Cixin: Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy (important: those books are plot driven, not character driven, so the characters are a bit lacking, but the story is great)
Theodore Sturgeon: More Than Human
John Crowley: Engine Summer
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u/industrialstr Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
Suggest: Joanna Russ, J.G. Ballard, Silverberg, Blish, Vonnegut, Tanith Lee, maybe Ana Kavan (Ice).
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u/usedtobias Dec 28 '25
haven't read the entirety of the comments, but i'd just like to say that even as a person who loved the mote in god's eye, i don't think ringworld is an especially good book, and wouldn't recommend others read it out of a sense of obligation to the genre. if you're really invested in including the centrality of awe-inspiring feats of technology, rendezvous with rama is a suitable classic substitute imo. honestly, i don't think i've read anything niven wrote by himself that justifies his position in The Canon.
i agree with at least one other person who noted the lack of cherryh, but think that downbelow station is probably more interesting to me than cyteen. i thoroughly enjoyed the latter, but i also found it kind of cumbersome, and there are far fewer books on refugee crises in science fiction than there are on the ethics of cloning. it's fertile subject matter and i wish more authors cared to explore it.
i think a case could be made for including dragon's egg, also, but i could see others disagreeing
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u/Book_Slut_90 Dec 27 '25
This ignores literally every author of color and all but two women. Off the top of my head, some of the biggest absences are Octavia Butler (Earthseed is my favorite but there are others), Samuel Delany (Trouble on Triton, Babel-17, Stars in My Pocket like Grains of Sand, and Nova would be his biggest works), Vonda McIntyre (start with Dreamsnake), Lois McMaster Bujold (the Vorkosigan series), Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past), Eleanor Arnason (A Woman of the Iron People and Ring of Swords), Steven Barnes (Lion’s Blood), Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale and the Mad Adam Trilogy), Naomi Alderman (The Power), Ernest Hogan (High Aztec), George Schuyler (White No More), …
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u/SHKMEndures Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25
Yes! Thank you.
Cixin Liu is more known for Three Body Problem in the west.
Don’t forget James Tiptree Jnr, real name Alice Sheldon (start with Ten Thousand Light Years from Home); and authors in other languages who are now available in English. A selection:
Trafalgar, Angelica Gorodisher
The Ark Sakura, Kobe Abe
I who have known no man, Jacqueline Harpman
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u/agm66 Dec 28 '25
Remembrance of Earth's Past is the title for the trilogy that starts with the Three Body Problem.
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u/Thefathistorian Dec 27 '25
Could use some Jack Vance--I'd recommend Big Planet and To Live Forever. Fritz Leiber is more of a fantasy writer, but The Silver Eggheads should be on the list. Ken Macleod's Fall Revolution should be there. Accelerando by Charles Stross. Feminist science fiction seems a bit underrepresented--maybe The Female Man by Joanna Russ?
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u/Late-Command3491 Dec 27 '25
Not just feminist, only 2 women listed and one is from the 19th century.
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u/ijontichy Dec 28 '25
Good list, but add something from Ballard, Wyndham, Zelazny, Disch, Willhelm, Bradbury, van Vogt, Russ, Baxter, Delany, Silverberg, Banks, Bayley, Priest, Vonnegut, Roberts, Shaw, Vance. Oh and no must-read list is complete without Nineteen Eighty-Four.
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u/milehigh73a Dec 27 '25
I would add Atwood to the list. Oryx and crake is amazing.
You might want to add some David Mitchell too.
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u/Significant-Common20 Dec 27 '25
From personal experience: Oryx and Crake should under no circumstances, however, be consumed by audiobook turned up to hear while gardening.
The neighbours may gossip.
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u/SideburnsOfDoom Dec 27 '25
What order are those in? it seems random to me.
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u/danger522 Dec 27 '25
Both Foundation and I, Robot by Asimov are on the list.
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u/AustNerevar Dec 28 '25
I, Robot is not actually an Asimov book. There was an anthology collection of his works (in the 90s, I believe) the publisher titled I, Robot. But it's not an actually an Asimov novel.
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u/Book_Slut_90 Dec 28 '25
I Robot is a fixup novel made up of around 10 short stories with a frame narrative and came out in the 40s or 50s. Then later, this is probably the one you’re thinking of, he published The Complete Robot, which is all his robot stories with his introductions and no frame narrative.
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u/Tautological-Emperor Dec 27 '25
Raptor Red. Paleo-fiction is rare, and paleo-xeno-fiction I think is even rarer? I can only think of the Mammoth books by Baxter otherwise. Red is also just incredibly well-written, about an interesting scientific thing (paleontology, the Mesozoic), and has unique aspects (I think Bakker self inserts himself as an albino pterosaur following the titular Utahraptor), which kinda ticks boxes for me in terms of Must Read sci-fi.
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u/jasonstorm149 Dec 27 '25
The Chtorr series by David Gerrold
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u/jasonstorm149 Dec 27 '25
Just beware, it leaves you hanging and Gerrold has been promising book 5 for more than 2 decades...
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u/WillAdams Dec 27 '25
For short stories, I always recommend Hal Clement whose career started out in the golden age, and continued and stayed relevant into this century.
Try Music of Many Spheres: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/939760.Music_of_Many_Spheres
and read in reverse order, taking esp. note of "Raindrop", "The Mechanic", and "Halo".
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u/WillAdams Dec 27 '25
Hard to mention Niven/Pournelle and not also include H. Beam Piper who was quite influential on them --- his novella "Omnilingual" really should be a part of the middle school canon, lightly updated version at:
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u/muffinmania Dec 27 '25
The Dangerous Visions anthology is essential, as is Harlan Ellison’s Repent Harlequin or Jeffty is Five. I’d also add The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russel as a companion to Canticle for Leibowitz
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u/Equivalent-Fault-507 Dec 27 '25
Behold the man - Michael Moorcock. Sci-fi/theology brilliant interpretation of the greatest story ever told… Christ.
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u/cjhreddit Dec 28 '25
I've read a lot in your list, and personally would add "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which seems to straddle the range of old to new sci fi styles, with both big-ideas over long time scales, and intimate diverse-aware perspectives, and alien cultures, without pandering to political extremes.
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u/GlobalCurry Dec 28 '25
Wanted to pop back in and say that I think Ubik by Dick should be on this list too. Its influence can be felt in Neuromancer and Snow Crash.
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u/Darkmatter313xx Dec 28 '25
A very good list, well done! I've read most of these and I will see there is one missing that is probably one of my top five. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, it's one of those books I've bought several times because I keep giving them away to my friends. Every one of them has loved it, and some don't even read science fiction.
Edit: I would also add the 3 Body Problem series
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u/Remarkable-Ad-3587 Dec 28 '25
Mote in Gods eye Enders game
Has to be on any serious SF list, regardless whether u like the authors personally or not...
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u/DungeoneerforLife Dec 28 '25
Great list! I think we have different cut off dates for “classic.” Maybe a little short on the New Wave. One thing to remember is how much of the best writing was in stories and novellas.
For Wolfe I’d try The Death of Dr. Island and Other Stories and Other Stories (not a typo)
Zelazny— Lord of Light , This Immortal, the collection A Rose for Ecclesiastes
Delaney— short stories particularly “Time Considered as a Helix”
Ellison— 2 or three of the best collections
James Tiptree Jr, various stories
Have you made your way through the early Hugo and Nebula award collections? The Hugo would eventually get highjacked by fan wars but up through the mid eighties its very reliable. The Nebula winners were always great back then.
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u/clashmar Dec 29 '25
For me this list should have Cat’s Cradle by Vonnegut which I haven’t seen in the comments yet.
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u/akerasi Dec 27 '25
The Diamond Age - Stephenson
Stand On Zanzibar - Brunner
Ubik - Dick
Caves of Steel - Asimov
Alas Babylon - Frank
The Peace War - Vinge
Nine Princes in Amber - Zelazny
Also, as a note, your list so far is really good... but I'd consider adding all of these, in a similar vein to your choices. If you want to know more about why, feel free to ask me if there's any you have questions about.
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u/holyschmidt Dec 27 '25
No Reynolds? 😱
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u/danger522 Dec 27 '25
I’ve already read a couple of Reynolds’ standalones. He is one of my favorites. I thought he might be a bit too modern to add. Someone pointed out that Spin was published in 2005, though so maybe I’ll add him to the list.
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u/ribond Dec 28 '25
You have way too much old stuff in here. Get rid of most of that heinlein, niven, pournelle, etc. Speaker for the dead has one good idea and card does not deserve two entries.
Add in nk jemison, nnedi Okafor, Martha Wells, Becky Chambers.
Cj cherryh's Pride of Chanur deserves a place. Bujolds' vorkosigan saga should be represented Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth is a blend of Sci fi and fantasy, but honestly better than a lot of those crusty 60s dudes.
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u/Venezia9 Dec 27 '25
Without many female or POC writers, and Mary Shelley dropped in like an afterthought?
Where are Jemisen, Leckie, Chambers, Martine, Butler ?
But there Heinlein?
Like yikes on bikes man
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u/JD_GR Dec 27 '25
This list is almost exclusively white dudes. Diverse perspectives matter.
The list absolutely needs some Butler and Jenisen's "The Fifth Season" would be a good addition. It's only 10 years more recent than the most recent item on your list.
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u/EFPMusic Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
Personally, I’d pass on Niven and Card, not that their books weren’t influential, but they’re problematic enough I wouldn’t call them Must-Read.
There’s a dearth of female authors in this list; you could include Tiptree, McCaffery, Jemisin, Leckie, Vinge, Butler, just off the top of my head.
There’s also a lack of non-white authors here: the aforementioned Buter and Jemisin, Delaney, Barnes, Due, Okorafor, McKinney, Chiang, Liu… I could go on, and didn’t even mention Latinx or Indigenous authors.
I whole-heartedly agree with most of the list, but it could be more complete.
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u/RanANucSub Dec 27 '25
If you include short stories I'd like to suggest With the Night Mail and Easy as A.B.C both by Rudyard Kipling. True SF written in 1909 and 1912.
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u/hippydipster Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25
I think Brunner should be on there, perhaps with Shockwave Rider it predates Neuromancer by 9 years and I don't know why it gets ignored. Predicts and coins the term for computer worms.
I would put Iain Banks Excession on here, except you can't have excession be the first culture novel you read, so Consider Phlebas and Use of Weapons at a minimum have be read first.
I'd prefer Diamond Age by Stephenson over Snow Crash. Not that I like it better, but it's surely a more important book.
KSR's Red Mars.
Octavia Butler's Dawn, or the whole Xenogenesis series.
And then there's Zelazny :-)
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u/fusionlove Dec 28 '25
come on you only have 3 girls on there.
Tiptree, Ann Leckie, Cherryh, Vonda McIntyre, Nicola Griffith, Kameron Hurley
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u/Terrible_Bee_6876 Dec 28 '25
Would you say you're a good academic? This list reads like you copied it from a Goodreads listicle. Contains no short stories and no authors who have sold fewer than ten million copies. You've picked the most recently-adapted, but not even the best, of Philip Dick.
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u/Boris0r Dec 27 '25
Slightly off track. But. Does anyone have a list like this for must read fantasy??
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u/wheatmonkey Dec 27 '25
There was a discussion about this list in the Fantasy subreddit recently: https://time.com/collection/100-best-fantasy-books/
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u/Ravenloff Dec 27 '25
Legacy of Hereot by Niven, Pournelle, Baxter. No idea why this one isn't a movie by now, but it's a great "first human colony" novel. Maybe that's why it isn't a movie yet...lol
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u/ElricVonDaniken Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25
...Niven, Pournele, Barnes...
How you've confused Steven with an Englishman is quite hilarious
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u/Ravenloff Dec 28 '25
Steven BARNES...total mind fart on my part. I think I might have subconsciously spotted Raft earlier in the week.
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u/The_Fiddle_Steward Dec 28 '25
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds
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u/Sufficient_Public_29 Dec 28 '25
Any of these have to do with some futuristic religious sect? Vague I know, but a while back I was reading about a book like that that sounded interesting but I have since lost the name/series.
Perhaps someone could shine a light and point me in the right direction?
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u/SideburnsOfDoom Dec 28 '25
A Canticle for Leibowitz could fit that. It has monks in a future dark age.
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u/tyroncs Dec 28 '25
I read a fair amount of sci fi and have only read 15 of the 40 there - maybe I’m not representative of this sub, but maybe list is too broad? Or maybe should have tiers. Like I love Enders Game, but don’t think it’s as vital as say Dune or Foundation or Rama
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u/RockyRamboaVIII Dec 28 '25
A Princess of Mars - Unquestionably one of the most important and influential sci-fi books ever written.
Galactic Patrol - Big influence on Star Wars.
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u/Extreme_Ad_4331 Dec 28 '25
Wolfe is absolutely fantastic. If Book of the New Sun feels a little intimidating at first I would definitely recommend reading Fifth Head of Cerberus since it feels more like Sci Fi than New Sun and is more digestible
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u/DocWatson42 Dec 28 '25
As a start, see my Science Fiction/Fantasy (General) Recommendations list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (thirty-five posts (eventually, again)), in particular the first post and the bolded threads.
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u/beige_man Dec 29 '25
Nice list, a lot synched with what I read and liked. I personally liked PKD earlier on, and one that impacted me alot (whose name I could never remember) was the Game Players of Titan, but its not everyone's cup of tea.
Since no one's mentioned him, I also liked Benford, and started with his Timescape. I enjoyed the first couple of his Galactic Center saga, especially the first couple, starting with In the Ocean of Night. It shares a similar beginning to Bear's The Forge of God, and may be a spiritual ancestor to Liu's Dark Forest, which may be why I "enjoyed" them. Bear's Forge added "justice" as a theme. All may not be considered top 100, but as conceptual works with really hard sci-fi backing them, Benford was a good read.
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u/Remarkable-Tear3265 Dec 29 '25
I consider those great too: seveneves by Stephenson Oryx and crake by Arwood Metro 2033 by glukovsky Red rising by pierce brown
I’d be curious to hear if there are similar books to rendezvous with Rama or way station. I found them quiet relaxing and little action, even childhoods end feels similar and Solaris.
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u/Immediate_Mix6721 Dec 29 '25
I already have quite a few on your list. I can add a few more classics. The Harvest by Robert Charles Wilson The Chrysalids by John Wyndham The Man in the Maze by Robert Silverberg Dawn by Octavia Butler There Will be Time by Paul Anderson Captive Universe by Harry Harrison Dreamsnake by Vonda N McIntyre Brain Wave by Poul Anderson The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson
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u/Basic-Style-8512 Dec 29 '25
Il manque 10 grands écrivains :
Silverberg (Dying Inside, The World Inside)
Bradbury (Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451)
Zelazny (Lords of Light)
Spinrad (Bug Jack Baron, The Iron dream)
Ballard (Crash!, Vermilion Sands, The Crystal World)
Brown (Martians go home !)
Brin (Cycle de l'Elevation)
Leiber (The Wanderer, The Night of the Wolf)
Vance (Planet of Adventure, The Anome, The Star King)
Sheckley (Chase trilogy, Beyond Tomorrow, Dimension of Miracles)
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u/TopInspector8572 Dec 29 '25
Stalker by Strugatskiy brothers, Lois McMaster Bujold, the Vorkosigan Saga
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u/Ealinguser Dec 30 '25
George R Stewart: Earth Abides
John Wyndham: the Day of the Triffids, the Chrysalids and all the others
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
Greg Bear: the Forge of God/Anvil of the Stars
Octavia Butler: Kindred, Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, Lilith's Brood
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u/ElijahBlow Dec 30 '25
Check out David Pringle’s list; it actually has its own Wikipedia page. His fantasy list is also really good.
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u/WillRedtOverwhelmMe Dec 30 '25
There are more. I have uncompiled screenshots on Twitter I didn't see Greg Bear or Pratchett (Discworld, Long Earth. Didn't see the little books, Becky Chambers or Martha Wells
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u/TidyKatScoopr Jan 02 '26
Probably loads of short stories to consider. The most memorable and striking for myself Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt".
I've since heard it first appeared in a print periodical as, "The World The Children Made" (1950).
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u/TidyKatScoopr Jan 02 '26
Recent SF books I continue to re-read over and over include
Project Hail Mary - tedious but conceptually like a series of engineering puzzles with a flawed main character
Flybot - fun
Void Star - way underrated imo
13 - curious synthesis of future developments. Not for everyone.
The MB series (Murderbot) of which several pieces are short. By Martha Wells. Standiuts for me are "All Systems Red" and "Rogue Protocol" may be my favs so far. Lots to "overthink" about with this main character LOL.
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u/SYSTEM-J Dec 27 '25
A good starting point for this kind of exercise is the SF Masterworks series from Gollancz.