Science Fiction Classics

I love to read science fiction.  And I was thinking the other day about a question someone asked me - what would you recommend for someone to start out reading science fiction?  What are the classics that define the field?  Could I choose 20 books to start a science fiction library with?

Here are my picks.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1

I start with this one, a short story collection, because of what it contains.  Classics.  In this volume are stories that led to movies, like Charly, based on the short story Flowers For Algernon.  Or It's A Good Life that appeared as a Twilight Zone episode.  This volume includes such classics as Nightfall, The Cold Equations, and many more.

Pellucidar

By Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author who also created Tarzan.  Pellucidar is the world found at the center of the Earth.  Join David Innes as he travels across the face of Pellucidar meeting and sometimes battling savage tribesman, or Mahars - intelligent reptiles who feast on human flesh.  Read the whole series.

Lensman

Galactic society is held together by a group of interstellar law-beings.  Lensman.  Given a device by an ancient race of super-intelligences these men, women, and beings, fight evil and try to create galactic peace.  Written by E.E. "Doc" Smith, the Lensman series is truly classic space opera.

Earth Abides

The apocalyptic novel following the events of the last American and how he teaches the next generation to survive in this frightening new devastated world.  Written by George Stewart, I think this easily outclasses I Am Legend.

Dune

You've probably seen the movie, or the mini-series, why not read the book?  A classic of scope and character.  Follow the death and birth of a dynasty through the lives of the Atreides family, and the fulfillment of prophecy.  Written by Frank Herbert, it, and the other books in the series, deserve a place among the classics.

Foundation

Hari Seldon had a dream.  That the galactic dark ages that were coming would be shortened.  His goal, to set up a Foundation to save the accumulated information of the galaxy in an "Encyclopedia Galactica".  But was that his real purpose, and what were the rumors about a Second Foundation located at the end of the universe?  Written by the Grand Master of science fiction himself Isaac Asimov.

The Stainless Steel Rat

Harry Harrison brings us the story of Slippery Jim DiGriz, also known as the Stainless Steel Rat.  Take James Bond, Matt Helm, and Derek Flint,  roll them into one man, make him a thief, and put him on the Galactic scene and that is Slippery Jim.  Out-conned into working for the government.

Dorsai!

Gordon Dickson brings us the tales of a race of people bred solely to be the galaxy's warriors.  Mercenaries for hire.  Bred for strength, intelligence, and trained in the arts of war.  Be sure to read the entire Childe Cycle.

Ringworld

Larry Niven brings us a tale of the discovery of the millennium for the galactic community.  An actual Dyson Ring.  A ring millions of miles long stretched in orbit around a sun inhabited by many different and diverse peoples and species.  Join Louis Wu as he and his team explore this strange new world and determine if the makers are still around.

City

Another master of science fiction was Clifford Simak.  In City, we have a collection of his short stories which follow the exodus of humanity from Earth, and what remains.

Gateway

Mankind went out to the stars and found the Heechee.  Well, they found the Heechee's technology, and their ships, which all seem to have pre-programmed destinations.  The corporation needs people to get in these ships, push the buttons and explore.  But it's dangerous as sometimes there are no facilities at the end of some of the routes.  Some places have gone nova.  Frederick Pohl brings us this story about the people who bravely went into the unknown, and hints about what may have happened to the Heechee.

To Cage A Man

F.M. Busby tells us what has happened to all those people who have been abducted.  The Demu have taken them.  But for what sinister purpose?  Until they day they take the man who says - I will not be caged.  This is actually a trilogy with a far-reaching story.  It's a very good read.

To Your Scattered Bodies Go

Richard Burton died.  Then he woke up and he was naked, next to a river, along with a whole of other naked people.  Who had also been dead.  Determined to find out what is going on and to find the masters of the Riverworld as it comes to be called, Philip Jose Farmer has crafted a very interesting story, that continues in several further books.  Another classic.

Nine Princes in Amber

Have you ever felt that you were living a dream?  That perhaps there was another deeper reality?  Perhaps many deeper and different realities?  Roger Zelazny brings us the story of one man, who awaken in the hospital, with amnesia.  Only to be confronted by someone who tells him he is a prince and must return to Amber, the final reality from whence all other realities derive, and that he has the power to walk through these realities.  He must return because the throne is empty and he is one of nine who might claim the throne.

Childhood's End

The aliens arrived on earth and to everyone's surprise, they looked like the demons of old.  But they work for God, or some super alien being, who has determined it is time for the next stage in humanities evolution.  But why do only the children seem to be affected.  Join Arthur C. Clarke with this tale of life, love, and loss, and what it means to be human.

Midnight At The Well Of Souls

Jack Chalker brings us the story of Nathan Brazil, spaceship pilot, and one of the few who knows the planet where the Well of Souls is supposed to reside.  An artificial planet, that changes all who come to it, sometimes physically, sometimes in unseen ways.  What do the planets rulers have in mind for all these beings they are experimenting on?  And why is Nathan called the Wandering Jew?

Lord Valentine's Castle

Brought to us by Robert Silverberg, Lord Valentine's Castle brings us to the world of Majipoor.  It begins with Lord Valentine, waking up and finding that not only has he been mugged, but what was taken was his body as he is now apparently wearing someone else's.  Follow Valentine as he seeks to regain not only his body but his rightful place on Castlemount, and determine who is behind this.  Could it be the King of Dreams?

Ender's Game

Orson Scott Card shows us humanity at war, with the bugs.  Such a costly war that we have taken to training children to fight in it.  The best, tested and trained day after day, simulation after simulation, until one, Ender Wiggin, stands out from the crowd.  But when do they go to fight?  And were those really simulations?

Startide Rising

Welcome to David Brin's universe of Uplift.  That means that every sentient race in the galaxy can trace it's lineage back through it's patrons, the races who tinker with their genetics so the become sentient.  And from there all the way back to the mysterious Progenitors, who started the whole process.  Well all of them except it would seem but humans.  The galactic society is outraged.  Worse yet, humanity has uplifted two of it's own to sentience, dolphins and chimpanzees.  This is the tale of the starship Streaker, a ship crewed by mainly dolphins, who have stumbled across a secret almost any race in the galaxy would kill for - a fleet of derelict space ships, 50,000 of them.

On Basilisk Station

David Weber re-invents space opera with the Honor Harrington saga.  Meet Honor, a young woman who is a whiz at commanding a spaceship and getting it out of the toughest situations, all the while avoiding the enemies in her own fleet.

And so we have come full circle, going from space opera back to space opera.  I hope if you haven't read any of these you will give them a try.  At the very least to understand where the genre has come from.  And if you feel I have one out of place, or missed any, let me know.