Great Science Fiction Novels

Last updated September 1998

The great works of Science Fiction I list as follows:

• Dune by Frank Herbert. Frank didn't write many great books, but that doesn't take away from the magnitude of Dune. Perhaps the single finest science fiction book ever written. Don't bother with the "sequels", they are generally a waste of paper.

• Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation by Issac Asimov. Now Asimov wrote a great deal of great science fiction. His novel about time travel, and many, many short stores like those found in "I Robot". But the Foundation Trilogy (as it was first called before he wrote many more books extending the trilogy on both sides) is a defining moment in the history of science fiction.

  Writen during World War II, with the threat of the Nazi's very real, Asimov turned to the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Gibon and bravely said "All empires, no matter how strong they look, are doomed to collapse". With the aid of his editor John Cambell, Asimov began the series of short stories that would eventually be known as "The Foundation Trilogy".

• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinline. Heinline wrote more great science fiction books than any other person. From 1940 to 1962, Heinline never wrote a poor story (or at least I haven't read one). The ending of that phase of his work was "Starship Troopers" and "Stranger in a Strange Land", two of the best science fiction novels ever published. "Moon" is even better though, as Heinline moves effortlessly through a wonderful plot and along the way explains politics and human life. My favorites among Heinline's "young adult" novels are: Red Planet, and Starman Jones, but there are many great stories.

• Rondevous with Rama by Arthur C. Clark. Clark is the last of the "grand masters" still alive (which one might be tempted to chalk up to the environment in Sri Lanka where he has lived for the past 30 years). Clark (like Asimov) is best in the short story where he can get in, twist your mind, or play a joke fast, then quit. Many of Clark's novel's just don't work on an emotional level (except for his first, Against the Fall of Night, which is a lovely story.

  Against the Fall of Night was rewritten by Clark as The City and Stars (which was not as good in my opinion) and then repackaged again with a curiously wierd "sequel" writen by Gregory Benford.)

  Rondevous Rama, with its detailed examination of an alien craft doing its own thing for reasons that we never figure out, is enthralling. I suspect that if we ever do have an alien craft come by, it will behave much like Clark imagined in "Rama". Note that the "sequels" to "Rama" by Clark and Gentry Lee are largely worthless.

• Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson. My favorite of the three is the last: Mona Lisa Overdrive. Given that we are now living in a world that was first imagined by Gibson back in the early 80's he gets the top grade for "prescience". I like all these books and they are justly famous. Sadly, Gibson's later works (The Difference Engine andVirtual Light) have been largely devoid of plot, characters and value.

• Snow Crash and The Diamond Age by Neal Stephanson. Neal is now regarded as one of the best new writers of science fiction. Snow Crash is not only funny but also inspirational to a generation of virtual reality engineers. The Diamond Age is more thoughtful and serious and it is an even more impressive work of imagination. The Diamond Age won the Hugo for best novel, a well deserved victory.

• Gordon Dickson's Chylde Cycle, especially The Final Encyclopedia, Young Bleys, and The Tactics of Mistake.

• Olaf Stapeldon's novel Star Maker.