jeffpaulsen

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.



Note: The Stars My Destination and The Man in the High Castle are both on my "in progress" stack, so I theoretically will finish them, unlike Foundation.

The book on this list, which I have read, which I think is not read by enough SF fans, is The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith. There are better books on this list, but that's the most neglected, I think.

I've always thought of myself as more of a hard-sf guy (Mission of Gravity, Ringworld) but this list shows that I've been reading a pretty reasonable cross-section of the classics.

I'm listening to Philip Glass - Powaqqatsi, to be specific - and it occurs to me that (in my musically informed opinion) you could put PLENTY of 20th C. music up against Bach and Beethoven and Mozart and others of much ilk, and not be ashamed of the output of our modern composers.

Here's what's good (feel free to mention more in comments, or simply argue with me; I'm cool with that):

• Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi
• John Adams - Christian Zeal and Activity, Nixon In China (in particular act 1 scene 1, from "Soldiers of heaven hold the sky" to "News has a kind of mystery")
• George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue, Porgy and Bess
• Bela Bartok - all three piano concertos

and of course plenty of goodness from Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten, and them-all.

On the down side of the century, we also produced Iannis Xenakis, George Crumb, and "Who Let the Dogs Out". [edit - it was very unfair of me to lump Crumb in with Xenakis and some pop crap. Specifically, I didn't like "Black Angels". The rest of the man's output might be fantastic, and I shouldn't have lumped him in with the guy who thought stochastic music was a good idea.]

Havergal Brian, I still can't classify. He might be great, but mostly he's just ambitious.

This was inspired by a question that came up on a pro wrestling video review site I read. How geeky is that? Anyhow, the question is: what cover songs are superior to the original? Here are some things I came up with: