Here are the essential 50 Sci Fi authors and their 116 key works, as proposed by John C. Wright. This page tracks my progress getting copies and reading them.
Update: adding links to free editions on the Web where available; adding 1st published date. When I get all the first published dates in, I’ll reformat the list chronologically – that way, it’s easier to see who was cribbing from whom.
As of October 23th, 2015, I’ve read 46 (40%) of the stories and novels, and have copies to read of another 23 (20%).
RED – I’ve read it;
GREEN – I’ve got a copy to read
- Mary Shelley: FRANKENSTEIN – 1818 Review
- A Square (Edwin Abbott) FLATLAND – 1884
- Jules Verne:
TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA – 1870
FROM EARTH TO MOON – 1865
MASTER OF THE WORLD – 1904
- H.G. Wells
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS – 1897 Review
THE TIME MACHINE – 1895 Review
THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU – 1896 Review
THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON – 1901 Review
- E.M. Forster ‘The Machine Stops’ – 1909
- David Lindsay VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS – 1920. Review
- Olaf Stapledon:
LAST AND FIRST MEN – 1930
- Jorge Luis Borges “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” – 1940
- George Orwell NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR – 1949
- Aldous Huxley A BRAVE NEW WORLD – 1932
- A Merritt
THE MOON POOL – 1919
THE METAL MONSTER – 1920 Review
- Edgar Rice Burroughs
A PRINCESS OF MARS – 1912 Review
GODS OF MARS – 1913
WARLORD OF MARS – 1913
- E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith
SKYLARK OF SPACE – 1928 Review
SKYLARK DUQUESNE – 1965
The Lensman Series by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith includes
THE GALACTIC PATROL – 1950
THE GRAY LENSMAN – 1951
SECOND STAGE LENSMAN – 1953
CHILDREN OF THE LENS – 1954
- Stanley G. Weinbaum ‘A Martian Odyssey’ – 1934
- Jack Williamson
‘With Folded Hands’ – 1947
LEGION OF SPACE – 1934
LEGION OF TIME – 1952
‘The Moon Era’ – 1931
- H.P. Lovecraft
‘The Call of Cthulhu’ – 1928 Review
‘A Whisperer in Darkness’ – 1931 Review
‘Shadow Out of Time’ – 1936 Review
- A.E. van Vogt
‘The Black Destroyer’ – 1939
SLAN – 1946 Review
WORLD OF NULL-A – 1945
PLAYERS OF NULL-A – 1948
THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER – 1951
- Isaac Asimov
FOUNDATION – 1951
FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE – 1952
SECOND FOUNDATION – 1953
CAVES OF STEEL – 1953
THE NAKED SUN – 1956
- Robert Heinlein
“The Man Who Sold the Moon” – 1950
“Requiem” – 1940
“Green Hills of Earth” – 1947
ORPHANS OF THE SKY – 1963 – review here
HAVE SPACE SUIT WILL TRAVEL – 1958
CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY – 1957
STARMAN JONES – 1953
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND – 1961
STARSHIP TROOPERS – 1959
- Joe Haldeman FOREVER WAR – 1974
- C.S. Lewis
OUT FROM THE SILENT PLANET – 1938
PERELENDRA – 1943
THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH – 1945
- Arthur C Clarke
CHILDHOOD’S END – 1953
2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY – 1968
‘Against the Fall of Night’ aka CITY AND THE STARS – 1956
RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA – 1973
- Clifford Simak
CITY – 1952
WAY STATION – 1963
- Hal Clement – MISSION OF GRAVITY – 1953
- Poul Anderson
‘The Man Who Counts’ – 1958
‘The Queen of Air and Darkness ‘- 1939
BRAINWAVE – 1954
TAU ZERO – 1970
HARVEST OF STARS – 1993
- Alfred Bester
THE STARS MY DESTINATION – 1956
THE DEMOLISHED MAN – 1952
- Keith Laumer DINOSAUR BEACH – 1971
- Fritz Leiber THE BIG TIME – 1958
- Robert Silverberg ‘Nightwings’ – 1968
- Philip Jose Farmer
RIVERWORLD – 1971 – Review
WORLD OF TIERS – 1965
- Tom Godwin ‘The Cold Equations’ – 1954 Review
- Harlan Ellison ‘Repent Harlequin Said the Ticktockman’ – 1965 Review
- Philip K Dick THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE – 1962
- Roger Zelazny
LORD OF LIGHT – 1967
NINE PRINCES IN AMBER – 1970
- Ray Bradbury
FAHRENHEIT 451 – 1953
THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES – 1950
I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC – 1969
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES – 1962
- John Brunner STAND ON ZANZIBAR – 1968
- Michael Moorcock
THE JEWEL IN THE SKULL – 1967
ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ – 1972
THE KNIGHT OF THE SWORDS – 1971
- Daniel Keyes ‘Flowers for Algernon’ – 1959
- Walter M. Miller A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ – 1959
- Frank Herbert DUNE – 1965
- Cordwainer Smith
‘Scanners Live in Vain’ – 1950
‘The Dead Lady of Clown Town’ – 1964
‘Alpha Ralpha Boulevard’ – 1961
- Ursula K LeGuin
LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS – 1969
THE DISPOSSESSED – 1974
- Jack Vance
‘The Dragon Masters’ – 1962 Review
‘The Last Castle.’ – 1966
THE LANGUAGES OF PAO – 1958
EMPHYRIO – 1969
THE DYING EARTH – 1950
- Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle MOTE IN GOD’S EYE – 1974
- Larry Niven RINGWORLD – 1970 Review
- Gene Wolfe
The New Sun books
- THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER – 1980
- THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR – 1981
- THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR – 1982
- THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH – 1983
URTH OF THE NEW SUN – 1987
‘Fifth Head of Cerberus’ – 1972
- William Gibson NEUROMANCER – 1984
- Neal Stephenson
SNOWCRASH – 1992
THE DIAMOND AGE – 1995
- Dan Simmons HYPERION – 1989
- Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons THE WATCHMAN – 1986