James Gunn, A Basic Science Fiction Library
science fiction awards database
This is a compilation of principal titles by major SF authors, provided "as a resource for librarians and other scholars looking for a basis for what constitutes consensus". It was inspired by a 1970 SFWA list compiled by Alexei Panshin; Gunn's list was first published in Library Journal's November 15, 1988 issue, and subsequently migrated to the web. It's currently being updated by Chris McKitterick (last update 8/30/12), though updates in recent years seem mostly titles that have won awards.
Ranked: No
Titles Cited: 441
Publication: http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/sflib.htm, 1988
Compile Notes
Listed on this page are the 170 main entries, one title (or one or more related titles) perh author. Additional titles are listed here -->.
- Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland (Seeley, 1884)
- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Pan, 1979)
- Brian W. Aldiss, Helliconia Spring (Atheneum, 1982)
- Brian W. Aldiss, Helliconia Summer (Atheneum, 1983)
- Brian W. Aldiss, Helliconia Winter (Atheneum, 1985)
- Brian W. Aldiss, Hothouse (Faber and Faber, 1962)
- Poul Anderson, Tau Zero (Doubleday, 1970)
- Piers Anthony, Macroscope (Avon, 1969)
- Isaac Asimov, The Foundation Trilogy (series, 1951-1953)
- Isaac Asimov, I, Robot (Gnome, 1950)
- Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl (Night Shade Books, 2009)
- J. G. Ballard, The Crystal World (Jonathan Cape, 1966)
- Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas (Macmillan, 1987)
- Stephen Baxter, The Time Ships (HarperCollins, 1995)
- Greg Bear, Blood Music (Arbor House, 1985)
- Greg Bear, Darwin's Radio (HarperCollins, 1999)
- Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward 2000-1887 (Ticknor and Company, 1888)
- Gregory Benford, Timescape (Simon and Schuster, 1980)
- Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man (Shasta, 1953)
- Alfred Bester, Starlight: The Great Short Fiction of Alfred Bester (Nelson Doubleday/SFBC, 1976)
- Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination (NAL/Signet, 1957)
- Michael Bishop, No Enemy But Time (Timescape, 1982)
- James Blish, A Case of Conscience (Ballantine, 1958)
- Ben Bova, ed., Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume Two A (Doubleday, 1973)
- Ben Bova, ed., Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume Two B (Doubleday, 1973)
- Ben Bova, Titan (Hodder & Stoughton, 2006)
- Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles (Doubleday, 1950)
- Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Planet Savers (Ace Double, 1962)
- Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Sword of Aldones (Ace Double, 1962)
- David Brin, Startide Rising (Bantam, 1983)
- Fredric Brown, What Mad Universe (Dutton, 1949)
- John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar (Doubleday, 1968)
- Lois McMaster Bujold, Falling Free (Baen, 1988)
- Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (Heinemann , 1962)
- Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars (McClurg, 1917)
- Octavia E. Butler, Xenogenesis (SFBC, 1989)
- Pat Cadigan, Fools (Bantam Spectra, 1992)
- Pat Cadigan, Synners (Bantam Spectra, 1991)
- John W. Campbell, Jr., edited by Lester del Rey, The Best of John W. Campbell (Nelson Doubleday, 1976)
- Karel Capek, R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots (Oxford University Press/Humphrey Milford, 1923; Czechoslovakia 1920)
- Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game (Tor, 1985)
- Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead (Tor, 1986)
- Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Random House, 2000)
- Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union (HarperCollins, 2007)
- Suzy McKee Charnas, Walk to the End of the World (Ballantine, 1974)
- C. J. Cherryh, Downbelow Station (DAW, 1981)
- Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End (Ballantine, 1953)
- Hal Clement, Mission of Gravity (Doubleday, 1954)
- Groff Conklin, ed., The Best of Science Fiction (Crown, 1946)
- L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt, The Compleat Enchanter: The Magical Misadventures of Harold Shea (Nelson Doubleday/SFBC, 1975)
- L. Sprague de Camp, Lest Darkness Fall (Henry Holt , 1941)
- Samuel R. Delany, The Einstein Intersection (Ace, 1967)
- Bradley Denton, Buddy Holly Is Alive And Well on Ganymede (Morrow, 1991)
- Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle (Putnam, 1962)
- Gordon R. Dickson, Three to Dorsai! (Nelson Doubleday/SFBC, 1975)
- Thomas M. Disch, On Wings of Song (St Martin's, 1979)
- Cory Doctorow, Little Brother (Tor, 2008)
- Greg Egan, Permutation City (Millennium, 1994)
- Harlan Ellison, ed., Again, Dangerous Visions (Doubleday , 1972)
- Harlan Ellison, ed., Dangerous Visions (Doubleday, 1967)
- Carol Emshwiller, Carmen Dog (The Women's Press, 1988)
- Philip José Farmer, To Your Scattered Bodies Go (Putnam, 1971)
- Jack Finney, The Body Snatchers (Dell, 1955)
- Neil Gaiman, American Gods (HarperCollins/Morrow, 2001)
- William Gibson, Neuromancer (Ace Special, 1984)
- Kathleen Ann Goonan, In War Times (Tor, 2007)
- Nicola Griffith, Ammonite (Del Rey, 1993)
- James Gunn, The Listeners (Scribner's, 1972)
- H. Rider Haggard, She (Harper and Bros, 1886)
- Joe Haldeman, The Forever War (St. Martin's, 1974)
- Elizabeth Hand, Last Summer at Mars Hill (HarperPrism, 1998)
- Harry Harrison, The Deathworld Trilogy (SFBC, 1974)
- Raymond J. Healy & J. Francis McComas, eds., Adventures in Time and Space (Random House , 1946)
- Robert A. Heinlein, The Past Through Tomorrow (Putnam, 1967)
- Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers (Putnam, 1959)
- Frank Herbert, Dune (Chilton, 1965)
- Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker (Jonathan Cape, 1980)
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (Chatto & Windus, 1932)
- Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon (Harcourt, Brace and World, 1966)
- Damon Knight, The Best of Damon Knight (Nelson Doubleday/SFBC, 1976)
- C. M. Kornbluth, edited by Frederik Pohl, The Best of C.M. Kornbluth (Nelson Doubleday/SFBC, 1976)
- Nancy Kress, Beggars in Spain (Morrow AvoNova, 1993)
- Henry Kuttner, Fury (Grosset & Dunlap, 1950)
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed (Harper & Row, 1974)
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (Ace Special, 1969)
- Fritz Leiber, Conjure Wife (Twayne, 1953)
- Stanislaw Lem, The Cyberiad (Seabury Press, 1974; Poland 1965)
- C. S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet (The Bodley Head, 1938)
- Kelly Link, Stranger Things Happen (Small Beer Press, 2001)
- Jack London, Before Adam (Macmillan, 1906)
- H. P. Lovecraft, The Shadow over Innsmouth (Visionary Publishing, 1936)
- Ian R. MacLeod, Song of Time (PS Publishing, 2008)
- Barry N. Malzberg, Beyond Apollo (Random House, 1972)
- George R. R. Martin, Sandkings (Timescape, 1981)
- Paul J. McAuley, Fairyland (Gollancz, 1995)
- Jack McDevitt, The Engines Of God (Ace, 1994)
- Jack McDevitt, Omega (Ace, 2003)
- Ian McDonald, The Dervish House (Pyr, 2010)
- Vonda N. McIntyre, Dreamsnake (Houghton Mifflin, 1978)
- A. Merritt, The Moon Pool (Putnam , 1919)
- China Miéville, Perdido Street Station (Macmillan, 2000)
- Walter M. Miller, Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz (Lippincott, 1959)
- Michael Moorcock, Gloriana, or The Unfulfill'd Queen (Allison & Busby, 1978)
- C. L. Moore, edited by Lester del Rey, The Best of C.L. Moore (Nelson Doubleday/SFBC, 1975)
- Ward Moore, Bring the Jubilee ( Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953)
- Richard Morgan, Market Forces (Orion/Gollancz, 2004)
- James Morrow, Shambling Towards Hiroshima (Tachyon Publications, 2009)
- Pat Murphy, The Falling Woman (Tor, 1986)
- Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye (Simon and Schuster, 1974)
- Larry Niven, Ringworld (Ballantine, 1970)
- Andre Norton, Star Man's Son 2250 A.D. (Harcourt Brace , 1952)
- George Orwell, Animal Farm (Secker & Warburg , 1945)
- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (Secker & Warburg, 1949)
- Alexei Panshin, Rite of Passage (Ace Special, 1968)
- Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth, The Space Merchants (Ballantine, 1953)
- Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic (Colin Smythe, 1983)
- Christopher Priest, The Glamour (Jonathan Cape, 1984)
- Frank M. Robinson, The Glass Inferno (Doubleday, 1974)
- Kim Stanley Robinson, Green Mars (HarperCollins UK, 1993)
- Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (HarperCollins, 1992)
- Spider Robinson & Jeanne Robinson, Stardance (Dial, 1979)
- Joanna Russ, The Female Man (Bantam, 1975)
- Pamela Sargent, Venus of Dreams (Bantam Spectra, 1986)
- Robert J. Sawyer, Hominids (Tor, 2002)
- Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, The Healer's War (Doubleday Foundation, 1988)
- Robert Sheckley, Untouched by Human Hands (Ballantine, 1954)
- Charles Sheffield, Brother To Dragons (Baen, 1992)
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Lackington Hughes, 1818)
- Lucius Shepard, Green Eyes (Ace Special, 1984)
- M. P. Shiel, The Purple Cloud (Chatto & Windus , 1901)
- Robert Silverberg, Dying Inside (Scribner's, 1972)
- Clifford D. Simak, City (Gnome Press, 1952)
- Dan Simmons, Hyperion (Doubleday Foundation, 1989)
- Joan Slonczewski, A Door Into Ocean (Arbor House, 1986)
- Cordwainer Smith, Norstrilia (Ballantine, 1975)
- Edward E. Smith, Gray Lensman (Fantasy Press , 1951)
- Norman Spinrad, Bug Jack Barron (Walker, 1969)
- Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men (Methuen, 1930)
- Olaf Stapledon, Odd John (Methuen, 1935)
- Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker (Methuen, 1937)
- Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra, 1992)
- Bruce Sterling, Islands in the Net (Arbor House/Morrow, 1988)
- George R. Stewart, Earth Abides (Random House, 1949)
- Charles Stross, Accelerando (Ace, 2005)
- Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human (Farrar, Straus & Young/Ballantine, 1953)
- Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide (Morrow, 1991)
- William Tenn, The Wooden Star (Ballantine, 1968)
- Sheri S. Tepper, The Gate to Women's Country (Doubleday Foundation, 1988)
- James Tiptree, Jr., Crown of Stars (Tor, 1988)
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (series, 1954-1955)
- Wilson Tucker, The Long Loud Silence (Rinehart, 1952)
- A. E. van Vogt, The World of Null-A (Simon & Schuster, 1948)
- Jack Vance, The Dragon Masters (Ace Double, 1963)
- John Varley, The Persistence of Vision (The Dial Press/James Wade, 1978)
- Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (George Smith, 1873; France 1871)
- Joan D. Vinge, The Snow Queen (Dial, 1980)
- Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon The Deep (Tor, 1992)
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., The Sirens of Titan (Dell, 1959)
- Ian Watson, The Embedding (Gollancz , 1973)
- H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (Heinemann, 1898)
- Kate Wilhelm, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (Harper & Row, 1976)
- Jack Williamson, The Humanoids (Simon & Schuster , 1949)
- Connie Willis, Doomsday Book (Bantam Spectra, 1992)
- Connie Willis, Lincoln's Dreams (Bantam Spectra, 1987)
- Robert Charles Wilson, The Chronoliths (Tor, 2001)
- Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun (1980-1983)
- John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids (Doubleday, 1951)
- Yevgeny Zamyatin, We (Dutton, 1924)
- George Zebrowski, Macrolife (Harper & Row, 1979)
- Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light (Doubleday, 1967)
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