Monday, April 05, 2010

Best Science Fiction Series

Ian Sales has posted his list of the Best Science Fiction Series:
1 The Culture, Iain M Banks (I've read the first three.)
2 RGB Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson (I've only read the first one.)
3 Hainish Cycle, Ursula K Le Guin (I've read 3 of these.)
4 Dune, Frank Herbert (I've read the first 4 of them.)
5 Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds (I still haven't made it through the first one.)
6 Eight Worlds, John Varley (I haven't read any from this series.)
7 The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe (I have read all of these.)
8 Jurisdiction universe, Susan R Matthews (I'd never heasrd of these before.)
9 Alliance-Union, CJ Cherryh (I've read several of these books.)
10 Dumarest Saga, EC Tubb (I don't think I've read any of these.)

His annotations defend his choices.

HT: SFSignal

2 comments:

  1. I haven't heard of any of these. Which ones do you think are worthy of the list?

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  2. I'm loving the Culture novels, and they get good reviews from Those Who Know. It's been a long time since I've read Le Guin, but I remember liking them and her books have been influential. (The Left Hand of Darkness won Nebula and Hugo awards, and The Dispossessed won Nebula, Hugo and Locus awards.) The later Dune books are awful, but the early ones are good. (The first one is especially popular and won Hugo and Nebula awards.) I liked the New Sun series, but it wasn't easy reading. I've enjoyed the Cherryh books I've read, especially Cyteen, and my college freshman son is a fan of her work.

    I did not like the first of the Mars books at all. They're popular, so I don't know what I missed. Same with Revelation Space. I find it on must-read lists, but it feels like a slog to me.

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