25 Science Fiction Books

I was asked recently what I found to be the best Sci-Fi book. I find it an impossibly difficult question to answer. Science Fiction, in my eyes more than any other genre, is the hardest to limit in scope and parameter because there is no necessity to stick to any physical, logical or moral rules of Earth generally imposed on other modes of literature. For this reason, each universe, each future and future history, each technological leap or cataclysmic event is completely at the whims of the individual author.

For this reason, some Sci-Fi only takes minor steps of imagination on the part of the reader, should the author deviate only minimally from our current condition, while other authors require great patience and leaps of faith. You won't be able to define everything in a Sci-Fi book. You'll have to be satisfied knowing that there's something called an Armstrong Drive that lets you travel through non-linear space at a rate of several thousand light years per day, without having it explained to you how that works. (A Talent for War) With some authors, you might never know what a word actually means and have to settle for a vague description and general idea of purpose.

Some authors enjoy focusing on the philosophy aspect of Sci-Fi, asking questions about the morality and stability of the structures we've created by looking at future civilizations, while others simply write action stories set in outer space. The best are able to balance these and give you a portrait that seems utterly different from anything you've ever known while giving you a very clear window to look back and examine what you do.

For these reasons, I've tried to structure this list, not in terms of "worst to best" or vice versa, but rather in most accessible to least accessible. The books at the top of the list are ones that I would recommend to any reader as an introduction to the genre, while the ones towards the bottom are books I would only recommend to someone who wanted to delve deeper and had the patience to do so. Of course, this means that in most cases, I've enjoyed many further down the list a bit more than some of the surface Sci-Fi reads. All of them, however, are fantastic books in their own rights. Enjoy!

1. The Road to Science Fiction: From Heinlein to Here, Vol. 3, Compiled by Gunn (A collection of short stories and excerpts with corresponding descriptions of the stories and influences on the genre)
2. Ancient Shores, Jack McDevitt
3. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
4. 1984, George Orwell
5. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
6. Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card
7. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
8. Replay, Ken Grimwood
9. Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick (The author behind the movies BladeRunner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly.)
10. As She Climbed Across the Table, Jonathan Lethem
11. Eternity Road, Jack McDevitt
12. A Talent for War, Jack McDevitt
13. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
14. The 5th Sacred Thing, Starhawk
15. Dancers at the End of Time, Michael Moorcock
16. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
17. Neuromancer, William Gibson
18. Virtual Light, William Gibson
19. The Color of Distance, Amy Thomson
20. Cornelius Quartet, Michael Moorcock
21. Time Enough for Love, Robert Heinlein
22. The Three California Trilogy (The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge and The Wild Shore,) Kim Stanley Robinson
23. Nova, Samuel R. Delany
24. The Fall of the Towers, Samuel R. Delany
25. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany

As for my personal top 5? 5, 7, 19, 21, 25. Special emphasis on 21 and 25. Of course, you can read just about anything by Robert Heinlein and not be disappointed, most readers enjoy Orson Scott Card's ability to tell a story and in reality, what I know about Science Fiction pales in comparison to my Dad's knowledge on the subject. If I'm lucky, he'll concoct a list of his top 25 for me to post here as well.