1975-1995 This was a library school project done for Dr. Pfister's Collection Development in the spring semester of 1996. The assignment was to make up a hypothetical library, any kind, and pretend that you had received a $1500 donation to purchase materials (books, periodicals, videotapes, whatever) in a certain subject area or genre. You were to come up with a list of what the library should buy with this money, and how you picked these items.
My hypothetical situation was based on the public library I used throughout high school. It was a tiny building, with two paid employees (all other staff were volunteers), not much of a book budget, and not much of a collection in many areas. The science fiction section was quite small and mostly older than I was, and I knew nearly everything in it like the back of my hand, that being my preferred genre. The library had apparently had a Science Fiction Book Club subscription at one time, or a large donation from someone who had, but there wasn't much in the genre published later than the late seventies.
I volunteered there one summer, and they admitted that no one there knew anything about picking science fiction. They were so desperate that they took me, a sixteen-year-old volunteer, to the second-hand bookstore and asked me to pick out a few books to add to the SF section. I picked Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories and some others I don't remember; I was too happy at finding a copy for myself of a book I had read in the library, Tanith Lee's The Silver Metal Lover.
So I decided to outfit this library with newer SF, setting 1975 as my cutoff date so I could do an even 20 years. I went through all the library sources such as Fiction Catalog, and all the SF reference works in the University Library, and picked the books which were recommended by the greatest number of them. This is the finalists list, cut down from a preliminary list three or four times as long. Those books marked in red are the ones that made the list I turned in, because they were both the most highly recommended and still in print when I did the project.
This is not a personal recommendation list -- if it were Harlan Ellison would be on it, just to name one. The ones with purple dots by them are the ones I've actually read. (For some reason this does not seem to show up in Internet Explorer.) You can read the actual paper, which explains how I arrived at this list. This page just lists the books, with links to amazon.com if you're interested in buying any for yourself. The links lead to the hardback edition if there is one, but more commonly a paperback edition as those are often the only ones available outside the Science Fiction Book Club.
Works From Specific Authors
- Amis, Kingsley -- The Alteration
- Anderson, Poul -- Orion Shall Rise
- Anthony, Piers -- Orn Asimov, Isaac -- Foundation's Edge Asimov, Isaac -- The Robots of Dawn
- Ballard, J. G. -- Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard
- Ballard, J. G. -- High Rise
- Batchelor, John Calvin -- The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica Bear, Greg -- Blood Music
- Bear, Greg -- Eon
- Bear, Greg -- Moving Mars
- Benford, Gregory -- Against Infinity
- Benford, Gregory -- In the Ocean of Night
- Benford, Gregory -- Timescape
- Brin, David -- Earth
- Brin, David -- The Postman
- Brin, David -- Startide Rising
- Brin, David -- The Uplift War Bujold, Lois McMaster -- Barrayar Bujold, Lois McMaster -- Falling Free Bujold, Lois McMaster -- Mirror Dance Bujold, Lois McMaster -- The Vor Game Card, Orson Scott -- Ender's Game Card, Orson Scott -- Songmaster Card, Orson Scott -- Speaker For The Dead Card, Orson Scott -- Xenocide
- Cherryh, C. J. -- Cuckoo's Egg
- Cherryh, C. J. -- Cyteen
- Cherryh, C. J. -- The Faded Sun: Kesrith
- Clarke, Arthur C. & Greg Benford -- Beyond the Fall of Night
- Clarke, Arthur C. & Gentry Lee -- Garden of Rama
- Clarke, Arthur C. -- The Ghost From the Grand Banks Clarke, Arthur C. -- 2010: Odyssey Two Clarke, Arthur C. -- 2061: Odyssey Three
- Delany, Samuel R. -- Dhalgren
- Dickson, Gordon R. -- Time Storm
- Disch, Thomas M. -- On Wings of Song
- Farmer, Philip Jose -- Dayworld Breakup
- Gibson, William -- Count Zero
- Gibson, William -- Mona Lisa Overdrive
- Gibson, William -- Neuromancer
- Haldeman, Joe -- The Forever War Haldeman, Joe -- Mindbridge Heinlein, Robert A. -- The Cat Who Walks Through Walls Heinlein, Robert A. -- Friday Heinlein, Robert A. -- Job: A Comedy of Justice Heinlein, Robert A. -- To Sail Beyond the Sunset
- Herbert, Frank -- Chapterhouse: Dune
- Herbert, Frank -- Children of Dune
- Herbert, Frank -- The God-Emperor of Dune
- Herbert, Frank -- Heretics of Dune
- Hoban, Russell -- Riddley Walker
- Lem, Stanislaw -- Eden
- Lem, Stanislaw -- Fiasco
- Lem, Stanislaw -- His Master's Voice
- Lem, Stanislaw -- Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
- Lem, Stanislaw -- Return from the Stars
- Lem, Stanislaw -- The Star Diaries
- Malzberg, Barry -- Galaxies May, Julian -- The Adversary May, Julian -- The Golden Torc May, Julian -- The Many-Colored Land May, Julian -- The Nonborn King McCaffrey, Anne -- All The Weyrs of Pern McCaffrey, Anne -- Dragonsdawn McCaffrey, Anne -- Moreta, Dragonlady of Pern
- McIntyre, Vonda -- Dreamsnake
- McIntyre, Vonda -- Superluminal
- McKillip, Patricia -- Harpist In the Wind
- Moorcock, Michael -- Behold the Man
- Niven, Larry & Jerry Pournelle -- Footfall Niven, Larry & Jerry Pournelle -- The Gripping Hand
- Niven, Larry -- The Integral Trees
- Niven, Larry & Jerry Pournelle -- Lucifer's Hammer
- Niven, Larry -- The Ringworld Engineers
- Niven, Larry -- The Smoke Ring
- Piercy, Marge -- Woman on the Edge of Time
- Pohl, Frederik -- Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
- Pohl, Frederik -- Gateway
- Pohl, Frederik -- JEM
- Pohl, Frederik -- Man Plus
- Powers, Tim -- The Anubis Gates
- Reamy, Tim -- Blind Voices
- Robinson, Kim Stanley -- Green Mars
- Robinson, Kim Stanley -- Red Mars
- Russ, Joanna -- The Female Man
- Silverberg, Robert -- Tom 0' Bedlam
- Simmons, Dan -- Hyperion
- Sladek, John -- Roderick
- Sladek, John -- Roderick at Random
- Spinrad, Norman -- The Void Captain's Tale
- Swanwick, Michael -- Stations of the Tide
- Tepper, Shari S. -- Grass
- Varley, John -- Millennium
- Varley, John -- The Ophiuchi Hotline Varley, John -- Titan Vinge, Joan D. -- The Summer Queen
- Vinge, Vernor -- A Fire Upon The Deep
- Willis, Connie -- Doomsday Book
- Wolfe, Gene -- Free Live Free
- Wolfe, Gene -- The Citadel of the Autarch
- Zelazny, Roger -- Doorways In The Sand
- Zelazny, Roger -- Eye of Cat
Anthologies of Many Authors
Any of the Hugo or Nebula Awards winners anthologies. Year's Best Science Fiction series -- Gardner Dozois, ed.- Modern Classics of Science Fiction -- Gardner Dozois, ed.
- Modern Classic Short Novels of Science Fiction -- Gardner Dozois, ed. The Norton Book of Science Fiction -- Ursula Leguin, Karen Joy Fowler, Brian Attebery, eds.
- Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories -- Tom Shippey,ed.
Home | Writing | Bio | Resources & Bibliographies | Links