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Greetings The Book Barn! I am a very big fan of reading books and of writing short creative pieces. I really discovered the Gollancz Sci-Fi masterworks series in my library and checked out the full list of books they've released. It turns out it's quite a damned huge amount. For those who are unsure what I am talking about the following link leads directly to the publisher of these books: http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2015/02/the-sf-masterworks-2/ All those books and the vast majority have slipped me by. Well! I thought I would change this as soon as I could. I'm a big fan of the sorts of threads where someone takes a series or set of films or games or whatever and works through them while giving out their thoughts. So join me as I read the whole of the SF Masterworks collection! The collection I shall be battling through is below. I will cross them out as I read them. If I get really into a book then I am able to read very fast and will be able to give an opinion sooner. I will not give up on any book and I will post updates on where I am and how its going if it is particularly tough. It may take some time, but I hope you bear with me as I attempt to rectify my lack of experience in this field. I aim to read through the list in the order Gollancz have numbered them. Those I have already read will be underlined but what the heck, I will read them again! 001) Earth Abides - George R. Stewart - STARTED JULY 17TH 2015 002) The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester 003) The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin 004) The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut 005) Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock 006) Man Plus - Frederik Pohl 007) Non-Stop - Brian Aldiss 008) Bring the Jubilee - Ward Moore 009) The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin 010) The Complete Roderick - John Sladek 011) The Dancers at the End of Time - Michael Moorcock 012) The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth 013) Ringworld - Larry Niven 014) The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman 015) Mockingbird - Walter Tevis 016) Dune - Frank Herbert 017) The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein 018) The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester 019) The Rediscovery of Man - Cordwainer Smith 020) Gateway - Frederik Pohl 021) The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe 022) Cities In Flight - James Blish 023) The Forever War - Joe Haldeman 024) Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick 025) I Am Legend - Richard Matheson 026) Lord Of Light - Roger Zelazny 027) Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delany 028) Ubik - Philip K. Dick 029) The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick 030) Inverted World - Christopher Priest 031) Time Out Of Joint - Philip K. Dick 032) The Simulacra - Philip K. Dick 033) Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick 034) Valis - Philip K. Dick 035) Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut 036) Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke 037) The Island Of Doctor Moreau - H.G. Wells 038) The Time Machine - H.G. Wells 039) Dhalgren - Samuel R. Delany 040) Helliconia - Brian Aldiss 041) The Food of the Gods - H.G. Wells 042) The Body Snatchers - Jack Finney 043) The Female Man - Joanna Russ 044) Arslan - M.J. Engh 045) The Centauri Device - M. John Harrison 046) Tau Zero - Poul Anderson 047) The Difference Engine - Bruce Sterling,William Gibson 048) The Prestige - Christopher Priest 049) Greybeard - Brian Aldiss 050) Martian Time-Slip - Philip K. Dick 051) Sirius - Olaf Stapledon 052) Hyperion - Dan Simmons 053) The City And The Stars - Arthur C. Clarke 054) City - Clifford D. Simak 055) Hellstrom's Hive - Frank Herbert 056) Of Men and Monsters - William Tenn 057) Timescape - Gregory Benford 058) Pavane - Keith Roberts 059) Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg 060) Grass - Sheri S. Tepper 061) More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon 062) The Affirmation - Christopher Priest 063) RUR & War with the Newts - Karel Capek 064) Emphyrio - Jack Vance 065) Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon 066) The Book Of Skulls - Robert Silverberg 067) Floating Worlds - Cecelia Holland 068) Blood Music - Greg Bear 069) Rogue Moon - Algis Budrys 070) Dangerous Visions - Harlan Ellison 071) Rendezvous With Rama - Arthur C. Clarke 072) Eon - Greg Bear 073) Odd John - Olaf Stapledon 074) The Fountains Of Paradise - Arthur C. Clarke 075) Last And First Men - Olaf Stapledon 076) The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons 077) The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams 078) Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm 079) Roadside Picnic - Arkady Strugatsky,Boris Strugatsky 080) The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells 081) Synners - Pat Cadigan 082) Sarah Canary - Karen Joy Fowler 083) Ammonite - Nicola Griffith 084) The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe - D.G. Compton 085) Frankenstein - Mary Shelley 086) Doomsday Book - Connie Willis 087) Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban 088) Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes 089) The Caltraps of Time - David I. Masson 090) Unquenchable Fire - Rachel Pollack 091) Take Back Plenty - Colin Greenland 092) Engine Summer - John Crowley 093) Slow River - Nicola Griffith 094) The Sea and Summer - George Turner 095) The Gate to Women's Country - Sheri S. Tepper 096) The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells 097) A Canticle For Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr 098) To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis 099) Wasp - Eric Frank Russell 100) The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov 101) This Is the Way the World Ends - James Morrow 102) The First Men In The Moon - H.G. Wells 103) The Deep - John Crowley 104) Time is the Fire - Connie Willis 105) No Enemy But Time - Michael Bishop 106) Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds 107) Double Star - Robert A. Heinlein 108) A Fall of Moondust - Arthur C. Clarke 109) A Maze of Death - Philip K. Dick 110) The Penultimate Truth - Philip K. Dick 111) Random Acts of Senseless Violence - Jack Womack 112) Transfigurations - Michael Bishop 113) The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams 114) The Door into Summer - Robert A. Heinlein 115) Life, The Universe And Everything - Douglas Adams 116) Dr Bloodmoney - Philip K. Dick 117) Half Past Human - T. J. Bass 118) The Long Tomorrow - Leigh Brackett 119) The Godwhale - T. J. Bass 120) Jem - Frederik Pohl 121) The Shrinking Man - Richard Matheson 122) A Case Of Conscience - James Blish 123) Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - James Tiptree Jr. 124) A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick 125) Stand On Zanzibar - John Brunner 126) Mission Of Gravity - Hal Clement 127) The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K. Le Guin 128) Hard to be a God - Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky 129) Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg 130) Night Lamp - Jack Vance 131) Life During Wartime - Lucius Shepard 132) Dark Benediction - Walter M. Miller, Jr 133) The Wind's Twelve Quarters - Ursula K. Le Guin 134) Dying of the Light - George R. R. Martin 135) Nova - Samuel R. Delany 136) The Man Who Fell to Earth - Walter Tevis 137) The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham As you can see, I have a lot of work cut out for me. I hope at the end of this I will be much richer in appreciating Science Fiction. I'm sure there will be other books by authors I come across that you guys can recommend once I've finished their entry(s) and if anyone would like to join me feel free! I've seen a few blurbs for later books and the Connie Willis books, as well as A Door into Summer by Robert Heinlein are some I am excited to reach! Wish me luck, The Book Barn! Tonight I begin my copy of Earth Abides by George Stewart
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Jul 17, 2015 10:28
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What the hell, I'll drop in on this as I'm able. A few notes: the Gollancz series is great on the whole but deeply idiosyncratic, and also very confused in terms of timeline. So, the list you're drawing from is not actually ordered by original publication (note also the hardcovers below them), but by the last publication date. So Earth Abides was 12th in the Masterworks series, but it's first on the Gollancz site because they haven't republished it since 1999. (And they might not even have bothered if it wasn't the book's 50th anniversary.) That said, Earth Abides makes for an intriguing if deeply odd place to start a book series. It's aged very well, and it stands at the head of a long series of books imagining the aftermath of an ecological (rather than nuclear) apocalypse. Though there is a protagonist and a whole mythic structure that builds up around him, the main character really is, as the title implies, the Earth itself—the idea that the planet could get along perfectly fine, and probably even better, without humanity is pretty bracing by 1949 standards. But Stewart's earlier books were even more so: the main "characters" in them were fire and weather; for him, any sort of human drama was already an artistic compromise. In the original series order, Earth Abides came immediately after Cordwainer Smith's Rediscovery of Man cycle and Stapledon's Last and First Men, both of which span hundreds of thousands of years. Stewart's book effectively extrapolates all that time from one man's life, watching civilization crumble and be rebuilt on an entirely different basis. It's an impressive accomplishment.
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Jul 19, 2015 06:56
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Thank you for weighing in! I did not realise their list wasn't the same as release. I think rather than hunt down a numbered list I'll keep with the one below. As an intro book, I am a quarter of the way through Earth Abides and finding it a very easy read. Its also amazing to me that so many of the great sci-fi books with tropes and things I've come to expect from sci-fi seem to have been written so early in the 1900s. I wish I'd had the vision of these authors. On another note just in case forum users are scratching their heads, I know there are probably a number of important sci-fi books missing from the list as well. (I can think of a few I'd list as masterworks of Sci-Fi) but then my goal is simply to read all of a series rather than read all the best Sci-Fi. I'm feeling very positive about this purely based on how much I'm already enjoying Earth Abides. This thread is kind of a push to keep me on track and it is working.
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Jul 20, 2015 14:19
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drat, I read more than half this list when I was busy not getting laid in high school. Life During Wartime - Lucius Shepard I completely forgot this book existed, despite being deeply affected by it at the time. Thanks.
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Oct 5, 2016 09:35
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I have every book bar one in the old golcanz sf masterworks series. Think I started them in college. I'll probably never find that one I'm missing! The list seems to have them in a random order other than old release schedule for some reason. Probably every book in the list is worth reading but some of my favourites are: The Space Merchants The Rediscovery of Man Emphyrio The Fifth Head of Cerberus And just for fun my ranking of some of the Philip K Dick ones: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch Ubik Martian Time Slip A Scanner Darkly Flow My Tears the Policeman Said Think there's a fairly large drop in quality after these one.
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Oct 5, 2016 22:23
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