Science Fiction: The One Hundred Best Novels

First of all, to address the alleged "pro-British" slant - let's get the facts straight. By my count 26 of the 100 selections here are by British-born authors; 1 is from an American-born writer (John Sladek) working in England when his selection was written; 2 are by a writer from Northern Ireland (Bob Shaw), so I suppose you can include him, and 1 is from an Australian (Damien Broderick). I may have missed somebody, but certainly the non-American percentage hovers around 30% any way you slice it. And Pringle is restricting himself to English-language writers to begin with. I'm an American, and certainly have read plenty of great American SF - but let's be realistic here, this isn't the only country producing worthwhile science fiction, and Pringle's book is still dominated by it. The book starts with a forward by Michael Moorcock in which he comments a bit on what he feels was ignored - short-story collections in particular, which, again, Pringle chooses to leave out for reasons that he explains in his own thoughtfull 11-page introduction. Pringle is more interested in the literary end of the spectrum than the pulpy one, which may help to account for why he starts his survery in 1949, the year of "1984", rather than, say, 1939, the year of Asimov, Van Vogt and Heinlein's ascension. This "bias" it seems to me makes the book far more worthy a quarter-century on than it might otherwise have been - many of these works don't feel nearly as dated as some of the work more deliberately aimed at genre audiences (though to be fair, most of his selection certainly are from "genre" authors). He's interested primarily in books that work as much as novels about the human condition, as they do as explorations of science fictional concepts. Rather than list every book included (which you can find out readily enough from a variety of places - and which I think might spoil your fun in browsing the book, so please don't!) I'll just give a rundown of the most-named writers, which should give you some idea as to whether this book might be still interesting or not: Philip K. Dick - 6 novels chosen J.G. Ballard - 4 Brian R. Aldiss, Thomas M. Disch, Robert Heinlein - 3 each Alfred Bester, Ray Bradbury, Algis Budrys, Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula K. LeGuin, Michael Moorcock, Frederick Pohl, Bob Shaw, Clifford D. Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Kurt Vonnegut, Ian Watson, Gene Wolfe (1 of his selections is for the 4-volume series "The Book of the New Sun"), John Wyndham - 2 each Few of the books selected will be completely obscure to the specialist, but few are world-famous outside of the genre either. A great rundown then, with all the caveats that come from being one man's personal choices - some of the famous books NOT listed include "Ringworld", "Stranger in a Strange Land", "The Gods Themselves", "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (but do any of these really need more hype?) - but also few of the concessions to generic taste or the lowest common denominator that a mor

Like many others, my idea of science fiction was Star Trek or Star Wars and I had never even heard of most of the novels in this book. I have now read about half the titles critiqued in this fine book and many are now some of my favorite novels of any genre. Pringle does an incredible job of including well known works and almost impossible to find works. But they are HIS favorites and very subjectively chosen. That is fine with me because, although I may not totally agree with each and every title, Ive enjoyed each novel he has recommended. I cannot say enough how vital this book has been for me as a science fiction fan. I should also say that David Pringle is a tremendous writer. For a book like this, which is not necessarily meant to be read for enjoyment, that is rare. It is clear from the first sentence that this was a piece of work done with great care and attention.

I liked the essays he writes, and the book is certainly to be valued. But... I have some serious disagreements with his choices (admittedly to be expected to some degree). To sum it up, too British and too depressing. I am not a fan of post-Holocaust novels, and he dishes them out in droves.I will agree with other reviewers that there are some gems in here that I would have not read otherwise (Alfred Bester, Cordwainer Smith, Ian Watson, Russel Hoban), but there are some nasty ones as well.For a bit more mainstream choices, I recommend finding those novels which won both the Hugo and the Nebula. You'll even find 5 of the 17 on Pringle's list.

If you ever wondered how to find a good sci-fi book among the piles of crap that get published, this book is for you. David Pringle has done an outstanding job in digging out the true 100 best novels of science fiction published between 1949-1985. In addition, his reviews are very thoughtful and well written. This is an invaluable book for the sci-fi novel reader.

I first bought this book as a student in 1987. At the time a friend had recommended three or four books of Science Fiction (by authors like Arthur C Clarke and Brian W Aldiss). When I bought David Pringle's guide to the 100 best SF novels from a small shop in London, it introduced me to a much broader scope of fiction. A fiction based on science (to varying degrees), that always had something important to say about us. David Pringle's guide takes us through the "golden age" of SF, the sixties and seventies "experimental" stage of SF and the best of the early eighties SF. Thanks to Mr Pringle, I have travelled back in time, viewed our planet from the future, witnessed history unravel itself from a different prospective, I have flown into space and witness the development and regression of the human race. Finally, I would like to mention one book recommended in this guide that almost changed my life (dramatic words yes, but I still think about this book 12 years later). That book is: Theodore Sturgeon's "More than Human". I would never have read that book if it were not for Mr Pringle's fine commentry.