I’ve read it at least three times over the years. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – the modern comedy classic that says so much about the human condition.The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – Back to dystopian societies.

Visionary, yet itself influenced by Wells and Zamyatin – note the latter’s Weis not on the list.

Brave New Worldby Aldous Huxley – the first spec fiction/dystopia on the list with some SF in it.

I have the lovely Folio Society edition now (right) for a re-read – but again this is dystopian rather than SF.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – first read in my teens.

Animal Farm by George Orwell – Not SF at all unless you include walking pigs! I do object to this one being in the list.

See also my review of Barnhill by Normal Bissell, a novel about Orwell writing 1984.

1984by George Orwell – top of the list! A dystopia really, but I don’t mind that.

Links in the titles will take you to reviews where they exist. I have, at some time, read exactly half of this list ( bolded). It’s very US-centric – but a good few UK authors, very few indeed from beyond the UK/N.America though.

There are 18 women represented which is actually more than I expected, but still very low. 19 authors have multiple books on it – John Scalzi has 4! I’ve not read him at all – why is he so popular? (Bradbury, Vonnegut, Heinlein, Dick, Wells, Clarke and Stephenson all have 3 entries each). I thought I’d share the list with you with my own pithy commments and links to those I’ve reviewed since I started blogging, (there are several in this list that appear in my Desert Island Books). It also contains many titles that purists would classify as dystopian, speculative fiction, fantastical – but it’s hard to get too worked up about the list not being pure SF. As a teenager, student and beyond, my reading of SF & Fantasy outweighed all other genres (I made exceptions back then for Maigret, Christie, the Russians and ancient Greek / Latin classics) – for the three years I was at uni it was 100% SF&F! These days, I read occasional SF novels and very little fantasy, but I would like to read more ‘proper’ SF – so maybe I’ll be inspired by this exercise too.Īrguably this list contains some degree of what is (IMHO) literary dross! But, it is based on popularity not quality. I checked out the list and discovered I’ve read a good quantity of them, want to re-read some, always planned to read a few more, and discovered yet more to add to my wishlists. I recently watched Eric’s vlog ( here) on how he wants to read more SF, and that the Goodreads list ( here) might be a good place to get some recommendations.

The andromeda strain goodreads