Jasmine ,'Power Play'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
And Joanna Russ, if you feel like having your brain fucked with.
I read The Female Man in my feminist lit class in college (where I was also introduced to Tiptree and CL Moore--the entire reading list was SF/F written by women), and remember it being quite good.
When I was 11 I enjoyed the Foundation series. I have not tried the foundation as an adult, but I do think many of his short stories hold up. As I remember,the foundation novels were really collections of short stories and novellas in any case.
I find Asimov uneven (he published SO MUCH some of it was bound to be awful), but I certainly have enjoyed reading him.
I don't think it qualifies as SF/F, but if you go with Gothic Horror as being somewhat in the general genre, that college class also included "The Yellow Wallpaper" in its reading list, which made a huge impact on me at the time.
I'd include The Female Man in any list of important/influential SF.
I have reread the Foundation series as an adult, but not recently. There's a lot more tell than show, but there's also a grand sweep of ideas.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is one of the scariest things I've ever read.
Yeah, I read some of Asimov's short stories; that was enough. The ideas are fun and I certainly understand his importance. But that's not enough to interest me in a novel, much less a series.
The Cold Equations always makes me think of Sheckley's The Cruel Equations. (Although it's actually about the Laws of Robotics.) Anyway, Sheckley's great and very funny.
I think because we know it happened to real women(including Gilman herself) I don't like Asimov either, but I'm not really an SF person.
(Hell, I might as well say, "All Bradbury short stories."
YES. Especially "Homecoming". t obvious bias is obvious
Simak's Goblin Reservation is good. Damn, why are half of my books in the garage behind the decrepit Mustang II!