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.
Gwen: Demon, OK? The whole nine—cloven feet and horns and teeth. He wasn't wearing lamé though. Lorne: Yeah, the evil ones can't pull it off. It gets camp.
'Harm's Way'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
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."
Ginger - Dec 21, 2011 8:45:20 am PST #17118 of 28289
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
Toddson - Dec 21, 2011 8:57:34 am PST #17119 of 28289
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is one of the scariest things I've ever read.
Strega - Dec 21, 2011 9:03:33 am PST #17120 of 28289
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.
erikaj - Dec 21, 2011 9:04:29 am PST #17121 of 28289
Always Anti-fascist!
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.
Atropa - Dec 21, 2011 9:16:34 am PST #17122 of 28289
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
(Hell, I might as well say, "All Bradbury short stories."
YES. Especially "Homecoming". t obvious bias is obvious
Connie Neil - Dec 21, 2011 9:22:08 am PST #17123 of 28289
brillig
Simak's Goblin Reservation is good. Damn, why are half of my books in the garage behind the decrepit Mustang II!
Ginger - Dec 21, 2011 9:22:14 am PST #17124 of 28289
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
More...
- Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower
- Vernor Vinge, True Names (The Deepness books are really good, but True Names is the most influential)
- Connie Willis, Doomsday Book (I love all of Connie Willis, but many people don't.)
- Jack Vance, The Dying Earth
- Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
- Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle, The Game Players of Titan, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
- John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar
- Frank Herbert, Dune, Dune Messiah
- William Gibson, Neuromancer (and most of the rest, but Neuromancer really marked a sea change in the genre)
- Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash (and the rest, but True Names, Neuromancer and Snow Crash were the cyberpunk books that shaped cyberspace)
Ginger - Dec 21, 2011 9:25:04 am PST #17125 of 28289
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I love Clifford Simak, who seems to have fallen along the wayside. Except for some clunky early and late books, I love them all, particularly Goblin Reservation and Way Station.
Connie Neil - Dec 21, 2011 9:27:18 am PST #17126 of 28289
brillig
I love recommendation posts, it gives me lists of things to track down--and old stuff is often available online!
Fred Pete - Dec 21, 2011 9:30:41 am PST #17127 of 28289
Ann, that's a ferret.
I read The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress in -- high school, I think. I remember being fascinated by the mechanics of how to create a society on the moon. The story itself was good but not spectacular. Very much a "literature of ideas" story, and the idea alone was just enough to sustain one novel. A different writer (I vote for Resnick) could probably have turned the idea into a series, but not Heinlein.