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Need a list of "defining" SF
12-25-2012, 04:19 AM
As the subject line says, I need a list of "defining" SF... and thought the folks here would be able to help build it.
What are the stories that defined what science fiction was "supposed to be like," for the times that the stories were published? The medium doesn't matter - print, film, radio-play, anime, those Colliers' Magazine stories about possible space stations, whatever - but the stories have to be about The Future. (Or, at least, what was the future for the time the stories were published. "The Year 199x" counts if the story was written in the 1980s...)
What goes on this list?
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William Gibson - neuromancer, 1984
Star Trek defined a generation, but I have no clue if you are looking for anything that long running.
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle - The Mote in God's Eye, 1991
I'm sure there are more, but I don't have access to my childhood bookshelf.
-Terry
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All of the Heinlein "juveniles": Rocket Ship Galileo, Starman Jones, Space Cadet, Podkayne of Mars, and so forth. Stranger in a Strange Land also cannot be omitted from this list, though it is certainly *not* a juvenile. Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as well.
Asimov's Robots stories.
Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 and Rendezvous with Rama.
If you don't mind multiple authors, the run of John Campbell's "Astounding Science Fiction".
All of these were complete game-changers and redefined the genre or brought it to a wider popular audience. The Heinlein juveniles showed that it was possible to get away from horror and comic books in science fiction, and not talk down to the kids while doing so. Asimov completely redefined the way the robotics industry was viewed, even before there really *was* a robotics industry. Clarke was one of the first to depict aliens that were truly *alien* in their ways of living and thinking. And Campbell brought together great writers, gave them ideas to write *about*, and brought all that to the largest mass-market SF had ever had.
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Frank Herbet's Dune (1965) is another iconic example. The Dune series, Along with Asimov's Robot and Foundation stories, forms the foundations of recent Science Fiction.
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I've heard tell that H. G. Wells' When the Sleeper Wakes (1899), had the first 2100 dystopia. That counts, right?
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HG Wells and Jules Verne always count....
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How about Larry Niven's Ringworld and the "Known Space" universe that forms the backdrop for that and many of his other stories?
Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". (TANSTAAFL!) And would we have the modern concept of mecha without "Starship Troopers"?
And yes, HG Wells and Jules Verne always count. The very first nuclear powered submarine was called "Nautilus" in honor of Verne's work after all.
Is Neal Stephanson's "Snow Crash" influential enough? I believe it's been said that we can trace the usage of the word "avatar" as used to describe virtual representations of ourselves back to this book, after all.
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Short-running, long-running - they're all good. As long as they're influential or seminal...
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Wells and Verne are considered the Grandfathers of SF. For Wells, look at his "First Men in the Moon", "The Invisible Man", "The Island of Dr. Moreau",
The Time Machine" and "The War of the Worlds" to name just some.
For Verne, look at "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Around the World in 80 Days."
However, Robert Louis Stevenson can be considered a part of that with Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I've always considered it a look at the human mind and what insanity looks like.
Hugo Gernsback started the first SF magazine and is called The Father of Science Fiction. The Hugo was named after him. His novel Ralph 124C 41+ gave a look at the future, as many SF stories do, and predicted many things: TV, RADAR, sound in movies, synthetic foods, artificial cloth, tape records, etc.
We then start getting into the "Juvies", books written for the Juvenile Male market. That is where Campbell, Heinlein, etc came out. This is also when the "crossover" between SF and Fantasy started becoming strong. Authors like Norton who wrote in the "SF" setting of space, other worlds, put in concepts of mental powers, god/goddesses, etc. Norton did the Witch World series but also did the Time Traders series. Campbell was big in the "Terra über alles" or Earth over everything. His novels such as his Invaders fro the Infinite series have man come from Earth bound to traveling the Universe and controlling it. Heinlein was known to do orbital calculations on his kitchen table just so one small almost unnoticed scene in his novel would be technically accurate. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" is a look at what it means to place something else before you. The novel is misunderstood by many (Verhoeven for one) but this is not the place for that.
You also have the idea of the Space Opera in the writings of E. E. "Doc" Smith with his Skylark series. Others in this area are Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials that came from comic strips. Buck Rogers was two novels: "Armageddon 2419 A.D." and "The Airlords of Han" that spawned the movie serials. On the Flash Gordon side, who can forget the campy movie with the Queen soundtrack?
You also have to consider the writing of Clarke and Asimov. Clark gave us "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Against the Fall of Night", "Childhood's End", "Rendevous with Rama", etc. Asimov gave us "Pebble In The Sky", "I, Robot", "Foundation", etc. Both of these authors did "Grand Fiction" where they made people look at themselves and their place in the universe.
Then you have Keith Laumer with his Bolo series and books like "Plague of Demons" which have you asking what does it mean to be human. Along with him comes Philip José Farmer and his Riverworld and World of Tiers series.
A mixture of these areas is done by Roger Zelazny in his Chronicles of Amber series. While I've liked these I also found his Jack of Shadows series to be good and my favorite of his novels is "Doorways in the Sand."
Later authors such as William Gibson started dealing with human/computer/mind, etc mixture with "Neuromancer".
There are many authors that I haven't even touched on (any some are listed in others' posts in this thread.)
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The 'Lensman' series by E.E.'Doc' Smith as one of the first space operas.
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Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus" is no doubt another one of the most important stories in Science Fiction history; even if the story itself was received poorly. See 20 Pictures that sum up the history of Science Fiction for more ideas.
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H P Lovecraft, of course.
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Karel Capek's "R.U.R", Rossum's Universal Robots. The Czech play that introduced the word "Robot" to the English language and the Science Fiction genre in general. Possibly the first example of AI overthrowing the human race. (Frankenstein posited but didn't address the issue)
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The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."
>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI
You could take a gander at Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter of Mars a.k.a Barsoom Series...
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Kurisu Wrote:You could take a gander at Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter of Mars a.k.a Barsoom Series... Well, the Planetary Romance (aka Sword and Planet) field has lots of stellar names. If you want to be sucked in, here's the TV Tropes page on it.
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Thanks for the suggestions, folks, and please keep them coming!
So far, the list has plenty of books and Star Trek. I'm sensing a bias toward printed words here... are there really no seminal SF movies, TV, or anime other than ST?
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Forbidden Planet, of course. Although some people say that was just Star Trek before Star Trek.
2001.
Planet of the Apes -- the first movie at the very least.
By the way, a note regarding the print fiction of Andre Norton: bmull cited her in the category of "juvie" works. Remember, though, that some of the best "juvie" stuff of the Fifties and Sixties might be considered too grittily mature for today's kids. Norton has a scene in Star Guard where the protagonist must mercy-kill a fellow soldier -- with the dagger all Terran soldiers carry specifically and solely for that purpose. And then there's the passage in which he discovers that breaking an enemy's neck with his rifle sling as a garrote makes him feel queasy in a way that practicing the move on a mannequin in training didn't....
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I would note that most of the books listed here have had movie adaptations. In addition, I will point out R.U.R. was a play, written in 1921, before the take-off of the television set. For a few influential movies:
"The Day The Earth Stood Still", written by Edmund H. North and directed by Robert Wise;
"Godzilla" written by Shigeru Kayama and directed by Ishiro Honda;
"Forbidden Planet" written by Irving Block and Allen Adler, and directed by Fred M. Wilcox;
"Alien", written by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, and directed by Ridley Scott;
"Tron", written by Steven Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird, and directed by Steven Lisberger.
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>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI
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And of course, from about 1977 to present, Star Wars is definitely a big one. It was, iirc, one of the first "used future" settings, where the space ships had grunge and greeblies.
In fact the three big-budget sci-fi films of 1977 were pretty major.
Star Wars, as already mentioned, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the also-ran, Logan's Run.
Star Wars' success led to Battlestar Galactica, the willingness of the networks to air Buck Rogers, the mini-series V, and so on.
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Just a random listing of stuff I haven't seen listed yet. (Could also just have missed it)
Fahrenheit 451: Ray Bradbury
The demolished man: Alfred Bester
Canticle for Leibowitz: Walter Miller
Brave New World: Aldous Huxley
The Forever War: Joe Haldeman
Flowers for Algernon: Daniel Keyes
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep: Philip K. Dick
Ender's Game: Orson Scott Card
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: Samuel Clemens
Various works of Poe
Animal Farm: George Orwell
The clockwork Man: William Jablosky
Red Mars: Kim Stanley Robinson
Star Tide Rising: David Brin
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I'm actually surprised they haven't been mentioned
Twilight Zone
Outer Limits
One Step Beyond
Sure there was fantasy and horror in all three of them, but then there were things like 'The Lateness of the Hour' which dealt with robots.
At any rate:
Macross
Robotech
(They are different Robotech has Lancer, Macross has......Nekki Basara)
Star Blazers/Yamato
The comic book 'Space Family Robinson' inspired the 'Lost in Space' tv series and continued on after the show went off the air abd both were influental
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