SF Masterworks

[Starbreaker]

List

Basically, Gallancz has been publishing its SF Masterworks series with the goal of bringing important science fiction novels back into print. They were re-published from 1999-2009 and now are re-re-publishing some of them with some newer books added in. I really want to read a lot of these. Are any of them particularly great?

I've read:

Dune
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Time Machine
Gateway
The Forever War
Rendezvous With Rama
Flowers for Algernon
The Stars My Destination
The Prestige
Frankenstein

 

[Klaus]

You have already read most of the best ones on that list IMHO...

Of the rest, I'd particularly suggest...

Timescape
The Man in the High Castle
Babel-17

Also liked...

Behold the Man
Last and First Men
The Demolished Man
Cities in Flight

 

[nvek86]

Of the top of my head I'd also recommend:

The City and the Stars
Lord of Light

Or pick any other book. I'm slowly working my way through the list (in no particual order) and so far all the books have at least been good and worth a read (with The Female Man being the only exception).

 

[Mistral]

There are only about 6-7 I haven't read. The rest were at least decent. Most are fantastic. Trust me.

 

[Bisz]

Of the rest, I'd particularly suggest...

The Man in the High Castle

Stay away! I consider reading that book as one of the biggest wastes of times I have ever indulged in.

 

[Klaus]

Well PKD is the very definition of a love-him-or-hate-him writer lol... depends what you like!

 

[Count Zero]

I'd recommend The Difference Engine. It's not classical science fiction, I guess, more like alternate history but it's the ultimate steampunk novel.

 

[JRoss]

Well PKD is the very definition of a love-him-or-hate-him writer lol... depends what you like!

He's like the Andy Samberg of SF. It seems like, with his later work, he just sent his rough draft in, assuming something like, "I'm PKD, genius extraordinaire, I crap gold, so this must be brilliant."

 

[stonester1]

I've read:

Dune
War of the Worlds
The Time Machine
The Forever War
Flowers for Algernon
The City and the Stars
Fountains of Paradise
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
I Am Legend
Rendevous with Rama
The Man In The High Castle

I've more of them on my "waiting to read" stack.

 

[JRoss]

^Your avatar is Kung Fu Panda.

 

[Kegg]

I've been reading the Gollancz SF Masterworks series for years and years. Most of my PKD paperbacks are from it. Even when I've picked authors at random (like last year's roulette wheel selections of Jem or Stand on Zanzibar), I've never felt my time was wasted by the book - as a bookline goes, there isn't a safer bet.

 

[JiNX-01]

My favorites of the golden age:

Asimov:
The Foundation Series
The Robot Novels
Nightfall and Other Stories

Clarke:
Rendezvous With Rama
The View From Serendip
Childhood's End
The Fountains of Paradise

Heinlein:
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Stranger in a Strange Land

Niven:
Ringworld Novels

Niven and Pournelle:
The Mote in God's Eye
Lucifer's Hammer

Herbert:
The Dune Novels

 

[Mistral]

I'd recommend The Difference Engine. It's not classical science fiction, I guess, more like alternate history but it's the ultimate steampunk novel.

I read it. It was good-right up to the point where the author's creativity went...limp or something. Not thrilled with the last 1/3 or so. In that respect, it reminded me of Michale Flynn's In the Country of the Blind. I wanted to like it-but, alas!

 

[Silent_Bob]

'The War of the Worlds' by H.G Wells surely has to be a must read. I'd also say read 'I Am Legend' by Richard Matheson.