His anecdote with Douglas MacArthur in Cryptonomicon is my favorite fictional portrayal of that actor, one of the three great American actors of the 1940s along with Orson Welles and FDR. However, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are the only Stephenson novels I’ve ever re-read and that may be because they’re short. Re-reading the Baroque cycle would be the reading equivalent of the Bataan Death March.

It’s also missing some pretty important authors and works. No Mars novels by Burroughs? Really? They’re not high art, but neither are many of the SF novels that did make the list. That lack of traditional literary qualities tends to make SF works hard to judge. For instance, the first couple hundred pages of Lucifer’s Hammer are slow, slow, slow, the characters remain rather wooden throughout, and the villains are more than a bit over the top — but I still highly recommend it, because the basic scenario is thought-provoking enough to keep you up thinking about it, even when you really need to get to sleep.

Then there’s the whole issue of whether a work is original and influential enough to earn a spot on the list, even if it’s not particularly good. Frankenstein is arguably the first SF novel, and it spawned successful plays, which led to the iconic film, but the novel is awful, and the film is awful, too — but with a kernel of something powerful and evocative enough to keep bringing us back to it.

Top Ten:

• The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
• A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
• The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
• The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
• The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
• Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
• The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester
• Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
• The Uplift Saga, by David Brin

I couldn’t put the Dune series in the top ten because only one of them is truly awesome, and another two really good, and one just awful.

Just missed the cut include:

• Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
• Armor, by John Steakley
• The Baroque Cycle, by Neal Stephenson
• A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
• Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
• The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester
• The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
• The Difference Engine, by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
• The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
• Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart
• Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
• Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
• The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
• Last Call, by Tim Powers
• The Lensman Series, by E.E. Smith
• Lord Of Light, by Roger Zelazny
• Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
• The Man In The High Castle, by Philip K. Dick
• Norstrilia, by Cordwainer Smith
• Ringworld, by Larry Niven
• The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
• The Stainless Steel Rat Books, by Harry Harrison
• Stand On Zanzibar, by John Brunner
• Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
• Way Station, by Clifford D. Simak

What stunned me was how many of these books I haven’t read. You can go over to my place and take a look. The books I haven’t read lean strongly toward the fantasy stuff, but there were some surprises in there.

• The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
• The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
• The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
• The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Man In The High Castle, by Philip K. Dick
• The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
• The Mote In God’s Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
• Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
• The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester
• Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

Barely missed the cut:

• Animal Farm, by George Orwell
• The Cat Who Walked Through Walls, by Robert Heinlein (the first 1/2)
• The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
• Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
• A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
• Neuromancer, by William Gibson
• Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
• Ringworld, by Larry Niven
• The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
• Ubik, by Philip K. Dick
• The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
• 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke

Maybe:

• Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
• The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
• The Difference Engine, by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
• Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
• I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
• A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
• The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
• Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
• 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne