Influential sci-fi?

There was a time when I read a lot of science fiction. How much has tapered off in recent years as I’ve pursued other interests in reading. But I still think my heart is with science fiction. While on its surface it can seem like it’s all aliens, lasers, robots, and mad scientists, much of science fiction is an examination of the world, presenting “what ifs” of human nature.

What if aliens visited us? What if we visited them? What if we left Earth? What if we traveled the stars?

What if computers were as smart as we are, or more? What if they decided to take over the world? What if we let them?

What if a plague wiped out most of humanity? Or turned much of humanity into zombies? Or, as I saw in one plot recently, just killed all the men?

Add to these and other plots some interesting and sympathetic characters, a compelling problem to be solved, and you have a really enjoyable read.

Recently, I saw the article linked here, and I realized how long it has been since I’ve kept up with science fiction, as well as how much science fiction is changing. Like everything else in our society, it is shifting with trends and problems that our culture is facing. I don’t know if I’ll ever keep up with the list below, but I thought it worth a look to see if I agree with what the writer thought was “the most influential science fiction of all time.” (And, I might add, a lot of books that they included far too premature to assess their impact.)

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Without a doubt, I agree this is one of the most influential–if not THE most influential–works of science fiction of all time. Everything from Asimov’s I, Robot to C-3PO, from Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey to Data in Star Trek Generations can look back down their family tree to Doctor Frankenstein’s monster in some degree or another.
• Blake, or The Huts of America by Martin L. Delaney. I’ve never heard of this one or the author. Have you?
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne should be right there with Journey to the Center of the Earth, also by Verne, as some of the first adventure/exploration science fiction.
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is as fascinating a character study today as the day it was printed and presents Dr. Jekyll as the original mad scientist. Whether followed by The Island of Dr. Moreau or Jurassic Park, we’ve not stopped being fascinated by what happens when science goes wrong.
• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and its look far into the future is only the first in a never-ending series of time travel novels and movies. Whether it’s Marty McFly in Back to the Future or the Avengers destroying the Infinity Stones, science fiction has had a love affair with time travel ever since H.G. Wells introduced it to the genre.
• Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkins is one I’ve not heard of, but I’m intrigued. If you’ve read it, I’d like your take on how you think it influenced later science fiction.
• A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. While probably the covers of his books didn’t need so many scantily clad Martian damsels in distress to sell, it’s hard not to see the impact of the swashbuckling heroes transplanted into another culture that others have borrowed from Burroughs. Pulp sci-fi deserves a place on this list.
• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. I’ve not read it, but I have read Orwell and Huxley, and there’s a lot in common with We‘s one state world.
• Metropolis by Thea Von Harbou. There must have been something going on in the 1920s when both We and Metropolis were written about worlds where the government-controlled so much of everyday life. I don’t know if it was the rise of progressivism, Nazism, Russian Communism, or just random coincidence, but something was in the water.
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I think Huxley doesn’t get as much credit as he deserves. His pleasure-soaked paradise where a pill solves problems is far more accurate than the more often cited 1984.
• The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke. YES. It must be on this list.
• The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov. Also, yes. At times it feels a little dated to read it today, but no one comes close to his influence at the time. Asimov all but created the robot genre. When C-3PO says “it’s against my programming,” I hear the three laws, not just some random line from a droid.
• Shadow Over Mars by Leigh Brackett. I don’t know why this is included. Even the writer says it’s overlooked…which seems to indicate limited influence.
• Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Well, duh. Few other works of science fiction have had an influence so far beyond their genre the way this one does.
• Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka. I can’t speak to this one. I was aware of it growing up, but it never caught my attention.
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I love this book. Bradbury foresaw so much before its time, in this and in other books.
• Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein is a necessary addition to this list.
• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller is one of the original post-holocaust novels and is worth a reread.
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle. Yes, include it.
• Dune by Frank Herbert. This is still as good a read now as it was when it first came out, and I can’t wait to see the movie in the theater next week.
• Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany. I’ve never been a Delany fan, but he’s without a doubt had an impact on the genre.
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick is perfect for this list, but so are most of his novellas, short stories, and novels. Dick was a brilliant writer and almost unmatched for keeping Hollywood stocked with material for blockbuster movies.
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin is a brilliantly conceived book if a little slow and dry at points. I wish I had read more Le Guin before now.
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Trippy time travel. And Vonnegut. So, yeah. I agree.
• Where the Late Sweet Bird Sings by Kate Wilhelm. Never heard of it but, apparently, it won a Hugo?
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I’m not embarrassed to admit how many times I read this growing up. No, I don’t carry a towel around with me in case I am picked up by aliens, but I am ready with the answer to the meaning of life (a hint: it’s 42).
• Daughters of a Coral Dawn by Katherine V. Forrest. Haven’t read or heard of it, but this feels like addition for diversity’s sake.

At this point, the list starts to feel more contemporary, and not entirely convincingly influential books, with some exceptions:

• Neuromancer by William Gibson. Yep. Gotta have this one on the list.
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I’ve not read it yet, but lots of people have and cosplayers dressed as handmaids show up at protests and rallies on occasion. So I’ll allow it.
• Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Sure, though I think it’s overrated.
• Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow. I can’t say I’ve read these, but mostly because I’m not into Japanese cyberpunk. But it’s worth including.
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Yes, yes, yes. Who doesn’t want to know what a world with dinosaurs would look like?
• Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Before there was The Hunger Games…

And this is where I start to lose interest in the list or at least start to question how influential these later books are on science fiction, or even on society at large. It’s still too early for most of them. Lots of interesting books in the list, but it feels more like a list of books you SHOULD read than a list of books that have influenced the genre (or the world or whatever). It’s just contemporary science fiction by this point in the list. And a lot of it feels like it’s included because it fits some kind of data point for inclusion, not because a lot of people read it or talked about it, or it spawned a dozen imitations.