zamyatin So which science fiction novels are life-changers or at least major enlighteners? My first choice would be 1984, with its depiction of a war-driven, snoop-centric society—more timely than ever in the America of 2008, even if we’re not there yet. Branko just might name Yevgeny Zamyatin‘s We instead. Why isn’t this 1921 work digitized for the public domain, given the novel’s influence on 1984 author George Orwell, Ayn Rand and others? (Update: Answer.) Yes, that’s Zamyatin in the photo.

Also, as a waker-up, how about Brave New World to remind us of the perils and opportunities of the bio frontier?

Meanwhile the io9 site has come up with its own list of life-changing SF books—named below in the order of publication rather than importance. I’ll provide links to e-freebies at Manybooks.net and Feedbooks, with a reminder that you might also try Project Gutenberg.

Frankenstein (1818), by Mary Shelley (Manybooks, Feedbooks)
The Time Machine (1895), by H.G. Wells (M, F)
At the Mountains of Madness (1931), by H.P. Lovecraft (M, F)
I, Robot (1955), by Isaac Asimov
The Dispossessed (1974), by Ursula LeGuin
Kindred (1979), by Octavia Butler
Wizard (1979), by John Varley
Consider Phlebas (1987), by Iain M. Banks
He, She, and It (1991), by Marge Piercy
Sarah Canary (1991), by Karen Joy Fowler
A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), by Vernor Vinge
The Bohr Maker (1995), by Linda Nagata
The Sparrow (1996), by Mary Doria Russell
Cryptonomicon (2000), by Neal Stephenson
The Mount (2002), by Carol Emschwiller
Perdido Street Station (2002), by China Mieville
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003), by Cory Doctorow (M, F)
Pattern Recognition (2003), by William Gibson
Newton’s Wake (2004), by Ken MacLeod
Glasshouse (2006), by Charles Stross

chessmanbook Outside the SF realm but also of possible interest for some freebie fans: The Kid Was a Killer, Caryl Chessman‘s pulp novel—now available via Munseys.  He sat on Death Row for years and his case was often cited in the fight against capital punishment. Among those pleading for Chessman’s life to be spared were Aldous Huxley (yes, author of Brave New World), Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer and Robert Frost.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. The copyright status of “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin was discussed back in 2005 here at TeleRead. Branko Collin supplied some information on the complicated copyright status of the novel (see the comment section).

    David Rothman links to the Wikipedia page on “We” and a quick scan of the page reveals a link that illustrates Stewart Brand’s aphorism “Information wants to be free.” But the full quote is “Information wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive … That tension will not go away.”

    Addendum: David Rothman asks “Why isn’t this 1921 work digitized for the public domain”? Apparently the original 1921 version is in Russian and there is a link labeled “The full text of We (Russian)” on the Wikipedia page.

  2. I like the list in general, and like the idea of the list even more. I do have a couple quibbles with it:

    why so many books published in the last 10 years? Are we in some sort of golden age of science fiction, or is the author of the piece simply not an authority on sf’s history? Generally speaking it is unwise to label anything recent as a classic, let alone call it ‘life-changing.’

    I was also a bit baffled why Ursula LeGuin’s The Dispossessed made it, but that book’s clear ‘father’ — Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress — did not. And yet many in the US Libertarian movement cite that book as totally changing their notion of the State and the individual’s relationship to it. (Indeed, almost all of Heinlein’s earlier young-adult sf novels could be added to this list.)

  3. What, did the decades before 1980 never happen? Was there no “life-changing” SCIFI in those years? Dick’s _The Man in the High Castle_ launched me into interesting philosophic realms, and Lem’s _Solaris_ changed my very perception of what “alien” even *means*.

  4. I, Robot (1955), by Isaac Asimov
    — sorry, I couldn’t finish it! Why not the Foundation trilogy? I read that!

    Kindred (1979), by Octavia Butler
    — read ages ago. Didn’t change me at all.

    Cryptonomicon (2000), by Neal Stephenson
    — sigh, still to read

    Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003), by Cory Doctorow (M, F)
    — ditto

    Haven’t read the others (yeah, well, Frankenstein when I was a wee one with a head full of mush). Eejit list. Bruce Sterling should be on it. Odd that Gibson isn’t (not that I want him there; can’t stand his characters!). Oh hell, yes, PKD should be on it! Damn, *every* book of his impacted me. Oh, hell, Bester should be on that list too!

  5. Commenting on the Survey article Mike Cane said “I guess you didn’t notice you have mystery/thriller TWICE?” That gives me an excuse to respond jocularly to a separate comment that Cane made above about the list of science fiction novels “Bruce Sterling should be on it. Odd that Gibson isn’t”.

    I guess you didn’t notice that Pattern Recognition by William Gibson is on the list.

    Sophie Habash’s makes the following comment above “pond is right. Any list without “The Dispossessed” is incomplete!”

    The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin is on the list. Pond said that he was baffled by the choice.

    In conclusion, reading carefully and correctly requires considerable practice because it is impossible.

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