2024 the best science fiction novels review
Price: $5.99
(as of Dec 02, 2024 10:51:08 UTC - Details)
From one of the best-known editors in modern science fiction, this lively and authoritative guide will appeal to both newcomers and connoisseurs of the genre alike. Informative and readable, David Pringle's choices focus on landmark works by the likes of Ray Bradbury, Alfred Bester and J.G. Ballard, unearth less prominent talents such as Ian Watson, Octavia Butler and Joanna Russ, and highlight breakthrough novels by William Gibson and Philip K. Dick. An essential guide to science fiction literature.
ASIN : B00LLINQSS
Publisher : Gateway; Digital original edition (June 30, 2014)
Publication date : June 30, 2014
Language : English
File size : 891 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 224 pages
Reviewer: Gordon Glass
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Reading the lists now is like visiting a reunion full of old friends
Review: Many of the books on this list were books I first read fifty - sometimes sixty - yeas ago. Reading the lists now is like visiting a reunion full of old friends. I take it with me when I go trolling used book stores in search of copies. Now if someone would come out with one of those 1001 Science Fiction novels you must read before you die.
Reviewer: Vazhaspa Spitman
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Good Guide , But be Alert
Review: If you are lost in choosing a good novel from a myriad of science fiction novels, if you are also looking for something closest to literary novels, this book is a good as an introduction to some classical SF novels (1949-1985) written by famous English-speaking authors.Yet the reader is to be warned:1-Beside his sharp but short critical reviews, the author gives a summery of each novel--which might be spoiler2-The reader might just take these selected titles as a clue to find her/his through a vast labyrinth of published works, but s/he has to check each choice against other literary criteria s/he has. In other words, you are advised to check it for yourself. You can read the sample of these books on Amazon, etc. look at various and contrasting reader's comments or simply borrow a copy from a library before ordering the selected novel3-Personally I prefer SFs with a literary value (which are so few) and it might inevitably exclude such entertaining/ popular stories ... And this may not be quite in unison with some choices made by David PringleIn any case, this book is a very good guide book.
Reviewer: Dave B.
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Beware this title...
Review: First of all, be cautioned that this list was not the result of some poll or grading system based on genre accolades...it is simply the opinion of David Pringle, one man who admits this point in the book's introduction. Although I do believe Pringle really knows the genre including gems like Bernard Wolfe's Limbo and Malzberg's Galaxies.But there are some dogs here, given the time period. Harrison's Centauri Device is thirty years behind its time reading like a scientific romance pulp with stock characters and is extremely unimaginative for the time it projects. Ian Watson's Miracle Visitors is just poorly written, despite some keen parody of the American lifestyle. Which brings me to my biggest complaint, the decidedly British slant of this book. It also seems Pringle tried too hard to include female authors (there is a sudden burst toward the latter years). Some titles have merit -Russ' Female Man for instance- but Carter's Heroes and Villains is quite forgettable. The greatest strength of this book is the inclusion of many books that I enjoyed that are on the bubble of the genre- Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time and William Golding's The Inheritors are two outstanding novels.Find this book, find some titles you may not have sought out yourself and then see how others view those titles, not only Pringle. After all, there are plenty of ways to research these titles on the internet.
Reviewer: Emma Smith at Harper Hospital
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Surprise, surprise
Review: Per the review, I thought this was a collection of the 100 best SF novels. In fact it is merely a review/plot outline of about one page each. Not worth the price.
Reviewer: C. Robinson
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Pringle's Picks
Review: I wish this book had been titled, Science Fiction: MY favorite 100 novels. I can see what authors Mr. Pringle likes (Dick, Heinlein, Moorcock, to name a few) and what his taste in sci-fi is and can even probably determine his age, but objectively speaking (if I am in fact, being objective) I think a lot of novels that should have been in the top 100 were left off off his list. Of course we all have our opinions of what the best science fiction is, and if you like science fiction that usually means you love it and therefore probably have strong opinions, so if you find you share his tastes then this is the 100 for you.I did get a few suggestions from it so it was somewhat helpful.
Reviewer: Tolinda
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: SF Overview
Review: I enjoyed reading about many high points in the realm of Science Fiction, with a British twist. Looking forward to readings some of the reviewed books.
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Terrific resource.
Review: Reminded me of several books I either had never read or needed to reread.
Reviewer: psa
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: This was not in any way what I expected. ...
Review: This was not in any way what I expected. I did not know it was just a review of novels written.
Reviewer: Witz
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Una panoramica generale, una serie di spunti per letture future
Reviewer: Mr. Robert A. Gilmour
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I've read several of these speculative fiction list guides and this is probably the best one and that's largely due to Pringle's passion for the genre.The foreward and introduction are VERY important in giving you an idea of what is missed in this list of 100. A bunch of short fiction recommendations are given as a supplement along with some authors before the period that the list confines itself to, some other authors that nearly made the list are named and Pringle is up front that he doesn't have much love for planetary romance.One glaring shortcoming of the introduction is that although he states that he is restricting himself to English language works, he hardly names any authors outside that language restriction. I wish Pringle hadn't put so many restrictions on and maybe even boosted the list to 150.After you've read this you can track down...David Pringle - Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best NovelsBroderick & Di Filippo - Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010Cawthorn & Moorcock - Fantasy: The 100 Best BooksAndrews & Rennison - 100 Must Read Science Fiction NovelsAndrews & Rennison - 100 Must Read Fantasy NovelsJones & Newman - Horror: 100 Best BooksJones & Newman - Horror: Another 100 Best BooksEach of these books has something important the others lack, but of course we still need more of them.
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: pretends to be the actual novels. Its just a list of them Rubbish
Reviewer: Jon Pennycook
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a good round up of science fiction novels from the 50s to the 80s. David Pringle is an expert reviewer and his tastes overlap with mine - I was really disappointed when he stepped down from editing Interzone magazine, which hasn't been as good since.
Reviewer: Kenneth Wilson
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The reviewer has produced a list of books which he thinks in most cases have literary excellence. I don't believe that many people read sf for its literary value rather for ideas, world building or just a good story. Although I have read most of the books on this list the majority of these I personally would not put on a best list. Maybe I should make my own list??