Battlestar Grammactica

Let’s say you’ve published your novel. You’ve won a couple awards, appeared as a panelist at a couple of conventions. Now, you’re ready to teach a class in science fiction at the local college. You’ve got a semester, can make your students read ten books, tops. In those ten books, you’ve got to show a little bit of our genre’s history, a little bit of the masterpieces. But you’ve also got to keep them entertained. You don’t know who your students are. Some might be fans, some might be looking for an easy A. The lectures have to move at a quick, entertaining clip and be informative. also, the bookstore will only stock a book if it is in print. You can’t be obscure.

Using this criteria What Science fiction Works would you consider Canonical? Why? What Criteria would you use? What Would you focus on in your "Survey of Sci-fi 101"?

Here’s my list. I’ haven’t listed them in chronological order, but by Importance. Those on the bottom might change over time, but the top of the List? No Way. These will stay no matter what..

1.Dune
- Arrakis still rules the universe. And Why Not? A sprawling Space opera on the surface, it’s a richly textured work with "Wheels within Wheels" that never talks down to its audience. Dune retains its popularity despite all attempts to kill it off: Unnecessary sequels, horrible movies and games, even Brian Herbert.. Dune is the gospel of Science fiction: you cannot understand the genre without having read it.

2. Foundation
- Asimov’s masterpiece is more of a "Science fiction" cult thing: It hasn’t passed into popular culture like Dune has. Which is a shame. Asimov sets up a thought experiment and runs with it; What if we could use scientific procedures to predict the future of Humanity? Where is "Free Will" If the future is known? What happens if information is withheld and the equations are changed? Are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes?

3.Rendezvous with Rama
- What? Not 2001? No, not 2001. Let’s face it, the movie is what people remember. But Rama, with it’s totally alien spacecraft that doesn’t even seem to acknowledge the humans aboard, remains the best story of first contact. Stay Away from the later Sequels, They get worse the older Clarke Got.

4.Rendezvous with Rama
- If you Grok, you know why this is here. Heinlein’s most metaphysical work, it also is his most strangely prophetic. Sure, It’s got all that Hippie-Dippie stuff. but it also asks some important question on what it means to be human.

5. The Martian Chronicles
- The reason this post isn’t titled "Canonical Novels." Bradbury’s collection of loosely intertwined stories mat be more "Science Fantasy" than "Science Fiction." but that doesn’t mean these stories of transformation and a culture’s passing are any less important.

6.Neuromancer
- The Cyberpunk movement may be passe, and may eventually go the way of Flash Gordon and Edgar Rice Burroughs . But there’s no denying that Case and Molly forever altered the landscape of Science Fiction.

7. The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- We need a little lighter reading heading into the home stretch, and Hitchiker is it. The book takes sci-fi cliches and uses them as a springboard to some pretty dark places. A great way to laugh through the tears.

8.20,000 Leagues Under the Sea- One of the first recognizable science fiction novels. Forget the kid films, this is a travelogue and adventure tale featuring two of the greatest characters ever, Nemo and the Nautilus.

9. Snow Crash
- Neal Stephenson ’s humorous Take on the Cyberpunk Movement. Who can resist a main charachter called Hiro Protagonist?  Like a lot of the other books on my list, this one takes a look at how technology will mutate the human race, this time a visual virus that re-wires our language so we can all understand each other.

10.A Canticle for Leibowitz
- I was going to put the stand here, but that’s more fantasy. In fact, many post-apocalyptic works have a high fantasy quotient. Maybe looking at the end of our world and the horrors that could replace it require a little bit of magic.

SO there you have it. My 10 Canonical Science Fiction books, taken right from my shelves. What do You Think? Any others that you would add?