100 Most popular SF books on Goodreads

[h***@gmail.com]

Here's the list, what do people think of it?

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

[Chris Buckley]

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

An interesting list. A strong influence of non-sf (ie, mainstream)
readers. So many of the sf lists we see are constructed from data of
folks who read primarily sf (which would probably include the vast
majority of the people reading this.) We tend to forget that we are
heavily out-numbered by all other readers.

The list is ordered by number of Goodreads reviews. As such, it probably
leans more to the theme/message aspects of books, since those are the
ones that would spur actual reviews.

I've read 77 of them. Only 19 are on my Favorites bookcase, a lower
percentage than for most top N popular lists.

Chris

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

An interesting list. A strong influence of non-sf (ie, mainstream)
readers. So many of the sf lists we see are constructed from data of
folks who read primarily sf (which would probably include the vast
majority of the people reading this.) We tend to forget that we are
heavily out-numbered by all other readers.
The list is ordered by number of Goodreads reviews. As such, it probably
leans more to the theme/message aspects of books, since those are the
ones that would spur actual reviews.
I've read 77 of them. Only 19 are on my Favorites bookcase, a lower
percentage than for most top N popular lists.

I've only read 36 of them. Huh.

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

Post by h***@gmail.com

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

Post by Chris Buckley
An interesting list. A strong influence of non-sf (ie, mainstream)
readers. So many of the sf lists we see are constructed from data of
folks who read primarily sf (which would probably include the vast
majority of the people reading this.) We tend to forget that we are
heavily out-numbered by all other readers.
The list is ordered by number of Goodreads reviews. As such, it probably
leans more to the theme/message aspects of books, since those are the
ones that would spur actual reviews.
I've read 77 of them. Only 19 are on my Favorites bookcase, a lower
percentage than for most top N popular lists.

I've only read 36 of them. Huh.

I'm not sure this actually applies to "Goodreads", but I'll note that
at least 6 of the Top-10 are commonly assigned school reading which is why
you commonly see piles of _1984_ & _Farenheit 451_ on tables in B&N.

[J. Clarke]

On Thu, 09 Jul 2020 21:57:06 -0700, Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

An interesting list. A strong influence of non-sf (ie, mainstream)
readers. So many of the sf lists we see are constructed from data of
folks who read primarily sf (which would probably include the vast
majority of the people reading this.) We tend to forget that we are
heavily out-numbered by all other readers.
The list is ordered by number of Goodreads reviews. As such, it probably
leans more to the theme/message aspects of books, since those are the
ones that would spur actual reviews.
I've read 77 of them. Only 19 are on my Favorites bookcase, a lower
percentage than for most top N popular lists.

I've only read 36 of them. Huh.

55 for me. Only reread a few though. Some I know I've read but don't
remember a thing, in some cases because it was a long time ago and
others because they didn't make much impression.

[Titus G]

Post by J. Clarke
On Thu, 09 Jul 2020 21:57:06 -0700, Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

An interesting list. A strong influence of non-sf (ie, mainstream)

Post by J. Clarke

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Chris Buckley
readers. So many of the sf lists we see are constructed from
data of folks who read primarily sf (which would probably include
the vast majority of the people reading this.) We tend to forget
that we are heavily out-numbered by all other readers.
The list is ordered by number of Goodreads reviews. As such, it
probably leans more to the theme/message aspects of books, since
those are the ones that would spur actual reviews.
I've read 77 of them. Only 19 are on my Favorites bookcase, a
lower percentage than for most top N popular lists.

I've only read 36 of them. Huh.

55 for me. Only reread a few though. Some I know I've read but
don't remember a thing, in some cases because it was a long time ago
and others because they didn't make much impression.

65, mainly in the top ~80.
Most of my favourites didn't make this 100.
Some authors works weren't their best.
I loved M Banks' Consider Phlebas but thought Use of Weapons his best M.

[Chris Buckley]

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by J. Clarke
On Thu, 09 Jul 2020 21:57:06 -0700, Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

An interesting list. A strong influence of non-sf (ie, mainstream)

Post by J. Clarke

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Chris Buckley
readers. So many of the sf lists we see are constructed from
data of folks who read primarily sf (which would probably include
the vast majority of the people reading this.) We tend to forget
that we are heavily out-numbered by all other readers.
The list is ordered by number of Goodreads reviews. As such, it
probably leans more to the theme/message aspects of books, since
those are the ones that would spur actual reviews.
I've read 77 of them. Only 19 are on my Favorites bookcase, a
lower percentage than for most top N popular lists.

I've only read 36 of them. Huh.

55 for me. Only reread a few though. Some I know I've read but
don't remember a thing, in some cases because it was a long time ago
and others because they didn't make much impression.

65, mainly in the top ~80.
Most of my favourites didn't make this 100.
Some authors works weren't their best.
I loved M Banks' Consider Phlebas but thought Use of Weapons his best M.

Unlike other top lists, this one allowed multiple works per author, so
it wasn't an either/or choice. (Thus we get 3 books by Vonnegut (none
of which are close at all to being in my Favorites.))

I would put _Player of Games_ as my top Banks novel; all three are
excellent. But to show the power of mainstream: in the UK, his first
non-sf novel _The Wasp Factory_ (1 million copies) almost outsold his
entire SF output (1.1 million copies).

Sales figures from
https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-sff-all-time-sales-list-revised.html
which, while not pretending to be accurate (very spotty), has interesting
insights such as Andre Norton outselling Frank Herbert by a factor of 4.

Chris

[Jack Bohn]

Post by Chris Buckley
Sales figures from
https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-sff-all-time-sales-list-revised.html
which, while not pretending to be accurate (very spotty), has interesting
insights such as Andre Norton outselling Frank Herbert by a factor of 4.

Interesting list. On first read through, my eyes started to glaze over in the 60s, then I ran into Jerry Pournell, odd to see him so high in the list (_Lucifer's Hammer_), higher than Ray Bradbury!

I'll note two omissions: Harlan Ellison and Kurt Vonnegut. I can believe HE had an influence on the field far beyond his book sales, but Vonnegut? I'm sure he's been coursework in college, if perhaps not high school.

[On the main list, and its use of cover images for identification: is there a trend among book designers to obscure the title?]

[David Johnston]

Post by Jack Bohn

Post by Chris Buckley
Sales figures from
https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-sff-all-time-sales-list-revised.html
which, while not pretending to be accurate (very spotty), has interesting
insights such as Andre Norton outselling Frank Herbert by a factor of 4.

Interesting list. On first read through, my eyes started to glaze over in the 60s, then I ran into Jerry Pournell, odd to see him so high in the list (_Lucifer's Hammer_), higher than Ray Bradbury!
I'll note two omissions: Harlan Ellison and Kurt Vonnegut.

They had Slaughterhouse Five which is the Vonnegut novel everyone
remembers. I am not even remotely surprised to not see Ellison. The
things by him I remember are all short stories.

[David Johnston]

Post by David Johnston

Post by Chris Buckley
Sales figures from
https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-sff-all-time-sales-list-revised.html
which, while not pretending to be accurate (very spotty), has interesting
insights such as Andre Norton outselling Frank Herbert by a factor of 4.

Interesting list.  On first read through, my eyes started to glaze
over in the 60s, then I ran into Jerry Pournell, odd to see him so
high in the list (_Lucifer's Hammer_), higher than Ray Bradbury!
I'll note two omissions: Harlan Ellison and Kurt Vonnegut.

They had Slaughterhouse Five which is the Vonnegut novel everyone
remembers.  I am not even remotely surprised to not see Ellison.  The
things by him I remember are all short stories.

Also Cat's Cradle.

[Jack Bohn]

Post by David Johnston

Post by David Johnston

Post by Chris Buckley
Sales figures from
 https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-sff-all-time-sales-list-revised.html
which, while not pretending to be accurate (very spotty), has interesting
insights such as Andre Norton outselling Frank Herbert by a factor of 4.

Interesting list.  On first read through, my eyes started to glaze
over in the 60s, then I ran into Jerry Pournell, odd to see him so
high in the list (_Lucifer's Hammer_), higher than Ray Bradbury!
I'll note two omissions: Harlan Ellison and Kurt Vonnegut.

They had Slaughterhouse Five which is the Vonnegut novel everyone
remembers.  I am not even remotely surprised to not see Ellison.  The
things by him I remember are all short stories.

Also Cat's Cradle

Also _Sirens of Titan_. I'm sorry, I didn't mean on the goodreads list, I meant on the link above: a guesstimate ranking of unit sales down to 0.1 million sales. As you say, Ellison's short stories don't contribute much to book sales.

[David Johnston]

Post by David Johnston

Post by David Johnston

Post by Chris Buckley
Sales figures from
 https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-sff-all-time-sales-list-revised.html
which, while not pretending to be accurate (very spotty), has interesting
insights such as Andre Norton outselling Frank Herbert by a factor of 4.

Interesting list.  On first read through, my eyes started to glaze
over in the 60s, then I ran into Jerry Pournell, odd to see him so
high in the list (_Lucifer's Hammer_), higher than Ray Bradbury!
I'll note two omissions: Harlan Ellison and Kurt Vonnegut.

They had Slaughterhouse Five which is the Vonnegut novel everyone
remembers.  I am not even remotely surprised to not see Ellison.  The
things by him I remember are all short stories.

Also Cat's Cradle

Ah, my mistake.

a guesstimate ranking of unit sales down to 0.1 million sales. As you
say, Ellison's short stories don't contribute much to book sales.

[Jack Bohn]

Post by David Johnston

Post by David Johnston

Post by David Johnston

Post by Chris Buckley
Sales figures from
  https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-sff-all-time-sales-list-revised.html
which, while not pretending to be accurate (very spotty), has interesting
insights such as Andre Norton outselling Frank Herbert by a factor of 4.

Interesting list.  On first read through, my eyes started to glaze
over in the 60s, then I ran into Jerry Pournell, odd to see him so
high in the list (_Lucifer's Hammer_), higher than Ray Bradbury!
I'll note two omissions: Harlan Ellison and Kurt Vonnegut.

They had Slaughterhouse Five which is the Vonnegut novel everyone
remembers.  I am not even remotely surprised to not see Ellison.  The
things by him I remember are all short stories.

Also Cat's Cradle

Ah, my mistake.

You do have a good point about short stories, either in collecting book reviews or book sales. Looking at the goodreads list, I count eight short stories expanded or collections "fixed up" into novel form )including the "barely trying" _TheIllustrated Man_) at least, that I know about; _Old Man's War_ struck me as three novellas when I read it, but I don't see that it was ever "serialized" that way. Contrawise, 18 books are part of multi-book series (_Foundation_ and _I, Robot_ fall into both).

What are the collections that have been kept in print as-is, rather than shuffled into "Best of", or "Essential", or "The Complete Stories of"?

[Dimensional Traveler]

Post by David Johnston

Post by Chris Buckley
Sales figures from
https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-sff-all-time-sales-list-revised.html
which, while not pretending to be accurate (very spotty), has interesting
insights such as Andre Norton outselling Frank Herbert by a factor of 4.

Interesting list.  On first read through, my eyes started to glaze
over in the 60s, then I ran into Jerry Pournell, odd to see him so
high in the list (_Lucifer's Hammer_), higher than Ray Bradbury!
I'll note two omissions: Harlan Ellison and Kurt Vonnegut.

They had Slaughterhouse Five which is the Vonnegut novel everyone
remembers.  I am not even remotely surprised to not see Ellison.  The
things by him I remember are all short stories.

And lawsuits. :)

[David Goldfarb]

Post by Titus G
Some authors works weren't their best.
I loved M Banks' Consider Phlebas but thought Use of Weapons his best M.

My guess is that where books are identifiable as a series, only
the first in the series gets put on the list: so _Consider Phlebas_
stands in for the whole Culture series, and _Shards of Honor_ (one
of Bujold's weakest IMAGO) stands in for all of Miles Vorkosigan.

I've read 70 of 100, btw, with 2 more on Mt. Tsundoku.

[t***@gmail.com]

Post by David Goldfarb

Post by Titus G
Some authors works weren't their best.
I loved M Banks' Consider Phlebas but thought Use of Weapons his best M.

My guess is that where books are identifiable as a series, only

I think I saw...yeah, in the intro at the top:
"...in the case of multiple titles from the same series,
we chose the one with the most reviews. ..."


so _Consider Phlebas_

Post by David Goldfarb
stands in for the whole Culture series, and _Shards of Honor_ (one
of Bujold's weakest IMAGO) stands in for all of Miles Vorkosigan.
I've read 70 of 100, btw, with 2 more on Mt. Tsundoku.

I've only read 44, with 3 on my Mt Tsundoku.
- Tony

[Robert Woodward]

Post by David Goldfarb

Post by Titus G
Some authors works weren't their best.
I loved M Banks' Consider Phlebas but thought Use of Weapons his best M.

My guess is that where books are identifiable as a series, only
the first in the series gets put on the list: so _Consider Phlebas_
stands in for the whole Culture series, and _Shards of Honor_ (one
of Bujold's weakest IMAGO) stands in for all of Miles Vorkosigan.

_Shards..._ a stand in for Miles Vorkosigan? His only role in that book
was being used to blackmail Aral into becoming the Regent* (Cordelia was
several weeks pregnant at the time)*.

IMHO, Ezar waited for Cordelia to have a positive pregnancy test before
summoning Aral.

[Lynn McGuire]

Post by David Goldfarb

Post by Titus G
Some authors works weren't their best.
I loved M Banks' Consider Phlebas but thought Use of Weapons his best M.

My guess is that where books are identifiable as a series, only
the first in the series gets put on the list: so _Consider Phlebas_
stands in for the whole Culture series, and _Shards of Honor_ (one
of Bujold's weakest IMAGO) stands in for all of Miles Vorkosigan.
I've read 70 of 100, btw, with 2 more on Mt. Tsundoku.

Eek ! "Shards of Honor" is one of my six star books.

Lynn

[David Goldfarb]

Post by Lynn McGuire

_Shards of Honor_ (one of Bujold's weakest IMAGO)

Eek ! "Shards of Honor" is one of my six star books.

Well, your taste differs from mine. This doesn't strike me as
very surprising, really.

[The Horny Goat]

Post by David Goldfarb

Post by Titus G
Some authors works weren't their best.
I loved M Banks' Consider Phlebas but thought Use of Weapons his best M.

My guess is that where books are identifiable as a series, only
the first in the series gets put on the list: so _Consider Phlebas_
stands in for the whole Culture series, and _Shards of Honor_ (one
of Bujold's weakest IMAGO) stands in for all of Miles Vorkosigan.
I've read 70 of 100, btw, with 2 more on Mt. Tsundoku.

Of course with Vorkosigan it's both 'chronological sequence' and 'when
Lois wrote them' which are very different things. Obviously she's far
from the only series creating author who does that but she does it
more than most - as a non-SF example I'd offer George Macdonald
Fraser's Flashman series.

[Robert Woodward]

In article

Post by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-
on-goodreads

An interesting list. A strong influence of non-sf (ie, mainstream)
readers. So many of the sf lists we see are constructed from data of
folks who read primarily sf (which would probably include the vast
majority of the people reading this.) We tend to forget that we are
heavily out-numbered by all other readers.
The list is ordered by number of Goodreads reviews. As such, it probably
leans more to the theme/message aspects of books, since those are the
ones that would spur actual reviews.
I've read 77 of them. Only 19 are on my Favorites bookcase, a lower
percentage than for most top N popular lists.

I've only read 36 of them. Huh.

Better than me; I counted only 20.

[Lynn McGuire]

Post by Chris Buckley

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

An interesting list. A strong influence of non-sf (ie, mainstream)
readers. So many of the sf lists we see are constructed from data of
folks who read primarily sf (which would probably include the vast
majority of the people reading this.) We tend to forget that we are
heavily out-numbered by all other readers.
The list is ordered by number of Goodreads reviews. As such, it probably
leans more to the theme/message aspects of books, since those are the
ones that would spur actual reviews.
I've read 77 of them. Only 19 are on my Favorites bookcase, a lower
percentage than for most top N popular lists.
Chris

Wow, I have only read 47 of them.

Lynn

[h***@gmail.com]

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

I've read 38 of them, have another several that I've bounced off or own and haven't started yet

[David Johnston]

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

Ugh. One dystopia after another.

[David Duffy]

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

78 and 1/2.

I did start the Justin Cronin, and gave up in disgust (overwritten).

I'm guessing that I'm like other people here, in that I have
deliberately avoided several of these books (like I really enjoyed _Remains
of the Day_, but had zero interest in _Never Let Me Go_).

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

On Sun, 12 Jul 2020 08:59:44 +0000 (UTC), David Duffy

Post by David Duffy

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

78 and 1/2.

Oh, I didn't count the ones I started but didn't finish. I think
there were three of them.

[Wolffan]

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-
goodreads

I’ve read 52, and have three more in the ’to read’ pile. Some I’ve
read once (Stranger in a Strange Land, for example, I read it, never saw the
attraction). Others I’ve re-read several times (examples include Harsh
Mistress, Starship Troopers, Redshirts, Forever War, Triffids, Mote; I’m
currently re-reading Harsh Mistress). I don’t find most new SFF worth the
effort, so I do a fair amount of re-reading. (Which drives certain others
crazy, they don’t read much of anything and see no reason to keep books
around after reading them once. They also get upset when I say that I
wouldn’t have read most of what they read, Harlequin ‘romances’,
mostly, once.) I’ve got several thousand ebooks, many of which I scanned
and OCRed myself as ebook versions were impossible or expensive. I’ve got
thousands more paper books, many of which date back 50-60 years and will
never be commercial ebooks (non-SFF, but writers like Frank Yerby are nearly
impossible to find, despite having won a Pulitzer and having been a
best-selling author for literal decades; there are, for example, zero Yerby
books on Apple’s store, and the only Yerby ebook at Amazon is $15 for a
collection of his short stories; short stories were not his strength, and
that collection doesn’t have his best. And was edited as an academic look
at ‘black’ fiction, something which would have annoyed the hell out of
him, he always said that he was an author who happened to be black, not a
‘black author’. There’s lots of paper versions, for outrageous prices,
and besides I’ve got them all on paper anyway. Someone wants $843, that’s
Eight Hundred and Forty Three Dollars, for a ‘new' copy of the
Pulitzer-winning ’The Foxes of Harrow’. Good luck with that. There’s
lots of semi-forgotten authors out there.) I spend a fair amount of time
making ebooks and storing way, carefully, the paper versions. There are some
nice scanners out there made just for scanning books...

[Default User]

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?

Not quite half, 45 for me.


Brian

[Peter Trei]

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

53 for me. Its not a bad list.

pt

[The Horny Goat]

On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 17:22:29 -0700 (PDT), Peter Trei

Post by Peter Trei

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

53 for me. Its not a bad list.
pt

It's not a bad list but does include a lot of works I (and I suspect a
LOT of people) wouldn't consider SF.

[Robert Carnegie]

Post by The Horny Goat
On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 17:22:29 -0700 (PDT), Peter Trei

Post by Peter Trei

Post by h***@gmail.com
Here's the list, what do people think of it?
https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/1874-the-100-most-popular-sci-fi-books-on-goodreads

53 for me. Its not a bad list.
pt

It's not a bad list but does include a lot of works I (and I suspect a
LOT of people) wouldn't consider SF.

They all look,like Speculative Fiction to me, but the claim is
Sci-Fi, so here comes the eternal argument?

"Dystopias, alien invasions, regenerated dinosaurs, space operas,
multiverses, and more. As all good sci-fi readers know, the science
behind the story is half the fun."

Actually, whether science is fun isn't the argument that I meant,
but might be fun, itself.