So this is something I was thinking about. Let's say that someone has just found the world of genre writing (and by genre, I'm referring to mostly Fantasy and Science Fiction, but you could include mystery, romance, and horror if you wanted) and they come to you--as a genre expert--to help them decide what they should read. They want to get a historical sense of the genre, and not just necessarily read what's new and hot.
We have several ways of posing this question: what works shaped the genre from its earliest days to now? -or- what are your favorite books from the genre over the past century?
So I thought I would offer up this challenge:
Starting with 1890, list one book from each decade that you think represents the genre and the way it's moved from then to now. This gives us twelve decades, which I thought was a nice epic number. I'm being fairly liberal as to what books you can include: I would perfer people stick to Fantasy and Science Fiction where possible, but you can step outside those when you feel something was just too darn good to pass up. I'm also allowing novellas, since many things that today would never get published as a standalone book where published that way back in the day.
Here's my list:
DECADE | YEAR | TITLE | AUTHOR |
1890 | 1895 | The Time Machine | H. G. Wells |
1900 | 1908 | The House on the Borderland | William Hope Hodgson |
1910 | 1912 | The Lost World | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |
1920 | 1924 | We | Yevgeny Zamyatin |
1930 | 1936 | At the Mountains of Madness | H. P. Lovecraft |
1940 | 1949 | 1984 | George Orwell |
1950 | 1954 | The Lord of the Rings | J. R. R. Tolkein |
1960 | 1965 | Dune | Frank Herbert |
1970 | 1978 | Night Shift | Stephen King |
1980 | 1984 | Neuromancer | William Gibson |
1990 | 1992 | A Fire Upon the Deep | Vernor Vinge |
2000 | 2001 | City of Saints and Madmen | Jeff VanderMeer |
What are your picks?
UPDATE: Just to give a little more background into my choices, there were two sets of decades that I had trouble with: 1900 - 1920 and 1950 - 1980. The first set I had difficulty choosing because I'm not very well read in those decades so I was essentially choosing the one book from the decade that I read. The second set was tough because I had so many books to chose among. I had conversations with myself about whether I should select The Phantom Tollbooth (my favorite book of all time) or Flowers for Algernon or A Clockwork Orange over Dune. Could I really not pick Stars My Destination or I, Robot (but what's had more impact than The Lord of the Rings?)? Should I go with Nine Princes in Amber or To Your Scattered Bodies Go instead of a horror-writer's story collection? And the 1980s: Neuromancer, Ender's Game, Hyperion, Mists of Avalon, etc.! And what about female writers? There are none in my list, and it's not like there weren't great books: The Left Hand of Darkness, Kindred, Doomsday Book, Her Smoke Rose up Forever, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, China Mountain Zhang, Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, and more.
But that's why I want to hear from you.
7 comments:
No general disagreements with your choices, although I think I might choose War of the Worlds over Time Machine.
Yeah, I essentially flipped a coin between the two. I had trouble with 1900, 1910, and 1920 since I was not well read in those decades. I don't know that THE LOST WORLD by Conan Doyle is the best choice, but it's the best I knew something about.
I was surprised not to see Le Guin on the actual list, as I think The Left Hand of Darkness is a strong contender, and I found Stephen King's Night Shift an odd choice. Granted, I only read the collection a few years ago and not when it came out. I'd go more with your second choice there, Nine Princes in Amber.
And picking a book for this decade (2000 to 2010) seems a bit jumpy. VanderMeer's certainly a contender...but Mieville and Gaiman have done a lot in the historical sense. Seems to hard to tell now. Ask me again in three more years.
If I'm not mistaken, the LeGuin was published in 1969, which put it in contention with Dune. I think I let my personal enjoyment of Night Shift override my judgment for the 1970s, and I think that Nine Prince in Amber is probably the better choice. For me, Night Shift changed the way stories could be told, but again, that could be my own interaction with the book and not having read very widely when at that time. Perhaps I need to adjust my thinking....
John:
I love doing this kind of stuff. My choices are here, with the 1880s added:
lostpagesfoundpages.blogspot.com/
2007/04/
reading-recommendations-by-decade.html
Wow. I am so linking back to this later today.
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