ScienceFictionBookList

The important stuff first:

ScienceFictionBookList/TheWholeThing (~1200 books total, organized by the number of recommendations each got)

To reduce the size of this page, the books have been split up into categories (approximately) by year of writing. These categories are:

ScienceFictionBookList/EmergenceOfScienceFiction (through 1915)

ScienceFictionBookList/ScienceFictionBetweenTheWars (1916 - 1939)

ScienceFictionBookList/FromTheGoldenAgeToTheAtomicAge (1940 - 1963)

ScienceFictionBookList/TheNewWaveCyberpunkAndBeyond (1963 - present)

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This list is from Anatomy of Wonder: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction; the first (1976), second (1981), third (1987), fourth (1995), and fifth (2004) editions.

The columns notations:

• A 'W' or 'x' in a column means that the book won the given award; an 'R' means that the award was retrospective and an 'S' means that the award was special.
• An 'N' in a column means that the book was nominated for the given award; an 'I' means that the nomination was withdrawn.

The four award columns are:

• N - The Nebula award.
• H - The Hugo award.
• JWC - The [John W. Campbell Memorial] award.
• L - The [Locus] Award.

The process of choosing these books was that the contributors to Anatomy first nominated the books they felt were the best among those they annotated (their nominations are indicated by the stars preceding entries). Outside observers then went through the nominations and wrote up their own lists. Other sources were also consulted for additional nominations.

The outside observers, by edition, were:

• 1st edition
  • No outside observers
• 2nd edition
  • BA - Brian W. Aldiss
  • EB - Everett F. Bleiler
  • JC - John Clute
  • PN - Peter Nicholls
  • RS - Robert Silverberg
  • DT - Donald Tuck
  • FT - Frank H. Tucker (though he only commented on the Japanese and Russian book selections, neither of which I have yet included)
  • JW - Jack Williamson
  • GW - Gary Wolfe
• 3rd edition
  • EB - Everett F. Bleiler (again)
  • JC - John Clute (again)
  • SM - Sam Moskowitz
  • PN - Peter Nicholls (again)
  • FP - Frederik Pohl
  • GW - Gary Wolfe (again)
• 4th edition
  • BA - Brian W. Aldiss (again)
  • PN - Peter Nicholls (third time)
  • DW - David Wingrove
  • ** - Brian Stableford
• 5th edition
  • JC - John Clute (third time)
  • DD - Don D'Ammassa
  • JG - James Gunn
  • DH - David Hartwell
  • Pringle - David Pringle. Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels; an english-Language Selection, 1949-1984
  • Magill - T. A. Shippey and A. J. Sobczak, eds. Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature