Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock

Books!

I have two shelves of books to read, a great deal of which are classic crime fiction, those I bought cheaply recently. So, please attempt not to be shocked if you see allusion to a review or two of a crime novel. For example, Bulldog Drummond by Sapper. Pre-Bond and very influential on same, an excellent (though occasionally dated) half Secret Agent/half Private Eye novel which is very well written and occasionally funny.  Only a few bits that irritated me, the unerring ability for the writer to tell the reader that Drummond will win out before the action has taken place, the intrinsic racism & sexism of the time which is apparent and the use of “get gay with” or similar, meaning something completely different to what it does today but I had to check myself every time. Still, the first of a series of 10 and I shall endeavour to read the rest.

The other task I am setting myself is to read ALL, yes ALL, the SF Masterworks series. Even if it takes me all my life, which to be fair is the ultimate deadline anyway. Here they are:

*Itallics mean I have read it already…

The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
Cities in Flight – James Blish
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
The Stars My Destination – Alfred Bester
Babel-17 – Samuel R. Delany
Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny
The Fifth Head of Cerberus – Gene Wolfe
Gateway – Frederik Pohl
The Rediscovery of Man – Cordwainer Smith
Last and First Men – Olaf Stapledon
Earth Abides – George R. Stewart
Martian Time-Slip – Philip K. Dick
The Demolished Man – Alfred Bester
Stand on Zanzibar – John Brunner
The Dispossessed – Ursula K. Le Guin
The Drowned World – J. G. Ballard
The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut
Emphyrio – Jack Vance
A Scanner Darkly – Philip K. Dick
Star Maker – Olaf Stapledon
Behold the Man – Michael Moorcock
The Book of Skulls – Robert Silverberg
The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells
Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
Ubik – Philip K. Dick
Timescape – Gregory Benford
More Than Human – Theodore Sturgeon
Man Plus – Frederik Pohl
A Case of Conscience – James Blish
The Centauri Device – M. John Harrison
Dr. Bloodmoney – Philip K. Dick
Non-Stop – Brian Aldiss
The Fountains of Paradise – Arthur C. Clarke
Pavane – Keith Roberts
Now Wait for Last Year – Philip K. Dick
Nova – Samuel R. Delany
The First Men in the Moon – H. G. Wells
The City and the Stars – Arthur C. Clarke
Blood Music – Greg Bear
Jem – Frederik Pohl
Bring the Jubilee – Ward Moore
VALIS – Philip K. Dick
The Lathe of Heaven – Ursula K. Le Guin
The Complete Roderick – John Sladek
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said – Philip K. Dick
The Invisible Man – H. G. Wells
Grass – Sheri S. Tepper
A Fall of Moondust – Arthur C. Clarke
Eon – Greg Bear
The Shrinking Man – Richard Matheson
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch – Philip K. Dick
The Dancers at the End of Time – Michael Moorcock
The Space Merchants – Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth
Time Out of Joint – Philip K. Dick
Downward to the Earth – Robert Silverberg
The Simulacra – Philip K. Dick
The Penultimate Truth – Philip K. Dick
Dying Inside – Robert Silverberg
Ringworld – Larry Niven
The Child Garden – Geoff Ryman
Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement
A Maze of Death – Philip K. Dick
Tau Zero – Poul Anderson
Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C. Clarke
Life During Wartime – Lucius Shepard
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang – Kate Wilhelm
Roadside Picnic – Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Dark Benediction – Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Mockingbird – Walter Tevis
Dune – Frank Herbert
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
The Man in the High Castle – Philip K. Dick
The Left Hand of Darkness -Ursula K. Le Guin
A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
Inverted World – Christopher Priest
Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke
The Island of Doctor Moreau – H. G. Wells
Dhalgren – Samuel R. Delany
Helliconia – Brian Aldiss
The Food of the Gods – H. G. Wells
The Body Snatchers – Jack Finney
The Female Man – Joanna Russ
Arslan – M. J. Engh
The Difference Engine – William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
The Prestige – Christopher Priest
Greybeard – Brian Aldiss
Sirius – Olaf Stapledon
Hyperion – Dan Simmons
City – Clifford D. Simak
Hellstrom’s Hive – Frank Herbert
Of Men and Monsters – William Tenn
R.U.R. and War with the Newts – Karel Čapek
The Affirmation – Christopher Priest
Floating Worlds – Cecelia Holland
Rogue Moon – Algis Budrys
Dangerous Visions – Harlan Ellison
Odd John – Olaf Stapledon
The Fall of Hyperion – Dan Simmons
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
The Caltraps of Time – David I. Masson
Unquenchable Fire – Rachel Pollack
The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe – D. G. Compton