Iain M Bank's top ten SF novels - how many have YOU read?

[clovis-man]

An interesting list from an eclectic author. I could well imagine that, if asked to make a similar list now, he might pick a different 10.

1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlen
Read it when I was young. Liked it at the time. Some Heinlein works age better than others.

2. Tiger! Tiger! - Alfred Bester
Haven't read it, but "The Demolished Man" was one of the best of all time.

3. Hyperion - Dan Simmons
A great book. The subsequent volumes are also fine.

4. Fire Upon The Deep - Vernor Vinge
Another great book. A space opera for the thinking man or woman.

5. Neuromancer - William Gibson
This one is in my stack of books to read next.

6. The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin
Haven't read this one, but have read and highly enjoyed other Le Guin tales. As an anthropologist by training, I can't help but like anything written by Alfred Kroeber's daughter.

7. The Muller-Fokker Efect - John Sladek
Not one known to me.

8. The Pastel City - M John Harrison
See #7

9. Stand on Zanzibar - John Brummer
Another great book. Highly topical at the time it was written and still has much to recommend it today.

10. Babel-17 - Samuel R Delany
A very good novel. In many ways, I liked it better than much of his subsequent output which received wider acclaim.

Regards,

Jim

[Tillane]

Have read 6 of the 10. The Heinlein and Simmons I can take or leave, but I absolutely love Tiger! Tiger!, Neuromancer, Stand On Zanzibar and Babel-17. All four would probably appear on a list of my top 10, though Babel-17 might be squeezed out by Delany's own Dhalgren. Fantastic novels, both. And Banks himself would appear on that top 10 with Use Of Weapons. In the number 1 spot, actually...

[Spade]

Read: 1, 2
Own: 3,4,6
Never Heard of: 7,8

[Connavar]

1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlen
Read it recently,another amazing book by RAH and he goes higher and higher in my admiration of him

2. Tiger! Tiger! - Alfred Bester
One few SF books i have found to be almost perfect. It had so many good things. Gully Foyle is one character you will not forget.


These two i read recently.

[Ian Whates]

I've read all bar The Muller-Fokker Effect and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, though I do have the latter and will get around to reading it someday.

Some great books. In particular, I thought Neuromancer was outstanding when I read it (when it was first released) and Tiger, Tiger / The Stars My Destination will always be one of my all-time favourites. Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar is also a pretty special book.

[AE35Unit]

Tiger! Tiger! Is the only one on the list I've read,such a good author Bester was!
Funny I've not read a single Banks book yet-our library doesn't have much SF and I wouldn't know where to start.

[mchc]

With Banks i think the best way is to start at the beginning - his oldest published work- and read them chronologically.

[icundell]

1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlen
2. Tiger! Tiger! - Alfred Bester
3. Hyperion - Dan Simmons
4. Fire Upon The Deep - Vernor Vinge
5. Neuromancer - William Gibson
6. The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin
7. The Muller-Fokker Efect - John Sladek
8. The Pastel City - M John Harrison
9. Stand on Zanzibar - John Brummer
10. Babel-17 - Samuel R Delany

I haven't read ANY of these. In fact several of them I have never even heard of! I think I will probably read the Heinlein one in the near future, but as for the others I don't know.

I sort of expected Larry Niven's Ringworld to show up, though...

Of these:

Tiger! Tiger! (or more correctly, The Stars My Destination) - quite superb. One of the great works of SF.

The Dispossesed - Quite hard work, but the last few pages reveal it as LeGuin's best (for me, even edging Left Hand of Darkness)

The Muller-Foker Effect - John Sladek - I am quite certain I have read this can recall nothing about it and can't find my copy - however, I did find Roderick and Tik Tok and was reminded that Sladek was damned funny. He clearly influeenced the mentality and outlook of Minds.

Stand on Zanzibar - Inventive and, to my mind, a little ahead of its time in terms of writing style. Surely a huge influence on the 'look and feel' of cyberpunk.

[gil]

1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlen
At one time (long, long ago) I read a lot of Heinlein. I enjoyed this one at the time.

2. Tiger! Tiger! - Alfred Bester
Wonderful book. Definitely one of the whizz-bang moments of sf. I can't imagine why they changed the title. American publishers, I expect. They wouldn't want a buyer to think it was a wild-life book.

3. Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Strangely, I read this quartet in the wrong order, which led to a deep misunderstanding of what was going on, yet I agree that it was a great series of books.

4. Fire Upon The Deep - Vernor Vinge
Must get round to this one.

5. Neuromancer - William Gibson
Yes, another great moment in sf. You may find you have to stop me extolling WG's virtues.

6. The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin
I'll read this in due course. Enjoyed many of her books.

7. The Muller-Fokker Efect - John Sladek
Haven't read this one, but I've enjoyed his short stories e.g. Keep the Giraffe Burning

8. The Pastel City - M John Harrison
Nope. (Meaning "No, I haven't read it")

9. Stand on Zanzibar - John Brummer
Read it years ago. I didn't rate it then, and I still don't.

10. Babel-17 - Samuel R Delany
Oh, yes, that and The Einstein Intersection and Nova. But then he wrote Dahlgren and it just went too slowly. In its day, though, Delany caused the same Yes! experience that Bester, Gibson and Banks himself gave me.

[DeepThought]

I've read only three from the list:

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlien's best novel IMHO.
Hyperion - I love the intertext in this novel, a fact which inspired me to read both Byron and Keasts...
The Dispossessed - my favorite Le Guin novel, excepting The Left Hand of Darkness.

All the others are already on my TBR pile. Iain M. Banks is one of my favorite SF authors and I've read all his SF novels both Culture and non-culture ones. Use of Weapons and Against A Dark Background are just mind blowing.

Cheers, DeepThought

[Little Rascal]

Neuromancer is a Classic of Sci-fi. He predicted/dated the inter-net.
Hyperion is a good read but Hienlien????? With IMB's know Socialist leanings I am surprised he reads this right-wing Wit!