The
Top 100 Science Fiction (thingies) of the 20th Century
as
chosen by the staff of The Renegade (along with whoever
showed up at the December Assembly)
(originally published in the Dec. 1999 Prydonian Renegade)
Proving that there's no bandwagon we are incapable of jumping
on, we hereby present what we hope is the last list of
top 100 whatevers you are going to see this century (you're welcome).
And, proving that we can't count, there are actually 113
items on this list.
We make no pretense at being comprehensive. This list is definitely
subjective, and some of our selections are, to put it mildly,
idiosyncratic (Archie McPhee? Oh yeah.) Our intention was to have
some fun - and also to stimulate a discussion. By
all means, e-mail us about inclusions that infuriated you
and/or omissions that enraged you.
(And, of course, there are omissions. No Frederic Brown,
no Stanislaw Lem, no Groundhog Day, no Ghostbusters,
no Seventh Seal, no Godzilla - so sue us. We could
easily have come up with more than 100 novels, 100 short
stories, 100 movies - so it's actually a good thing that
we had to arbitrarily cut it off at 113. It shows how good a century
this has been for skiffy!)
See you in 100 years!
1. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J. R.
R. Tolkien
2. Forbidden Planet (1956)
3. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
4. Dune by Frank Herbert
5. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
6. Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back
(1980)
7. Ringworld by Larry Niven
8. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
9. Metropolis (1926)
10. King Kong (1933)
11. Star Trek (all of them except Star Trek: The Motion
Picture and Star Trek V)
12. Doctor Who
13. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
14. Blade Runner (1982) and "Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep" by Phillip K. Dick
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16. "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison
17. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
18. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
19. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
20. "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov
21. Blakes 7
22. Startide Rising by David Brin
23. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
24. "The Persistence of Vision" by John Varley
25. The Hyperion novels (Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, The
Rise of Endymion, Endymion) by Dan Simmons
26. Babylon 5
27. Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
28. "Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon
29. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John Clute and
Peter Nicholls
30. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
31. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
32. The Terminator (1984)
33. The Twilight Zone (original series)
34. Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Milion Years to
Earth; 1968)
35. Dangerous Visions and Again Dangerous Visions
edited by Harlan Ellison
36. The Heechee novels by Fredrik Pohl (Gateway, Beyond the
Blue Event Horizon, Heechee Rendezvouz, The Annals of the Heechee)
37. The X-Files
38. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 edited by
Robert Silverberg
39. "Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper" by Robert Bloch
40. The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien
41. The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
42. A Clockwork Orange (novel by Anthony Burgess and 1971
movie)
43. 1984 by George Orwell
44. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
45. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr
46. Fantasia (1940)
47. Aliens (1986)
48. Red Dwarf
49. To Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Fabulous Riverboat
by Philip Jose Farmer
50. The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers
51. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
52. Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
53. Frankenstein (1931)
54. Dracula (1931)
55. The Invisible Man (1933)
56. Gattaca (1997)
57. "All The Lies That Are My Life" by Harlan Ellison
58. Neuromancer by William Gibson
59. John Campbell's Astounding/Analog magazine
60. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
61. "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast (1938)
62. Superman (all manifestations)
63. The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick
64. The Wizard of Oz (book by L. Frank Baum and 1939 movie)
65. The Haunting (1963)
66. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
67. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
(the original radio scripts, 1977)
68. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and
Love the Bomb (1963)
69. The Prisoner
70. Time Bandits (1981)
71. The Gormanghast Trilogy (Titus Groan, Gormenghast, Titus
Alone) by Mervyn Peake
72. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
73. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
74. Apollo 13 (1995)
75. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
76. Locus magazine
77. The Outer Limits
78. Max Headroom (1985 and TV series)
79. Contact (novel by Carl Sagan and 1997 movie)
80. Men In Black (1997)
81. "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
82. Young Frankenstein (1974)
83. Planet of the Apes (1968)
84. The Shining by Stephen King
85. Time After Time (1979)
86. A Christmas Carol (1951)
87. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
88. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
89. Hugo Gernsbach's Amazing Stories magazine
90. Mary Poppins (1964)
91. Nosferatu (1922)
92. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
93. "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H. P. Lovecraft
94. The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
95. Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
96. Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
97. Rocky and Bullwinkle
98. "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury
99. Invaders From Mars (1953)
100. The Chronicles of Narnia and The Deepspace Trilogy
(Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength)
by C. S. Lewis
101. "Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson
102. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
103. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
104. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
105. Masque of the Red Death (1964)
106. Bond. James Bond.
107. The Lost World (1925)
108. Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen by H. Beam Piper
109. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by
Stephen Donaldson
110. Mystery Science Theater 3000
111. The Amazing Science Fiction & Horror Trivia Game
112. The Prydonians of Prynceton
113. The Archie McPhee catalog
(originally
published in the Dec. 1999 Prydonian Renegade)
posted: Dec. 14, 1999
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