What are the must-read fantasy and science fiction novels of the 21st century?
All the books (I think) from the three treads...
A Bunch of Book Recommendations - Mike's Thoughts
A bunch of geeks and nerds talked about their favorite Sci Fi and Fantasy books on ENWorld recently. Here is their list.
mikesixel.com
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
I'm so glad you did it so I didn't have toAll the books (I think) from the three treads...
A Bunch of Book Recommendations - Mike's Thoughts
A bunch of geeks and nerds talked about their favorite Sci Fi and Fantasy books on ENWorld recently. Here is their list.mikesixel.com
I'm sure I missed some.....I'm so glad you did it so I didn't have to
GreyLord
Legend
How many Fantasy (or probably more like Pulp books that cover fantasy/horror/sci-fi elements) are must read books from the 1900's to 1923?
There are some that some would suggest (HG Wells, Jules Verne, Tarzan and other Burroughs novels, I would probably say the Fairy Books from Lang) but there aren't all that many out there that people recall or say are must reads.
I'd say that those that will be must reads 100 years from now will probably be just as minimal. I'd probably put money on Sanderson's books. The Expanse may survive with the media that came out for it (though, there are very popular series that came out in the early to mid 20th century that aren't considered must reads or must sees today, for example Blondie I understand has a movie series that has over 40 movies in it, but who knows of Blondie today except for the old people like me?), and...maybe Game of Thrones (does that one count though, as the first was released in the mid 90s).
Most of what we think are big impacts of today probably will be forgotten in 100 years.
(Ah, one other that I forgot from the 1910s and 1920s...perhaps HP Lovecraft's works also count as influential works 100 years later, though I think they would be more towards Horror than Fantasy/Sci-Fi, the influence on Fantasy Sci-Fi is undeniable). In that light, perhaps something OTHER than Fantasy/Sci-Fi may actually have a MASSIVE impact on Fantasy/Sci-Fi in the future.
There are some that some would suggest (HG Wells, Jules Verne, Tarzan and other Burroughs novels, I would probably say the Fairy Books from Lang) but there aren't all that many out there that people recall or say are must reads.
I'd say that those that will be must reads 100 years from now will probably be just as minimal. I'd probably put money on Sanderson's books. The Expanse may survive with the media that came out for it (though, there are very popular series that came out in the early to mid 20th century that aren't considered must reads or must sees today, for example Blondie I understand has a movie series that has over 40 movies in it, but who knows of Blondie today except for the old people like me?), and...maybe Game of Thrones (does that one count though, as the first was released in the mid 90s).
Most of what we think are big impacts of today probably will be forgotten in 100 years.
(Ah, one other that I forgot from the 1910s and 1920s...perhaps HP Lovecraft's works also count as influential works 100 years later, though I think they would be more towards Horror than Fantasy/Sci-Fi, the influence on Fantasy Sci-Fi is undeniable). In that light, perhaps something OTHER than Fantasy/Sci-Fi may actually have a MASSIVE impact on Fantasy/Sci-Fi in the future.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Comparing apples and oranges: 1923 was prior to the mid century explosion in popularity and respect for.withwr genre.
GreyLord
Legend
If you actually look at what was coming out, it had a TON of what we now call Fantasy/Sci-Fi. It's just that most of it has been forgotten over the past 100 years.
That's my point.
Even if we go back 60 years, 75% of the books have been forgotten by readers today. Though some of the older individuals on the Forums may bring them up often, most of the younger generation (Gen Z) will never read them and most will forget that we talked about them a little while after reading our discussions about the old books.
Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
Most of Baum's Oz books
King of Elfland's Daughter by Dunsany (doh! 1924)
Karl Capek's RUR play (ok, no one says this is a must read; but heck it's the origin of the word Robot!)
The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
Buuuut, not much else that I can recall or find on this wikipedia page: Timeline of science fiction - Wikipedia
Probably supports your premise. Maybe
Parmandur
Book-Friend
OK, having looked.into it casually for a few.minites, limited.to just stuff from 1900-1923:
- A ton by Lord Dunsany: King of Elfland's Daufhter was 1924, but he did a lot.of fantasy short fiction prior to thar.
- A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
- A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (among other works)
- The Lost World, by Arthur Conan Doyle (among other works)
- Fantômas, by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain (pretty fantastic, extremely influential on the superhero genre)
- The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (among other works)
- Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, by J. M. Barrie
Definitely stuff still worth reading, still actively influencing modern fiction.
