sleepyquail shared this meme -
esquire has a list of 75 "essential reading" SF books.
bold the ones you've read, italicise the ones where you've read something else by the author. sleepyquail also added ** for books that are on the TBR, which I'm also going to do.
75. The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey ** I have 3 other books on my TBR
74. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal73. Redshirts by John Scalzi (DNF'd something else by him)
72. Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
71. The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
70. Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
69. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (once had a copy of Quicksilver I never got around to reading)
68. Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
67. Contact by Carl Sagan
66. Under the Skin by Michel Faber
65. Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
64. Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill
63. What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown
62. The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
61. Semiosis by Sue Burke
60. Excession by Iain M. Banks
59. The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
58. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
57. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (I strongly disliked it)
56. The Resisters by Gish Jen
55. Rosewater by Tade Thompson **
54. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
53. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
52. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
51. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
50. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
49. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells48. The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel
47. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon **
46. The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
45. Neuromancer by William Gibson44. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
43. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
42. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams41. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
40. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir **
39. Zone One by Colson Whitehead **got two other books by him on my TBR
38. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers37. Engine Summer by John Crowley
36. The Children of Men by P.D. James
35. Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente (I DFN'd two other books by her)
34. The City & The City by China Miéville
33. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine ** (I've read some other stuff by her but this book is on my TBR)
32. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie **
31. The Stand by Stephen King (I've read many of his books)
30. In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
29. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
28. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
27. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (DNF'd a different Murakami book)
26. Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
25. Ammonite by Nicola Griffith
24. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
23. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
22. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
21. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
20. Shikasta by Doris Lessing
19. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (read one, and DNF'd two others)
18. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
17. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
16. The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov
15. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
14. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
13. The Employees by Olga Ravn
12. 1984 by George Orwell11. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu ** (but lbr I'll never get around to it)
10. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick **
9. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
8. Exhalation by Ted Chiang **
7. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
6. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin **
5. Kindred by Octavia Butler **
4. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (I've read something else by her)
3. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (I know I've read this but have no memory of it)
2. Dune by Frank Herbert (DNF'd it)
1. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley9 books on this list read, multiple DNF's and even more TBR. there are some books/authors on this list I've never heard of, and some I wouldn't have included myself, but this list gets some kudos for not being populated solely by straight white guys.