Top 20 Geek Novels

[Mr. Analog]

Here is a compiled list of "the Top 20 Geek novels". Of course, this list does not include any book prior to 1932.



What books would you add or maybe what order would you put them in?

[Shayne]

Not a bad list!  I was gonna see what i could add, but then the ones i was going to add are on the list...shoulda known i suppose.



1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams 85% (102)

2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell 79% (92)

4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick 64% (67)

6. Dune -- Frank Herbert 53% (54)

7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov 52% (54)

[Darren Dirt]

I'd add a few by Heinlein, but it looks like the other commenters already did - they included not only Stranger In A Strange Land and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, but even the lesser-known but in my opinion more colourful and controversial novel "Farnhams Freehold"



L Neil Smith's "The Probability Broach" is also good.



The list is short but the comments are many, so I'm not going to spend time looking through that entire page to see if others have been mentioned

[Shayne]

Fight Club & Starship Troopers might be good to add (the books differ from the movies a great deal)

[Thorin]

There were lots of books that I read when I was young (in a different language) that left an indelible mark on me.  Yet I cannot name most of them.  Niven, Heinlein, Pratchett, Asimov, and others I don't even remember.  However, a couple of the commentors in that link bring up an interesting point: What really defines a book as a geek book?

[Darren Dirt]

Fight Club & Starship Troopers might be good to add (the books differ from the movies a great deal)

I skimmed the FC book and it seemed almost amateurish, maybe due to its short length, maybe because of the intense visuals and audio that connect in my brain from the movie.



SST the book is less geek-dom and more military-dom when it comes to its focus... I've been meaning to watch the movie now that I've read the book only cuz I know the movie is pretty much only "based on characters and situations from the book..." rather than "based on the book..." -- so for amusement purposes only - sometimes vaccuous explosions and guns and stuff is good for the soul



Hmm. a "geek" book might be anything where the intelligence of a lead and/or villain is the focus of their journey and/or success/failure instead of their charm or their wealth or their popularity...



Or maybe it's if the universe it is set in happens to be geek-friendly? Like where today's geeks would love to "warp" into if they got the chance? In that case, the majority of "Farnham's Freehold" wouldn't qualify for any persons of non-African descent

[Darren Dirt]

 

The list is short but the comments are many, so I'm not going to spend time looking through that entire page to see if others have been mentioned

Almost a decade later, hey look what I found!

http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-Top-5-must-read-science-fiction-books

Almost 100 different "answers" and TONS of comments for each, definitely worth at least a quick skim for fans of speculative fiction.

Some lesser known books/authors were mentioned multiple times as "must-read", so I guess now I gotta expand my horizons beyond DNA and RAH and IA and ACC


But looking at this thread, Shayne's list is almost exactly what was often suggested!

[Mr. Analog]

Nice!