The goal of this project is to codify the works of science fiction that any decently sized public library should have available to its patrons.

The inspiration for the project was a conversation with a librarian at the Westfield, NJ public library. I expressed surprise at how many of the most important works of the genre were not on the shelf. She asked me “well, what should be in the collection,” and asked me to get back to them with an answer. The Essential Science Fiction Library is an attempt to to provide it.

This is not a “best of” list, nor is it a list of my favorites. I have compiled information from dozens of other lists and sources, and created a group of books that represents a kind of core canon for the genre as a whole, including works from the major subgenres. The ESFL is also not designed as a reading list, though it does serve that purpose quite well. A serious science fiction enthusiast will probably have read many or even most of the books on the A-List, and those who haven’t done so would be well-served by reading some more of them.

The books in each category are listed alphabetically by author.

I welcome all comments and feedback, either directly to me via the contact page or in the comments section below.

p.s. A new revision is in the works.

Parameters for Inclusion in the ESFL:

The list does not include young adult novels.
The list does not include sequels.
Only books published in 2009 and previously are included on the A-List.
Notable series are represented by the first book in the series.

Note that there are several intentional and unintentional violations of these parameters on the list. Those will either be corrected or given explanatory notes in the next update.

THE A-LIST: 50 BOOKS THAT MUST BE ON THE SHELF

Adams, Douglas - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Asimov, Isaac - Foundation

Asimov, Isaac - I, Robot

Asimov, Isaac - The Caves of Steel

Atwood, Margaret - The Handmaid's Tale

Bacigalupi, Paolo - The Windup Girl

Bester, Alfred - The Stars My Destination

Bradbury, Ray - Fahrenheit 451

Bradbury, Ray - The Martian Chronicles

Brin, David - Startide Rising

Brooks, Max - World War Z

Burgess, Anthony - A Clockwork Orange

Card, Orson Scott - Ender's Game

Chabon, Michael - The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Clarke, Arthur C. - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Clarke, Arthur C. - Childhood's End

Clarke, Arthur C. - Rendezvous with Rama

Dick, Philip K. - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Dick, Philip K. - The Man in the High Castle

Frank, Pat - Alas, Babylon

Gibson, William - Neuromancer

Haldeman, Joe - The Forever War

Heinlein, Robert A. - Starship Troopers

Heinlein, Robert A. - Stranger In A Strange Land

Heinlein, Robert A. - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Heinlein, Robert A. - The Past Through Tomorrow

Herbert, Frank - Dune

Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World

Le Guin, Ursula K. - The Dispossessed

Le Guin, Ursula K. - The Left Hand of Darkness

Lem, Stanislaw - Solaris

McCarthy, Cormack - The Road

Miller Jr., Walter M. - A Canticle For Leibowitz

Niven, Larry and Pournelle, Jerry - Lucifer's Hammer

Niven, Larry - Ringworld

Orwell, George - Nineteen Eighty-Four

Pohl, Frederik - Gateway

Russell, Mary Doria - The Sparrow

Scalzi, John - Old Man's War

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft - Frankenstein

Simak, Clifford - Way Station

Simmons, Dan - Hyperion

Stephenson, Neal - Snow Crash

Verne, Jules - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Vinge, Vernor - A Fire Upon the Deep

Vonnegut, Kurt - Slaughterhouse-Five

Wells, H. G. - The War Of The Worlds

Wells, H.G. - The Time Machine

Willis, Connie - Doomsday Book

Wilson, Robert Charles - Spin

THE B-LIST: 100 BOOKS THAT SHOULD BE ON THE SHELF

Abbott, Edwin A. - Flatland

Aldiss, Brian - Helliconia Spring

Aldiss, Brian - Non-Stop

Anderson, Poul - Tau Zero

Asimov, Isaac - Pebble in the Sky

Asimov, Isaac - The End of Eternity

Asimov, Isaac - The Gods Themselves

Ballard, J.G. - The Drowned World

Banks, Iain M. - Consider Phlebas

Bear, Greg - Darwin's Radio

Bear, Greg - The Forge of God

Bellamy, Edward - Looking Backward, 2000-1887

Benford, Gregory - In the Ocean of Night

Benford, Gregory - Timescape

Bester, Alfred - The Demolished Man

Blish, James - Cities in Flight

Borroughs, Edgar Rice - A Princess of Mars

Bradbury, Ray - The Illustrated Man

Brunner, John - Stand on Zanzibar

Bujold, Lois McMaster - Shards of Honor

Butler, Octavia - Kindred

Butler, Octavia - Lilith's Brood

Capek, Karel - R.U.R.

Card, Orson Scott - Speaker for the Dead

Cherryh, C.J. - Cyteen

Cherryh, C.J. - Downbelow Station

Christopher, John - The Death of Grass (aka No Blade of Grass)

Clarke, Arthur C. - The City and the Stars

Clarke, Arthur C. - The Fountains of Paradise

Clement, Hal - Mission of Gravity

Cline, Ernest - Ready Player One

Crichton, Michael - The Andromeda Strain

Delany, Samuel R. - Babel-17

Delany, Samuel R. - Dhalgren

Dick, Philip K. - Ubik

Disch, Thomas - Camp Concentration

Ellison, Harlan - The Essential Ellison

Farmer, Philip Jose - To Your Scattered Bodies Go

Finney, Jack - Time and Again

Gibson, William and Sterling, Bruce - The Difference Engine

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins - Herland

Haldeman, Joe - Forever Peace

Hamilton, Peter F. - The Reality Dysfunction

Harrison, Harry - The Stainless Steel Rat

Harrison, M. John - The Centauri Device

Heinlein, Robert A. - Expanded Universe

Ishiguro, Kazuo - Never Let Me Go

James, P.D. - Children of Men

Keyes, Daniel - Flowers For Algernon

King, Stephen - The Stand

Kunstler, James Howard - World Made By Hand

Laumer, Keith - The Great Time Machine Hoax

Lem, Stanislaw - The Cyberiad

Matheson, Richard - I Am Legend

McIntyre, Vonda N. - Dreamsnake

Mieville, China - Embassytown

Moore, Alan and Gibbons, Dave - Watchmen

More, Thomas - Utopia

Morgan, Richard - Altered Carbon

Niven, Larry and Pournelle, Jerry - The Mote In God's Eye

Norton, Andre - Star Man's Son (aka Daybreak: 2250 AD)

Pangborn, Edgar - Davy

Pohl, Frederik and Kornbluth, C.M. - The Space Merchants

Priest, Christopher - Inverted World

Pynchon, Thomas - Gravity's Rainbow

Rand, Ayn - Atlas Shrugged

Reynolds, Alastair - Revelation Space

Robinson, Kim Stanley - Red Mars

Russ, Joanna - The Female Man

Sagan, Carl - Contact

Shute, Nevil - On the Beach

Silverberg, Robert - Dying Inside

Silverberg, Robert - Hawksbill Station

Simak, Clifford - City

Smith, E.E. - Triplanetary

Stapledon, Olaf - Odd John

Stephenson, Neal - Anathem

Stephenson, Neal - The Diamond Age

Sterling, Bruce - Islands in the Net

Stewart, George R. - Earth Abides

Stross, Charles - Accelerando

Strugatsky, Arkady and Strugatsky, Boris - Roadside Picnic

Sturgeon, Theodore - More Than Human

Tepper, Sheri S. - The Gate to Women's Country

Van Vogt, A.E. - Slan

Van Vogt, A.E. - The Voyage of the Space Beagle

Vance, Jack - The Dying Earth

Varley, John - Steel Beach

Varley, John - Titan

Vinge, Vernor - Rainbow's End

Vonnegut, Kurt - Cat's Cradle

Watts, Peter - Blindsight

Weber, David - On Basilisk Station

Whitehead, Colson - Zone One

Wilhelm, Kate - Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang

Wyndham, John - The Day Of The Triffids

Wyndham, John - The Midwich Cuckoos

Zamyatin, Yevgeny - We

Zelazny, Roger - Lord of Light

Zelazny, Roger - This Immortal (aka Call Me Conrad)