20 Sci-Fi Novels That Will Change Your Life

I've read a handful of these. I hasten to agree that A Fire Upon the Deep is a pretty good read, or at least was about 10 years ago when I read it.

Vinge's idea, The Singularity, is also a fairly strong head-trip. The best (or worst) part is that if he's right we'll all live to see it.

Comments

[Mike]

Thanks for the link to io9, I am an avid devour of all things sci-fi. If I could add something, I'd add Neuromancer (William Gibson).
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[Justus]

I've read many (most?) of those. The list seems curiously weighted toward recent releases. I think that is because a lot of older science fiction has either become impossible for a modern reader to sympathize with (say, Doc Smith's portrayal of women in the Lensman series) or contains ideas that have become largely assimilated into conventional thinking (say, The Space Merchants, whose anti-capitalism was a lot more revolutionary in the 50s).

The Glasshouse's portrayal of gender (and species) as something worn and changed as casually as clothing was interesting.