In my columns over the years, I've sometimes referred to the "Nerd Canon" (which has amused my editors no end). These are the books that the fanboys and fangirls in my generation sought out as the seminal works we needed to have read to have nerd cred.
Now, the Nerd Canon isn't static (nor should it be). It varies from generation to generation. But we all get the idea.
Then again, some books in the Nerd Canon aren't negotiable. I mean, a compleat comics fans knows Asimov's "Laws of Robotics" by heart.
My reading of the Nerd Canon started in elementary school library, where I instinctively began searching out anything that wasn't "normie." I'm pretty sure that's when I got the mythology bug. By junor high I was reading Edgar Allan Poe for sure -- my school library had a complete Poe, which I devoured -- all the Tarzan novels, lots of sword & sorcery (Conan, Fafhrd & Gray Mouser, etc.), "classic" SF writers like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, the Universal monter ouevre (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, etc.) and others. By the time I'd graduated from high school I'd read the Foundation trilogy, the Dune trilogy, Lord of the Rings, best of Robert Heinlein, best of Ray Bradbury (or possibly all available, as I really loved Bradbury), Michael Moorcock's Elric (and some of his other Eternal Champion stuff), some A.E. Van Vogt, some Philip K. Dick, a smattering of Harlan Ellison, Phillip Jose Farmer, E.E. "Doc" Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, and others. I also read every Star Trek novel through the early '90s, but what started as a trickle in the late 1970s became a flood and I dropped them.
I eventually gave up on trying to be comprehensive on prose when cyberpunk came along. I read Neuromancer and didn't care for it, and discovered that I was completely out of step with SF fans. So I gave that up and stuck with comics.
If you're still reading at this point then I have some questions:
1) What was YOUR Nerd Canon? How does it differ or overlap with what I said above?
2) When I bought all those stories years ago, I bought them in paperback. That was in the '60s and early '70s. In the '80s, I sold my whole hoard to local bookstores for a couple of bucks -- less than a penny on the dollar. They simply weren't holding up. My Conan books, for example, were literally sticking to each other, and when you pried them apart, parts of the cover would be torn off. I don't know why that was, but it was. There was no point keeping them. So I got rid of them, to make room for stuff that would last.
And that brings us to the point of this thread. (At least for me.) I'm going to go ahead and buy some nice replacements for those old books. I've ordered some nice HC versions of the first four Tarzan books. I've got a gilt-edge Complete Sherlock Holmes collection, and will soon have similar for Conan.
So what else should I have for the library I will build and totter about in my dotage? What is my Endgame Nerd Canon?
Sound off, Legionnaires!
Replies
So much good information! I'm at work, but will re-read with more comprehension later.
The other two of the "Big 3" SF writers when I was growing up (after Asimov) were Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein.
I know I read these Clarke books:
And some others looked familiar, although I don't list them if I'm not positive.
Then there's Heinlein. Evidently, the only ones I'm sure I read are:
TBH I didn't enjoy either, and that's probably why I didn't read more. (One or two more Heineins look familiar, but I'm not positive, so they're not listed.)
When I finished Starship Troopers, I honestly wasn't sure if I had just read a satire of authoritarianism, or an advertisement for it. Either way, it left me feeling kinda meh about the human race, as it was a novel-length celebration of the Stephen Miller/Nazi mindset. Even if it was a satire, I don't enjoy slogging through that kind of muck.
I don't remember much about Stranger in a Strange Land, except that it felt like a chore. It was, if I recall, one of the early instances of made-up slang terms that I, in my teenage superiority, found stupid. ("Grok," for instance.) And wasn't it a Jesus metaphor? I remember it felt derivative, and that may be why.
Stranger in a Strange Land was a big deal when it came out, but it doesn't hold up at all for me. Starship Troopers is hugely influential, whatever the politics are supposed to be (a thorny issue with the oft-controversial Heinlein). Some of his YA books, like Red Planet, are worthwhile, and I recommend, if you're going to read one Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. If you read one short story, consider "—All You Zombies—" (1959). It inspired a lot of imitators, and the 2014 film Predestination.
Or one book that is a collection of stories? The Green Hills of Earth captures a lot of what people nostalgize about 1950s SF.
Farham's Freehold is one of those books a lot of readers want to toss against a wall. I think he intends to challenge racism, but his depictions of non-white characters feel, well, extremely racist. A book can explore survivalist politics, but not every reader wants to be grabbed by the throat and have the author scream his views into their ear, while continually slapping them with the other hand, and this book feels a little like that. And then there's the gratuitous references to incest.
I understand that the book is a must-read among some doomsday prepper groups.
With Clarke, I've read 2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001.
With Heinlein, I've read Job: A Comedy of Errors and Starship Troopers.
The fact that a certain billionaire named his AI "Grok" is telling, isn't it?
Heinlein: I've read Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers. I felt pretty much the same was about Strangers as Cap did, and that put me off Heinlein until the Starship Troopers movie came out. Then I read Starship Troopers only to discover how vastly different the movie was from the book.
Clarke: I've read the same four "Space Odyssey" books Bob has, plus Childhood's End, Rendevous with Rama, Rama II, The Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed.
The Songs of Distant Earth is pretty good Clarke.
Back in the '90s I was a frequent member of the Science Fiction Book Club. I would get my free selections, fulfil my obligation, lather, rinse, repeat. that is where I got the short story collection Adventures in Time and Space, for example. I wouldn't have thought I cracked it in the last 20 years, but my bookmark is the business card of my local city councilman. (It was marking "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov.) A few of the SFBC books I bought on reputation but have never read. Anyone here have any thoughts on...
...?
I've mentioned The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. If one was selecting a single Heinlein to read, it would be a good choice. It has enough to sustain it, despite dated elements.
The Stars My Destination is definitely worth reading. It's a facinating piece of science fiction from its time, and it in some ways presages cyberpunk and similar branches of SF. I have a 1957 paperback copy that I found years ago in a second-hand bookstore.
Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The stars my destination.
I've mentioned The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Sorry 'bout that!
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