Looking to create a list of the best Philosophical SF/Fantasy Novels

[Marion]

I would like to create a list of the best Philosophical Science-Fiction and Fantasy Novels to be read in a book club. I will start with some titles here and please add to that list with your own suggestions.

1) The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
2) The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
3) Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
4) The Child Goddess by Louise Marley
5) The Chess Garden by Brooks Hansen
6) Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright
7) Litany of the Long Sun/Epiphany of the Long Sunby Gene Wolfe
8) Raising the Stonesby Sheri S. Tepper
9) The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Leguin
10)Captives/Outcasts/Rebels Safe Lands Series by Jill Williamson

That's my list. Any other suggestions?

[Bryan]

I would recommend the Prince Of Nothing trilogy by R. Scott Bakker. The first book is called The Darkness That Comes Before.

[John]

Great topic!

I would definitely put the whole Dune series at the top of this list! They get more philosophical as they go on but not everyone finds that to be a good thing :)

Also, the His Dark Materials series maybe?

If you count Life of Pi as fantasy, that's a great one.

[John (Taloni)]

Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein.

[Trike]

There's a list here on Goodreads on this topic, and the books on it that I've read mostly seem pretty on target.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[Dara]

Steven Erikson dives into some philosophical ideas in the later books of the Malazan series but I doubt you want to read 6-7 books to finally get there.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Ooh, some of the books you listed I didn't know.

[Marion]

Jenny,

I hope you will try out some of those books on my list. I would like to get a book club started as well. Will be looking to start it in Jan 2015. More to come soon.

[Davis]

I would think most books by C.S. Lewis would need to be included. I would also include Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

[Kevin]

Another thread in this group has a link to a list compiled by a philosopher who asked other (professional) philosophers and authors with an academic background in philosophy which SF&F books (and other media) they recommend.

It was pretty interesting and probably has some nice additions for your list.

Edit: Found the thread.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Dharmakirti]

Bryan wrote: "I would recommend the Prince Of Nothing trilogy by R. Scott Bakker. The first book is called The Darkness That Comes Before."


Such a great series.

[Rob]

I would make sure to add Walker Percy to the list, who was a bit obsessed with philosophy. at least his dystopian novels (like Love in the Ruins ) and his one Arthurian novel, Lancelot qualify.

Otherwise, off the top of my head, Infinite Jest can be pretty dang philosophical.

Oh, and Samuel Delaney's stuff has got some meat to it, if the S&L pick is anything to go by

[Dharmakirti]

A couple entries on R. Scott Bakker's blog, Three Pound Brain, might be of interest. If I recall correctly, both of these are transcripts of public lectures Scott has given in the past.

1) Dragons Over Spaceships: Fantasy & Science Fiction as Cultural Prostheses http://rsbakker.wordpress.com/essay-a...

In terms of what Heidegger calls the ‘ontological difference,’ science fiction is primarily an ontic discourse, a discourse concerned with beings within the world, whereas fantasy is primarily an ontological one, a discourse concerned with Being itself. What this suggests is that the socio-phenomenological stakes involved in fantasy are more radical than those involved in science fiction. In Adornian terms, science fiction, it could be said, is primarily engaged in the extension of identity thinking, whereas fantasy, through its wilful denial of cognition, points to the ‘messianic moment,’ the necessity of finding some way out of our functional nightmare.

2) Thou Shalt Not Suffer Fantasy http://rsbakker.wordpress.com/essay-a...

If nothing can be more true than the world of God, and the Bible is the living world of God, then the world of the Bible is the truest of worlds. Fantasy worlds, on the other hand, are fantastic because they are the untruest of worlds. Somehow we have reached a point in our cultural evolution where the fundamental structural characteristics belonging to the truest of worlds have transformed into our principle means of identifying the untruest of worlds.

Somehow we have come to a contradiction. What indicates the especially true in a religious context, simultaneously indicates the especially untrue in a literary context. Scripture and fantasy, it seems, occupy two sides of the same impossible coin. For fundamentalists, fantasies are misapprehended scriptures, and for secularists, scriptures are misapprehended fantasies.

[Dharmakirti]

Clive Barker's work is something I would recommend. Check out The Great and Secret Show, Everville, Imajica or Sacrament.

Another work I would recommend is God Decays by philosopher Benjamin Cain (also, check out his blog Rants Within the Undead God). This is his self-published debut novel and it's about the zombie apocalypse.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

P.s. you have a typo in the title.

[Marion]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "P.s. you have a typo in the title."

Corrected. Thanks Jenny!

Marion

[Marion]

Thanks to everyone for their entries. Much appreciated!