CURATED

Your favourite sci-fi author's favourite sci-fi book

The Portalist · July 2023 · Books named by working science fiction novelists

Reading this list added 3 works to the catalogue. Of its 34 entries, 13 could not be assessed — unreleased or unread — and are marked with a dash rather than guessed at.

1895 The Time Machine · Enforced idleness
1974 The Forever War · Obsolescence
2018 The Calculating Stars · Obsolescence

How it was compiled. Compiled from interviews and social media posts in which bestselling authors — Gibson, Weir, Liu, Bradbury, Brown, Scalzi, Collins, Wells — named their own favourites. Each contributor's primary pick and their additional picks are listed together.

What it brings. The only source assembled from what practitioners read rather than what readers or sellers rank, and it leans hard toward craft: Delany, Bester, Wolfe, Kagan. Everything it flagged was already catalogued, but it is the strongest single argument on the site that the works here are the ones writers themselves keep returning to.

Work	Year	AGI	Answers	What people do all day
Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany	1975	No	Partial	In a collapsed city where nothing is enforced, people invent work — a gang, a commune, a newspaper — largely to have somewhere to be.
The Time Machine H. G. Wells	1895	No	Yes	The Eloi do nothing at all: eat fruit, play, decorate. The Morlocks run the machinery below.
The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester	1956	No	Partial	Teleportation collapses the transport, shipping and security industries within a generation, and the novel opens with a man abandoned in a wreck because labour has become that cheap.
Random Acts of Senseless Violence Jack Womack	1993	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
The Alteration Kingsley Amis	1976	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
Rendezvous with Rama Arthur C. Clarke	1973	No	No	Survey an alien vessel on a schedule, then watch it leave.
The Three-Body Problem Liu Cixin	2008	No	No	Nanomaterials research, a Cultural Revolution reckoning, and a video game that is not a game.
Leviathan Wakes James S. A. Corey	2011	No	Partial	Belters haul ice and air on contract, in a system where water and oxygen are the wage.
The Calculating Stars Mary Robinette Kowal	2018	No	Yes	Women work as human computers for the space programme while the machines that will replace them are installed next door.
1984 George Orwell	1949	No	No	Falsify records at the Ministry of Truth; attend the Two Minutes Hate; queue for razor blades.
2001: A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke	1968	Yes	Partial	Bowman jogs the centrifuge, watches recorded news from home, and minds a ship that does not need minding.
The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury	1950	No	No	Colonise, and be haunted.
The Gods of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs	1913	No	No	Duel, escape, duel again.
Lorelei of the Red Mist Brackett & Bradbury	1946	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
The Forever War Joe Haldeman	1974	No	Yes	Mandella returns to an Earth of mass unemployment and state rations, and re-enlists because the army is the only institution with a slot for him.
Hyperion Dan Simmons	1989	Yes	Partial	Seven pilgrims recount their working lives while the TechnoCore AIs quietly run the economy that employs them.
Shadow and Claw Gene Wolfe	1980	Partial	Partial	Severian is raised in the guild of torturers — an apprenticeship, a trade and a professional ethic, described in the register of any other craft.
Consider Phlebas Iain M. Banks	1987	Yes	Partial	Horza works as a mercenary against the Culture, whose citizens do nothing they do not want to do.
Starship Troopers Robert A. Heinlein	1959	No	No	Train, drop, fight. Citizenship must be earned through service.
The Actual Star Monica Byrne	2021	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
Light From Uncommon Stars Ryka Aoki	2021	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
Space Opera Catherynne M. Valente	2018	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
Goliath Tochi Onyebuchi	2022	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle	1962	Partial	Partial	On Camazotz, IT synchronises every action in every household — children bouncing balls in unison — because deviation is inefficient.
Mirabile Janet Kagan	1991	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
The Door into Summer Robert A. Heinlein	1957	Partial	Partial	An engineer invents Hired Girl, a household robot, and the novel is largely about the business of automating domestic work. The source list misattributes this title to Diane Duane.
A Judgement of Dragons Phyllis Gotlieb	1980	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
Ancillary Justice Ann Leckie	2013	Yes	Partial	Ancillaries are human bodies operated by a ship's AI. Below them, ordinary citizens serve houses and hold assigned stations.
Finder Suzanne Palmer	2019	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
Rosewater Tade Thompson	2016	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
Finders Melissa Scott	2018	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine	2019	Partial	Partial	An ambassador carries a predecessor's recorded personality in her skull. Court life is a full-time occupation of poetry and protocol.
The Best of All Possible Worlds Karen Lord	2013	—	—	Not assessed — unread.
The Tea Master and the Detective Aliette de Bodard	2018	Yes	Partial	A mindship invalided out of military service takes work brewing custom blends for passengers, because that is the trade available to her now.

Linked titles are in the catalogue. Partial means the work gestures at the question without sustaining it.

Source

This list was not compiled with this question in mind, which is the point of using it. The verdicts and the daily-life summaries are mine and arguable: the Answers column has no bright line, andPartial is where the disagreement lives.

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