This section is currently under construction
Our aim here is to provide a brief run-down of some of the major highlights in the history of fantasy and sf literature, both novels and short stories as well as the occasional influential graphic novel.
Generally, we have selected either the first or breakthrough work by an author, but on occasion have chosen what we believe to be the best introduction to that author's work, or a piece that made a significant impact on the genre. As always, any opinions or suggestions for inclusion (or removal!) would be greatly appreciated.
It is possible to discuss the origins of sf and fantasy writing until the end of time and still not reach any universally accepted conclusions. The influence of classical poets such as Vergil and Homer, Norse sagas, and other ancient myths and legends can still be seen today in the work of some modern fantasists, and many great novelists from Jonathan Swift through Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy employed fantastic and supernatural elements in their writing. But they were not sf or fantasy writers, and their work does not form a direct part of the history of sf and fantasy.
This is by no means a definitive guide, and has no pretensions to be such. But if you want to become well-read in sf and fantasy literature, the works highlighted here should provide a suitable starting point for compiling an impressive bookshelf.
Pre-1900 1900-20 1930s 1940s 1950-54 1950-59 1960-64 1965-69 1970-74 1975-79 1980-84 1985-89 1990-94 1995-99 Since 2000
Most critics seem now to agree that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818) was the first sf novel. The first writer to have a global impact with work of genre interest was undoubtedly Jules Verne, with novels such as Journey to the Centre of the Earth in 1863, and From the Earth to the Moon in 1865.
But it wasn't until the 19th century was drawing to a close that the world found its first professional sf writer: HG Wells. The 1890s brought us The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898), amongst many other works of importance.
In 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle put Sherlock Holmes aside and instead sent Professor Challenger to The Lost World, a concept that has probably had a greater impact on the world of B-movies than it has on serious sf.
That same year saw the publication of William Hope Hodgson's dense and difficult The Night Land, little known or read now in an era when most fantasy readers believe that JRR Tolkien single-handedly invented the epic fantasy with The Hobbit (which was first published in 1937!). And then, in 1917, Edgar Rice Burroughs launched the adventuring career of one John Carter, with the first of his Mars tales: A Princess of Mars.
The word "robot" is now so common that few people stop to wonder where it originated. Consequently, Karel Capek's R.U.R. (1920), or Rossum's Universal Robots, is almost entirely unknown outside sf fandom.
Towards the end of the decade, the sub-genre which came to be known as Space Opera was born, in the form of E.E. "Doc" Smith's The Skylark of Space (1928). Though unsophistictaed by today's standards, Smith's deep space adventure tales - the Skylark and later Lensman series - were the Star Wars of their day.
This was the decade when sf really got into its stride, and produced several genuine classics. Kicking things off in fine style in 1930 was W. Olaf Stapledon with the jaw-dropping concept of his Last and First Men. Probably sf's greatest philosopher, and one of the few sf writers to achieve intellectual credibility outside the field, Stapledon produced a number of notable works including Star Maker (1937). Of equal importance, Aldous Huxley published his hugely influential Brave New World in 1932.
The 1930s also encompassed the short but significant career of Stanley G. Weinbaum, who sadly died of cancer at the height of his powers. Weinbaum's most famous story, 'A Martian Odyssey', was published in 1934.
We are now at the heart of what is known as the Golden Age of sf, and writers such as A.E. van Vogt with Slan (1940), Jack Williamson with Darker Than You Think (also 1940), and Robert A. Heinlein, Sixth Column (1941) were producing work of lasting quality and influence.
The end of the decade also saw the appearance of two major sf novels by non-genre writers: George R. Stewart's haunting post-apocalypse tale Earth Abides and George Orwell's dystopian Nineteen Eighty-Four, both published in 1949.
This is where the pace really starts to hot up. Major new writers are debuting almost every year, and many of the legends of the field are producing some of their best work.
Within the space of two years, Isaac Asimov had begun the two strands of work that were to make him a legend. In 1950 he published I Robot, and the following year came Foundation. That same year, 1951, John Wyndham (the most familiar of his many pseudonyms) brought us The Day of the Triffids, though perhaps not his best certainly his most popular and enduring tale.
After Clifford D Simak's City in 1952, came one of those years that has some claim to being the most important in the history of literary sf. Within the same year, 1953, the field produced The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester, Fahrenheit 451° by Ray Bradbury, Fred Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth's satire The Space Merchants and Theodore Sturgeon's deeply moving More Than Human. Quite a year.
Unfailingly prolific, Asimov broke further new ground in 1954 with the Caves of Steel, the first of three Elijah Bayley sf detective novels. Meanwhile, Hal Clement was popularising the hardest of sf ideas in Mission of Gravity, and Poul Anderson boosted IQs to 150+ in Brain Wave. And Robert Sheckley proved, with his collection Untouched by Human Hands, that sf needn't always take itself so seriously.
Alfred Bester earned his right to a further mention by producing, with Tiger! Tiger! (also known as The Stars My Destination) in 1956, one of the most memorable characters in sf history - Gully Foyle.
Three more major contributions to round off the decade: Brian W Aldiss' debut Non-Stop (1958), A Case of Conscience by James Blish, and Walter M Miller Jr's A Canticle for Leibowitz (both 1959). Little did anyone know then that it would be three decades before his second (and last) novel.