There is nothing new in my column this month, but among the titles mentioned you may find some you've not read, and which will be worth reading. At long last we can give you some results on our research into the "Best Science Fiction" in the opinion of the readers of NEBULA Science Fiction.
A number of points raised by the folk who did not send in the full lists, or sent in unpreferenced lists, have been answered individually, but for everyone's sake a few words of explanation are required. I ran a "test" on a group of 6 folk, asking for 6 books in order of preference. I then doubled the number of books, and found that in several cases books which were not included on the first 6 now came in the top 3 of the lists submitted by the same people. The general reason offered ran on the lines of "I'd not thought of that one when I wrote out the 6, but now I recall it, I think it better than..." Therefore we asked for 25
titles to try to get readers to consider their lists. Anyone can sit down and list 6 or 10 titles—but it calls for a little more thought to list 25. But perhaps we made it slightly too big a job! Then the question of "Why order of preference? Why not just a list?" Well, the answer to that will be apparent when you look at the "Placing" and "Mentioned" lists which follow. The "Placing" list is that which is based on "order of preference", each title having been allotted a number of points according to its placing on each list; the "Mentioned" list just gives 1 point to each book for inclusion on a list—in other words, its position depends on how many people have voted for it, irrespective of their opinion of its worth. For instance, George R. Stewart's EARTH ABIDES was only listed on 3 of the 12 lists, but because of high placing it comes 13th on the "Placing" list, but is not on the "Mentioned" list.
Placing
Points
1 FOUNDATION
Isaac Asimov
132
2 THE DEMOLISHED MAN Alfred Bester 125 3 MORE THAN HUMAN Theodore Sturgeon 114 4 CITY Clifford D. Simak 95 5 TIGER, TIGER Alfred Bester 92 6 THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS John Wyndham 91 7 I, ROBOT Isaac Asimov 88 8 A MIRROR FOR OBSERVERS Edgar Pangborn 87 9 THE DEATH OF GRASS John Christopher 86 10 SLAN A. E. van Vogt 85 11 CHILDHOOD'S END Arthur C. Clarke 83 12 THE PUPPET MASTERS Robert A. Heinlein 74 13 EARTH ABIDES George R. Stewart 72 14 THE CITY AND THE STARS Arthur C. Clarke 63 15 THE CHILDREN OF THE ATOM Wilmar H. Shiras 62 16 I AM LEGEND Richard Matheson 57 17 THE CAVES OF STEEL Isaac Asimov 55 18 STORIES FOR TOMORROW William Sloane (ed) 51 19 THE WEAPON MAKERS A. E. van Vogt 50 20 THE SPACE MERCHANTS Pohl & Kornbluth 48 21 RING AROUND THE SUN Clifford D. Simak 47 22 THE LORD OF THE RINGS Prof. J.R.R.Tolkien 45
Mentioned
1 MORE THAN HUMAN Theodore Sturgeon 8 2 THE DEMOLISHED MAN Alfred Bester 8 3 I, ROBOT Isaac Asimov 7 4 FOUNDATION
Isaac Asimov
6 5 THE CITY AND THE STARS Arthur C. Clarke 6 6 THE CHILDREN OF THE ATOM Wilmar H. Shiras 6 7 THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS John Wyndham 6 8 THE CAVES OF STEEL Isaac Asimov 5 9 TIGER, TIGER Alfred Bester 5 10 THE DEATH OF GRASS John Christopher 5 11 CHILDHOOD'S END Arthur C. Clarke 5 12 THE PUPPET MASTERS Robert A. Heinlein 5 13 UNTOUCHED BY HUMAN HANDS Robert Sheckley 5 14 CITY Clifford D. Simak 5 15 SLAN A. E. van Vogt 5 16 THE ILLUSTRATED MAN Ray Bradbury 4 17 PRELUDE TO SPACE Arthur C. Clarke 4 18 1 IN 300 J.T. McIntosh 4 19 CHRISTMAS EVE C.M.Kornbluth 4 20 A MIRROR FOR OBSERVERS Edgar Pangborn 4 21 THE SPACE MERCHANTS Pohl & Kornbluth 4 22 STORIES FOR TOMORROW William Sloane (ed) 4
I have finished the list at 22 rather than 20 or 25 titles because of the "Mentioned" listing. The figures following titles in this listing indicate the number of mentions, and this covers all those which received inclusion in 4 of the lists. A further 10 titles were mentioned on at least 3 lists, and it would obviously be absurd to pursue this limited survey to that length. The figure following the title in the "Placing" list is, of course, the number of points secured by that title. In comparing the two lists it must be noted that titles receiving the same number of "mentions" have been placed in alphabetical order of author, and thus the fact that TIGER, TIGER is in 5th position on the first list, and 9th on the second, does not mean a great deal. However, some slight conclusion can be drawn from the fact that 5 people awarded 92 points to TIGER, TIGER; while Robert Heinlein's THE PUPPET MASTERS, still with 5 mentions in the lists, was placed much lower with only 74 points. Various other conclusions can be drawn—for example, THE LORD OF THE RINGS secured its 22nd place on the list with only 2 votes, thus beating all the 10 titles which appeared on 3 lists. Two people thus rated this work very highly, and on checking those lists I find that one of the 2 people rather definitely prefers "fantasy" to "strict science-fiction". He is also one of the only 2 people to give Abraham Merritt a mention!
By and large, anthologies were ignored. The William Sloane edited STORIES FOR TOMORROW is the only one which received more than 1 vote! (When it is recalled that this work was "remaindered", it does not seem that a preference list of this kind would be a great deal of use to publishers...) If one accepts "collections" like Simak's CITY, in which the stories form a connected whole, as "novels", the only two "collections" to obtain a mention are the Sheckley work, and Bradbury's THE ILLUSTRATED MAN (this latter would have secured 23rd place on the points-awarded list). So one could conclude, that although "collections" and "anthologies" are popular enough when printed, they do not live long in the memory.
Heading the poll came Isaac Asimov, with 26 mentions covering 8 books, and Arthur C. Clarke was next with 21 mentions for 6 books. Close behind came A. E. van Vogt, although his 18 mentions were spread over 10 titles. Compare that with the next in line, Alfred Bester, who was included 13 times with only 2 titles! Then Robert A Heinlein, 10 mentions on 4 titles, and neck and neck Ray Bradbury and Eric Frank Russell, both 10 mentions on 5 books. Theodore Sturgeon had 9 mentions on 2 books (if the 9th time had also been for MORE THAN HUMAN, he would have topped both lists), and Clifford Simak 9 with 3... for your interest, Jules Verne, " Father of Science Fiction " according to some authorities, did not get one mention, and Britain's own H. G. Wells was only listed twice, with 2 different titles. Olaf Stapledon did get 4 listings, equally divided between ODD JOHN and LAST AND FIRST MEN
from Nebula No.39. February 1959