There have been a number of suggestions that, as an SF fanzine, Plokta ought perhaps to mention SF from time to time. We're normally too busy maintaining our position at the cutting edge of fanzine technology to actually read any of the stuff ourselves, but Steve has recently acquired a scanner with an automatic book-feeder and artificial-intelligence based pattern-recognition software. We shovelled all of our libraries through it, and asked for a list of the hundred and twenty SF books that you have to read to understand modern SF, the common themes running through them and a cross-reference of themes with books. There is a key to the symbols at the end. Broadly speaking, one symbol = used; two symbols = overused; three symbols = abused.

While the results are perhaps not always in agreement with more traditional critical thinking, we are nevertheless pleased to present them below for the first time. You will doubtless be interested to hear that the major theme of SF over the past hundred years has been Sand. We've informed the SF Foundation, and they're holding the front page of the next issue of Foundation until we can conduct further research into this startling result.

Aldiss, Brian W	Hothouse	Anderson, Poul	Tau Zero
Anthony, Piers	Macroscope	Asimov, Isaac	Foundation f
Asimov, Isaac	I, Robot	Ballard, J. G.	Any book containing a drained swimming pool
Banks, Iain M.	One of the Culture novels	Barnes, John	Mother of Storms
Baxter, Stephen	The Time Ships	Bear, Greg	Eon
Benford, Greg	Timescape	Bester, Alfred	The Demolished Man
Bester, Alfred	Tiger! Tiger!	Blish, James	A Case of Conscience
Blish, James	Earthman Come Home	Blish, James	Spock Must Die!
Bradbury, Ray	Fahrenheit 451	Bradbury, Ray	The Martian Chronicles
Bradley, Marion Zimmer	One of the Darkover series	Brin, David	Startide Rising
Brunner, John	Stand on Zanzibar	Brunner, John	The Shockwave Rider
Bujold, Lois McMaster	Any book featuring Miles Vorkosigan	Burroughs, Edgar Rice	A Princess of Mars
Card, Orson Scott	Ender's Game	Chalker, Jack L.	Midnight at the Well of Souls
Cherryh, C. J.	Downbelow Station	Cherryh, C. J.	The Pride of Chanur
Clarke, Sir Arthur C.	2001: A Space Odyssey	Clarke, Sir Arthur C.	Childhood's End
Clarke, Sir Arthur C.	The City and the Stars	Clement, Hal	Mission of Gravity
Crichton, Michael	The Andromeda Strain	Crowley, John	Engine Summer
Delany, Samuel R.	Babel-17	Delany, Samuel R.	Dhalgren
Dick, Philip K.	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep	Dick, Philip K.	The Man in the High Castle
Dickson, Gordon R.	The Tactics of Mistake	Disch, Thomas M.	Camp Concentration
Effinger, George Alec	When Gravity Fails	Egan, Greg	Permutation City
Ellison, Harlan	Dangerous Visions	Farmer, Philip Jos*	To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Forward, Robert	Dragon's Egg	Gibson, William	Neuromancer
Goonan, Kathleen Ann	Queen City Jazz	Greenland, Colin	Take Back Plenty
Haldeman, Joe	The Forever War	Harrison, Harry	Bill the Galactic Hero
Harrison, Harry	The Stainless Steel Rat	Harrison, M. John	In Viriconium
Heinlein, Robert A.	Space Family Stone	Heinlein, Robert A.	Starship Troopers
Heinlein, Robert A.	Stranger in a Strange Land	Heinlein, Robert A.	The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Henderson, Zenna	The People: No Different Flesh	Herbert, Frank	Dune
Huxley, Aldous	Brave New World	Keyes, Daniel	Flowers for Algernon <
Kress, Nancy	Beggars in Spam	Lafferty, R. A.	Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.	The Dispossessed	Le Guin, Ursula K.	The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz	The Big Time	Lem, Stanislaw	The Cyberiad
Lewis, C. S.	Out of the Silent Planet	MacLeod, Ken	The Star Fraction
May, Julian	The Many-Coloured Land	McCaffrey, Anne	Dragonflight
McDonald, Ian	Desolation Road	Miller, Walter M.	A Canticle for Leibowitz
Moorcock, Michael	One of the Jerry Cornelius series	Moore, Ward	Bring the Jubilee
Niven, Larry	Ringworld (an extra for the 1st edition)	Orwell, George	Nineteen Eighty-Four
Panshin, Alexei	Rite of Passage	Piercy, Marge	Woman on the Edge of Time
Piper, H. Beam	Little Fuzzy <	Pohl, Frederik	Gateway
Pohl, Frederik & Kornbluth, C. M.	The Space Merchants	Powers, Tim	The Anubis Gates
Priest, Christopher	Inverted World	Roberts, Keith	Pavane
Robinson, Kim Stanley	Red Mars	Robinson, Spider	Callahan's Cross-Time Saloon
Rucker, Rudy	White Light	Russ, Joanna	The Female Man
Russell, Eric Frank	Next of Kin	Saberhagen, Fred	Berserker
Shaw, Bob	Other Days, Other Eyes	Silverberg, Robert	Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert	Lord Valentine's Castle	Simak, Clifford	City
Simmons, Dan	Hyperion	Smith, Cordwainer	The Best of Cordwainer Smith
Smith, E. E. 'Doc'	Galactic Patrol	Spinrad, Norman	Bug Jack Barron
Stapledon, Olaf	Last and First Men	Stephenson, Neal	Snow Crash J
Sterling, Bruce	Schismatrix Plus	Stewart, George R.	Earth Abides
Sturgeon, Theodore	More Than Human	Tepper, Sheri	Raising the Stones
Tiptree Jr, James	One short story collection	Turtledove, Harry	The Guns of the South
van Vogt, A. E.	Slan	van Vogt, A. E.	The World of Null-A
Varley, John	In The Hall of the Martian Kings	Verne, Jules	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Vinge, Vernor	A Fire Upon the Deep	Vonnegut, Kurt	Slaughterhouse 5
Weinbaum, Stanley G.	A Martian Odyssey	Wells, H. G.	The Time Machine
Wells, H. G.	The War of the Worlds	White, James	One of the Sector General series
Williamson, Jack	Seetee Ship	Willis, Connie	Doomsday Book
Wilson, Robert Anton & Shea, Robert	The Eye in the Pyramid	Wolfe, Gene	The Shadow of the Torturer
Wyndham, John	The Day of the Triffids	Zelazny, Roger	Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger	This Immortal

Key to Themes