Five sci-fi novels that should be considered literary classics

At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Jeff Somers tagged five science fiction novels that really should be considered literary classics. One title on the list:

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

Bleak and dense, The Road (like much of McCarthy’s writing) resembles a long form poem more than a genre novel. And yet it’s undeniably science fiction, set in an apocalyptic world where most of mankind has died out—along with almost everything else—and the survivors scrabble for food and bare survival in the hollowed out shell of civilization. Some have abandoned all vestiges of their humanity. Others keep carrying the fire. In other words, it’s a post-apocalyptic story that won the Pulitzer Prize. Science fiction can’t get much more literary than that.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Road appears on Claire Fuller's top five list of extreme survival stories, Justin Cronin's top ten list of world-ending novels, Rose Tremain's six best books list, Ian McGuire's ten top list of adventure novels, Alastair Bruce's top ten list of books about forgetting, Jeff Somers's list of eight good, bad, and weird dad/child pairs in science fiction and fantasy, Amelia Gray's ten best dark books list, Weston Williams's top fifteen list of books with memorable dads, ShortList's roundup of the twenty greatest dystopian novels, Mary Miller's top ten list of the best road books, Joel Cunningham's list of eleven "literary" novels that include elements of science fiction, fantasy or horror, Claire Cameron's list of five favorite stories about unlikely survivors, Isabel Allende's six favorite books list, the Telegraph's list of the 15 most depressing books, Joseph D’Lacey's top ten list of horror books, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five unforgettable fathers from fiction, Ken Jennings's list of eight top books about parents and kids, Anthony Horowitz's top ten list of apocalypse books, Karen Thompson Walker's list of five notable "What If?" books, John Mullan's list of ten of the top long walks in literature, Tony Bradman's top ten list of father and son stories, Ramin Karimloo's six favorite books list, Jon Krakauer's five best list of books about mortality and existential angst, William Skidelsky's list of the top ten most vivid accounts of being marooned in literature, Liz Jensen's top 10 list of environmental disaster stories, the Guardian's list of books to change the climate, David Nicholls' top ten list of literary tear jerkers, and the Times (of London) list of the 100 best books of the decade. In 2009 Sam Anderson of New York magazine claimed "that we'll still be talking about [The Road] in ten years."

--Marshal Zeringue