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Categories: BooksCybercultureLiteratureSciFi

Best Geek Novels Written in English

So far, 132 people have voted for the best geek novels written in English since 1932, in spite of Survey Monkey’s rubric saying free polls were limited to 100 responses. The top 20 is therefore as follows, with the numbers in brackets showing the number of votes.

1. The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams 85% (102)

2. Nineteen Eighty-Four — George Orwell 79% (92)

3. Brave New World — Aldous Huxley 69% (77)

4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — Philip Dick 64% (67)

5. Neuromancer — William Gibson 59% (66)

6. Dune — Frank Herbert 53% (54)

7. I, Robot — Isaac Asimov 52% (54)

8. Foundation — Isaac Asimov 47% (47)

9. The Colour of Magic — Terry Pratchett 46% (46)

10. Microserfs — Douglas Coupland 43% (44)

[…] —Best Geek Novels Written in English (Guardian Technology Blog)

That’s a very small survey sample, but it’s still an interesting list. The only one on the top 10 I don’t know is The Colour of Magic. I didn’t get very far in either Foundation or I, Robot when I started them as a teenager, but both have been on my “to read” list for a long time.

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  • I want to know what they mean by "geek novel." I want to assume it means science fiction novel that appeals to techies, but neither Pratchett's The Colour of Magic nor Gaiman's American Gods are science fiction. They're both fantasy. If it's "obsessive fan base," then I'd expect The Colour of Magic to be higher because Pratchett was long known as the most shoplifted author in Britain and has a much stronger obessive fan base than Orwell, Huxley, Dick, or Gibson.

    Okay, this comment helps:

    I think to fall into 'Geek' territory the subject matter needs either to be commonly derided or painfully obscure. Certainly in most of the wonderfully geeky arguments I've had the more unknown the reference the better or if it is a specific conversation about popular culture then the reference itself must be some tiny detail that normal people (those with lives) wouldn’t even notice.

    In that sense, then The Colour of Magic, as a brilliant parody of fantasy that could only be written by somone who loves the genre, is damn geeky. But even so, I'm not getting what's on and what's not on the list.

  • Great list. I enjoyed the comments on this post; the one that mentioned that there are no women in this list was smart. I wonder, too: are there "geek novels" not written in English? Enough to even compile a top 10 list?

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Published by
Dennis G. Jerz
19 years ago

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