The Best Geek Novels - Top 20

according to - http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technolo...e_results.html

By Jack Schofield / Media 06:14am
So far, 132 people have voted for the best geek novels (written in English since 1932), in spite of Survey Monkey'srubric 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)
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson 37% (37)
12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 38% (37)
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson 36% (36)
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks 34% (35)
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein 33% (33)
16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick 34% (32)
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman 31% (29)
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson 27% (27)
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson 23% (21)
20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham 21% (19)
There are two surprises for me. First, I'm amazed Neal Stephenson didn't do better: he is probably the ultimate geek novelist, being a bit of a geek himself. Second, I'm very impressed by the support for Watchmen, the graphic novel. And while I'm not surprised The Illuminatus! Trilogy didn't do better, I think more of you should read it -- or at least the first book, The Eye in the Pyramid!

The following five books attracted the most votes against.
Dune -- Frank Herbert 17% (17)
Neuromancer -- William Gibson 13% (15)
I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov 12% (13)
Foundation -- Isaac Asimov 13% (13)
The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett 12% (12)


Finally, the saddest statistics for me were the ones for John Brunner's books, which recorded high scores in the Not read it/Don't care category, as follows.
Stand on Zanzibar -- John Brunner 85% (77)
The Shockwave Rider -- John Brunner 88% (80)

I have only read the first 2 and i thought they where double plus good. looks like its time to borrow brave new world off my uncle.

hmm i wonder if my uni libary has a copy of some of these.

I misread this and was gonna vote for Homers illiad,I've read 7 of em that I can remember,The Watchmans a cracking graphic novel.