And now, despite a complete lack of popular demand, and a day late to book (I got shot in the head yesterday; it can be distracting), the answers to yesterday's quiz:

In general, I tried to include books and stories by more well-known or important authors; I don't expect everyone to be as big a science fiction nerd as I am.

1)  Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein. 

Not my personal favorite Heinlein (which would be The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), but the most famous.

2) 2001:  A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke.  (And good guess, Markin.)

One of the very first "hard" science fiction books I ever read, and still one of my favorites.  Better than the film, in my opinion.

3) Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson.

Despite a serious mis-fire (in my opinion, though lots of people disagree with me) with his "Baroque Trilogy", Stephenson is by far my favorite writer.  If I had any talent for fiction, I would write like Stephenson.  Not Hemmingway, or (heaven save us) Faulkner, or Salinger, or Twain (though I wouldn't mind), or Fitzgerald, but Stephenson.  Think of that what you will.   An incredibly entertaining book that twists so many standard SF conventions in knots, I wouldn't know where to begin.  But when a book begins with that opening, and its main character is named "Hiro Protagonist," you know you're in for something.  What you're in for, I'll leave for others to decide.  Any of his books (except the aforementioned "Baroque Trilogy" books) are worth the time, in my view, but this is his breakthrough novel.

4)  "A Gun for a Dinosaur," L. Sprague de Camp

This is only a short story, but de Camp (along with his wife, Catherine) was such a huge contributor to the genre as both an editor and writer that I felt I should include him here.  It's funny, it's short, and it doesn't clonk you over the head with "hard SF" stuff.  (Another would be Theodore "95% of everything is crap" Sturgeon, but I didn't have any Sturgeon handy to look in--it's all in Texas, and I'm in California right now. )

5) Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny

In my view, one of the absolute very best of the genre.  SF based on Hinduism and Buddhism, with plenty of "real" SF "under the hood".  Worth multiple reads for getting the subtleties and sub-texts--Zelazny was a writer of the "New Wave" movement, and experimented with  forms, conventions, and book organization.   (In Lord of Light for example, there's an important message to the way the book itself is ordered.  I have said enough.)  Truly a wonderful book.

6) Hyperion, Dan Simmons

One of the best SF books of the last 25 years, if my opinion were worth anything.  The format takes the form of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," but don't let that put you off.  A huge, complex, well-designed future universe; interesting mysteries; and above all, fascinating, wonderfully told stories.  When a story makes you cry, or makes you angry, or makes you actually laugh out loud, you know you're in the hands of a master storyteller; Simmons does all that in this book.  One of my other favorite authors, without doubt.   (Illium is also a damn fine book, with the interesting twist that the most "human" characters are actually, well, robots.)

7) Mote in God's Eye, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

One of my favorites, but not for everyone.  If you don't like hard SF, or Jerry Pournelle's (frankly) fascistic take on how governments should work, you're not going to enjoy this work set in a far-off future when humanity is a multiple planet Empire under a (supposedly) benificent Emperor.  But it's definitely the best of the Niven and Pournelle collaborations (although Infero is fun), and is a durn good book all on its own.

8) The Difference Engine, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

Though not technically the first novel in the genre now (unfortunately) called "steam punk", this is the one that got it going in a big way.  The godfather of CyberPunk (Neuromancer) teamed up with a post-new wave SF author, put a science fiction twist on the industrial revolution, and there you have it.  If you want science fiction with a Victorian/Sherlockian twist, this is the book for you.  Interesting, confusing, engrossing; it's a good 'un.

9) Foundation, Isaac Asimov

Not the greatest writer in the word--sort of Science Fiction's answer to "the McDonald's of writers" Steven King (hey, he said it, not me!)--Asimov himself was simply too important and prolific to leave off the list.  (Clarke, Asimov, and Heinlein are often called "the Big Three of Science Fiction.)  And this is probably his most famous series of books.  Very juvenile in many ways, but certainly interesting, and definitely not lacking for scope and ambition.  And it's short, so if you don't like the first story or two, hey, just bail.  (It was written as a series of short stories rather than a stand-alone novel.)

10)  Neuromancer, William Gibson.

It would be difficult to understate the impact Gibson had on the SF world.  Injecting a hard, gritty, run-down feel both to his worlds and the writing, Gibson moved the genre in a way few have done.  If ever the opening sentence of a book captures the spirit of a work, this is it.  This is "cyberpunk" in the raw, kids.  If you don't like it, it's hardly a character flaw.  This is tough stuff--not as tough as Gene Wolfe, but still tough.  But damn good.

11) "A Study in Scarlet," Arthur Conan Doyle.

Not SF, but definitely genre.  What can I say about Sherlock Holmes that you haven't already heard?  Nothing.  So I'll just stop there.

12) Carter Beats the Devil, Glen David Gold.

Probably not technically "genre," but one of my very favorite books.  Gold does a wonderful job bringing a time to life--in this case, the early 20th century and the late Vaudville era.  Guest appearances by famous characters abound--the Marx Brothers, Houdini, Warren G. Harding--and the story itself is just a whale of a lot of fun, and satisfying to book.  Much better, in my view, than Gold's second book Sunnyside, which seems to me to suffer some classic sophomore slump issues.

 So there you have it.  For you fans of Dick, Pohl, Wolfe, and all the other writers I didn't include:  my apologies.  It's not that they aren't good, or I don't like them; I only have so much on hand, and so much room.

On with the reading!