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In his reference book Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, author, critic and columnist John Clute gives a great historical context timeline of science fiction through the decades. Roughly, each decade is another period in the timeline with the exception of the 1800's (whose beginning sf output was sporadic) and the 1990's (since the encyclopedia was published in 1995). I thought it would be fun to outline those periods as well as correlate them to the notable works that he cites later in the book.

Pay attention! There will be a poll on this next week!

1800-1899: THE INDUSTRIAL AGE

• Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley (1818)


• The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allen Poe (1837)


• Phantastes by George MacDonald (1858)


• Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (1863)


• From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne (1865)


• Looking Backward, 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy (1888)


• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1888)


• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (1889)


• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1889)

• Erewhon Revisited by Samuel Butler (1901)


• The Purple Cloud by M.P. Shiel (1901)


• The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells (1901)


• The Riddle of the Sands by Ernest Childers (1903)


• The Food of the Gods by H.G. Wells (1904)


• The Stolen Planet by John Mastin (1905)


• Before Adam by Jack London (1906)


• The Iron Heel by Jack London (1907)


• The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson (1908)


• With the Night Mail by Rudyard Kipling (1909)

• Ralph 124C 41+ by Hugo Gernsback (1911)


• The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle (1912)


• The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson (1912)


• Goslings by J.D. Beresford (1913)


• The Poison Belt by Arthur Conan Doyle (1913)


• Upsidonia by Archibald Marshall (1915)


• A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (19)


• What Not by Rose Macaulay (1918)


• When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard (1919)


• The Moon Pool by Abraham Merritt (1919)

• R.U.R. by Karel Capek (1920)


• The Metal Monster by Abraham Merritt (1920)


• At The Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1922)


• Aelita by Alexei Tolstoi (1922)


• We by Yevgeny Zamiatin (1924)


• The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1926)


• Metropolis by Thea Von Harbou (1926)


• The Skylark of Space by E.E. Smith (1928)


• Orlando by Virginia Woolf (1928)


• The World Below by S. Fowler Wright (1929)

• The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell, Jr. (1930)


• Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon (1930)


• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)


• When Worlds Collide by Phillip Wylie and Edwin Balmer (1933)


• The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson (1933)


• Odd John by Olaf Stapledon (193)


• War with the Newts by Karel Capek (1936)


• Star Maker by Karel Capek (1937)


• Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (1938)


• The New Adam by Stanley Weinbaum (1939)

• Slan by A.E. van Vogt (1940)


• Methusaleh's Children by Robert A. Heinlein (1941)


• Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague DeCamp (1941)


• The Weapon Shops of Isher by A.E. van Vogt (1941)


• Gather, Darkness! by Fritz Leiber (1943)


• The World of Null-A by C.S. Lewis (1945)


• Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke (1948)


• Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein (1949)


• Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)


• Earth Abides by George R. Stewart (1949)

• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950)


• Foundation by Isaac Asimov (1951)


• City by Clifford D. Simak (1952)


• More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon (1953)


• Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement (1954)


• Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick (1955)


• Nerves by Lester Del Rey (1956)


• They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley (1957)


• A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1958)


• Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein (1959)

• Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys (1960)


• Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein (1961)


• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)


• The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis (1963)


• The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber (1964)


• Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)


• Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison (1966)


• Berserker by Fred Saberhagen (1967)


• Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1968)


• Nightwings by Robert Silverberg (1969)

• Ringworld by Larry Niven (1970)


• To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer (1971)


• 334 by Thomas Disch (1972)


• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (1973)


• Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick (1974)


• The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1975)


• Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (1976)


• Gateway by Frederik Pohl (1977)


• Dreamsnake by Voonda N. McIntyre (1978)


• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)

• The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (1980)


• Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh (1981)


• Helliconia Spring by Brian Alsiss (1982)


• The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers (1983)


• Across the Sea of Suns by Gregory Benford (1984)


• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (1985)


• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1986)


• Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks (1987)


• The Uplift War by David Brin (1987)


• Good News from Outer Space by John Kessel (1989)

• Earth by David Brin (1990)


• The Gap into Conflict by Stephen Donaldson (1990)


• Synners by Pat Cadigan (1991)


• The Hollow Earth by Rudy Rucker (1991)


• Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1992)


• A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)


• Harvest of Stars by Poul Anderson (1993)


• Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress (1993)


• Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling (1994)


• Half the Day is Night by Maureen F. McHugh (1994)

Share: | Posted by John on Tuesday September 06, 2005 - 4:57 PM | Category: Books | © 2005 SF Signal

Thank you for listing Sci-Fi all the way back to the 1800s. It seems that there's some cross-over into the Horror genre as well into the Fantasy genre. Very interesting.

Posted by Frances Jaekle on Monday February 19, 2007 at 12:28 AM

Thank you for listing Sci-Fi all the way back to the 1800s. It seems that there's some cross-over into the Horror genre as well into the Fantasy genre. Very interesting.

I don't understand why you wouldn't accept my post now. This is the first time I've seen this web site, the first time I've posted on it.

What's the error I'm supposed to "correct"?

Posted by Frances Jaekle on Monday February 19, 2007 at 12:30 AM

This is weird. Tonight is the first time I've seen this website, thus the first time I've posted, but in red lettering it says my comment submission failed because I'd submitted it twice. I haven't been sitting here long enough to have submitted it twice.

Anyway, thanks for going all the way back to 1800 with your listings.

Posted by on Monday February 19, 2007 at 12:35 AM

Pardon our stuttering comment system. Some people get comments posted twice. You're one of the lucky ones.

Posted by John on Monday February 19, 2007 at 12:51 AM