[ 
Mood: Confused ]
[ 
Currently: Watching Triumph of the Nerds ]
This one is a little more reflective, but not in a silver coated glass kinda way.
Top 13 3/2 most influential genre novels/novellas/short stories/if it’s published on paper it counts, things ever.
This is not a list of favorite, most popular, or any ones opinion of best. The main criteria for inclusion on this list is a works influence and effect on other writers, movies, etc.
1. 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. It was the first Science Fiction blockbuster. Combining interesting characters, political commentary, an exciting story and "future science" it is the Adam of all that is genre.
2.War of the Worlds Another first, while intended as a social commentary on British Imperialism, it was the first of the alien invasions and like 20,000 it is as readable and relevant now as it was a century ago.
3.Frankenstien, Mary Shelly Not the first "monster story" by any means, but one of the most influential "man shouldn’t play at being god" or "somethings are better left alone" stories.
4. The Revelation of Jesus the Christ to the Apostle John, aka: Revelations:New Testament This little epistle told BILLIONS of people that the world as we know it will end, and the end will be violent and nasty and unavoidable, but it did hint at a happy note after a whole lot of famine,plague,war,gnashing of teeth.
5a. Various works of Robert E. Howard OK, so I’m to lazy to pick out a particular opus, and a lot of his stuff was in serialized form. But I give him credit for the modern(from a publication point of view)action adventure hero and the "sword and sorcery" genre.
5b. Various works of H.P. Lovecraft Howard and Lovecraft were closely linked in real life so I had to closely link them in my list. As to why he is influential, if you don’t know, you are on the wrong site.
5c.Weird Tales,Ed:Edwin Baird,Farnsworth Wright,Dorothy McIlwraith,et.al. Besides introducing the world to the works of 5a. and 5b.
they were also responsible for the introduction of Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Fritz Leiber, and several hundred others who, without that first check would have taken up a career in garbage collection or politics.
6.John W. Campbell and Astounding Science Fiction Primarily, he/it gets credit similar to Weird Tales. Astounding gave us Asimov, A. E. van Vogt, Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, et al. but he also wrote himself "Who goes There?" which would become "The Thing" Kurt Russell’s peak as an actor.
7.Dracula by Bram Stoker Thee mother of all vampire stories. Enough said.
8.1984, George Orwell Not the first dystopian novel, nor the best, but the most read and referenced of all dystopian/government out of control stories.
9.The Lord of the Rings:A novelization by Joe Crowe OK, so I really mean the books by that JJR guy. Fantasy has been around in one form or another since quill was put to papyrus. JJR gave us the epic form in a modern tone. It was readable and fun. But most importantly, he gave depth to the secondary characters and minor figures that is still missing from more contemporary works. You empathized with Eowyn, laughed at/with Merry/Pippin, pitied Golum etc. It wasn’t all black hats and white hats.
10. The Time Machine Time travel introduced to the popular masses.
11.The works of Phillip K. Dick Besides having the most R rated names in sci-fi, he wrote cyberpunk before there was cyber or punk.
12.Dune, Frank Herbert Howard and Lovecraft created universes but Herbert took it to an entirely new level. Combining religious, political, social,evolutionary, and sexual equality commintary into a single massive opus that somehow still manages to be fast paced, well written and character driven. He set the standard for the massive universe creating political-intrigue sci-fi novel. Check that, he created something that no one has come even close to.
13.The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli OK, not a genre work, but it sure as hell influenced a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, particularly Tolkien, Asimov(by his own admission), PK Dick, Heinlein,King (Dark Tower) and numerous others.
This is my list. I decided to list 15 because, well I didn’t decide so much as get tired. So feel free to add/insert/extend anyone I missed just don’t give me a bunch of guy at #4 should have been at #x because the actual ranking are tenuous at best.
And why does tenuous have 2 U’s, that just too many obscure vowels for one word.