Modern SF Masterpieces?

The website Giant Freakin Robot has come out with a list of 10 Modern Must-Read Sci-Fi Masterpieces.

The list is:

1. The Dark Tower (1982 – 2004) by Stephen King
2. Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson
3. Ender’s Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card
4. The Liaden Universe (1988 – 2010) by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
5. Hyperion Cantos (1989 – 1997) by Dan Simmons
6. Jurassic Park (1990) by Michael Crichton
7. On Basilisk Station (1992) by David Weber
8. The Time Ships (1995) by Stephen Baxter
9. A Deepness in the Sky (1999) by Vernor Vinge
10. Ready Player One (2011) by Ernest Cline

This is not a terrible list. I am a big fan of Enders' Game, Dan Simmons's Hyperion novels, and everything written by Vernor Vinge. Crichton's Jurassic Park has certainly had a huge impact.

But it is not a great list. I was less than impressed with the inclusion of Weber's perfectly decent but not exactly classic On Basilisk Station or Cline's Ready Player One which, although I loved it, primarily for reasons of nostalgia, is far from a classic of the genre.

The surprising thing about the list is that, with the exception of one co-authored work, there are no women and without exception there are no people of color. This despite the fact that are many many worthy candidates. Octavia Butler doesn't make an appearance? That is crazy. No Connie Willis? No C.J. Cherryh? No Julian May? How is that possible? Is the writer of the article just that clueless? Is their reading list that narrow? Or were they deliberately trying to focus on white men?

Social media has, predictably and deservedly, picked up on this slight. Although I am often critical of the tendency to complain about a lack of diversity in everything, and the twitter uproar that follows, I am in complete agreement on this one.