“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Rankings of Hard Science Fiction Novels
As of Aug. 2020, this list merges the following internet lists that include books commonly tagged as or near 'hard science fiction': Hugo, BSFA, NPR 2011 SF & Fantasy, Arthur C. Clarke Award, Reddit Fantasy 100 List, Goodreads SF/Fa Top 300, Misc. Internet Lists, Locus Fantasy Award, Nebula, Locus Scifi Awad, Hugo (Retro), Reddit Best Scifi List, Top 200 Sci-Fi Books, Top 100 Sci-Fi Books [double counted with Top 200 Sci-Fi Books, given that it is a meta list itself].
Of the top 100 here, I have consumed about ~75% in some form (85%+ by reading) and of the top 250 about ~50%.
Ignoring the top 10, I've included a column of "Tim's opinions about whether this book is notably underrated/overrated *relative to this list*."
🦄 Fantasy Bonus
This is the break out of "books that are sometimes tagged as fantasy that were also in best of scifi lists."
Disclaimer: I've only read about 30% of these books, and I'm not a connoisseur of fantasy, so any underrated/overrated tags should heavily discounted and understood as "in relation to lists optimizing for hard scifi."