on sf/f

[xparrot]

Meme from snarkydame - NPR's list of the top 100 sci-fi/fantasy books, as voted on by 60,000 people. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you've partly read, italicize the ones you intend to read, and strike the ones you will never read.

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
22. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
23. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
24. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
25. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
26. The Stand, by Stephen King
27. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
28. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
29. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
31. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
32. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once and Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan the Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book of the Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldon
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

It's a weird list, I must say. They didn't allow "YA fiction", which explains some of the most noticeable absences (Earthsea is YA? um, why? because it's short?), and I'm betting no manga either (even though there are 2 comic books), but even besides that, I don't get why there are individual books from series and then whole series. Not to mention Neal Stephenson's on there 4 times while neither Octavia Butler nor CJ Cherryh appears once. And Codex Alera instead of Dresden Files? The heck? I don't know anyone who's read the former who hasn't read the latter - and I've yet to meet a single person that has read CA that doesn't believe Dresden Files is far superior...

That being said...yeah, I read a lot of scifi back in my high school years; about half the books marked on here I read then. Quite a few of them I doubt I could read now without flipping out...I used to be much more capable of enduring/ignoring things like blatant sexism. Ah, the freedom of youth...

Comments

[sholio]

I'm always too lazy to actually do these memes, but I counted the ones I've read (or, if it's a series, read at least one book in it) and it looks like just about half of them ... which was kind of a surprise to me, because I always thought I was more widely read in SF/fantasy than that. Having said that - like you, the vast majority was when I was in my teens; a lot of these books I either never got my hands on, or didn't appeal to a 13-year-old, or weren't published in 1990 ...

... and yeah, it's a weird list. Codex Alera but no Dresden Files is just bizarre (and it's not like urban fantasy is excluded from their definition of fantasy, since Sunshine made the list). THOMAS COVENANT, WHYYYYY do those books appear on every list of "classic" sf/fantasy that I've ever seen. *pauses for a moment to hate them again* And the way they mix series with individual books from series is equally weird (Xanth is listed as one item, but there are multiple Discworld books, etc ...).

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I've never been as wide-read in fantasy as SF, so I'm not surprised by what I was missing (though I was a bit surprised that there were a few books/authors I've never even heard of, might have to look some of those up...)

A commenter below explained more what their inclusion/exclusion policy was, theorizing that Dresden may have gotten booted for being "horror"? because of the vampires? But with Sunshine on there...it's pretty arbitrary!

[snarkydame.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some of those books look like ones I might have read in school, if I'd taken more literature classes instead of writing workshops. Or if I wasn't more interested in reading other sci/fi fantasy books at the time. I have at least heard of most of them, but several of them I have heard . . . less then complimentary things about. Or they're written by someone whose politics/personality have just ruined their books for me (Orson Scott Card, I'm looking at you) or were recommended by someone whose taste I find questionable (sorry Brave New World, nothing personal, but he put you in the same breath as Atlas Shrugged, and I HATE that book.)

Which I suppose illustrates the point -- these lists are so subject to the tastes/experiences of the voters (or really, not so much the voters as the ones who submit the works to be voted on) And really, when you have 50,000 people submitting their favorite books, objectivity sort of goes out the window.
It makes me want to write up my own list -- it would be more of a favorites list than a 'best of' list, since I know very well that some of my favorites are not, objectively, "great" books. And a very high percentage of the books I love are parts of series, so I'd have to be consistent with that.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

OSC was my favorite author when I was in high school; I read pretty much all his early work. Still bitter with him for being/going all crazy bigot on me >.<

I have such a hard time choosing my favorites, but if I had a whole list, and didn't try to put them in any kind of order...though it would be weird because a lot of the books I loved in HS I probably couldn't bear to read now (OSC, and I also liked Heinlein...) so I'd be torn either way...!

[snarkydame.livejournal.com]

OSC was one of the first adult scifi authors I can remember reading -- some of his books were ones I used to "borrow-without-telling" from my older brother. I remember liking them, but not being hooked --I suspect I was actually too young for them at that point. And then by the time I might have picked them up again, OSC revealed himself to be an asshat. I'm usually good about separating an authors personal lives from their work, but there is a limit to that.

I can never narrow down my "favorites" to just a few either -- especially books! It is tempting to make a list though. Hmmm. Maybe I will!

[winter-elf.livejournal.com]

yea, that list is definately strange. No Andre Norton? really? wow. I also agree with CJ Cherryh missing.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

There's a definite bias against female authors - I don't think it was deliberate, but yeah, SF is still a boys' club for a lot of fans >.>

[gnine.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if it's cause Dresden is Urban Fantasy? I mean, Sunshine made it, but I can't clearly remember, but isn't that one more AU, while Dresden is straight UF? I don't know...but yeah, it is a bizarre list!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

That's what a commenter theorizes below, but really, urban fantasy is fantasy, not horror, so it should be on here!

[dhrachth.livejournal.com]

I noticed you've got the Vorkosigian Saga italicized. It's one of my personal favorites and when you get around to it I don't think you'll be disappointed. And, just in case you've not seen this, Baen has put out almost the whole series out as free eBooks, here: http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/24-CryoburnCD/CryoburnCD/

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Oooh! One of the main reasons I haven't read Bujold yet is because I wanted to get hold of the whole series before I started (once I get going I don't like to stop!) - didn't know about the ebooks, but I love reading on my Kindle, so thanks much for letting me know! (Hmm, now I just gotta figure out where to start; I've heard some say that the early books chronologically can be slow, better to start nearer the middle...)

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

Hmm, now I just gotta figure out where to start; I've heard some say that the early books chronologically can be slow, better to start nearer the middle...

I wouldn't recommend it (depending on what you're thinking of as the middle). Start with Shards of Honor (the first book, the story of how Miles' parents met) or The Warriors' Apprentice (the first Miles book, which sets up a lot of things for the series as a whole). Barrayar, set right after Shards, is one of my favorite books ever, but it won't hurt anything to read it later (it was published mid-series). Falling Free and Ethan of Athos are side stories set in the same universe, so while I would certainly recommend them both it doesn't matter when you read them.

Aside from that, there are reasonable arguments for reading in publication order or internal chronology order, but I'd pick one and go with it; there's a fair amount of continuing story. And definitely don't start after Brothers in Arms; that one's really important to later books.

...I should point out that I'm coming from a viewpoint that none of the books are less than "good", and my two least favorites were published fairly late. So this isn't a recommendation to eat your vegetables before you have dessert, or anything. :)

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

According to them, they handled series this way: "In general, works that tell a more or less continuous story are listed collectively (e.g., "The Song of Ice and Fire"). In cases where connections among series members are looser, we tended to list some of the more prominent titles in the run (e.g., Small Gods, a "Discworld" novel)." Which more or less makes sense, looking at the books listed, though I'm a little surprised that "Going Postal" was the #2 Discworld novel (not that I don't love it to death, but I would have expected, say, "Night Watch").

Urban fantasy is not excluded by the rules, but "horror" and "paranormal romance" are, and I'm wondering if some really elastic definition of one of them disqualified The Dresden Files. Because, yeah, there's no way Codex Alera got on the list and DF didn't unless it was specifically excluded.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, I see! It still looks somewhat arbitrary to me (the original Pern trilogy are at least as closely linked as the Dune series...)

...I need to read the Watch books of Discworld! (I've only read a random selection of Pratchett; I really need to find someone I can borrow the whole series from somehow...)

And yeah, maybe that's why they excluded Dresden, but I think they were just being petty; it's definitely fantasy, not horror or romance, even if there are vampires! (and Sunshine is both horror and paranormal romance! I'm guessing the list-makers just weren't familiar with that one :P)

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

And yeah, maybe that's why they excluded Dresden, but I think they were just being petty; it's definitely fantasy, not horror or romance, even if there are vampires! (and Sunshine is both horror and paranormal romance! I'm guessing the list-makers just weren't familiar with that one :P)

Oh, I think you're right about that; I was just trying to figure out how, given their stated rules, they could possibly have been excluding The Dresden Files. It would be cool if they'd said "we're not doing urban fantasy because we're going to have a separate list for that one," but that's not what they said.

And re: their not having read Sunshine, here's their blurb for it: "All hope for stopping the vampiric elite from controlling Earth depends on human SOFs (Special Other Forces) and the success of their attempt to recruit Sunshine, the daughter of legendary sorcerer Onyx Blaise." Which does sound suspiciously like someone working off a brief plot description.

Also, if it helps any, C.J. Cherryh and Octavia Butler had four entries each on the finalist list. So people did think of them, they just...didn't vote for them.

[moonriddler-mim.livejournal.com]

does it count if I've seen the movies? ^_^;

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

*laughs* 50%? Maybe there should be a different marking - put 'em in quotes or something ^^

[nenya85.livejournal.com]

Lists are so much fun – mainly because you get to say – who picked that?

I have to question though any list that ranks the Shanara trilogy above the Dispossessed (one of my all time favorite in a take to a desert island way books) although they did score points by including Vonnengut. The thing that struck me is how old most of the old most of the books on the list are. Except for the plentiful Neil Gaiman, I’m not sure how different the list looks from one that would have been compiled when I was in college myself, which is kind of disconcerting.

I agree with you about the lack of YA books – no Harry Potter was the one that leapt to my mind. Not to mention that I always thought of Stardust as a YA book – at least it’s sold in that section (I just bought it) in my local B & N. Only one Connie Willis and no Michelle West were my pet peeves, and while they do have the Mists of Avalon (my least favorite MZ Bradley novel) nothing from the Darkover series. And I would have loved to see Joanna Russ’ The Female Man but I guess that would have been too much to expect.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Some of the Neal Stephenson is from fairly recently, too, I think? But yeah, they're mostly recent. And the lack of YA is bizarre, because really, who decides these things? If a significant chunk of adult readers are reading them, doesn't that make them adult literature? :P

Never read any MZB - and I've never heard of The Female Man, but now I'm curious!

[nenya85.livejournal.com]

Ack! Took a while to answer. “The Female Man” is one of those books I read and loved in college and would like to read again to see if it holds up or seems dated. It was one of the main books in a female sci-fi writer wave from the 1970s. It’s basically an alternative worlds story about three or four women from different timelines and you kind of have to figure out what they have in common.

They recently reprinted “The Forever War” too – I re-bought that one although I haven’t read it yet mainly because I was talking to someone younger who didn’t automatically see it as being about the Viet Nam war, and of course when I read it, no one thought it was about anything else, so it would be interesting to read years later.

Marion Zimmer Bradley, before the King Arthur stuff, wrote series (to use the word loosely) of books about this planet, Darkover, where the elite have telepathic/telekinesis/telewhatever powers. As a series it’s sprawling, wildly uneven and has massive continuity problems because it started out as your standard barbarian, blithely sexist and that’s okay world being rediscovered, then at some point MZB realized she could do a lot more interesting things so the later books in terms of theme, depth, etc. bear little relation to the earlier ones. The later ones are really heavy handed though from what I remember in the way a lot of 1970s sci fi was – it wasn’t a message unless they hit you over the head with it.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I've heard of Darkover, but knew nothing about it except that it was a fantasy series. Not sure if it's something I'm in the mood for right now, but might check some of it out...

[dhrachth.livejournal.com]

The first one chronologically is Cordelia's Honor, which is a good book (or two books in one anthology), but it's about Miles's parents and Miles is the star of all the others. Personally, I love Cordelia and always start with her book for a reread, but I could see some people really liking Miles more than his mother or vice versa, in which case it's not a really good test of the series.

If you want to jump right into the Miles books I'd suggest starting with Young Miles (The Warrior's Apprentice is the first book in the anthology), which is chronologically the first Miles book and has some things that are referenced through out the series that you probably don't want to miss.

FYI: The only book missing from the free ones is Memory, which is an important book for the series but book 9 chronologically and also a ways in for publication order too.

Oops! Hit the wrong button. This was supposed to be a reply to the Vorkosigian series read order.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I was guessing! ^^

Yeah, I think I know some folks who were bored with Cordelia's story - I might try starting with Warrior's Apprentice and then go back to Cordelia, or I might go in order, will see! I've got them all on my Kindle now, at least, and looking forward to reading when I get the chance ^_^

[jlvsclrk.livejournal.com]

Personally, I LOVE Cordelia's stories and was bored silly by some parts of the early Miles novels. He was such a boy at first, whereas she was always a BAMF. Miles really started growing on me though, and I love the universe that Bujold has created.

[lady-karasu.livejournal.com]

I had forgotten some of these books existed. Huh.

I never do these lists because I loose intereste halfway through the coding - but I always like to look at other peoples and see what we've read in common. (Or think - wow, I read that at one point and didn't pull my hair out - how did I manage that? Depending on the book)

On a Semi-related note, I was quite happy to see another Discworld novel is coming out this year. Kind of very addicted to that series.

And on a completely unrelated note - I don't know if you've gotten into Sherlock BBC or not yet (if not, it is amazing, and I'm sure Naye will back me up on this), but this fic made me think of you, being all hypothermia-ish and all. ;) Of the tame life-not-quite-in-danger sort of variety, though. http://libraryofsol.livejournal.com/152429.html#cutid1

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Heh - coding is easier when you're using a client; then you can just select & ctrl+b ^^

Discworld is one of those series I really need to read all of, sometime - need to find someone I can borrow it all from! XD

And I watched Sherlock when it aired, just wasn't enough for me to get into fannishly...maybe the new eps next year, though! I do find it a little weird, though, I've been into Sherlock Holmes since long before I'd heard of fanfic or fandom...

[lady-karasu.livejournal.com]

Heh - coding is easier when you're using a client; then you can just select & ctrl+b

*laughs* I imagine it would. Cheater... ;)

If you were closer, I'd let you borrow my set. I have the whole thing in paperback now, and am collecting what I can in hardback (because I have become a big bibliophile since I started reading it, and am collecting everything I *really* like in hardback) It is so very, very good.

As for Sherlock - I have no idea why it hit me this hard - even being a huge Sherlock Holmes fan from Waaaaay back. I know it didn't at the start: I enjoyed it, was excited about the series being done, but didn't go all fannish. I think it was when I stumbled across this (which I hadn't actually been looking for): http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6581089/1/How_To_Accidentally_Summon_a_Demon and http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6253167/1/A_Brief_Account_Of_Life_With_Zombies, and that made me cackle. I'm not actualy sure how it progressed from there (except that I started listening to podfic at work out of sheer bordom after running out of interesting audiobooks), but I'm pretty sure that was the turning point. I had been avoiding fandom before that. Still, not complaining. Except that I would like the next season already.

[lady-karasu.livejournal.com]

Mind my spelling - my keyboard has been sticking since I had the laptop in the kitchen that once; drops letters when I'm typing sometimes (and spaces, but it looks like I'm clear for that this time...)