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 ...).

[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.

[winter-elf.livejournal.com]

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

[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!

[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/

[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.

[moonriddler-mim.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.

[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