NPR's Top 100 SF/Fantasy Books - vote for SRD!

[stonemaybe]

Good to see Arthur at #2

[SerScot]

Orlion,

Song of Ice and Fire was ranked a little lower than expected, other than that, no surprise there.

I wonder how many people who voted had actually read The Lord of the Rings.... it just seems like one of those books that everyone will list as a classic but no one has read.

Like Mark Twain says: 'Classic- a book which people praise and don't read.'

And Ender's Game....

I first read LOTR in the 5th Grade. I've read it 11 times since. It is truely a classic.

[aliantha]

BTW, has anyone read the Mists of Avalon? And if so, is it any good?

I read it forever ago. I thought it was good at the time.

[Orlion]

Orlion,

Song of Ice and Fire was ranked a little lower than expected, other than that, no surprise there.

I wonder how many people who voted had actually read The Lord of the Rings.... it just seems like one of those books that everyone will list as a classic but no one has read.

Like Mark Twain says: 'Classic- a book which people praise and don't read.'

And Ender's Game....

I first read LOTR in the 5th Grade. I've read it 11 times since. It is truely a classic.

You waited until 5th Grade? My point, using hyperbole, is that for certain lists, people will often mindlessly default to the 'best'. It's usually insulting to the genre, I think. It implies that there hasn't been any improvements made since, which I don't think is the case, particularly with the scifi/fantasy genre. LotR is an important work, but I would hardly call it the best.

Edit: Gormenghast didn't make the list? Seriously? And it doesn't look like Little, Big is there either.

[danlo]

Dam that's a weird list---I bet half the people voting based 60% of their picks on movie renditions--would Do Andriods? (not a full novel BTW) have made it that high without Bladerunner? I highly doubt it.

Glad to see Snowcrash finish that high. TCTC and Hyperion got shorted. I love Clarke as much as anyone else but Rendezvous with Rama is not the most intense Sc-Fi I've ever read...

[aliantha]

I think you're right about the movie tie-ins. I was struck as I looked over the list that so many of them have been made into movies. Made me wonder how many people voted based on the movie versions.

[SerScot]

Aliantha,

I voted for TCTC as well as ASOIAF. Both because I've enjoyed reading them. Interestingly, my mother bought be the box set of TCTC after I finished LOTR.

[Damelon]

The only thing that surprised me was that Erikson did so poorly. I would have thought, as a recent series, he'd be in the top twenty. My guess would be, from seeing comments about the series over the years, and my own experience with the books, is that Gardens of the Moon is a tough book to get through and it weeds a lot of readers out.

Also, his board must not have been tipped off that there was a poll going on.

[Holsety]

The only thing that surprised me was that Erikson did so poorly. I would have thought, as a recent series, he'd be in the top twenty. My guess would be, from seeing comments about the series over the years, and my own experience with the books, is that Gardens of the Moon is a tough book to get through and it weeds a lot of readers out.

Also, his board must not have been tipped off that there was a poll going on.

I was lucky enough to skip to Deadhouse Gates before I even read Gardens, Damelon!

[aliantha]

SerScot, it wasn't just Game of Thrones -- there were a whole lot more books with movie tie-ins on the list. Nearly all of the Neil Gaiman books that made the list have been made into movies, and several of the Heinlein titles (Starship Troopers, really?). Then there was Frankenstein (which I would argue is more horror than sci-fi, but anyway). And LOTR, most famously, of course -- okay, it's arguably the genesis for the explosion of modern fantasy titles, but I'm sure it got a big boost in votes from the ubiquitous movie versions.

Re Malazan, it's a tough series to get into, as many here can attest. The in media res beginning isn't exactly user friendly. A movie version would really help boost the series' profile, I think.

On another note: Has anybody read Jacqueline Carey? Kushiel's Legacy? I was surprised it made the list -- I've seen it in the bookstore but have never been intrigued enough to pick it up.

[I'm Murrin]

I've read Kushiel's Dart - apart from the courtesan angle, with the sex and BDSM, it's pretty much your bog-standard fantasy plot (though downplay the "fantasy"), and nothing special.

It's not bad, put it that way. And in that part of the genre being not-bad actually does make something exceptional.

[aliantha]

Thanks, Murrin. I've heard all I need to hear.

[[Syl]]

... and several of the Heinlein titles (Starship Troopers, really?).

What's wrong with that? Armor, directly inspired by Troopers, was also on the ballot. It's a good book, better than Stranger in a Strange Land, IMO, if only because of the weird sex cult stuff in the second half.

New Sun at 87, though, now that's a travesty.

[Holsety]

... and several of the Heinlein titles (Starship Troopers, really?).

New Sun at 87, though, now that's a travesty.

Well, maybe it's "better" that most people don't get into Book of the New Sun, but it's definintely one of the ones I would rate first. I really appreciate it now, everything I can remember about it anyways.

[Vraith]

... and several of the Heinlein titles (Starship Troopers, really?).

What's wrong with that? Armor, directly inspired by Troopers, was also on the ballot. It's a good book, better than Stranger in a Strange Land, IMO, if only because of the weird sex cult stuff in the second half.

New Sun at 87, though, now that's a travesty.

BAH! I enjoy me some Heinlein [some of it] but none of it belongs on 100 best ever. [Stanger comes closest because of timing, but still, half his output is immortal redheads with amazing sexual attributes, that is all. Alright.....not quite half.

The Sun books shoulda been much higher.

[aliantha]

I agree that "Stranger" added to the genre. Once he started putting Lazarus Long in every book, tho... Bah. I've complained about Heinlein here before.

[race2three]

Aliantha, I noticed you said that piers anthony "squeaked in" does that mean you do or don't like the xanth books?

SGT, A fellow Conan fan! I loved those REH books. I remember enjoying the elric books back then too. Let me ask you this...do you remember the "Horseclans" series of books? Read them so long ago I can't remember the author's name. I also liked Watership Down. I read it when I was 11 or 12, then again as an adult. Loved it both times. I seem to remember that the author of WD wrote a book called "Shardik" after that...it was about a bear....

[Fist and Faith]

Heinlein has written some of the most useless crap I've ever read. And he's written some of the best stuff I've ever read. Stranger, despite those problems in the last half (Le Guin was not immune to the times, either, throwing the free love experimentation into her stories), is the best of them. TEfL is way up there, too, even if there was no need to throw Lazarus into everything after.

[Damelon]

@neilhimself
Neil Gaiman
If you like making lists or arguing about them, @nprbooks lets you vote here for The Top 100 SF and Fantasy Books n.pr/nFiOKg #fun
2 Aug via Tweet Button

I figured Gaiman must have mentioned it somewhere to be so well represented. He has an immense twitter following, some 1.6 million.

[Cambo]

Strikes me as similar to the Rolling Stone's "Top 100 Albums" list. Kinda useful to find stuff you might want to check out, but nothing more than that.