Kevin's Watch

National Public Radio is hosting a contest to pick the top 100 sci-fi/fantasy books of all time. You can vote for 10 titles. (They've lumped most series together, which helps. ) The Chrons, the GAP Cycle, and Mordant's Need are all finalists. Our mission is clear.

Here's where to vote: www.npr.org/2011/08/02/138894873/vote-f ... asy-titles

I've done my bit.

Go SRD!

Went for:
The Book of the New Sun
Cat's Cradle
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
The Hitchhiker's Guide
The Malazan Book of the Fallen
Neuromancer
The Prince of Nothing
The Road
Song for the Basilisk
Starship Troopers

I was happy to see Armor on the list, but decided the spot was better served by Troopers. I would've preferred The Book of Atrix Wolfe for McKillip, but Basilisk was still good. I wanted to vote for Pratchett, but Going Postal? Thief of Time would've been an easy choice, and Good Omens almost as good, but Postal was just a little too political for me. Left off Tolkien since I don't think it really needs my vote. Also surprised Haruki Murakami didn't make the list.

I voted yesterday; had a hard time picknig favourites, so decided to spread my votes around and cover a variety of types. Can't remember exactly what I voted, think it was:

- A Clockwork Orange
- House of Leaves
- Chronicles of Amber
- The Scar
- Frankenstein
- Gormenghast
- A Song of Ice and Fire


And I'm not sure about the rest. I dithered over Pratchett's Small Gods for a while but don't know if I voted. I may have gone for the Gap series in the end, but again, not sure.

To be honest I feel like I haven't read anywhere near enough of the list to make a real decision.


Edit: Wait, I just realised which forum this is in. /shakesfist

I voted these. Chose all the SRD ones as I wouldn't be voting at all if I wasn't on this site.

The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant
The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
The Gap Series
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
Mordant's Need
The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell
The Uplift Saga by David Brin

Syl/Quote/Gunslinger,

This was also on the list:

Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End of The World, by Haruki Murakami

(I missed the Julian May saga which I would have voted for. It's a long list!)

Quite a few titles there that I wouldn't really classify as sci-fi or fantasy e.g. 'Brave New World', 'A Clockwork Orange', '1984'; more dystopias rather than sci-fi/fantasy, IMO.

u.

Did my bit, even commented.
I ended up choosing by just counting how many times I've reread.

Ahh, I missed that one. Wouldn't have voted for it anyway. Either Wild Sheep Chase or, of course, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. Heck, maybe even Kafka on the Shore.

Quite a few titles there that I wouldn't really classify as sci-fi or fantasy e.g. 'Brave New World', 'A Clockwork Orange', '1984'; more dystopias rather than sci-fi/fantasy, IMO.

Add The Handmaid's Tale to that list.

Murrin, Frankenstein? Are we talking literary significance or personal enjoyment? I really need to read House of Leaves one of these days, though.

Now you mention it, I think I took Frankenstein off for something else, because while I enjoyed it I didn't enjoy it to that extent. I spent a while deliberating and can't quite remember.

House of Leaves, well, I'm just very easy to sell metatextual experimentation to, so I loved it.

Animal Farm
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
The Culture Series
The Hyperion Cantos
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Mordant's Need
Rendezvous With Rama
The Silmarillion
A Song of Ice and Fire Series
The Uplift Saga

Thought a bit on submitting The Kingkiller Chrioncles for The Uplift Saga and The Forever War with Rendezvous with Rama.

The app wouldn't load for me at work, so I had to wait to vote 'til tonight.

American Gods
The Chrons
The Eyre Affair
Fahrenheit 451
The Foundation Trilogy
The Handmaid's Tale
Malazan
Mordant's Need
Slaughterhouse-Five
Song for the Basilisk (which happens to be my favorite McKillip )

I had a number of also-rans:

1984
The City and the City/Perdido Street Station (I would've voted for only one)
Doomsday Book
The Farseer Trilogy
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Princess Bride
Sirens of Titan
Stranger in a Strange Land/Time Enough for Love (I would've voted for only one)
and the classics -- Tolkien, Orwell, H.G. Wells, etc.

Gods, I can't remember now (jet lag)
All the SRD series
Uplift
Hyperion
Snow Crash
Culture
The Stars, My Destination
A Song of Ice and fire
The Difference Engine (Gibson & Sterling)

...and, of course, I complained that Zindell and Walter Jon Williams weren't on the list... Too hard to choose, too many good choices...

American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Chronicles - SRD
Conan - REH
Dark Tower - King
LotR - Tolkien
Once & Future King - White
Sandman - Gaiman
the Stand - King
Watership Down - Adams
World War Z - Brooks

took awhile agonizing, could have doubled the list easily.

Yeah. "Whaddya mean, I can only vote for 10??"

aliantha wrote: The Foundation Trilogy

Had I noticed it, I probably would have found a place for that one.

Damelon wrote:

aliantha wrote: The Foundation Trilogy

Had I noticed it, I probably would have found a place for that one.

Some of the robot books were on the list as well, but not as a series.

I found myself voting for authors as opposed to individual books ("hmm, which Vonnegut should I vote for?").

I left out a bunch of the classics because I figure they'll get enough votes without my help....

I was saddened to see only Dragonflight of the Pern series made it, but at least one is listed. There were a lot of books I had to skip over to include it, but include it I did.

Some people are never satisfied. I was reading the comments section over there and got annoyed, so posted the following:

I have great news for some of you. "Dark Materials," "Harry Potter," and "Wrinkle in Time" are fighting it out for numbers 1,2, and 3 in the "Evil Goatee Parallel Universe" seen in Star Trek. Which is as it should be. No good universe would put them in the top million.

I wonder if NPR will delete it, or simply let me be abused? I hope the latter. [heh..."That's okay man, cuz I like the abuse!"]
[ok...sometimes I exaggerate...maybe they do belong in the top million].

Vraith wrote:Some people are never satisfied. I was reading the comments section over there and got annoyed, so posted the following:

I have great news for some of you. "Dark Materials," "Harry Potter," and "Wrinkle in Time" are fighting it out for numbers 1,2, and 3 in the "Evil Goatee Parallel Universe" seen in Star Trek. Which is as it should be. No good universe would put them in the top million.

I wonder if NPR will delete it, or simply let me be abused? I hope the latter. [heh..."That's okay man, cuz I like the abuse!"]
[ok...sometimes I exaggerate...maybe they do belong in the top million].

I just recommended that comment I'm glad Harry Potter wasn't on the list... for obvious "popularity contest" reasons... A Wrinkle in Time is a little odd being absent, but "His Dark Materials" was just terrible. Pullman may think he's some sort of Blake/Milton scholar turning things on its head, but he's mostly an idiot.

Orlion wrote:"His Dark Materials" was just terrible. Pullman may think he's some sort of Blake/Milton scholar turning things on its head, but he's mostly an idiot.

God, I am starting to like you a lot, O. The Milton comment matches perfectly, cuz I just realized when you said it that Pullman's writing reminds me almost exactly of a guy from grad school who quoted spark notes in a class on Milton [without attribution even...he pretended it was his own]
Wait....did I already like you a lot? did you once quote one of my lines in your sig, and inspire me to write the "Sig-man" song? [which even Cail liked...and that carries serious weight around the watch].

The comments about how stupid npr was for the choices on the list annoyed me even more...cuz they selected by votes...but I couldn't think of anything brief yet funny yet insulting enough to post.

Vraith wrote:

Orlion wrote:"His Dark Materials" was just terrible. Pullman may think he's some sort of Blake/Milton scholar turning things on its head, but he's mostly an idiot.

God, I am starting to like you a lot, O. The Milton comment matches perfectly, cuz I just realized when you said it that Pullman's writing reminds me almost exactly of a guy from grad school who quoted spark notes in a class on Milton [without attribution even...he pretended it was his own]
Wait....did I already like you a lot? did you once quote one of my lines in your sig, and inspire me to write the "Sig-man" song? [which even Cail liked...and that carries serious weight around the watch].

The comments about how stupid npr was for the choices on the list annoyed me even more...cuz they selected by votes...but I couldn't think of anything brief yet funny yet insulting enough to post.

Everybody likes me a lot

Yeah, Pullman reminds me more of that douche in high school that tries to make everyone be amazed at how deep and artful his prose is and will crow at the very little that he accomplishes.