NPR Top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy Books

Picking one favorite book is hard. Picking ten is only marginally less so. I also tried to put influential books in there. For example "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and its film version, Blade Runner. While the book itself may not have been so influential, the movie was undeniably so. Neuromancer was also revolutionary. Tolkien got in just on principle. I think I ended up putting in Dune, although it was a difficult choice. While the first book is undeniably a masterpiece, the later books aren't at the same level. Iain M Banks with his Culture novels are also really interesting, much in the same way that Foundation is. It's tough to deal with large time-periods and great distances in space without encountering too many difficulties or stumbling over your own feet.

~Freitag

What, you didn't like God Emperor of Dune?

We will, of course, for the purpose of this thread, assume that no one besides Frank Herbert ever wrote anything about Dune.

While I am disappointed that the Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs didn't make the list, most of my other favorites are present. I didn't go so much for "influential books" and just picked my personal favorites.

God Emperor was excellent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smersh We will, of course, for the purpose of this thread, assume that no one besides Frank Herbert ever wrote anything about Dune.

Indeed. Never read any of Brian's Dune stuff.

Yay, the Zahn trilogy was on there. I enjoyed the star wars EU for quite a while (until the NJO, anyway), but I can't say I'd put any of them on a list of 'top 100' books - except the Zahn trilogy. Many of the other EU books were quite good, but none of them feel like 'star wars' as much as the Zahn trilogy.

There were some tough choices on there, even though I haven't actually read a lot of those - even for just the ones I had read it was tough to narrow it down. Especially since I felt I had to toss votes towards a couple of my favorite authors, even if I'm not sure their stuff really qualifies as 'top 10 ever' when stacked up alongside all those classics.

Rather surprised they chose 'Basilisk Station' to represent Weber's honorverse series. I suppose it's because you *really* can't jump into that series in the middle, but I definitely wouldn't call it the best of the bunch. I'm also surprised at the inclusion of the Silmarillion on that list - it's definitely interesting for a Tolkien fan, but it doesn't really compare with LotR in terms of influence or storytelling, in my opinion.

Frankenstein
LOTR
Ringworld
1984
(wanted to, but had no room for LeftHand)
HHGTTG
Foundation
20k under the sea
Going Postal

and 2 more I cant remember.... I voted on things I have read that I felt have been fomative to scifi/fantasy since they were written. These I felt were not only good books or series, but books or series that made a major dent in what was being written, both then and now. I had to take Dune out and replace it with Ringworld because I felt Ringworld had more impact. Admittedly, neither HHGTTG nor Going Postal are traditional books; however, Terry Pratchett has made a LOT of money with a unique writing style and content that has not been reproduced anywhere, with Douglas Adams in the same vein but through SciFi instead of fantasy. Both writers have produced seminal content that accurately describes an entire culture, uniquely, through this medium. To leave them out I think would have been a sin against modern content. Neil Gaiman also would have been someone I would have voted for, but 10 votes doesn't go very far...

Ouch. That was painful to narrow down. I just voted against some books I really respect and some authors I really love, but ten votes doesn't go far. I chose to focus on the books that helped make me who I am, regardless of their impact on the field of literature or the world as a whole. I owe my sense of humor to Douglas Adams, and my wedding ring to Thomas Covenent.

Some series I voted against because they made it the whole series. I may have loved the first book or three, but I so hated the rest of them that I couldn't bring myself to vote for the series as a whole. But then two of Pratchett's Discworld books showed up independently, but not the series as a whole? That seemed odd. I'm sorry they had Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series which I never read instead of his Dresden books, which I love.

I started by going down the list clicking on books that I know and liked. Somewhere around the Fs I hit the "sorry, only ten books please" thing and gave up. :P

It might have helped if there had been some way to see the whole list at once so I could have picked and chosen, "Ok, so Animal Farm is out in favor of Do Androids Dream...*", but just scrolling back and forth would have driven me up a wall... and no doubt I'd still be there trying to decide.

*PKD has to be in there somewhere. Period.

I picked not necessarily what I thought were the best but what I loved and have found that many other people haven't heard of. I've actually been shocked by how few people have read Armor which is in my opinion the absolute best powered armor book out there.

Plus I picked the Acts of Caine series. Again almost nobody I've introduced it to had even heard of Stover. Dhalgren, Steel Beach, etc... I believe in promote the unknown, not promote the well known.

I think there should be more love for Frankenstein. It sets up many of the themes that resonate throughout SF's history, from fascination with, to mistrust of, science to musings about the cost (ethical an otherwise) of technology. And it's nothing like its pop culture representations in movies and film.

Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is another oft-overlooked book that casts an outsized shadow over SF history, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamyatin .

The Shockwave Rider and Mirrorshades should also be in the list (FWIW, I'd chop Spider Robinson's works, and, yes, I've read them). Shockwave Rider for being ahead of its time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockwave_Rider), and Mirrorshades for showing early works of a handful of writers whose later work was included in the list.

For giggles, I'd include The Monk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monk) and Northanger Abbey, because, unless I'm horribly mistaken, the list doesn't include Gothic novels. Or a book that lovingly satirized the style, in much the same way Pratchett satirizes fantasy with characters like Cohen the Barbarian.

Difficult, very difficult.

I was very pleased to see that Bridge of Birds was an option. That and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress were the only choices I didn't struggle with.

It's a pity that none of P. C. Hodgell's work made the list. She's not very well-known and has struggled with shifting publishers, but her Kencyrath books are brilliant--dark, complex fantasy that still manages to maintain a quirky sense of humor.

The most difficult part for me was trying to find the last three of ten. I ended up choosing three that I liked but wouldn't necessarily have put in a top 10/100 list.

Lovely. Boards ate my well reasoned post.

Anyway, some great books on that list I have forgotten. I only really read the first three Stainless Steel Rat books (tried a later book where he had kids and it didn't seem right), but it was fun to read. Lot of books like that on the list, though... they're fun, but I don't know if I could put them in the top 100. Seemed like way too much Neil Gaiman for how recent he has been as well... seemed like the majority of his books are on there. I like Gaiman and all, but I wouldn't put so many of his books in a top 100 list.

Some odd missing ones, too. They have CS Lewis's Space Trilogy but not The Chronicles of Narnia, which seems criminal. Same thing for Diana Wynn Jones (I've only read Howl's Moiving Castle, but that is an excellent book) and JK Rowling.

I had some lesser known ones on my list, though. Armor by John Steakley has always impressed me since I heard Orson Scott Card mention it, for instance. Ender's Game had to be on the list, as did LOTR. I wanted to pick an Asimov, but I couldn't choose one (just can never get into him). Fahrenheit 451 was the Bradbury pick for me. Tough to narrow it down, though, that's for sure.

I guess my biggest issue with the list is one of principle. There are so many great works of Science Fiction, and so many great works of Fantasty that have been written. The two are so often lumped together, but I personally think they're different. It might be better to have a Science Fiction 10/100 list, and a Fantasy 10/100 list. that would certainly have made picking easier for me.

~Freitag