What an outstanding book.
Nothing by Alfred Bester?
Enders Game......ug.
Please send Freepmail to get on or off this rarely-used list.
many of these books are crap, but there are some I don’t know about which may be a nice read.
The Lord of the Rings is #1.
As it should be.
1
The Lord Of The Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Tolkien’s seminal three-volume epic chronicles the War of the Ring, in which Frodo the hobbit and his companions set out to destroy the evil Ring of Power and restore peace to Middle-earth. The beloved trilogy still casts a long shadow, having established some of the most familiar and enduring tropes in fantasy literature.
bump.
Forever War & The Mote in Gods Eye are very good.
I think the top ten is solid except for the omission of Heinlein and the inclusion of the nihilistic Douglas Adams. Considering it’s NPR, the list is not bad at all.
There are a few eyeroll choices, and the descriptions are very tendentious (Starship Troopers is “controversial” yet man-hating The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t “controversial” at all)
I don’t read that many science fiction books anymore (well like 0) but I’ve read 7 of the top 10.
The Wheel Of Time Series
by Robert Jordan
At 13 volumes and counting, this sweeping — some would say sprawling – richly imagined epic chronicles the struggle between servants of the Dark One and those of the champion of light known as the Dragon Reborn.
Would probably be in the top 5 if Jordan would have kept the series at his originally planned 5 books. The first 4 books were some of the best fantasy I've read since Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, under pressure from his publisher to keep a successful series going, Jordan kept agreeing to extend the storyline, first to 7, then to 10, then to 12 books, he actually died before book 11 and another author has taken over, which I believe the new author has agreed to ANOTHER 3 books. (I gave up after #10.) Unfortunately, Jordan's original story line never changed from his original plan, so most of the content from book 6-10 are essentially "fluff" and the core story moves at a snails pace. To put it into context, Imagine if J.K. Rowlings would have agreed to extend the Harry Potter series from 7 to 14 books. However, the story didn't really change, she just "padded" the original 7 books with pages of detailed descriptions of Hogwarts, dozens of characters that are only vaguely related to the story and many pointless story arcs not remotely related to the main plot.
What an outstanding book.
Nothing by Alfred Bester?
While we're at it, the Iliad and the Odysee would fit right in.
Notice they didn’t include ‘young adult’ but I just finished the Hunger Games trilogy and loved it. It contained no bad language or gratuitous sexual imagery. It posed valid reasons for war, and against it, leaving the reader to determine whether it was worth it or not. And the main characters, Katniss, Peeta and Gale, were outside of the box, atypical main characters. LOVED each of the books!!!
Not to mention America could be Panem any day now.; )
Zero’s autobiography isn’t there.
Some list...feh.
bkmk
Yea, Neal Stephenson. Four times. I’ve read everything he ever wrote. Not so sure about Anathem though.
Watchmen over I, Robot?
That’s... that’s a bold statement.
Sci-fi ping.
The Mote In God's Eye
by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
The accidental killing of a group of emissaries to Earth threatens man's survival.
**** Minor Spoilers To any that haven't read the book********
WTF?!? Did the people that write the description even read the same book? Granted it's been over 10 years since I read the book. But as I recall the "emissaries" didn't go to earth but to a human colony in a different solar system, and they weren't really "emissaries", but a colonizing force that were directed to crash their craft into the sun if it was discovered the system was already occupied by another species so they couldn't be traced back to their home planet. so they weren't killed "accidentally".
NPR? WhO cares what they think about anything