The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy ahead of Dune and Foundation?
Nothing by Cherryh? Nothing by Vinge? No part of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant?
A Star Wars novel in the best 100 SF/Fantasy of all time? Seriously?
A Clockwork Orange? [A great book, yes. SF/Fantasy, no.] Same comment for 1984, Animal Farm, Brace New World...
Handmaid's Tale?. Literally: WHAT. THE. F...?
I know it's NPR, but Le Guin ahead of the Silmarillion?
I could go on for hours with this. This is a disgrace.
Wicked? Wicked!?
It's not a critics' list, it's a readers' list.
Seriously, how many people have even read (or should I say "attempted to read") The Silmarillion?
If you haven't read it, you aren't likely to put it in your top five picks.
And I don't know how how humor and hard sci-fi were on the list, but if you focus the humor votes onto one book, Hitchhikers would be it.
The first trilogy was on the list, #58.
A Clockwork Orange? [A great book, yes. SF/Fantasy, no.] Same comment for 1984, Animal Farm, Brace New World...
These sorts of books/stories are often lumped into the SF genre, but I think Harlan Ellison had a better term for it, "Speculative Fiction." Ellison was a master at the genre, but while he's a terrific author, I like him better as an editor: Check out his "Dangerous Visions" anthologies. If not for them, I never would have discovered Piers Anthony or Fritz Lieber.
Mark
What surprised me was that I don’t think I read much science fiction but I’ve read a lot of the top 20 here.
But the bottom line is that the list does very well demonstrate that art is subjective.