Posted on 08/11/2011 5:46:33 PM PDT by Tanniker Smith
More than 5,000 of you nominated. More than 60,000 of you voted. And now the results are in. The winners of NPR's Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy survey are an intriguing mix of classic and contemporary titles.
A quick word about what's here, and what's not: Our panel of experts reviewed hundreds of the most popular nominations and tossed out those that didn't fit the survey's criteria (after — we assure you — much passionate, thoughtful, gleefully nerdy discussion). You'll notice there are no young adult or horror books on this list, but sit tight, dear reader, we're saving those genres for summers yet to come.
So, at last, here are your favorite science-fiction and fantasy novels. (And a printable version, to take with you to the bookstore.)
Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter of Mars books are high on fantasy elements, but are they sci-fi?
If you think about it, why are "Dune" and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in the same list? They are totally different types of books. The list can be split up many, many ways.
Yea, but, IIRC, his discussion of sex and gender in "Stranger in A Strange Land" get him on any liberals list.
Regards,
TS
Once upon a time, in the earliest days of interplanetary exploration, an unarmed human vessel was set upon by a warship from the planet Kzin. But the Kzinti learned the hard way that the reason humanity had given up war was that they were so very, very good at it.
NPR??
You are expecting spore rings miles in diameter to be loosed into the atmosphere to eat pollution, are you ?
All I remember from that Dekology was the government corruption in the US and internationally and that the invaders were instigating it all. It was a fun read, but I would put it on a Top 100 list.
The Lost Fleet ? Are you kidding ? His math and physics calcs are so bad I cringe. Very distracting. I’ve enjoyed the books, but I hate being torn out of the story by such incompetent science. It wouldn’t make my Top 500 list.
Well, I still prefer paper books for a lot of reasons, but it appears more and more authors are trying to use the eBook delivery method to keep more of the money for themselves. I like the way Baen is doing things with the Honor Harrington books — the hardcover books have been including a CD of the books in PDF and HTML formats.
The fsand.com site someone pointed me to earlier is a case in point. You are buying directly from the author (although there is a wierd multi-level marketing angle to it.) I don’t notice the eBook prices are any cheaper though. Still $7.99 for an eBook, which is what a paperback would be at retail.
Days of Atonement from Walter Jon Williams, Sea and Summer and Brain Child by George Turner are some of my faves.
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No doubt, but it's fun to imagine. Exploding liberal heads is always a pleasant thought.
Haven’t read the list yet, but I am thinking that Tales from the Dying Earth, Ringworld, Mote in Gods Eye, and hopefully a Silverberg book or two—maybe Majipoor Chronicles—will show up.
Halfway through Xenocide I tossed it aside and vowed never to read another Card novel. The less said about that book the better.
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I love John Ringo and only recently discovered that there were more than five books in Mars/John Carter series. I stumbled upon them when I was searching for free e-books. Haven't read them yet, but now I have to re-read the first five to catch up. Oh, the humanity !! Somebody force me to read a good book, please !!!
George Alec Effinger's Marid Audran series is also very good.
That's right about where I quit too. I could only stay interested in philote twining and the Gangean experiments for just so long. I had many friends who told me Xonocide sucked, but I just had to find out for myself - they were right.
I'd also recommend the original short story, which I liked better than the book, with all its added on politics and such.
BTTT
In fact, if you prefer the science fiction side of the genre, you might try what I've finally found to be the case: they're still producing a lot more fine science fiction across the pond in the UK. Some of this makes its way to bookshops in the US, but not all, and the titles that do get published over here generally come out six months to a year after the UK release. That's also a consideration if you're a collector of HB 1st Editions - for UK authors, the 1st is almost always the UK edition.
UK editions can be ordered from www.amazon.co.uk. It's a little more expensive with shipping as opposed to waiting for the US edition, but with some authors the US edition never appears or appears only in paperback some years later.
Check out Alastair Reynolds for outstanding space opera set thousands of years in the future (start with the first, the excellent Revelation Space); ditto Paul McAuley and Ian McLeod. All three are eventually published stateside. Not so often making it to our shores but worth checking out: Adam Roberts, John Meaney, and Roger Levy. Some of these last also waste their time on fantasy.
And if you must do fantasy, you might check out Justina Robson, Steph Swainston and, of course, China Mieville.
And my personal favorite: Neal Asher, a prolific SciFi writer tilted toward the military SciFi end of the spectrum - and a writer with a distinctly libertarian bent, you'll learn if you read his blog: http://theskinner.blogspot.com/ A quote from a post a few weeks ago after the shuttle's last landing ...
Well, the last ever US shuttle mission is drawing to an end. I wonder how long it’ll be before the space station is abandoned whilst politicians on Earth concentrate on such critical occupations like bombing Arabs, wasting money on windmills, buying off large numbers of those who vote for them by employing them in pointless bureaucracies, taxing businesses to extinction whilst pocketing huge salaries and expense claims and growing increasingly disconnected from reality by their perception of how important they are.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Hyperion qn Brave new World
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.
One of the funniest books I’ve ever read.
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.
One of the funniest books I’ve ever read.
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