Top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy books

NPR ^ | 8/11/11 | NPR

[Interesting Times]

Excerpt from “The Genre Artist”, an excellent Vance profile in the NY Times Mag, July 2009:

Thank you. I have waited a long time to read that article.

[Question_Assumptions]

If you liked The Mote in God's Eye, take a look at King David's Spaceship, written by Jerry Pournelle alone. It takes place in the same universe and it contemporaneous with Mote.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Combining fantasy and science fiction is ridiculous - they are totally separate genres. And there is far too much fantasy on the list, which may simply be symbolic of the times. Rather than trusting in reason, people (Democrats) prefer stories where magic somehow saves them from the dragon. :)

[MarkL]

Surprised the “shanara” books by Terry Brooks didn’t make the list.

Look again, it was on the list.

Mark

[MoochPooch]

I agree. Hunger Games is excellent.

I plan to read Mockingjay (Bk #3) this weekend. Generally the series is interesting, but the feminist character annoys me a little. I'm tired of girls who act like boys--or have male best friends. Maybe because I live in a religious community, where interaction between the sexes (especially at that age) is more limited.

[Interesting Times]

I wasn't. His understanding of freedom comes from having once believed in the other side's values and then thought about that belief system. Someone who has never been a socialist would not have as deep an understanding of its flaws as a convert.

Good point. See "Horowitz, David."

[MarkL]

No part of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant?

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

[Rocky]

Top fantasy book: Dreams From My Father

[MarkL]

Starship Troopers the movie was based on the back cover of a novel by Robert Heinlein.

When Virginia Heinlein saw what they they had done with the movie, she attempted to have his name removed from the project.

Mark

[MarkL]

John Carter series by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I heard that a movie is coming out soon.

Mark

[Publius6961]

I didn't know about this until the list of finalists was printed. Unfortunately, I was busy and didn't get to stop by here and ping the list.

Interesting observation, I thought it was just me.

I DID look at the top 100 list about 3 months ago. I read between 30 and 70 books a year (about 50-50 fiction and non-fiction,) and wasn't aware that NPR was having a survey/vote.

I have to check and see where my top ten ended up.

[patton]

My mother, I, and both of my brothers, all without prior coordination, gave each other copies of “A Canticle” for Christmas one year.

The funny part - every copy gifted had been read.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

NPR. What, no “Battleship Earth??” /sarc hee hee hee.

[Publius6961]

waiting for the latest one to drop from the ridiculous Nook price (it is electronic you ninnies, no printing costs)* before I buy it..

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but this is an ongoing war.

*Also add : no trees needed, no paper manufacturing and shipping, no warehousing, no remainers, no shipping costs, and yet the "publishers" make more money than the authors, and the "books" have not dropped in price.

The greedy bastards are going the way of the RIAA. Good riddance.

[FredZarguna]

OK, you haven't read (or "attempted to read") the Silmarillion. I can't account for your -- or anyone else's -- taste, and won't try. But among the cult of Tolkien's close followers, which probably outnumber Le Guin's even casual readership by two orders of magnitude, it's a well regarded piece. That her awful dreck makes it into this list multiple times is a clear indication of how oversampled she would be in a liberal audience such as NPR's.

As for me, I have read it, and I have also read all of Le Guin's stuff hoping in vain that someday I'd get a glimpse of what people in college assured me was her brilliance. Nope. It's awful: only an NPR audience would put one of her books in the top 100, let alone several.

[Publius6961]

“The Mote in God’s Eye” made 61. I would have rated it higher. And,,,, it would make a great movie series!

As would Lucifer's Hammer, and Footfall. On the positive side, Rendezvous With Rama made the list. I challenged my daughter, a precocious 12 year old reader, to "just read the first 20 pages," and just leave it if it was not interesting. She finished it overnight that weekend.

As for combining S/F and Fantasy in one list, was a horrible idea, but understandable. NPR's audience would not have given the vote a second glance if there were no "Sword and Sorcery" chick books on the list.

[FredZarguna]

He has a number of 'concept pieces' that were pretty much stolen outright without attribution by later writers. Doll House of Joss Whedon fame does not credit him that I know of, although the idea and a number of tributary bits were stolen directly from All My Sins Remembered. In general he either made the novel with the idea, or didn't, unlike some authors who can even take something fairly lame and make a decent read of it.

Another author hot in about the same period was John Varley, whose first book, The Persistence of Vision should have made this list and did not. The Star Trek film with the whales stole one of the core ideas in The Ophiuchi Hotline from him, again without attribution. So it goes.

[FredZarguna]

Gully Foyle is my name,
Terra is my nation,
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The Stars My Destination.

Yes indeed. One of the fond memories of my undergraduate reading list. I re-read that about a month ago. Holds up very well.

[tlb]

>>> How is Starship Troopers controversial? Oh ya mean the part where citizens have more rights than the leaches.

But you see even you get it wrong. ALL people under that political system have the same RIGHTS. It is the full citizen who however chooses to undertake the added RESPONSIBILITY of the franchise.

“”Superficially, our system is only slightly different; we have democracy unlimited by race, color, creed, birth, wealth, sex, or conviction, and anyone may win sovereign power by a usually short and not too arduous term of service — nothing more than a light workout to our cave-man ancestors.

But that slight difference is one between a system that works, since it is constructed to match the facts, and one that is inherently unstable. Since sovereign franchise is the ultimate in human authority, we insure that all who wield it accept the ultimate in social responsibility — we require each person who wishes to exert control over the state to wager his own life — and lose it, if need be — to save the life of the state. The maximum responsibility a human can accept is thus equated to the ultimate authority a human can exert. Yin and yang, perfect and equal.””

[FredZarguna]

“endress” not “endless”? Don’t know how that happened, the r’s not even close to the l on the keyboard.

Keyboard made in China?