NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Survey

[Drkshadow03]

After 5,000 nominations and 60,000 votes, NPR releases their Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy list (http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books). Then three scholars vetted through all the nominations to drop them down to a few hundred. Then 60,000 were cast by people on the internet in a system that allowed 10 votes for 10 different titles that were nominated to come up with the final Top 100 list.

My Thoughts So Far:

1) Glad to see Perdido Street Station by China Mieville made the list, annoyed it is only # 98 and not in the top 20.

2) Foundation should not have been in the top 10.

3) Sword of Truth shouldn't have made it all.

Your thoughts about the list?

[OrphanPip]

Kind of a cringeworthy list at times.

The usual commercial successes have dominated the list because of their name recognition. Too much Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land deserves to be there because of its historical importance as the first pulpish sci-fi novel to break into the mainstream. Most of Bradbury's stuff could be dropped, The Martian Chronicles is good though. Way too much Asimov, just leave I, Robot. Too much Stephenson, Diamond Age and Snowcrash are important post-cyberpunk novels, but the rest of his stuff is mediocre.

I agree Goodkind shouldn't be on there, Sword of Truth is like an even more poorly written Atlas Shrugged, with swords.

(LeGuin should be near the top as well. Gene Wolfe and Mieville deserve to be higher up)

I think the Locus and Hugo awards remain the standard by which fantasy and sci-fi should be judged. The panels usually do a good job, although they can be a bit conservative sometimes and tend to award the same authors multiple times.

[Drkshadow03]

I think the Locus and Hugo awards remain the standard by which fantasy and sci-fi should be judged. The panels usually do a good job, although they can be a bit conservative sometimes and tend to award the same authors multiple times.

The Hugo Awards is actually decided by popular vote of Worldcon attendees I believe, not a panel. Buy a ticket for the Con, you get to vote.

The Locus Award is also by popular vote of Locus Magazine's readers, but I believe has a wider voting poll and probably represents a larger cross-section of professionals.

Nebula Award is also a popular vote, but I think you have to be a SFWA member (qualify as a professional writer by making three sales to professional markets and pay your membership dues). In reality, it also ends up being a popularity contest, but one in which other published writers vote for their friends by stacking the votes.

World Fantasy Award is decided by a panel of judges.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

These lists never seem to work. Ender's Game is a favorite novel of mine, but number 3? No. Ditto with A Song of Ice and Fire. I love the series--it's good entertainment, but number 5? Sorry, but no. It isn't even finished yet.

I have to disagree with the above, I think Fahrenheit 451 is a brilliant novel. 1984 and Brave New World: both good picks. The Princess Bride? Never read it, but seems an odd choice. I thought Neuromancer suuuuucked.

Slaughter-House Five should be in the top ten.

I agree, too many Asimov picks.

The Kingkiller Chronicles? Again, never read it, but seems another eyebrow raiser.

Frankenstein: Nice to see on the list.

Le Guin should get some higher spots on the list.

Childhood's End: Good pick, one of my favorites, wish it was a little higher.

The Legend of Drizzt series? WHAT? I liked it, but it's pretty much trash literature. Shouldn't be on the list.

Gene Wolfe should have a much higher spot.

All in all, I think an okay list. It's never perfect by anyone because it can never conform to anyone's own personal taste.

[Paulclem]

Interesting list. I wonder how much the films influenced the titles.

There ae a few I'm surprised to see quite so far up the list - The Hitch Hiker's Guide at number 2 surprises me. I didn't think the Dark Tower series that good, and I tried a Terry Goodkind once and found it to be completely derivative. Asimov - well a bit boring to be honest. You can tell he's a physicist.

There were lots I like, but I generally thought they should have been in higher positions. Ringworld is a great book, and probably inspired the Halo world on ther x Box. Iain M Banks Culture novels are brilliant on the whole - much better than Ursula Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness for the sheer scope of the civilisations he has created and the thumping good stories he writes.

Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave is a great book too, as is Perdido St Station, and they both should have been higher up.

The Forever War is also too low in my opinion. It has speculative social engineering, weapons, war, travel, love etc. Everything for a blisteringly good read, and it was written in the 70s too.

As for omissions - Frank Herbert's son has collaborated on extensions to the Dune world, and very good they are too. I find them more readable than the originals, though I think Dune does merit no. 4.

Neal Asher's work is also brilliant, and I am surprised that he isn't on the list either. I thought he might have a background in biology/ marine biology as his work is often infested - if you've read any of his work you'll know what I mean - with very plausible, if disturbing, alien environments. He's much better than some of the entries.

As for TLOTR at number 1 - it should be high up, and it is influential, but is it just me that found it to be a bit tedious in parts?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

As for TLOTR at number 1 - it should be high up, and it is influential, but is it just me that found it to be a bit tedious in parts?
That is nothing if not a huge understatement, :lol:.

I also didn't understand the greatness of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. It's just Monty Python set in space.

[PeterL]

Those certainly aren't my picks, and some of those are not very good at all. There is nothing by C.M. Kornbluth or G.C. Edmondson. It has Zelazny's Amber series, but neglected The Lord of Light, which is generally better. Putting George R. R. Martin is the top ten is absurd. Andso on

I will look more carefully, and there may be some good suggestions for reading, anyway.

[Paulclem]

Yes - I intend to look into some of them on there.

[Paulclem]

That is nothing if not a huge understatement, :lol:.

I also didn't understand the greatness of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. It's just Monty Python set in space.

:lol:

I understated because it's one of those emotive books.

[mortalterror]

Well, when you take a poll of voters on the internet you are mostly going to get a sampling of what people in their twenties and thirties think, and I believe this list reflects that. I fit into that demographic and this reflects pretty accurately the sci-fi/fantasy books that I and other people I know read and enjoy.

Some of the picks are a little higher than they probably ought to be due to the recency of their appearance or promotion within the larger culture, but that's to be expected. I don't think The Lord of the Rings belongs at the absolute top of the list any more than Hitchhiker's Guide, or Ice and Fire, but Dune, Ender's Game, and Fahrenheit 451 are good picks for a top 10.

Wheel of Time is trashy pulp ficton like R.A. Salvatore's books. Some authors are a little over-represented as other posters have pointed out. Overall I'm delighted with the list and happy to see so many titles I've actually read, though I would like to see some more dark horses and throwbacks to an earlier age. Wouldn't it be cool if William Morris' Well at the World's End, or something by Lord Dunsany popped up? How about Bellamy's Looking Backward, Butler's Erewhon, or Lucian's A True Story?

[WymanChanning]

Harry Potter Series is not there?

[Heteronym]

If I used this list as a guideline to fantasy and science fiction, it'd take me a while - perhaps an act of pure chance - or maybe never to discover Stanislaw Lem, Lord Dunsany, George McDonald, Hope Mirrless, Olaf Stapledon, Jack Vance, M. John Harrison, Alfred Bester, David Gerrold, William Hope Hodgson, A.E. van Vogt, Cordwainer Smith, Diana Wynn Jones and David Lindsay. As limited as my knowledge of these genres may be, I prefer to take my chances alone and discover them by my own efforts than follow a list that seems to have been composed in five minutes after surveying the shelves of any major bookstore's fantasy section.

[Paulclem]

Yes - I really don't like lists - they seem to garner expectations rathe than be useful. It seems I'v read the good stuff so I too would go with my own discovery first, though it might be a useful ref point.

[ralfyman]

It'd be nice to see old fantasies and works from different countries.

[Mr.lucifer]

Its really rare for foreign works to get translated.

[Heteronym]

Its really rare for foreign works to get translated.

Yes, but translations exist nevertheless. When a list fails, however, to mention, for instance, the works of the Strugatsky brothers, Stanislaw Lem, or Sergei Lukyanenko, it's sending a clear signal they're not wanted.

[Paulclem]

Yes, but translations exist nevertheless. When a list fails, however, to mention, for instance, the works of the Strugatsky brothers, Stanislaw Lem, or Sergei Lukyanenko, it's sending a clear signal they're not wanted.

Or is is just that there's a focus upon English works? I haven't read any of the above, nor have I seen them anywhere.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Yes, but translations exist nevertheless. When a list fails, however, to mention, for instance, the works of the Strugatsky brothers, Stanislaw Lem, or Sergei Lukyanenko, it's sending a clear signal they're not wanted.
I doubt that. This poll was open for public voting, so it was just a matter of the books read by the most people getting the top spots. It isn't that they weren't wanted, they just weren't read by enough people. Hell, I'm a pretty big fantasy fan, but I've never read any of those authors, and have only heard of Lem, but only rarely.

[mortalterror]

Perhaps a list of great foreign language science fiction and fantasy is in order.

[OrphanPip]

If English readers were asked to make a list of foreign language sci-fi and fantasy, it would probably end up as the collected works of Jules Verne.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

No Andromeda Strain?
Conan The Barbarian makes it, but not Crichton.

It would have placed War of the Worlds higher up.

.

[PeterL]

If English readers were asked to make a list of foreign language sci-fi and fantasy, it would probably end up as the collected works of Jules Verne.

Don't forget Mr Lem, and Cyrano de Bergerac, the first author of science foction, who wrote "Voyage to the Moon" and "Voyage to the Sum".

[mortalterror]

If English readers were asked to make a list of foreign language sci-fi and fantasy, it would probably end up as the collected works of Jules Verne.

Let's be fair here. How many German and Chinese science fiction novels can you name? I doubt Aniara is flying off the shelves, even in Canada.

[OrphanPip]

Let's be fair here. How many German and Chinese science fiction novels can you name? I doubt Aniara is flying off the shelves, even in Canada.

Well I include myself amongst English readers. I learned to read and write French first because of the school system in Quebec, but English is my native language.

[Mr.lucifer]

Do any of us know of that many speculative fiction books?

[Aylinn]

This list doesn't seem to be very helpful. The Legend of Drizzt series? Seriously?! Since when are these books such great literature?

Where is the fantastic Gormanghast Trilogy written by Mervyn Peake?

[Helga]

There were a few odd choices on the list but I will definetly check out a few of the books up there that I haven't read. But it always bothers me a bit that sci-fi and fantasy are put together all the time, I mean 'Song of ice and fire' and 'Snow Crash' are not of a similar genre to me. maybe that is just me... I am gonna check some books in both genres out though.

[kasie]

Sergei Lukyanenko's 'Watch' series is available in a good English translation. I found The Night Watch in WH Smith, in the Children's section and I hope it was swiftly reshelved - some assessor saw the words 'apprentice magician' on the blurb and seemed to have thought immediately of Harry Potter and Potter it most definitely is not! It develops the idea that there are creatures of 'the Other' (vampires, werewolves etc) living unnoticed among us (or at least in Moscow) with the Good policing the activities of the Bad and vice versa; the books pose some interesting questions about morality and being 'different' as well as having some cracking page-turning plots. Don't bother with the films however - the plots have been re-jigged and are well-nigh incomprehensible (imo!) and I can usually cope with subtitles.

[Aylinn]

There were a few odd choices on the list but I will definetly check out a few of the books up there that I haven't read.
Of course there are also worth reading books there, but the odd choices make me wary of checking the remaining books on this list, since I cannot be sure they are genuinely good.

[Drkshadow03]

There are Japanese SF imprints (http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2009/01/28/viz-media-launches-new-imprint-haikasoru-for-acclaimed-japanese-science-fiction-novels/) bringing Japanese SF to American audiences.