NPR's Poll about top Sci-Fi and Fantasy books

[margaine]

NPR (National Public Radio - public radio station in the US) is conducting a massive poll to find readers' top 100 science fiction and fantasy books.

The current list has been created based on readers'/listeners' nominations and a set of panelists, and you can vote for your ten favorites out of the list.

It's a pretty interesting list, and it's worth taking a look at, even if you don't consider yourself a typical sci-fi/fantasy fan. It has the great classics (Tolkien, Asimov, etc), more contemporary authors (George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, Neil Gaiman), and all kinds of other things, like Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Margaret Atwood's distopian novels.

Take a look! And then you can vote. Or just add to your TBR pile ;)

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/02/138938145/science-fiction-and-fantasy-finalists

What do you think of the list? What's missing?

I decided not to put this in sci-fi and fantasy, by the way, because it has to do with a current news story, and also the list has a good deal of "literature" on it, that some might not even categorize as sci-fi/fantasy right away.

[margaine]

the winning list of books has been posted here:

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books

and another reason that this thread couldn't quite fit in a sub-category is because the list contains both sci-fi and fantasy novels, which are separate sub-forums here. (smiley face)

here is the list in its entirety - NPR's top 100 sci fi and fantasy books

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

[Moony]

I seen this list earlier floating around the blogsphere as a meme. I'm kind of surprised to see The Silmarillion on this list, but it is an awesome book so I am pleased.

[Winifred]

Great! Glad Lord of the Rings won! Funny, I'm not a big fantasy or sci-fi reader (not at all, really, until our older boy took them up, so I became curious), but I've read a fair amount of them. Several of which were required reading texts for various courses over the years. Who says school/culture doesn't shape your tastes, or at least your experience?!

[margaine]

latest update to this list - my favorite geeky blog has an amusing chart to navigate through the top-100 list

the chart is just for fun, and it probably won't really help to actually navigate you to a book you want to read, but you can use it to kind-of navigate backwards and get a sense of how some of these books might be categorized.

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/09/sfsignalnpr100flowchart.jpg

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2011/09/sfsignalnpr100flowchart.jpg

[Winifred]

HaHa, love the chart, margaine!