NPR's top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy books.

[kane_magus]

I'm going to copy/steal this from tokoz.

Here's the list with fancy pictures of the covers and such.

I have to agree with Tokoz, this list is kind of dubious, but then what can you expect when the entries were apparently the results of a random Internet poll.

Meme key:
Bold for read it
Italics for partially read
Underline for planning to read it
Strike-through for never ever reading


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 -- Been meaning to get around to this some day... (For all the ones I underline and don't comment on, just assume that the "Been meaning to..." comment applies. >_>)
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin -- Haven't been watching the show either, since I don't watch TV at all ever anymore (aside from when I'm in North Carolina), but I hear it's pretty good.
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 -- I own this, but just haven't read it yet. >_>
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 -- Couldn't really get into this.
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 -- One of my co-workers was reading this the other day.
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley -- I read Dracula as a kid, then started to read this almost immediately after, but just never finished it for some reason. (Hold on, Frankenstein is on this list, but Dracula isn't? ಠ_ಠ)
22. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick -- It'd be nice to read the book Blade Runner is based on.
23. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
24. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King -- The first book (original version, haven't read the "updated" version yet) is kind of out there, the second and third books are the best of the series, the fourth book was good but annoyed me somewhat for leaving the story of the main ka-tet to go back into Roland's past, and books five, six, and seven were a bit too far on the blah/wtf side of things. And then there's an eighth book coming next year some time, to be set between the fourth and fifth books. Guess I'll be reading that one when it comes out too. I want to read the whole series again sometime as well.
25. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
26. The Stand, by Stephen King
27. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
28. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
29. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
30.The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman -- Heard it's pretty good.
31. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess -- Haven't seen the movie either.
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
32. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
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 -- I've read surprisingly little (read: none at all) of Jules Verne, even despite the glowing endorsement of one Dr. Emmett Brown.
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells -- At least I'm pretty sure I remember reading this once, over a couple decades ago...
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 -- Read LOTR, figure I might as well get around to this someday too.
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 -- I've read pretty much all of the earlier stuff Feist has written, up through the Riftwar Legacy, circa 2000 or so, but nothing after that, as of yet anyway. It's pretty good, if you're into the whole sword & sorcery thing. Always been meaning to get back caught up again someday though...
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 -- I keep seeing Drizzt mentioned everywhere like he's some sort of pop-culture icon, at least in gaming circles, so I figure I should give this a shot someday.
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neal 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 -- Wait, Wicked is on this list but The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (even if just the first book, let alone the whole rest of the series) isn't?
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 Gabaldon
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock -- I hear it's similar to The Witcher series (or, perhaps more accurately, I hear that The Witcher kind of ripped this off), and I like The Witcher, so figure I'll get around to this someday.
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 -- The only one of these that I've read was Demons Don't Dream, and that only because it happened to come with the computer game Companions of Xanth (the game was based on the book). It was... okay, I guess. As such, I've kind of wanted to check into this series, but I've also heard they kind of got more and more skeevy as the series progressed.
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

No young adult books on the list? Not sure why they left those out, since that excludes the likes of The Hobbit (LOTR and Silmarillion made it, why not Hobbit?), Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the A Wrinkle in Time series (or Time Quartet/Quintet or whatever the official name for that series is), among others. There's probably a lot of more deserving books/series that should be on this list, even with those restrictions, but again, this is apparently the result of random Internet users voting on things, which almost never turns out in a completely satisfactory manner.

Comments

[tokoz.livejournal.com]

Aha, so THAT's how the list came to be. makes a ton of sense now. As a list of scifi books, it's kinda sucky, but as an internet meme, it's decent enough. ;)

[rabbitucker.livejournal.com]

If you didn't like Animal Farm then you may not like Brave New World. I enjoyed both because they are both dystopias, and I love me a dystopia. Use your feelings on 1984 as the tie-breaker to decide for sure, I suppose.

(Deleted and rewritten because of a formatting error. Sorry.)