New book list meme!!

[firecat]

NPR top 100 F/SF

Instructions: Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.

From NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/09/139248590/top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
More than 60,000 ballots were cast in our annual summer readers' poll. Here's a list of the top 100 winners. For even more great reads, check out the complete list of 237 finalists.

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien (An all-time favorite)

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (It's good, but if you ask me, the radio show is the definitive way to experience the series.)
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card (I loved the short story, thought the novel was pretty good, and after I had read them and Speaker for the Dead I stopped reading any Card because of a combination of his politics and a certain trope he likes to use that I don't care for.)
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert (I have read the first six. I don't remember who said "Each one is half as good as the one before," but that's basically what I thought. I reread the first one sometimes.)
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin (Am contemplating whether to read.)

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 (Too meta.)
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan (I think you have to read it when you're a teenager, and I missed the window.)
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 (I can't read Heinlein. I've tried and tried.)
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss (Don't know this. Should I read them?)
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 (I know it's unheard of, but I've never read any Stephen King. I started avoiding him back when I didn't much like horror, and now that I like some horror, I just haven't gotten out of the habit of avoiding him.)
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 (I plan to read soon.)
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 (I feel like I should like Zelazny but I keep bouncing off him.)

41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson (Don't know this. Should I read it?)
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin

46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien (I'd rather re-read LoTR.)
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke (I re-read this recently and was surprised how well it has aged.)
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan (Liked the movie a lot, haven't read the book.)

51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons (I've read the first two books. I had issues with the first one and thought the second one was pretty good.)
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson (Probably will get around to it eventually.)
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks (Don't know this. Should I read it?)
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle (I plan to read.)

56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett (I've read a couple of Pratchetts but I only like him in really small doses. Haven't gotten to this one.)
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson (This is the series that taught me it's absolutely not worth slogging through to the end of a book or series if I am not liking it.)
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 (Don't know this. Should I read it?)
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (Don't know this either.)
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist (Should I?)
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks (Ick ptui ptui ptui.)
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb (Should I?)
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (I keep listening to the audio excerpt and waffling.)

71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson (Should I?)
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore (Should I?)
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 (Read the first one.)
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 (Should I?)
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks (Read Player of Games. It was OK, but as it was recommended to me as the best of the series, I am disinclined to read the rest.)
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher (I read a couple of Dresdens and didn't like them, so I assume I won't like this either.)
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn (Should I?)
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan (Read about 2/3 of the first one and threw it across the room.)
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock

91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley (Read the first few pages and bounced. Should I persevere?)
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 (Read the first one.)

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

Comments

[eagle]

I recommend persevering on Sunshine. The book changes a fair bit after the first part. It does still participate in a few romance tropes that can get a bit annoying, but I really liked the main character.

More depth: http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-515-13881-9.html

[firecat]

Thanks for the recommendations and disrecommendations!

[eagle]

Oh, also: avoid Terry Goodkind like the plague. It starts as fairly generic fantasy with incredibly dim characters and ladles and ladles of fairly unpleasant fetish S&M that turns into ridiculously sexist nonsense, and then he introduces mind-bogglingly stupid libertarian politics complete with extended embedded rants about how socialism destroys the manliness of a society.

The Drizzt series by Salvatore isn't nearly as bad, but it's fairly bog-standard D&D wish-fulfillment power fantasy, and I don't think you'd get much out of it. I think it's one of those things you have to read as a teenager.

[julian]

Feist: I heard a rumor this started life as his RPG campaign, which he then wrote into a book. I would believe it.

(I did like it, but it's basically high level Extruded Fantasy Product.)

Sunshine: I like it a lot, but then, I loved the narrator's voice. So if you don't, don't bother.

[firecat]

That kind of narrator's voice, sometimes I like it and sometimes not. I might just not have been in the mood that day.

[jinian]

Mistborn is worth reading if you like unusual magic systems, and it's reasonably well written with a female protagonist. I certainly enjoyed it, but it's not unmissable. (I haven't read the new Sanderson, but for heaven's sake, it's the first in a series, there's no way it belongs on a best-ever list.)

[firecat]

Thanks!

[eagle]

Oh, and one more I noticed you were asking about that I know something about when I was filling out my own version: the Timothy Zahn books are Star Wars tie-in novels. They're very good ones, though, and well-respected in the spectrum of such tie-ins. They're about the only media tie-ins I've ever read, since I usually don't like that sort of thing, but I remember quite enjoying them.

[eggcrack]

Re: The Thrawn Trilogy, I definitely recommend it. They're the crowning jewel of the entire Star Wars EU and depending on how much you (dis)liked the original movies, they may be the crowning jewel of the entire franchise. I think they're also one of the few things that manage to make Star Wars darker and a little more adult while still keeping them Star Wars. (Yes, things can get pretty dark in Star Wars world, but grim-dark they ain't.)

[firecat]

Thanks!

[twisted_times]

Hmmm... some interesting title in the list. I agree with you that the best way to experience Hitch-Hikers' is the radio broadcast version; it was, after all, it's originally intended medium - the towel/book/TV series/film followed in its footsteps.

When I got to #32 I thought "WTF? Since when is Watership Down a Fantasy novel?" O_o

While I'm glad that the Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed are in the list, I'm amazed/appalled that the Earthsea books aren't in there. Not being a Tolkien fan, I'd happy swap out the LotR trilogy for Earthsea any day. Better yet, I'd take The Silmarillion out of the list as it reads like a shopping list, as does the Foundation Trilogy, IMHO.

[eagle]

Earthsea would have been disqualified for being young adult. Same reason there's no Harry Potter on the list. (Admittedly, I find that classification a bit dubious, but that's how it's usually marketed.)

[twisted_times]

Earthsea is both Fantasy and Young Adult. Watership Down is YA too - Richard Adams did, as it happens, originate the story from extemporising stories about rabbits to his two children on long car journeys, so it's the very definition of YA fiction.

Just because a work is considered "kiddylit" or "YA" (both terms I hate) many people (well, critics, if they are in fact people) immediately dismiss any potential validity they may have as great works of fiction. I've always thought that Earthsea beats the socks off Harry Potter, LotR... and certainly the Silmarillion (one of literature's best insomnia cures).

[eagle]

I'm not disagreeing with you, just explaining why they're not on the list, and that it wasn't because of the voting. I'm not trying to defend the way everything is sorted into various arbitrary and highly debatable classifications, by any means! I personally don't make the distinction between YA and adult at all in either what I read or how I classify books.

[twisted_times]

I'm agreeing with your non-disagreement. It just boggles me that they count Watership Down and Gareth Nix books at Fantasy but not Earthsea - like you say, the differentiation is arbitrary to say the least. O_o

[aquaeri]

I don't know that I think of Watership Down as SFF, but I am surprised you haven't read it.

[firecat]

Yeah, me too. :)

[aquaeri]

And now I've read a few other peoples' lists, and I feel like I'm the only person who's read Contact. I liked it better than the movie, actually. The movie manages some very pretty imagery, but there's a lot of stuff in the book that translates badly to screen. Sagan writes rather well for not-thought-of-as-a-fiction-author, and he makes the (woman) lead character real and complex in a way you rarely see in SF.

[firecat]

Thanks! I loved the movie, so I'll check out the book.

[leandra333.livejournal.com]

Swiped this to grab some books for my "to read" list. Thanks!