The 100 Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

[pokerfan]

According to NPR fans...

August 11, 2011

More than 5,000 of you nominated. More than 60,000 of you voted. And now the results are in. The winners of NPR's Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy survey are an intriguing mix of classic and contemporary titles. Over on NPR's pop culture blog, Monkey See, you can find one fan's thoughts on how the list shaped up, get our experts' take, and have the chance to share your own.

A quick word about what's here, and what's not: Our panel of experts reviewed hundreds of the most popular nominations and tossed out those that didn't fit the survey's criteria (after — we assure you — much passionate, thoughtful, gleefully nerdy discussion). You'll notice there are no young adult or horror books on this list, but sit tight, dear reader, we're saving those genres for summers yet to come.

So, at last, here are your favorite science-fiction and fantasy novels. (And a printable version, to take with you to the bookstore.)

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

I'm impressed. Neil Gaiman's American Gods made the top ten....

I've read 46 of them so it's good to know I haven't run out of good books.

[pscot]

1. Thanks for the link

:hi:

[csziggy]

2. Too many fantasy novels for my taste

After Fafherd and Mouser (Fritz Lieber) most fantasy is far too hung up on being serious for me to enjoy them.

No Andre Norton? No C. J. Cherryh? A friggin' Star Wars novel?

I doubt I will use that list as a shopping guide. Heck I haven't finished re-reading my collection of Science Fiction anthologies that began in the forties. I think I am up to around 1965.

[pokerfan]

7. Well, it is a science fiction AND fantasy poll

But I hear you. The inclusion of fantasy is probably the reason I haven't read more on the list. I think the only fantasy novel I've really enjoyed in the last twenty years is probably Ken Grimwood's Replay. Not on the list.

[csziggy]

9. I mostly prefer classic Science Fiction

Stuff written before 1970. There are a few authors that have written since I enjoy but I stopped subscribing to the magazines back around 1980 because there were few stories coming out I enjoyed reading.

99% of fantasy seems to be the same stories, with new character names and maybe a few variations on monsters and bad guys. And little humor.

That's why I took up collecting old science fiction anthologies - the best stories from the magazines all together. If I get tired of reading those, there is hubby's nearly complete collection of Ace doubles - remember those? Two short novels back to back in the same binding. A lot of those are crap, but there are many classic gems, too.

[mzteris]

31. I still get annoyed that they "lump" them together!

Science Fiction and Fantasy are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS!!

Not that I don't enjoy a good fantasy now and then (and that's usually all you find of good fantasy - now and then . . . :P ), but the two are complete different genres.

Now have you seen the $)(*_)*(#%#@4 "romance-type novels" masquerading as SF&F? :puke: Picked up two by mistake in the SF section, gawd they were awful tripe.

[csziggy]

34. The romance SF&F have been around for years

Dennis Wheatley, Marian Zimmer Bradley, Barbara Michaels, and many others have been cranking schlock for decades. It's a cheap way for writers to make a pittance for surviving long enough to get their "great American novel" published.

A friend of mine is writing that crap now. She kind of hates it, but it supplements her income and is getting her some recognition as a writer. She hopes that someday she will be able to work her way up from the dregs she is currently getting published to better works. I'm not sure it's working that well - she recently dumped her publisher and is e-publishing her books herself.

[Lionel Mandrake]

43. Bookstores usually lump F&SF together.

I don't know why they do that. It's mildly annoying, but I can usually tell which genre a particular book belongs to, just from the cover art.

One author I know of, C. J. Cherryh, writes in both genres.

[TZ]

56. I'm taking it that nobody here has bothered to read

George RR Martins EPIC series A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones on HBO)?. I love Sci-Fi, but I think this series is better than about 95% of the sci fi I've read. Its not tripe and its not "romantic fluff". Its dark and complex and probably has some of the most intriguing complex characters I've read in ANY literature Classic, Sci Fi, modern etc. Lets not be snobs without actually reading some of this.

[Withywindle]

38. There's a lot of truly great fantasy that isn't on that list.

John Crowley's 'Little, Big'. Robert Holdstock's 'Mythago Wood'. Evangeline Walton's Mabinogion Tetralogy. Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books. Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci books...Tim Powers, Pamela Dean, Ellen Kushner, Charles de Lint....

None of those are Tolkien retreads. (But wow, Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, and Terry Goodkind totally are. I tried to read 'Sword of Shannara' when I was about 13 and even then all it made me want to do is read LOTR again and play more D&D, not finish the book.)

[Swede]

3. Thanks for the list.

I've read a few,heard of a few,and never heard of a few.

[Mojorabbit]

4. Cool list! nt

[Odin2005]

5. Thanks for that!

[murielm99]

6. I'm amazed at how many of those I have read.

My tastes have expanded in over the years, and I have not read much recent science fiction or fantasy, except for Gaiman. He is superb.

Thanks for the link. I will have to go to the library and check out some of those that I have missed.

[Withywindle]

8. There's some great stuff on there and some real crap.

Terry Goodkind? Really?


It's a popularity contest, not a quality one. What I'm finding really head-scratchy is the Jim Butcher thing: did I totally miss it or did the Codex Alera series make the list, and the Dresden Files didn't? I thought the latter was much, much more popular.

[mysuzuki2]

10. how could they have left out Edgar Rice Burroughs

martian series?

[dimbear]

26. If you like your SCIFI with a Spanish flavor, try Librodot. They

have my favorite ERB book, 'Naked Lunch.'

Almuerzo Nudo, I think they call it.

----------------insert irony icon here---------------

[mysuzuki2]

45. Once when I was in college and deep into a beer party

I fell into a discussion with a PhD candidate in American literature about the novels of Burroughs. The discusion lasted for about 20 minutes before we realized he was talking about William and I was talking about Edgar Rice. It's easy to get them confused!

[dimbear]

46. ERB vs William...................

I guess the main clue is the bizarre sex. If it's actual extraplanetary aliens, it's ERB.

I sympathize with Librodot, tho. They mistake foreign language authors regularly, but it must be due to the strange origin of the translations......... knocked off at a few pesetas a word under the thumb of Franco. Run probably absolutely without any royalties in Spanish pulp magazines. There are authors that you just flat know all the books they wrote, and when a translation pops up of a new one bells go off. :)

[mysuzuki2]

47. bizarre sex?

ERB's martians laid eggs but still bred with earth humans.

[dimbear]

49. The most striking difference is that none of William Burroughs'

characters have a town named after them. Not a single one.

Sad, really.

[Flaxbee]

11. Arthur C. Clarke isn't in the top 10?

The list is, IMHO, a travesty.

[sarge43]

13. Agree

Doc Smith's Lensman series?

Bester's The Stars My Destination?

But a Star Wars novelization did.

Bah.

[Frank Cannon]

14. If "The Stars My Destination" is not on the list, I'm not even going to bother.

That ruins the list's credibility right there. Everyone knows that book is one of the greatest of all time.

[dimbear]

12. C S Lewis doesn't write scifi so awfully well, but his titles were great:

Perelandra, Out of the Silent Planet, That Hideous Strength............

Who in his or her wisdom renamed those gems the 'Space Trilogy?'

[CBGLuthier]

15. I liked american gods but top ten. No damned way

My wife said my son would think it was top ten and I said that like everyone in this poll he is only 21 and hasn't read enough.

Having now seen LotR as number one this whole poll is too populist. I doubt that anyone even read the novel The Princess Bride. I have read it. It sucks.

2001 was not a novel. The movie novelization kind of sucked.
Flowers for Algernon is a short story. Not a novel.
At least Zelazny's Amber made it but his Lord of LIght is an even better novel.

This entire poll is skewed by movies and children. Oddly there are parts that seem right so I suspect the editors shoe-horned in some classics.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

30. LOTR is great writing

and a great fantasy. Not everyone likes it but it certainly deserves to be top 10.

[RebelOne]

16. I am glad to see Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles"

in the list. That is my favorite Sci-Fi novel.

[clyrc]

17. I've read and like quite a few on the list

but mostly they weren't my favorites. I wish a Tanith Lee book was on the list, since she is one of my very favorites.

[Paladin]

18. And "Alas Babylon" Didn't Make The List? Unforgivable. (n/t)

[RebelOne]

22. Well. at least a movie was made from it. n/t

[CBGLuthier]

55. What Movie?

Not aware of an Alas Babylon movie.

[OriginalGeek]

23. Hah! That was a good book

I met my wife here in Orlando and she has lived here all her life and when we were first dating she recommended I read that book as it was one of her favorites simply because it was set in central Florida...

[Ohio Joe]

19. Gene Wolfe at 87?

And only the one entry? The man deserves far better.

[auburngrad82]

20. Where's The Stars My Destination???

No way they left it off.

[OriginalGeek]

21. I like sci-fi and fantasy

but I don;t like mixing them. There's enough great books out there to have a top 100 list of each. And of all the things Piers Anthony ever wrote, I just couldn't get into the Xanth novels. His Incarnations of Immortality series is MUCH better. Was happy to see William Gibson and Heinlein and George R R Martin in there though. Raymond Feist is another favorite of mine too. I was kind of surprised to see Ender's Game so highly placed - I love the book but it seemed to me that it has become popular of late to hate on it - probably because of Card's religion.

And as far as fantasy goes, Robert E. Howard's Conan is that standard by which I judge all other fantasy. Probably for nostalgia reasons but I just love them...

Still, I saw some books I need to read. I love having a library that delivers to my house for free!

Oh and Steven R. Donaldson's Gap cycle was way better than Thomas Covenant to me. Never even finished TC...

[Withywindle]

37. People don't hate on Card because of his religion

It's because of his rabid, frothing, utterly bald-faced homophobia. Which is probably connected to his religion, but I think it's possible to be Mormon and at least have the decency to keep your mouth shut about how foul and depraved you think TEH GHEYS are. Card isn't that decent.

[geardaddy]

24. No Philip Jose Farmer?

[SCantiGOP]

54. I agree, geardaddy

And where is Stranger in a Strange Land?

[Fire Walk With Me]

25. Thanks for the list, but I agree with the above, way too much fantasy

even if it is a divided list. Who gives a shit about kings and castles and elves and shit? 100 points to anyone turning that into a good filk.

[Enrique]

27. no Harry Potter?

i havent read it but im surprised its not in the top 100. they must have excluded it for some reason, right?

[hifiguy]

29. Probably because it was a nominal "children's book"

But it should have been on the list. Beats the hell out of another multi-volume snoozefest about elves and dwarves. No one has ever written that genre anywhere near as well as Tolkein; trying to better LoTR is like trying to paint a better Mona Lisa. Ain't gonna happen.

[Withywindle]

35. That's probably why 'The Hobbit' didn't make it either.

It was written for children originally--I guess English children in the 30s were expected to have much bigger vocabularies than most adults do now.

[hifiguy]

28. Too many fantasy novels

but it was nice to see that "Something Wicked This Way Comes" made the list. I'd have rated it quite a bit higher. That was the first book I ever read that moved me with the pure beauty of its language when I was a teenager.

"The Stand" (especially in its uncut version) is certainly worthy and is (just barely) the best apocalypse novel ever. If you liked it, do track down Robert McCammon's "Swan Song," a more lyrical treatment of a similar theme. "The Stand" is about survival. "Swan Song," like all of McCammon's criminally underrated books, is about redemption.

But no H.P. Lovecraft??!!?? Seriously??

[Withywindle]

36. I imagine Lovecraft is considered "horror" and McCammon probably would be too

Different genre, though "The Stand" certainly blurs the lines, and Lovecraft has written out-and-out fantasy (Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, one of my favorites of his.)


You know who galls me to not have on this list? MERVYN FUCKING PEAKE. The Gormenghast books are a-maze-ing.

[hifiguy]

53. The Gormenghast Trilogy

is like absolutely nothing else I have ever read. It's like walking in to an opium dream. Dazzling prose, exquisite characterizations and completely otherworldly. Brilliant, brilliant work. If William Blake had been a novelist, those are the novels he would have written.

[Frank Cannon]

41. Another McCammon fan here

"Gone South" and "Boy's Life" are also brilliant. Two of my favorite books ever.

[mzteris]

32. NOOOOOOOOO - not that godawful ENDER's GAME!

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

Orson Scott Card is a blight on humanity!

His "christ complex" - let's beat the everliving shit and kill anyone who threatens me mentality under the guise of "Ooooooh poor bullied me had no choice!"

[mzteris]

33. I think too many casual "fans" voted

Not TRUE SCIENCE FICTION FANS! Too many "light" SF books, too many "currently popular" books. bleh. Not a great list IMO.

[eppur_se_muova]

57. Exactly! nt

[Silver Swan]

39. I was impressed with the list

Mainly because I had read so many of them. I never thought I had somewhat mainstream taste in such literature.

[smoochpooch]

40. A DUer recommended "Childhood's End" about a year ago and I really enjoyed it.

Glad to see it made the list.

[timtom]

42. In MY world, these books would be in the top 10:

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

The Paradox Men by Charles Harness

Ring of Ritornel by Charles Harness

[Fire Walk With Me]

44. Any "top 100" list without the first two, "isn't".

I've never heard of the second author. Going to look him up, thanks...

[Fire Walk With Me]

61. Just finished The Paradox Men...thank you very much for the recommendation.

[MilesColtrane]

48. Some consider it a kid's series, but I'd include the "Wrinkle in Time" books.

And, maybe "Red Planet".

[From The Ashes]

50. Only 2 Terry Pratchett books?

....blasphemers!

[michreject]

51. Anything by Robert E Howard

Man was a genius.

[LeftishBrit]

52. No John Wyndham?

I always liked 'The Chrysalids'.

[eyepaddle]

58. Hmm, I was a HUUUUGE fan of "The Belgariad" when I was in my teens, but c'mon...

It is almost fantasy boiler plate. And in all of Eddings work you just KNOW that the good guys have this all under conrol, and that they are going to win.

However, the dry, low-key wit and the dialogue is pretty top-notch, so maybe that is what sets it apart instead of pure plot originality.

[Arkansas Granny]

59. I've read 38 of them, more or less. I'm sure I haven't read all of the Xanth series.

There are other series, however, that have many books that I've read (the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, for instance).

It's a good list and gives me some books to look for.

[Joe Fields]

60. The Bible