Top 100 SF/F books meme

[moominmuppet]

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
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 (well, I know I got through several of the books, although I don't know how many there are total)
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 -- one of the only books on the list I've never heard of.
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 (I don't think I finished the book, but it was years and years ago, so I'm not positive)
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King -- it really doesn't count that I read all the wikipedia articles for a Cliff's Notes version, does it?
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 (if only they'd asked Darkover instead)
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson -- Huh. Also totally unfamiliar with this one.
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin (can't recall whether I finished it)
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 (rings bells from high school, but can't recall if I finished it)
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 -- it's been on my list for ages, still haven't gotten to it.
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 (oh, my shameful pre-teen years)
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

I'm probably wrong on a few of these. SF/F has been my primary form of fiction since I was a pre-teen, and it's very hard to recall what I read and just didn't connect with, and what I never finished reading.

Comments

[jajy1979.livejournal.com]

As I said elsewhere, the list NPR put together was crap as it was voting and very poorly circulated in the first place.

[jajy1979.livejournal.com]

You've heard of kingkiller chronicles because I know you've read Matt and my journals over the last year or so as we've waited for book 2 to come out. The title you're probably more familiar with is "The Name of the Wind" by Rothfuss, the sequel is "Wise Man's Fear"

You also finished Left Hand of Darkness because you gave it to me when you were done with it.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks!

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Wow, no women until #20 and even then, the first two aren't SF&F authors (Shelley lived well before SF&F existed, and Atwood is a self-defined mainstream author), so you don't actually get any female SF&F authors until #33.

Also, #18 is why all of these lists are junk - you get some "classics of literature" that can be shoehorned into SF, a fair amount of actual classic SF&F, and then a fair number of works written in the last 2-4 years that are currently popular, but will be forgotten in a decade. For example, the Mistborn series is quite good and a lot of fun, but it's very, very far from anything classic.

Also, the Xanth series!!!???

In addition, I hope to eventually see the day when the misogynistic and generally terrible Dune books cease making such lists.

[greeniezona.livejournal.com]

:(

I still think the original book, Dune, is great. I find its treatment of women much less problematic than in books like Rendevous with Rama where women seem to primarily be included in order to imagine how their breasts move in zero g.

[greeniezona.livejournal.com]

Okay, I am sure I will not be the only one to say this, but you haven't read Ender's Game???? Or, actually, Contact? The second should be more surprising to me. I would think a fierce, female agnostic protagonist would be right up your alley!

Also, what did you think of The Time Traveler's Wife? Every time I see the preview for the movie I change my mind about whether I think I should read or see it.

And, is the book Sunshine the inspiration for the movie by the same title?

Finally, is C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy worth reading? I have never heard of it before and I am full of doubt.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Okay, I am sure I will not be the only one to say this, but you haven't read Ender's Game????

Yup. Learned his politics before I got around to it, and that really soured me.

Or, actually, Contact? The second should be more surprising to me. I would think a fierce, female agnostic protagonist would be right up your alley!

I've seen the movie, and I'm reasonably sure I own the book, I just haven't gotten to it yet.

Also, what did you think of The Time Traveler's Wife? Every time I see the preview for the movie I change my mind about whether I think I should read or see it.

I really enjoyed the book, but haven't seen the movie so I can't compare them.

And, is the book Sunshine the inspiration for the movie by the same title?

Nope, totally different.

Finally, is C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy worth reading? I have never heard of it before and I am full of doubt.

It's bizarre and trippy and full of religious allegory. If you're up for that, it's an interesting read (although I'm saying that based on having read it years and years ago, so it may not be a valid rec)

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

Can't reccomend the Book of the New Sun enough - it's the best thing in American fiction.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Thanks, good to know!