NPR top 100 SF/F meme

[jedusor]

Mostly posting this because there are a lot of classics I haven't read. Maybe you guys can get all torchy and pitchforky at me and get me to read some of them.

Bold for read it
Italics for planning to read it
Underline for partially read
Strikethrough 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
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
22. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
23. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
24. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
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
31. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams (when I was tiny, and it traumatized the everliving crap out of me)
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
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 (stopped because I really wasn't enjoying it)
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 (the movie was pretty awful and I'm just not a fan of Gaiman's writing style)
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
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

Comments

[persona.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm going to force Kushiel on you to start. I did not expect to see it on a top 100, but I'm inclined to agree. But, just to warn you, they may talk about s-e-x a little.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Heh. My grandpa gave me the first few books of the Pern series when I was, I think, eleven. There were some bits in there I'm pretty sure he'd forgotten about.

[rhysara.livejournal.com]

The Kushiel books are excellent. I kept reading the back cover and thinking, wow I can't believe I am reading something this trashy. But the book itself wasn't trashy, it was actually really, really well written. So don't scare yourself off by reading the back and just embrace the book.

[wesleyjenn.livejournal.com]

I won't get pitchforky on you, but here are my recommendations from the ones you haven't read on this list:

Slaughterhouse 5 - This book is amazing. I'm glad you're planning to read it. A fantastic sci-fi/historical fiction novel.

Snow Crash - Doesn't look like you've read any cyber-punk, this is a great intro and one of the best of the genre. There are some characters in here that I know you will absolutely love.

World War Z - One of my top 10 books I've ever read. The writing style here is fantastic. This author can craft a characters voice better than anyone I have ever read. Even if you don't think you're into zombies, you must read this book.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - A political sic-fi novel that I just read recently for the first time. Politics, economics and rebellion set on the Moon

The Illustrated Man - Don't know how you feel about short stories and I haven't read this one for awhile but it's a great sampling of Bradbury and there's a number of gems in here.

The Mars Trilogy - This is probably one of the less known books on the list. This trilogy is an extremely science heavy account of the first colonists of Mars. Very hard science, lots of technical descriptions but also good story arcs.

[wesleyjenn.livejournal.com]

Oo, and I just noticed Rendezvous with Rama. Super hard science fiction (I don't remember anything about the characters themselves, but the ship is what is incredible and memorable here)

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Fire Upon The Deep is wonderful, sad, and occasionally hilarious.

[rhysara.livejournal.com]

The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb is excellent, as is the mad ship trilogy that goes with it. Definitely worth reading.

[magickal-tara.livejournal.com]

The Mists of Avalon is one of my all time favorite books in the universe! Yay it being on the list!

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

I shall force you to finish The Silmarillion! BWA HA HA!

But seriously, you should re-read Watership Down now that you are at a less-traumatizable age. In terms of sheer storytelling it's unsurpassed. (Though it always strikes me as odd when it's classified as SF/Fantasy. It doesn't feel like it at all.)

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. I'm still pretty emotionally vulnerable about non-human animals.

[gerald_duck]

Any idea where this particular version of the hundred-books meme came from, i.e. who chose the hundred books and how?

If I had to pick two Pratchett books to go on such a list, Small Gods and Going Postal aren't the two. I mean, Small Gods is brilliant and Going Postal is good, but he's written plenty that's even more brilliant.

It's also pretty strange to have The Culture Series down as a single entry. I've read two Culture novels from end to end (The Player of Games, Consier Phlebas) and abandoned a third (Use of Weapons) as an author playing silly buggers and deliberately making the book ahrd to read. So I've no idea how I'd mark "The Culture Series" in such a list. Underline, I guess.

The Player of Games is a very good novel, by the way, and probably relevant to your interests. Highly recommended.

I'm not sure stuff like Animal Farm really qualifies as science fiction and fantasy. It's more of an allegorical tale for adults in the mould of a traditional fairy tale. If Animal Farm makes the list, how come not the Brothers Grimm?

Strangest of all, the Silmarillion, but not the Hobbit?

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

NPR=National Public Radio. I believe it was a listener-generated list based on votes. And children's books were intentionally excluded, I think they're doing a separate list for those.

[gerald_duck]

Then looking at the list as it applies to me, I'm worried by how much of it makes me go "meh" with indifference. I guess, despite hanging around almost exclusively with science fiction types, I'm not actually much of an SF fan!

(PS: No children's books that can be enjoyed by adults on that list. No Howl's Moving Castle. No Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And so on…)

2nd world war z

[lara7.livejournal.com]

great book, equal parts touching and chilling and 1/8 the size of The Stand. read it before the movie comes out.

Time travelers wife is hella mushy but i liked it anyway.

a lot of these are dreck. I mean, I read Xanth books at age 13 and enjoyed them then, but that's hardly a recommendation for an adult to read them, ever.

Have not read the Doomsday book by Connie Willis but "to say nothing of the dog" is delightful,