20 August 2011

NPR's Top 100 SciFi/Fantasy Books

I first saw the list over at Wordsmithonia where Ryan mirrored my thoughts in that it's about time we had separate science fiction and fantasy lists. THEY ARE DIFFERENT GENRES. Okay, mini-rant over. Then I saw the list again over at Age 30+ and I knew I had to go over the list myself.

I've read it :: 24
I'm reading it :: 3 
I have it on the shelves :: 13
I've seen the film/tv/play version :: 13

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 and Dave Gibbons
16. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft 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
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash 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 A. Heinlein
32. Watership Down by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
35. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
36. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
38. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
39. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
40. The Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad by David Eddings
42. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
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 Gods Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan the Barbarian Series by Robert E. Howard & Mark Schultz
69. The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way of the Kings by Brandon Sanderson
72. 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 Jon 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. Le Guin
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 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
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 Xanath Series by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis

How about you guys? How many have you read? Which ones I haven't read should I be jumping on?

11 comments:

  1. I don't usually pay attention to these lists, but recently I've really been feeling the urge for SF and this was just what I needed to get me started again. I've read 17 of the books on this list so far.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have read very, very few of these, but my excuse is that I am a baby to both genres. It is a nice comprehensive list to start with though, so thanks for posting it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've read 44. I'm counting "read" even if I only read one book in the series named. I think it's an okay list. There are a few obvious problems with it, but they're usually are with lists like this one, based on popular vote.

    I'm against separating Fantasy/Science Fiction into two categories. I think diluting the gene pool like that would only serve the lower the overall quality of the selections, and that it it also takes all of the titles even further from consideration as 'literature.' 'Literature' has no genre. And you'd just end up with many titles that you can't really place in one genre or the other.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I saw this list too, and went about writing down some of the top ones I missed in order to request them from the library! I love lists, even when I don't agree with them! But oh, you must read the Foundation trilogy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I recently saw the link to this list going around on twitter and was shocked by how very little I read in this genre! It looks like a great list to start with, though.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was stunned that all ten of the books I voted for made the list!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I read about 18 of these … and I wouldn't have put them all on the same list together but it makes sense I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Most of the ones I've read I read a long time ago, but I've decided to count them anyway :) My total is 28. I think I read The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury a hundred times when I was younger; GREAT collections of short stories. Ursula K. LeGuin is absolutely brilliant, so be sure to add her to your TBR! Oh, and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is fantastic, too. It's a great book for gray, drizzly weather.

    And I agree, SF and Fantasy should be separate lists.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Of the ones that you haven't read I found 4 peronal favorites. Ender's Game, Watership Down, Time Machine and the Outlander series. Get to reading :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. They definitely need two separate lists, but other than that this was fun! :)

    ReplyDelete

Talk to me baby!