Top 100 fantasy and science fiction

[:eek:]

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

Not a very surprising winner. Personally I think books like The Dark Tower, The Stand and Hyperion deserves to be higher than run-of-the-mill fantasy like Wheel of Time

 

[HLReasby]

I'm a little disappointed that the Kingkiller Chronicles and Starship Troopers weren't a little higher on the list. I gave up reading the Wheel of Time YEARS ago because it ticked me off after six books. Other than those, however, the list looks pretty good to me.

 

[SuperFerret]

No Crichton on the list bugs me, and Animal Farm is neither sci-fi nor fantasy.

 

[redmarvel]

No Crichton on the list bugs me, and Animal Farm is neither sci-fi nor fantasy.

Intelligent Animals able to overthrow humans is either Fantasy or Science Fiction (depending on how their intelligence is explained in the book).

I've never even heard of "American Gods" though the title alone would be enough to make me ignore the book.

Then again I've never heard of "The Kingkiller Chronicles" either.

Too much Stephen King in the top 25 and no Anne McCaffrey.

 

[childeroland]

Animal Farm isn't fantasy? How are you defining fantasy?

The real crime of the list (which is a decent list, but still) is no Peake, Hoban, or Crowley.

Dragonflight is on the list.

 

[SuperFerret]

Animal Farm is more about the political satire than the fact that the animals are anthropomorphized. Aesop's Fables aren't considered sci-fi or fantasy.

For the record:
Science Fiction = something that could happen in reality, given specific plausible advances. (i.e. Star Trek, Jurassic Park, etc.)
Fantasy = something that can never happen due to the existence of mysticism or magic. (i.e. Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, etc.)

And American Gods is an amazing book, with a very interesting take on modern mythology vs. ancient mythology.

 

[Motown Marvel]

philip k. dick should be higher on the list, and with a better book (as opposed to his most popular).

 

[Mandalore464]

I've never even heard of "American Gods" though the title alone would be enough to make me ignore the book.

You shouldn't rely on the book's title to judge it. It's absolutely great and a thrilling read.

 

[Wyrminarrd]

I've read 35 of those (when it's a multi book entry I count it if I've read the majority of the series).

Glad to see that the list had "Fire upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge though I thought "Deepness in the sky" was a more compelling read.

I´m also a bit surprised that the "Kingkiller chronicles" placed so high considering that the series isn't finished. I thought the series so far was great but to rate so high it needs to finish strong.

I guess that the Wheel of time series is guilty of the same thing but at least I have more to base my judgement on. That series was imo great for the first 6 books and has become pretty good again in the last 2.

 

[Matt]

No Harry Potter? Fail.

 

[Dark Sentinel]

No Harry Potter? Fail.

Ha.

But you do have a point though, Matt. There are only a handful of seminal fantasy works that have come up over the years, and I believe Potter became one of them, especially by book 7.

 

[Micromind]

No Michael Crichton ? Fail.

And Harry Potter should also be there on the list.

 

[Wyrminarrd]

Are the Harry Potter books really all that good? I know that they are popular but popularity and quality don't always go together...

 

[:eek:]

No Harry Potter? Fail.

The reason there's no Harry Potter can be found in the article:

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.

 

[Dark Sentinel]

The reason there's no Harry Potter can be found in the article:

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.

Agreed, but the final trilogy (Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows especially) were FAR less young adult than the first four. Hell, I'd even put Goblet of Fire in that group as well.

 

[Hotwire]

The Princess Bride, Watership Down, and The Last Unicorn, makes the list, but Harry Potter doesn't? Aren't those all three considered either children's or young adult?

Very nice to see Neil Gaiman on the list. TWICE!

Also upset Michael Crichton was snubbed.

 

[Victarion]

Nice to see the Dark Tower so high up! The WOT's placement baffles me. Its good, but I feel that the Elric novels should be higher up. The presence of Drizzt surprises me. I love the novels but I figured the fact that they's Dungeons and Dragons books in a shared world would result in them not making the list.

The lack of Death Gate Cycle disturbs me.

 

[CClark]

Wow what a surprising list of books, surprised that it's missing a lot of great books. Kinda shocked that Jim Butcher's Codex series made it on there. I love his Harry Dresden books, but couldn't get into that series.

 

[Majik1387]

The reason there's no Harry Potter can be found in the article:

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.

Since when is Frankenstein not a horror?

 

[SuperFerret]

It's really not that scary.

 

[Majik1387]

A lot of classic horrors aren't scary, but they're still horror.

 

[Lord]

Are the Harry Potter books really all that good? I know that they are popular but popularity and quality don't always go together...

That is true with the Twilight books, but not with harry potter, they're popular and good