NPR has issued its top 100 SF/Fantasy books/series. At first glance, I didn’t stop any outrageous items on it, although I did find strange that some series were listed while in other cases, only part of series were listed. Some old favorites were included as well as some newer stuff, but generally I see well established books in that list.
Glad to see Mistborn making the list at 43. Anything more recent than that? I mean any series or individual book that begins earlier than that.
Ah, I should have guessed. Sanderson’s Way of Kings is also there and it only just came out.
Was Way of the Kings better than Elantris? I haven’t read either, yet.
Simmons’ *Hyperion Cantos *should be placed much higher (it’s at 51).
The Wheel of Time, on the other hand…
Well the list does not outrage me, so that’s a good thing. It’s mostly pretty good stuff. The major flaw I see with it is that it has a few works on it that are CLEARLY fantasy, i.e., “Lord of the Rings” and “Animal Farm.” I don’t think they are SF or anything CLOSE to being SF. I mean, “Chronicles of Amber” is fantasy, but it’s at least got a well-established mythos that would allow you to define it as SF if you wanted to: beings who can control and create alternate universes might conceivably exist. But c’mon: Animal Farm? SF? In a pig’s eye! It’s a damn fantasy allegory and not another damn thing at all.
Plus, if Animal Farm and LotR are not fantasies, then neither are the works of Tim Powers, most especially “Declare” which should be in the top ten somewhere, at the very least. And if not “Declare” then the “Earthquake Weather” trilogy, or “The Stress of Her Regard.”
And if we’re letting in ESPECIALLY GOOD fantasies, why then John Crowley’s “Little, Big” should be in the Top Ten.
You can toss out any of the LotR clone wannabe fantasy series on the list to make room for them.
Someone in the comments mentioned Harry Potter was excluded from the list. Was there a reason why? Or did NPR just think it sucks and didn’t make it? Not a HP fan, just curious
The list is for both science fiction *and *fantasy, EC.
It bugged me that the list was weighted toward series when there are clearly superior stand along Novels. Also Watchman isn’t even a novel. It’s a comic book. Graphic Novel just means it is an expensive comic book.
The fact that ANY Terry Goodkind book is on the list is surprising. That it’s ranked higher than ‘I am Legend’ and ‘Rendezvous with Rama’ just cost humanity another batch of opinion points.
I liked the ‘Wheel of Time’ at first though it took a serious nose-dive. I’m thinking a lot of the books may have suffered from not being read by many of the respondents.
I don’t have any problem with them including comics or series. They do include a lot of not-yet-completed series though. Seems like a work should actually be finished before you can say whether its the ‘best’.
What this list has over 99% of other internet “best of” lists is that the whole list is easy to read and contained on one page.
For that reason alone, I am completely behind this list!
I’m surprised that Xanth made the list. I read those voraciously in middle school, but I would have guessed that due to lack of any new novels coming out in . . . however long it’s been, Xanth would have disappeared into the cracks. The fact that enough people in 2011 actually remembered and thought enough about those books to list them as their favorites surprises me.
I’d ditch American Gods (I think we just had a thread about how this book was over-rated) and replace it with “The Stars My Destination”.
I’d replace “The Belegariad” with “On the Beach”.
I’d replace “Wheel of Time” with “V for Vendetta”, which not only will get rid of the worst thing on the list, but save someone trying to read through all the suggested books about 127 hours.
I like that The Stand by Stephen King was on there because it is fantasy, even though King is usually known as just a horror author.
I’m disappointed that Replay by Ken Grimwood wasn’t there. No Octavia Butler either.
The Dune Chronicles are in the Top 10, which proves the list is worthless. See also Robert Jordan.
It’s a book. NPR describes the exercise as one of “books” and “titles”–not novels. Though I don’t see anything I recognize as a short-story compilation; a couple of my favorite SFF volumes are that.
I was about to say that NPR skews old. But cripes, it looks like Piers Anthony never let up with those.
Note that the author listed is Frank Herbert, which means they consider only the 6 original novels and not the abortions that came afterward, so I have no problem with their inclusion.
I’d apply the “worthless abortion” label to anything after Dune Messiah. YMMV.
I, Robot is included, which is a compilation of short stories.
Well, Dune itself deserves to be on the list. Maybe Children of Dune, which I like.
Everything else is a waste of space.
Isn’t the list for fantasy and sci-fi?
