Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Top 100 Science Fiction/Fantasy books
NPR ^ | 8/11/11 | NPR

Posted on 08/11/2011 5:46:33 PM PDT by Tanniker Smith

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 201-213 next last
To: Third Person
Excerpt from “The Genre Artist”, an excellent Vance profile in the NY Times Mag, July 2009:

Thank you. I have waited a long time to read that article.

121 posted on 08/11/2011 8:22:16 PM PDT by Interesting Times (WinterSoldier.com. SwiftVets.com. ToSetTheRecordStraight.com.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
If you liked The Mote in God's Eye, take a look at King David's Spaceship, written by Jerry Pournelle alone. It takes place in the same universe and it contemporaneous with Mote.
122 posted on 08/11/2011 8:25:07 PM PDT by Question_Assumptions
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Tanniker Smith

Combining fantasy and science fiction is ridiculous - they are totally separate genres. And there is far too much fantasy on the list, which may simply be symbolic of the times. Rather than trusting in reason, people (Democrats) prefer stories where magic somehow saves them from the dragon. :)


123 posted on 08/11/2011 8:25:53 PM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ( "The right to offend is far more important than any right not to be offended." - Rowan Atkinson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EQAndyBuzz
Surprised the “shanara” books by Terry Brooks didn’t make the list.

Look again, it was on the list.

Mark

124 posted on 08/11/2011 8:26:58 PM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: TradicalRC
I agree. Hunger Games is excellent.

I plan to read Mockingjay (Bk #3) this weekend. Generally the series is interesting, but the feminist character annoys me a little. I'm tired of girls who act like boys--or have male best friends. Maybe because I live in a religious community, where interaction between the sexes (especially at that age) is more limited.

125 posted on 08/11/2011 8:29:33 PM PDT by MoochPooch (I'm a compassionate cynic.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 106 | View Replies]

To: Pollster1
I wasn't. His understanding of freedom comes from having once believed in the other side's values and then thought about that belief system. Someone who has never been a socialist would not have as deep an understanding of its flaws as a convert.

Good point. See "Horowitz, David."

126 posted on 08/11/2011 8:36:03 PM PDT by Interesting Times (WinterSoldier.com. SwiftVets.com. ToSetTheRecordStraight.com.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: FredZarguna
No part of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant?

The first trilogy was on the list, #58.

A Clockwork Orange? [A great book, yes. SF/Fantasy, no.] Same comment for 1984, Animal Farm, Brace New World...

These sorts of books/stories are often lumped into the SF genre, but I think Harlan Ellison had a better term for it, "Speculative Fiction." Ellison was a master at the genre, but while he's a terrific author, I like him better as an editor: Check out his "Dangerous Visions" anthologies. If not for them, I never would have discovered Piers Anthony or Fritz Lieber.

Mark

127 posted on 08/11/2011 8:38:32 PM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Tanniker Smith

Top fantasy book: Dreams From My Father


128 posted on 08/11/2011 8:47:58 PM PDT by Rocky (REPEAL IT!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ctdonath2
Starship Troopers the movie was based on the back cover of a novel by Robert Heinlein.

When Virginia Heinlein saw what they they had done with the movie, she attempted to have his name removed from the project.

Mark

129 posted on 08/11/2011 8:48:25 PM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: JMS
John Carter series by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I heard that a movie is coming out soon.

Mark

130 posted on 08/11/2011 8:50:38 PM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: Tanniker Smith
I didn't know about this until the list of finalists was printed. Unfortunately, I was busy and didn't get to stop by here and ping the list.

Interesting observation, I thought it was just me.

I DID look at the top 100 list about 3 months ago. I read between 30 and 70 books a year (about 50-50 fiction and non-fiction,) and wasn't aware that NPR was having a survey/vote.

I have to check and see where my top ten ended up.

131 posted on 08/11/2011 9:03:26 PM PDT by Publius6961 (My world was lovely, until it was taken over by parasites.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jocon307

My mother, I, and both of my brothers, all without prior coordination, gave each other copies of “A Canticle” for Christmas one year.

The funny part - every copy gifted had been read.


132 posted on 08/11/2011 9:07:38 PM PDT by patton (I am sure that I have done dumber things in my life, but at the moment, I am unable to recall them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: Tanniker Smith

NPR. What, no “Battleship Earth??” /sarc hee hee hee.


133 posted on 08/11/2011 9:36:25 PM PDT by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (SP12: They called Reagan "unelectable", too.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: contrarian
waiting for the latest one to drop from the ridiculous Nook price (it is electronic you ninnies, no printing costs)* before I buy it..

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but this is an ongoing war.

*Also add : no trees needed, no paper manufacturing and shipping, no warehousing, no remainers, no shipping costs, and yet the "publishers" make more money than the authors, and the "books" have not dropped in price.

The greedy bastards are going the way of the RIAA. Good riddance.

134 posted on 08/11/2011 9:39:11 PM PDT by Publius6961 (My world was lovely, until it was taken over by parasites.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 113 | View Replies]

To: Tanniker Smith
OK, you haven't read (or "attempted to read") the Silmarillion. I can't account for your -- or anyone else's -- taste, and won't try. But among the cult of Tolkien's close followers, which probably outnumber Le Guin's even casual readership by two orders of magnitude, it's a well regarded piece. That her awful dreck makes it into this list multiple times is a clear indication of how oversampled she would be in a liberal audience such as NPR's.

As for me, I have read it, and I have also read all of Le Guin's stuff hoping in vain that someday I'd get a glimpse of what people in college assured me was her brilliance. Nope. It's awful: only an NPR audience would put one of her books in the top 100, let alone several.

135 posted on 08/11/2011 10:07:24 PM PDT by FredZarguna (No AE Van Vogt? No JG Ballard? But _Wicked_? OK. that's about all I can take... NPR audience...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
“The Mote in God’s Eye” made 61. I would have rated it higher. And,,,, it would make a great movie series!

As would Lucifer's Hammer, and Footfall. On the positive side, Rendezvous With Rama made the list. I challenged my daughter, a precocious 12 year old reader, to "just read the first 20 pages," and just leave it if it was not interesting. She finished it overnight that weekend.

As for combining S/F and Fantasy in one list, was a horrible idea, but understandable. NPR's audience would not have given the vote a second glance if there were no "Sword and Sorcery" chick books on the list.

136 posted on 08/11/2011 10:08:23 PM PDT by Publius6961 (My world was lovely, until it was taken over by parasites.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Kellis91789
He has a number of 'concept pieces' that were pretty much stolen outright without attribution by later writers. Doll House of Joss Whedon fame does not credit him that I know of, although the idea and a number of tributary bits were stolen directly from All My Sins Remembered. In general he either made the novel with the idea, or didn't, unlike some authors who can even take something fairly lame and make a decent read of it.

Another author hot in about the same period was John Varley, whose first book, The Persistence of Vision should have made this list and did not. The Star Trek film with the whales stole one of the core ideas in The Ophiuchi Hotline from him, again without attribution. So it goes.

137 posted on 08/11/2011 10:17:24 PM PDT by FredZarguna (No AE Van Vogt? No JG Ballard? But _Wicked_? OK. that's about all I can take... NPR audience...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: Noumenon

Gully Foyle is my name,
Terra is my nation,
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The Stars My Destination.

Yes indeed. One of the fond memories of my undergraduate reading list. I re-read that about a month ago. Holds up very well.

138 posted on 08/11/2011 10:23:38 PM PDT by FredZarguna (No AE Van Vogt? No JG Ballard? But _Wicked_? OK. that's about all I can take... NPR audience...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 98 | View Replies]

To: driftdiver; denydenydeny

>>> How is Starship Troopers controversial? Oh ya mean the part where citizens have more rights than the leaches.

But you see even you get it wrong. ALL people under that political system have the same RIGHTS. It is the full citizen who however chooses to undertake the added RESPONSIBILITY of the franchise.

“”Superficially, our system is only slightly different; we have democracy unlimited by race, color, creed, birth, wealth, sex, or conviction, and anyone may win sovereign power by a usually short and not too arduous term of service — nothing more than a light workout to our cave-man ancestors.

But that slight difference is one between a system that works, since it is constructed to match the facts, and one that is inherently unstable. Since sovereign franchise is the ultimate in human authority, we insure that all who wield it accept the ultimate in social responsibility — we require each person who wishes to exert control over the state to wager his own life — and lose it, if need be — to save the life of the state. The maximum responsibility a human can accept is thus equated to the ultimate authority a human can exert. Yin and yang, perfect and equal.””


139 posted on 08/11/2011 10:27:54 PM PDT by tlb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Spartan79
“endress” not “endless”? Don’t know how that happened, the r’s not even close to the l on the keyboard.

Keyboard made in China?

140 posted on 08/11/2011 10:28:11 PM PDT by FredZarguna (No AE Van Vogt? No JG Ballard? But _Wicked_? OK. that's about all I can take... NPR audience...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 114 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 201-213 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson