A couple of weeks ago, we told you about NPR’s summer project to assemble a list of the top 100 sci-fi and fantasy books.
After nominations, voting and compiling, the results are in.
And the top five are:
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
The full list is available on NPR. They also have a printer friendly one so you can take it to your local library or bookstore to begin reading. (If you haven’t read them already, that is!)
I’d like to point out that, given the opportunity, I would only have voted for the first in the Dune Chronicles.
Not one Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Sturgeon, Dick int eh Top 5- This is impossible to accpet. Sorry.
A top 100 in Sci-Fi list without Asimov is criminal.
of course… the foundation trilogy is # 8, so why did I complain?
After looking thru the whole list, about half of the books that I have read on this list totaly sucked. While the other half rocked.
Chronicles of Amber, Ringworld, and Shards of Honor should all, in my opinion, have ranked higher.
Again in my opinion, E. E. Doc Smith’s Lensmen series should have ranked in there, as well as Farmer’s Riverworld series, Gordon Dickson’s Dorsai saga, and at least something by Catherine Asaro.
Per my tastes, the greatest omission (as if the above are not enough) is Saberhagen’s Berserkers offerings . . . I’m guessing goodlife dominated the panel of judges.
That said, it gives me a decent list of books I have not read, and if I ever retire, it looks like I have some stuff to catch up on.
It’s a decent list, sure, but … OS Card in the top five? I don’t think so. That hack has no place in a “best of” list.
Hard to argue against Ender’s Game, regardless of one’s personal feelings for the author.
My two most loved books of all time are on the list (#2 and #52), however, yeah, I’ve read a good number of the “classics” that were written in the early 20th century and they are serious snoozers.
as if my TBR pile wasn’t long enough already