NPR's 100 best SF/Fantasy books/series

[noirem]

As posted here: NPR's Top 100 SF/F books

Comments

[phantomdancer]

Kingkiller chronicles are probably the best books i've read in a long time, cant wait for the third to come out.

I like the dark tower a lot too, it's worth reading.

Starship troopers is interesting, and a pretty quick read

[noirem]

I've enjoyed the Heinlein I've read so I've no objection to reading it, I just...haven't.

Is Name of the Wind the first Kingslayer novel? I added it to my wishlist.

[phantomdancer]

Yes, Name of the Wind is the first one.
If you do read any of the Dark Tower, try to find a version of the first book that isn't revised. A few years ago Stephen King tried to "correct" issues he had with that book. As is usually the case, it didn't turn out well.

[angelbob]

If you're going to read Vonnegut, start with Cat's Cradle. He's easy to read, and you'll figure out whether you like him pretty quickly

[noirem]

If you're going to read Vonnegut, start with Cat's Cradle. He's easy to read, and you'll figure out whether you like him pretty quickly.

I've only ever heard good things about him, just haven't read anything. I didn't realize they were "sf/f" but there are several things on this list I wouldn't consider SF/F but I can see why dystopian=future=sf/f for some people.

I found the first of Lewis's space trilogy okay, the second amazing, and the third unreadable.

Doesn't appear to be available for kindle (looking only on Amazon)

A Fire Upon The Deep is one of the most amazing books in any genre, ever. It conveys the idea that the universe is full of things that are really and truly alien to us in a way no other book ever has, at least to me. *And* it has a really good story.

Right. I'll give this one a "high" priority on my wishlist :o)

The Forever War is really quite good, though again, not sure if I believe it belongs in the top 100. Ahead of The Stars My Destination *and* The Demolished Man, neither of which even made the list?

[vvvexation]

Yeah, definitely give Watership another shot.

[noirem]

For some reason Farenheit 451 got paired up with Catch 22 in my mind in the "If you read one you can tick that box" way. Ironically, while I enjoyed Catch 22, I never finished it as I lost my copy 3/4ths the way through. Oops.

Sunshine doesn't appear to be available in kindle format (again, just looking in Amazon).

[tsgeisel]

Of what's on the list, I think "The Stand" is the better of the King books. It's a good "end of the world" kind of story, and while dated in places, holds together well

[noirem]

I had an ARC of Anathem at one point, but hadn't gotten around to reading him - I feel one must properly gird one's loins before starting a Stephenson novel. Anyway, I gave away my copy when I moved :o/

[superl99]

The Outlander series became uninteresting after they left Scotland, and got progressively more annoying as every single Englishman seemed to want to rape either Clare or Jamie. I only barely made it through The Fiery Cross; only finished it because I don't like leaving a book unfinished, but I didn't enjoy it at all, and I haven't bothered reading what's come after it.

[noirem]

That was pretty much my assessment as well. I'm not great with individual titles within a series: I tend to think of books as, for example, Harry Potter 1, HP2, HP3 and have to think about it to remember which number Half-Blood Prince is. Series I don't love get even less brain power. I think I was somewhere in book 5 and I just gave up. When I try to finish a book I'm not into I tend to just stop reading altogether so I've learned to find a synopsis somewhere and move on with life.

I have heard that the most recent book in the Outlander series was actually interesting and things did happen.

[superl99]

Yep, Fiery Cross is book 5. I learned that I didn't give a toss about Bri and Roger, and so much of that book was about them. I'd heard that number 6 was mostly about the usual people trying to rape Clare and/or Jamie, and I didn't even bother finding out about 7.