Heartland

http://www.listchallenges.com/npr-top-1 ... tasy-books

I've read 51 of the 100, which slightly surprised me as it's a bit on the low side. On the other hand there's some real dross in there...

Hmm, 55 out of 100.

Kind of surprised me too, since while I was going through them I felt like I was ticking about 75% of the titles.

If I could be bothered, I'd go through it again and count them to see how many I really ticked, but… nah.

30, likewise lower than I would have thought.

51 as well

and yes, there is a lot of dross there

18 i thought i ve read more than that, there are books missing in here?

I was doing fine for the top end of the chart but ended up with only 34 :/
There are a lot of noticeable absentees from that list too - didn't notice any Pohl for starters.. And I still haven't got anywhere with Foundation - Asimov is just so dry..

Just 70 if getting about a third of the way through the Silmarillion, before thinking it was like reading a trainspotters crossed off numbers book, counts

Yeah, Pohl missing (Gateway at least should have been there), no Hamilton (Night's Dawn should have been there, probably also Commonwealth), an odd selection of books.

I did however make it through all 10 of the Malazan books, for which I likely deserve some kind of award.

Watership Down science fiction and fantasy?

... 8 ... ...

yeah i thought i'd ticked more than 35....some dross in there -a lot of which i've started and not finished. kudos to pioneers like jules verne but such tedious reading...

Only 50 and I got a whole room full of fantasy and science fiction books. But there are a lot of real classics missing (and some crap mentioned instead), re fantasy this includes some of my favourite series, e.g.
- Riddle-Master - Patricia McKilip
- The Black Company - Glen Cook
- His Dark Materials - Philip Pullmann
- Tad Williams is completely ignored (at least Otherland and Memory, Sorrow & Thorn are real classics)

However, nice that Jim Buthcher with his Calderon series is included, one of the best series in recent years together with the Askir series by German author Richard Schwartz, which I recommended to all, who haven't tried it yet (although I don't know, if the books have been released in English language).

Not much, although Brave New World and Catch 22 are on my shelf, I was also tempted to buy Space Odyssey, but I didn't buy it.

jande wrote:Just 70 if getting about a third of the way through the Silmarillion, before thinking it was like reading a trainspotters crossed off numbers book, counts

I've tried to read it twice. Not sure I even got past the first chapter.

markfiend wrote:http://www.listchallenges.com/npr-top-1 ... tasy-books

I've read 51 of the 100, which slightly surprised me as it's a bit on the low side. On the other hand there's some real dross in there...

51 on the low side ? I haven't read a single one of them !

I thought it likely to get a fairly broad sci-fi and fantasy readership on here. I think it's interesting that a couple of comics made it into the top 100; Sandman and Watchmen IIRC.

Any books that people should have made it on but didn't? I don't think I saw Mervyn Peake?

markfiend wrote:I thought it likely to get a fairly broad sci-fi and fantasy readership on here. I think it's interesting that a couple of comics made it into the top 100; Sandman and Watchmen IIRC.

Any books that people should have made it on but didn't? I don't think I saw Mervyn Peake?

true no Peake. odd. and if we're talking comics.....well i dont even have the patience to type that much. odd that some titles made it as part of a series/trilogy/set eg elric as a series when only some of which are very good and some are moorcock by numbers (most moorcock is moorcock by numbers).

biggest crime is theres absolutely no John Wyndham, not even day of the triffids.

and "wicked" is a f**king musical and doesnt even qualify yet l.frank baum (land of oz series aurthor) is otherwise nrepresented.

No Neil Asher, David Brin, Michael Marshall Smith (Only Forward is an outstanding novel) and most of the 'golden age' authors seem to be absent in more ways than one

As stated above, Tad Williams is missing as well...

No Cthulu = No Fiction

iesus wrote:No Cthulu = No Fiction

but august derleth, not lovecraft. i hate lovecraft with a passion (mainly for his wilfully incorrect usage of "magick" stolen from "actual" grimoires -much the same as i hate eastenders for perpetuating the myth that if you wish to visit someone in prison all you have to do is turn up unannounced with a rucksack full of "snout" and no ID).

markfiend wrote: Any books that people should have made it on but didn't? I don't think I saw Mervyn Peake?

This...



Should certainly be on there.

18. This seems like a very random list, but I'm glad they've put some Gaiman, Pratchett and Rothfuss in, otherwise my count would have been even lower.

Also, a lot of the ones I have read were sh!te, like the aforementioned Rothfuss (the second book is much better), or some of the "classics" which have far been surpassed by derivative works.
I tried Outlander, but made the mistake of trying it as an audio book, which I couldn't stomach for the idealised rapey situations.

21. And I also missed Mervyn Peake as well as Lord Dunsany. And where, may I ask, is Gustav Meyrink?

markfiend wrote:Any books that people should have made it on but didn't?

Ahem, mine?