NPR is having a SF Title Contest this week.

I have noticed in my time on the LSF that many of the perv's here are also died in the wool SF fans as well. One of my news services informed me this morning that NPR (National Public Radio) for non-Americans', is having a contest as to peoples favorite SF titles. You get to vote for your top ten off of a list of several hundred well know titles. Try it. Here's the URL:

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/02/138894873/vote-for-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-titl es

There were several books that I consider horror rather than SF but can understand how something like Shelly's 'Frankenstein' would make this list just as an example. The following list are my choices based on my personal taste rather than literary merit, age, classic, or other criteria. All of that is valid but wanted to just be me and in no particular order. Enjoy. And since Canadianspankee put this up it has become my motto here. Read much, comment more, and have fun. Grin!

1. The Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny.

2. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons.

3. Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny.

4. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert A. Heinlein.

5. The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle.

6. On Basilisk Station, by David Weber.

7. Revelation Space, by Alistair Reynolds

8. The Uplift Saga, by David Brin.

9. The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi.

10. Ringworld, by Larry Niven.

I had to leave 'Starship Troopers' & Doc Smith's 'Lensman' Series off as well as others that are just too good. Boo Hiss! Have fun. Grin!

Good choice, but I think Honor Among Enemies is probably my favorite in the series. Although I have to admit that each book has two or three scenes that I really, really like.

I voted on this myself, largely because one of my favourite new authors (Seanan McGuire, although she writes under the pen name of Mira Grant) got Feed on the list and wanted her legion of fans to vote for it. You could do an entire list of books that didn't make it. No The Hobbit for example. They seemed to concentrate more on SFF (the other F stands for fantasy) than horror for instance no Stephen King and I don't think Clive Barker's Weaveworld (one of the best examples of dark fantasy ever written IMNSHO) was there either. However Barry Hughart's underrated and criminally mistreated Bridge of Birds was there. Love if that won, maybe Mr Hughart could be prompted to resurrect Master Li and Number Ten Ox and give us the rest of the 7 book series that was intended to be.

I'd certainly include "Dune" by Herbert and The Foundation Trilogy by Asimov. Also The Neutronium Alchemist trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. Agree w/ Hyperion wholeheartedly. Also Heinlien's series that begins with Methuselah's Children and includes Revolt in 2100, and The Day After Tomorrow.

I am even more crazy, bonkers, way round the bend, and just plain 'nuts' about the 'Harrington' Saga than I am about edb's RDSC series here on the site. I was surprised that it made the list at all and 'Basilisk' was the only Weber title listed as representative of a mega series now 12 novels deep with five compendiums of other writers in his Honorverse not to mention four novels dealing with two off shoots from the original series. My personal favorite is 'Echos of Honor'. And at least seven different languages and all the millions it's made Weber. Jackpot!


Very Kool Seegee and thanks for the recommendation. I will follow up and let ya know. There was a Stephen King title on the list but can't remember which one. I have never read his works so don't know much about him other than he is HUGE! I was disappointed that one of my favorite new authors, Charles Stross, didn't make the list either. From Edinburgh no less and one of those Scottish, N. English, and Belfast writers that are putting out such top flight SF these days. That's why I picked the only Alistair Reynolds title.


Rollin, Rollin, Rollin. I can see we share the same era. The 'Dune' Saga was on the list but I only like the original novel. Still one of the best in the whole genre after all these years. Old Uncle Issac had several entries but not the Foundation Stuff. Along with the 'Lensman' stories they were my entry into serious Space Opera and helped give me a life long love of that type of story. Your reference to Heinlein's 'Future History' saga is well mentioned as Lazarus Long is one of my all time favorite characters and he appears under many names and at many places all through RAH's works. 'Methuselah Children' also was the first novella I remember reading and gained a life long passion for the stories of Immortals everywhere from Inki, The Wandering Jew, to Conrad. My personal favorite RAH novel is 'Glory Road' but I think his two strongest works are Mistress & Troopers. They have withstood the test of time. RAH taught me how to read at age eight with 'Starman Jones' at the same time that the elementary school battleaxes were forcing the Dick and Jane stories down my young throat. Glory Road also gave me my love of spanking as there is a spanking scene between Star and Oscar in the novel.

OK you perv's. Who's next with an opinion. Grin!

I have always preferred the Gor Series by J Norman. I notice it is not on the list but I would have voted it top and then the Dune series.

Stross is a pretty cool guy. He's quite funny in person. I've read a couple of his, but just couldn't get into his Len Deighton meets H.P Lovecraft in The Atrocity Archives. I hope you enjoy Feed, twisted. It's a zombie apocalypse thing, I've never really got the whole zombie fad, but this pulled me in right from the get go, Mrs Seegee really enjoyed it too. Seanan is absolute hoot. I hope to meet her at Worldcon. Oh yes, Feed is one of the nominations for this years Hugo, too.
Yes, I'm a serious SFF nerd.

One thing that isn't on the list and I suppose that's fair because it's not finished, is George R R Martin's saga, currently on HBO. One problem I have with the fantasy genre in general is that it is not gritty and realistic enough for me. Not so with GRRM. Does anybody else out there write with an attempt at realistic portrayals of life at the level of 14th century society/technology like he does? You guys seem to know a lot about this genre.

I knew it was about time for a Heinlein thread. He was arguably the best known author who was also fully qualified for a membership here at the Library. Mention of spanking occurs in virtually all his novels, in the early ones usually as throw away lines, in the later ones much more explicitly spankophile. However, he did better with discussion than description, Glory Road is a good example, there is a magnificent threat from Oscar to Star in the book, some pages later he actually spanks her, the scene ranks ho-hum at best. Similarly, the hero/heroine of Time Enough for Love gets an uninteresting spanking (if this is not an oxymoron) while in, I believe, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls there is a great discussion of the type we have all wanted to have beginning (approximately) (hero)"Surely a big girl like you doesn't get spanked." (16 year old girl)"Tell that to Mama."
Wandering off topic, spanking not Heinlein, I have recently read volume 1 of the authorized biography. It contains very little of Heinlein's apparently very interesting sex life and essentially nothing of his spanking interest, but it does have much of his political views thru 1947, his politics were mostly of the non-Communist extreme left and he was a strong feminist.

GRRM's main claim to fame with ASoIaF, and I'm a huge fan, is that he's not afraid to knock off main characters and that he's writing a more realistic style of fantasy, big on the political intrigue and light on the magic, although it has to be said he's falling into the Robert Jordan trap of being too interested with the minutiae of his series with the last 2 books. Similar to GRRM are Joe Abercrombie (highly recommended) and Scott Lynch with his awesome The Lies of Locke Lamora. That's set in Camorr, a city which is rather like Renaissance Venice meets Dickensian London. Although it's part of a series, which the author is struggling with due to depression, the first volume is self contained. Rollin, I do a blog: http://travelsthroughiest.blogspot.com, where I review all the SFF I read, if you'd like to have a peek you may find something of interest. If you're looking for gritty (a dreadfully overused term in fantasy these days) you may also like Glen Cook's Black Company, a pretty warts and all account of war in a magic universe. It inspired Steven Erikson's Malazan series and I believe, although he doesn't credit it, that it also helped Abercrombie.