NPR's top 100 sci-fi/fantasy books

[Ⓐaron]

Source

More than 60,000 ballots were cast in our annual summer reader's survey — click here to see the full list of 100 books, complete with links and descriptions. Below is a printable list of the top 100 winners. And for even more great reads, check out the complete list of 237 finalists.

Spoiler

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

6. 1984, by George Orwell

7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov

9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan

13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell

14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson

15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore

16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov

17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss

19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick

22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King

24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke

25. The Stand, by Stephen King

26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury

28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman

30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams

33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey

34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein

35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller

36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne

38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys

39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells

40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny

41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings

42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley

43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson

44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven

45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin

46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien

47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White

48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke

50. Contact, by Carl Sagan

51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons

52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson

54. World War Z, by Max Brooks

55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman

57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett

58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson

59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold

60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett

61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind

63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke

65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist

67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks

68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard

69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb

70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson

72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne

73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore

74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi

75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson

76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke

77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey

78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin

79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire

81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson

82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde

83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks

84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart

85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher

87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe

88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn

89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan

90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock

91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury

92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley

93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge

94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov

95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson

96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville

99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony

100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Perdido Street Station and Red Mars below Sword of Truth? Blasphemy. And not that Ender's Game is bad, but ASOIAF should be higher than it. Slaughterhouse-Five is also better than the Kingkiller Chronicle (which isn't bad, just a bit overrated). Then again most of these are usually popularity contests anyway.

On the whole though it's a pretty good list. There are still a fairly large number of titles on it I need to read.

 

[Hisako]

The Thrawn Trilogy lol


Yeah, honestly for what is essentially a popularity contest this didn't come off too bad at all! Even though I'm not really a bookworm I have read like seven of say... the top 11 books at some point. I guess I have decent tastes.

A lot of those are what people might say are justifiably classics.

 

[Tifabelle]

was fahrenheit 451 sci-fi/fantasy? I didn't realize that.

 

[Celes Chere]

I'm glad to see The Mists of Avalon on there. Best book ever. >w<

 

[Ⓐaron]

I don't think I fully realised what a dork I was until I realised I've already read at least some books in all of the top ten listed entries. I haven't read the entire Dune Chronicles but that's the only thing I haven't read from start to finish. If you extend it to the top twenty there are only three items I haven't read at least part of (and I own the three I haven't read).

 

[Cthulhu]

I should read the Ender series and Dune, at the very least. I've only watched movies / played video games of the latter.

And Wheel of Time? Fuck that, I couldn't stomach it anymore after three or four books. Same with Sword of Truth, only it had the author's sexual fetishes incorporated in it. And same with Riftwar, the first book was okay, but the author should've stopped at that instead of pasting another half-dozen books to the series that never did match the win of the first book.

And Starship Troopers wasn't /that/ good, imho. It was effectively a political essay wrapped in a (somewhat small) story.

Still, bookmark'd, I should go and read all of these .

 

[Masamune]

Watchmen shouldn't be on there, tbqh. It's a graphic novel/comic series.

And no The Painted Man? Bah.

I might just have to check out some of those on the list.

 

[Hisako]

And Starship Troopers wasn't /that/ good, imho. It was effectively a political essay wrapped in a (somewhat small) story.

Starship Troopers was a good story when it was trying to do a sci-fi take on a dude going up the career ladder of the military.
I just sort of ignored all the blatant philosophy lessons since that was basically just Heinlein's essays

 

[Cthulhu]

Starship Troopers was a good story when it was trying to do a sci-fi take on a dude going up the career ladder of the military.
I just sort of ignored all the blatant philosophy lessons since that was basically just Heinlein's essays

It was a good (albeit a bit short) story if you cut out the essay crap, yeah .

I didn't mind the essay chucked into 1984 though. But then, it was a lot more bleak than an essay on only veterans having voting rights.

 

[Tennyo]

55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

This makes me happy. :3

Although I would have put it much higher on the list. /biased

 

[Ⓐaron]

I should read the Ender series and Dune, at the very least. I've only watched movies / played video games of the latter.

Honestly, as far as the Ender series goes, you can read just Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead and come away satisfied. In fact, I'd recommend not reading Xenocide and Children of the Mind; they're filled with extremely turgid prose and don't really even lead to a particularly satisfying ending. Most of the time I simply pretend they don't exist. Ender's Shadow is relatively worth reading but I can't even remember the rest of the Shadow series which shows you how memorable they were. I stopped reading at some point, but I wouldn't even be able to tell you where.

Definitely read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead though; they're great.

Still, bookmark'd, I should go and read all of these .

I wouldn't say all. Some of them are pretty mediocre; I couldn't even get through the first book of the Sword of Truth series, and general consensus seems to be that it gets even more overwritten than Wheel of Time towards the end, plus the author throws in increasingly more lectures about his "libertarian" political views (which aren't actually particularly libertarian). On the whole, though, yeah, a lot of 'em are classics.

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

I wouldn't say all. Some of them are pretty mediocre; I couldn't even get through the first book of the Sword of Truth series, and general consensus seems to be that it gets even more overwritten than Wheel of Time towards the end, plus the author throws in increasingly more lectures about his "libertarian" political views (which aren't actually particularly libertarian). On the whole, though, yeah, a lot of 'em are classics.

oh my christ sword of truth is bad. first book contains main girl under the constant threat of rape, towards the end he gets kidnapped by kinky ladies who love to torture and then pulls a subject zero on his torturer and converts her to his side with nice sex. it ends via a ridiculous deus ex machina (I LOVED YOU WITH ALL MY HEART ALREADY SO YOUR BERSERKER LOVE POWER DIDN'T WORK ON ME <3) and it only gets worse.

IT WAS NO CHICKEN. IT WAS PURE EVIL!!!!!!!!

just finished american gods btw that was a pretty good book

 

[Terrafig]

I'm not surprised my favorite, The Gods Themselves isn't up there, but it otherwise hits all the bases, including A Canticle for Leibowitz. I'm just so pleased Twilight didn't make the list, even if I have to suffer Sunshine in exchange. I'll take it.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I'm not surprised my favorite, The Gods Themselves isn't up there, but it otherwise hits all the bases, including A Canticle for Leibowitz. I'm just so pleased Twilight didn't make the list, even if I have to suffer Sunshine in exchange. I'll take it.

I was glad to see A Canticle for Leibowitz on there. Great book, and it often gets overlooked despite winning a Hugo.

 

[HylianMogget]

Looks like a pretty solid list. I'm not surprised that Ender's Game made the list when Speaker for the Dead didn't, but if I had to choose, I'd say that the latter is the better book. I'd probably put The Left Hand of Darkness higher up, but whatever. Also, (unpopular opinion time ), though I can totally see why it's popular, and I recognize its context and whatnot, I never really got into Stranger in a Strange Land.

I haven't read the entire Dune Chronicles but that's the only thing I haven't read from start to finish.

Dune's one of my favorite books, but I've never read past Children of Dune since I've heard it's not really worth it (but I'll probably check them out at some point to see just how strange the series ended up being ).

 

[Terrafig]

Dune's one of my favorite books, but I've never read past Children of Dune since I've heard it's not really worth it

That's interesting. When I recommend the Dune franchise, I always tell people to read the first one, skip Messiah and Children, and then read God Emperor. If you get past the fact that

Spoiler: spoiler for those who haven't read Children of Dune

Leto II is a sand worm the whole time

, the story is very close to the original as far as quality.

 

[Roger]

I'll go read God Emperor sometime then.