'Genre fiction' book meme

[philmophlegm]

Rather than repost the same book meme that everyone else has (which to my mind is dominated by lit crit 'classics' at the expense of what lit crit types would deride as 'genre fiction'), here's a list of 100 important books, each of which fits into a 'genre' other than 'arty-farty literature'. These books may have been well-reviewed, but probably

Comments

[louisedennis]

Lots of these series I have read the first and loved it and then experienced diminishing returns until I gave up somewhere around book four. Except for Dragonlance - the mind boggles - even the first book wasn't all that great I would say...

[philmophlegm]

Never read Dragonlance so I couldn't comment. Certainly a popular series though, and one of Amazon's top 5 fantasy books in terms of average customer review score. I was put off by Dave Langford's review in White Dwarf magazine which pointed out that White Dwarf's own guidelines for submitting fiction included the clause "No campaign write-ups!"

[wellinghall]

Oh, I remember that one!

[pellegrina]

Gyrfalcon?

[iainjcoleman]

I enjoyed doing this meme myself, but on reflection there are a few odd choices. In terms of "important genre books", why Twilight rather than Dracula? Is Abercrombie really more important than Bester? Three Stephen King books, and none of them is The Stand? Indeed, three Stephen King books, and only one Philip K Dick? A Canticle for Liebowitz is notably absent, and what genre is Persepolis?

I appreciate that any list like this is bound to be idiosyncratic, and this is a lot better than other attempts I've seen along similar lines, but there are still some perplexing choices in there.