'cause I can't resist a book meme....

[shel99]

Here's NPR's list of the top 100 SF/Fantasy novels and series, according to popular vote... because it's popular vote, there are definitely a few WTF entries and a bunch of brilliant books that are missing, but overall it's fun to think about anyway...

Bolding is for books/series I've read
Italics are for books/series I plan on reading
Underlining

Comments

[fetteredwolf]

Wow. I read all but about 5 of these books.

[phoenixfalls]

Yay!

Okay, so be sure to read I, Robot before you try Foundation. . . it's more accessible, and the structure doesn't seem as dated. (After all, people still do linked short story collections. . . but it's rare nowadays for people to string together magazine-published novellas and call them a novel. . .) Oh, and be sure to read Foundation in publication order; I shudder to think some people might come at the series prequels first. . .

I have absolutely no idea whether Childhood's End is one of those books that works when you already have a lot of SF under you're belt and are an adult; but for a 12 year old just getting into the genre it was amazing. It's huge (in scope; I think it's less than 200 pages) and it's got great aliens and most of all it's optimistic. . . it's also the first singularity story I read, written way before anybody had codified that subgenre. Hope you decide to read it someday soon, so I can see how someone else approaches it