The Best Fantasy and Science Fiction?

Image Source

So, NPR has a list of the 100 best fantasy and science fiction books. LINK.

I've read ten of them, which is surprising because they're all adult books, and I've started reading fantasy and science-fiction for adults regularly fairly recently in the grand scheme of things and also in my life. That number doesn't count the series that I've read just one of. (all cover pictures come from the NPR website unless otherwise noted)


No prizes for guessing what number one was. I'm not complaining, mind you - it's an excellent book which fully deserves to be number one in every list ever.

Yes, folks, it's The Lord of the Rings. I may have mentioned once or twice that I love this books. (Cue immense groans from everyone who knows me IRL.) Best fantasy book evar. Well, not quite, but we'll get to that in a few seconds.

The next book I've read is number two, which is science fiction. I love this book as well.

Only the first book is on the list, which I thought was interesting, because there are other series books that are listed as a single item. On the whole, I think that's a good thing. I love the first book, and I like the next two (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, the Universe, and Everything), but I don't have very many nice things to say about So Long and Thanks for all the Fish or Mostly Harmless. (Can you say MOST DISAPPOINTING ENDING EVER? I knew you could.)

I've not read the third on the list, which is Ender's Game, but I've had it recommended on multiple occasions. It's on my list of books to read.

Number four is the Dune series. I recently acquired a copy of The Winds of Dune, but when I told a friend of my parents - I like to call him Mr. Pangloss - he told me not to read it, not until I've read the earlier books. So I won't.

I've heard of quite a few of the subsequent books. Number seven is one I've been wanting to read for quite a while: Farenheit 451.

I might get to read it for school this year, which would be awesome, and almost certainly preferable to Great Expectations.

But nothing else I've read pops up until we're all the way down at eleven.

The Princess Bride! I think I may have mentioned the movie once or twice, perhaps saying that it was the best movie of all time evar?

Let me explain. *hesitates* No, there is too much. Let me sum up. While substantially different, the book and the movie are both brilliant. I mean, the plot and stuff say the same, and a lot of book dialogue can be found word-for-word in the movie. But the main premise of the book would not have worked as a movie. See, according to the book, when William Goldman was a kid, his father read this book to him, called The Princess Bride. Now that he's grown up and has a son, he wants his son to read it as well. So he goes on this quest to find it (it's out of print by now), and when he does he gives it to his son who, to William's surprise, does not seem to enjoy it at all. So William takes a look and discovers that when his father read it to him, he was editing out the boring parts, which there are apparently lots of; lengthy discussions of history politics, for one thing. So he's editing out the boring parts so as to have a "good parts" version for his son to read. A lot of teh funniez come from him explaining everything he's left out. Hilarious book.

Moving right along. Number 32 is another I've read. 

Watership Down! I reviewed it here. But basically, Watership Down is an epic book about adorable bunnies. I don't mean epic as in "TOTALLY AWESOME," even though it totally is. I mean epic in the sense of "heroic or grand in scale or character," which it also totally is. The thing that really appeals to me about this book is that the bunnies aren't at all anthropomorphised. They are not at all human. They are utterly and completely BUNNIES, and they think and act completely differently from us. That's what makes this book so amazing and fascinating.

Number 45 is The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin. I've not read that, but I have a copy, and it looks pretty good. It's in my pile.

But wait! Wait! What is this? All the way down at 46 is my single favourite book of all time. Before I read this book, I did not have an answer for when people asked me my favourite book. Now I do. This is it. The best fantasy book I've ever read. It deserves to be at the top of every list ever. I know I said earlier that the best one was The Lord of the Rings - I lied. I adore The Lord of the Rings, and The Lord of the Rings can have second place, but this is 4 realz the best book I have ever read. It's beautiful and poetic and exciting and terrifying and chilling and romantic and brilliant.

I'm talking, of course, about The Silmarillion. 

I know there are people who don't like this book. Who even think it - Eru forbid! - dull and unreadable. These people have no souls and I feel very sorry for them. THE END. (P.S.: I love you anyway, Daddy.)

Next on the list, at number 47, is The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. I wasn't sure whether to count this on the list of ones I've read, to be honest. I've read The Sword in the Stone, which I thought was excellent, but I've not yet read the rest. (Partly because when I first read The Sword in the Stone I was about nine and mum forbade me to read the rest, on the basis that they were inappropriate for me to read.) I do plan on reading the rest, though.

Number 48 is Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman.

I've read this, and while I don't know that I would say it's one of the best, I like it a whole lot. The ending nearly made me cry.

52 is MOAR GAIMAN!!1!! (No seriously it's like the fourth book of his on the list MAYBE THIS IS A BIT MUCH? I like him all right, but WHY IS THERE SO MUCH OF HIM HE'S NOT THAT AMAZING.)

I like this book a lot too, though. I love the excellent faerie-tale feel of it.

Books 57 and 60 are by one of my favourite fantasy authors: Sir Terry Pratchett. We have Small Gods...

...and Going Postal. 

Now I... *sigh* I like the Discworld books. In fact I am a bit obsessed with the Discworld books. And while I wouldn't pick Going Postal as representative of them, or as the best one (that would be Night Watch, or possibly The Truth, though I think it would have made more sense to just treat the series as a unit), I like it. Moist isn't my favourite, but he's fun, and I enjoy his books.

But Small Gods is another matter. Small Gods is, without doubt or question, indubitably and for realz, my least favourite Discworld book. It's not a problem with the writing, or even the characters. It's because I'm a Christian, and I really very strongly more than I can even get across to you in this post completely disagree with everything that Sir Terry has to say about religion, and when he's being anti-religion - which he is, in this one - I don't like him at all.

I've always known that Sir Terry was an atheist. But in most of his books he doesn't talk about religion. Here he does. And while I'll always love the rest of the series, I can't love this book, and I don't recommend it at all.

Book 64 is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. I've not read it, but I acquired a copy over the summer at a used book store, and I'm looking forward to reading it; it looks fascinating. (Guys guys guys I paged through the beginning a bit and she has FOOTNOTES* THIS BODES WELL GUYS I ANTICIPATE AN EXCELLENT READING EXPERIENCE)

Book 92, Sunshine, is the reason I heard about this list; it's by Robin McKinley, one of my favourite authors, and, understandably excited, she posted about it on her blog and linked to the list. I'm happy for her; she's an excellent author who deserves recognition (even though I will probably never completely forgive her for the ending of The Outlaws of Sherwood - seriously, people, this is presented as a happy ending?). But Sunshine is one I don't like at all. I started reading it; I couldn't finish it, and I wished I hadn't started. It's well written and all, but it's about vampires, and it's way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way too icky for me. I don't recommend it.

Book 99. Good grief, how in the world did that book make it onto this list? Technically it's not a book - it's a series of like a million books, and it's the Xanth series by Piers Anthony.

I think I'm going to go bang my head onto a brick wall repeatedly until I figure out how this book made it onto this list.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

*loses consciousness* *regains consciousness*

Kay, guys, this just in - it's still making no sense.

Okay, maybe I'm being a bit harsh. I've only read one book in this series, and that would be Crewel Lye. 

Image Source

And look, I'll even admit that it was a fun enough book. We all need our mind candy now and then. But it was just that - candy. It was mindless. It wasn't well-written. I'll tell you what it was - it was one pun after another. And I like puns. But after being bombarded with several hundred pages of them, you're like NOOOOOOOO MAKE IT STOP. These aren't even good puns. They aren't clever. They're BAD, okay? BAD.

And then you get to the author's note and you lose any last remaining respect you may have retained for the dude because this is where he goes on for PAGES and PAGES - and do you know what he's doing? He's telling you where he got the puns. That's right, Mr. Anthony doesn't even write his own bad puns! He uses the ones that readers send in! Gah! Gah!

Image Source

What is this series doing on the list again?

Number 100 is something else I've read: The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis.

The Space Trilogy contains Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; and That Hideous Book Strength. 


I'm glad that C.S. Lewis is on this list. I love C.S. Lewis. He's one of my very favourite authors - my second favourite, I would say. (Tolkien still pwns all.) I love him more than unicorns. I love him more than wombats. And I really like Out of the Silent Planet. A lot. I adore Perelandra. Either one of them I would easily give a place on the list. But That Hideous Book - sorry, did I say Hideous Book? I meant That Hideous Strength. It is the only Lewis book I've ever really disliked. It is hideous. It takes forever to even get started and stop being mind-bogglingly dull, but once it does, it's just... weird. And if you're looking at The Space Trilogy as a unit, then That Hideous Book ruins everything.

Personally, were I to choose a Lewis book to be on such a list, I would pick Till We Have Faces. I adore Till We Have Faces - it might even be my favourite of his. (Yes, I love Narnia. Narnia is brilliant. I adore Aslan. I've wanted to be Lucy ever since I was about five. And I would say that that should be on the list, but this is a list of adult fiction. I've got to stick to the ground rules.) And of course The Screwtape Letters is brilliant, but I don't really think that counts.

Though I've not read or heard of most of this list, I like it quite a lot. It's interesting, and most of those that I've read are books I've liked. I might be seeking out more of these...

And if you have thoughts on this list, feel free to comment; I want to know what you lot think of it.

____
*I like footnotes.