Locus Best SF/F Books of the 20th, 21st Century

[kennyc]

yeah another list/poll, this one from Locus in the SF/F categories:

http://www.locusmag.com/2012/AllCent...lsResults.html

20th Century SF Novel:
Rank Author : Title (Year) Points Votes
1 Herbert, Frank : Dune (1965) 3930 256
2 Card, Orson Scott : Ender's Game (1985) 2235 154
3 Asimov, Isaac : The Foundation Trilogy (1953) 2054 143
4 Simmons, Dan : Hyperion (1989) 1836 131
5 Le Guin, Ursula K. : The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) 1750 120
6 Adams, Douglas : The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) 1631 113
7 Orwell, George : Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) 1493 105
8 Gibson, William : Neuromancer (1984) 1384 100
9 Bester, Alfred : The Stars My Destination (1957) 1311 91
10 Bradbury, Ray : Fahrenheit 451 (1953) 1275 91

Rest of list and others (fantasy, 21st century) at:
http://www.locusmag.com/2012/AllCent...lsResults.html

[DrNefario]

Dune has quite a big winning margin, there. No real surprises, though. Except maybe the absence of Heinlein from the top 10.

For my money, The Dispossessed is about fifty times better than Left Hand of Darkness, but there's no accounting for taste.

Nice that I've read all ten of those, at least.

[Ravensknight]

Ha, I've read all but the Alfred Bester one. I feel good

[Billi]

They look all pretty old. Seems like they could have composed the same list already 20 years ago. I am not an expert of SF/F literature at all (quite the contrary) but has there really not been written one single book of relevance/quality in the last years?

[DrNefario]

That's the best SF novels of the twentieth century. They ran a separate poll for the 21st, which was topped by John Scalzi's Old Man's War (which really didn't do it for me). Follow the link for the other polls.

I see Tolkien's inevitable win in 20th C fantasy was even more convincing than Herbert's.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

That's the best SF novels of the twentieth century. They ran a separate poll for the 21st, which was topped by John Scalzi's Old Man's War (which really didn't do it for me). Follow the link for the other polls.

I see Tolkien's inevitable win in 20th C fantasy was even more convincing than Herbert's.

Yes they are all at the link. That's why I provided it. I only put the top 10 of the first list in my O.P.

Edited the o.p. to reflect mo' better.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Billi

They look all pretty old. Seems like they could have composed the same list already 20 years ago. I am not an expert of SF/F literature at all (quite the contrary) but has there really not been written one single book of relevance/quality in the last years?

Perhaps it's simply that it takes time for a book to be recognised as a "classic"?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Perhaps it's simply that it takes time for a book to be recognised as a "classic"?

No....no.....not that again!


I'm a big fan of "Faith" by John Love but I'm sure many would dispute it being a classic since it just came out this year. Heck I would even dispute it I think, but I thought it had the 'feel' of a classic SF novel.

[Billi]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Perhaps it's simply that it takes time for a book to be recognised as a "classic"?

Yes, perhaps, or better, most probably. And like DrNefario pointed out that there was a separate list for 2000+.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

Ha, I've read all but the Alfred Bester one. I feel good

You should.
It is excellent and ranked quite a bit lower than it deserves. It has been considered by many in the field to be *the* best of the 20th. (Primary alternate to DUNE, in fact.)
I have to wonder if all the voters read all the books in the list.

And yes; I am surprised not see Heinlein (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress/Starship Troopers/Orphans of the Sky) or, for that matter Clarke (Childhood's end). Niven and Pournelle's Mote in God's eye also belongs on that list.
I would've bumped Bradbury and Orwell, and possibly Foundation (it's not really a novel or even a Trilogy but rather a series of shorter stories).

As for the recent titles, well, it takes time for even the best novels to build a reputation worthy of Century honors and with barely a decade to choose from for the list for the 21st...

Also, these days in SF a lot of quality to choose from so standing out as head and shoulders above the rest is getting harder.

[haydnfan]

Just another bad poll driven list. Those things are never good, this isn't bad at least.

[MartyTX]

Thanks kennyc, "best of" lists are always interesting. I usually find a few titles to add to my reading list.

In the full list, I noticed that "The City & the City" by China Miéville and "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe have an identity crisis. The books appear on both lists: Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Genre is in the mind of the reader ...

Marty

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by MartyTX

Thanks kennyc, "best of" lists are always interesting. I usually find a few titles to add to my reading list.

In the full list, I noticed that "The City & the City" by China Miéville and "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe have an identity crisis. The books appear on both lists: Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Genre is in the mind of the reader ...

Marty

It's all slipstream.

[curtw]

I've read all of them, and there's not one that I would put in my personal top 5. 1984 and Neuromancer might just break the top 10, but only because of their influence on the genre, not because they're great writing.

[Ninjalawyer]

The top book on for the 21st century is Scalzi's Old Man's War. *sigh* I just did not enjoy that book as much as everyone else. Maybe it's just Scalzi's writing style that I don't like, but I found the book fairly dull.