Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Forums

Scott, I never got around to making a list for the poll but I certainly like the look of your list.  I'll have to give it some thought.

The final poll results have been revealed over on Locus in case anyone missed it.  Scroll down the page for the novel results.

I've been thinking of adding the 20th century lists to the site but have been busy with the WoGF reading challenge.  Should be rather simple to do since we have all the books from both lists already in our database.  I'll look into that next week.

I'm actually surprised the list did not make more of a splash than it seems to have.  They got decent participation in the balloting but the SF/F world responded with a meh to the announcement of the results unless I missed something.  It seems like a pretty predictable list.

What do you think of the results?

Maybe the “meh” reaction is due to the lack of unexpected results? Dune and Lord of the Rings always come out on top in these things, and it could be that people were looking for a reappraisal when looking over an entire century of SF/F. I thought the results were pretty decent, except maybe for Old Man’s War winning the best novel of the 2000s. Apparently there was a last-minute invasion of Scalzi fans after he mentioned the poll on his blog. The short fiction categories were especially interesting, in terms of what has stood the test of time. Many of my picks ended up making the list, and I’d had no idea whether or not that would happen! The novel results get more interesting further down the list, and I enjoyed perusing the complete results to see which books got just a few votes… Here’s my short fiction ballot:

Novella:

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Word for World Is Forest

Isaac Asimov: The Martian Way

John Varley: The Persistence of Vision

James Tiptree, Jr.: Houston, Houston, Do You Read?

Gene Wolfe: The Death of Dr. Island

Charles L. Harness: The Rose

Barry B. Longyear: Enemy Mine

Robert Silverberg: Hawksbill Station

Robert E. Howard: Red Nails

Philip Jose Farmer: Riders of the Purple Wage

Novelette:

Cordwainer Smith: Scanners Live in Vain

Samuel R. Delany: Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones

Ursula K. Le Guin: Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight

Theodore Sturgeon: Microcosmic God

Ian Watson: Slow Birds

Roger Zelazny: A Rose for Ecclesiastes

Walter M. Miller, Jr.: The Darfsteller

Greg Bear: Blood Music

Lewis Padgett: Mimsy Were the Borogroves

Jack Vance: The World-Thinker

Short Story:

J. G. Ballard: The Terminal Beach

Ray Bradbury: The Million Year Picnic

Harlan Ellison: Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman

William Gibson: Johnny Mnemonic

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

Arthur C. Clarke: The Star

Shirley Jackson: The Lottery

Joanna Russ: When It Changed

Cordwainer Smith: The Game of Rat and Dragon

 James Tiptree, Jr.: The Screwfly Solution

I didn’t vote in the 21^st century poll, but I wouldn’t argue with Ted Chiang’s dominance.

I would love to see these four:

• 20th Century SF Novel
• 20th Century Fantasy Novel
• 21st Century SF Novel
• 21st Century Fantasy Novel

added as lists. These are quality (if somewhat predictable) lists that deserve to be featured on the site. Looking at 20th Century SF Novel, I need to goto number 30 to find one I haven't read yet and I have 16 unread overall so it would be a great candidate for me to try and finish!