Pop over to Nextread to see the other comments on our twin post.SFX released a list of the top 25 SFF books and we thought it was lame. We decided to put our money where our mouths are and come up with our own list. Both of us contributed 25 books to this list. We agreed to only have one book by each author. This may be more representative of what we enjoy and look for in a novel than an accurate 25 best books we have ever read but we think it's a more diverse and interesting list than the one in SFX.
What we want from you is comment and debate, but we also want you to pick your top ten titles from our combined list. This is being posted on both sites and will be up for a week before we collate the votes and let you know which ten books came out on top.
We'd also love to know some of your top reads. We will be posting some of the highlights from the comments along with the top ten list. Have fun.
1. The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
2. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
3. Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchet
4. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K Dick
5. Nights of Villjamur - Mark Charan Newton
6. The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi
7. The Last Wish - Andrzej Sapkowski
8. Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
9. Greywalker - Kat Richardson
10. Street Magic - Caitlin Kittredge
11. A Madness of Angels - Kate Griffin
12. The Antipope - Robert Rankin
13. Lonely Werewolf Girl - Martin Millar
14. Fool Moon - Jim Butcher
15. Stealing Light - Gary Gibson
16. Spanky - Christopher Fowler
17. Rosemary and Rue - Seanan McGuire
18. The World House - Guy Adams
19. The Crow - James O'Barr
20. Dead Witch Walking - Kim Harrison
21. The Lord of the Sands of Time - Issui Ogawa
22. The Tattooed Wolf - Kim Bannerman
23. I kill Giants - Joe Kelly
24. Fragrance of you - Steve Savile
25. Practical Demonkeeping - Christopher Moore
26. The High House –James Stoddard
27. Sabriel - Garth Nix
28. Queen of the Damned –Anne Rice
29. The Hitch Hiker’ Guide –Douglas Adams
30. Midnight Never Come –Marie Brennan
31. Worlds End - Mark Chadbourn
32. Stalking Tender Prey - Storm Constantine
33. Mythago Wood -Robert Holdstock
34. Never the Bride (a Brenda & Effie Bk 1) –Paul Magrs
35. Past Imperative –Dave Duncan
36. This is Not a Game –Walter Jon Williams
37. The Dreaming Void Peter F Hamilton
38. Under the Dome –Stephen King
39. The Hobbit –J RR Tolkien
40. Bloody Chamber- Angela Carter
41. Dracula –Bram Stoker
42. Stone - Adam Roberts
43. Seeds of Earth –Michael Cobly
44. Trading in Danger –Elizabeth Moon
45. The Devil You Know –Mike Carey
46. Already Dead Charlie Hutson
47. Bitten - Kelly Armstrong
48. The Stupidest Angel - Christopher Moore
49. Blood Ties –Pamela Freeman
50. Lost Souls –Poppy Z Brite
26 comments:
One of my favorites -
"Reliquary" by Preston & Childs.
Surprised you didn't list Neverwhere or American Gods by Neil Gaiman instead of The Anansi Boys. If I'm limited to the books already listed, here are my picks (in no particular order):
Farenheit 451
Street Magic
Dead Witch Walking
Practical Demonkeeping
The Hitch Hiker's Guide
The Hobbit
Dracula
Bitten
Anansi Boys
Witches Abroad
Will be curious to see the final results.
Alexia - I read Anansi Boys before American Gods so have more attachment to it. I do love Neverwhere. Thanks for voting.
Alex - thanks. :)
Woohoo!
No complaints from me, obviously, though where are China Miéville's books? :)
Embarrasingly i've still not read any, I am planning on starting with Perdido Street Station as advised. Not sure about Gav. Also, we deliberately rolled this out in a couple of hours friday night so we couldn't bicker and over think.
We also I think managed to stick to books which have been published.
Interesting list... lots of recent books in there! Agree the SFX Top 25 is lame (and predictable too!). Quite a few I haven't read, so have a bit of catching up to do!!! Glad to see Bitten on there, one of my fave werewolf novels!
murf - can you pick a top ten in the 50 we put up?
All right, right off the bat let me say I hate lists. I even wrote a rant (maybe for BitchBuzz) about how I hate lists. And I don't see lots of writers I'd include like oh, I don't know,
MARY SHELLEY?!
EA Poe
Shirley Jackson
Liz Hand
Ramsey Campbell
Nancy Collins
Charles de Lint
Octavia Butler
JG Ballard
Fritz Leiber
Alan Moore
Ann Radcliffe
Wilkie Collins
Lord Dunsany
Graham Joyce
Well, at least you included Angela Carter. But THREE CMoore books and none of the above? I am aghast.
there should only be one chris moore book?
And yeah well, I've read some of Poe's poems, but i've otherwise never read any of those i'm afraid. Oh except Watchmen obv.
I have written a blogpost in response to your excellent list http://murf61.posterous.com/nextread-and-hagelrats-top-50-sff-book-list-m
My Top 10 from this list:
1 Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice
2 Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
3 Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
4 World's End - Mark Chadbourn
5 Nights of Villjamur - Mark Charan Newton
6 The Hobbit - J.R.R.Tolkien
7 Bitten - Kelley Armstrong
8 A Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
9 Dracula - Bram Stoker
10 Mythago Wood - Robert Holdstock
No William Gibson (Neuromancer?), no Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash?) and no Charles Stross (how many Hugo does he have?)! Glaring omissions I'm afraid.
And to be honest, half the books listed I would consider horror, not SFF.
- Neil.
Neil, we knew when we did it there would be omissions, of course it's only from two people and based on our reading habits. There are one or two that are possibly more horror, we were a bit cheeky with our definition's. Once again I haven't read some of the books you mentioned, altohugh Stross gave me a d'oh moment. ;)
Well, the first step I suppose is defining "SFF" -- I always stridently object to people using SF to cover fantasy and horror, because "fantasy" or as Clive Barker prefers, the "fantastique" offers a much bigger umbrella. I don't really read much science fiction, but I read fantasy and horror very broadly defined and often overlapping.
Defining the list matters, too. The 25 SFF Books YOU MUST READ is very different from The 25 SFF Books I Recommend Wholeheartedly. I get irked when writers present "best of" lists that are more often than not, just made up of their friends and a handful of classics -- not the case here, of course, but an awful lot of back scratching on one hand and gross ignorance on the other, when journos slum in genre (don't get me started on BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL lists).
So, should I send you one of my several copies of Frankenstein, you know -- the novel that is often seen as the mother of SF? Read the 1818 edition!
hahaha well we said SFF in order to include fantasy and most of the stuff that could be classed as horror could also be classed as fantasy on that list.
We also basically weren't offering a best or most important novels list but 25 books we really love and think are probably more interesting than the ones SFX put up. Seriously have you looked at the SFX list?
Yes I know I should read frankenstein, I should read dracula too.
If you asked us again in three months you'd get a slightly different list. ;)
LOL -- yes, you should read Dracula, too! I will quiz you in the midst of our pub crawl this June. I am afraid to look at the SFX list...
And anyway, I'm supposed to be grading. Stop luring me away!
Hahaha go back to work wicked woman and I promise I will try and get to the classics. ;P
Erm thanks, but erm... I don't feel remotely like Fragance belongs on the list being as it's a graphic novel... but maybe next year LM might make it ,)
Steve I would totally have put LM on there since it belongs but I decided to stick to things that have been published. I'd have listed City of Ruin over Nights of Villjamur too if it was out yet. Also, Fragrance is not the only GN on the list and it's in the spirit of your story telling which is kind of what I wanted to celebrate. So Neener neener or somethin
A few thoughts regarding the list:
1. The SFX list was a poll of their readers of what they thought the best SF/F books were (a tag I loathe, but whatever) - I don't remember seeing or reading anything stating it was a definitive "must read" or anything like that.
2. That being said, there was an AWFUL lot of Terry Pratchett!
3. I usually count horror separately than SF and fantasy, so the abundance of Stephen King and others kinda throws me a bit from their list.
4. Three cheers for K.A.'s list - particularly the inclusion of Octavia Butler and Fritz Leiber - two authors so often neglected that I think changed the face of their respective genres (PS - I KNOW I Still owe that article on pre-1900 SOF books...it's coming!).
5. My own list would also be very different, and besides Butler, Leiber, and Shelley, would include Asimov for the Foundation series, Herbert for Dune, and perhaps baler for his body of work, but particularly Imajica.
6. And my "this is what I loved growing up so I include regardless of its actual worth or standing in the genre" pick is for Roger Zelazny and the original Chronicles of Amber (books 1-5)
7. Crap - I have a review to finish tonight....
Chris, all exellent points, I put Weaveworld up for Barker, we comprimised.
Otherwise pffffffffffft. :p
I'll be honest: a list like this that doesn't include anything by Walter M. Miller, Jr. doesn't inspire much confidence...
Ben, everyone has had a different reading experience, this is based on ours, mine certainly hasn't included any Walter M. Miller, Jr and I don't know about Gav but if it has it obviously didn't stand out in his mind.
True enough. And it's always nice to see what others consider to be gems.
Ben *grins* it's interesting to see what people think of our list too. I wonder what it would have looked like if we'd taken a couple fo days to root through our collections and consider.
I have only read two of those books. The Hobbitt and Temporal Void.
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