The Beginning of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy top 100

Recently I have felt that I have not been reading enough. I already feel that I have become very stupid since I graduated from college, but now I feel even dumber. My job is simple and under stimulating, so I really don’t have anything to keep me from becoming slightly less intelligent each day. Anyway, I just wanted a short introduction to why I am doing this, not a personal bio on myself which I am assuming you could care less about (I know I wouldn’t). So….I have decided that I want to read the entire top 100 list for BOTH fantasy and sci-fi novels. I also think I would like to watch the top sci-fi movies. Now, mind you, I realize that this is quite a lofty goal seeing as how I have 200+ novels and some amount of movies ahead of me. And recently I have also come to realize that there aren’t a lot of authoritative lists of the top 100 novels in either category. I have found a few on the internet but I don’t know that I agree with the lists. I understand that these lists are all rated on someone’s opinion but I feel that it would be much better if we could come up with some way to create a rating system to make it a little more scientific. Anyway, I am rambling. Basically through this blog I want to do three things: 1st: I want to read and review the ‘supposedly’ top 100 novels in both lists (here is the link to my lists, if you wanted to follow along. Top 100 sci-fi novels: http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books_rank1.html Top sci-fi movies: http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_film.html Top Fantasy novels: http://www.geocities.com/area51/cavern/6113/t100256.txt). These are the best lists I could find, and actually my friend gave me the Sci-fi list. Anyway… 2nd: I want to create a rating system to neatly rank the novels so the rankings are a little less opinionated and a little more scientific. It is science fiction. I am still playing around with the ranking topics but I think that basically it will fall into these categories: -Overall readability (if you can’t get through it, it doesn’t matter how good it is), -Story quality (is it just cut and paste basic plot or is it creative and different) -Originality quality (have you heard this story before) -Character believability (do you feel for the characters, sympathize with them, love/hate them, feel part of the story because of them) -Overall effect of novel (does it compel you to continue reading the series? 3rd: I want other people’s opinions of my rating and possibly other people’s ranking of these novels so we can create an authoritative list. Also, if people have novels they want to add to the list (both of these lists aren’t exactly updated regularly anymore and don’t include newer books) that would be awesome. Well, I think that’s it for my first post. It would be really cool if people wanted to participate. Please leave me comments!

  1. I liked Raymond Feist’s fantasy novels a whole lot when I used to read that genre. And Anne McCafferty’s dragonriders of Pern novels. I don’t know how well they age, though, and it’s been a while.

    Secca
    August 22nd, 2006 at 11:45 am
  2. Two of the books on the scifi list, Twain’s Connecticut Yankee and Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, are sometimes not included in the genre because they deal with the past, rather than the future. Some would put them into the historical fiction category, or widen the net to speculative fiction. I would argue both are excellent examples of science fiction, since they deal directly with the impact of changing technologies on societies and individuals.

    Jason
    August 22nd, 2006 at 11:13 pm
  3. Don’t read the Cyberiad it sucks. I don’t care how funny it is in Polish in English it is extremely boring. Why dont the two robots invent a machine to read this stupid boring ass book for me.

    D WallZ
    August 23rd, 2006 at 9:17 pm

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