This list is bullshit because Philip Pullman appears nowhere on it. The Dark Materials trilogy is as least as good as anything Terry Brooks crapped out or, come on, World War Z.
Snow Crash should be in the top five or ten.
Animal Farm is neither sci-fi nor fantasy.
URGH, the nerd in me is going to rage over this all day.
They're putting together a YA list at some point, I'm sure Pullman will be on that one. And yeah Animal Farm and Watership Down both gave me me pause. Animal Farm seems too purely allegorical to count as fantasy. And Watership Down... I don't know how to classify that one, really.
Charles Stross is here tonight? Holy heck, I gots to go. That's gonna be crazy crowded, though. Any tips? I haven't been to see any authors at Powells before.
Oh no. Star Wars expanded universe trash. I'm tempted to say a lot of Good Omens would still hold up, but I haven't read it in a long time, either. Heinlein and Zelazny, yeah!
Eh.... attempts to qualify shit on a continuum like this are always silly, but people seem to get a kick out of it.
Watership Down does have psychic rabbits, though that's a huge stretch. Animal Farm is a fable, and not really fantasy or SF. I'm amused that Margaret Atwood is on the list, given how much she resents being called a SF author.
I find the presence of anything relating to Drzzt Do'Urden on that list utterly and horribly distasteful, especially since R.A. Salvatore's dark-elf Mary Sue powerfantasy scimitar bullshit is ranked higher than the Elric series or the Illustrated Man. Fuck that. And and where the fresh hell are Fritz Leiber and H.P. Lovecraft?
Otherwise, though, a pretty good survey of the SF/fantasy canon.
Snow Crash should be in the top five or ten.
Animal Farm is neither sci-fi nor fantasy.
URGH, the nerd in me is going to rage over this all day.
However, Watership Down as either sci-fi or fantasy? what???
They're putting together a YA list at some point, I'm sure Pullman will be on that one. And yeah Animal Farm and Watership Down both gave me me pause. Animal Farm seems too purely allegorical to count as fantasy. And Watership Down... I don't know how to classify that one, really.
Also: A Canticle For Leibowitz, Perdio Street Station, Last Unicorn = Yes
No Lethem or Chabon? = Boooooo.
@Graham: Classic Graham!
Eh.... attempts to qualify shit on a continuum like this are always silly, but people seem to get a kick out of it.
I find the presence of anything relating to Drzzt Do'Urden on that list utterly and horribly distasteful, especially since R.A. Salvatore's dark-elf Mary Sue powerfantasy scimitar bullshit is ranked higher than the Elric series or the Illustrated Man. Fuck that. And and where the fresh hell are Fritz Leiber and H.P. Lovecraft?
Otherwise, though, a pretty good survey of the SF/fantasy canon.