Top 100 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books flowchart

[Ryom]

I saw this linked on Slashdot and thought it was worth sharing.

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/0 ... sff-books/

[drainbramaged]

Saw this a couple weeks ago, it's a very good find. I clocked in at 43 out of 100 read, where do you stand?

[Fedechiar]

I'm a little behind - 35 out of 100, but I'm not that big on fantasy so they're almost all sci-fi

[AvatarIII]

lol, a mere 13, plus 2 single books where the entire series is listed on the chart as a whole (Culture, Dune)

best bit of the chart

Enjoy stories about orphaned farm boys? -> (only option) No -> Tough.

the same joke is done with "Like a little time travel with your love story?" but since i would answer "why would you want to read a love story without time travel" it is less funny.

[KrO2]

I was surprised to see Heir to the Empire on their list. Not that I didn't like it (I did), but Star Wars books in general have a not-completely-undeserved reputation as Not Great. Being one step above fanfiction can do that. I'm not so much surprised that they liked that series as I am that they took it seriously.

(And I scored 36/100, but I'm counting several series of which I've only read one.)

[Adacore]

I only get something like 17, although if you expand to include all the books in the series I've read, it's about double that. There are a fair few books in that list I really feel I should read at some point, but at least half of them hold no real appeal to me. Perhaps I'm (quite literally) judging some of the books by their covers, though.

[PerryDigital]

I only found about five that I have read but I'm half way through Hitch-hikers and came here looking for something to follow it, so an excellent first thread! I'm really not into fantasy though so I'll be very finely toeing the line half way.

That all said, any recommendation on where to start are appreciated. Apart from HHGTTG I've read 1984, The time travellers wife and Star Wars. I think that was it. I've seen the movie versions of plenty of the others, but definitely include them if they're great books.

[Ryom]

I'd say give Battlefield Earth a shot, and stay away from the Xanth series if you don't like fantasy. A Game of Thrones is an excellent series, low-fantasy so it really shouldn't bother you too much in that genre. The Mote in God's Eye is a fairly interesting read...

[Gwydion]

I've done 17 as well, though as Adacore said, many of the books they mention, I've read 4+ into the series. Also, I've got 5 on my shelf, next in line to be read.

I realize now that, based on the substantial length of most SF/F books, this list would take me several years to actually read. If you count reading the entire series, decades. Challenge accepted!

[Jorpho]

Around about 21, I think, if we're keeping score, but I have some of the ones I haven't read yet on the shelves right next to me. That counts for something, right?

While I appreciate that Slaughterhouse Five is ranked above The Left Hand of Darkness, as it rightly should be (they were up for the Hugo/Nebula in the same year, and TLHoD got it for some sad reason), the lack of Brin makes me very sad, and the inclusion of Wicked gives me great confidence in dismissing the whole thing out of hand.

[Ixtellor]

WOW!

I started at step one of the chart not looking at any of the books and answered all the questions honestly and it finished at my favorite book of all time: Homeland by Salvatore.