woof's post about how he'd stan for LOTR constantly if it had been unsuccessful is my takeaway from this poll I think? Never thought of it that way but it is v. true!
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 20:48 (thirteen years ago) link
Will now write an alt history novel in which the cultural receptions of LOTR and Gormenghast are swapped.
― the Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Doink (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 20:53 (thirteen years ago) link
I would love to read that book!
― The Louvin Spoonful (WmC), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 20:57 (thirteen years ago) link
and 9/11 never happens as a result
― the Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Doink (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 20:59 (thirteen years ago) link
picked up 10 books I wanna read from this thread already
anticipating/dreading the 52-100 reveal
― sorry ozzy but your dope is in another castle (Edward III), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:04 (thirteen years ago) link
I voted for Watership Down very highly on my Ballot! Also that one #1 vote for Neuromancer was mine I think...
― I love my puppy -- and she loves me! (Viceroy), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:05 (thirteen years ago) link
I missed all of this!
random comments-
Pychon´s "V" is unreadable imo, his worst.
There's like a three-page bit where one character pedantically corrects another for not pronouncing Welsh properly. f u, Susan Cooper
gtfo that part is awesome
everybody should read "Riddley Walker"
thanx Lamp
― sleeve, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:09 (thirteen years ago) link
I put the Baroque Cycle on my ballot. Definitely worth the effort
― Number None, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:10 (thirteen years ago) link
I wonder what the handwritten manuscript for the Baroque Cycle would auction for.
― The Louvin Spoonful (WmC), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:18 (thirteen years ago) link
agree that everyone should read Riddley Walker
― in my world of loose geirs (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:19 (thirteen years ago) link
O!T!M! There's a even a line where Will says, "I expect Welsh babies dribble a lot." And that book is the only reason why I know that the name Bran isn't pronounced like the cereal.
― Back up the lesbian canoe (Laurel), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:22 (thirteen years ago) link
kinda surprised about no harlan ellison
haven't read the guy in many many years but remember digging shatterday
― sorry ozzy but your dope is in another castle (Edward III), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:23 (thirteen years ago) link
no dahl either
― sorry ozzy but your dope is in another castle (Edward III), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:27 (thirteen years ago) link
I nominate Lamp for running all ILX polls from here on outI nominate Lamp for running all ILX polls from here on outI nominate Lamp for running all ILX polls from here on outI nominate Lamp for running all ILX polls from here on out
― Z S, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:31 (thirteen years ago) link
No Heinlein either! xp
― Spectrist, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:32 (thirteen years ago) link
or Bradbury
― Spectrist, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:33 (thirteen years ago) link
Heinlein's terrible, Ellison erratic, Bradbury mostly boring/outdated, Dahl uh waht would qualify there? Not sure what yr thinking of
― in my world of loose geirs (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:33 (thirteen years ago) link
Not complaining one bit abt lack of old dudes.
― Spectrist, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:36 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah Lamp ran this awesomely. Why did you say it was 'ultimately heartbreaking' Lamp?
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:38 (thirteen years ago) link
perhaps 52-100 will make that more clear
― the Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Doink (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:38 (thirteen years ago) link
I think The Past Through Tomorrow is a fantastic brick of nonstop sf ideas -- much of the best of the Golden Age between two covers. I agree Ellison is overrated. Never read much Bradbury so no comment.
― The Louvin Spoonful (WmC), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:40 (thirteen years ago) link
Dahl uh waht would qualify there?
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator was nominated (and was on my ballot)
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:42 (thirteen years ago) link
so i have most of the data here - enough to do a TOP 100 anyway & its sorta anticlimactic to do bottom half run down all day tomorrow - so heres the TOP 100 with point totals for the TOP 70. as you can see it was a really tight race a single first place vote for 'The Forever War' wouldve moved it ahead of 'We' @ #50.
100 Iain M Banks - Excession099 Theodore Sturgeon - More Than Human098 Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy097 Arthur C. Clarke - Rendezvous With Rama096 Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels
095 Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon094 William Gibson - Pattern Recognition093 Roald Dahl - James & The Giant Peach092 Norton Juster - The Phantom Tollbooth091 Thomas Disch - Camp Concentration
090 Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens of Titan089 H.P. Lovecraft - "The Colour out of Space"088 Roger Zelazny - The Chronicles of Amber087 Octavia Butler - Lilith's Brood086 Christopher Priest - Inverted World
085 Gene Wolfe - Book of the Long Sun084 Flann O'Brien - At Swim-Two-Birds083 Joe Haldeman - The Forever War082 Russell Hobon - Riddley Walker081 Cordwainer Smith - The Rediscovery of Man (1993)
080 Alfred Bester - The Demolished Man079 Michael Moorcock - Dancers at the End of Time078 J.G. Ballard - High Rise077 Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game076 Dan Simmons - Hyperion
075 Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren074 John Crowley - Engine Summer073 Lloyd Alexander - Prydain Chronicles072 Iain M Banks - Consider Phlebas071 Ursula K. Le Guin - The Lathe of Heaven
070 Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange 59 069 J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter septet 59068 Italo Calvino - Cosmicomics 60067 Edgar Allan Poe - Tale of Mystery & Imagination 60 066 Jack Vance - Tales of the Dying Earth 61
065 Gygax & Arneson - 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide 61064 James Tiptree - "Her Smoke Rose Up Forever" 61063 Glen Cook -The Black Company 64062 Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life and Others 66061 John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids 66
060 Richard Adams - Watership Down 66059 John Crowley - Little, Big 67058 Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle 68057 Italo Calvino - Invisible Cities 70056 China Miéville - Perdido Street Station 70
055 Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett - Good Omens 72054 Adolfo Bioy Cesares - The Invention of Morel 72053 Terry Pratchett - Small Gods 73052 Kim Stanley Robinson - The Mars trilogy 73051 Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination 74
050 Yevgeny Zamaytin - We049 Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle048 Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana047 Philip K. Dick - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said046 Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
045 Madeleine L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time044 Stanislaw Lem - Solaris043 Walter Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz042 Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49041 Edwin Abbott Abbott - Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
040 Isaac Asimov - The Foundation Trilogy039 Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five038 Alasdair Gray - Lanark037 Mary Shelley - Frankenstein036 Philip K. Dick - Ubik
035 Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass034 Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising Sequence033 H.P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories032 William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch031 Philip K. Dick - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
030 Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale029 M.R. James - The Collected Stories of M.R. James028 Fredrik Pohl - Gateway027 Aldous Huxley - Brave New World026 Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson - The Illuminatus! Trilogy
025 Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master & Margarita024 J.G. Ballard - The Drowned World023 Iain M. Banks - The Player of Games022 Franz Kafka - The Collected Stories021 H.P. Lovecraft - At the Mountains of Madness
020 Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time019 Philip K. Dick - The VALIS Trilogy018 J.R.R. Tolkein - The Hobbit017 Philip K. Dick - A Scanner Darkly016 Ursula K. Le Guin - The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
015 George R R Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire014 Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?013 Jorge Luis Borges - Ficciones012 Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle011 J.G. Ballard - The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard
010 Frank Herbert - Dune009 William Gibson - Neuromancer008 C.S. Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia007 Ursula K. Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness006 Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials
005 George Orwell - 1984004 Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy003 Gene Wolfe - Book of the New Sun002 Ursula K. Le Guin - The Earthsea Trilogy001 J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings
― RANDY BEAMAN ANAGRAM (Lamp), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:44 (thirteen years ago) link
oh my god that IS heartbreaking
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:47 (thirteen years ago) link
065 Gygax & Arneson - 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide 61
lol
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:48 (thirteen years ago) link
I also placed Octavia Butler´s "Lilith's Brood" very highly, those books are amazing. Glad to see it made it into the top 100.
― sleeve, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:48 (thirteen years ago) link
AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS?? WHAT DID YOU PEOPLE DO WITH YOURSELVES, VOTE BY THROWING DARTS AT A BALLOT??
― Back up the lesbian canoe (Laurel), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:49 (thirteen years ago) link
I can't believe how close Good Omens and Small Gods came to the top 50!
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:50 (thirteen years ago) link
Wait so how many pts was a #4 ballot placement worth? I am stung that Aegypt didn't even make the top 100
― the Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Doink (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:52 (thirteen years ago) link
xp Yeah what's wrong people.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:52 (thirteen years ago) link
haha good omens would have been in the top 50...if i had voted because that was in spot 5
― broke my o_O face o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:52 (thirteen years ago) link
Also SO FUCKING APT that the DM's guide and The Dying Earth are tied for 61st, since D&D magic was totally inspired by those books.
I'm not sure how I feel about not ranking mine list now.
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:53 (thirteen years ago) link
jjj just imagine all the angry faces I am making at you
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:54 (thirteen years ago) link
(also lol @ such close alignment in our tastes, I guess "formative years" are called that for a reason)
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:55 (thirteen years ago) link
I didn't rank my list because I can't think about things that are special/important to me like that. There's no "winner" and it feels wrong and pointless to insist that there be one. Unfort that attitude clearly hurt my ballot choices.
― Back up the lesbian canoe (Laurel), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:55 (thirteen years ago) link
SPECULATIVE FICTION POLL BALLOTS
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:56 (thirteen years ago) link
So only 8 of my 25 ballot choices even made the top 100! I am a lonely visionary...
― the Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Doink (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 21:56 (thirteen years ago) link
This is a dope point imo.
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:00 (thirteen years ago) link
i think you may have been the only person to vote for it. but 22 points.
alex yeah part of what hurt the 'hard' sf books is that most of the non-ranked ballots were really sf-heavy. also for whatever reason so many of what i consider big, consensus sf books were placed really low on ranked ballots. i mean forever war got 7 votes! 'riverworld' got 4 votes & only 26 points &c &c
― RANDY BEAMAN ANAGRAM (Lamp), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:01 (thirteen years ago) link
But Riverworld is terrible.
― Back up the lesbian canoe (Laurel), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:02 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^ this. Don't try to write dialogue for Mark Twain, pro tip to Philip Jose Farmer.
― the Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Doink (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:05 (thirteen years ago) link
I thought it was awfully cold and uncaring, tbh, and 100% based on perceived male needs & goals in a world that was tailored to favor aggressive, non-conformist men, which tbh is just some kind of circle-jerk for its audience.
― Back up the lesbian canoe (Laurel), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Also wiki just reminded me that women were re-awakened as virgins, which is beyond creepy and disturbing in its implications.
― Back up the lesbian canoe (Laurel), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:17 (thirteen years ago) link
uh
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:18 (thirteen years ago) link
that sounds uncomfortable
― fat fat fat fat Usher (DJP), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:19 (thirteen years ago) link
wait Laurel which book are you talking about...?
― in my world of loose geirs (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:23 (thirteen years ago) link
haha ive never read riverworld i just thought it was a 'major work' or w/e, also i have a memory of seeing this cover every time i went to the bookstore:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IoU3bEFUwWc/SaqfX3pN5TI/AAAAAAAAE9U/AhUWpc89Sas/s400/Strange+Relations.jpg
so he sorta stands out to me
― display names made of stars (Lamp), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Shakey: It must have been To Your Shattered Bodies Go which I inaccurately and maybe unfairly just think of as "Riverworld."
― Back up the lesbian canoe (Laurel), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Scattered Bodies. See? My brain resists remembering anything up to and including the spelling of the title.
― Back up the lesbian canoe (Laurel), Wednesday, 6 April 2011 22:26 (thirteen years ago) link