{"id":3234,"date":"2010-03-12T12:16:11","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T20:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/?p=3234"},"modified":"2010-03-12T12:25:49","modified_gmt":"2010-03-12T20:25:49","slug":"an-aside-sfx-magazines-top-25-novels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/news\/an-aside-sfx-magazines-top-25-novels\/","title":{"rendered":"An Aside | SFX Magazine&#8217;s Top 25 Novels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SFX polled their readers, asking them to vote for the top 25 Science Fiction and Fantasy novels of all time. <A href=\"http:\/\/www.sfx.co.uk\/2010\/03\/12\/top-25-sfx-books\/\">The results<\/a> are&#8230; odd.<\/p>\n<div class=\"quote\">\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>25 \u2013 <strong>The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe<\/strong> by C.S. Lewis<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>24 \u2013 <strong>The Stars my Destination<\/strong> by Alfred Bester<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>23 \u2013 <strong>Wyrd Sisters<\/strong> by Terry Pratchett<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>22 \u2013 <strong>Watchmen<\/strong> by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>21 \u2013 <strong>It<\/strong> by Stephen King<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>20 \u2013 <strong>Legend<\/strong> by David Gemmell<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>19 \u2013 <strong>Night Watch<\/strong> by Terry Pratchett<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>18 \u2013 <strong>The Stand<\/strong> by Stephen King<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>17 \u2013 <strong>Hyperion<\/strong> by Dan Simmons<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>16 \u2013 <strong>Magician<\/strong> by Raymond E. Feist<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>15 \u2013 <strong>Good Omens<\/strong> by Terry Pratchett &#038; Neil Gaiman<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>14 \u2013 <strong>I am Legend<\/strong> by Richard Matheson<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>13 \u2013 <strong>Guards! Guards!<\/strong> by Terry Pratchett<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>12 \u2013 <strong>The Day of the Triffids<\/strong> by John Wyndham<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>11 \u2013 <strong>Ender&#8217;s Game<\/strong> by Orson Scott Card<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>10 \u2013 <strong>A Game of Thrones<\/strong> by George R.R. Martin<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>9 \u2013 <strong>His Dark Materials<\/strong> by Phillip Pullman<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>8 \u2013 <strong>The Hobbit<\/strong> by J.R.R. Tolkien<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>7 \u2013 <strong>American Gods<\/strong> by Neil Gaiman<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>6 \u2013 <strong>Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/strong> by George Orwell<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>5 \u2013 <strong>Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban<\/strong> by J.K. Rowling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All of the Harry Potter books received a fair number of votes, but by far the most popular was the third book, with it time travelling shenanigans and werewolves. The book probably marks the perfect balance between the rollicking children\u2019s adventure stories of the earlier books and the growing angst and complex plots of the later books.  It\u2019s also the last Potter book you didn\u2019t need a fork lift truck to get it home from the book shop.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>4 \u2013 <strong>The War of the Worlds<\/strong> by H.G. Wells<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The oldest book in this top 25, and it fully deserves its top five position. Not just because of its historical importance \u2013 the first alien invasion novel, you realise \u2013 but because it is full of the most amazingly evocative imagery: the Martian ship landing on Horsell Common; the Martian slowly emerging; the three-legged war machines; the attack on the Thunder Child (a ship full of escaping humans); the red weed. This was blockbuster science fiction in literary form. And all written in such splendidly Victorian prose.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>3 \u2013 <strong>Dune<\/strong> by Frank Herbert<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The glory of Dune is that it\u2019s so clever, so full of ingenious ideas, so packed with exciting set pieces, so blessed with colourful characters, that even if you plough through the increasingly dire sequels, nothing tarnishes your memories of the original. A space opera on an audacious scale, with plots that have been hatching for centuries, political intrigue and some mindboggling SF concepts, Dune is a milestone in science fiction. When the desert planet of Arakis  \u2013 so tangibly evoked you can  almost feel the heat and dust on your cheeks \u2013 becomes the battleground for an intergalactic power struggle, the young heir to a dynasty in decline goes native. Oh yeah, and there are some space nuns who can predict the future who\u2019ve set up a very special breeding program in the hope of creating a saviour.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>2 \u2013 <strong>The Hitchhiker&#8217;s Guide to the Galaxy<\/strong> by Douglas Adams<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Adams is funny. Really funny. You just won\u2019t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly funny he is. You may think Red Dwarf is the height of comedy sci fi, but that\u2019s just peanuts compared to Adams. On the other hand, don\u2019t let the fact that Adams is probably the wittiest writer ever to have turned his attention to spaceships and all that gubbins get in the way of the fact that he\u2019s also a damned fine SF author too. Behind the gags about digital watches, towels and morphing whales in Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy are some pretty weighty SF concepts of which Philip K Dick would be proud. The main difference is that Dick could write an entire novel based on a concept that Adams throws away in a passing comment. As we all know, Hitchhiker\u2019s started as a radio show, but it was the books based on the series (six in all, or five and a half if you don\u2019t consider Salmon of Doubt \u2013 a posthumous collection of previously uncollected material by Douglas Adams \u2013 a proper book) that really extended Adams\u2019s bonkers universe and fired the imagination of his fans.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>1 \u2013 <strong>The Lord of the Rings<\/strong> by J.R.R. Tolkien<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes, it\u2019s won again. Though Hitchhiker\u2019s put in a valiant effort, The Lord Of the Rings remains SFX readers\u2019 favourite book. Or trilogy. Or six books if you\u2019re a real LOTR pedant. The power of Tolkein\u2019s folly to enchant readers just never seems to fade, and the Peter Jackson movie trilogy cleary hasn\u2019t done its reputation any damage. The breed of sniffy, snobby literary types (many of whom you suspect haven\u2019t even read his work) who dismiss Tolkein as nonsense, are, frankly, missing the point. Tolkien wasn\u2019t interested so much in writing great literature \u2013 he wanted to create a modern myth. And in this regard he succeeded spectacularly \u2013 Middle-earth is so fully realised that it feels just as authentic and ancient as Greek mytholgy or stone circles. So, with this in mind, perhaps his finest work is actually The Silmarillion, published posthumously in 1977 (and edited by his son Christopher), as it details the legends and history of Middle-earth in prose so evocative that it\u2019s hard to picture any other book reaching such heights \u2013 Tolkien even constructed new languages. It was a labour that, thankfully, the readers also loved. When it comes to epic fantasy Tolkien wrote the rule book, and any new fantasy author can either embrace Tolkien or kick against him. What they can\u2019t do is ignore him.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Certainly a slant towards British authors, though that could be expected from a UK-based magazine. Still, the list reads like a bunch of readers voting for what they <em>think<\/em> they should vote for, gearing the list towards higher profile, more mainstream choices. Not to say all the books listed aren&#8217;t of top quality, but, for instance, <strong>A Game of Thrones<\/strong> being included over the superior <strong>A Storm of Swords<\/strong> seems a little silly. In any case, I suppose it could function as a decent, if predictable, jumping off point for anyone new to the genre.<\/p>\n<p>For comparison, you can find SFX&#8217;s list of &#8216;Top 100 Authors&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/asides\/an-aside-sfxs-top-100-authors\/\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SFX polled their readers, asking them to vote for the top 25 Science Fiction and Fantasy novels of all time. The results are&#8230; odd. 25 \u2013 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis 24 \u2013 The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester 23 \u2013 Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett 22 \u2013 Watchmen&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/news\/an-aside-sfx-magazines-top-25-novels\/\" title=\"ReadAn Aside | SFX Magazine&#8217;s Top 25 Novels\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v14.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/news\/an-aside-sfx-magazines-top-25-novels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Aside | SFX Magazine&#039;s Top 25 Novels - A Dribble of Ink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SFX polled their readers, asking them to vote for the top 25 Science Fiction and Fantasy novels of all time. 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