Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books More than 5,000 of you nominated. More than 60,000 of you voted. And now the results are in. The winners of NPR's Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy survey are an intriguing mix of classic and contemporary titles. Over on NPR's pop culture blog, Monkey See, you can find one fan's thoughts on how the list shaped up, get our experts' take, and have the chance to share your own. A quick word about what's here, and what's not: Our panel of experts reviewed hundreds of the most popular nominations and tossed out those that didn't fit the survey's criteria (after — we assure you — much passionate, thoughtful, gleefully nerdy discussion). So, at last, here are your favorite science-fiction and fantasy novels. 1.
P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE, (/ˈwʊdhaʊs/; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English humorist whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years, and his many writings continue to be widely read. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained that of a pre- and post-World War I English upper class society, reflecting his birth, education and youthful writing career. An acknowledged master of English prose, Wodehouse has been admired both by contemporaries such as Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by recent writers such as Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Fry,[1] Douglas Adams,[2] J. Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Life beyond Britain[edit] Timothy Bobbin has ten little toes. Later life[edit]
The 50 Books Everyone Needs to Read, 1963-2013 The thing about reading is this: it takes a long time. There are innumerable books in the world, and many more good ones than can be read by any mortal in a lifetime. It’s hard to choose — especially if you’re a slow reader. So, to go along with the list of the best albums from 1963-2013, here you will find a single must-read book from each of the last 50 years. Of course, this is by its very nature an absurd undertaking, and many books have gotten the short end of the stick — there’s no other way to do it. The choices here are influenced by the following: the stipulation that any specific author should not be chosen for more than one year, a general focus on fiction over other genres, and the tastes/whims/glaring prejudices of Flavorwire’s literary editor. 1963 — The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath’s only novel manages to be both elegant and filled with raw, seething emotion – no small feat, and not the least of the reasons the reading world is still obsessed with her.
25 of the greatest Fantasy books ever written 10 Great Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Novels Books It’s a classic theme of science fiction: something really, really bad happens, and mankind is knocked back to the Stone Age. Of course, with the dropping of atomic bombs by the U.S. to end World War II, people came to realize that for the first time Man himself possessed the power to bring about a global cataclysm. But nuclear holocaust isn’t the only way Man’s thin veneer of civilization can be stripped by catastrophe. Shouldn’t stop us from thinking about the possibilities, however. Lucifer’s Hammer Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle This best-selling 1997 novel details the approach and aftermath of a comet striking earth with disastrous results. Buy the book at Amazon: Lucifer’s Hammer On The Beach Nevil Shute Probably the earliest (1957) post-apocalyptic science fiction novel to truly achieve mass distribution. Buy the book at Amazon: On the Beach Earth Abides George R. Buy the book at Amazon: Earth Abides A Canticle For Leibowitz Walter M. Buy the book at Amazon: A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Master and Margarita The Master and Margarita (Russian: «Ма́стер и Маргари́та») is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written between 1928 and 1940 but unpublished in book form until 1967. It is woven around a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires. In part, it is angled against a suffocatingly bureaucratic social order. History[edit] Bulgakov started writing the novel in 1928. In the Soviet Union, the first complete version, prepared by Anna Saakyants, was published by Khudozhestvennaya Literatura in 1973, based on the version completed at the beginning of 1940, as proofread by the publisher. Plot summary[edit] The novel alternates between two settings. The second setting is the Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate, described by Woland in his conversations with Berlioz and later echoed in the pages of the Master's novel. Interpretations[edit] Occlusive interpretation[edit] Natasha Woland
12 Empowering Children's Books To Add To Little Girls' Bookshelves The books we read as children can have a huge impact on the weird humans we eventually become. Our beliefs, aspirations, and morals can all be attributed to the colorful pages we excitedly soaked in during our youth. So, whether you're buying a book for a friend's child, your own child, or for yourself (because why not? We would), make it a piece of literature that sustains and empowers women. Because, well, those little messages go a long way. Here are 12 children's books we think every young girl should have: 1. Wearing tiger-print pajama pants on the first of school? 2. It's important to know that one can love baseball, roll around in the mud, and ride a bike, all while wearing a sparkly crown. 3. Oh, Madeline. 4. It’s not often that girls are depicted as having burning passions towards history... 5. This is a beautifully illustrated book about a (very) little girl who transforms her flaws into talents. 6. 7. 8. This catalogue of inspirational women belongs on every kid’s bookshelf.
25 books that define cool Free Philip K. Dick: Download 13 Great Science Fiction Stories Although he died when he was only 53 years old, Philip K. Dick (1928 – 1982) published 44 novels and 121 short stories during his lifetime and solidified his position as arguably the most literary of science fiction writers. His novel Ubik appears on TIME magazine’s list of the 100 best English-language novels, and Dick is the only science fiction writer to get honored in the prestigious Library of America series, a kind of pantheon of American literature. If you’re not intimately familiar with his novels, then you assuredly know major films based on Dick’s work – Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darklyand Minority Report. Today, we bring you another way to get acquainted with his writing. We're presenting a selection of Dick's stories available for free on the web. eTexts (find download instructions here) Audio P.S. Related Content: Robert Crumb Illustrates Philip K. Philip K. Free Science Fiction Classics on the Web: Huxley, Orwell, Asimov, Gaiman & Beyond
Slaughterhouse-Five Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969) is a satirical novel by Kurt Vonnegut about World War II experiences and journeys through time of a soldier named Billy Pilgrim. It is generally recognized as Vonnegut's most influential and popular work.[1] Vonnegut's use of the firebombing of Dresden as a central event makes the novel semi-autobiographical, as he was present during the bombing. Plot summary[edit] The story is told in a nonlinear order and events become clear through various flashbacks (or time travel experiences) from the unreliable narrator who describes the stories of Billy Pilgrim, who believes himself to have been in an alien zoo and to experience time travel. Chaplain's Assistant Billy Pilgrim is a disoriented, fatalistic, and ill-trained American soldier who refuses to fight ("Billy wouldn't do anything to save himself").[2] He does not like war and is captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Characters[edit]