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top one hundred speculative fiction works: nominations
So I was being grumpy about that NPR list of the top 100 science fiction and fantasy novels and how boring it was, and then I started wondering what that kind of list would look like if a bunch of fannish people made it instead and if the definition of scifi and fantasy were looser.
And then I decided to do it, more or less on the same model as the NPR list, because why not? At the very least it would mean getting a bunch of interesting recs.
So the general model is:
1) Nomination period: anyone can nominate ten speculative fiction works (in any media).
2) Long list: made up of all the nominations where anyone can vote for their favorites. (Probably divided by media and/or language because the poll might be too big otherwise.) NPR used some NPR folks or an algorithm or something and then a panel of "experts" at this point to narrow things down, but nobody's an expert on all speculative fiction. (And also either the unknown NPR folks or the experts did this.)
3) Short list: a poll of the top two hundred-some things from the long list.
4) Compile the numbers from (3) to make the final list of the top 100.
And this is going to be the nomination post! For nominating things you love. They don't have to be the things that you think of as the absolute objectively best speculative fiction - nominate your favorites or the things you love most or the things you think are best or the things that influenced you the most or however else you define your top ten speculative fiction works.
What counts as speculative fiction?
Anything called "scifi" or "fantasy" or "horror" or "paranormal" or "supernatural" or "magical realism." Anything with vampires or werewolves or zombies or bodyswap or time travel or space travel or aliens or other planets or apocalypses or talking animals or magic swords or angels or demons or fairies or faeries or mystical creatures or other dimensions or futuristic tech or superpowers or wizards or witches or ghosts or blasters or talking trees or sapient rocks or teleportation or elves or A.I. or giant robots or alternate history or about a million other speculative fiction tropes. If you think it's speculative fiction, it's speculative fiction, regardless of what the original creators call it or where it's usually shelved. Young adult and children's speculative fiction counts, too.
The nomination rules:
You can nominate up to ten speculative fiction things from any media. So you could nominate a live action tv show, cartoon, anime, book, book series, short story, album, song, comic series, graphic novel, manga/manhwa/manhua, movie, fanfic, fanart, fanvid, amv, music video, video game, rpg, webcomic, picture, episode of a tv show, etc.
The things you nominate don't have to be English-language sources - any language is okay.
The things you nominate can be things that were on the NPR list - there were many great books on that list!
You can comment using a dreamwidth account, using openID, or anonymously, but if you comment anonymously please include a name/username/pseudonym somewhere in your comment.
Everything anyone nominates will end up on the long list, regardless of how many times it's nominated, so you don't have to worry about making sure enough people nominate it. (But since people can change their nominations later, if you really really want to see it on the poll, you might want to nominate it yourself.)
To nominate your ten things:
Comment here telling me what you'd like to nominate, and what medium it is so I don't have to google it. If you'd like, you can comment on your nominations and recommend them to passerby, or link to them if they're available anywhere online. (And you can comment to other people's nominations if you want to find out more/rejoice at finding someone else who also loves X.)
If you change your mind, reply to your own comment with your updated list.
Nominations will be open for a week, conveniently closing after both my current freelance project and my femslash 11 story are due.
Example nomination:
Book Series:
1. Terry Pratchett - Discworld series
Music:
2. Janelle Monae - Metropolis/The ArchAndroid
TV show:
3. Avatar: The Last Airbender
4. Babylon 5
5. Code Geass
Book:
6. Rosemary Kirstein - The Outskirter's Secret
Fanfic:
7. Your Cowboy Days Are Over by M.
Feel free to signal-boost! More nominations = more interesting polls.
ETA: Here's a browsable spreadsheet listing all of the nominations as of 8/19. Many, many things have been nominated!
ETA2: Oh what the hell, some people have asked for it and why not! You can have +5 additional nominations as long as they're for less-represented speculative fiction media: music (songs, albums, filk, music videos), fanworks (fanfic, fanvids, fanfilms, fanart), theater (plays, musicals), poetry, games (video, rpg, card, board), short films, art (paintings, fanart, digital art), or any medium that's not currently represented on the spreadsheet at all.
ETA3: Nominations are now closed.
And then I decided to do it, more or less on the same model as the NPR list, because why not? At the very least it would mean getting a bunch of interesting recs.
So the general model is:
1) Nomination period: anyone can nominate ten speculative fiction works (in any media).
2) Long list: made up of all the nominations where anyone can vote for their favorites. (Probably divided by media and/or language because the poll might be too big otherwise.) NPR used some NPR folks or an algorithm or something and then a panel of "experts" at this point to narrow things down, but nobody's an expert on all speculative fiction. (And also either the unknown NPR folks or the experts did this.)
3) Short list: a poll of the top two hundred-some things from the long list.
4) Compile the numbers from (3) to make the final list of the top 100.
And this is going to be the nomination post! For nominating things you love. They don't have to be the things that you think of as the absolute objectively best speculative fiction - nominate your favorites or the things you love most or the things you think are best or the things that influenced you the most or however else you define your top ten speculative fiction works.
What counts as speculative fiction?
Anything called "scifi" or "fantasy" or "horror" or "paranormal" or "supernatural" or "magical realism." Anything with vampires or werewolves or zombies or bodyswap or time travel or space travel or aliens or other planets or apocalypses or talking animals or magic swords or angels or demons or fairies or faeries or mystical creatures or other dimensions or futuristic tech or superpowers or wizards or witches or ghosts or blasters or talking trees or sapient rocks or teleportation or elves or A.I. or giant robots or alternate history or about a million other speculative fiction tropes. If you think it's speculative fiction, it's speculative fiction, regardless of what the original creators call it or where it's usually shelved. Young adult and children's speculative fiction counts, too.
The nomination rules:
You can nominate up to ten speculative fiction things from any media. So you could nominate a live action tv show, cartoon, anime, book, book series, short story, album, song, comic series, graphic novel, manga/manhwa/manhua, movie, fanfic, fanart, fanvid, amv, music video, video game, rpg, webcomic, picture, episode of a tv show, etc.
The things you nominate don't have to be English-language sources - any language is okay.
The things you nominate can be things that were on the NPR list - there were many great books on that list!
You can comment using a dreamwidth account, using openID, or anonymously, but if you comment anonymously please include a name/username/pseudonym somewhere in your comment.
Everything anyone nominates will end up on the long list, regardless of how many times it's nominated, so you don't have to worry about making sure enough people nominate it. (But since people can change their nominations later, if you really really want to see it on the poll, you might want to nominate it yourself.)
To nominate your ten things:
Comment here telling me what you'd like to nominate, and what medium it is so I don't have to google it. If you'd like, you can comment on your nominations and recommend them to passerby, or link to them if they're available anywhere online. (And you can comment to other people's nominations if you want to find out more/rejoice at finding someone else who also loves X.)
If you change your mind, reply to your own comment with your updated list.
Nominations will be open for a week, conveniently closing after both my current freelance project and my femslash 11 story are due.
Example nomination:
Book Series:
1. Terry Pratchett - Discworld series
Music:
2. Janelle Monae - Metropolis/The ArchAndroid
TV show:
3. Avatar: The Last Airbender
4. Babylon 5
5. Code Geass
Book:
6. Rosemary Kirstein - The Outskirter's Secret
Fanfic:
7. Your Cowboy Days Are Over by M.
Feel free to signal-boost! More nominations = more interesting polls.
ETA: Here's a browsable spreadsheet listing all of the nominations as of 8/19. Many, many things have been nominated!
ETA2: Oh what the hell, some people have asked for it and why not! You can have +5 additional nominations as long as they're for less-represented speculative fiction media: music (songs, albums, filk, music videos), fanworks (fanfic, fanvids, fanfilms, fanart), theater (plays, musicals), poetry, games (video, rpg, card, board), short films, art (paintings, fanart, digital art), or any medium that's not currently represented on the spreadsheet at all.
ETA3: Nominations are now closed.
no subject
Ursula K. LeGuin: The Left Hand of Darkness. I loaned my supposedly non-SF-reading mother my copy of this and she refuses to give it back. I had to buy another copy, because I need it in my room as in my life.
Samuel R. Delany: Aye, And Gomorrah, and other stories (short story collection) -- as above. The best introduction to Delany is probably his short stories.
Nicola Griffith: Slow River -- as above.
Nalo Hopkinson: Midnight Robber -- as above.
Nnedi Okorafor: Who Fears Death -- I haven't loaned it to my mother because I know she won't give it back and I'll have to buy another copy. Because I will not go without having a copy of this in my apartment.
Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- better than the movie, which would probably be my eleventh entry on this list.
Book series:
Informal Remarks Towards the Modular Calculus (a.k.a. Trouble on Triton plus the Return to Nevèrÿon series) by Samuel R. Delany -- I want to teach an introductory course on semiotics using these books.
The Patternmaster series by Octavia Butler -- terrifyingly possible, and more so each day.
Music:
Janelle Monae -- Metropolis/The ArchAndroid. (Yes, it was in the intro post, but seriously -- that's some brilliant SF. Especially for those of us who are fans of cyborg/android theory and subversive pop music. And/or those of us who want to play bass for her next project.)
Magma -- the Kobaïan cycle. (French science-fiction prog-rock. They invented their own language for this. Also, search for "Magma misheard lyrics" on YouTube and take the link for "Philosphy War!" by klestgeistzeit. Or just go here if you know and/or can't stand Slavoj Žižek -- I'm in the "and" camp.)