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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
In no particular order and I'm sure I'll edit my choices (and I already did take out a few that I'd otherwise name because they've been named often enough that I am confident they will make it into the next round):
1. Pamela Dean, Tam Lin, book
2. Octavia Butler, the Parables duology (Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents), book
3. Theodore Sturgeon, "The Man Who Lost The Sea", short story
4. Spider and Jeanne Robinson, the Stardance trilogy (Stardance/Starseed/Starmind), book *
5. Robert Heinlein, "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants", short story
6. Robin McKinley, The Blue Sword/The Hero and the Crown duology, book
7. Star Trek (TOS), "City at the Edge of Forever", tv episode **
8. Shoujo Kakumei Utena/Revolutionary Girl Utena, anime series
9. Marion Zimmer Bradley, the Darkover series, books ***
10. Neal Gaiman, Sandman, comic book/graphic novel series +
* This is a tough one, since it's only the first two that I feel that strongly about and think the third wasn't even in the same zip code of personal-influence; the gap in time of writing showed and did so to extreme detriment. But 1 & 2 are absolutely on the list, and it seems unfair not to nominate the whole trilogy.
** Yes, yes, the whole of Trek TOS is massively influential on the genre, it probably belongs on here as a whole, but really, this episode is the most perfect hour of television ever filmed, and I think it deserves calling-out separately.
*** Problematic in tons of places, so very dated by now, but still hellaciously influential, especially The Forbidden Tower, omg.
+ The most profound statement ever made on the nature of story.
no subject
I've never known of anyone else who's read it, and I'm tickled that one of my favorite authors thinks as highly of it as I do. /gushing
no subject