03 March 2011

Tor Poll's Top Ten

Tor just released a reader's poll of the top ten SF&F novels of the last decade. Here are the results:

  1. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi - 295 votes
  2. American Gods by Neil Gaiman - 270 votes
  3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - 231 votes
  4. Blindsight by Peter Watts - 221 votes
  5. Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey - 194 votes
  6. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin - 179 votes
  7. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - 167 votes
  8. Anathem by Neal Stephenson - 141 votes
  9. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson - 125 votes
  10. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville - 124 votes
Would you have voted for these? I think its a pretty good list. I have to confess there's two books on the list I have not read. Bonus points if you can guess which two.

3 comments:

lesleylsmith said...

Interesting, Dave! Thanks for sharing. ;) I note though the number of voters is not huge...
I probably would not have voted for all of these. I did analyze Old Man's War and Scalzi does do an amazing job on many thing in this book. American Gods is very good, as is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
My biggest disagreement on the list is...Perdido Street Station. I studied this book in grad school and it has a lot of issues, for example, regarding plotting, it doesn't know if it's romance, fantasy, or horror. The world is extremely horrific and gruesome (Editor Betsy would like that). And it has one of my major pet peeves: the 'science' is an inconsistent mish-mash of goobledygook.
But, to each thei own, I guess!

ssas said...

I like the list very much though it's less than 2000 voters so I'm doubtful it's accurate beyond more than a fun exercise.

I've read half of them. I liked them but KUSHIEL'S DART? Really?

I mean, it's a fun read and all, but as far as belonging on some best-of list, I doubt it.

betsy said...

Apparently, Jacqueline Carey has quite a loyal fan base who voted for her en masse.