THE ILX ALL-TIME SPECULATIVE FICTION POLL RESULTS THREAD & DISCUSSION

Lot 49 & Lanark the first things to show in the category of 'things I would have voted for if I hadn't had some muddled, self-imposed voting restrictions in place'. They could make a top 20 novels of all time for me, maybe (probably a 50), but I wanted to vote a bit more narrow-genre.

fwiw lanark had the 2nd highest average placement out of any book in the top 50 & i had never even heard of it

! i'm shocked that you havent heard of Lanark!

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/35Alices.jpg?t=1301953339
35 Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass
89 points/7 votes/1 #1 vote

I reread a great deal. Books that were amazing and lifechanging, or at least ones that made me think, often find new niches to roost in when read again because _I_ am not the same reading the book. I reread mysteries with characters I like as if visiting old friends. I reread childhood and teen novels at the rate of two or three weekly. I've read "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" more times than I can count.

― Rabin the Cat (Rabin the Cat), Monday, May 10, 2004 10:22 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark

51 Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination

50 Yevgeny Zamaytin - We
49 Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
48 Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana
47 Philip K. Dick - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
46 Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash

45 Madeleine L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
44 Stanislaw Lem - Solaris
43 Walter Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz
42 Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49
41 Edwin Abbott Abbott - Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

40 Isaac Asimov - The Foundation Trilogy
39 Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five
38 Alasdair Gray - Lanark
37 Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
36 Philip K. Dick - Ubik

35 Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass

this is quite a strange list so far

how so?

C'mon, Vance!

crap, I didn't vote. I hope you guys voted for my nominees.

I am kind of bummed because I'm pretty certain that The Diamond Age won't place now.

Slaughterhouse five followed by Lanark! Two of my favourite books. This is a great list

The most memorable part of Lanark for me is the final book with all the temporal disorientation. 6 months seem to go by in a day and there's this nightmarish panic when Thaw can't seem to keep up with his family. It's a truly dreamlike book, often terrifyingly close to an anxiety nightmare in places.

Two of mine have placed so far - Slaughterhouse 5 and Through the Looking Glass. I don't think I'm going to have masses more judging by what's shown up 'til now.

How many ballots did you get in the end, lamp?

how so?

well, I for one would be hard-pressed to say what the Crying of Lot 49 and A Wrinkle in Time have in common, for example.

Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more highly imaginative fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts.

excited by this poll, it is an area of fiction i have rarely touched. so cheers for all involved and i enjoy coming back in a couple years time to bring challops.

i'll*

Some books here I like a lot

it is nice to see my own words under CL49

but I didn't vote for it in this poll; feel that this probably stretches the definition too far

but did vote for Lanark, Vonnegut, Alice.

Was surprised to see Stars My Destination come in so low. Don't care for it that much myself (a bit disjointed, fine writing not that fine, Foyle unengaging), but it always seems to get such love in SF world. Ubik appearing already is good - feared a boring top ten that was half-PKD, half-young adult, & that seems a bit less likely.

btw can't believe there's a novel called TIGANA

TIGANA ... TIGANA ... PLATINI ... GOAL!

More Chris Foss book jackets please!
6 of my votes have made it so far, surprised to See Flow My Tears in there as I never thought of it as first tier Dick. Anyway, great list so far, I'll be using this as my reading list for the next couple of years.

Read ten of these, only voted for one so far, Frankenstein. Added to my reading list: Bester, Flatland, Ubik (on my shelves already). Think I'm a bit a lot to old to get anything out of A Wrinkle in Time. Might give Tigana a go but I'm not really a fantasy fan.

Three of my picks have come out already, including two of my top ten - Lanark (2) and Tigana (8).
Another three were on my longlist.

3 of mine have placed as well - Ubik (my #2), Cat's Cradle and Foundation (23 & 24, respectively). Only one's I haven't read are We and Lanark. Added them to the Amazon shopping list.

Thanks again for doing this Lamp - it's off to a great start!

good interview w/ alasdair gray on lanark

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/arts/lanark.shtml

nothing i have voted for so far! yesss

also i have never read tigana so i am kind of confused by my comment above, oh well

Three from my ballot have placed so far -- Slaughterhouse-Five, Alice and Frankenstein. The vote for Frankenstein was a vote for its historical importance more than for the actual reading enjoyment I got out of it (the only entry on my ballot to get such a vote).

i had an idea my list would be dragging the poll toward the lower brow...

huh

Morlock Night is a science fiction novel by K. W. Jeter. It was published in 1979. In a letter to Locus Magazine in April 1987, Jeter coined the word "steampunk" to describe it and other novels by James Blaylock and Tim Powers.

Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term . . . like "steampunks", perhaps...

—K.W. Jeter[1]

yeah Jeter seems to have really been screwed out of a lot of recognition imho

So has Blaylock. The only member of the poker-with-PK Dick-every-thursday-gang who's really gotten his garlands is Powers, and even he is only a modest success.

(Wait, was Kim Stanley Robinson part of the PKD poker group? If so I guess he's the most successful).

somehow jeter never seemed to connect with an audience and he didn't do himself any favors with all the genre work he did in the 90s, tho I guess they paid the bills

jeter wrote dr adder when he was 22 and spent the next 12 years trying to get it published, that's gotta grind a fella down

KSR is part of that whole UCSD scene (Bear, Vinge, etc. although all those guys have radically different politics, interestingly)

he didn't do himself any favors with all the genre work he did in the 90s, tho I guess they paid the bills

I get the impression he's given up altogether...? I seem to recall some interview where he was talking about being "reduced" to working in bookstores and stuff to pay the rent. But ugh yeah all those Bladerunner sequels and star trek hackery, bad brand management there fella. "Noir" was kinda the last decent thing he did afaik, and even that was marred by some seriously pointless/ugly digressions re: copyright law.

Yeah I think the poker gang was just Blaylock-Powers-Jeter-Dick, those first three all from Fullerton.

xpost

ugh that is depressing xxpost. Blaylock has managed to avoid that by career teaching to pay the bills...

mean star WARS hackery there btw

can I take a moment to give props to the cover of the french edition of dr adder

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/Dr-Adder.jpg

wow

lol awesome.

Jeter did a comic in the early 90s? For Vertigo maybe? It was some Books of Magic offshoot, I think.

Mister E

btw I posted that cover on the assumption dr adder is not going to place in this horse race

That's a pretty safe assumption.

jeter's last published work is a novella from 2006 called ninja two-fifty, available on yr kindle for $2.99

There are no customer reviews yet.

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #251,750 Paid in Kindle Store

"mean star WARS hackery there btw"

He also hacked out some Star Trek actually.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee366/lamp11/34TheDark.jpg
34 Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising Sequence
91 points/7 votes/0 #1 votes

THE DARK IS RISING IS THE BEST SHIT EVER. SUSAN COOPER.

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 14 July 2005 18:07 (5 years ago)

^^ searching for quotes on that is the most lol intersection of n0ize doodz & britishers

also another book(s) id never even heard of

also before the next couple a note on ties:

- if a title tied on points first tie-breaker was # of votes then average placement on ballot then # of #1 votes (this was never used tho). i had so many bcuz i h8 ties, deal with it

- some of the next entries are p heartbreaking for me so