FLOWCHART: Navigating NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
Over the summer, NPR solicited the input of its listeners to rank the top science fiction and fantasy books of all time. Over 60,000 people voted for the top picks which were then compiled into a list by their panel of experts. The result? This list of 100 books with a wide range of styles, little context, and absolutely no pithy commentary to help readers actually choose something to read from it.
We at SF Signal have, once again, come to the rescue. This flowchart is designed to help you follow your tastes, provide context, and fulfill (indeed exceed!) any need for pithy commentary you might harbor.
Designer’s Note: This is the mightiest flowchart I have ever encountered let alone tried to develop. There are (obviously) 100 end points and over 325 decision points. A chart of this size presents a number of readability challenges. For people with lower resolution monitors, netbooks, or tablets, this 3800 x 2300 image is going to a scroll-fest. But it’s totally worth it.
Update 1: Those looking for a printable version of this flowchart will find happiness here. This is a 300 DPI bitmap version that should print nicely on 11×17 tabloid paper. Warning! The file is 26MB compressed and a whopping 173MB when unzipped.
Update 2: As Neil Gaiman so astutely pointed out, the novel Stardust, unlike the movie, contains no pirates. Turns out he’s an authority on the subject. This egregious error has been corrected and we’d love to appeal @neilhimself‘s ruling of this being not quite the greatest flowchart in human history.
Update 3: The flowchart goes interactive! Experience the flowchart in a whole new way!
Related posts:
- Amazon UK’s The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2008
- Science Fiction & Fantasy Books That Make You Dumb
- The Most Expensive Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Sold by AbeBooks in 2006
- Which SciFi Series Should You Watch on NetFlix? This Handy Flowchart Will Help You Decide!
- What Were Your Favorite Science Fiction or Fantasy Books/Films/Shows in 2006?
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@Adam Lucas, ‘they’ did not exclude anything, the list was generated from a user survey. Thus, making your entire post worthless. The list itself is here: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
This is fantastic. My head almost exploded and so did my reading list. Thanks.
@Tobias – You still need to correct the printable version.
You made the mistake of classifying post-apocalyptic, when a 30 second check on wikipedia shows they are clearly separate genres. Post-apocalyptic is about the fall of civilization or society, while dystopian is a failed attempt at utopia, what some might consider too much civilization. They are, therefore, at opposite ends of the spectrum. Animal Farm also belongs under totalitarian dystopian, as the animals believe they are building a utopia, when they are clearly under the dictatorship of the pigs.
Other than that, a fun chart to explore.
I’d like to put this up either in or by my campus bookshop – I hope that’s okay. With all the bookshops shutting lately, I’d like to keep the University’s little shop going as long as I can.
Links are still broken. Whether clicking text above or the image itself, I’m taken to a 950×575 pixel version that is very difficult to read.
+1 Darren Accardo; Wheel of Time not yet completed (at least, published/completed)
-1 Trevor: post-apocalypse is pretty much the definition of dystopia
I love it! But The Wheel of Time is NOT finished. (Been reading it since middle school and he had to up and die on us…sigh.)
out of this world !
Sorry … one more nit. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is not complete. The first two series were trilogies, but the last one is a quad, and the fourth hasn’t been finished yet.
I have to admit, I especially liked “Enjoy stories about orphaned farm boys?” –> “No” –> “Tough.”
I want to like this flow chart, but it pigeonholes Ursula K Le Guin’s Dispossessed with the word “Communism” when it is about Anarchism. Anarchists and Communists rarely get along (when do libertarians and authoritarians ever get along?).
@Eric – I’ll just leave this here…
Where is WORLD WAR Z!?!?!
Would SF Signal consider selling this as a poster? I work at a library and would love to have something like this to display for patrons.
Nixiesticks, the link under “Update 1″ is hi-res. Feel free to print your own copy.
I thought this was just fantastic and, like nixiesticks, I work at a library and thought this would be a fun thing to display for patrons. So I went ahead and translated the poster to Icelandic (more or less: some of the references would be lost in translation, and there isn’t really an Icelandic word for “macguffin” and so on).
I’ve uploaded a low-res jpg, in the unlikely event that anyone outside of Iceland is interested. I neglected to credit the author because I somehow missed his name at the bottom of the original post, but I’ll add it in after the fact.
From the fact that a printable file was uploaded here I inferred that this sort of use would be OK, but if not I will of course not hang the poster without permission. In any event, thanks for this awesome thing.
No Poe, no Lord dunsany ? I thought NPR listeners were well read. Guess not. Great Flow Chart though.
Great work guys, thanx!
@Björn
Very awesome. Now I wish I could read Icelandic!
Just another comment regarding I Am Legend — It may very well be that I Am Legend is seminal for much of today’s zombie sub-genre. Still the “twist” at the end of Matheson’s book (and the title of the book) really only work in the context of vampires. And frankly, *that* was what made that story memorable to me.
I showed this to all of my family, and at least two of them have picked books with it that they ended up loving!
StarWars is FANTASY !
I do not understand how you could leave Edgar Rice Burroughs off the list.
As two other folks in the comments have said: The Dispossessed is about anarchism, not communism. Serious mistake in an anotherwise great chart!
@Salvo Duh, The Force was clearly scientifically explained by midi-chlorians in the blood!
beautiful, I had so much fun tracking books on it, and I’ve read quite a few of them
Thanks for that info. With your permision I would love to add some of it to my blog as well.
[Editor: We would prefer a link back here rather than you uploading the image elsewhere.]