The Waterstones Top 100
At the Telegraph, a list of the top 100 books published since 1982, according to a survey of Waterstones staff.
A few undeniable genre works have made it in:
- Neuromancer (Gibson, William)
- Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood, Margaret)
- Watchmen (Moore, Alan) [a graphic novel, forsooth!]
- Northern Lights (Pullman, Philip)
- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Clarke, Susannah)
And a few “oh no, I don’t write science fiction” jobs:
- Girlfriend In A Coma (Coupland, Douglas)
- Time Traveler’s Wife, The (Niffenegger, Audrey)
- Cloud Atlas (Mitchell, David)
Plus two of Iain Banks’ non-sf works (Crow road and Wasp Factory natch). I’ll bet our Banksie is pleased as punch to be on the same list as Sophie Kinsella …
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April 15th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Both Niffeneger and Mitchell are quite happy with the sf label. Niffeneger has also written a Goreyish picture book. My sense is that younger writers, who grew up with a lot of tv sf and a more sf imbued culture generally, are far less hung up on the whole respectability thing.
April 15th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Ray Bradbury once said: “Science fiction is the most important literature in the history of the world, because it’s the history of ideas, the history of our civilization birthing itself. …Science fiction is central to everything we’ve ever done, and people who make fun of science fiction writers don’t know what they’re talking about.”