Editors crown Tolkien lord of science fiction ( Frank Herbet's Dune 3rd)

[zamboe]

I found this news article quite interesting.

Anyway I think many of us might have our own preferences, that for sure include those top 10 SciFi books, in a different order perhaps.

"USA TODAY 4/Feb/03

The master, J.R.R. Tolkien, is No. 1 in a new ranking of science fiction and fantasy books. The newcomer, J.K. Rowling, failed to make the top 10.

Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, a trilogy about the battle between good and evil, is the ''most significant'' science fiction or fantasy book of the past 50 years, according to editors of the 50-year-old Science Fiction Book Club.

Their choices, released Sunday, rank the top 10 books and list 40 other unranked titles chosen for literary quality, historical importance, originality and readability.

The top choice was obvious, says Andrew Wheeler, one of four editors to compile the list. ''In influence, The Lord of the Rings is head and shoulders above anything else. Tolkien set up all the rules on how to write a story like this.''

The first in Rowling's popular series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, published in the USA in 1998, is the newest book among the 50 titles.

But Wheeler says: ''More time has to pass before you can gauge if something is overwhelmingly significant. In another 25 years, if there's a list like this, I think it's a fair chance she'll be on it.''

It's the latest honor for Tolkien, an Oxford professor who died in 1973, 19 years after The Lord of the Rings was published.

Boosted by new movies of the first two parts of the trilogy, his book sales last year were topped only by Rowling and romance writer Nora Roberts. A biography by British scholar Tom Shippey dubbed him ''author of the century.'' A readers' survey by Amazon.com crowned his trilogy ''book of the millennium.''

Wheeler says editors ''split the difference between what's best and what's most popular. Books are important for different reasons.''

* No. 2, Isaac Asimov's The Foundation Trilogy, published in one volume in 1963, creates ''a universe of scope and depth unmatched in its day and only rarely since,'' he says.

* No. 3, Frank Herbert's Dune, ''brought new ecological insight into science fiction'' in 1965, editor Ellen Asher says.

* No. 6, William Gibson's Neuromancer, the newest book in the top 10, ''ignited a literary movement, the cyberpunks'' in 1984, Wheeler says, ''and launched a million impressionable readers headlong into the world of computers.''

"

My personal preferences is 1) LOTR, 2)Dune 3)Foundation (That I am currently reading this summer).

HP, umm, it should change as the time goes.

[Mahdi]

Yeah, those three are always at the top of these surveys, in varying positions. Sometimes Dune is number one, sometimes Foundation.

[thomas]

HAHA HP ISN"T IN TOP 10! I mean the books areo kbut god it pisses me off with all the harry potter crap. did yo uknow LoTR is the 2nd most popular read book? next to the bible.

[Vanguard3000]

I agree that LotR was very influential, but I still don't see the genius in it. Oh well.

P.S. I definately wouldn't call it the book of the milennium. That's just plain stupid.

[thomas]

well I liked it but calling micael jackson artist of the millenium is stupid.

[DukeLeto]

Calling Michael Jacksn a musical artist at all is just plain stupid. :P

[Vanguard3000]

I wouldn't go that far. He's not called the King of Pop for no reason.

In any event, I think this is getting a bit too off-topic.

[The_Sadukar]

IMO the Silmarilion is batter tha LotR

[zamboe]

IMO the Silmarilion is batter tha LotR

I'd not know, The Silmarilion is just to dense to understand, I've read it once and I just couldn't get it.