The question is straightforward: What are the best sci-fi and fantasy books you've read that were published in the last decade? You can nominate up to five or as few as one. The info you enter is simple: name, your local NPR station, book name, author. Here's the link.
They did a similar poll ten years ago, however it was "of all time" not "of the past decade." (results here) OK, LOTR won that one hands-down, no surprise there. This time the results should be more interesting with the focus on more recent work. I'm always looking for new, good stuff.
FWIW, I nominated Star's Reach and The Martian; you can read my thoughts on them at the links. Some others I considered but did not included are the Area X trilogy (Annihilation, etc.), Weir's second book Artemis, and the hard sci-fi anthology Carbide Tipped Pens. I haven't finished Weir's third book Project Hail Mary, but I'm making good progress.
Predictions: Because the article mentions "our panel of expert judges will take your nominations and use them to curate a final list of 50 titles" [emphasis added], we can expect a fair number of little-known books – likely for good reason – that reflect NPR's values. And that's OK too, their poll, their rules. Another prediction I'll hazard is that several widely read books that were made into movies will be on the list: the above-mentioned The Martian and Annihilation, as well as Ted Chiang's Stories of your Life and Others, which was heavily adapted into 2016's movie Arrival. Finally, I will flat-out predict that of the 50 books there should be some interesting stuff.
No "expect the list on or around" date in the article, but I'll keep an eye out for it. Might have to buy another bookshelf.
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