Locus Online, 20th Century Fantasy Novel


science fiction awards database
Locus 2012 SF20th <— Citations thread —> NPR
The 2012 All-time best novel polls were hosted by Locus Online, and split categories by SF and fantasy, and by 20th century (through 2000) and 21st century (2001-2011). Complete results, along with polls in short fiction categories, were posted here. Note that voting was unconstrained, so that some works rank on both the SF and the fantasy lists, and some multiple works are represented both by individual and series titles.

Ranked: Yes

Titles Cited: 75

Publication: Locus Online, 2012

  1. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (series, 1954-1955)
  2. George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones (HarperCollins Voyager, 1996)
  3. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (Allen & Unwin , 1937)
  4. Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea (Parnassus Press, 1968)
  5. Roger Zelazny, Nine Princes in Amber (Doubleday, 1970)
  6. China Miéville, Perdido Street Station (Macmillan, 2000)
  7. C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Geoffrey Bles, 1950)
  8. Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens (Gollancz, 1990)
  9. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Bloomsbury, 1997)
  10. John Crowley, Little, Big (Bantam, 1981)
  11. Richard Adams, Watership Down (Rex Collings, 1972)
  12. George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords (HarperCollins/Voyager, 2000)
  13. William Goldman, The Princess Bride (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973)
  14. Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn (Viking, 1968)
  15. T. H. White, The Once and Future King (Collins , 1958)
  16. Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana (Viking, 1990)
  17. Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere (BBC Books, 1996)
  18. Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun (1980-1983)
  19. Jack Vance, The Dying Earth (Hillman, 1950)
  20. Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (Harper & Row, 1967; France 1967)
  21. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Scholastic/Levine, 2000)
  22. J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion (Houghton Mifflin, 1977)
  23. Fritz Leiber, The Swords of Lankhmar (Ace, 1968)
  24. Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World (Tor, 1990)
  25. J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Bloomsbury, 1999)
  26. Stephen R. Donaldson, Lord Foul's Bane (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1977)
  27. Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes (Simon & Schuster, 1962)
  28. Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1950)
  29. Tim Powers, The Anubis Gates (Ace, 1983)
  30. George R. R. Martin, A Clash of Kings (HarperCollins/Voyager, 1998)
  31. Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon (Knopf, 1983)
  32. Robin Hobb, Assassin's Apprentice (Bantam Spectra, 1995)
  33. Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic (Colin Smythe, 1983)
  34. Robert Holdstock, Mythago Wood (Gollancz, 1984)
  35. Stephen King, The Stand (Doubleday, 1978)
  36. Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time (Farrar Straus Cudahy, 1962)
  37. Terry Pratchett, Small Gods (Gollancz, 1992)
  38. Robert E. Howard, Conan the Barbarian (Gnome, 1950)
  39. Michael Ende, The Neverending Story (Doubleday, 1983)
  40. Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan (Eyre & Spottiswoode , 1946)
  41. Anne McCaffrey, Dragonflight (Ballantine, 1968)
  42. Raymond E. Feist, Magician (Doubleday , 1982)
  43. George Orwell, Animal Farm (Secker & Warburg , 1945)
  44. Robert Silverberg, Lord Valentine's Castle (Harper & Row, 1980)
  45. H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness (Astounding, 1936)
  46. Michael Swanwick, The Iron Dragon's Daughter (Millennium, 1993)
  47. Stephen King, The Shining (Doubleday , 1977)
  48. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (In Spanish, 1967; Harper & Row, 1970)
  49. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince (Reynal and Hitchcock, 1943)
  50. Barry Hughart, Bridge of Birds (St. Martin's, 1984)
  51. Stephen King, It (Viking, 1986)
  52. Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire (Knopf , 1976)
  53. Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave (Hodder & Stoughton, 1970)
  54. Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist (Collins, 1926)
  55. Piers Anthony, A Spell for Chameleon (Del Rey, 1977)
  56. Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass (Knopf, 2000)
  57. Patricia A. McKillip, The Riddle-Master of Hed (Atheneum, 1976)
  58. Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (Viking, 1959)
  59. Terry Brooks, The Sword of Shannara (Ballantine, 1977)
  60. Robert A. Heinlein, Glory Road (Putnam, 1963)
  61. E. R. Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros (Jonathan Cape, 1922)
  62. Ursula K. Le Guin, Tehanu (Atheneum, 1990)
  63. David Eddings, Pawn of Prophecy (Del Rey , 1982)
  64. Ken Grimwood, Replay (Arbor House, 1987)
  65. Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light (Doubleday, 1967)
  66. Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (Thames Methuen, 1908)
  67. Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword (Abelard-Schuman, 1954)
  68. Guy Gavriel Kay, The Lions of Al-Rassan (Viking Canada, 1995)
  69. Clive Barker, Imajica (HarperCollins, 1991)
  70. Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle (Methuen, 1986)
  71. Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars (McClurg, 1917)
  72. Stephen R. Donaldson, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (series, 1977)
  73. Ursula K. Le Guin, Earthsea (series, 1971-2001)
  74. Fritz Leiber, Our Lady of Darkness (Berkley-Putnam, 1977)
  75. Christopher Priest, The Prestige (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 1995)

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