Sorry for the link post, but I thought the folks here would be especially interested in an infographic of the . #1 is our hero's "Stranger In A Strange Land." Woo Hoo!

The "legitimacy" of some of the numbers in this ranking was addressed by Patrick Nielsen Hayden. See http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/ar ... tml#014559.

The comments to PNH's blog are... excoriating is far too fuzzy, too indefinite, too wishy-washy a word to describe them. Definitely read the blog, and the comments. <G>

It is interesting to note, numbers aside, that this supposed list of "best-sellers" includes Asimov's "Foundations Series" which ran to 8 or 9 books as one entry and the "Foundation Trilogy" which was the first three of the series as a separate entry. Nothing like counting things twice is there.

And while I don't quibble with anything on the list as being "top drawer" writing of the genre, whether it is my personal favorite or not, how does anyone who ever read the book(s) put Lord of the Rings on a Science Fiction Booklist?

I know that bookstores today aggregate "Fantasy and Science Fiction" together, because they are, frankly, too lazy to try and separate the two. But there is no call to make a work of epic fantasy, which LOTR IS, an entry on a Science Fiction booklist.

I believe Daled73 is referring to the latter day sequels, which started off okay, rapidly ran to seed, and became incomprehensible as soon as authors other than Asimov took over.

My bust. I never knew the Asimov literary estate had farmed out the Asimov name for a continuation of the Foundation by other authors after his death.

In my experience, I have been disappointed every time that has been done. The writer(s) selected have never caught the essence of the original author's work.