We should come up with our own list. Of course, my personal favorites are all in such a teeny tiny subgenre of fantasy that I'd have trouble coming up with a more generic one. Here are some books I'd include though, some of which are taken from the list:
* Lord of the Rings * one of the Oz books (off the top of my head I'd pick the Patchwork Girl but in terms of historical influence it would probably have to be the first book) * something by Bradbury * Slaughterhouse Five (I don't get why they picked some other random book by Vonnegut instead of this one) * Hitchhiker's Guide * Foundation * Dune (I hated this book, but it is pretty darn famous) * Stranger in a Strange Land * 1984 * Brave New World * Neuromancer * something by Philip K. Dick, if we're going for most famous then Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but I think he has some better ones, at least, according to my sister -- I only read "The Galactic Pot-Healer" * something by HG Wells * something by Arthur C. Clark
Picking important fantasy novels is hard, because 95% of fantasy novels are just rip-offs of Lord of the Rings (at least, IMO). I would think there should be some representative of comedic fantasy (like Piers Anthony or Robert Aspirin), some representative of Tolkein-esque fantasy, some representative of alternate history fantasy, and some representative of dark fantasy. And some representative of urban fantasy. I hate to pick though because I hated so many books that everyone else loved.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-01-26 02:19 pm (UTC)* Lord of the Rings
* one of the Oz books (off the top of my head I'd pick the Patchwork Girl but in terms of historical influence it would probably have to be the first book)
* something by Bradbury
* Slaughterhouse Five (I don't get why they picked some other random book by Vonnegut instead of this one)
* Hitchhiker's Guide
* Foundation
* Dune (I hated this book, but it is pretty darn famous)
* Stranger in a Strange Land
* 1984
* Brave New World
* Neuromancer
* something by Philip K. Dick, if we're going for most famous then Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but I think he has some better ones, at least, according to my sister -- I only read "The Galactic Pot-Healer"
* something by HG Wells
* something by Arthur C. Clark
Picking important fantasy novels is hard, because 95% of fantasy novels are just rip-offs of Lord of the Rings (at least, IMO). I would think there should be some representative of comedic fantasy (like Piers Anthony or Robert Aspirin), some representative of Tolkein-esque fantasy, some representative of alternate history fantasy, and some representative of dark fantasy. And some representative of urban fantasy. I hate to pick though because I hated so many books that everyone else loved.