Poll Results: Best Contemporary Fantasy (Semifinal 2)

Text results below

I know I don't usually post on Monday, but I owed you from Friday last week (when I had an emergency nanny shift). Plus I have a lot to do this week. I thought I could wait out a recession, but so much of this pandemic is starting to take on "The New Normal™" properties here in the U.S. that I'm going to have to start back up doing appeals posts. And that means I want to put out some good articles before I pass the hat. So I need to get all the admin and jazz hands out of the way. 

That means you're going to see the final round go live LATER TODAY! 

We had a three way tie for fourth place, so ALL of those titles will go on to the final round. That means ten titles instead of only eight, but I didn't want to wait any longer for a kingmaker. (Or I guess for a whomever-is-fourth-under-the-king-maker.)

The Stormlight Archive - B. Sanderson 98 54.14%

Broken Earth Trilogy - N.K. Jemisin 43 23.76%

The Innkeeper Chronicles Series - I. Andrews 10 5.52%

Discovery of Witches Trilogy - D. Harkness 8 4.42%

Middlegame - S. McGuire 8 4.42%

Riyira Revelations - M. J. Sullivan 8 4.42%

Ancillary Series - A. Leckie 6 3.31%

Best Classic Sci Fi

The results are in!

Like most things these days, my chores and errand to roughly thirty times longer than I expected (and I wasn't even on existential-dread-fighting drugs today!), so I'm just going to drop these results and run. I'm hoping to get an early access post done tomorrow for my infinitely patient Patrons. And if I'm just on fire (I won't be), I'll get a little something done for here as well.

Thank you to SO MANY who voted. I will get the permanent results plastered up this weekend. 

Text results below.

Dune- F. Herbert 135 20.03%

1984 - G. Orwell 131 19.44%

A Wrinkle in Time- M. L'Engle 102 15.13%

Foundation Trilogy- I. Asimov 78 11.57%

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - P. Dick 70 10.39%

Earthsea trilogy(the before '75 parts)- U. Le Guin 66 9.79%

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - R. Heinlein 46 6.82%

The Disposessed - U. K. Le Guin 46 6.82%

Poll Results: Best Classic Sci-Fi Book (Or Series)

Reminder: I'm about 85-90% sure I have Covid-19. (We still don't have ubiquitous and free testing, so it's difficult to get tested without really bad symptoms or confirmed exposure to someone with, but all my symptoms track.) Don't worry, so far it's pretty mild compared to the horror stories, but it kind of keeps coming and going. At this point the worst effect is that I'm getting grumpy that I can't sit up for long enough to write more than a paragraph or two before my coughing catches up with me and I have to lie down for a while. Mostly I'm just spending my quarantine binging Netflix (even low-grade fever makes reading hurt my eyes), playing video games, and trying to make meals out of one thing because I don't want to cook. I'm keeping close tabs on the breathing, and I have people who will check in on me if I go quiet. I'm pretty sure I'm one of the lucky ones. It could be worse.

What is the best classic Sci-Fi Book Or Series?  Here's what's going on to the final round.

I can't really write full articles right now (though I'm plugging away at my next one during the easy periods of this––it comes and goes), but I can still try to get some of my easier (jazz hands) posts up. And poll results are easy!  (Tabulating the nominations is a PITA that takes a little while, but that part has already been done.) So here you go.

Thank you all for taking the time to participate in this one. The top four will go on to our final round. Which if I'm not feeling too miserable, should go up tomorrow.

Text Results Below

1984 - G. Orwell 63 25.51%
The Disposessed - U. K. Le Guin 39 15.79%
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - P. Dick 31 12.55%
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - R. Heinlein 29 11.74%
Brave New World - A. Huxley 29 11.74%
Flowers for Algernon - D. Keyes 28 11.34%
A Canticle for Leibowitz - W. Miller 17 6.88%
The Day of the Triffids - J. Wyndham 11 4.45%

Best Classic Science Fiction (POLL RESULTS)

The results are in!

What is the best science fiction book (or series) written before 1975?

I'm not going to post part two after 9pm on the west coast, so I'll be putting that up tomorrow (and taking advantage of the extra day to do some Covid-19 themed blogging). Stay tuned! 

I was a little surprised at which titles didn't make it, but there were nothing but amazing titles on this poll. You'll see the top four results on our final round.

Text results below

Going on to finals
Dune- F. Herbert 38 20.65%
Earthsea trilogy(the before '75 parts)- U. Le Guin 31 16.85%
A Wrinkle in Time- M. L'Engle 29 15.76%
Foundation Trilogy- I. Asimov 28 15.22%

Get a lovely copy of our home game
Frankenstein- M. Shelley 24 13.04%
Slaughterhouse Five- K. Vonnegut 15 8.15%
The Martian Chronicles- R. Bradbury 12 6.52%
Ringworld- L. Niven 7 3.8%

Best Modern Science Fiction (Poll Results)

So last night I got home and went right to work. (Literally, I grabbed a Lyft from the train station and went straight to my nanny job with all my luggage.) Today I've got a long shift as I tag out the person who's been covering MY shifts while I was out of town. Which means, for now, we just have a quick posting of our poll results.

This weekend there is more end-of-year admin to do. Next week both the fruits of my train "writing retreat" and the new writing schedule will start to kick in. There was a really good spread (until 4th place) so either the Douglas Adams fans swamped the poll, or this is pretty reliable.

Thank you for voting. I'll start taking nominations for the next poll very soon.

Text results below.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -D. Adams 127 42.47%
Parable Duology (Earthseed Series) - O. Butler 63 21.07%
Hyperion - D. Simmons 36 12.04%
Consider Phlebas - I. M. Banks 19 6.35%
Doomsday Book - C. Willis 18 6.02%
A Fire Upon the Deep - V. Vinge 16 5.35%
The Dosadi Experiment - F. Herbert 12 4.01%
Don't Bite the Sun - T. Lee 8 2.68%

Best Horror Book (or series) Results

The results are in. Your nominations. Your votes. Your extra votes. Your leaning on your friends to vote votes. And thank you all so much for such a robust response this time around. Though I'm always a little like "yeah okay whatever...shockingly shocking" when Stephen King sweeps it, were even able to get a nice spread so that there wasn't a six way tie for third place or something.

Text results below

I will try to get these results put on our permanent results page (along with the undersung heroes) this weekend.


The Shining - S. King 55 23.91%
It - S. King 38 16.52%
The Haunting of Hill House - S. Jackson 35 15.22%
Pet Sematary - S. King 29 12.61%
House of Leaves - M. Z. Danielewski 25 10.87%
Drowning Deep - S. McGuire (writing as M. Grant) 21 9.13%
Southern Reach Trilogy - J. Vandermeer 16 6.96%
Heart Shaped Box - J. Hill 11 4.78%

Best Modern Fantasy (Book or Series)

I don't have a lot in me for bells and whistles this evening, and I'll get the Permanent Results and Undersung Heroes up this weekend, but I do want to thank so many people for participating. It was a really good turn out.

Text results below

Good Omens - T Pratchett & N. Gaiman 102 33.12%
The Farseer Trilogy - R. Hobb 46 14.94%
Moonheart -C. de Lint 39 12.66%
Storm Front -J. Butcher 27 8.77%
Sabriel -G. Nix 23 7.47%
Tehanu- U.K. LeGuin 21 6.82%
On a Pale Horse- P. Anthony 18 5.84%
The Fionavar Tapestry - G. G. Kay 16 5.19%
Dragonsbane -B. Hambly 9 2.92%
War of the Flowers -T. Williams 7 2.27%

Best Post Apocalyptic Book (Or Series)

The results are IN!

I usually don't like that thick tangle of close results around #3, but it's stayed there since almost the first day (albeit at lower numbers), so I'm going to have to make my peace.

I'll get these results (and the undersung heroes) up on our Current Poll Results some time this weekend.

Text Results Below

The Stand - S. King 39 24.38%
The Broken Earth Trilogy N.K. Jemisin 33 20.63%
A Canticle For Leibowitz - W. M. Miller Jr. 17 10.63%
The Road - C. Mccarthy 16 10%
Parable of the Sower - O. Butler 16 10%
Station Eleven - E. St. John Mandel 11 6.88%
Oryx and Crake - M. Atwood 10 6.25%
The Uglies Series - S. Westerfeld 10 6.25%
Wool/Shift/Dust series - H. Howey 8 5%

Best Post Apocalyptic Book (or Series) [Semifinal 2 Results]

The results of our second semifinal poll are here! Top four will go on to the final round. Bottom four will get some lovely parting gifts. It wasn't a particularly nail biting week, although I was a little surprised to see a fantasy take on post apocalyptic do much better than the science fiction ones.

Text results below.
[And yes, the free website where I do these polls changed the format to put more space between the pie chart and the text results so the text is smaller than it used to be and hard to read. Thankfully, as I said, text results are below.

One of the things I want to try to do as part of our new schedule here is not take two days to flip a poll like this. So stay tuned for the final round to go up TODAY instead of tomorrow. Yes, that does mean that from time to time we will be posting two posts. (I tried doing both things in a single post and the results were always ).

The Stand - S. King 39 46.99%
Station Eleven - E. St. John Mandel. 16 19.28%
Parable of the Sower - O. Butler 12 14.46%
The Uglies Series - S. Westerfeld 8 9.64%
The Postman Novel - D. Brin 3 3.61%
Book of the New Sun Series - G.Wolfe 3 3.61%
Swan Song - R. R. McCammon 2 2.41%
Road to Nowhere Series - M. Elison 0 0%

Best Post Apocalyptic Book (Or Series) [Results of Semifinal 1]

What is the best Post Apocalyptic book (or series)?

We have our winners!  I was a little surprised to see The Chrysalids not even make enough votes to go to the final after it got such strong shoutouts in the nomination process, but I even extended the poll an extra day because I don't like splits between "finals" and "lovely parting gifts" of only one or two votes, and during the grace period, it fell even further behind.

Personally, I was sad to see Girl With All the Gifts fall short as well, but that's more of a personal preference.

Semifinal round 2 will be up early next week.

Text results below

The Road - C. Mccarthy 22 18.64%
Oryx and Crake - M. Atwood 21 17.8%
A Canticle For Leibowitz - W. M. Miller Jr. 19 16.1%
Wool/Shift/Dust series - H. Howey 18 15.25%
The Chrysalids - J. Wyndham 15 12.71%
Girl With All the Gifts - M. R. Carey 11 9.32%
Who Fears Death - N. Okorafor 7 5.93%
The Passage - J. Cronin 5 4.24%

Current Poll Results (Updated for Classic Fantasy)

Just a pretty simple pointer post today. I have added the results of our latest poll (including the "Undersung Heroes") to the ongoing list of our poll results. And the ongoing list of our poll results to The Reliquary.

Not much text to prop it up, but a lot of work behind the scenes.

Best Classic Fantasy (Results)

The results are in! Thank you to so many for voting and especially to the few who voted in the 11th hour to help break the tie for #2. Lord of the Rings winning is not exactly a big surprise (though it seems to do less well the further we get from the Peter Jackson movies), but how the rest were going to shake out was anybody's guess.

Today I will post the results and next week I will come back through and update the Results Page with these results and the "Undersung Heroes."

Text results below

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien 123 30%
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis 67 16.34%
Earthsea Cycle - Le Guin 62 15.12%
Dragonflight - A. McCaffrey 42 10.24%
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 34 8.29%
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak 32 7.8%
Watership Down - R. Adams 31 7.56%
Once and Future King - T. H. White 19 4.63%

Best Classic Fantasy (Semifinal 2 Results)

Tuesday is a brutal day for me (especially during the month of May) so I'm just going to drop these results and move along. If the kid sleeps enough that I get some computer time, the final round will be up tomorrow.

The bottom two titles are dropping off, and the top four will go on to the finals.

Text results below.

The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis 83 39.52%
Once and Future King - T. H. White 38 18.1%
Dragonflight - A. McCaffrey 33 15.71%
Watership Down - R. Adams 29 13.81%

Nine Princes in Amber - R. Zelazny 20 9.52%
Elric Saga (Minus Black Bane) - M. Moorcock 7 3.33%

Best Classic Fantasy (Semifinal [Results 1/Kick off 2])

What is the best fantasy book (or series) from before 1975? 

The first semifinal round is over and we have the results. But don't go anywhere. The second semifinal round starts TO-NIGHT. Scroll on down and vote on the next round. Again, four will go on to the final and we'll lose the bottom two.

Text results below...

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien 158 56.23%
Earthsea Cycle - Le Guin 52 18.51%
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 26 9.25%
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak 23 8.19%


The Chronicles of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander 15 5.34%
Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake 7 2.49%

The Chronicles of Prydain and Gormenghast will get some lovely parting gifts, but won't be joining us on the final round. Thank you to SO MANY for voting. This was a really spectacular turn out.


The second semifinal round is already live. 

Tomorrow is my ass kickingest of days and we have to keep moving if we're going to get onto our new poll by June. So we won't be taking the usual day to turn around. These semifinal rounds are going to go VERY quickly, to get through this first part of the process. This poll will only be up a week (and another week for the second half) so we can get on with the final round. So please make haste.

Everyone gets three [3] votes, but as there is no way to "rank" votes, you should use as few as you can stand.

The poll itself is in the lower left at the bottom of the side menus.

If you're on mobile you can scroll ALLLLLL the way to the bottom and click on"webpage view" to see the side menus and get to the polls.

Current Poll Results

Sticky Polls 

After many years of building an audience, we now have enough people voting in each round of our polls to track the results of ALL polls in one place and only replace them when we run the same poll again (probably somewhere around three years later for most of the popular polls).

Undersung Heroes

This will be a simple list under the results. Nothing that was voted on, and in fact to get something put on the "undersung heroes" list, one has to relinquish nominating it for the poll. These are not titles people feel are the BEST, but titles people feel are great but not well known or widely appreciated. They are the treasures that folks knew weren't going to win (or even make the poll), but wanted to give a shout out anyway.

BEST CLASSIC FANTASY
The best fantasy fiction book (or series) written before 1975.

Results (in order of ranking):

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien 123 30%
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis 67 16.34%
Earthsea Cycle - Le Guin 62 15.12%
Dragonflight - A. McCaffrey 42 10.24%
Brave New World - A. Huxley 34 8.29%
Where the Wild Things Are - M.Sendak 32 7.8%
Watership Down - R. Adams 31 7.56%
Once and Future King - T. H. White 19 4.63%

Undersung Heroes

The Boxcar Children - G.C. Warner
Little House on the Prairie - L.I. Wilder
The Magic City - E. Nesbit



BEST CONTEMPORARY SCI-FI
The best science fiction book (or series) written in the last ten years.

Results (in order of ranking):

The Martian - A. Weir
The Expanse Series - J. Corey
Imperial Radch (Ancillary) Trilogy - A. Leckie
The Three Body Problem Trilogy - Cixin Liu
Redshirts - John Scalzi
The Murderbot Diaries - M. Wells
Machineries of Empire Trilogy - Y.H. Lee
The Legacy Hunter - C. Heinicke and K. Reedwood

Undersung Heroes:
IQ84 - Murakami
The Coincidence Makers - Blum
A long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Chambers
The Manifold Worlds Series - Meadows

BEST POST APOCALYPTIC BOOK (or Series)

Results (in order of ranking):

The Stand - S. King
The Broken Earth Trilogy N.K. Jemisin
A Canticle For Leibowitz - W. M. Miller Jr.
Parable of the Sower - O. Butler
The Road - C. Mccarthy
Oryx and Crake - M. Atwood
Station Eleven - E. St. John Mandel
The Uglies Series - S. Westerfeld
Wool/Shift/Dust series - H. Howey

Undersung Heroes

Riddley Walker - R. Hoban
Damnation Alley - R. Zelazny
The Crysalids - J. Windham
The Marrow Thieves - C. Dimaline
The Parable of the Sower - O. Butler
Star Man's Son - A. Norton
The Dog Stars - P. Heller
The Alliance - G. Lund
Hardwired - W. J. Williams
Mara and Dann - D. Lessing

Best Contemporary Sci Fi (RESULTS)

The results are in!!!! The best science fiction book (or series) in the last ten years is official (at least for now). These results will be posted tomorrow on a new page and ever-growing list where they will be immortalized until the next time we run the same poll. I kind of hoped something a little more softish might get the nod, but I have to admit that The Martian was a fun romp. (And no shit, I know Andy Weir.) It took an early lead and never let go.

Text results below.

The Martian - A. Weir 138 29.18%
The Expanse Series - J. Corey 103 21.78%
Imperial Radch (Ancillary) Trilogy - A. Leckie 77 16.28%
The Three Body Problem Trilogy - Cixin Liu 58 12.26%
Redshirts - John Scalzi 44 9.3%
The Murderbot Diaries - M. Wells 42 8.88%
Machineries of Empire Trilogy - Y.H. Lee 10 2.11%
The Legacy Hunter - C. Heinicke and K. Reedwood 1 0.21%

Poll Results––What is the BEST Genre Fiction (Non-SF/F/Horror) Not By a Cishet White Guy

The results are in! Best Genre Fiction written by a woman or person of color or member of the LGBTQIA+ community.

From your nominations and seconds to the final results. I would have liked that knot in the middle to spread out a bit, but we have to move on to our 2019 polls.

Also get ready for a huge change we're going to make going forward here at Writing About Writing from all the polls we've done so far!

Thank you all for participating in our year of diverse polls.

Poll Results! Best Classic YA Book (or series) Not by a Cis Het White Man

What is the BEST young adult book (or series) written by a woman or POC or member of the LGBTQIA+ community before 2000?  

The results are in. From your nominations to your votes. Here are our results. Remember that this is from our year of diverse polls, so follow this link if you're wondering about the limitations of the poll.

It breaks my heart to see Harry Potter beat out The House on Mango Street, but I knew it was going to happen from the moment they both got their nomination.

Text results below.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated. Get ready to fire up the nominations for our next poll on Monday. (No promises, but you might consider urban fantasy.)

Harry Potter (The 3 pre-1999)- J.K. Rowling 105 36.46%
Time Quintet (Wrinkle in Time) M.L'Engle 48 16.67%
Earthsea Trilogy - U. Le Guin 41 14.24%
The Immortals Series - T. Pierce 32 11.11%
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles - P.C. Wrede 24 8.33%
The House on Mango Street- S. Cisneros 13 4.51%
The Rowan (The Tower and the Hive series) - A. McCaffrey 9 3.13%
Nightworld - L.J. Smith 8 2.78%
Everworld (The First Five Books) - K. A. Applegate 8 2.78%

Results: Best Young Adult Book or Series not by a Cishet White Guy (2000-Present)

It's been a long time since I've seen anyone kick the crap out of any poll so thoroughly, but there was no contest on this one. Tricksters Duology was all out of bubblegum, it seems.

It's pretty easy to guess where we're going next. Fire up your nomination lobes for young adult stuff from the late 70s, 80s, and 90s and I'll get that going tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who participated in making this poll awesome.

Text results below.

Tricksters Duology - T. Pierce 112 35.78%
Hunger Games - S. Collins 47 15.02%
Graceling - K. Cashore 42 13.42%
Binti - N. Okorafor 29 9.27%
Finishing School Series - G. Carriger 26 8.31%
The Hate U Give - A. Thomas 22 7.03%
Akata Witch - N. Okorafor 18 5.75%
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - B. A. Sáenz 17 5.43%

Best Horror Not Written by a Cis Het White Male (Poll Results)

What is the best horror book (or series) written by a woman or POC or member of the LGBTQIA+ community?  

Please follow this link if you're wondering why this poll has some particular limitations.

Text results below.

The results are in!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our nominations and voted.

Frankenstein- M. Shelly 51 23.08%
The Haunting of Hill House - S. Jackson 41 18.55%
The Handmaid's Tale - M. Atwood 32 14.48%
The Yellow Wallpaper - C.P. Gilman 31 14.03%
The Vampire Chronicles- A. Rice 18 8.14%
The Woman in Black - S. Hill 13 5.88%
The Historian - E. Kostova 11 4.98%
Beloved - T. Morrison 8 3.62%
The Little Stranger - S. Waters 7 3.17%
Out - N. Kirino's 7 3.17%
The House Next Door - A.R. Siddons 2 0.9%