NPR Summer Reads: SF and Fantasy of last 10 Years Results

As I posted here, the 2021 NPR Summer Reading Poll was focused on the best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the last 10 years.  Below I have the introduction to the post and a link to the full list. This list is organized into the following categories of appeal:

• Worlds To Get Lost In
• Words To Get Lost In
• Will Take You On A Journey
• Will Mess With Your Head
• Will Mess With Your Heart
• Will Make You Feel Good.

I love the natural language access points here. Read it all, click though, bookmark it and don't forget the awesome backlist of previous summer reader polls [more on the below]. This is a useful information you can use immediately, but also, the thought put into speaking directly to readers, to encourage them to give these books a try [even if outside their normal reading area] is fantastic. 

We all should try to booktalk titles with this more conversational language. And now, to the list.....

We Asked, You Answered: Your 50 Favorite Sci-Fi And Fantasy Books Of The Past Decade

August 18, 20215:00 AM ET

PETRA MAYER

Deborah Lee for NPR

The question at the heart of science fiction and fantasy is "what if?" What if gods were real, but you could kill them? What if humans finally made it out among the stars — only to discover we're the shabby newcomers in a grand galactic alliance? What if an asteroid destroyed the East Coast in 1952 and jump-started the space race years early?

This year's summer reader poll was also shaped by a series of "what ifs" — most importantly, what if, instead of looking at the entire history of the field the way we did in our 2011 poll, we only focused on what's happened in the decade since? These past 10 years have brought seismic change to science fiction and fantasy (sometimes literally, in the case of N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series), and we wanted to celebrate the world-shaking rush of new voices, new perspectives, new styles and new stories. And though we limited ourselves to 50 books this time around, the result is a list that's truly stellar — as poll judge Tochi Onyebuchi put it, "alive."

As always, there was a pretty extensive decision-making process that went into the list, involving our fabulous panel of expert judges — but we know you eager readers want to get right to the books. So if you're inclined, follow these links to find out how we built the list (and what, sadly, didn't make it this year). Otherwise, scroll on for the list!

We've broken it up into categories to help you find the reading experience you're looking for, and you can click on these links to go directly to each category:

Worlds To Get Lost In, Words To Get Lost In, Will Take You On A Journey, Will Mess With Your Head, Will Mess With Your Heart, Will Make You Feel Good.

Becky back here.....

You can click here for the entire post or on the specific categories above to access the full list and all of the annotations. There is also easy backlist access to past NPR Summer Reads content at this link.

Get busy helping patrons uncover some awesome, recent speculative reads right now! And book mark NPR Books always for tons of thoughtful and useful resources to help readers.