MATERIALS FICTION COUNTDOWN
Full List of Candidates Submitted by JOM Readers
The JOM editorial team made a general request to readers to submit nominations for the JOM Materials Fiction Countdown in September 2014. After removing duplicate nominees, as well as those suggestions that did not fit the criteria of original published fiction, we ended up with 62 different works. From there, an ad hoc committee appointed by the TMS Board of Directors distilled the list down to the 25 strongest candidates—in terms of their connection to mineral, metals, and materials science and engineering—for final voting of the Top Ten Greatest Works of Materials Fiction of all time.
Below is the list of the original 62 candidates. Many thanks to the JOM readers who submitted nominees:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: “Farewell to the Master”: Harry Bates Mistborn (trilogy): Brandon Sanderson Jules Verne The First Patient: Michael Palmer The Mote in God’s Eye: Larry Niven and Airframe: Michael Crichton Flatland: Edwin A. Abbott Jerry Pournelle Arsenic and Old Lace: Joseph Kesselring The Forever War: Joe Haldeman Mysterious Island: Jules Verne Atlas Shrugged: Ayn Rand Foundation (trilogy): Isaac Asimov No Highway: Nevil Shute Building Harlequin’s Moon: Larry Niven Fountains of Paradise: Arthur C. Clarke Old Man’s War: John Scalzi and Brenda Cooper Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire Poseidon’s Arrow: Clive Cussler and Dirk Cat’s Cradle: Kurt Vonnegut series): George R.R. Martin Cussler Caves of Steel: Isaac Asimov Garret P.I. (series): Glen Cook Prey: Michael Crichton Contact: Carl Sagan “The Gold Bug”: Edgar Allen Poe “Profession”: Isaac Asimov Copernick’s Rebellion: Leo Frankowski His Dark Materials (trilogy): Ramayana: Valmiki The Cross-Time Engineer: Philip Pullman Ringworld (series): Larry Niven Leo Frankowski The Hobbit: J.R.R. Tolkien River God: Wilbur Smith Crystal Singer (trilogy): Anne McCaffrey The Hunt for Red October: Tom Clancy The Rock Rats: Ben Bova The Dark Is Rising: Susan Cooper The Iliad: Homer “Semplica Girl Diaries”: George Saunders The Dark Knight Returns: Frank Miller Iron Giant: Ted Hughes Sinclair, Wonder Bear: Malorie Blackman Daughter of Fortune: Isabella Allende The Kalevala: Elias Lönnrot Spinward Fringe: Randolph Lalonde Days of Future Past: Chris Claremont Killer Instinct: Joseph Finder Sublimation: W.M. Goldberger and John Byrne King Solomon’s Mines: Survivors (Dinosaur Planet series): The Diamond Age: Neal Stephenson Sir H. Rider Haggard Anne McCaffrey Dragonriders of Pern (series): Lord of the Rings (trilogy): J.R.R. Tolkien The Vanished Diamond: Star of the Anne McCaffrey The Magic Engineer: L.E. Modesitt Jr. South: Jules Verne Dragon’s Egg/Starquake: The Watchmen: Alan Moore Robert L. Forward Mars (trilogy): Kim Stanley Robinson Dune: Frank Herbert McTeague: Frank Norris Fail-safe: Eugene Burdick Merchant of Venice: William Shakespeare and Harvey Wheeler Mercury: Ben Bova