Help Decide the Best Sci-Fi Books!

On my shelf at the moment....

NPR is hosting a summer readers poll to determine the best sci-fi and fantasy novels--evah. They did a pretty good job outlining the criteria to nominate your favorites. Looks like there will be a vote-off to follow. Here's the rules:

1. Limit yourself to five titles per post. Don't hesitate to nominate a book that someone else has already listed; your entry will count as a vote in favor of that title progressing to the next round.

2. No young-adult or children's titles, please. We plan to devote a poll to YA next summer. (It's also no fun if Harry Potter wins every year.)

3. Horror and paranormal romance are also out, which disqualifies most of Stephen King (also a big winner in previous polls), Charlaine Harris and Stephenie Meyer. Once again, we'll cover horror in a future poll.

4. Feel free to nominate a series — such as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or Asimov's Foundation — as a single, collective work rather than listing individual books.

5. That said, there are series and series: To qualify as a collective work, the books in a series must be written consistently by the same originating author or authors. For example, you can't nominate the whole Star Wars franchise, though you can nominate individual Star Wars novels.

Go put in for your favorite stories on their site. List 'em here too while you're at it. Feel free to expound on literary greatness in sci-fi, why it's good fodder for games, or maybe there's just "this one part, that was totally cool." Plus, I'm always looking for recommendations!