John here. I know Shannon is the one who gets the Post glory in these parts, but I had to comment on the awesome-est flowchart I’ve seen in a while (and yes, awesome-est is absolutely correct—it’s in the dict-tionary, I promise).

So NPR (that’s National Public Radio, I am indeed referencing to it) recently conducted a survey of its listeners to get their take on the top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy books. Well they released their list of books and that was that. No descriptions or commentary. Just a list. If you wanted to—you know—actually pick one to read you were on your own. Brush off your top hat that you’ve been keeping in the attic for just such an occasion and pick a title at random.

SFSignal, however, has taken those 100 books and created a flowchart to help you navigate to those books you might be interested in. Whether you’re “new to the fantasy genre,” looking for your next Cyberpunk-With-Funny-Hats novel, or want something Science Fictiony / Fantasy-esk without being seen in that section of the bookstore, then they got you covered.

You can start navigating the flowchart here.

If you prefer your flowchart mapped out (i.e., you like to know what kind of trouble your response might get you into) then the whole chart is viewable too.