The Pharyngula mutating genre meme

Byzantium's Shores has tagged No Fear of the Future en masse with this blog meme started by PZ Myers over at Pharyngula. Here are the rules, as put forth by PZ:

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…". Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

• You can leave them exactly as is.
  
• You can delete any one question.
  
• You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change "The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is..." to "The best time travel novel in Westerns is…", or "The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is..." or "The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is..."
  
• You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form "The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is..."

You must have at least one question in your set, or you've gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you're not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.

Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

As I read that, it means you can apply two of the modification actions to each question. The other possible reading--apply two of the modifications to the entire list, seems a non-starter as even non-action is considered an action, the we start with three questions. (Okay, I'm an idiot. I can't understand directions worth spit. So sue me.) So. Here's what Jacquandor gave me to work with:

1. The best near-future novel in SF/Fantasy is...

Firestar, by Michael Flynn.

2. The best romantic movie in historical fiction is...

Shakespeare in Love.

3. [deleted original] The best opera recording in classical music is...

Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Sir Georg Solti/VPO.

And here is my contribution to the cause:

1. The best post-apocalyptic novel in SF/Fantasy is...

A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

2. The best romantic movie in historical fiction is...

Shakespeare in Love.

3. The best opera recording in classical music is...

Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Sir Georg Solti/VPO.

4. [new question] The best animated installation art in SF/Fantasy is...

The Iron City by Matthew Ritchie

I'm certain I mucked that up somehow. Now, my unsuspecting victims in this unending chain of meme-infliction are: Lou Anders, John Klima, Chris Roberson, Mikal Trimm and Danny Adams. Have fun, folks!