Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books

[Skunkboy]

I found this on NPR books and thought that it deserved it's own thread, rather than jam it in with the 10 greatest books ever thread. A couple of these novels had a great impact on my life, and I suspect that a few may have made impacts on your lives too. I also think that they left off a few.

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843 ... tasy-books

The link has nice pictures and a brief synopsis of each book.

Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books

The Printable List

August 11, 2011


More than 60,000 ballots were cast in our annual summer reader's survey — click here to see the full list of 100 books, complete with links and descriptions. Below is a printable list of the top 100 winners. And for even more great reads, check out the complete list of 237 finalists.

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card

4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert

5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin

6. 1984, by George Orwell

7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov

9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan

13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell

14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson

15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore

16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov

17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss

19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick

22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood

23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King

24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke

25. The Stand, by Stephen King

26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury

28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut

29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman

30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams

33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey

34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein

35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller

36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne

38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys

39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells

40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny

41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings

42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley

43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson

44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven

45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin

46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien

47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White

48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke

50. Contact, by Carl Sagan

51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons

52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson

54. World War Z, by Max Brooks

55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman

57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett

58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson

59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold

60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett

61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind

63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke

65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson

66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist

67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks

68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard

69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb

70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson

72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne

73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore

74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi

75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson

76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke

77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey

78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin

79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire

81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson

82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde

83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks

84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart

85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher

87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe

88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn

89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan

90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock

91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury

92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley

93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge

94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov

95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson

96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville

99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony

100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

[jingofever]

Why always science fiction/fantasy novels? I would do science fiction/spy novels. At any rate, Moonraker belongs on the list, the novelisation I mean. Only one Philip K. Dick. I would have picked VALIS or A Scanner Darkly. I don't usually go for lists but agree completely that The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov is exactly five spots better than The Xanth Series by Piers Anthony. And don't think Piers Anthony doesn't know it. And The Dune Chronicles, what a cop out. Why not The Ender Chronicles? They only have one book in mind with Dune, maybe two. Their description gives it away:

Follows the adventures of Paul Atreides, the son of a betrayed duke given up for dead on a treacherous desert planet and adopted by its fierce, nomadic people, who help him unravel his most unexpected destiny.

A lot of 'series' on that list, cop outs, every last one of them. And where is the NIST Report? Am I right, people? No Stanislaw Lem? I thought he was supposed to be good. I wouldn't know because I refuse to read his books until I learn Polish. Though I do own a collection of magnetic fluxes that when accessed properly can read as the English translations of his books. But I am told that Pi and other transcendental numbers, when accessed properly, can do the same thing.

[Harvey]

A lot of 'series' on that list, cop outs, every last one of them.

Jingo,

On reading the OP a number of thoughts occured which you've already addressed. It's a highly contentious list.

Surely "Use of Weapons" trumps all the other culture novels for Banks, for instance. Surely any of number of Zelazny's earlier singleton works trump The Amber series as a whole.

And where are Greg Bear (Eon), Ballard (can't choose!), Spinrad (Bug Jack Baron), Disch (334), Bester (Stars My Destination), Sturgeon (More Than Human), M John Harrison (Light), Silverberg (Dying Inside), The Strugatsky's (Roadside Picnic), Edwin Abbot (Flatland), John Brunner (Shockwave Rider or Sheep look Up), Bob Shaw (The Ragged Astronauts), William Golding (Lord of The Flies), Alan Garner (Strandloper or Thursbitch or Redshift), Samuel Delany (Nova), Brian Aldiss (Hothouse), Joe Haldeman (Forever War), Harry Harrison (Make Room), Geoff Ryman, John Varley?

And so on and so on...

[82_28]

PKD deserves most of that list. I've read some of the others -- quite a few of the others. However, PKD broke open a hole somewhere and it continues to spew out. The other authors did not.

[justdrew]

no potter. that's good at least

I'd say the most missing include:
Brunner (I'd say Stand on Zanzibar, but the two Harvey listed are equally good),
Liber (the Fafard and the Grey Mouser cycle),
uh.. Lovecraft (talk about tore a hole ),
Cities in Flight by James Blish
and C. J. Cherryh for The Chanur novels,
Gateway by Frederik Pohl,
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand* by Samuel R. Delany,
and the complete works of Harlan Ellison...
and Cordwainer Smith
and for some hard stuff, any and all Greg Egan **

* In an attempt to find a stable defense against the planet destroying phenomenon known as "cultural fugue" (a state of terminal runaway of cultural and technological complexity that destroys all life on a world), many human worlds are aligned with one of two broad factions, one generally permissive (the Sygn) and one generally conservative (the Family) by today's standards.
...
The two galactic factions, the Sygn and the Family, are representations of opposing modes of thinking as conceived in poststructuralist philosophy. Societies aligned with the Family take the human nuclear family as the basic template for all human relations, of which all variants are considered imperfect copies; the nuclear family plays the role of the transcendental signified, a universal concept from which all other concepts are derived. Societies aligned with the Sygn reject any transcendental signified and instead focus on the idea that all ordering principles are contextual instead of universal; the Sygn emblem, the cyhnk, symbolizes this through the fact that cyhnks from different Sygn groups share a similar underlying structure but always differ in detail, with no one version of the cyhnk considered the ideal form. Reflecting these philosophical orientations, Family societies tend toward hierarchical organization, while Sygn societies tend toward networks of exchange among equals.

** see here... for the first chapter, "Orphanogenesis" of the book, Diaspora (which I just finished re-reading)

[Jeff]

Of course I love lists like this, because I get to be pissed off by my cherished omissions (The Stars My Destination, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch for sci fi; The Gormenghast Trilogy for fantasy (or at least 2/3rds of it)). But yes to this:

Why always science fiction/fantasy novels? I would do science fiction/spy novels.

Or let's really open it up, and just talk of imaginative fiction. If that even makes sense, since The Mayor of Casterbridge is also imaginative.

I suppose Lovecraft is allocated the category of horror, but why not horror/fantasy, rather than sci fi/fantasy? Fantasy and Horror, both the genres and the conditions, seem much more akin to me.

[justdrew]

Of course I love lists like this, because I get to be pissed off by my cherished omissions (The Stars My Destination, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch for sci fi; The Gormenghast Trilogy for fantasy (or at least 2/3rds of it)). But yes to this:

Why always science fiction/fantasy novels? I would do science fiction/spy novels.

Or let's really open it up, and just talk of imaginative fiction. If that even makes sense, since The Mayor of Casterbridge is also imaginative.

I suppose Lovecraft is allocated the category of horror, but why not horror/fantasy, rather than sci fi/fantasy? Fantasy and Horror, both the genres and the conditions, seem much more akin to me.

Speculative Fiction, that was what Harlen was always pushing. See the videos I posted a couple weeks back in the video only thread.

[thurnundtaxis]

Handy flow chart version courtesy of SF Signal (click on image to zoom):

[gnosticheresy_2]

Of course I love lists like this, because I get to be pissed off by my cherished omissions (The Stars My Destination, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch for sci fi; The Gormenghast Trilogy for fantasy (or at least 2/3rds of it)). But yes to this:

Why always science fiction/fantasy novels? I would do science fiction/spy novels.

Or let's really open it up, and just talk of imaginative fiction. If that even makes sense, since The Mayor of Casterbridge is also imaginative.

I suppose Lovecraft is allocated the category of horror, but why not horror/fantasy, rather than sci fi/fantasy? Fantasy and Horror, both the genres and the conditions, seem much more akin to me.

Speculative Fiction, that was what Harlen was always pushing. See the videos I posted a couple weeks back in the video only thread.

When I was seven years old I decided that the "kids" books I was reading were boring and I wanted to read a grown up book. So I went to my dad and asked him for a grown up book and he gave me the City and the Stars by Arthur C Clarke. I didn't really understand it, and probably drove him up the wall asking him what every second word meant. I gave up after a few pages. But it must have done something because over the next few years I read that and then worked my way through the rest of his large collection of 50s and 60s sci-fi novels. It taught me to read and taught me to think and is one of the big reasons why I'm writing this now on this forum.

So why else am I writing this? Because it's not fucking "speculative fiction". All fiction is speculative, that term has been spuriously conjured purely for devotees of literary fiction, Martin Amis wannabees who want to use the freedom that sci-fi enables you to have as a writer without the nerdy Star Trek connotations of having to relate your writing to anything "popular". Still, those Booker Prize nominations don't write themeslves

[justdrew]

not sure what I think of this, but it's an interesting read...

Radisson confidential
By Jonathan Lethem, from The Ecstasy of Influence,
out next month from Doubleday.

[Occult Means Hidden]

Lolz @ The Thrawn Trilogy on the list.

Someone asked what brought you to an RI state of mind? I should have answered, "science fiction". Still many classics I haven't read yet!

[semiconscious]

dupe...

[semiconscious]

10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman

don't get me wrong - i really loved 'neverwhere'. but 'neil gaiman - greatest sf/fantasy author of all time?' 4 books close to or among the top 50? almost 1/10 of all the top 50?...

these lists depress me...

[jam.fuse]

Gullver's Travels by Johnathan Swift

The Tripod Series by John Christopher

The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World by Harlan Ellison

Universe by Robert Heinlein

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (glaring omission)

The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delaney

Dracula by Bram Stoker


edited once for typos

[Harvey]

not sure what I think of this, but it's an interesting read...

Radisson confidential
By Jonathan Lethem, from The Ecstasy of Influence,
out next month from Doubleday.

I read Amnesia Moon by Lethem a few years back, a superb post-Dick exploration of reality and which immediately qualified Lethem as one of the gods in the pantheon of SF, in my humble view. It might even be in my top 100 as well.