Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books

[Trajan]

Not a single listing for the grandfather of horror/fantasy, H.P. Lovecraft.

Sad.

See, some of it just doesn't make any sense to me.

A lot of fanboy picks. That's all I can say.

yes and I think the order of whats on there is jacked.

and P K Dick at 21? I can think of stories he threw in the trash of his that blow away choices above.

 

[Big Fitz]

See, some of it just doesn't make any sense to me.

A lot of fanboy picks. That's all I can say.

yes and I think the order of whats on there is jacked.

and P K Dick at 21? I can think of stories he threw in the trash of his that blow away choices above.

Like presidents, authors and their works must have a certain amount of time pass before one can see if they really were important or good.

Like wine that way. Wine or Vinegar.

 

[BDBoop]

See, some of it just doesn't make any sense to me.

A lot of fanboy picks. That's all I can say.

yes and I think the order of whats on there is jacked.

and P K Dick at 21? I can think of stories he threw in the trash of his that blow away choices above.

You're a big fan of his? I hate that I've never heard of some of the most highly recommended.

 

[BDBoop]

related.

Sci-Fi Lists - Top 100 Sci-Fi Films

And I've been more of a movie buff lately. And I've seen 80 of those. Actually was pretty impressed... but didn't like that it included comic book movies, even though I like em.

I would have put The Matrix at #1. I never have gotten tired of seeing that movie. Where some people will say "deja vu", I say "There's a glitch in the matrix."

 

[Missourian]

Great thread topic BD, both a trip down memory lane and it makes me want to go to the library.

Rep coming your way.

Thank you, Sir!

You have a preference between SF and fantasy?

I read SF almost exclusively in the fiction category...with a sprinkling of fantasy like Piers and Terry.

Splitting the genre even further, I especially enjoy time travel related sci-fi, like The Forever War and The Chronicles of Solace trilogy I posted above, and others like The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter and Timescape by Gregory Benford.

 

[BDBoop]

Great thread topic BD, both a trip down memory lane and it makes me want to go to the library.

Rep coming your way.

Thank you, Sir!

You have a preference between SF and fantasy?

I read SF almost exclusively in the fiction category...with a sprinkling of fantasy like Piers and Terry.

Splitting the genre even further, I especially enjoy time travel related sci-fi, like The Forever War and The Chronicles of Solace trilogy I posted above, and others like The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter and Timescape by Gregory Benford.

I like time travel, too. But mine has thus far been of the romantic variety.

 

[Missourian]

related.

Sci-Fi Lists - Top 100 Sci-Fi Films

And I've been more of a movie buff lately. And I've seen 80 of those. Actually was pretty impressed... but didn't like that it included comic book movies, even though I like em.

I would have put The Matrix at #1. I never have gotten tired of seeing that movie. Where some people will say "deja vu", I say "There's a glitch in the matrix."

Number 37...Serenity....tops my list. I'll bet I've watched it 100 times.

 

[BDBoop]

related.

Sci-Fi Lists - Top 100 Sci-Fi Films

And I've been more of a movie buff lately. And I've seen 80 of those. Actually was pretty impressed... but didn't like that it included comic book movies, even though I like em.

I would have put The Matrix at #1. I never have gotten tired of seeing that movie. Where some people will say "deja vu", I say "There's a glitch in the matrix."

Number 37...Serenity....tops my list. I'll bet I've watched it 100 times.

It's my daughter's middle name. She'll always love me for that. She's a huge JW fan, and Firefly is her favorite.

 

[Big Fitz]

related.

Sci-Fi Lists - Top 100 Sci-Fi Films

And I've been more of a movie buff lately. And I've seen 80 of those. Actually was pretty impressed... but didn't like that it included comic book movies, even though I like em.

I would have put The Matrix at #1. I never have gotten tired of seeing that movie. Where some people will say "deja vu", I say "There's a glitch in the matrix."

Number 37...Serenity....tops my list. I'll bet I've watched it 100 times.

Just watched it 2 days ago. Probably the best SF film made in the last 10 years.

 

[uscitizen]

Many / most of those are not Scifi. Frankenstein?

Many are horror/fantasy not scifi.

 

[Big Fitz]

Many / most of those are not Scifi. Frankenstein?

Many are horror/fantasy not scifi.

Frankenstein is not Sci Fi?????

The use of electricity in medicine? The reanimation of life by scientific means (for that era's understanding)? That's not science fiction?

Yes you get a monster, but so much science fiction is based on that very concept of going beyond the safe limits and creating or running into something we can't handle. Dracula wouldn't be sci fi but is definitely horror. Why? No science elements.

 

[daveman]

A lot of good reading. I recommend this, 58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson, for those who have not read them. The only thing I about fantasy books that I have a problem with is the maps. They should put them in the book with perforated edges or in a pocket so a person can have them laying beside you when you read so you can glance at it to see where the characters are. By the time you learn where ever everything is at the adventure is almost one.

I love the Unbeliever series.

I've read 40 of that list. Some of the others I'd never heard of.

Some of my favorites that I'd like to have seen listed:

Time Enough for Love by Heinlein.

The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffery. The Shellpeople are a fascinating idea.

The Gaea Trilogy by John Varley.

 

[daveman]

Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books : NPR

You see any missing, or on here that you don't feel should be?

Too much on that list is Fantasy (which I mock as a p--s poor substitute for SF), not really Science Fiction as I read and collected in the 50's and 60's. That why I don't read much of it these days.

Two missing
The Skylark of Space by E.E. Smith
One of the earliest novels of interstellar travel

The Humanoids by Jack Williamson
One of first (if not the first) novel of robotics and psi abilities

The Humanoids was awesome.

And speaking of Doc Smith, the Lensmen series should have been on there.

 

[Missourian]

I would have put The Matrix at #1. I never have gotten tired of seeing that movie. Where some people will say "deja vu", I say "There's a glitch in the matrix."

Number 37...Serenity....tops my list. I'll bet I've watched it 100 times.

Just watched it 2 days ago. Probably the best SF film made in the last 10 years.

Now you have to go back and watch the Firefly series.

You won't be disappointed.

I watched the movie first, then the series, then I bought the movie and watched it again...recently bought the series for the second time...wore the first set out...$13 at Wal-mart.

Speaking of which...I just bought Fringe season one on DVD. Never watched a single episode on tv, but I'm a diehard X-Files fan, so I hope it lives up to expectations.

 

[uscitizen]

David Weber.

 

[BDBoop]

David Weber.

For some reason, I am wildly amused by your two-word response.

 

[Big Fitz]

Number 37...Serenity....tops my list. I'll bet I've watched it 100 times.

Just watched it 2 days ago. Probably the best SF film made in the last 10 years.

Now you have to go back and watch the Firefly series.

You won't be disappointed.

I watched the movie first, then the series, then I bought the movie and watched it again...recently bought the series for the second time...wore the first set out...$13 at Wal-mart.

Speaking of which...I just bought Fringe season one on DVD. Never watched a single episode on tv, but I'm a diehard X-Files fan, so I hope it lives up to expectations.

I have. Never really liked the series. The production values, stories and western emphasis bugged me. The movie didn't do that anywhere near as much and the music was MUCH better. My friends think I'm insane because they have the opposite reaction.

Meh.

 

[Montrovant]

I thought Serenity relied too much on story and character development from the series; had I not watched the series, I don't know if I would have enjoyed the movie nearly as much. Characters like Enara and the shepherd seemed to be tossed into the movie almost as an afterthought.

I was a big X-files fan (until Duchovney left, how can you have X-files without Mulder?!) and Fringe is certainly similar in a lot of ways. However, you shouldn't go into it hoping for X-files 2.0. There are some major differences, perhaps the biggest being the fact that Fringe becomes much more of a story-driven show, whereas the X-files was always more of a stand alone episode deal with small chunks of larger story.

I'm glad to see so many others are David Weber fans. He is my favorite author at the moment, I've read the whole Honor Harrington series multiple times. I couldn't pinpoint any details that make him so good, but he does what I consider the most important thing an author can do : he gets me into the story so that I forget the real world, or at least it fades into the background. I've missed sleep before work on more than one occasion because I felt the need to read just one more chapter of his books. And while the Honor series is my favorite, I've yet to read any of his work I didn't enjoy immensely.

 

[Big Fitz]

I pretty much stopped with Honor Harrington when she replays the "Battle of the Nile" in outer space while escaping from the inescapable prison planet.

A little too much "And Honor does the impossible.... again."

But up till that point, I do love the series.

 

[Claudette]

IMNSHO and of those I know about, you can remove the following from the list:

15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore (It's a graphic novel aka comic, not a book. Belongs on a different list)

23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King (and I LIKE King, but this isn't groundbreaking or Top anything)

29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman (comicbook series... see Watchman)

45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin (God she sucks with nothing original to say)

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Too many 'sexy' picks like 5 works by Neil Gaiman? I mean he's good, but that good? Besides, "Good Omens" was pretty damn innovative for fantasy-comedy.

Ones I was happy to see:

14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson (Dude, he Created Cyberpunk)
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (Invented Science Fiction AND horror in one book)
22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood (politically, whatever. But an awesome read)
25. The Stand, by Stephen King (A top 5 book for me)
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams (Extremely happy another top five book for me)
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury (The movie is good too)
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Omissions I wish I could have seen:

"On Basilisk Station." David Weber did a phenomenal job in telling hard sci fi space combat in a new way.

"Bloom" by Wil McCarthy. Outstanding view of a nano-pocalypse. His Queendom series is phenomenal too. How many duplicates of you do you really need or should have before trouble sets in?

"Jurassic Park" Michael Crichton. Come on... think about it. Theme Parks plus Dinosaurs equals PROFIIIIIIT! Oh wait I mean DISASTERRRRRR!!!!

"Hammers Slammers" David Drake. Sci fi tanks and soldiers would never be the same. I suppose you could also include Keith Laumer's "Bolo" series in this, but I've never read it. Another good one by him is "Redliners" where a burnt out military unit must protect colonists from an ecology turned weapon.

"Software" Rudy Rucker. Cybersurrealism???? Oh yeah... and mathematically wild. What is reality anyway and why is it mandatory?

and a few from Alan Dean Foster

"Nor Crystal Tears". First contact from the point of view of the alien.
"Sentenced to Prism" A look at a silicon and solar based life form world

The "War against the Chtorr" series by David Gerrold. What if it wasn't one species invading Earth but an entire ecosystem? This should be a top 25 instead of Urpsila K. LeCrap.

Oh and where the FUCK is the "Chronicles of Narnia"??? Top 20 easy. Remove a fanboy Neil Gaiman book, and bump all the others down from American Gods and slot that bad boy in at #10 and be done with it. Far more important and popular. Not to mention "The Screwtape Letters" and "The Great Divorce". I'd consider both of those FAR more important and innovative fantasy than even C.S. Lewis's Space trilogy. what'd they do? Dock points for Christianity???

And where is Harry Potter (regardless of the fact I'll never read it.)?

Where is the Lt. Leary series from Drake?? I have them all. Great reads every one.

Also didn't see anything by Bujold, her series on Miles Vorkosigan is a great read.

Didn't see a lot of fantasy writers either. Kurtz, Lackey, Cherynn to name a few.