Science Fiction/Fantasy Books

After reading and thoroughly enjoying Hyperion I decided to look for a few “best of” lists for science fiction. I do like the blurring of science fiction and fantasy and when I stumbled across the Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books, I was sold. There are clearly more than 100 when you add in all the series, but I’ve read quite a few on the list and have more on my TBR list. Overall, I’m excited about expanding my science fiction horizons and will slowly work work my way through this list like all my other lists.

  1. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
  2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
  3. Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
  4. The Dune Chronicles – Frank Herbert
  5. A Song of Ice and Fire Series – George R.R. Martin
  6. 1984 – George Orwell
  7. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
  8. The Foundation Trilogy – Isaac Asimov
  9. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
  10. American Gods – Neil Gaiman
  11. The Princess Bride – William Goldman
  12. The Wheel of Time Series – Robert Jordan
  13. Animal Farm – George Orwell
  14. Neuromancer – William Gibson
  15. Watchmen – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
  16. I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
  17. Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein
  18. The Kingkiller Chronicles – Patrick Rothfuss
  19. Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
  20. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
  21. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick
  22. The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid’s Tale #1) – Margaret Atwood
  23. The Dark Tower Series – Stephen King

  24. 2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
  25. The Stand – Stephen King
  26. Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson
  27. The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
  28. Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
  29. The Sandman Series – Neil Gaiman
  30. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
  31. Starship Troopers – Robert A. Heinlein
  32. Watership Down – Richard Adams
  33. Dragonflight – Anne McCaffrey
  34. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
  35. A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller Jr.
  36. The Time Machine – H.G. Wells
  37. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
  38. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
  39. The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells
  40. The Amber Chrnoicles – Roger Zelazny
  41. The Belgariad – David Eddings
  42. The Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley
  43. Mistborn Trilogy – Brandon Sanderson
  44. Ringworld – Larry Niven
  45. The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin
  46. The Silmarillion – J.R.R. Tolkien
  47. The Once and Future King – T.H. White
  48. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman
  49. Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke
  50. Contact – Carl Sagan
  51. The Hyperion Cantos – Dan Simmons
  52. Stardust – Neil Gaiman
  53. Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson
  54. World War Z – Max Brooks
  55. The Last Unicorn – Peter S. Beagle
  56. The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
  57. Small Gods – Terry Pratchett
  58. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever – Stephen R. Donaldson
  59. The Vorkosigan Saga – Lois McMaster Bujold
  60. Going Postal – Terry Pratchett
  61. The Mote in God’s Eye – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
  62. The Sword of Truth Series – Terry Goodkind
  63. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
  64. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – Susanna Clarke
  65. I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
  66. The Riftwar Saga – Raymond E. Feist
  67. The Sword of Shannara Trilogy – Terry Brooks
  68. The Conan the Barbarian Series – Robert E. Howard and Mark Schultz
  69. The Farseer Trilogy – Robin Hobb
  70. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffeneggar
  71. The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson
  72. Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne
  73. The Legend of Drizzt Series – R.A. Salvatore
  74. Old Man’s War – John Scalzi
  75. The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
  76. Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C. Clarke
  77. The Kushiel’s Legacy Series – Jacqueline Carey
  78. The Dispossessed – Ursula K. Le Guin
  79. Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
  80. Wicked – Gregory Maguire
  81. The Malazan Book of the Fallen Series – Steven Erikson
  82. The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next #1) – Jasper Fforde
  83. The Culture Series – Iain M. Banks
  84. The Crystal Cave – Mary Stewart
  85. Anathem – Neal Stephenson
  86. The Codex Alera Series – Jim Butcher
  87. The Book of the New Sun – Gene Wolfe
  88. The Thrawn Trilogy – Timothy Zahn
  89. The Outlander Series – Diana Gabaldon
  90. The Elric Saga – Michael Moorcock
  91. The Illustrated Man – Ray Bradbury
  92. Sunshine – Robin McKinley
  93. A Fire Upon the Deep – Vernor Vinge
  94. The Caves of Steel – Isaac Asimov
  95. The Mars Trilogy – Kim Stanley Robinson
  96. Lucifer’s Hammer – Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
  97. Doomsday Book – Connie Willis
  98. Perdido Street Station – China Mieville
  99. The Xanth Series – Piers Anthony
  100. The Space Trilogy – C.S. Lewis

Additional books from this BuzzFeed quiz which included Young Adult novels and more female writers.

  1. Patternist Series – Octavia E. Butler
  2. Dhalgren – Samuel R. Delany
  3. The Female Man – Joanna Russ
  4. Brown Girl in the Ring – Nalo Hopkinson
  5. The Drowned World – J.G. Ballard
  6. The Stars My Destination – Alfred Bester
  7. China Mountain Zhang – Maureen F. McHugh
  8. Solaris – Stanislaw Lem
  9. Witch World – Andrew Norton
  10. Gun, with Occasional Music – Jonathan Lethem
  11. Sarah Canary – Karen Joy Fowler
  12. The Giver – Lois Lowry
  13. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe – Charles Yu
  14. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
  15. Embassytown – China Miéville
  16. Zone One – Colson Whitehead
  17. Little Brother – Cory Doctorow
  18. Zoo City – Lauren Beukes
  19. The Time Quartet – Madeleine L’Engle
  20. Ubik – Philip K. Dick
  21. Nova – Samuel R. Delaney
  22. Blindsight – Peter Watts
  23. The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi
  24. Accelerando – Charles Stross
  25. Kindred – Octavia Butler
  26. The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
  27. The Demolished Man – Alfred Bester
  28. Schismatrix – Bruce Sterling
  29. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
  30. The Space Merchants – Frederik Phol and Cyril M. Kornbluth
  31. Riddley Walker – Russell Hoban
  32. Light – M. John Harrison
  33. Slow River – Nicola Griffith
  34. Stand on Zanzibar – John Brunner
  35. Sphere – Michael Crichton
  36. Beggars in Spain – Nancy Kress
  37. Who Fears Death – Nnedi Okorafor
  38. Last and First Men – Olaf Stapledon
  39. Roadside Picnic – Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
  40. The MaddAddam Trilogy – Margaret Atwood
  41. Earth Abides – George R. Stewart
  42. Babel-17 – Samuel R. Delany
  43. Altered Carbon – Richard K. Morgan
  44. The Hunger Games Trilogy – Suzanne Collins (most recent reviews)
  45. Crash – J.G. Ballard
  46. The City and the Stars – Arthur C. Clarke
  47. Parable Series – Octavia E. Butler
  48. The Man in the High Castle – Philip K. Dick
  49. Beyond Apollo – Barry Malzberg
  50. The Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny
  51. Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon

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