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Top 12 all-time SFF books
1- Dune. A monumental novel that took years to write. A classic Space Opera, bildungsromans, and a model for world building. 2-1984. The classic dystopic totalitarian state novel. A door into doublespeak and doublethink.
3- Snow Crash. The archtypical cybepunk novel. Virutal reality, diminished state, powerful corporate interests, antihero, shady underground. Just between pastiche and baroque.
4-Neptune's Brood. Hard Science-Fiction meets Adam Smith and Karl Marx. If economy is hard science, why not write hard science-fiction about it? A very important science-fiction novel that talks about the economy of space operas universes with real world physics. What future works of sci-fi should be think about.
5-Too Like the Lightning. The market of identity
or liberalism taken to its logical end, science-fiction. Ambitious and challenging. "Easier to imagine the apocalypse than the end of capitalism" challenge-accepted novel.
6- Accelerando. How did the Singularity happen? Stross tries to answer the question. Ambitious.
7-The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Nanopunk; Or what Nanobots could do if we could give them unlimited energy.
8-Embassytown. Language shapes our thoughts, so it would shape the aliens we meet.
9-Rendezvous with Rama. First contact with aliens in the context of real physics. Probe/interstellar ark archtype.
10-The Handmaid's Tale. Ordinary horror. Dystopic, About the lost of privilege as the apocalypse. Realistic.
11-The Forever War. Military sci-fi from an actual soldier. Nihilistic.
12-Ancillary Justice. Amazing narrative structure. Colonialism sci-fi. Written after the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Allegory for the USian zeitgeist.
Marc-André wrote: "...12-Ancillary Justice..."I was just saying elsewhere how I got lost in the plot of this. You are making me convinced I need to re-read this, as it felt it had a lot of more potential than I was able to concentrate on the first time around.
Rendezvous with Rama is another one that I keep gaining a lot more appreciation for the more distance I get from the initial reading. It has certainly stayed with.
I've been curious about Neptune's Brood: do you think Saturn's Children is necessary before it?
Beth wrote: "...It is sad how unique typography and page layouts can get homogenized by digitization...."It is. Just as it is unfortunate how web page layouts seem to be getting rather more monotonous, due to SEO and device optimization.
I recognize the importance of Dune in many respects, and I enjoyed many aspects of it, but I have to say its intensely homophobic depiction of its central villain is what will forever keep it from my higher esteem.I’m curious to learn more about Charles Stross’s work. And as of now, the only Neal Stephenson novel I’ve read is Snow Crash, which I mostly liked but which I didn’t feel added up to much. I’m interested in reading more of his work for sure.
Embassytown and Ancillary Justice are high on my TBR list, with the former coming up soon.
@Diane: I thought about adding Beloved, too. It's one of my all-time favorite books, period. (It's so good. I feel like it changes me every time I re-read it.) I just never know if magic realism "counts" as SFF or not.There's several titles in people's lists that I've either been meaning to read (Murderbot Diaries, Dawn/Lilith's Brood) or that I haven't even heard of (Pandora's Star, The Apocalypse Door, ...) - this is such a fun way of finding new books! Thank you for this thread, Anthony. Also, I've been meaning to read Seveneves by Neal Stephenson and would be down for a BR next year.
Oh, Snow Crash! It's a favorite, but it doesn't quite fit Anthony's description in the first post for me. Maybe another reread would change my mind?In the "missed me by a mile" category is Robin Hobb.
It would be much easier, if I could include fantasy on the list. I feel like I haven't read enough good sci-fi to make a good list, and a lot of books found in this thread are on my shortlist. Probably in a year or so my list will be much better, but so far I came up with top 7 books, in no particular order. I only put 1 book/series per author.Oryx and Crake and the rest of the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood - it was my first book by this author and it blew my mind. I read a few other Atwood's books since then and I haven't been disappointed so far.
The Fifth Season and the rest of The Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin - it was probably the best series I have read so far, across genres.
Solaris by Stanisław Lem - I generally see Lem's rather pessimistic predictions on how the first contact with alien life forms would look like (the inability to communicate) as much more realistic than Star Trek type vision.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells - because how could I not love Murderbot?
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal - it was an extremely well-researched, engrossing and emotional read.
Labyrinth of Reflections by Sergei Lukyanenko - I was obsessed with this author as a teenager and this was my favourite novel of his. I'm scared that if I re-read it as an adult, I would see it much differently, so I'm going to maintain the childhood illusions.
The Snail on the Slope by Arkady Strugatsky - I read and loved several books by Strugatsky brothers and found this one most memorable.
@Anthony I feel the same way about Dune. I recognise its importance (as in I see it as an indispensable stepping stone to the greater works to come), but I had several problems with the book itself, including the homophobia.
@Banshee: SFF is Science Fiction and Fantasy. So no need to restrain yourself.
Mareike wrote: "Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo"Interesting to see this on anyone's list, especially since you're not Finnish. I've been toying with the idea of adding Sinisalo's books to mod polls, but so far I've always decided against it, as they're so utterly weird.
I only came across this because the "Literaturhaus" in Salzburg had a Finnish themed event shortly before I went to study in Tampere where they sold some of her books. Talk about serendipity.I keep meaning to read more of her work, so I totally wouldn't be opposed to seeing it pop up in mod polls (and getting to campaign for it).
Here are my favorite fantasy and science fiction books (randomly organized). A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
The discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I can’t pick just one!
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
I too, love this thread. It’s great to share ideas with one another. I’d love to see more fantasy! I know you’re out there. 🧙♂️
Candice
@Gabi: Somehow I managed to miss the second "F" in "SFF" when reading the title ;)To make it 12, I would then add to my list:
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban + the other 6 books by J.K. Rowling
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow and the rest of the series by Fuyumi Ono
More of a list of very reliable authors, as represented by individual books;The Way of Kings
Trickster's Choice
Empire of Ivory
The Cloud Roads
Small Gods
The Seventh Bride
An Artificial Night
The Demon's Lexicon
Grave Peril
Memory
The Beginning
Archer's Goon
@Eva and Candice: how could I forget Terry Pratchett? The best of the best! (I blame it on the fact that I copied my list from an SF only thread). Thank you for reminding me. Added him to my list.@Banshee: I must read 12 kingdoms! I remember loving the anime very much.
@Elowen: oh yes, "The Way of Thorn and Thunder" and "The Bear and the Nightingale" are treasures indeed.
@Diane: so happy to see Joan D. Vinge here. She was damn important to me in my youth.
ETA: this is an interesting list, Sha. I have to have a look at those authors. Some of them I haven't heard of yet.
My Top SFF 12, in no specific order, and I took special care of leaving out all the YA mixed with fantasy books I also like, but I left a couple of childhood favorites at the bottom of the list:1Brave New World
2Dune - the whole series
3A Game of Thrones - the whole series
4The Martian
5The Handmaid's Tale
6Ready Player One
7 All books I read by Asimov
8Childhood's End
9Hidden Empire - the whole series
10The Black Jewels Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the Darkness
11The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
12Die unendliche Geschichte
So many new books to check out! I barely know any on your list, Sha!
Wow, @Sha, I have read exactly zero of your choices. I’m in the middle of Way of Kong’s, so I am at least familiar with it. I’ve read many of The Vorkosigan books and own Memory, but haven’t gotten that far in the series yet, but the others I haven’t even heard of. Well the titles are unfamiliar, but the series/authors are not. Thanks for all the tips!
@Trike‘s list is another full of books many of which I don’t know. I added a few to my Want to Read shelf. @Elowen, Im guessing you really like Octavia Butler’s work! Me too.
In fact, I think I could replace Dawn/Lilith’s Brood with Wild Seed, which also blew my mind.
Oh hey if people are actually checking out my list I can do a better job of introducing these books hang on~Also, at least four of the recs are YA or Middle Grade (yes I did say middle grade) I saw the HP recs and thought that was okay.
In no particular order of preference my favorites at this very moment are:1. Ancillary Justice
2. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
3. All Systems Red
4. The Lord of the Rings
5. Illuminae
6. Arrows of the Queen
7. Wyrd Sisters
8. I, Robot
9. A Canticle for Leibowitz
10. Snow Crash
11. A Memory Called Empire
12. Downbelow Station
And that was way harder than I thought it would be just to narrow it down that far. I feel like I should go apologize to the books on my shelf that I didn't include.
A Canticle for Leibowitz has some really stunning moments in it, and Brother Francis is one of my favorite characters I’ve encountered this year. Arrows of the Queen was highly recommended to me by someone else, and Ancillary Justice and All Systems Red have been glowering at me from my queue, wondering why the hell I haven’t read them yet.Interesting to see that A Memory Called Empire is on your list; it seems to have divided folks pretty intensely.
I read the Robot books in my teen years and loved them then. I wonder whether I would feel similarly as an adult?
And I’m glad to find another mention of Downbelow Station!
Anna wrote: " but so far I've always decided against it, as they're so utterly weird."Weird? I am all in for that!
I still love Asimov's Robots. Some of his other work, not so much anymore.Lots of books are classics for a reason, but as I work on my list I know I'm going to leave off Brave New World, Canticle of Leibowits, and many others that are objectively among the 'best of.' I'm going to have to go with personal favorites. And I'm trying really hard to remember some of the older ones before I post a list.
I am interested that not many ppl mention Bradbury or even Heinlein. I agree w/ the omission of The Martian Chronicles but am surprised not to see it, nonetheless.
Jordan wrote: "In no particular order of preference my favorites at this very moment are:1. Ancillary Justice
2. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
3. [book:All Systems Red|32..."
I like at least five of those books very much which makes me feel like I should check out the rest.
With the caveat that this is just what I'm thinking of in the next 10 min or so and not an actual exhaustive list, here are some of my favorites in no particular order.1- The Lord of the Rings I've loved it ever since I was 13 and our neighbor loaned me his copies.
2- Riddle-Master -Out of all the fantasy influenced by Tolkien, this is by far my favorite.
3- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -yes, I know the issues people have with it, I don't really care. I love this book, I love the magic it introduces.
4- Parable of the Sower - still one of the more terrifying apocalypse books, if only for how close this particular apocalypse feels.
5- Alanna: The First Adventure - I know Pierce has written other series, and some far more beloved, but this was my first and so is my favorite.
6- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
7- Digger, Volume One - this one might get disqualified as it's a comic, but I'm gonna add it anyway.
8- In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice -One work broken up in two books.
9- The Library at Mount Char
10-The Last Unicorn
11- The Dispossessed
12- A Face Like Glass
I'm loving this thread. There is so much to discover here.And I couldn't abstain from making a list … ^^' So far the three most loved SFF books in this group are
1. The Fifth Season
2. The Dispossessed
3. The Left Hand of Darkness
Gabi wrote: "I'm loving this thread. There is so much to discover here... So far the three most loved SFF books in this group are1. The Fifth Season
2. The Dispossessed
3. The Left Hand of Darkness"
Yes! TBR list keeps getting fatter. Also: awesome top-3 \o/
I was sticking more with the theme as announced in the OP:All of these books opened up my heart, my mind, and my soul, transporting me to other worlds, and by doing so, when I set the books down, I found myself altered. I had greater reserves of insight and compassion, and a deepened experience of seeing and living in our all-too-real world.
and not going with favorites so much as books that had an impact on me or totally immersed me in their world. if i was going with favorites, my list would have been much different and included:
Way Station
The Martian
The Witches of Karres
and a lot of Andre Norton books
Diane wrote: "I’m in the middle of Way of Kong’s,."I want to read that book!
https://www.kaijubattle.net/uploads/2...
CBRetriever wrote: "I was sticking more with the theme as announced in the OP:All of these books opened up my heart, my mind, and my soul, transporting me to other worlds, and by doing so, when I set the books down,..."
For me this comes down to the same. To give 5 stars a book must be able to totally absorb me.
I've read books I've rated 5 stars, that I totally never want to red again and they aren't my favorites like The Road which was one of the more depressing books I've ever read. I don't rate many books as 5-star. To me they have to be classics or destined to be classics. My favorites are mostly given 4.0 with some given 3.0s. The Witches of Karres would be a 3.0 for me - I love it, but it has its flaws
Melani wrote: "With the caveat that this is just what I'm thinking of in the next 10 min or so and not an actual exhaustive list, here are some of my favorites in no particular order.1- [book:The Lord of the Ri..."
In the Night Garden has been on my TBR for awhile. You make me think I need to bump it up!
Gabi wrote: "I'm loving this thread. There is so much to discover here.And I couldn't abstain from making a list … ^^' So far the three most loved SFF books in this group are
1. The Fifth Season
2. The Dispo..."
This group has good taste in books!
Melani wrote: ". . .- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -yes, I know the issues people have with it, I don't really care. I love this book, I love the magic it introduces.."Me too! I love the Narnia series and I don't care what others say.
CBRetriever, I use Goodreads' rating system the opposite way from you because I believe it's meant to be utterly subjective: 1 star, after all, is labled "I didn't like it", not "this is a bad book", 4 stars is "I really liked it", 5 stars "it's amazing". Since there are so many people rating books, I don't have to worry about giving out objective ratings, or what I believe would be objective ratings. If there's a book that I know might be right up someone else's alley, but I personally hated it, it gets one star. If it's my personal favorite even though I know it will never be taught in schools, it gets five stars. After all, it's about which books I actually liked, not about my speculations about what other people will probably like and respect. Makes it much simpler, and means that I don't have to slap my favorite, beloved authors with 3 star ratings.
Mod
sorry, I was just hoping to get more of a what books really changed/impacted you or deeply moved you and not just favorite books. Some of my favorites are none of the above but i love them anyway
I a look at what books I gave 5 stars to, which I don’t do very often, but I have at least twice as many as allowed by Anthony’s original post. A few more, which changed me are:
1984
The Ship Who Sang, Anne McCaffrey
A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge
He, She and It, Marge Piercy
So Many Books by Ursula LeGuin
Ammonite, Nicola Griffith
The Sparrow, Mary Doris Russell
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
The Collected Stories of Phillip K. Dick
Ethan of Athos, Bujold
The Shore of Women, Pamela Sargent
The Callahan Chronicles, Spider Robinson
Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis (100% unapologetic)
Remnant Population, Elizabeth Moon
Dreamsnake, Vonda McIntyre
Mod
Pure enjoyment and things that transport me out of myself are totally different metrics. I appreciate being pushed, but it's not always comfortable.
Yes, sorry for getting a bit off-topic! I make it up with an old favorite I had forgotten to list:The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. Forget the movie - it only covered the beginning of the book and didn't have any of its depth. This book brightened my childhood and introduced me to the fantasy genre.
That is interesting to read. I couldn't imagine having a book as my favourite that did not deeply move me. I could not separate between those two. On my list are only books that had an profound emotional impact on me.
CBRetriever wrote: "sorry, I was just hoping to get more of a what books really changed/impacted you or deeply moved you and not just favorite books. Some of my favorites are none of the above but i love them anyway"In the case of my all-time faves list I linked earlier, most of those *were* impactful for me. Many of those are on the SFF list I added here. But there’s also something to be said for comfort reads. We keep coming back to them because we simply enjoy them.
Possibly THE most impactful thing I’ve ever read is a super-short story I encountered when I was 7 or something. It changed the way I look at EVERYTHING, from literature to the world around me to other people. I’m sure I’ve told that story before on this forum, but I was a completely different person after having read that story. Unfortunately I don’t even know how to find it, let alone link to it. But it would certainly be at the top of my favorite anythings list.
Trike wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "sorry, I was just hoping to get more of a what books really changed/impacted you or deeply moved you and not just favorite books. Some of my favorites are none of the above but ..."Try posting a description in the "What's the name of that book?" group: Link - they can find anything!
There are definitely books that I will read over and over to re-experience their emotional arcs or the pure enjoyment of reading them, but I wouldn't put them on this list because they didn't particularly affect how I see the world.
Wen wrote: "I love this thread, thank you, Anthony ⸜( ˙˘˙)⸝ I love to see everyone's list too. Ahhh, it's so hard to pick. I'll have four first.* The Caves of Steel and the Robot Series.
*[book:..."
Not on the top list (ahh, don't know how to add my list now), but here are the ones I found interesting.
Sand by Hugh Howey
Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
Satsujin shussan by Sayaka Murata
I feel like I need preface my list with a few disclaimers:1. 12 is not enough
2. This is based on today's mood/perspective. Tomorrow, all bets are off.
3. My top 6 choices are really an indication of "Anything by this author, but today I think my favorite from them is XX."
4. I also tried to balance my list between Scifi and Fantasy - I love both equally.
5. If it is a favorite series, I listed my most recently read book of the series. This may or may not be my actual favorite of the series.
6. The order in which I listed them has no significance on how I rank them.
Ok, now I feel better about declaring the list below as my Top 12 SFF:
1. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
3. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
4. Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
5. Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
6. Lock In by John Scalzi
7. Skin Game by Jim Butcher
8. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
9. Dune by Frank Herbert
10. The Brightest Fell by Seanan McGuire
11. Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
12. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
@Valerie Under Heaven is one of several Guy Gavriel Kay books I own, and I’m looking forward to reading them all.Anansi Boys is my favorite Neil Gaiman novel, glad to see it get some love over the more popular American Gods.
Haven’t yet read any Scalzi but I have a few in my TBR.
Haven’t read Lauren Beukes yet either.
And last bit certainly not least...that book in your number 1 spot...?
Sigh.
Was that sigh from the air leaking out of your lungs because the
Anthony wrote: "@Valerie Under Heaven is one of several Guy Gavriel Kay books I own, and I’m looking forward to reading them all.Anansi Boys is my favorite Neil Gaiman novel, glad to see it get some love over th..."
@Anthony, you may be creeping onto my list of readers whose book opinions hold sway with me. I am stingy with that list.
Scalzi is fun and light. I like his humor.
Lauren Beukes is warped and twisted, kind of like Margaret Atwood, but not.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
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In the Forest of Forgetting (other topics)
A Head Full of Ghosts (other topics)
The Circus of Dr. Lao (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Terry Pratchett (other topics)
Jasper Fforde (other topics)
Philip Reeve (other topics)
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and oh, the book does a Finnegan's Wake gambit where the last phrase in the book leads into the first phrase in the book