Top 12 all-time SFF books

[Micah]

Allison wrote: "I'm a huge proponent of pocket dimensions to shove all the books into!"

AKA a bag of holding.

[Oleksandr]

Micah wrote: "I could have easily just have put all of Philip K. Dick's books here, but … in no particular order:"

Oh yes, Peter F. Hamilton! an underappreciated UK author

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Micah wrote: "Allison wrote: "I'm a huge proponent of pocket dimensions to shove all the books into!"

AKA a bag of holding."

What I wouldn't give...

[Micah]

Oleksandr wrote: "Micah wrote: "I could have easily just have put all of Philip K. Dick's books here, but … in no particular order:"

Oh yes, Peter F. Hamilton! an underappreciated UK author"

I like pretty much all I've read of him (not a huge fan of his Dreaming Void stuff), but only Pandora really rises to a top 12 list for me.

There are other authors who I will pretty much always read but who have no one book to fit this kind of list, such as:
Ken MacLeod
Neal Stephenson
Joe Haldeman
Robert Sheckley
China Miéville
James K. Morrow
Rudy Rucker
Vernor Vinge
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Richard Paul Russo

[MadProfessah]

Micah! Nice list....

[Cheryl]

Nice to see someone else who remembers Sheckley.
I want a thread for authors, too, For example I'd add Chad Oliver even though none of his individual titles stand out as amazing.

[CBRetriever]

I liked him, especially Mists of Dawn

[Beth]

Oleksandr wrote: "It is interesting to see that quite a few lists have predominantly 'new' books (last 20 years), while original list in another thread had mainly stuff from the 50s-70s."

SF in particular is very "of its moment" and it's completely understandable that readers will resonate more strongly with books written within their own lifetimes.

[Rachel]

Glynis wrote: "Oh this was hard – my first list was 18 – what was hard was refining it to 12!

Gene wolf – the Book of the New Sun
Kim Stanley Robinson – New York 2140
Mervyn Peake – Titus Groan
Neal Stephenson ..."

So glad someone has mentioned Titus Groan/ Gormenghast took a bit of time to get into the style but loved these 2 books.

[Oleksandr]

Beth wrote: "SF in particular is very "of its moment" and it's completely understandable that readers will resonate more strongly with books written within their own lifetimes."

I'm an odd one out, with preference to a lot of works written before my birth by Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Harry Harrison, Clifford D. Simak, Roger Zelazny among others. :)

[Peter]

Many greats have been listed before, but I have to add in a few standouts that have resonated with me at different times.
David Gemmell (Druss the Legend)
Stephen R. Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)
David Eddings (Elenium Trilogy)
Anne McCaffrey (The Pern series)
The list wouldn't be complete without Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov and JRR Tolkien.

[jamako]

This is a tough one but I'll give it a try. Here are my twelve picks in no particular order:

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
1984 by George Orwell
The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Dune by Frank Herbert
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl
Watchmen by Alan Moore
Mort/Discworld by Terry Pratchett

Damn, this was hard. I certainly have several runner-ups to this list and I had to replace Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel with Childhood's End, simply because Waking Gods needs one to first read Sleeping Giants and might prompt one to read the disappointingly dull conclusion of the trilogy: Only Human. Also, I feel like Cold Days/the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher deserve a mention - certainly not the greatest series of all time but probably the most fun.

[Llona ❤️]

in random order:


1 Starwolf- Edmond Hamilton

2Cyteen- C.J. Cherryh

3The Fifth Season -N.K. Jemisin

4A Song of Ice and Fire -George R.R. Martin

5The Mists of Avalon -Marion Zimmer Bradley

6Millennials. Il mondo nuovo- La Buoncostume just in italian, sorry

7P.D. Tu gato está muerto- J. Kirkwood just in spanish, sorry

8The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger

9Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -Philip K. Dick

10Time Out of Joint- Philip K. Dick

11Nemesis Games -James S.A. Corey

12The Host- Stephenie Meyer
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The Little Prince- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry :)

[MadProfessah]

Hmmm, my top 12 all-time SF books/series (if i only get to pick each author once) NOT IN ANY ORDER BUT HOW THEY CAME TO MY MIND

1. Foundation series by Isaac Asimov
2. The Nights Dawn series by Peter F Hamilton
3. Chasm City/The Prefect/Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds
4. Children of Time/Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
5. The Expanse by James SA Corey
6. matter/surface detail/the hydrogen sonata by Iain M Banks
7. A fire upon the deep/A deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
8. The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
9. Thirteen/Thin Air by Richard K Morgan
10. The original 6 Dune books by Frank Herbert
11. The 3-Body Problem/The Dark forest by Death’s End by Cixin Liu
12. The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben H Winters
13. Doomsday Book/To Say Nothing of the Dog/Bkavkout+All Clear by Connie Willis

[Oleksandr]

MadProfessah wrote: "Hmmm, my top 12 all-time SF books/series (if i only get to pick each author once)"

A great list, I've read and agree on most, with exception of Ben H Winters, whom I'm yet to read

[Jemppu]

MadProfessah wrote: "Hmmm, my top 12 all-time SF books/series..."

Wow, strong list! And most promising indeed to see the Last Policeman there too among so many greats.

[Randy]

My list, not in any real order and good only for today,

1) The Lord of the Rings
2) The Circus of Dr. Lao
3) Something Wicked This Way Comes
4) Our Lady of Darkness
5) The Martian Chronicles
6) Night's Black Agents
7) The Red Tree
8) The Course of the Heart
9) The Forever War
10) Titus Groan
11) At the Mountains of Madness
12) Good Neighbors and Other Strangers

[Trike]

Randy wrote: "My list, not in any real order and good only for today,

1) The Lord of the Rings
2) The Circus of Dr. Lao
3) Something Wicked This Way Comes
4) "

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you’re even older than I am.😆

[Oleksandr]

Randy wrote: "My list, not in any real order and good only for today,"

And I was talking about absence of classics! Here it is

[W.]

Wow, I'm way out in space here. There is a vaguely chronological order here, starting with
1) MidWorld by Allen Dean Foster. That was the book that lit the fire.
2) Not sure if Lovecraft fits, being weird fiction, but I'm talking the 1960s three-volume collection prefaced by August Derleth.
3) The Lion, The Witch, and the WardrobeOnly, I never made it past book 2.
4) the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
5) Ill Met in LankhmarFafard and the Grey Mouser
6) The Eternal Champion—Moorcock (British edition)
7) The Magicians (Lev Grossman)
8) His Dark Materials (Pullman)
Dark confession: Never read Tolkein. I only watched the movies.

[Randy]

Oleksandr wrote: "Randy wrote: "My list, not in any real order and good only for today,"

And I was talking about absence of classics! Here it is"

Well, someone had to break the streak.

Seriously, when you've read a long time it takes something pretty powerful to come across as pretty powerful. Some very good books in comparison to older work that rocked you in youth maybe are not earthshaking enough to supplant an old favorite. To me, THE RED TREE and THE COURSE OF THE HEART are still fairly recent books; to someone in their early 20s maybe the response is, why are you bothering with that old stuff?

That aside, Dr. Lao, Lovecraft and TITUS GROAN all pre-date me, the first two by quite a bit; LOTR and the Bradbury by not much.

Trike wrote: "I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you’re even older than I am.😆"

Iiiiit's pooooosssssssible. The books in that list are pretty much touchstones in SFF for me, for any book to have an impact on me, it has to be comparable to them. If I were to make the list today, I might include The Land of Laughs instead of OUR LADY ..., and A Head Full of Ghosts, A Feast of Sorrows, or In the Forest of Forgetting in place of GOOD NEIGHBORS, ... But depending on the flexibility you apply to "SFF" the first may be too much horror, not enough fantasy, and the other two feel just too recent to be favorites, even though I enjoyed them thoroughly enough to now sneak a mention into this thread.

[Jim]

Top 12


I was inspired to write up a list by the posts from Jannik and Madprofesdah , great lists .Had to split the list between some classics and current favorites , thought I’d add my favorite book as well .

Old School
Robert Heinlein , Friday
Arthur C Clarke , Rendezvou With Rama
John Varley , Steel Beach
William Gibson , Mona Lisa Overdrive

Current:
John Scalzi , Old Mans War
Jack Mcdevitt , Polaris
Richard K Morgan, Market Forces
John Barnes , A Million Open Doors
Ernest Cline , Ready Player One
Andy Weir
Martha Wells ,All Systems Red
Ben Winters , Golden State








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[Anghell]

I can't do a Top 12.. but.. The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle.. and Ubik by Phillip K. Dick.. were both phenomenal..

[MadProfessah]

I’m interested to see “Golden State” by Ben Winters on your list. How was it?

I really really liked his “Underground Airlines” and wish he would return to that world.

[Histrio]

So many good books I need to read! Here is my attempt to add some more titles to the already unwieldy list.

This is a list of the books that have most moved me or have been most reread by me as of right this second and includes some YA and Middle Grade (yes, they count too!). And I am cheating a bit by counting whole series instead of individual books. Otherwise I'd still be arguing with myself over the relative merits of Mort vs. The Squire's Tale. :-)

These first two entries I have reread countless times and they will probably always be at the top of any list I make. They somehow are funny and cheerful, but cynical and thought provoking at the same time. (And are not really similar at all.)
1. Everything by Terry Pratchett (including Good Omens)
2. The Squire's Tales by Gerald Morris - An incredible reworking of the Arthurian saga that actually makes sense! I have no idea why it's so little known.

My other 'greats' in no particular order:
3. Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde – So much fun and so many sly references.
4. The Icemark Chronicles by Stuart Hill – Some of the first large-scale world-building fantasy I read. I think they still hold up pretty well.
5. Prince of Thorns series by Mark Lawrence - The rest of his work is good too, but these were my first encounter with grimdark.
6. Diana Wynne Jones – Either the Chrestomanci or Howl's Moving Castle series... I can't decide.
7. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott – Perhaps not the greatest prose of all time, but such a plot! And so many good side characters.
8. Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo – Magic, thieves, impossible quests, amazing characters. Need I say more?
9. Brandon Sanderson – Everything by him that I have read so far is so good... Most especially Mistborn I guess.
10. The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper – Another one I first read awhile ago, but I think it holds up pretty well. I'm still mad about the ending though.
11. Vicious series by V. E. Schwab – But also A Darker Shade of Magic...
12. The Jinx series by Sage Blackwood – These also made a lasting impression when I read them... I'm not sure how it would hold up now.

And then, because I can't seem to stop with 12, some favorites that narrowly missed getting on the list.
13? Finishing School series by Gail Carriger – A school to train female spies in Victorian England. 'Nuff said.
14? James Riley's Half Upon a Time and Story Thieves series – More tongue-in-cheek, and sly references.
15? The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater - These keep getting better with time. I'm still thinking maybe they should replace one of the twelve.
16? Larklight by Philip Reeve – Steampunk space travel. What more could one wish for?