I have recently joined a science fiction/fantasy writers group in the area. I thought that since my first novel was magic realism, the second was fantasy, and the third will also be fantasy, it would behoove me to get a little more into the culture, to learn from it and to basically not be totally ignorant. In the course of my reading life, so far, I have not been a science fiction or fantasy reader for very long. (Actually, I would still not consider myself a science fiction reader.) It was only when my very little daughter got into The Chronicles of Narnia years ago that I started pursuing children’s fantasy, then MG/YA, then grown-up. I still read other genres, but I have come to appreciate fantasy immensely, which was bound to happen because I basically lived in a sci-fi/fantasy novel in my head my whole life.

At a neighborhood yard sale a couple weekends back, I was rummaging through a box of books and came across a copy of Christopher Paolini’s Eragon. For next-to-nothing, I picked it up because it was a title I was familiar with so I assumed it must be pretty popular. I also needed a brief break from reading every word the Bronte sisters ever put on the page. As for Eragon, I am enjoying it and I am learning from it, but it is–as any quick online search will tell you–not without its faults. However, part of what I am getting from it is a sort of flash-read of the epic fantasy traditions. It has made me wonder how much I know about fantasy and how much I actually want to know before writing my own. On one hand, I don’t want to make incredible blunders just because I didn’t know the field well enough. On the other, knowing less might help me keep my own voice and write more original stuff.

By the way, I was pleasantly surprised that I have read a number of these books, I just didn’t think of them as genre fiction when I read them. The Once and Future King and Till We Have Faces (not on the list, but it should be; not to mention the Harry Potter series) are two of my favorite books. I loved A Wrinkle In Time when I was a kid, and I have read such titles as Wicked, The Time-Traveler’s Wife, and Little, Big as well as the school requirements 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451.

At any rate, I decided that in honor of a new love and of a new writing group, I would post the Best Books list for sci-fi and fantasy. (For previous Best Books lists, see HERE.) The list was generated by combining several online lists and results are listed in no particular order. Except that I grouped it: science fiction, then fantasy, then I-don’t-know-which-one-this-is-but-I-wasn’t-about-to-spend-an-hour-of-my-morning-finding-out. Please excuse my having italicized things that shouldn’t be; it was hard to determine which were series names and which were titles, in some cases. I’ll get there.

Science Fiction

• Dune, Frank Herbert
• The Hunger Games (trilogy), Suzanne Collins
  
• Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
• The Thought Readers, Dima Zale
• Foundation, Isaac Asimov
• The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
• 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
• Hyperion Cantos, Dan Simmons
• Neuromancer, William Gibson
• 1984, George Orwell
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
• Ubik, Philip K. Dick
• The Forever War, Joe Haldman
• Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson
• A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge
• Old Man’s War, John Scalzi
• Alfred Carbon, Richard Morgan
• Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
• Player of Games, Iain M. Banks
• The Night’s Dawn, Peter F. Hamilton
• Gateway, Frederick Pohl
• Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
• The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
• Anathem, Neal Stephenson
• Blindsight, Peter Watts
• Miles Vorkosigan, Lois McMaster Bujold
• Slaughter-House Five, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
• The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
• Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
• Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
• I, Robot, Isaac Asimov
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Phillip K. Dick
• The Stand, Stephen King
• Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
• Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein
• The Time Machine, H. G. Wells
• Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
• The War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells
• Amber, Roger Zelazny
• Ringworld, Larry Niven
• Contact, Carl Sagan
• World War Z, Max Brooks
• Vorkosigan, Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy
• The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
  
• Old Man’s War, John Scalzi
• Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson
• Culture, Iain M. Banks
• Thrawn trilogy, Timothy Zahn
• Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson
• Space trilogy, C. S. Lewis
• The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
• The Time Machine, H. G. Wells
• How to Live Safely In the Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
• The Giver, Lois Lowry
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers
• The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard
• Falling in Love with Hominids, Nalo Hopkinson
• Folding Beijing, Hao Jinfang
• The Space Between Worlds, Micaiah Johnson
• Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty
• The Imperial Radch Trilogy
• Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee
• Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
• A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
• Noor, Nnedi Okorafor
• Tales from the Loop, Simon Stalenhag
• Little Eyes, Samantha Schweblin
• The Martian, Andy Weir
• The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells
• Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao
• Journey To the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne

Fantasy

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
• The Lord of the Rings (trilogy), J. R. R. Tolkein
• A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
• Harry Potter (series), J. K. Rowling
• The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
• The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie
• Mythborn, V. Lakshman
• The Magicians, Lev Grossman
• Discworld, Terry Pratchett
• Les of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
• The Way of Kinds, Brandon Sanderson
• Assassin’s Apprentice, Robin Hobb
• Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson
• American Gods, Neil Gaiman
• A Wizard of Earthsea series, Ursula K. Le Guin
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
• The Black Company, Glen Cook
• Heroes Die, Matthew Woodring Stover
• The Prince of Thorns, Mark Lawrence
• Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay
• City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett
• The Nightwatch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Fritz Leibr
• Black Sun Rising, C. S. Friedman
• The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
• Legend, David Gemmell
• The Dark Tower, Stephen King
• The Dresden Files, Jim Butcher
• The Princess Bride, William Goldman
• The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan
• The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
• Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
• Pawn of Prophecy, David Eddings
• The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson
• The Simarlion, J. R. R. Tolkein
• The Once and Future King, T. H. White
• The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
• Chronicles of Narnia (series), C. S. Lewis
• A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
• Wizards’ First Rule, Terry Goodkind
• Riftwar, Raymond E. Feist
• Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
• Conan the Barbarian, Robert L. Howard
• Assassin’s Apprentice, Robin Hobb
• The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson
• The Legend of Dritz, Salvatore
• Wicked. Gregory Maguire
• The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart
• Furies of Calderon, James Butcher
• Shadow & Claw, Gene Wolfe
• A Spell for Chameleon, Piers Anthony
• Liveship Traders, Robin Hobb
• Windhaven, George R. R. Martin
• The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkein
• Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
• Bartameus trilogy, Jonathan Stroud
• Thursday Next, Jasper Fforde
• The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
• Farseer trilogy, Robin Hobb
• Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin
• Duncton Chronicles, William Horwood
• Inheritance trilogy, N. K. Jemisin
• Shadowmarch quartet, Tad Williams
• Ryhope Wood, Robert Holdstock
• A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
• Dark Is Rising, Susan Cooper
• The Anubis Gates, Tim Powers
• Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
• The Picture of Dorian Grey, Oscar Wilde
• Edge Chronicles, Paul Stewart
• Chronicles of the Black Company, Glen Cook
• Dracula, Bram Stoker
• The Color of Magic, Terry Pratchett
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
• Dealing with Dragons, Patricia C. Wrede
• Howl’s Moving Castle, Dianna Wynne Jones
• Animal Farm, George Orwell
• Cooking for Wizards, Warriors and Dragons, Thea James
• Frankenstein, Mary Shelly **
• Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis ***
• Outlander, Diana Gabaldon (time travel historical fiction)
• Six of Crows Duology (Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom), Leigh Bardugo ***
• The Innsmouth Legacy, Ruthanna Emrys
• The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor Lavalle
• The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead

I Honestly Don’t Know

• Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delaney
• War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells
• Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
• Dangerous Visions, Harlan Ellison
• Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
• Ringworld, Larry Niven
• The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
• Kindred, Octavia Butler
• Watchmen, Allan Moore
• The Sandman series, Neil Gaiman
• A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
• Watership Down, Richard Adams
• A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller
• Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
• Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke
• Hyperion, Dan Simmons
• Stardust, Neil Gaiman
• Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
• The Forever War, Joe Holdeman
• Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
• Going Postal, Terry Pratchett
• The Mote In God’s Eye, Larry Niven
• I Am Legend, Richard Mattheson
  
• Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
• Cushiel’s Dart, Jacqueline Carey
• The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin
• Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
• The Eyre Affair, Jasper Ford
• The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury
• Sunshine, Robin McKinley
• The Fire Upon Deep, Vernor Vinge
• The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
• Lucifer’s Hammer, Larry Niven
• Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
• Perdido Street Station, China Meiville
• Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
• Kindred, Octavia E. Butler
• Nine Princes In Amber, Roger Zelazny
• The City & the City, China Meiville
• Zone One, Colson Whitehead
• His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
• The Female Man, Joanna Russ
• Browngirl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
• Solaris, Stanislov Lem
• Among Others, Jo Walton
• The Drowned World, J. G. Ballard
• Witch World, Andre Norton
• Never Let Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
• Little, Big, John Crowley
• All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders
• How Long Till Black Future Month, N. K. Jemisin