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Fantasy and Science Fiction books worth reading?

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F

Fragamemnon

Member
Hari Seldon said:
My favorite modern sci-fi series is:

pandora_cover.jpeg
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It's up there for me too. Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained blew me away.
 
T

taoofjord

Member
Some aren't necessarily sci-fi or fantasy but, regardless, here's some of the best of the best (and make sure to check out other books by the authors if you like them, of course):

"1984" by George Orwell
"At The Mountains of Madness" by HP Lovecraft
"The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe
"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy
"Childhood's End" by Arthur C Clarke
"Conan" by Robert E. Howard (try the recent omnibus releases, they're amazing)
"The Demon Princes" by Jack Vance
"The Dresden Files" by Jim Butcher
"Dune" by Frank Herbert
"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
"A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge
"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov
"His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman
"The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" by J R R Tolkein
"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
"Hyperion" and "Fall of Hyperion" by Dan Simmons
"John Carter of Mars books" by Edgar Rice Burroughs
"The King of Elfland's Daughter" by Lord Dunsany
"Little, Big" by John Crowley
"The Long Ships" by Frans G. Bengtsson
"Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny
"Redwall series" by Brian Jacques
"The Return of the Sorcerer: The Best of Clark Ashton Smith"
"A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R R Martin
"The Stand" by Stephen King
"Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay
"The Vorkosigan Saga" by Lois McMaster Bujold
"Watership Down" by Richard Adams
"The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami
"World War Z" by Max Brooks

Apologies for not taking out a few that you already mentioned in your OP. I compiled this list yesterday. :)
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
I always recommend Raymond E. Feist. He is was my first fantasy author, actually got me started reading fantasy novels to begin with. I'd start with the Riftwar Saga, then maybe go into Serpent War Saga. They are all pretty old, so finding them in paperback should be no problem. I love these books. He has more series, but read one of two of these and see if you like. :)

Riftwar Saga:


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Feist_Silverthorn_cover.jpg
Feist_-_A_Darkness_at_Sethanon_Coverart.jpg


Serpent War Saga:

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M

Maklershed

Member
taoofjord said:
I've heard too many horror stories about how poor the ending is. It scares me away. It sounds awesome aside from that, though, which makes for some serious frustration.
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??

Don't know about that. I personally loved it the whole way through. The last 200 pages or so were intense.
 
C

cory021

Neo Member
mac said:
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The Moon is a Harsh Mistress looks kind of cool, I might check that out.

Also, I'm currently reading The Hobbit right now, and I'm planning to read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy next. Should I read the Silmarillion after that? (I actually didn't even know the Silmarillion existed, seeing this was a pleasant surprise :p )
 
D

Dresden

Member
cory021 said:
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress looks kind of cool, I might check that out.

Also, I'm currently reading The Hobbit right now, and I'm planning to read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy next. Should I read the Silmarillion after that? (I actually didn't even know the Silmarillion existed, seeing this was a pleasant surprise :p )
Click to expand...

If you like LOTR, why not.
 
G

Grakl

Member
cory021 said:
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress looks kind of cool, I might check that out.

Also, I'm currently reading The Hobbit right now, and I'm planning to read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy next. Should I read the Silmarillion after that? (I actually didn't even know the Silmarillion existed, seeing this was a pleasant surprise :p )
Click to expand...

Oh god yes. This is my favorite Science Fiction book (and of course my favorite one from Heinlein).
 
W

whatsinaname

Member
Culture series by Iain M Banks. Start with the book 'Player of Games'. The books in the "series" just share a common universe, so you could start with any book in the series but the one I recommended is the most accessible.
 
Z

Zona

Member
whatsinaname said:
Culture series by Iain M Banks. Start with the book 'Player of Games'. The books in the "series" just share a common universe, so you could start with any book in the series but the one I recommended is the most accessible.
Click to expand...

I heartily recommend this as well. Its really a fantastic series of books. I also endorse Pandora's Star. Both are some of the best modern ScFi out there. Banks and Hamilton both create rich worlds and really give consideration to how the technology they introduce would effect a society.

On the fantasy front I'm going to begin by saying the Discworld books. Its comedic fantasy with a satiric bent in the later books. Start with...
9780061020681.jpg

Its a quick read and will let you know if Pratchett's brand of humor will appeal to you. Also Best Death Ever.
 
P

Pau

Member
Grakl said:
Read A Wizard of Earthsea. Le Guin's books are classics, especially this one.
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Listen to this poster. Ursula K. Le Guin writes some of the best science fiction and fantasy around, bar none. Her fantasy feels more like a long lost folk tale being passed down through the ages. Her science fiction goes beyond just exploring the technology and wars of other planets, but instead focuses on the social and political aspects. A Wizard of Earthsea is part of a six-book series following the mythology of a fictional archipelago. It features a lot of fantasy motifs such as dragons, wizards, but it's got probably the best magic system in fantasy and Le Guin uses the genre to explore some pretty universal themes. The Dispossessed is the story of twin planets and the man who travels between the two in attempts to mend communication between his anarchist home and its capitalist neighbor. Gifts is also part of a series, but I'd recommend just reading this one. It takes place on a marsh where each family has it's own "gift": powers such as healing, calling animals, and the power to unbind.

eJCVt.png

American Gods might actually be Neil Gaiman's worst novel. Personally, I find that he writes loads better when he's writing for a younger audience. Stardust is pretty much a fairytale and just great fun. Coraline is a short horror novel for children. The Graveyard Book is another novel aimed at children, but my favorite novel by Neil Gaiman. It's the story of a young boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard.

9jSld.png

Sir Terry Pratchett writes what started off as simply parodies of the fantasy genre and eventually evolved into satire on police dramas, religion, politics, rock music, war, fairy tales, and everything in between. Be warned, his Discworld series contains more than thirty novels, all of which are at least above average and many which are downright amazing. My favorite living author. Well, for a little while longer, at least :( If you're looking for a place to start, I'd recommend Small Gods, Mort, or Guards! Guards!. Always hilarious and brilliant.

viNwA.png

These last three authors are all on the same level as the three mentioned above and have a similar output in both quantity and quality, but I just chose one starting point for each of them. Ray Bradbury is a science fiction author probably best known for Fahrenheit 451 but I put up The Martian Chronicles, a collection of short stories exploring man's colonialization of Mars over generations. Diana Wynne Jones writes novels for children, mostly, but don't let that stop you. Her work features more imagination per novel than most series do in their entirety. They also work really nicely as lighter reads in between denser works. Howl's Moving Castle was made into a movie by Hayao Miyazaki, and well, I'm not sure how to describe it or any of Jones' other works besides saying they're fun and so damn imaginative you can't help but smile when reading them. The Last Unicorn might be my favorite fantasy novel. Don't let the name fool you. It's one of the few novels I can't read without crying. The very definition of bitter sweet.

I envy you for being able to experience these novels for the first time. Fantasy and science fiction, although considered to be the trashier relatives of fiction, have some great gems. Other posters have given some great recommendations as well - of which authors I'd highlight Arthur C. Clarke, Phillip K. Dick, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Phillip Pullman.

And haha, don't ask me why I made images for every author. Anything to keep from studying for finals...
 
M

Mumei

Member
Second:

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Dune by Frank Herbert
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
1984 by George Orwell
Mistborn by Brian Sanderson
The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by HP Lovecraft
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Some other things that I don't think I saw mentioned:

Asimov's Robot Stories
Contact by Carl Sagan
The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
The Complete Fairy Tales by George MacDonald
The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
Peace by Gene Wolfe
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente
A Dirge for Prester John by Catherynne Valente
Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
A Wizard of Earthsea (and sequels) by Ursula K Le Guin
Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Sorry they aren't in any particular order!


Pau said:
Listen to this poster. Ursula K. Le Guin writes some of the best science fiction and fantasy around, bar none. Her fantasy feels more like a long lost folk tale being passed down through the ages. Her science fiction goes beyond just exploring the technology and wars of other planets, but instead focuses on the social and political aspects. A Wizard of Earthsea is part of a six-book series following the mythology of a fictional archipelago. It features a lot of fantasy motifs such as dragons, wizards, but it's got probably the best magic system in fantasy and Le Guin uses the genre to explore some pretty universal themes. The Dispossessed is the story of twin planets and the man who travels between the two in attempts to mend communication between his anarchist home and its capitalist neighbor. Gifts is also part of a series, but I'd recommend just reading this one. It takes place on a marsh where each family has it's own "gift": powers such as healing, calling animals, and the power to unbind.
Click to expand...

I was just trying to sell a friend on reading The Left Hand of Darkness, and I used almost that exact line when trying to sell it to him. And I probably read it somewhere else myself. I just can't think of a better way of describing the effect that her writing has.
 
N

nitewulf

Member
i have Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained sitting on my shelf...just havent gotten around reading them yet...

that said, some my favorite hardcore sci fi novels are the books in the revelation space series by alastair reynolds. he has a very cinematic style, everything is epic, gritty, action scenes unfold as in very high budget anime sequences, where he either slows down time in microseconds, or events happen across millenia. planets and suns are moved around, epic doomsday devices are released...the tech is just mind-blowing. and he actually makes all these things sound like they could happen. he has a PhD in astrophysics, so he makes things pretty hardcore. but very fun.

revelation space series:
Revelation Space
Redemption Arc
Absolution Gap

stand alone:
House of Suns
Pushing Ice

other favorites:

Rendezvous with Rama
Stories of Your Life and Others
Perdido Street Station
When Gravity Fails
Altered Carbon

Anything and everything by Kurt Vonnegut.
 
F

Fallout-NL

Member
Pau said:
American Gods might actually be Neil Gaiman's worst novel. Personally, I find that he writes loads better when he's writing for a younger audience.
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Disagree. The mood he manages to create in American Gods is pretty damn good. Love that book. I seem to recall it dragging a bit near the end, but still, I'd recommend it.
 
K

KingGondo

Banned
American Gods is very polarizing, mainly because it has a wonderful concept and mediocre execution.

I'd still say it's worth reading, but I enjoyed Stardust more.
 
S

Svartnatt

Member
Been reading a lot of fantasy lately, here some standouts:

The Blade Itself (Book 1 of the First Law Trilogy) by Joe Abercrombie - Gritty, violent, uncompromising series that takes a lot of usual fantasy tropes and stomps them into the dirt. Great cynical, black humor. Has some of the most memorable characters I've ever read (Glokta!).

The Lies of Locke Lamora (Book 1 of The Gentlemen Bastard Sequence) by Scott Lynch - Chronicles of Locke Lamora and his thieving, scheming crew who make a profession out of scamming the rich, set in an amazing detailed city that has a history all of its own.

Prince of Thorns (Book 1 of The Broken Empire) by Mark Lawrence - Another violent, morally ambiguous tale of a rogue noble's son who takes up the criminal life and leads a band of mercenaries. Fun, fast read that sports a lot of dark humor.

Among Thieves (Book 1 of Tales of The Kin) by Douglas Hulick - Follows the exploits of relic hunter/information broker thief as he gets embroiled in a plot that involves more sides and factions than anyone cares to guess. A great plot that takes you for a ride that you'll never know where it's going.

These may not be masterpieces of literature (I'd debate you on the first two though!), but they sure are fun as hell to read.
 
D

Dresden

Member
Svartnatt said:
Among Thieves (Book 1 of Tales of The Kin) by Douglas Hulick - Follows the exploits of relic hunter/information broker thief as he gets embroiled in a plot that involves more sides and factions than anyone cares to guess. A great plot that takes you for a ride that you'll never know where it's going.
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I'm gonna pick this up, sounds fun.
 
M

More Fun To Compute

Member
Fantasy: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, His Dark Materials, The Lies of Locke Lamora, Steven Erikson's Malazan novels.

What is this I don't even: Anything by China Mieville.

Science Fiction author to back in this sort of thing like he was the sports team I support: Charles Stross.
 
JeTmAn81

JeTmAn81

Member
Scullibundo said:
You're idiotic. Speaker for the Dead is one of the best sci fi books of all time.
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QFT. I enjoyed Speaker for the Dead even more than Ender's Game. I think a lot of the subsequent books in the series are worth reading as well. It doesn't get too Mormonish until the end, really. The Shadow series is also fun.
 
Z

Zona

Member
I do Not know how I forgot this.
102439.jpg


Its a wonderful story set a little more then 20 minutes into the future in a world that's rapidly heading for either destruction, or The Singularity. Allow me to copy/past Amazons description.
Amazon said:
Four time Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge has taken readers to the depths of space and into the far future in his bestselling novels A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. Now, he has written a science-fiction thriller set in a place and time as exciting and strange as any far-future world: San Diego, California, 2025.

Robert Gu is a recovering Alzheimer's patient. The world that he remembers was much as we know it today. Now, as he regains his faculties through a cure developed during the years of his near-fatal decline, he discovers that the world has changed and so has his place in it. He was a world-renowned poet. Now he is seventy-five years old, though by a medical miracle he looks much younger, and he's starting over, for the first time unsure of his poetic gifts. Living with his son's family, he has no choice but to learn how to cope with a new information age in which the virtual and the real are a seamless continuum, layers of reality built on digital views seen by a single person or millions, depending on your choice. But the consensus reality of the digital world is available only if, like his thirteen-year-old granddaughter Miri, you know how to wear your wireless access--through nodes designed into smart clothes--and to see the digital context--through smart contact lenses.

With knowledge comes risk. When Robert begins to re-train at Fairmont High, learning with other older people what is second nature to Miri and other teens at school, he unwittingly becomes part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to use technology as a tool for world domination.

In a world where every computer chip has Homeland Security built-in, this conspiracy is something that baffles even the most sophisticated security analysts, including Robert's son and daughter-in law, two top people in the U.S. military. And even Miri, in her attempts to protect her grandfather, may be entangled in the plot.
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Well worth it.
 
T

TEJ

Member
i'd recommend the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series. They are easy reads, but very funny........even if you don't care much about sci fi.
 
D

Dileo

Neo Member
JeTmAn81 said:
QFT. I enjoyed Speaker for the Dead even more than Ender's Game. I think a lot of the subsequent books in the series are worth reading as well. It doesn't get too Mormonish until the end, really. The Shadow series is also fun.
Click to expand...

This. I thought Ender's Shadow was at least on par with Game. Definitely worth it.
 
A

AlimNassor

Banned
CherryhForeigner10AnnCover.jpg


Don't be fooled by the cover, the aliens may look human, but, they're radically different then us mentality and virtually impossible to truly understand.

The basic gist is in the distant future a colonization missions goes awry and the colonists are forced to find a new habitable world. They find the world of Atevi. Only problem it's inhabited by a race of humanoid giants. Long story short because of the vast differences between us, it's impossible for either us or the atevi to get along. They start a war, we lose and end up confined to an island and in exchange for us not being destroyed, we're to give them technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreigner_universe

It really is terrific.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons

Chronicles of The Black Company by Glen Cooke

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
 
U

Uncle

Member
Scifi:
Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, if "show, don't tell" style of hard scifi doesn't scare you.

Fantasy:
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson, if the main character being a world class asshole doesn't bother you.
 
P

Paertan

Member
Please tell me someone else has recommended these but I have just missed it.

Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy
Robin Hobb - The Liveship Traders Trilogy
Robin Hobb - The Tawny Man Trilogy

Best read in that order but you can read Farseer and Liveship by themself but there are some connections.

I don´t know how good they are in English but the swedish author Niklas Krog has written a trilogy + prolougue that I loved when I was younger and has read as an adult and still love. "The Freedom Wars"

Other than that I also always recommend Raymond E Feist. One of my favorite authors.
 
R

Ratrat

Member
The Scar by China Mieville
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Tuf Voyaging by George R. R. Martin(his short story Sandkings is also good)


also recently enjoyed The Magician and The Magician King.
 
Y

ymmv

Banned
51LaWMxIXrL._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


Officially SF, but is' really a wildly imaginative fantasy collection of short stories and novellas full of magic, wit and Vance's typical baroque language. Vance was the inspiration for Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun tetralogy but his books are much lighter in tone.

Plus don't forget about
Fritz Leiber - The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books
Tanith Lee - The Birthgrave trilogy, the first three Tales of the Flat Earth books
Poul Anderson - The Broken Sword
L. Sprague de Camp - Lest Darkness Fall

All of them are classics.
 
S

Sax Russel

Banned
Most of these have been mentioned, but what the heck

Fantasy
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (and book 2, of a planned 7, Res Seas Under Red Skies)
Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Afterwards you can get into his other books, they all take place in the same universe, though it's never overtly mentioned in the books themselves. Way of Kings is the first in a planned 10 book epic series, would be a good one to read (but Mistborn is still the best introduction to the writer)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Sci-fi
Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. If you like these, you'd probably enjoy his other books as well. I haven't read all of them, but Pushing Ice and Terminal World (for something a bit different) were both great.
Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained by Peter F Hamilton. The Void Trilogy takes place in the same universe, a few hundred years later, if you end up liking the setting he creates.

Edit: Perdido Street Station sounds amazing, I'm going to have to get on that
 
P

Puddles

Banned
Hari Seldon said:
I'd also recommend Wheel of Time. Not the greatest writing, but the creativity is through the roof. The hatred comes from the long periods between books, but being that the last book is almost out, you won't have that problem.
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Cannot agree with this. The hatred comes from the fact that it's boring as fuck for hundreds of pages at a stretch.
 
R

raiot

Member
"Perdito Street Station" is an EXCELLENT choice!

I also highly recommend:

The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
Vurt by Jeff Noon
The Otherland Saga by Tad Williams
 
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