Your top 10 Sci-fi/Fantasy books you've ever read

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amish

Diamond Member
Aug 20, 2004
4,295
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Originally posted by: joinT
1 Tolkien - Hobbit/LOTR series
2 C.S. Lewis - Narnia series
3 Weis/Hickman - Chronicles/Twins/etc. from Dragonlance
4 Salvatore - Drizz't series
5 Eddings - Belgariad/Mallorean/etc. & Elenium/Tamuli
6 Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow, Thorn
7 L.E. Modesitt Jr. - Recluce series
8 Douglas Adams - H2G2 series
9 Garth Nix - Sabriel series
10 George RR Martin - Song of Fire & Ice series

I essentially will re-read these books anytime something reminds me of them..


Originally posted by: z42
Things get more dicey here as some books in series are great and other's not as great...
9) Jordan; Wheel of Time
10) Goodkind; Sword of Truth

Agreed on the last two. Jordan I gave up on at book 6. Goodkind book 4.

yeah, i've read all of the SoT books by goodkind and i gave up paying attention too. the first and second books were great though.
 

TBone48

Platinum Member
Feb 23, 2005
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1- Chronicles of Amber ( Zelazny)
2- Suburban Gods (Brenda Clough)
3- American Gods ( Gaiman)
4- Blood Music ( Greg Bear)
5- Cryptonomicon (Neil Stephenson)
6- Dust (Charles Pellegrino)
7- Dies the Fire (S.M. Stirling)
8- Conquistador (S.M. Stirling)
9- Moonfall (Jack McDevitt)
10-The Helliconia series (Brian Aldiss)

Not necessarily in that order.
 

Kadarin

Lifer
Nov 23, 2001
44,296
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Dan Simmons - Hyperion series
Peter F. Hamilton - Night's Dawn trilogy
Peter F. Hamilton - Pandora's Star / Judas Unchained
Iain Banks - Culture series
Daniel Keyes Moran - Continuing Time series
Glen Cook - The Dragon Never Sleeps
 

Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
31,338
12,841
136
I have read more than I can count.

notable books/series:

HG Wells: many books (the grandaddy of scifi)
Wyndham: many books
Keith Laumer: Bolos series (way too cool)
Arthur C. Clarke: so many books
Future At War trilogy: cool stuff
Asimov: many books
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
4,858
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Originally posted by: EngenZerO
star wars expaned universe >* all...

That's like saying one of those paperback beach novels are better than Crime and Punishment.

I've only seen one reference to The Dark Tower series. More of you should read it, if it's not on your lists because you haven't read it that is.
 

mryellow2

Golden Member
Dec 2, 2000
1,057
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Originally posted by: Doboji
Originally posted by: mryellow2
1. The entire Farseer series - Robin Hobb

2. Magician Apprentice/Master - Raymond E. Feist

3. The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher

4. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

5. Memory, Sorrow, Thorn - Tad Williams

6.

One of my coworkers here is into the Dresden Files... it looked kinda corny to me... it was really that good huh?

-Max

The Dresden books can be corny at times but the further you get into the series the better they get.


6. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman (Dunno how I left this one out, I love all his writing)

7. Terry Pratchett - any of the discworld books

8. Stranger in a Strange land - Robert Heinlein

9. The Once and Future King - T.H. White!!!! (one of my all time favorites, kick-started my reading habit and fascination with Arthurian legend when I was in elementary school)

10. The Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Kavriel Kay



It all gets kinda fuzzy I've read so many.

Recently I've read quite a few that were very good:

Elantris (can't remember the author)

The Four Forges (can't remember the author)

The Golden Age - John C. Wright (trilogy)

The Malazan Series - Steven Erikson)

Dies the Fire/Protectorate's War - S.M. Stirling)

Earthsea books - Ursula K. Leguin

Monster Blood Tattoo - D.M. Cornish (light reading but enjoyable)

The Stolen Child - Keith Donohue

A Dirty Job - Christopher Moore

The Lens of the World - R.A. Macavoy


I started reading the Dark Tower series years ago when I was a young teenager(was in a Stephen King phase). Then there were no more books in the series for the longest time so I've quite forgotten everything about them.


 
Dec 27, 2001
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1. The Dragon's Keep - Foreman
2. Under Water; Under Time - S.G. Carter
3. The Red Galaxy - William Milestone
4. Further Toward The Night - Emily Gray
5. Tournament Of Wizards - Daniel Meeks
6. The Stars Fell Down - S. Michaelson
7. A Throne Of Terror - S.G Carter
8. The Mor'Dan Trilogy - Eugene Sandstone
9. Titan's Rings - S.G. Carter
 

computeerrgghh

Golden Member
Apr 10, 2005
1,121
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1. Foundation Series (Asimov)
2. I, Robot/Robot Series (Asimov)
3. Rama Series (Arthur C. Clarke) - the first one was real good, the other 2 were pretty good
4. LOTR (Tolkien)
5. Sword of Truth series (Goodkind)- kind of lost interest because my library doesn't have a good selection
6. Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)- not sure if this is sci-fi or dystopian lit
7. Illistrated Man (Bradbury)
8. New Jedi Order Series- haven't read all, as I said my lib doesn't have the best selection
9.1984 (Orwell)- again dystopian?
10. Tekwar Series (Shatner)- I picked it up for kicks. It was surprisingly good.
 

aposynthesi

Member
Mar 2, 2005
28
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I can honestly say that I'm impressed with ATOT. Nobody has said the Bible yet.

Not that I think its true or anything.
 

kogase

Diamond Member
Sep 8, 2004
5,213
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Haven't read very many, so I guess: Narnia books (top six), The Hobbit, some Redwall books I read when I was considerably younger could probably fill the remaining three. Just haven't read anything else.
 

Wuffsunie

Platinum Member
May 4, 2002
2,808
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1) Exordium series by Sherwood Smith and Dave Trowbridge (if you can find it, some of the best space opera EVER. Blows Dune out of the water)
2) Shannara series by Terry Brooks
3) Hyperion series by Dan Simmons
4) Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds (first 2 books amongst the best I've read)
5) The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
6) Inferno by Larry Niven
7) Report on Planet Three by Arthur C. Clarke
8) Orion Shall Rise by Poul Anderson
9) Armor by John Steakley
10) The Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison
 

RaistlinZ

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 2001
7,470
9
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1. DragonLance Chronicles/Twins/Darksword Trilogies - Weis/Hickman

2. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
73,206
34,539
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The Overlords of War - Klein
The Black Company series - Glen Cook
The Book of the New Sun - Wolfe
Riftwar series, once Janny Wurts started co-authoring with Raymond Feist
LOTR, Silmarillion
Myth series - Aspin
 

Rayden

Senior member
Jun 25, 2001
790
2
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I won't be adding anything new, but the only ones I can think of are:

LotR
All of the Ender's books including all but one of the Bean books.
A Song of Ice and Fire (currently on Storm of Sword where it gets depressing)
 

joinT

Lifer
Jan 19, 2001
11,172
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Originally posted by: amish
yeah, i've read all of the SoT books by goodkind and i gave up paying attention too. the first and second books were great though.

meh, i thought they were waay too predictable..
 

SarcasticDwarf

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2001
9,574
2
76
Originally posted by: joinT
Originally posted by: amish
yeah, i've read all of the SoT books by goodkind and i gave up paying attention too. the first and second books were great though.

meh, i thought they were waay too predictable..

Keep in mind also that the last three books in the series (the first one, Chainfire has already been published) should be read together. Chainfire actually does not resolve *anything*, it only sets up the last two books.
 

Triumph

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,031
14
81
Jules Verne is the progenitor of Science Fiction. Sad that he hasn't even been mentioned yet in this thread. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days (not really sci-fi, but my favorite), From The Earth to the Moon, the man practically originated the idea of science fiction.

Other than that, I like Tolkien obviously, HG Wells, Phillip K. Dick, and I hate Robert Heinlein. Stranger in a Strange Land was one of the most tortuous books I've ever read.
 

pontifex

Lifer
Dec 5, 2000
43,804
46
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Originally posted by: Triumph
Jules Verne is the progenitor of Science Fiction. Sad that he hasn't even been mentioned yet in this thread. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days (not really sci-fi, but my favorite), From The Earth to the Moon, the man practically originated the idea of science fiction.

Other than that, I like Tolkien obviously, HG Wells, Phillip K. Dick, and I hate Robert Heinlein. Stranger in a Strange Land was one of the most tortuous books I've ever read.

i liked stranger in a strange land.
 

Canun

Senior member
Apr 1, 2006
528
4
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Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf
Originally posted by: joinT
Originally posted by: amish
yeah, i've read all of the SoT books by goodkind and i gave up paying attention too. the first and second books were great though.

meh, i thought they were waay too predictable..

Keep in mind also that the last three books in the series (the first one, Chainfire has already been published) should be read together. Chainfire actually does not resolve *anything*, it only sets up the last two books.

Yeah, was kind of a let down. Though it should have been expected. Goodkind is very much into making money, hence the reason it is a final 3 books instead of 2.

1. Sword of Truth by Goodkind
2. Farseer/Tawney Man trilogies by Robin Hobb
3. Wheel of Time by Jordan (hope he finishes the dang thing up...last book was pretty good at tying up some things)
4. Eddings
5. Feist
 

newParadigm

Diamond Member
Jul 30, 2003
3,667
1
0
Daystar Series
Double Helix StarTrek Series
VVS8/VVS9 (VOyager Virtual Seasons, do those count? they were written so well....)
IDK, can't think of any others right now