AtheistPreacher
Well-Known Member
Back on the old board we had a good thread about fantasy books ("Terry Goodkind and his books"). I was reminded of it yesterday when I came upon some lists of the top sci-fi and fantasy books, lists I hadn't seen before. So, I thought I'd start up the thread again and post said lists to wrangle about (the lists are clearly mostly ranked on popularity, otherwise Harry Potter and Twilight wouldn't be ranked so high).
Sci-Fi Books Top 100 (link)
I consider myself a sci-fan fan, but I've actually read depressingly few of these.
1 Ender's Game. Awesome book, probably my favorite sci-fi, except maybe for Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. It's the sci-fi book that even people who don't like sci-fi have to like.
4 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Everyone knows this one. The sequels 2-4 are also good, but avoid book 5, it's just depressing and not even that funny.
5 1984. Forced to read it in high school. Meh.
13 Ringworld. My Dad got me to read this. It was okay, didn't leave a strong impression.
15 Hyperion. The first of a four-books series. Awesome stuff. They're of the huge, dense, convoluted brand of sci-fi. Simmons weaves so much into these it's a wonder they're not all 1,000 pages lonng instead of just 500. These and Ender's Game basically hold a tie as my favorites.
16 Brave New World. Again, had to read it for school. Fun stuff, though.
19 War of the Worlds. Pretty good. Better than the movies they put out, at least.
27 Speaker for the Dead. Not as good as Ender's Game, but Card's sequel is no slouch.
35 A Wrinkle in Time. Read this when I was about 10. I really don't remember it at all, I just know I did actually read it at some point.
38 Andromeda Strain. Oddly enough, summer read my freshman year of high school. Why they'd assign a Michael Crichton novel, I have no idea.
52 Frankenstein. Once again for school. I seemed to remember that it showed its age a bit. But this is another one where it's been so long I can't say much intelligent about it.
100 Old Man's War. By relatively new author John Scalzi, who recently became president of the SFWA. This one is military sci-fi in the tradition of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers.
Speaking of Starship Troopers, that's one of the classics I decided I needed to pick up after looking at this list and realizing I had only read 12 of the top 100. I got Starship Troopers, because I figure I need to read at least one Heinlein novel, Asimov's Foundation, and Herbert's Dune. How I managed to avoid these books until now, I don't know. I certainly know of them. But I guess I tended to focus on the fantasy novels as a kid, I never bothered reading some of the sci-fi classics.
Fantasy Books Top 100 (link)
Now here I've read a fair bit.
1 Lord of the Rings. Uh, yeah, it's LOTR. If you don't at least know what this is, go ahead and kill yourself for being culturally illiterate. It was only the second-most-read book of the 20th century after the Bible (so not kidding). Not really my favorite fantasy anymore, but it will always be a classic.
2 Harry Potter. I'm not ashamed to say I read these and enjoyed them. #2 is a good rank for popularity... for literary merit, not so much.
3 The Hobbit. Again, no comment needed, really. I haven't read it in some time, I feel I should give it another look sometime soon.
4 Wheel of Time. I liked these through about book 5. I read through the middle of book 9, then quit in disgust. He just got way too bogged down. I might eventually pick it back up again and finish the series now that it's done, but that's low priority for me.
5 A Song of Ice and Fire. Kick-*** books, end of story. Definitely in my top tier of fantasy books. And now it's going to be an HBO series. Sweet! Now if he'd actually finish the next book that we've been waiting at least 5 years for. Grr...
6 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. 4 of the 5 entries above this one refer to a series of books, and obviously Narnia is a series as well, but for some reason they singled this one out. Hmm. Whatever. I've read them all, but it's been forever. All things considered, I'd rather read LOTR. The Christian allegory is a little too blatant for my tastes here.
7 The Belgariad. Eddings is known most for his humor and light tone. These books aren't afraid to constantly make fun of themselves, which is what makes them so much fun. The plot is banal (country bumpkin-turned sorcerer slays Evil God), but the characters are a blast. Great dialogue in these.
8 Wizard's First Rule. The first of a series of 11 books that starts out well and takes a steep nose-dive halfway through. The first 6 or so are good. The second book is the best. The latter books are so filled with Goodkind's f-ed up politics that I feel it would almost be worth the effort for me to track him down in person just to slap him upside the head.
11 Sword of Shannara. An all-too blatant LOTR ripoff (I mean, let's face it, there's a lot of LOTR ripoffs, but this one is epically similar, Brooks should be sued for copyright infingement). Needless to say, it really shouldn't be this high. I'll admit it was a page-turner, though.
13 The Farseer Trilogy. I discovered Robin Hobb in this thread on the old board, and man am I glad I did. They're possibly my favorite fantasy now. I made my brother read them a few months ago, and he's already re-reading them!
18 The Silmarillion. I actually haven't read the Silmarillion per se, but rather the first two Books of Lost Tales that are basically longer and unedited versions of it. It's actually really cool stuff, even richer than LOTR, but it is quite dense, and often feels like you're reading the Bible in a lot of ways. Archaic language and strange Norse-inspired gods, etc etc.
20 Watership Down. I love this book so much that I buy cheap copies at used books stores when I find them and give them away. It's that good. If you haven't read it, you should.
24 Princess Bride. Picked up the edited version some time after seeing the movie. Funny stuff. Not my favorite book ever, but it held water.
26 American Gods. Meh, Gaiman's good and all, not my favorite, though.
27 A Wrinkle in Time. Already mentioned this one, it was #35 in sci-fi.
31 Animal Farm. Read it for school. Good in a creepy distopian kind of way. I'd say it's somewhat of a stretch to call this "fantasy."
35 Good Omens. Co-written by Gaiman and Pratchett, about an angel and demon who become friends around the coming of the Anti-Christ. Hilarious stuff, they poke all kinds of fun at religion in general.
36 The Malloreon. More David Eddings. Almost as good as the Belgariad (#7, above), but not quite.
37 Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn. Read these years ago, didn't leave a strong impression.
39 Lord of the Flies. *shudders* I think I was required to read this something like 3 separate times throughout my schooling. Why do they inflict this book on children so relentlessly? And again, this is "fantasy"? Umm, sure.
40 Redwall. Brian Jacques pumps out something like one a year of these books, there's something like 20 of them now, all about little anthropomorphic woodland critters like mice and moles who fight the evil stoats and foxes. My brother really likes them (owns them all, I think), and I certainly like them. Mossflower is the best one.
42 Gardens of the Moon. Meh. Didn't really like the style. It is really big and epic and convoluted though, which I usually like.
43 The Odyssey. This is why this list clearly can't be based on merit. And anything written BC probably doesn't belong on a list full of books about people waving wands and throwing fireballs at each other.
45 The Once and Future King. Had to read it for school. Not bad.
50 The Chronicles of Prydain. These are what got me started reading fantasy in the first place. Great stuff, certainly meant for a younger crowd, but they still hold weight. Great character development, great emotion for relatively short and simple books.
52 Beowolf. Riiiiiight. Another book that has no business on this list.
53 Frankenstein. Already mentioned, #52 in sci-fi. Again, kind of a stretch for "fantasy".
58 Death Gate Cycle. Weis & Hickman. These were pretty good, I ended up giving them away, but now I wish I had kept them. Interesting world mechanics.
59 The Name of the Wind. This one is from a very recent author, Patrick Rothfuss. Good one to check out, the second book should be coming soon.
63 A Midsummer Night's Dream. *sigh* Shakespeare? Seriously? I really think this list needs to disqualify anything written before 1800.
77 The Last Unicorn. I'm nostalgic about the animated movie since I loved it as a kid. The book was good, but not really one of my favorites.
80 The Little Prince. A must-read. It's a short book (less than 100 pages) masquerading as a children's book. It's not, really. More like a fairy-tale that gently mocks adults who are a little too cynical for their own good. Forget #80, this should be up around #20 if it's on this list at all, or maybe even higher. I can post a PDF link if anyone's interested.
83 Black Company. Meh. Didn't like it.
88 The Cat in the Hat. One of these is not like the other... I mean, really? The token kids' picture book?
94 Inferno. *facepalm* Whoever thinks this is "fantasy" needs to be struck over the head repeatedly with a piece of heavy mining equipment. This doesn't belong on the list at all, and if it did qualify, it should be a hell of a lot higher.
So I've read 35 out of their top 100 fantasy books. A lot better than the 12 I had for sci-fi. I'm picking up the first book of Thomas Covenant (#25) by Stephen Donaldson off of a recommendation.
Anyway, feel free to list the books you've read, haggle about ranks, or just tell us what you're reading, make recommendations, etc.
EDIT: Updated dead links.
Sci-Fi Books Top 100 (link)
I consider myself a sci-fan fan, but I've actually read depressingly few of these.
1 Ender's Game. Awesome book, probably my favorite sci-fi, except maybe for Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. It's the sci-fi book that even people who don't like sci-fi have to like.
4 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Everyone knows this one. The sequels 2-4 are also good, but avoid book 5, it's just depressing and not even that funny.
5 1984. Forced to read it in high school. Meh.
13 Ringworld. My Dad got me to read this. It was okay, didn't leave a strong impression.
15 Hyperion. The first of a four-books series. Awesome stuff. They're of the huge, dense, convoluted brand of sci-fi. Simmons weaves so much into these it's a wonder they're not all 1,000 pages lonng instead of just 500. These and Ender's Game basically hold a tie as my favorites.
16 Brave New World. Again, had to read it for school. Fun stuff, though.
19 War of the Worlds. Pretty good. Better than the movies they put out, at least.
27 Speaker for the Dead. Not as good as Ender's Game, but Card's sequel is no slouch.
35 A Wrinkle in Time. Read this when I was about 10. I really don't remember it at all, I just know I did actually read it at some point.
38 Andromeda Strain. Oddly enough, summer read my freshman year of high school. Why they'd assign a Michael Crichton novel, I have no idea.
52 Frankenstein. Once again for school. I seemed to remember that it showed its age a bit. But this is another one where it's been so long I can't say much intelligent about it.
100 Old Man's War. By relatively new author John Scalzi, who recently became president of the SFWA. This one is military sci-fi in the tradition of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers.
Speaking of Starship Troopers, that's one of the classics I decided I needed to pick up after looking at this list and realizing I had only read 12 of the top 100. I got Starship Troopers, because I figure I need to read at least one Heinlein novel, Asimov's Foundation, and Herbert's Dune. How I managed to avoid these books until now, I don't know. I certainly know of them. But I guess I tended to focus on the fantasy novels as a kid, I never bothered reading some of the sci-fi classics.
Fantasy Books Top 100 (link)
Now here I've read a fair bit.
1 Lord of the Rings. Uh, yeah, it's LOTR. If you don't at least know what this is, go ahead and kill yourself for being culturally illiterate. It was only the second-most-read book of the 20th century after the Bible (so not kidding). Not really my favorite fantasy anymore, but it will always be a classic.
2 Harry Potter. I'm not ashamed to say I read these and enjoyed them. #2 is a good rank for popularity... for literary merit, not so much.
3 The Hobbit. Again, no comment needed, really. I haven't read it in some time, I feel I should give it another look sometime soon.
4 Wheel of Time. I liked these through about book 5. I read through the middle of book 9, then quit in disgust. He just got way too bogged down. I might eventually pick it back up again and finish the series now that it's done, but that's low priority for me.
5 A Song of Ice and Fire. Kick-*** books, end of story. Definitely in my top tier of fantasy books. And now it's going to be an HBO series. Sweet! Now if he'd actually finish the next book that we've been waiting at least 5 years for. Grr...
6 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. 4 of the 5 entries above this one refer to a series of books, and obviously Narnia is a series as well, but for some reason they singled this one out. Hmm. Whatever. I've read them all, but it's been forever. All things considered, I'd rather read LOTR. The Christian allegory is a little too blatant for my tastes here.
7 The Belgariad. Eddings is known most for his humor and light tone. These books aren't afraid to constantly make fun of themselves, which is what makes them so much fun. The plot is banal (country bumpkin-turned sorcerer slays Evil God), but the characters are a blast. Great dialogue in these.
8 Wizard's First Rule. The first of a series of 11 books that starts out well and takes a steep nose-dive halfway through. The first 6 or so are good. The second book is the best. The latter books are so filled with Goodkind's f-ed up politics that I feel it would almost be worth the effort for me to track him down in person just to slap him upside the head.
11 Sword of Shannara. An all-too blatant LOTR ripoff (I mean, let's face it, there's a lot of LOTR ripoffs, but this one is epically similar, Brooks should be sued for copyright infingement). Needless to say, it really shouldn't be this high. I'll admit it was a page-turner, though.
13 The Farseer Trilogy. I discovered Robin Hobb in this thread on the old board, and man am I glad I did. They're possibly my favorite fantasy now. I made my brother read them a few months ago, and he's already re-reading them!
18 The Silmarillion. I actually haven't read the Silmarillion per se, but rather the first two Books of Lost Tales that are basically longer and unedited versions of it. It's actually really cool stuff, even richer than LOTR, but it is quite dense, and often feels like you're reading the Bible in a lot of ways. Archaic language and strange Norse-inspired gods, etc etc.
20 Watership Down. I love this book so much that I buy cheap copies at used books stores when I find them and give them away. It's that good. If you haven't read it, you should.
24 Princess Bride. Picked up the edited version some time after seeing the movie. Funny stuff. Not my favorite book ever, but it held water.
26 American Gods. Meh, Gaiman's good and all, not my favorite, though.
27 A Wrinkle in Time. Already mentioned this one, it was #35 in sci-fi.
31 Animal Farm. Read it for school. Good in a creepy distopian kind of way. I'd say it's somewhat of a stretch to call this "fantasy."
35 Good Omens. Co-written by Gaiman and Pratchett, about an angel and demon who become friends around the coming of the Anti-Christ. Hilarious stuff, they poke all kinds of fun at religion in general.
36 The Malloreon. More David Eddings. Almost as good as the Belgariad (#7, above), but not quite.
37 Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn. Read these years ago, didn't leave a strong impression.
39 Lord of the Flies. *shudders* I think I was required to read this something like 3 separate times throughout my schooling. Why do they inflict this book on children so relentlessly? And again, this is "fantasy"? Umm, sure.
40 Redwall. Brian Jacques pumps out something like one a year of these books, there's something like 20 of them now, all about little anthropomorphic woodland critters like mice and moles who fight the evil stoats and foxes. My brother really likes them (owns them all, I think), and I certainly like them. Mossflower is the best one.
42 Gardens of the Moon. Meh. Didn't really like the style. It is really big and epic and convoluted though, which I usually like.
43 The Odyssey. This is why this list clearly can't be based on merit. And anything written BC probably doesn't belong on a list full of books about people waving wands and throwing fireballs at each other.
45 The Once and Future King. Had to read it for school. Not bad.
50 The Chronicles of Prydain. These are what got me started reading fantasy in the first place. Great stuff, certainly meant for a younger crowd, but they still hold weight. Great character development, great emotion for relatively short and simple books.
52 Beowolf. Riiiiiight. Another book that has no business on this list.
53 Frankenstein. Already mentioned, #52 in sci-fi. Again, kind of a stretch for "fantasy".
58 Death Gate Cycle. Weis & Hickman. These were pretty good, I ended up giving them away, but now I wish I had kept them. Interesting world mechanics.
59 The Name of the Wind. This one is from a very recent author, Patrick Rothfuss. Good one to check out, the second book should be coming soon.
63 A Midsummer Night's Dream. *sigh* Shakespeare? Seriously? I really think this list needs to disqualify anything written before 1800.
77 The Last Unicorn. I'm nostalgic about the animated movie since I loved it as a kid. The book was good, but not really one of my favorites.
80 The Little Prince. A must-read. It's a short book (less than 100 pages) masquerading as a children's book. It's not, really. More like a fairy-tale that gently mocks adults who are a little too cynical for their own good. Forget #80, this should be up around #20 if it's on this list at all, or maybe even higher. I can post a PDF link if anyone's interested.
83 Black Company. Meh. Didn't like it.
88 The Cat in the Hat. One of these is not like the other... I mean, really? The token kids' picture book?
94 Inferno. *facepalm* Whoever thinks this is "fantasy" needs to be struck over the head repeatedly with a piece of heavy mining equipment. This doesn't belong on the list at all, and if it did qualify, it should be a hell of a lot higher.
So I've read 35 out of their top 100 fantasy books. A lot better than the 12 I had for sci-fi. I'm picking up the first book of Thomas Covenant (#25) by Stephen Donaldson off of a recommendation.
Anyway, feel free to list the books you've read, haggle about ranks, or just tell us what you're reading, make recommendations, etc.
EDIT: Updated dead links.
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