Really great sci-fi (and fantasy too)

[resonant]

In further response to Phobos' Index of 100 Science Fiction Books You Just Have To Read.

Let's not get into sci-fi vs. fantasy. Let's not get into "best" vs. "favorite." Let's not limit ourselves to the number 100 just because (as Dogbert says) it's biiiiiig and roooooound. Let's just say:

A whole bunch of works of speculative fiction that I liked really quite a lot.

* speculative fiction = fantasy, sci-fi, alternate history, horror, ghost stories, and everything else set in the World That Amost Is.



'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
1984 by George Orwell
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Mirror for Observers by Edgar Pangborn
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Adulthood Rite by Alexei Panshin
Always Coming Home by Ursula LeGuin
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Babel 17 by Samuel Delany
Becoming Alien by Rebecca Ore
Borderland by Terri Windling
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
Dawn by Octavia Butler
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint
Dune by Frank Herbert
Empire Star by Samuel Delany
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Half Magic by Edward Eager
Little, Big by John Crowley
Lost in a Good Book by Jaspar Fforde
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Mistress Masham's Repose by T.H. White
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Prentice Alvin by Orson Scott Card
Queen of Angels by Greg Bear
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
short stories of Harlan Ellison
Short stories of James Tiptree, Jr.
short stories of Neil Gaiman
short stories of Shirley Jackson
Short stories of Theodore Sturgeon
short stories of Zenna Henderson
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
Stranger In a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
The Absolute At Large by Karel Capek
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
the Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein
The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers
the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
The Firebrand, by Marian Zimmer Bradley.
The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick
The Ladies of Mandrigyn by Barbara Hambly
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The October Country by Ray Bradbury
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Snow Queen by Joan Vinge
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Sun and the Moon by Vonda McIntyre
The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
War with the Newts by Karel Capek
Watership Down by Richard Adams
We by Evgeny Zamyatin
Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (Don't look at me like that. If toys talk, it's speculative.)
Wolfsbane by Frederick Pohl
Wyrms by Orson Scott Card (despite the stupid title)



I got a lot of ideas from David Pringle's lists (fantasy and sci-fi).

And I'm sure I've forgotten something fabulous, so why not put your own additions in your LJ?

Comments

[china_shop]

Yay Connie Willis! Yay Tove Jansson! :)

Admittedly I haven't heard of about half of these, and have probably read less than a dozen. [checks] Fifteen. :) So don't really feel qualified, but may I also suggest Archer's Goon, Fire and Hemlock, and Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones, and The Changeover by Margaret Mahy? All excellent young adults' fiction.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I've read a Mahy, but I don't think it was that one. The Trickster, maybe?

[writes down the rest]

[trickofthedark.livejournal.com]

Adulthood Rite by Alexei Panshin

I have a book called Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin that I love. Different titles for different editions, but same book? Girl in ducts of city spaceship?

[panisdead.livejournal.com]

I love that book. Glad to see someone else who does as well.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oops -- you're right. "Adulthood Rite" is the sequel to Octavia Butler's "Dawn" and "Imago," which are also very good.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

CONNIE WILLIS!!!!

[atropos-lee.livejournal.com]

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (Don't look at me like that. If toys talk, it's speculative.)

Ah, but when we were six, if the toys talked,it wasn't speculative, it was reportage...

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

JOHN CROWLEY!!!!

squeee.

[simplelyric.livejournal.com]

Have you read Neverwhere, or Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I liked "Neverwhere" very much -- should have remembered that.

The Nightrunner series I'm less enthusiastic about, though I don't remember it in detail. I do know that if there hadn't been that nice slashy relationship at the center of it, I wouldn't have made it through all three volumes. (I abandoned "The Bone Doll's Twin" about two-thirds of the way through.)

[simplelyric.livejournal.com]

Ah. Well, since you liked Neverwhere, you might also enjoy The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, by Chris Wooding. While not quite as good as the former is, the latter is still a worthwhile read.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I've added it to my list!

[persephone-il.livejournal.com]

May I second the vote for Barry Hughart? Why, I do believe I can. Story of the Stone was nice, too, if not as good.

[joannindiw.livejournal.com]

Have you read any of the liaden novels by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee? (Agent of Change, .... I'm blanking, like an idiot. They're at www.korval.com).

Or Fire Logic and Earth Logic?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Hm. Those are all new to me. [writes them down on the library list]

[serpentsgarden.livejournal.com]

Yay, Zenna Henderson! Very underappreciated. SInce I'm incapable of seeing a post about favorite SF/F titles and not reading it and reccing some additions...

I'm also a fan of the Liaden books, 'cause I like a good, rousing Space Opera. The Miller /Lee team have developed a highly complicated universe that rewards rereading. Lois McMaster Bujold also writes that sub-genre and is highly witty and enjoyable.

My list would include Janet Kagan, whose book, Hellspark, deals with issues of sentience / sapience and is laugh-out-loud funny. Her other great title is Mirabile, and is unfortunately out-of-print but has some interesting concepts about ecology and genetic mutation. It is worth tracking down. You might be able to interlibrary loan it at your local library, if you were interested.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs!