thisrecording.com 100 Greatest Science Fiction or Fantasy Novels of All Time

110 Works 1,324,083 Books 24,796 Reviews 4.1
What to read? It is a question asked mostly by women, who comprise the majority of America's reading public. Males make up some teensy other part. Either sex is challenged by a lack of a path show more through difficult material. It is difficult to know what is best. Although many have made a distinction between the fantasy and science fiction fields, I see no reason to arbitrary draw such a lien. The novels I find I most enjoy straddle the boundaries of the two, which is not to say that hard science fiction and pure fantasy don't retain their pleasures, and many books characterized at such found their way to this list. At the nexus of the two genres is where the human imagination begins to reveal frightful and hopeful things about our own society. Sometimes I will come across someone reading what looks to me like a really boring book; e.g. anything by F. Scott Fitzgerald or James Patterson or Bill Bryson. Instead look to the vast store of cheap entertainment found in these immemorial classics of the page. http://thisrecording.com/today/2010/1/18/in-which-we-count-down-the-100-greatest-science-fiction-or-f.html show less
WorkOrder Label
Nightside the Long Sun (1993) by Gene Wolfe
1.1
Lake of the Long Sun (1994) by Gene Wolfe
1.2
Caldé of the Long Sun (1994) by Gene Wolfe
1.3
Exodus from the Long Sun (1996) by Gene Wolfe
1.4
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966) by Robert A. Heinlein
2
The Dying Earth (1950) by Jack Vance
3.1
The Dispossessed (1974) by Ursula K. Le Guin
4
Tigana (1990) by Guy Gavriel Kay
5
Frankenstein (2022) by Mary Shelley
6
Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley
7
The Shadow of the Torturer (1980) by Gene Wolfe
8.1
The Claw of the Conciliator (1981) by Gene Wolfe
8.2
The Sword of the Lictor (1981) by Gene Wolfe
8.3
The Citadel of The Autarch (1982) by Gene Wolfe
8.4
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) by Ursula K. Le Guin
9
A Clockwork Orange (1962) by Anthony Burgess
10
Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert
11
Planet of Adventure (1980) by Jack Vance
12
The Lord of the Rings (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien
13
All My Sins Remembered (1977) by Joe Haldeman
14
The Man in the High Castle (1962) by Philip K. Dick
15
The Master and Margarita (1966) by Mikhail Bulgakov
16
The Summer Tree (1984) by Guy Gavriel Kay
17.1
Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) by Robert A. Heinlein
18
Stranger in a Strange Land (Uncut Edition) (1991) by Robert A. Heinlein
18
A Game of Thrones (1996) by George R. R. Martin
19.1
A Game of Thrones / A Clash of Kings / A Storm of Swords / A Feast of Crows / A Dance with Dragons (1996) by George R. R. Martin
19.1
The Fifth Head of Cerberus (1972) by Gene Wolfe
20
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by L. Frank Baum
21
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll
22
Lost Horizon (1933) by James Hilton
23
Araminta Station (1987) by Jack Vance
24.1
I Am Legend (1954) by Richard Matheson
25
1984 (1949) by George Orwell
26
Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury
27
More Than Human (1953) by Theodore Sturgeon
28
Pale Fire (1962) by Vladimir Nabokov
29
A Fire upon the Deep (1992) by Vernor Vinge
30
A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L'Engle
31
Citizen of the Galaxy (1957) by Robert A. Heinlein
32
Hyperion (1989) by Dan Simmons
33.1
Ubik (1966) by Philip K. Dick
34
True Names and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier (2001) by Vernor Vinge
35
Starship Troopers (1959) by Robert A. Heinlein
36
Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden (1983) by Jack Vance
37.1
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut
38
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams
39
A Scanner Darkly (1977) by Philip K. Dick
41
Farmer in the Sky (1950) by Robert A. Heinlein
42
The War of the Worlds (1898) by H. G. Wells
44
Alastor (1978) by Jack Vance
45
Quicksilver (2003) by Neal Stephenson
46.1
Ender's Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card
47
The Killing Machine (1964) by Jack Vance
48
The Fountainhead (1943) by Ayn Rand
49
The Knight (2004) by Gene Wolfe
50.1
The Wizard (2004) by Gene Wolfe
50.2
A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) by Ursula K. Le Guin
51.1
The Tombs of Atuan (1970) by Ursula K. Le Guin
51.2
The Farthest Shore (1972) by Ursula K. Le Guin
51.3
Foundation (1951) by Isaac Asimov
52
The Forever War (1974) by Joe Haldeman
53
On Blue's Waters (1999) by Gene Wolfe
54.1
In Green's Jungles (2000) by Gene Wolfe
54.2
Return to the Whorl (2001) by Gene Wolfe
54.3
Gravity's Rainbow (1973) by Thomas Pynchon
55
Cat's Cradle (1963) by Kurt Vonnegut
56
The Hobbit (1937) by J. R. R. Tolkien
57
Nightwings (1969) by Robert Silverberg
58
Forever Peace (1997) by Joe Haldeman
59
The Eye of the World (1990) by Robert Jordan
60
The Book of Knights (1998) by Yves Meynard
61
Wildlife (1994) by James Patrick Kelly
62
Flowers for Algernon (1966) by Daniel Keyes
63
At the Mountains of Madness [novella] (1936) by H. P. Lovecraft
64
A Song for Lya [novella] (1974) by George R. R. Martin
65
The High Crusade (1960) by Poul Anderson
66
The Diamond Age (1995) by Neal Stephenson
67
The Gods Themselves (1972) by Isaac Asimov
68
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1970) by Philip K. Dick
69
The Martian Chronicles (1950) by Ray Bradbury
70
The Mists of Avalon (1982) by Marion Zimmer Bradley
71
Maske: Thaery (1976) by Jack Vance
72
Old Man's War (2005) by John Scalzi
73.1
Schismatrix (1985) by Bruce Sterling
74
Ringworld (1970) by Larry Niven
75
Rendezvous With Rama (1973) by Arthur C. Clarke
76
Free Live Free (1984) by Gene Wolfe
77
Altered Carbon (2002) by Richard K. Morgan
78
Griffin's Egg [short fiction] (1990) by Michael Swanwick
79
Watership Down (1972) by Richard Adams
80
The Anubis Gates (1983) by Tim Powers
81
The Alteration (1976) by Kingsley Amis
83
Fevre Dream (1982) by George R. R. Martin
84
Sphere (1971) by Michael Crichton
85
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1955) by Walter M. Miller Jr.
86
Speaker for the Dead (1986) by Orson Scott Card
87
Song of Kali (1985) by Dan Simmons
88
Swordspoint (1987) by Ellen Kushner
89
Camp Concentration (1968) by Thomas M. Disch
90
Danny the Champion of the World (1975) by Roald Dahl
91
Jurassic Park (1990) by Michael Crichton
92
An Evil Guest (2008) by Gene Wolfe
93
The Company (2008) by K. J. Parker
94
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (2004) by Susanna Clarke
95
Snow Crash (1992) by Neal Stephenson
96
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1964) by Philip K. Dick
97
Beggars in Spain (1993) by Nancy Kress
98
Sorcerer's Son (1979) by Phyllis Eisenstein
99
The Word for World is Forest (1972) by Ursula K. Le Guin
100

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