,

Vote for your favorite science fiction series of novels (three published books in the sequence minimum).

To help keep things organized, vote only for the first book in the series, or an omnibus edition that includes the first book.

Note that books will be removed if they do not follow these guidelines.

For the fantasy version of this list, go here

Removed: Dark Tower (on the fantasy list)
1

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2

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4.42 avg rating — 108,334 ratings
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3

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4.38 avg rating — 337,552 ratings
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4.49 avg rating — 4,245 ratings
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5

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4.44 avg rating — 4,156 ratings
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6

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4.16 avg rating — 1,145 ratings
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7

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4.21 avg rating — 377,332 ratings
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8

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4.23 avg rating — 222,774 ratings
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9

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4.18 avg rating — 335,084 ratings
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10

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3.94 avg rating — 128,560 ratings
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11

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3.85 avg rating — 100,073 ratings
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12

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4.35 avg rating — 9,817,562 ratings
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13

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4.12 avg rating — 183,237 ratings
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14

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4.14 avg rating — 48,794 ratings
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15

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3.86 avg rating — 88,396 ratings
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16

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4.12 avg rating — 38,003 ratings
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17

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4.23 avg rating — 273,313 ratings
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18

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3.99 avg rating — 61,452 ratings
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19

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4.31 avg rating — 315,829 ratings
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20

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3.89 avg rating — 362,153 ratings
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21

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4.04 avg rating — 114,561 ratings
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22

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4.23 avg rating — 53,667 ratings
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23

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4.06 avg rating — 47,394 ratings
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24

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3.69 avg rating — 27,623 ratings
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25

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3.93 avg rating — 33,673 ratings
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26

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4.14 avg rating — 179,755 ratings
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27

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4.13 avg rating — 66,382 ratings
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28

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4.17 avg rating — 16,803 ratings
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29

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4.24 avg rating — 4,681 ratings
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30

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4.21 avg rating — 1,071 ratings
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31

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4.33 avg rating — 14,423 ratings
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32

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4.08 avg rating — 143,463 ratings
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33

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4.07 avg rating — 72,899 ratings
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34

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3.92 avg rating — 16,615 ratings
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35

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3.45 avg rating — 636 ratings
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36

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3.98 avg rating — 75,129 ratings
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37

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3.81 avg rating — 60,358 ratings
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38

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4.04 avg rating — 32,285 ratings
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39

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3.71 avg rating — 11,012 ratings
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40

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4.22 avg rating — 2,005,126 ratings
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41

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 16,267 ratings
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42

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3.86 avg rating — 6,742 ratings
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43

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3.97 avg rating — 33,703 ratings
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44

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4.37 avg rating — 21,884 ratings
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45

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3.92 avg rating — 10,910 ratings
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46

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3.92 avg rating — 6,681 ratings
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47

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3.83 avg rating — 10,261 ratings
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48

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4.05 avg rating — 60,687 ratings
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49

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4.40 avg rating — 43 ratings
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50

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4.31 avg rating — 1,468,558 ratings
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51

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3.96 avg rating — 12,758 ratings
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52

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4.28 avg rating — 65 ratings
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53

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3.99 avg rating — 118,409 ratings
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54

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3.90 avg rating — 16,382 ratings
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55

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3.78 avg rating — 7,164 ratings
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56

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3.93 avg rating — 28,727 ratings
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57

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3.97 avg rating — 4,943 ratings
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58

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4.42 avg rating — 2,979 ratings
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59

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3.80 avg rating — 13,875 ratings
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60

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3.86 avg rating — 7,710 ratings
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61

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4.03 avg rating — 64,552 ratings
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62

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4.14 avg rating — 12,742 ratings
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63

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3.99 avg rating — 8,931 ratings
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64

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3.82 avg rating — 8,477 ratings
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65

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3.88 avg rating — 26,704 ratings
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66

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4.14 avg rating — 5,501 ratings
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67

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3.89 avg rating — 27,190 ratings
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68

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4.39 avg rating — 6,650 ratings
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69

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3.84 avg rating — 706,699 ratings
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70

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4.27 avg rating — 296,157 ratings
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71

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3.83 avg rating — 7,240 ratings
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72

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3.91 avg rating — 2,322 ratings
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73

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3.94 avg rating — 9,418 ratings
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74

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4.27 avg rating — 745,373 ratings
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75

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3.98 avg rating — 242 ratings
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76

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4.14 avg rating — 21,925 ratings
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77

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3.85 avg rating — 3,720 ratings
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78

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4.17 avg rating — 183,353 ratings
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79

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4.17 avg rating — 9,535 ratings
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80

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3.60 avg rating — 17,057 ratings
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81

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4.30 avg rating — 8,062 ratings
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82

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3.84 avg rating — 16,069 ratings
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83

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4.07 avg rating — 3,360 ratings
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84

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3.92 avg rating — 17,785 ratings
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85

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4.20 avg rating — 4,304 ratings
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86

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4.04 avg rating — 26,469 ratings
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87

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4.03 avg rating — 5,570 ratings
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88

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4.37 avg rating — 1,492 ratings
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89

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4.32 avg rating — 179,493 ratings
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90

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3.92 avg rating — 3,346 ratings
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91

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4.19 avg rating — 12,121 ratings
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92

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3.98 avg rating — 203,809 ratings
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93

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3.98 avg rating — 2,062,690 ratings
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94

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4.29 avg rating — 1,614,316 ratings
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95

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3.66 avg rating — 101 ratings
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95

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3.90 avg rating — 29 ratings
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97

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3.74 avg rating — 16,301 ratings
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98

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3.89 avg rating — 6,458 ratings
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99

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4.12 avg rating — 362,644 ratings
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100

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4.19 avg rating — 111,579 ratings
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414 books · 1,091 voters · list created July 12th, 2009 by Greyweather (votes) .
170 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Greyweather 2660 books
65 friends
Mark 115 books
7 friends
Shivz 180 books
3 friends
Dad 4 books
1 friend
Cecile 725 books
9 friends
Ralph 2300 books
53 friends
Ralph 705 books
1 friend
Kwing (Mook) 1259 books
18 friends

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Comments Showing 1-23 of 23 (23 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Greyweather (last edited Jul 12, 2009 05:21PM) (new)

Greyweather Downbelow Station was the first of the Company Wars novels published, and is the most famous, so it is listed instead of the prequel Heavy Time.

Same logic used in picking Neal Asher's Gridlinked over Prador Moon.


message 2: by Heather (new)

Heather The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson should be on this list as it is such a though-provoking romp. :)


message 3: by Greyweather (new)

Greyweather Is it sci-fi? I was under the impression The Baroque Cycle was historical fiction.


message 4: by C-tim (new)

C-tim For what it's worth the Baroque Cycle is sold in the SF section of books stores. But how is Snow Crash part of a series?


message 5: by Terry (new)

Terry John Varley's Gaea Trilogy - Titan, Wizard, Demon - needs to be on this list.


message 6: by Anastasia (new)

Anastasia True Game = science fiction?


message 7: by Anastasia (new)

Anastasia Is "The Handmaid's Tale" part of a series? I didn't think so. Can I delete?


message 8: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman There are a number of books on this list that are not series including - Diamond Age, Snow Crash, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, The Graveyard Book - and should be removed.


message 9: by Andrey (new)

Andrey Why in the world is Hunger Games so highly ranked? Arthur C Clarke, at least in my opinion, is a better writer by a thousand times than Collins is, and yet he is ranked so low! I know HG was a big hit and they were light, fun reads. But...we are talking about the best series of all time. That is something that HG is not. Not by a long shot.


message 10: by Amy (new)

Amy Petty I don't understand why The Hunger Games is classified as a sci fi novel. I see it as a YA dystopia, perhaps speculative fiction, but not really seeing the sci-fi bit.


message 11: by Amy (new)

Amy Petty Andrey wrote: "Why in the world is Hunger Games so highly ranked? Arthur C Clarke, at least in my opinion, is a better writer by a thousand times than Collins is, and yet he is ranked so low! I know HG was a big ..."

What makes something the best is purely subjective. I enjoyed Hunger Games but would agree that it's not the best book ever.

I do have to question what you mean by "light" read. I would consider Terry Pratchett's satire novels from the Discworld series light. The Hunger Games may not be quite so deep, dark, and compelling as other titles, but that doesn't make it light.


message 12: by Tim (new)

Tim Coyle Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns, starting with Hidden Empire. Seven of the most exciting books around. Better prose than the Honor Herrington books, and FUN all the way.


message 13: by Tim (new)

Tim Coyle Hidden Empire


message 14: by Tetrachromat (new)

Tetrachromat Feersum Enjinn and Century Rain are stand alone novels. Good ones, too. They aren't part of any series however.


message 15: by Rose (new)

Rose Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is on there twice - currently as 40 and 64


message 16: by Greyweather (new)

Greyweather Rose wrote: "Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is on there twice - currently as 40 and 64"

I removed the lower ranked one. They couldn't be combined because one was a box set.


message 17: by Greg (new)

Greg So how does a new series get on there? I loved some of these for sure; The Culture Series, The forever War, Hitchhikers Guide. But some have been around for so long. I'm currently loving the Regan's Reach series and hanging out for the next book. I guess being discovered is the biggest challenge for any series.


message 18: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Greg wrote: "So how does a new series get on there? I loved some of these for sure; The Culture Series, The forever War, Hitchhikers Guide. But some have been around for so long. I'm currently loving the Regan'..."

The way a new series gets on this list is, you click the [add books to this list] button.

The way a new series gets added to goodreads is a librarian doing some associating.


message 19: by Greg (new)

Greg Cheers :-) The joys of working mostly with my IPhone screen lol. Have a great day.


message 20: by Greg (new)

Greg Tim wrote: "Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns, starting with Hidden Empire. Seven of the most exciting books around. Better prose than the Honor Herrington books, and FUN all the way."

Agreed :-)


message 21: by Kobus (last edited Jun 09, 2016 04:29AM) (new)

Kobus Tim wrote: "Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns, starting with Hidden Empire. Seven of the most exciting books around. Better prose than the Honor Herrington books, and FUN all the way."

The first few books were enjoyable, but after that I just stopped caring for the characters. Too long, too shallow plots, too ...


message 22: by Sean (last edited May 12, 2020 11:45AM) (new)

Sean To help keep things organized, vote only for the first book in the series, or an omnibus edition that includes the first book.

Fall of Hyperion can be removed from the first page because it's the second book of the series.


message 23: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Sean wrote: " To help keep things organized, vote only for the first book in the series, or an omnibus edition that includes the first book.

Fall of Hyperion can be removed from the first page because it's t..."


removed


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