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34 books
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6 voters
Sff Books
Showing 1-50 of 44,793
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
by (shelved 351 times as sff)
avg rating 4.12 — 353,444 ratings — published 2017
The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1)
by (shelved 338 times as sff)
avg rating 4.29 — 326,143 ratings — published 2015
This Is How You Lose the Time War (ebook)
by (shelved 306 times as sff)
avg rating 3.85 — 321,737 ratings — published 2019
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (Paperback)
by (shelved 293 times as sff)
avg rating 4.30 — 4,400,161 ratings — published 1937
Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)
by (shelved 292 times as sff)
avg rating 4.19 — 178,035 ratings — published 2019
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
by (shelved 273 times as sff)
avg rating 4.45 — 2,703,174 ratings — published 1996
The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
by (shelved 260 times as sff)
avg rating 4.40 — 3,099,205 ratings — published 1954
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter, #1)
by (shelved 251 times as sff)
avg rating 4.47 — 11,226,407 ratings — published 1997
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)
by (shelved 244 times as sff)
avg rating 4.17 — 180,561 ratings — published 2014
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 236 times as sff)
avg rating 4.25 — 817,618 ratings — published 1990
The Left Hand of Darkness (Paperback)
by (shelved 236 times as sff)
avg rating 4.10 — 215,252 ratings — published 1969
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)
by (shelved 233 times as sff)
avg rating 4.22 — 1,992,584 ratings — published 1979
The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)
by (shelved 227 times as sff)
avg rating 4.17 — 454,625 ratings — published 2018
American Gods: Tenth Anniversary (American Gods, #1)
by (shelved 221 times as sff)
avg rating 4.10 — 985,050 ratings — published 2001
Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)
by (shelved 219 times as sff)
avg rating 3.99 — 117,278 ratings — published 2013
Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)
by (shelved 218 times as sff)
avg rating 4.20 — 252,007 ratings — published 1993
A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1)
by (shelved 216 times as sff)
avg rating 4.01 — 355,021 ratings — published 1968
The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
by (shelved 215 times as sff)
avg rating 4.35 — 9,740,098 ratings — published 2008
Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)
by (shelved 214 times as sff)
avg rating 4.49 — 935,989 ratings — published 2006
A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1)
by (shelved 213 times as sff)
avg rating 4.04 — 424,012 ratings — published 2015
The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)
by (shelved 212 times as sff)
avg rating 4.08 — 477,769 ratings — published 2006
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)
by (shelved 210 times as sff)
avg rating 4.43 — 4,417,194 ratings — published 1998
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)
by (shelved 209 times as sff)
avg rating 4.57 — 4,129,726 ratings — published 2000
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)
by (shelved 209 times as sff)
avg rating 4.62 — 4,058,870 ratings — published 2007
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)
by (shelved 209 times as sff)
avg rating 4.58 — 4,755,955 ratings — published 1999
The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2)
by (shelved 207 times as sff)
avg rating 4.29 — 192,388 ratings — published 2016
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
by (shelved 207 times as sff)
avg rating 4.58 — 3,609,429 ratings — published 2005
Piranesi (Hardcover)
by (shelved 205 times as sff)
avg rating 4.22 — 438,093 ratings — published 2020
The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)
by (shelved 205 times as sff)
avg rating 4.03 — 1,605,352 ratings — published 1995
Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
by (shelved 203 times as sff)
avg rating 4.25 — 204,989 ratings — published 2018
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)
by (shelved 202 times as sff)
avg rating 4.50 — 3,742,173 ratings — published 2003
A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
by (shelved 201 times as sff)
avg rating 4.11 — 70,270 ratings — published 2019
The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)
by (shelved 199 times as sff)
avg rating 4.52 — 1,066,533 ratings — published 2007
Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)
by (shelved 199 times as sff)
avg rating 4.31 — 1,462,062 ratings — published 1985
Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)
by (shelved 196 times as sff)
avg rating 4.46 — 1,128,757 ratings — published 2015
Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1)
by (shelved 188 times as sff)
avg rating 4.19 — 389,698 ratings — published 1995
The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)
by (shelved 187 times as sff)
avg rating 4.50 — 1,104,670 ratings — published 1954
The Martian (Hardcover)
by (shelved 186 times as sff)
avg rating 4.42 — 1,262,923 ratings — published 2011
Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)
by (shelved 182 times as sff)
avg rating 3.79 — 292,296 ratings — published 2014
The High Auction (Wisdom Revolution, #1)
by (shelved 180 times as sff)
avg rating 4.69 — 16,546 ratings — published 2021
The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)
by (shelved 178 times as sff)
avg rating 4.58 — 1,022,704 ratings — published 1955
The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, #3)
by (shelved 174 times as sff)
avg rating 4.33 — 163,539 ratings — published 2017
The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1)
by (shelved 173 times as sff)
avg rating 4.17 — 270,995 ratings — published 2019
Fahrenheit 451 (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 173 times as sff)
avg rating 3.97 — 2,774,718 ratings — published 1953
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Paperback)
by (shelved 171 times as sff)
avg rating 3.87 — 252,675 ratings — published 2004
Station Eleven (Hardcover)
by (shelved 171 times as sff)
avg rating 4.07 — 602,013 ratings — published 2014
Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)
by (shelved 170 times as sff)
avg rating 4.24 — 164,178 ratings — published 2018
A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)
by (shelved 170 times as sff)
avg rating 4.42 — 1,010,711 ratings — published 1998
“How can so many (white, male) writers narratively justify restricting the agency of their female characters on the grounds of sexism = authenticity while simultaneously writing male characters with conveniently modern values?
The habit of authors writing Sexism Without Sexists in genre novels is seemingly pathological. Women are stuffed in the fridge under cover of "authenticity" by secondary characters and villains because too many authors flinch from the "authenticity" of sexist male protagonists. Which means the yardstick for "authenticity" in such novels almost always ends up being "how much do the women suffer", instead of - as might also be the case - "how sexist are the heroes".
And this bugs me; because if authors can stretch their imaginations far enough to envisage the presence of modern-minded men in the fake Middle Ages, then why can't they stretch them that little bit further to put in modern-minded women, or modern-minded social values? It strikes me as being extremely convenient that the one universally permitted exception to this species of "authenticity" is one that makes the male heroes look noble while still mandating that the women be downtrodden and in need of rescuing.
-Comment at Staffer's Book Review 4/18/2012 to "Michael J. Sullivan on Character Agency ”
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The habit of authors writing Sexism Without Sexists in genre novels is seemingly pathological. Women are stuffed in the fridge under cover of "authenticity" by secondary characters and villains because too many authors flinch from the "authenticity" of sexist male protagonists. Which means the yardstick for "authenticity" in such novels almost always ends up being "how much do the women suffer", instead of - as might also be the case - "how sexist are the heroes".
And this bugs me; because if authors can stretch their imaginations far enough to envisage the presence of modern-minded men in the fake Middle Ages, then why can't they stretch them that little bit further to put in modern-minded women, or modern-minded social values? It strikes me as being extremely convenient that the one universally permitted exception to this species of "authenticity" is one that makes the male heroes look noble while still mandating that the women be downtrodden and in need of rescuing.
-Comment at Staffer's Book Review 4/18/2012 to "Michael J. Sullivan on Character Agency ”
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“We have so long been subject to external criticism that we don’t know how to react to internal criticism, because whereas the most enduring, positive and sensible response to the former is a united front – you shall not divide us, here we stand – responding to the latter is an entirely different ballgame.
This is my fear: that as a community, we don’t know how to critique ourselves, and that this is dong us damage. Criticism, and specifically the criticism of both literary publications and the mainstream press, has so long been the weapon of the enemy that our first response on seeing it wielded internally is to call it the work of traitors. We have found strength in the creation of our own conventions and the hallowing of our own legends, flourishing to such an extent that, even if we are not yet accepted into the mainstream literary establishment, we are nonetheless part of the cultural mainstream. We are written about inaccurately, yet we are written about; and if there ever was a time when the whole genre seemed a precarious, faddish endeavour, then that time is surely past.
Blog post: Criticism in SFF and YA”
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This is my fear: that as a community, we don’t know how to critique ourselves, and that this is dong us damage. Criticism, and specifically the criticism of both literary publications and the mainstream press, has so long been the weapon of the enemy that our first response on seeing it wielded internally is to call it the work of traitors. We have found strength in the creation of our own conventions and the hallowing of our own legends, flourishing to such an extent that, even if we are not yet accepted into the mainstream literary establishment, we are nonetheless part of the cultural mainstream. We are written about inaccurately, yet we are written about; and if there ever was a time when the whole genre seemed a precarious, faddish endeavour, then that time is surely past.
Blog post: Criticism in SFF and YA”
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