Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library discussion

What is your BEST EVER SciFi book? I, personally, have read a few thousand, but the one single book that sticks in my memory is:

NERVES by Lester Del Rey

OK, I admit that I read that (originally) back when atomic power was becoming a public discussion point (looks like it might be again too) and a few times since then, but it just flat has stuck in my mind for many decades now.

OK, single BEST EVER book: "The Wind in the Willows." Read it as a high school sophomore, didn't want it to end! As far as best S-F book ever, it would be a toss-up between "Stranger in a Strange Land" and Clifford D. Simak's "Way Station."

Oh, so many Heinlein books to choose from. How about "Starship Trooper" (NOT THE MOVIE!!!)?

If not that, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"?

Best ever? Ever?

That is a tough question and would have gotten different answers at different times in my life. But, since the year 2000 it's a tie between Altered Carbon, The Skinner and The Scar.

On The Beach.

Mine would definitely be something by Arthur C. Clarke, but I can't choose just one, so on any given day, one of these...

The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter
The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke

Tough question. Dune by Frank Herbert is right up there and a definite desert island book I could re - read over and over but Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is pretty great.

Uggh, hardest question EVER! It's tough to chose between an Alastair Reynolds book or few and a few Neal Asher books, but the real top for me is probably any of the Malazan Books of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. The first bookGardens of the Moon rocked my world and I couldn't put one of the series down for a second. Too bad it's way to large for an omnibus version. hehe

dude, you cannot ask that question. it's like choosing between your children!

i agree but maybe the maximum ride series, divergent series, Percy Jackson, or Fire within.

I can't name a single "best" book; there are just too many great ones and their merits are so distinctive that you really can't do an apples-to-apples comparison. that said, I have favorites from the old days like Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" series all the way up to "The Hunger Games." Bearing that in mind, here are a few all-time favorites:

Logan's Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
Hothouse by Brian Aldiss
Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny
The Twenty Palaces Series by Harry Connolly
The Seventh Tower series by Garth Nix
A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) series by George R.R. Martin

I could go on ad nauseum. There's just too many.

DUNE was an amazing read...single best ever book.

I'm constructing a favorite book list online. Every one of them is a personal favorite and that means nothing because I am me and you are not me but c'mon, costs nothing to take a peek ;-)

http://www.specklebang.com/BOOKS_4.php

It's really difficult to pick a single greatest book, even restricted to a single genre. However if pushed to name one I'd go for Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination as a single volume or The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a series.

Endless Blue by Wen Spencer is a book I read and then immediately reread. Have reread several times after that. She has a lot of really good books but that one just got me.

I'll join the list brigade. How can anyone choose one?

The dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey - My first book. Three books, really, but I had the book club edition. I've read it almost every year for the last 35 years. Never gets old.

The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon - A moving and perfect fantasy story with realistic and gritty details. This is the way fantasy should be written. Again, three books in one omnibus edition.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle - one of the most moving stories I have ever read. A great story about the choices we make in life.

How does one choose? But of course, Heinlein. Stranger in a Strange Land is near perfect. But I like The Moon is a Harsh Mistress very much.

To Sail Beyond the Sunset and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls deserve a mention as well.

Sarah wrote: "Endless Blue by Wen Spencer is a book I read and then immediately reread. Have reread several times after that. She has a lot of really good books but that one just got me."

I reread her Ontongard books a lot, but Endless Blue didn't work for me, I guess in part because I was expecting it to be a part of her Tinker series.
I guess if I had to choose one book it would be A Civil Campaign. Perfect humor, romance, and intrigue.

Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. You got to appreciate a book that took ten years to write. Love the characters and gloomy atmosphere, magic lurking around the corner, loony kooks slinking in and out of reality. Oh yeah.

Fahrenheit 451. I like to read it about every 10 or 15 years to see what else has come to pass since it was written.

I think the thread asked for single best ever scifi book. My favorite book is Peace Like A River...

Would have to go with Walter Moers' "The City of Dreaming Books" – a hauntingly beautiful tribute to books & reading. :)

consider plebus. Iain Banks. This book made me like SciFi again.

Merry wrote: "My previous choices were urban fantasy and paranormal (still fantasy) so, for science fiction, I would choose not a particular book but the marvelous character, R. Daneel Olivaw from Isaac Asimov's..."

Yikes! One of my favorite "Detective Partner" pairs, Elija Bailey and R. Daneel Olivaw! Thanks for the reminder, great mystery/S-F!

I have just tried to read SURFACE DETAIL by Iain M. Banks and I had to finally give it up at page 150 of 627. It is so mired in technical details that you lose the story. I don't care that he is an International Bestseller. I just could not get into the story.

I have also just finished reading the fifth book (Mirror Sight) of the Green Rider series by Kristen Britain. I cannot say enough about the series, the only disappointment being that there are two years between books and the story is not over yet!

I would have to say...anything by Raymond Feist or The Dragon Bone Chair by Tad Williams.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

This is the first book I ever truly loved. I read it in 4th grade, and it began a lifelong love affair with books. I basically spent my childhood in the library...

Now that I am a school librarian, I read A Wrinkle in Time to my 4th grade class each year and they love that I share something so special with them.

Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree...it started me on a lifelong journey of fantasy,scifi and paranormal,even steampunk now too.As an adult Lord of the Rings series by Tolkien is hard to beat for me- I love his word-crafting.

For sci-fi I would say either Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny or A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

For fantasy I would say Declare or Last Call by Tim Powers, The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak, or the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia.

Conquest of Space volume 1

I read this as a little kid and fell in love with sci fi. After this I jumped into the Dune series, and never came back up for air...

A tossup among Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany; Stranger In A Strange Land by Heinlein and Dune by Herbert. These are the ones I read over and over.