SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Going to ask the impossible of us:

List the 5 best books you've read. Best doesn't have to be of literary merit--most resonant, most important because of when you read it etc. (and I'd love to hear your reasoning for inclusion!)

I think mine are:

1. Once and Future King - this is the book closest to my heart. I turn to it for hope, validation, and self improvement.

2. The Dispossessed - probably the most technically perfect book I've ever read. Great concepts, great dialogue with other works in this vein, but every sentence had 2-3 levels of meaning and significance. Just mind blowing.

3. The Color Purple - another book where very word is necessary and also beautiful. And the story it captures!! Truly pivotal. My true problematic fave.

4. The Way of Kings - This is what I want in epic fantasy!!!! It's just such a ride and I love how mental health plays so heavily into the story.

5. This one's tough. Tehanu? Island of the Blue Dolphins? Tehanu is the book that made me weep with its perfect balance of rage, sorrow, and hope. Island of the Blue Dolphins was the first book I ever re-read, and a lot of it is imprinted deeply in my mind.

I mean. There's a reason I only have one kid. Picking favorites is so hard!

But I'll try. In no particular order.

Fahrenheit 451: And not just because I finished rereading it this morning. This only gets more and more relevant every single year. Still beautiful and savage and honest. This book makes me feel exactly like the narration on the Disney ride Spaceship Earth. Sheer wonder at the power of the written word.

Neverwhere: This introduced me to the magic of Gaiman. How could I not include it?

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch: Just pure delight in text form! And one of the only books that has a great screen translation.

The Host: Meyer gets a lot of crap, but she knows how to tell a damn story. This story was beautiful, breathtaking and heartbreaking. And, unlike the Twilight series, focusses more on friendship than romance. (I'm actually about to start rereading this today.)

His Majesty's Dragon: Not the absolute best of Novik's works. But the one that introduced me to her. So it has a special place in my heart.

Sooo, I'm going to limit my choices to the timeframe of my goodreads membership because I'm old and my ability to make comparable judgements on the goodness of books is unreliable before I had reviews and notes to fall back on. I'm also going to make the assumption that you want to include all books, not just science fiction and fantasy. Here they are in no particular order:

Homegoing - fantastic storytelling in a way that brings a richness to historical fiction that encompassed cultures beyond American. For me, a really affecting and brilliant book.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration - the most precious book in the world to me. Tying heritage that relates directly to me and my family. I never even thought about my grandparents lives until reading this book. Incredible!

Hyperion/The Fall of Hyperion - Really only one BIG book. Insanely creative, packed with so many original ideas, it really is the seedling to much of modern science fiction in my view. Plus Simmons can write!!

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Such a brilliant classic. The author's independent spirit and her struggles with society come through in this really timeless classic. Personally I think this is one of the most underrated books around. I have highlighted half the books with timeless quotes that apply so much in 2020!

The Martian - a book that hits the right spot for me with its intelligence, determination to solve problems, never give up, keep calm, work together, etc. This book managed to convey more positivity about human beings and the human spirit than I had read in a long while, maybe ever. Loved every minute of it...and I really didn't expect to. A book that I was truly surprised to love so much!!

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For the record, I was really having a hard time keeping it to 5. Why We Can't Wait - Lots of people know famous Dr. Martin Luther King Jr quotes. But I would urge everyone to actually read his writings which again in this day and age are timeless and are every bit as insightful in 2020 as they were in the 50s and 60s. If you have never read Dr King, you should..."

Their Eyes Were Watching God was on my shortlist, too. It's definitely in my top 10! I keep trying to work up the energy to read Warmth of Other Suns. I've heard excellent things.

This list covers only fantasy and science fiction books I read in the 1960s, in Junior High and High School, and which decisively influenced my literary tastes.

In no ranking or chronological order:

1. "A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales," by L. Sprague de Camp. Several of the stories in the collection, notably "Judgment Night," appealed strongly to my sensitivities at the time, and I think that they still hold up well.

2. "The Lord of the Rings," by J.R.R. Tolkien. Not an actual trilogy, just initially published in three volumes for financial reasons. Do I need to comment?

3. "The Worm Ouroboros," by E. R. Eddison. The most intensely "literary" fantasy I had (and have) encountered, maybe with the exception of Eddisons' own "Mistress of Mistresses" (see below). I still re-read it from time to time, and I reviewed some editions on Amazon years ago.

Cheating a bit:
4. The Foundation Series, by Isaac Asimov. Just the three 'novels,' "Foundation," "Foundation and Empire," "Second Foundation," not the later additions. I first read the complete series in the Doubleday omnibus the old Science Fiction Book Club used to offer to new members for, I think, 10 cents, and I think of it as one book.

The three volumes assembled there are not actual novels, but "fix-ups," made up of short stories, novellas, and one very short novel, published in "Astounding Science Fiction" in the 1940s: the separate book divisions were made by Gnome Press, for financial reasons, as in the case of "Lord of the Rings." (Doubleday bought up the Gnome Press rights, and the unsold copies, for the Foundation series and "I, Robot," another important Asimov fix-up. Many copies of the omnibus seem to have been made using unsold, and maybe unbound, copies of the Gnome Press printings -- it had a great editorial department, but nothing much in the way of marketing.)

5. The three books in Eddison's "Zimiamvia" Cycle, "Mistress of Mistresses," "A Fish Dinner in Memison," and "The Mezentian Gate" (shorter version). Ballantine Books editions. Political (and sexual) intrigue in a vaguely Renaissance setting, with magic -- and divine intervention of sorts -- thrown in.

Outside the period I chose, the books in #5 were reissued in 1992 in an annotated Dell omnibus, as "Zimiamvia: A Trilogy," with a longer text of the unfinished "Mezentian Gate." As in the cases of "The Lord of the Rings," and the "Foundation" stories, "trilogy" is a misnomer, although in a different way: it was an open-ended series, and the author, who died while the third volume was in progress, had planned at least a fourth.

There is a 2014 HarperCollins Kindle edition, "The Complete Zimiamvia," combining them with "The Worm Ouroboros," based on the Dell edition, but without its annotations, so I could have lumped together all four of them.

I can only think of two absolute bests. For personal, emotional resonance (/literary mastery), and intellectual resonance (/literary mastery).

Brideshead Revisited
A long time acquaintance. Valued for the observation/reflection on subtle family relations, parenting disciplines and their moving lifelong effects on the unsuspecting persons involved. Which some touch close and/or personal, too. Plus, it is literary elite, too; a refined delight with idle pathos.

The Dispossessed
What you said: the most technically perfect book I have ever encountered. Not a word wasted or misplaced. The themes are immense, and their handling impeccable. The Substance packed into this book! *chef's kiss*


So many other greats, too, but I feel further picks would be compromised by too random scrutiny.

Thanks for this Allison as it has really made me think. I'm just glad that there were many years when my work and studies meant that I didn't have much opportunity for leisure reading. It would have made the choice even harder

1 - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - One of the first books I read on my own following my belated learning to read after a teacher slapped me across the face for being stupid (I had been traveling abroad till then).

2 - The Lord of the Rings - Chose a copy as a prize at school (never heard of Tolkien before, just opted for it as others did and I didn't know what to pick). Totally enchanted.

3 - The Idiot by Dostoyevsky - A smaller, lighter read compared to the other Russian classics. Read my mother's copy as a teenager, liked the fact that the narrator/hero was under rated and treated as a neutral observer because of his illness and disability.

4 - Robert Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land - Again from my teens, challenged the established order.

5 - Here, Away from it all - Polly Hope - This story has really stuck with me for years - The tribulations of a group of holiday makers trapped on a Mediterranean island after world society breaks down. Really depressing. No redemption, totally dystopian before dystopian became a genre.

Interesting that there are none after my early twenties, perhaps I've just fossilized since then.

Numerous scope for runners up. Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series, my mother's Agatha Christie collection, the Saint books by Leslie Charteris and more.

Like Monica I will limit it to my GR reads (roughly the last 2 years) and I go off the top of my head and limit to SFF novels, cause I know that I've read so many wonderful 5+ star books, that I will start second guessing everything when I go through my list.

So, my spur of the moment answer is

Children of Time: meanwhile there are three more books by the master himself that reach the same level of brilliance, but this one was my first Tchaikovsky and it absolutely wowed me. Not long ago I've read a comment from Peter Hamilton who said that Tchaikovsky brought forth a new SF genre, "Evolutionary SF", and it is so exactly to my taste that I appointed AT to my new favourite SF author.

The Way of Kings (and the other published books of the Stormlight Archive): I never was a big fan of epic Fantasy, but this work excelled in everything in this genre. I still haven't found another series that comes close in worldbuilding, character setup/development/writing and story arc. The Stormlight Archive restored my faith in epic Fantasy.
(and I'm at my third read within two years at the moment)

Small Gods: This one defined my look at religion and philosophy in general. As far as books go this one was character moulding for me like no other. I've also read it with my boys as the time came when they had to decide if they wanted to belong to a church or not.

Planetfall as stand-in for the whole series (later books were even better): the most personal and significant book for me in my 'middle old age'. I've changed a lot during the last decades and these books literally shouted "I see you" at me.

Hyperion and the sequel (like Monica said, they belong together): absolute perfection in structure and writing. I was literally trembling after finishing some of the chapters. An epic scale brought down to single inviduals in a glorious composition. I can only rave about it.

I'm not sure if I was the only one that had a really had a really hard time limiting this to only 5, but tried to think of my favorite books from my favorite authors...

Bellwether: I truly felt like this book was about me, how was it possible for Connie Willis to get in my head?

All the Birds in the Sky I think this is my favorite book read in all of 2019.

Among Others: This was a truly magical book and left me completely dazzled and hungry for everything Jo Walton

Fuzzy Nation: Scalzi is always fun to read, it's like picking up a book that you know contains a friend, and sometimes several very fuzzy friends, too.

MaddAddam: Don't get me wrong, I loooove the Handmaid's Tale, but something about the world building and the characters in MaddAddam was just a little step above...

I think all of these top 5 for me are books that I read at exactly the right time in my life. Lots are worthy of top 5 but these are the ones that managed to hit that serendipitous, right time, right place books.

Les Miserables A perfect sweeping epic I read while struggling through college, trying to figure out what I wanted to do.

Pandora's Star One of the first books I read for this group, it made me realize how much I was missing by not being in a group because I had never heard of the book or the author before.

Tai-Pan Read when I was in junior high school, prompted me to start studying Chinese and spend 2 months in 1980s communist China.

Hyperion+ What Monica said, tons of ideas, well executed and on a recent re-read still stands up 30 years later.

Witch World The first book I purchased with my own money, without anyone looking over my shoulder. I still have no idea why I chose that one. It really is not a 5 star read but it will always be in my top 5.

At this moment in time:

The Lord of the Rings as I've read this at least 10 times and listened to the audiobook versions 1.5 times. I've also named numerous cats and dogs from the book

The Witches of Karres one of the few funny books I like. It's a good YA SF book (I was in that age range when I first ran across it) and it's yet another another book I've read multiple times

The Name of the Wind because of the writing. I don't really need a sequel to this one to totally enjoy it. I read it six times one summer when I was stuck at a French immersion course with just two books and I never got tired of it.

Way Station - another multiple read book. Excellent depiction of aliens w/o the xenophobia prevalent in so many SF books of the time

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly - I worked my way through university as a cook and then worked an additional 4 years so my husband could finish his studies. The author got it right.

At first I was like ... impossible! But Hank reminded me I can choose based on experiential criteria. Soo... here's my 5:
1. Ritmatist When my aunt was in the hospital dying of cancer, she asked me to read to her and this is the book I chose. She did not die, so by the time we got to the end of the book we were taking turns reading.

2. Romeo and Juliet I read this book every year with my classes. And every - single - year, I discover something new about the text or students have a unique interpretation of it.

3. 1984 Despite all the haters in the unpopular opinions thread, this book was the first book I ever stayed up all night to finish. I was a junior in high school. It's a distinctive memory.

4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy A friend who had already read this book asked me to start a read-aloud with the book at the start of a road trip. I couldn't make it through the prologue without laughing and the road trip was greatly improved by this witty piece of literature.

5. D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths I signed this book out @ least once a year every year of middle school and read it cover to cover.

full list of favs (whittled down from 106 to 84): https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Criteria:
-nostalgia
-best in series IMO
-best of a year since I started tracking on GoodReads
-I genuinely enjoyed the experience of reading the book.

ohhhh I haven't thought about D'Aulaires in decades! man that brings back memories.

I don't remember the first book I stayed up all night for... maybe Pawn of Prophecy?

I vividly remember taking D'Aulaires out from my elementary school library and devouring it, not sure which grade, maybe 3rd?

I know the author is all kinds of problematic, but the first book I started and then stayed up all night to finish that same "day" was Ender's Game

What do you call it when you're all tired the next day from staying up too late reading, but have no regrets? Book Hangover??

@Christopher, I read your response too fast and I thought that D'Aulaires had been added to the list of controversial authors... I really like books that mess with your head like Ender's Game did, but for the reasons, I probably won't reread it or start more series by the author.

I tried but I cannot choose only 5. As others have said I also think it's really hard to compare across time and having read things at different ages in those periods of time and setting.

Those are great books and even better reasons Melanie. Just like perfect vacation moments those are the memories that last.

@Hank: Oh yes, "Les Miserables"! I only read it this year for the first time and I was swept away by this gorgeous work!

Keep em coming! My top 5 are probably

1. The Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton.
Introduced me to space opera and my all-time favorite genre author. I have read (almost everything he has written since, and enjoyed them all.)

2. God Emperor of Dune/Heretics of Dune/Chapterhouse: Dune. Of course everyone has read Dune but far fewer have read the sequels. I was a teenager when Herbert was actually releasing these and then he died before he could finish the series! (I prefer to ignore the monstrosities his son produced claiming to continue the story). This was the first series of books me and my friends would just sit around and EXAMINE and ANALYZE for hours and hours.

3. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. My youth was spent shuffling between libraries slowly making my way through the entire oeuvre of the Queen of Mystery. I know now that she’s not actually the best but I love that she introduced me at an early age to this genre I greatly enjoy; she made it clear the books were about the puzzle and the journey, not “whodunnit.”

4. “The Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien. I read it the first time when I was about 9. And again when I was 16. Haven’t read it since but there are images from my reading (not from the excellent film adaptations!) that I can remember to this day.
5. “Foundation” series (entire thing, even with the Robots tie-in). It’s not his best book (that would be “The Gods Themselves” but it’s his most influential. A great introduction to the vast creativity of the mind that science fiction can provide while avoiding the pitfalls and well-worn tropes of epic fantasy.

3.

Would you believe that not everyone has read Dune, MadProfessor? I haven’t. Well not that I can remember and you’d think I’d remember that. I remember reading a fair bit of sci-fi and fantasy as a kid but for some reason none of the “big” names like Le Guin, Bradbury, Dick etc.

I’ve always loved Agatha Christie and I still reread her wonderful books. In the 1980s when I was in my 20s I would buy a new Agatha Christie paperback every couple of pays. And Hubby and I always watch Poirot and Miss Marple when they’re on even though they annoy me and they change the murderer and stuff. Sometimes it makes no sense at all as to why the person on the TV show dunnit. Anyhoo....

I urgently have to re-read the series. I remember loving the second book best, but I can't recall why or what it exactly was about.

Gabi wrote: "I urgently have to re-read the series. I remember loving the second book best, but I can't recall why or what it exactly was about."

Do you mean Dune? Paul Atreides and sand worms. It was my introduction to the genre so many years ago I am not even going to think about it.

@Phrynne: oh sorry, yes I meant Dune. ^^' It would have indeed been helpful had I mentioned it ^^'.

Lol! I guessed you did but thought I had better make sure:)

Goodness, this is really hard there are so many fantastic books out there.
I am going to start with a children's book, The Faraway Tree, by Enid Blyton. This is the book that set me on the road to my love of sfi and fantasy. It was also forbidden fruit. My mother disapproved of my reading habit. I used to save my pocket money, I would hide in the wardrobe with a torch to read. She would throw my books away when she found them. So it was my secret pleasure.

The second would be the hobbit, I don't think thus needs explanation, my English teacher gave this to me
to read when I was eleven. I have read it many times since. A book I was able to share with my own children.
Next comes Anne McCaffrey, and her Daragon books, at the moment Dragonsinger is my fav. Again books I revisit repeatedly. They are light weight quick reads, there is most of the time, one in my handbag. You never know when a book may come in handy.

This brings me to my forth book. Mort, by Terry Pratchet, found this auther for sale at a motorway service station, waiting to be picked up, when my car broke down. He is very funny, and I own all of his books.

Last but not least, I found it difficult, Lord of the rings? The Magician? David Eddings books? Robert Jordan? Robert Sanderson? All greats, however, it has to be The Game of Thrones, despite Martins annoying habit of leaving many years between books. Come on, can we have the last book please.

Mrs S E White wrote: "My mother disapproved of my reading habit. I used to save my pocket money, I would hide in the wardrobe with a torch to read. She would throw my books away when she found them."

How horrible :( It sounds like you were able to sneak in some good ones, though, and you're still a reader :)

Okay, I thought of a way I can do this. I'll pick my top 5 SFF books that I've read since joining the club in 2015. So this will leave out lots of classics that I love, but it at least makes it manageable (and even still was tough to narrow down!):

- Goblin Emperor
- Children of Time
- Ninefox Gambit
- Among Others
- The Curse of Chalion

Oo strong list, Chris!

Allison wrote: "Going to ask the impossible of us:

List the 5 best books you've read. Best doesn't have to be of literary merit--most resonant, most important because of when you read it etc. (and I'd love to hea..."

This is a tough question! I will probably have a different answer at least every 10 years? So my answer is framed for my favorites this year first, and then the most notable I can still remember:

1) Read in 2020: Children of Time and Children of Ruin. It was my first time to read Adrian Tchaikovsky this year and I was immediately hooked and consumed by the ideas and style of story telling.

2) Read in 2020: The Dispossessed - I am reading this slow and thoroughly, and there's so much to digest I had to create notes for it to remind myself how the story and characters, relationships, have been crafted to draw out the context, parallelism, comparisons of political orders. The full arc and characters serve to substantiate the discourse.

Sidenote: I am currently obsessed with UKLG and watching all the interviews I can find in Youtube. And kicking myself how is it I've read a lot of Fantasy and never found the Earthsea?

Notables from previous years but to be validated with a re-read or not? I'm wondering how much of your favorites are defined by your current experiences at the time that you read it. So re-read to validate but risk disappointment? Maybe I can't recreate the experience anymore but at least you can validate if that book deserves to be in your top 5.

3) Foundation - My first reading of this type of epic sci fi, I think. (not counting HG Wells Time Machine since that just starts the story in the far future, but not over a long period of time as in Foundation) Probably why I ended up liking Children of Time so much as well. I like the patterns, and the idea that we can trace causality to future trends/events is comforting.

4) Slaughterhouse Five - At the time that I read this, I was captured by Kurt V's humor, style.

5) The Martian - At the time that I read this I was so fascinated by how much I could bear the technical details and how readable it was, and how the technical parts of it served to drive the plot.

Don't kick yourself, Grace!! How wonderful that you have joys waiting for you!

Allison wrote: "Don't kick yourself, Grace!! How wonderful that you have joys waiting for you!"

That's good way of looking at it! I hope I'm not late to the train that newer books have covered the tropes?!

I only read Wizard of Earthsea for the first time a couple years ago and it blew me away, so keep hope!

Well I'm going to have to do this as my favorite book from a favorite series, because all my favorites happen to be series.

1. Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time). This was the last book that Robert Jordan wrote before he passed away and turned the series over to Brandon Sanderson, and it was really the pinnacle of his writing in my opinion. Sanderson did a wonderful job finishing it up, but there are some moments in this book that are among my favorite in all of fantasy.

2. The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen). This book is the turning point in the series for me. This was where I think the plot ramps up, and the characters just get better and better. Again, there are several scenes and moments that stuck with me from this book, and that is hard to do in a series filled with amazing moments.

3. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn). The magic system in this series is amazing and captivated my interest from the beginning. The thing that makes the final book of the first trilogy stand out is the ending. It was so unexpected and really just blew me away.

4. Red Rising by Pierce Brown (Red Rising). I tend to be more of a fantasy reader, but this brought to my attention that Sci Fi doesn't just have to be about philosophical or existential themes all the time. This is a Sci Fi that's packed full of action and adventure and general badassery, and was so good I remember forgetting to eat on my lunch break one day because I couldn't put it down.

5. Super Powereds Year 4 by Drew Hayes (Super Powereds). This is one that won't be on anyone else's top 5 list, but this was the perfect series for me. It was one of the first times I had encountered a Superhero novel, and to someone who loves everything superhero, that opened up a new world to me. Then when you add in that the author went to the same College as me and the series is about a College, I found a lot of things I could relate to. The humor, the action, the interesting and twisty plot, and most of all the characters, really worked for me, and I re-read this series at least once a year.

Here comes my five, and I expect most of you haven't heard of at least three books on the list. I have poor expectation management for popular stuff so I instead read a lot of yet-to-be-discovered stuff.

The White Owl - I loved this since the moment I beta-read this story. Mostly because of the characters - the MC is relatable and most of the antagonists have motives you can understand.

Ordination - This was one of the first books I've read when I bought my Kindle and I loved it a lot. It's different from the mainstream by the fact the MC isn't a 20-ish youngster but an experienced warrior who has seen all the bad in the world - and had enough of it. And the war-torn world is well-depicted with all it brings.

The Story of Raiya - A mix of SF and fantasy. It has dragons, The Independence Day vibe, a mad scientist(s), and funny moments. The third book, however, gets a bit darker with topics such as war crimes.

Battle Mage - A great standalone fantasy on the longer end - and a journey with a nice twist.

The Path of Flames - Phil Tucker's 5-piece series has quite a nice and complex worldbuilding and there was a lot that made me think, as well as change my opinion about many of the factions involved.

Rebecca Alasdair's Blood of Old would be on the list if it was published already but, alas, gotta wait for a year or so. But I can say I was one of the first beta readers, which is something :)

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths is now available in an expanded edition, with additional drawings, although Goodreads D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths doesn't link to it directly. According to the Amazon blurb (presumably from the publisher): "Now updated with a new cover and an afterword featuring never-before-published drawings from the sketchbook of Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire, plus an essay about their life and work and photos from the family achive."
https://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Gree...

There is even a Kindle edition, although my sentiments revolt, both at loosing the sheer physicality of the oversize book, and at the idea of shrinking the bigger pictures onto a screen -- well, maybe a very large flatscreen, able to hold two-page spreads comfortably.

Grace wrote: Message 30

This is a tough question! I will probably have a different answer at least every 10 years? So my answer is framed for my favorites this year first, and then the most notable I can still remember:

I would go further and say that answers depend on memory and emotions at the time the reader draws up their list. Mine varies from hour to hour (thanks Alison, I'm very indecisive, life and death decisions like this probably accounts for my high blood pressure, I'll have to sit down for five minutes before typing the next bit)

Grace wrote: Message 30 4) Slaughterhouse Five - At the time that I read this, I was captured by Kurt V's humor, style.

How could I forget 'The Sirens of Titan' must certainly figure as one of my favourites.

I'll bring you some cool water and a nice soothing MG fantasy to help calm you down, ED haha!

Ian, why must you tempt us so!!

That's a tough one, but here goes

1. The Lord of the Rings - i hate to be obvious, but there's no way around it, it is my favorite book.

2. Blackout / All Clear - Connie Willis is an acquired taste, but i love more or less all she has written, it was a hard contest between this one and the Doomsday Book

3. The Heart's Invisible Furies John Boyne is just amazing

4. The Baroque Cycle Collection More or less all Neal Stephenson's books are amazing but the Cycle is in it's own League

5. Cloud Atlas A classic

And then i had to leave out Hyperion , The Time Traveller's Wife, Dune, The Great Gatsby , The Shadow of the Wind and so many more

Yeah for Connie Willis, Lars! I love seeing her included here!

1. “Dune” by Frank Herbert. Great world building and ecology. Sand worms. The Bene Gesserit. The Mentats. The Fremen. The House of Atriedes versus House Harkonnen. What’s not to like? The movie release date 12/18/2020. I hope it’s better than the 1984 version.

2. “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. Government planning and controlled reproduction. Don’t we all want to be Alphas with a little extra oxygen? Then you could always sit back with a bit of soma.

3. “Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion” by Dan Simmons. The ultimate quest by pilgrims reminiscent of the Canterbury Tales. Each has a history and a story to tell. But at the end of course is the Shrike.

4. “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. As a young lad this revolt of the animals influenced me greatly. Can anyone recite the animals seven commandments. But at the end it was “Four legs good two legs better.” Never looked at pigs the same way again. It was the ultimate betrayal.

5. A tie between the “Nine Princes in Amber” by Roger Zelazny and “To Your Scattered Bodies Go” by Philip Jose Farmer In the Amber book we are introduced to Corwin who has to fight his siblings for the magical throne of Amber. Perhaps because I have 7 siblings I identified with Corwin. You should walk the Pattern and read this. Perhaps you will select the right trump cards.
In the Farmer book, Richard Burton dies and wakes up along the river where everyone who ever lived lives again. Why did the Ethicals engineer this?

I’ve been thinking about this all day, and it’s sort of been an epiphany moment for me- most of my top 5 aren’t really SFF. I mean I guess if we want to get into sub genres we could say the King ones are?

1. The Last Kingdom Series by Bernard Cornwell... they are all great so I refuse to pick just one.

2. The Pillars of the Earth / World Without End by Ken Follett (hoping to add The Morning and the Evening to this)

3. The Green Mile by Stephen King

4. Under the Dome by Stephen King (which being as it’s the only book I’ve read three times, could arguable be considered my favorite)

5. Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer or The Just City by Jo Walton... or like ten others...

The Cornwell and the Follet books were the first two that came to mind. Then the King books. And number five could be anyone of ten which would probably fall into SFF.

Sarah, I read Pillars way back in middle school maybe and I loved it so much I must've read it several times. At least three. I never continued with the series, and have been thinking of rereading and continuing. I'm just not sure if current me's taste is the same as past me's. Hearing you list it as a favorite gives me hope that I might still like it!

Phew, this is a tough one.

In no particular order:

1. Johannes Cabal the Detective by Jonathan L. Howard - There's just something really cool and special about the setting. And Johannes Cabal is just the kind of asshole you have got to love.

2. The Stand by Stephen King - I know, not really a extravagant choice. But it is just THAT good.

3. Metro 2033 Dmitry Glukhovsky - Gloomy and highly atmospheric with a lot of Russian flavour. It's not like an apocalypse can only happen in the United States after all.

4.The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski - I love the whole series, but I think the short stories represent perfectly what is so great about The Witcher. I love Sapkowski's anecdotal writing style and his worldbuilding, which is deeply rooted in Slavic and European history and mythology.

5. Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence - Again, love the whole series, but this is the best part in my opinion, which is rare for a middle book in a trilogy. Mark Lawrence has a wonderfully quotable writing style.

I also absolutely love John Connolly's Charlie Parker series, they are some of my favourite books. But since there are 18 of them, it's a bit hard to pick one. Same goes for Craig Schaefer's Daniel Faust series.

@Anna - I can’t speak to how your tastes have changed but of those two books World Without End I would place as being slightly better than Pillars of the Earth.

If you wanted to try World Without End they are set years and years apart so you don’t need to remember everything about Pillars to enjoy it! I also liked the third book A Column of Fire but not as much as I loved the first two which is why I didn’t include it.

I still want to reread Pillars, just to see if I still love it! But amazing news that the second one is even better ^_^

Anna wrote: "I still want to reread Pillars, just to see if I still love it! But amazing news that the second one is even better ^_^"

Probably not a bad idea! If you don't like it this time around I would wager you probably wouldn't like WWE. They follow similar formats but different character. If you decide to give it a try - let me know what you think!

The Secret Garden
The Princess Bride
The Little Prince
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Princess And The Goblin
(probably this one: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...)

These had the most influence on who I am as a reader and as a citizen, and they complemented my parents' influence about how to be a person. Runners up would be the Little House series and the James Thurber comedy collections (whichever my tiny library had at the time). I reread all of these many times as a child & teen, and still do, sometimes, as they still have value and merit.

Books that moved me as an adult are uncountable. The strongest candidates for that list are again the ones that I have reread and would again, eg Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, and Flowers for Algernon.

Cheryl wrote: "The Princess Bride...
The Little Prince...The Phantom Tollbooth ..."

Even reading as an adult these are among my favorites. Thanks for the reminder to go read them again.

As this is a list of science fiction and fantasy novels, I am only listing those in that genre:

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

THE MISTS OF AVALON

I have read and re-read these two books more times than I can count.

BLACKOUT/ALL CLEAR

Two books, but I'm counting as one, as they really are just one story

THE SPARROW/CHILDREN OF GOD

Again, two books that I am counting as one, as they really are just one story

DUNE

Talk about world-building!!!!