SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

LOTR is an easy first. It's a timeless classic, and it shaped fantasy into what it is today. Next is The Inheritance Cycle. The first time I read it, I wanted to keep reading and would spend hours doing so. Harry Potter is in third place. I'm not as big of a fan of magic, but Harry Potter does it better than anyone else, and the fact that the series is seven books long but doesn't ever become boring or stale is incredible. Coming in fourth is Macbeth. It's not a normal book (I know technically it's a play), but the way Shakespeare is able to tell a fully fleshed-out story in 17,000 words is insane. Lastly, is Percy Jackson. It's a completely different take on fantasy and was one of the first books I read in the genre.

the only books/series you list that I would list are LOTR and Macbeth

I'd add Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series where many of the books are in different genre combinations but still set in the same fantasy world. The first one published was a combination of fantasy and hard-boiled gumshoe

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany for it's sheer weirdness and twists

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series. This was/is (I'm working on the final book in the series now) a fascinating fantasy

and if I could have a 6th it would be Steven Erikson's Malazan series for sheer scope

1. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and Last King of Osten Ard by Tad Williams. I count these series as one because they take place in the same fictional world and were written by the same author.
2. The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski. Almost everyone knows what these books are, so there's no need to explain why I like them so much.
3. Chimeras of Estmer by Heather Marsh. I got pretty much everything I like about the fantasy genre in this book. So it's no surprise that I like it.
4. The Bitterbynde trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thornton. It seems like an effort to write fantasy using the style and imagery of old poetry. Of course, I can't help but admire that.
5. Eternal Sky trilogy by Elizabeth Bear. I enjoy reading books about the Mongol Empire and fantasy, and this story has both. How could I not be happy about that?

the Williams series is a good pick too

CBRetriever wrote: "the Williams series is a good pick too"

Of course!

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson. Two trilogies and one tetralogy, these 10 books are the standard by which I compare all fantasy novels.

One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig is hands down one of the best novels I have ever read.

The Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence is incredible. I think about it all the time.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series,
The Legend of Drizz't series,
The Riftwar Saga,
The Belgariad Universe,
The Mistborn Saga.

Charlton wrote: "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series,
The Legend of Drizz't series,
The Riftwar Saga,
The Belgariad Universe,
The Mistborn Saga."

Excellent choices!

oohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

the selection
aurora rising
percy jackson (amd kane chronicles)
LOTR
powerless

I have been logging my reading on Goodreads since 2017. I have a shelf called “Favorites” which houses my favorite reads over that time. Out of the 1251 books on all my Goodreads shelves, 53 are on the Favorites shelf. Of these, 27 are on the SFF shelf as well.

8 are by Kim Stanley Robinson: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars, Aurora, Lucky Strike, A Meeting with Medusa / Green Mars, Icehenge, Galileo's Dream

5 are by Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth, The Fall of Gondolin, The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún

2 each by

Robert A. Heinlein: Starman Jones, Have Spacesuit Will Travel

R.A. Lafferty: Fourth Mansions, Space Chantey

Cordwainer Smith: You Will Never Be the Same, The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith

Here’s my top five SciFi books/series (so far):

1 Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
2 The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Naylor
3 Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
4 Wool by Hugh Howey
5 Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Carey

In no particular order:
1. Lord of the Rings

2. Maggie the Undying by Ilona Andrews (this may be cheating, and is definitely a risk, because I've only read the four or so chapters posted online (archived now) and a few snippets, but I'm hooked)

3. Harry Potter

4. The Fractured Conclave by Vanessa Nelson

5. Martha Well's Murderbot Series

This list might change annually so here we go:
1. The Expanse - James S.A. Corey
2. Gods of Blood and Powder - Brian McClellan
3. The Age of Madness - Joe Abercrombie
4. Lockwood and Co - Jonathan Stroud
5. The Machineries of Empire - Yoon Ha Lee

Honorable mentions: Discworld (Pratchett), Green Bone Saga (Fonda Lee), Bas-Lag (China Mieville) and Broken Earth (NK Jemisin)

Might be in the list if the third book is a five-star: Shadow of Leviathan - Robert Jackson Bennet

Might be in the list if ever completed: A Song of Ice and Fire - GRRM

Silvana wrote: "Might be in the list if ever completed: A Song of Ice and Fire - GRRM."

along with Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles

No particular ordered:
The Dowser Series by Meghan Ciana Doidge
Zombie Fallout by Mark Tufo
Assistant to the Villain by Nicole Maehrer
The Ruinous Love Trilogy by Brynne Weaver
Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost
Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter

and so many more lol

This is a tough one, but here are mine in no particular order! I wanted to maintain a SCI-FI element, but that went out the window.

- The Foundation Series
- LOTR
- 1984
- The Road
- The Hobbit

Here are mine! I really loved them and would read them everyday if I could!

-Never After Series
-L.O.R.D.S. Series
-Ruinous Love Trilogy
-Lights Out Series
-Fall Away Series

I know its not Sci-Fi or Fantasy, but I am just getting into that genre a bit more. Don't worry I have already read the Harry Potter and LOTR series a while ago!

I love to read series, so here are five with the author in case that helps.

1. Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
2. Discworld - Pratchett
3. Vorkosigan Series - Bujold
4. World of Five Gods (Curse of Chalion and Penric/Desdemona) - Bujold
5. Lt. Leary Series - Drake or Honor Harrington Series - Weber

Really great question – took me back through the (thickening) mists of time to my childhood...

Dune chronicles – Frank Herbert
Lord of the Rings – Tolkien
The Dark Tower – Stephen King
John Carter of Mars series (Barsoom series) – Edgar Rice-Burroughs
The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury

Dune -Herbert (+ even the Kevin & Brian texts)
Hyperion cantos - Simmons
Foundation - Asimov
The Illustrated Man- Bradbury
The Vampire chronicles - Rice

Lord of the Rings
The Broken Earth Trilogy
The First Law Trilogy
Lilith's Brood
The Merlin Trilogy
The Dragon Riders of Pern
The Book Of Morgaine

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.*
2) Dark Matter - A Ghost Story by Michelle Paver.**
3) Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
4) The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.
5) Collected Ghost Stories by M R James.

* That said, the whole series is brilliant.
** I find that horror is usually also sci-fi or fantasy.

1) Lord of the Rings - Tolkien (Will forever be my number 1)
2) Exiles Saga/Galactic Milieu - Julian May
3) Foundation - Asimov
4) Well of Souls - Jack L. Chalker
5) West of Eden - Harry Harrison

Honorable mention to the Dungeon Crawler Carl series which Im currently reading. Almost done with book 7 and its been awesome.

1) Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
2) Dune - Herbert (the initial book only as a standalone)
3) Project Hail Mary - Weir
4) Foundation Trilogy - Asimov
5) Downbelow Station - Cherryh
6) The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein
7) A Song of Ice and Fire - Martin (placed here because it's unfinished)
8) The Mote in God's Eye - Niven/Pournelle
9) Ringworld - Niven
10) Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein

These are selected based on impact on me when I first read them.

Mike wrote: "Here’s my top five SciFi books/series (so far):

1 Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
2 The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Naylor
3 Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
4 Wool by Hugh Howey
5 ..."

I like this list... makes me want to finally pick up The Mountain in the Sea as it and Wool are the only ones I haven't read here.

Such a very hard question. In no particular order...

Books
- The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
- Dune
- The Neverending Story
- Brave New World

Series
- The Lord of the Rings
- Discworld (Terry Pratchett)
- Cosmere (Brandon Sanderson)
- Earthsea (Ursula K. Le Guin)
- Abhorsen (Garth Nix)

Honorable Mentions That Might Have Made it On the Above Lists if the Weather or My Breakfast Had Been Different:
- Stories of Your Life and Others
- The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
- Narnia CS Lewis
- Lord of the Flies
- Red Rising series (Pierce Brown
- I, Robot
- Starship Troopers
- The Bear and the Nightingale series
- A Canticle for Leibowitz
- Perdido Street Station
- The Once and Future King

Holy smokes this is hard and I know I am forgetting favorites...