The Top 100 Must-read Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of All Time Poll.

Pthom

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All right, folks. Most of you have seen and many have responded to the thread about NPR's "Your Pics: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books." A majority of you disagree with the results of that poll.

So be it.

Herewith, we are presenting our own poll, that is similar to the NPR poll (in that it's about Science Fiction and Fantasy books), but is a broader category than just the "best" or "favorites." Our list will be those SF/F books with which, in your opinion, a writer or fan of the genre(s) ought to be familiar.

What we want: Book titles that meet the poll criteria. For each title, provide:

  • author's name
  • copyright date
  • genre (either Science Fiction or Fantasy)
  • ONE sentence describing why this book belongs in the list.
You may enter as many titles as you wish, either in one post or several.
What we do NOT want:

  • Chit chatter or commentary on your or others' contributions to the list.
  • You are limited to the one descriptive sentence.
  • This thread is NOT open for discussion. Just submissions, please.
  • Posts that do not comply with these simple rules will be summarily deleted (with cause, without prejudice).
  • Posts that are in improper format will be edited to comply.

I will stick the thread and leave it stuck for a year. That should be plenty of time to allow us to arrive at well more than 100 titles, yet be short enough to remain interesting. Once the year is up, we'll compile the list and post it.

Let's get started. :)
 

Duncable

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Whee, first post!!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, 1979, Science Fiction - One of the most entertaining, humorous, linguistically fascinating, prophetic, and unique literary gifts ever bestowed upon the human race, IMHO. :D
 

Pthom

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Lucifer's Hammer, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, 1977, Science Fiction. A very realistic account of the aftermath of an asteroid striking Earth.
 

megan_d

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Hyperion (1989) by Dan Simmons. Science Fiction.

An enjoyable read if you're not familiar with the immense pool of literary illusion it draws upon, truly breathtaking if you are.
 

Hiroko

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Ooh!
2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke (1968), Science Fiction.

The book is smart, thought-provoking, exciting, vast, incredible...it's very memorable and (in my opinion) easy to love.
 
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Alessandra Kelley

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Octavia E. Butler, Wild Seed, 1988, fantasy

A meditation on what it means to be female, to be male, to be human, to be a slave, to be a master of slaves from the perspective of a woman of African ancestry.
 
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Alessandra Kelley

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Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969, science fiction

A brilliant exploration of the meaning of gender in a fully realized alien society, complete with mythology and psychology.
 

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Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, 1726, not sure if it qualifies as fantasy or science fiction

A wicked satire of government and academia as sailor Lemuel Gulliver encounters tiny warlike people and giants, crazed grant-grubbing scientists, pacifist talking horses and wild ape men.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Carol Emshwiller, The Mount, 2002, science fiction

A whip-smart investigation of the nature of keeping animals as pets and friends and as beasts of burden and the painful position of the pampered slave, as pedigreed humans function as riding beasts for the cute little aliens who conquered the Earth long ago.
 

thothguard51

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Dune, by Frank Herbet, 1965,

Dune, a harsh desert world where water is more precious than life...
 

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The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells. The first really modern SF novel, and still a magnificent read. Wells is responsible for coining the term "science fiction", by calling his early novels "scientific romances". Time Machine was the first, followed in quick succession by The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The First Men in the Moon, The Food of the Gods, In the Days of the Comet and dozens of magnificent imaginative short stories. But any aspirant to the throne of being an SF writer must read The Time Machine.

caw
 

virtue_summer

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Dawn by Octavia E. Butler, 1987, science fiction. The first book in a trilogy later published as Lilith's Brood and a unique story exploring what it means to be human after one of the last survivors of a war on earth discovers the only hope for the future might be to crossbreed with an alien species.
 

virtue_summer

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, published in 1953, science fiction. A classic novel about a future where firefighters burn books and human connection, imagination, and ideas seem to be dying.
 

Gale Haut

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Earthsea. F, Ursula K. Le Guin. 1968.

A coming of age about a boy wizard discovering the natural balance that exists in the magical world he lives in and also within himself.
 
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Gale Haut

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The Forever War. SF, Joe Haldeman. 1974.

Military SF that follows a soldier's journey through a time & space equivalent of the Vietnam War. Among other controversial plot turns, when the MC returns from the war everyone has converted to homosexuality.
 
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Deirdre

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The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. How to merge plot lines about time travel, English literature, and Egyptian sorcerers -- and have the whole crazy mess make sense. (I think there's six main plot lines, but I haven't re-read it in about 5 years.)
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Virginia Woolf, Orlando, 1928, fantasy

Elizabethan youth wakes up one day as Elizabethan lass who, oh by the way, is also immortal, and a rollicking exploration of gender and British history ensues in a book that is too often classified as "mainstream."
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Ben Okri, The Famished Road, 1992, fantasy

A child in modern Nigeria remembers that he came from the spirit world and the spirit world permeates everything in this haunting book of African magical realism.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Isaac Asimov, I, Robot, 1950, Science Fiction

A seminal work, really the first to think the consequences of artificial intelligence through, written with a remarkably jazzy voice allied to Beat poetry and quite unlike anything in the field at the time.
 

Prisoner24601

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A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, published 1962, fantasy & science fiction.

Fantasy and science fiction blended in a fantastic way with a girl's coming of age story, which makes it timeless.
 
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Prisoner24601

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Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, published 2004, science fiction

One of the most interesting uses of story structure I've ever read with six interlocking stories about a soul's reincarnation from the 19th century to a post-apocalyptic future.
 

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Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson, published 1977, fantasy.

The first in the series, the novel took a standard fantasy trope (a magic ring needed to save the world) and gave it a big twist by giving the ring to an anti-hero the style of which the fantasy genre will almost certainly never see the likes of again.
 
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