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[Laria Raven]

So, I was asked for a list of the greatest(1) Science Fiction and Fantasy (2) books, and was interested to see what others would put on such a list.

I set myself some ground rules - one book per author, trying to avoid "the whole series" thing - there is someone who is going to read these whose a bit of an obsessive completist, so all of "The Wheel Of Time" might just make them miserable. I've also got nothing after about 1992, because I define greatness as including influence. Also, I got bored.

(1) whatever that means
(2) whatever that means

Here's my list:

20000 Leagues Under The Sea   Jules Verne
A Canticle For Leibowitz   Walter Miller
A Princess Of Mars   Edgar Rice Burroughs
A Rag, A Bone, and a Hank Of Hair   Nicholas Fisk
A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born   Harry Harrison
Andromeda Nebula   Ivan Efremov
Briar Rose   Jane Yolen
Brown Girl In The Ring   Nalo Hopkinson
Cities In Flight   James Blish
Dracula   Bram Stoker
Dragonflight   Anne McCaffrey
Dune   Frank Herbert
Dying Inside   Robert Silverberg
Ender's Game   Orson Scott Card
Flatland   Edward Abott Abott
Flowers For Algernon   Daniel Keyes
Foundation   Isaac Asimov
Frankenstein   Mary Shelley
Gateway   Frederik Pohl
Hyperion   Dan Simmons
In A Glass Darkly   J.S. Le Fanu
Kindred   Octavia Butler
Lud-In-The-Mist   Hope Mirrlees
Magician   Raymond Feist
Neuromancer   William Gibson
Nine Princes In Amber   Roger Zelazny
Rendezvous With Rama   Arthur C Clarke
Replay   Ken Grimwood
Shikasta   Doris Lessing
Slaughterhouse Five   Kurt Vonnegut
Tales Of The Dying Earth   Jack Vance
Tea With The Black Dragon   R.A. MacAvoy
The Day Of The Triffids   John Wyndham
The Dispossessed   Ursula Le Guin
The Forever War   Joe Haldeman
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe   C. S. Lewis
The Lord Of The Rings   J.R.R. Tolkien
The Man In The High Castle   Philip K. Dick
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress   Robert A Heinlein
The Mote In God's Eye   Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
The Skylark Of Space   E.E. "Doc" Smith
The Stars My Destination   Alfred Bester
The Time Machine   H.G. Wells
The Voyage Of The Space Beagle   A. E. Van Vogt
The Zanzibar Cat   Joanna Russ
Titan   John Varley
Trouble On Triton   Samuel R. Delany
Warm Worlds and Otherwise   James Tiptree Jr
Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang   Kate Wilhelm
Witch World   Andre Norton

[Katrina Oniseki]

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

[Natalcya Katla]

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke.

[GoGo Yubari]

Y NO IAIN M BANKS

So.

The Player of Games by Iain M Banks
Excession by Iain M Banks

and a rare bird to the mix

The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook

[Safai]

Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke

Scifi from the 50's has quite a different feel to it. I oh-so-love the plot and themes of this fairly short novel, though.

[Laria Raven]

Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke

Over Rendezvous With Rama?

[Corso.Verne]

I wrote a paragraph long Hyperion advertisement before I noticed it in your list.

Personally I think any sci-fi list that has Ender's Game should also have Speaker for the Dead, unless there's a strict rule against sequels or multiples, because in my opinion its the best in the series. Even if no multiples, I'd argue for it personally over EG. This is all assuming you can get over OSC being pathologically homophobic.

Also, when it comes to Philip K. Dick, your kung fu is weak. I LOVE The Man in the High Castle, but if this list were to include multiples by a single author I would argue for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and VALIS as additions to the list, with Androids being a candidate for replacing Man in the High Castle for top PKD book in my opinion.

Obviously lists like these are subjectives, and I tried to qualify personal preferences where possible. OP is feel to disagree completely, of course.

[Makkal]

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass - Lewis Carroll

[Lyn Farel]

A lot of them have already been mentioned so [special mention to flowers for Algernon!]... let's see what is left...

Conan - Robert E Howard
A song of Ice of Fire - George R.R. Martin
1984 - George Orwell
Takeshi Kovacs - Richard K. Morgan
Spin State - Chris Moriarty
La Jetée - Chris Marker [not a book per se, but still a fotonovela]

[kalaratiri]

Leviathan Wakes -  James S. A. Corey (pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck). Inner-system (asteroid belt and inwards) based sci-fi with a distinctly noir feel. I absolutely adore it, along with the two follow ups Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate.

Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan. :cloning:

[lallara zhuul]

Seriously?

No Gap cycle?

[Corso.Verne]

Second the Robet E. Howard Conan recommendation. His collected short stories are incredible, makes you almost disappointed the Schwarzenegger films typecasted the franchise.

[Esna Pitoojee]

If we are allowed to post books from larger universes' IP, then I'll add virtually anything written by Timothy Zahn, but especially his Thrawn Trilogy/Hand of Thrawn Duology.

Also,

- The Safehold series by David Weber.
- The Predator Cities tetrology starting with Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.
- The Belgariad and Malloreon series and associated books by David Eddings - particularly for blatantly acknowledging all the various tropes common in fantasy writing, playing them all to the max with a wink and a grin, and still turning out an excellent story in Belgariad - and then spending half of the Malloreon brutally deconstructing those tropes he had just established.
- Harry Turtledoves' Worldwar series.

[Ciarente]

The Gate To Women's Country by Sherri S Tepper


The Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia McKillip (technically 3 books issued now as one, so if that disqualifies it, Ombria in Shadow by the same author)

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

Downbelow Station by C J Cherryh (originally a standalone; now part of a wider series. If that disqualifies it, either Cyteen or Cuckoos Egg by the same author. Heavy Time also deserves an honorable mention. As does Rider at the Gate)

Power of Three by Diane Wynn Jones

Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly (not actually the best of hers but the only standalone I can think of)

The Invisible Road by Elizabeth Knox

The Children of Men P D James

The Changeover Margaret Mahy

The Nargun and the Stars Patricia Wrightson

[Laria Raven]

Being part of a series doesn't disqualify it, not being the first in a series will probably do so.

Power of Three rather than Fire and Hemlock? (I have nearly everything DWJ ever published, I should say)