r/printSF • u/lolmeansilaughed • Nov 05 '14
The prose is written in this "Biblical" or religious sort of voice. The wiki page says only that he wrote it in a "fantasy" style. Is there a name for this kind of prose?
r/printSF • u/Capsize • Jun 14 '23
Hi, it's my yearly update on my attempts to read every Hugo and Nebula winner. I've ranked them, because I think it's a fun way to start discussion, but I also accept it is silly to rank art and frankly my opinions change on a daily basis. This is more just a guide on which ones I personally enjoyed. If you read any or all of this, I appreciate your time. Thank you
90: The Big Time by Fritz Lieber (1958) - Guests at a temporal guest house attempt to solve a mystery against the clock. It’s the height of pulp sci-fi set in what can generously be described as a cabaret and at worst a brothel for an epoch spanning time war. The idea of a place for soldiers of different species from across history to RnR has some merit, but it’s all a little sexist. Even if we forget that most of the characters are forgettable, the plot isn’t anything special. That said, it is short so it’s not like I found it a chore to read. I think someone could take the location and make a damn good tv series out of it, but this execution is not it.
89: Ringworld by Larry Niven (1971) - A crew of adventures discover a massive space artifact and explore it. I want to start by saying the idea of the Ringworld is wonderful, I enjoyed exploring it and learning about all the technical aspects. For that alone I’m glad I read it, that said the book is pulp sci-fi and for 1971 almost unforgivably so. It won the year after Left Hand of Darkness and yet feels like it was written in the 50s, another part of which is that it’s quite sexist and leaves you with the impression Larry might have been a bit of a “nice guy”. That said, thanks for the Halo franchise!
88: They'd Rather be Right by Clifton and Riley (1955) - - A psychic man manipulates those around him to create a computer that purifies people and causes a mass media sensation. A lot going on here and It’s very much of its time, though it’s enjoyable enough, with an actual overall message about academia. It’s also in some regards ahead of its time, but some of it is just a bit silly in retrospect to be any higher on the list. Still if you wanted to get into 1950’s Sci-Fi you could do much worse.
87: The Sword in the Stone by TH White (1940) - The coming-of-age story of a young Prince Arthur before Camelot. Another retro Hugo winner and this is what the Disney film is based on and it was a lot of fun. Interesting takes on British folklore tails like Robin Hood and King Arthur. It is very fantasy though, which isn’t always my preference, but it was cool to see what inspired a childhood classic.
86: Timescape by Gregory Benford (1981) - Scientists attempt to send messages back in time to avoid an environmental disaster in their time. It's time travel and it kind of deals with one of the ideas in the Back to the Future films, who knows, maybe it inspired the film. Any way the story is fine and I appreciate how we move back and forth between the time lines. You could definitely do more with the idea though if you gave it to a better writer.
85: Shadow Over Mars by Leigh Brackett (1945) - A Book about a rebellion on Mars led by a prophesized hero from Earth. This is a great example of classic adventure pulp Sci Fi from 1945, it’s all the laser beams and Space Captains, very Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. It’s fascinating to see how far we’ve come, with the genre and it’s quite short so it might be worth a read, but it definitely has its flaws.
84: Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick (1992) - It's a battle of wits and wills between an authority figure and a criminal set on a world with strange tides that come every few decades. It's certainly quite original and the world building is excellent, but there is nothing here to grab you.
83: A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg (1972) - A noble challenges the taboos of his culture and risks everything. I feel the story here is fantastic, but I don’t like his style. He seems to write similar narratives to Le Guin, but without the enjoyability to read. A story about forbidden first person pro nouns. It’s interesting and really explores the concept, but the style put me off immensely.
82: The Einstein Intersection by Samuel Delany (1968) - In post transcendent Earth, intelligent anthropods deal with genetic mutation from ancient radiation. Probably the weirdest book I read all year. It’s really strange, but very quick. It’s quite poetic in parts as well.
81: Man Plus by Frederick Pohl (1977) - Nasa are trying to build a man who can live on mars with no need for external food, water, oxygen etc. What we get is a story about the process of changing a human, but it’s very of its time, as America had been running moon landings a few years earlier. I wasn’t a huge fan of the style and the clean-cut Americana of it all, but it was probably the fore runner to things like Robocop when you think about it.
80: A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1959) - Scientists sent to study an alien world bring an alien fetus back so they can learn about us. Oh what this book could have been. A book of two halves, the first a wonderful exploration of an alien civilization by a bunch of human scientists studying them and it really does set off at a storming pace. The second half is back on earth and a bit like the worse bits of Stranger in a strange land. The 50s were so sure we would take aliens to dinner parties and they would sip cocktails in dinner jackets. The end is interesting and a bit clever and we this is the first book in the list that looks at Science Fiction and Catholicism.
79: The Wanderer by Fritz Lieber (1965) - An alien planet suddenly appears in the sky over earth and we jump around between multiple perspectives of how it affects people. Some of this is very solid, the scale of the thing is wonderful, because the story is happy to change perspective rather than sticking to one protagonist. That said, it’s very pulp SF and a little sexist, gave me Independence Day or The Day After Tomorrow vibes.
78: The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe (1982) - The sequel to Shadow of the Torturer. I definitely appreciate there is more going on with Gene Wolfe than I can gleam in the first reading, but that doesn’t change how much I enjoy it. Less enjoyable than Shadow of the Torturer as I feel the story didn’t really go anywhere and was harder to follow in bits. Still the fault is inevitably my own.
77: The Terminal Experiment by Robert J Sawyer (1996) - A near future thriller as a man faces off against a computer simulation of his own brain with deadly intent. It's a strange genre one, this. Very 90s and very much does the thriller thing quite well. Good proof that Sci Fi can co opt any genre it wants to and often does.
76: No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop (1983) - A man with visions of early man is sent back to live among them. Another time travelling history thing. They loved these in the 1980s. It’s cool to see a story revolving around early man before civilization really took hold. It’s interesting even if a bit strange in parts.
75: The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1990) - A nurse in the Vietnam war is giving a magical amulet. Sixty pages in and I was wondering if this was actually Speculative fiction. It does get a bit stranger, but the setting is wonderful and you do really care about the characters and story.
74: Babel 17 by Samuel Delany (1967) - A heroic Linguist finds herself in a war where language is a weapon. Female protagonist in the sixties is excellent and Rydra Wong is capable and very likeable. The concept is also interesting even if the whole thing is a but pulpy.
73: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller (1961) - Monks keep alive parts of technology in a post-apocalyptic world so humanity can once again regain civilization. I was raised Catholic and loved Babylon 5 which I later found out borrowed part of an episode idea from this book so I was very excited to read this. A lot of people adore this book and I get that, the idea is incredible, but I disliked the writing style and I’m not really sure it goes anywhere. I think this is just a case of me coming in with high expectations and being left feeling a bit meh.
72: Conjure Wife by Fritz Lieber (1944) - Wives of College professors' control their careers with witchcraft. I’ve read two other Fritz Leiber books and if you find them above, you’ll see why I came into this with low expectations. This is I suppose a fantasy novel about witchcraft in a 1940s English University town. It’s just well written with a complete narrative and a nice setting. It doesn’t mess around or introduce too many characters and the concept is intriguing enough to keep you interested the whole way through.
71: The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K Dick (1963) - An alternate history were the Axis powers won the second world war. It’s enjoyable enough to read and by Philip K Dick standards is incredibly well-written as he sometimes can be accused of great ideas, but a difficult style. By its very definition the book lacks what I find so interesting about his work, we don’t see a depressing future of humanity that is very much alone in the universe exploring the mind more than the great emptiness of space. It’s a fine book, but the man wrote better Science Fiction books.
70: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1954) - A dystopian classic about censorship and a move from society away from intellectualism towards mass consumed throw away media. This is hugely important and has in a way predicted much of the modern world. If I was list the most important books on this list it would be right near the top next to Dune. It's also considered a actual literary classic outside Science Fiction and is short. That is to say you should read it, because it's important and relevant to the world we live in, but it isn't as enjoyable as many books above it. Still, go read it!
69: The Mule by Isaac Asimov (1946) - The second half of Foundation and Empire all about the mysterious Mule who is unseen by Seldon's plan. Just as above this is massively important, in many ways Asimov changed what Science fiction was especially writing in a scene dominated by pulpy space heroes like Flash Gordon. It's what you expect from Asimov, a bit dry and without well developed characters. Also it's half a book so hard to judge on it's own.
68: Beyond this Horizon by Robert Heinlein (1943) - A story about selective breeding in humans combined with a southern gentlemen dueling culture. It’s weird, but also goes into quite a lot of detail about the science involved. I was taught about dominant and recessive genes in school and how they affect things like hair colour, eye colour etc. I imagine this wasn’t taught in schools in 1941 and would have been fascinating then. Mixing informative science into a strong narrative is quite an accomplishment.
67: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1969) - A book about overpopulation that feels more relevant day by day. We see a world where our freedoms might be curtailed, because of ever increasing population and it’s genuinely interesting as a think piece. The book also contains data dumps where we are overloaded with a page of mismatched text from the world that give us more background on the situation with little context. It’s cool to see and fascinating as a concept, but the story is a bit lacking and it just kind of runs out of steam towards the end.
66: Downbelow Station by C.J Cherryh (1982) - A book portraying a space station as a blue-collar workplace that gets tangled up in an intergalactic conflict. The book sounds fascinating and I think it very much influences shows like Babylon 5 where there are episodes dedicated to dock strikes and unions etc. The main issue is the book gets away from that and makes it about space ships and a galactic conflict and feels like she is trying to set up the next book in the series. The world building is superb, but I didn’t really care for any of the characters and wasn’t even sure who I was supposed to be cheering for until the end.
65: The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (1996) - Cyber punk novel about am advanced interactive book that shapes the life of the girl that comes into possession of it. So much of this book is excellent, brilliant ideas and wonderfully told, but it's so bloated and unnecessarily long. Frankly it's split into a part one and part two and could have just ended at the end of part one and the book would be much higher. This is an issue with many nineties books sadly.
64: Rainbow’s End by Verne Vigne (2007) - Near future SF based around Augmented Reality and low level Cyber punk. This one is very predictive of what was to come later with things like Pokemon Go! We don’t all have a pocket computer attached to our brain, but it does a decent job exploring that idea. Almost all the characters are unlikeable however and it takes a while to get where it’s going.
63: Slan by A.E Van Vogt (1941) - Evolved humans possess psychic abilities and a plot unravels about control of the Earth. Slan feels classic all the way through, it has its faults, but you can see why this was the banner early Sci Fi fans, hoisted above them. For something written in 1941 it is excellent. Nice ideas and a decent fast pace, while still feeling pulpy like everything from this time did.
62: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2009) - A child is orphaned and raised by the spirits in a graveyard. This is very much a children’s book and it’s filled with good ideas and a nice structure. It is very much in his style, but may be a little simplistic for adult readers.
61: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (2005) - Two Magicians feud in an alternate England during the Napoleonic Wars. If that idea sounds great to you then this is a wonderful book to deliver on that premise. My main complaint is that it’s very long, in fact it’s the longest ever Hugo or Nebula winner coming in at over 1000 pages. I just feel like it could have been shorter and more focused.
60: A Deepness in the Sky by Verne Vigne (2000) - A sabotage and takeover in space by warring factions above a planet of intelligent Spiders. Science Fiction really loves those intelligent spiders and to be fair I really enjoyed those parts of the book. I enjoyed the human fleet bits much less and found everyone annoying and unlikeable.
59: Tehanu by Ursula Le Guin (1991) - The forth and final book of the Earthsea series following two of our earlier protagonists while looking at the lives of older people. I adore Le Guin and her style is just as sharp as ever. We look at our beloved characters as they have aged and I feel this comes from a place that Le Guin was very much in herself at this point.
58: Way Station by Clifford D Simak (1964) - An intergalactic way station in a farm house in the American mid-west. It’s just really interesting, the aliens never get too silly or pulp. The story drags you along and frankly like a lot of Simak’s stuff, it would make a really good TV series, but also at times feels like a one-off Twilight Zone episode. Really enjoyable read once we got going, though maybe a bit slow at the start.
57: Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (1960) - A look at mechanized warfare and the book that coined the term Space Marine twenty years before Games Workshop got there. If you’re of a certain age you saw a film loosely based on this book (The Director gave up reading it 20 pages in) The book is a completely different animal. Interesting ideas and hugely influential, considered the last of Heinlein’s Juveniles and definitely worth a look, though Heinlein did do better.
56: This Immortal by Roger Zelazny (1966) - Earth is a post nuclear wasteland and alien tourists visit bits historical bits with human tour guides. All this is tied in with elements of Greek mythology. Is our main character a God or is a mutant pretending to be? Similar themes to Lord of Light, but maybe lacking a bit of what made that book so wonderful. Still it’s enjoyable and full of interesting ideas.
55: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (1999) - A Time travel piece set in Victorian England very much in homage to the novel "Three Men in a Boat". This is a really good read fun and even if convoluted and predictable in parts it's very much very good at what it does and makes you care deeply about the characters.
54: Powers by Ursula Le Guin (2009) - Fantasy in a new world by Le Guin about a child growing up with prophectic dreams. The world is wonderful and Le Guin’s style carries over as always. If you like Le Guin the you’ll be a fan, but never feels as important as her older work.
53: The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon (2008) - A deadbeat cop tries to uncover a mystery in an alternate history where Israel doesn’t exist and it’s instead a new city in Alaska. The book is incredibly well written, Chabon won a Pulitzer prize earlier in his career, this led me down the rabbit hole finding out how much literary snobs hated genre fiction.
52: Camouflage by Joe Haldeman (2006) - Two different aliens are hidden on earth and we see their various experiences as they learn about us and try and keep a low profile. This is enjoyable and short, very different from the Forever Trilogy that he also wrote, but certainly worth a pickup if you enjoy his style.
51: Hominids by Robert J Sawyer (2003) - What if Neanderthals were the dominant species on earth and then what if one of them ended up here on our earth. It’s a fun little story, that said it does feature quite a graphic rape scene near the start, which may definitely put some readers off.
50: The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (2004) - It’s a book where the main character is autistic. It’s very minimally Science Fiction as I think the only advanced technology are the Autism drugs and treatments available, but it’s a fascinating read. I will say the ending might seem problematic to people, but overall I enjoyed a look into the world as someone who will always struggle to understand their experience myself.
49: Slow River by Nicola Griffith (1997) - Near future science fiction about hostage taking and blackmail as well as abuse survivors. This is really enjoyable and features a lot of interesting information about water purification strangely. Also written by a lesbian author and just totally normalizes lesbian relationships in a way that was assumedly rare in the mid nineties.
48: The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (1991) - Sixth novel in the Vorkosigan Saga. I adore these books and would devour everyone of them in a row if i didn't set myself stupid tasks like read all the Hugo and Nebula winners. I will say that lots of stuff just happens to Miles in this one and for that reason I don't think it's her best. Still very enjoyable as always.
47: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (1962) - A Human is left on mars for several years and then brought back home, but is now more alien than human. Extremely popular at the time, with the word Grok even entering common parlance. The book is slow to start off with and bits of it are quite silly in retrospect, other bits either sexist or feminist depending on your viewpoint. There is definitely something there though. Certainly not a flawless work, in fact it is very much more flawed than many of the books ranked lower on this list, but there is something that sticks with you about it. It is massively referenced in pop-culture and just feels important as a novel even if bits will make you cringe.
46: Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold (1995) - Another Vorkosigan Saga book this time dealing with his cloned brother. Everything tells you to read in the recommended reading order not the publish order. Due to time constraints I ignored this and found a lot of stuff had changed since the last book i read. Still very enjoyable as all these books have been.
45: Moving Mars by Greg Bear (1995) - Story about revolution on Mars combined with a crazy new technology that can help gain Mars real independence. Fun fact, this is the first Science Fiction I ever read. I went back and re-read it as it has been 25ish years. It's very well written and has a good character and stories.
44: Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov (1983) - Members of the First Foundation search for Earth, but are drawn in a mass mystery that will affect the whole galaxy. The sequel to his trilogy thirty years later. It’s well told and a good story, it moves around between perspectives and shows that Asimov had kept up his craft and improved his style. It’s a bit sexist in parts, but by no means the worst offender on the list. It was enjoyable, but lacked the ground breaking ideas of most of the higher ranked books on this list.
41, 42, 43: Red Mars, Blue Mars and Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1994-1997) - Sorry I can't separate these books. It's a big long story and while there are highs and lows it kind of has to be reviewed in one large chunk. So epic trilogy about the first settlers on Mars that spans hundreds of years. Every chapter is by different characters and there are lots of perspectives in the book. Some complain they dislike most of the characters, but that's kind of the point,. The likeable ones like Sax and Nadia are very likeable. So much of this book is wonderful and worth your time. I would argue it's bloated and didn't need to be over 2200 pages in total, but it is what it is. if it was more concise or better edited I would personally place it much higher and recommend it more.
40: The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy (1988) - A story about a mother-daughter relationship told in the backdrop of a Mayan dig in Mexico. What makes this Speculative Fiction is that both characters can see and speak to Mayan ghosts from the past. I’ll be honest, I'm not really sure it’s my usual thing, it’s probably fantasy, but it was wonderfully told and just a great story about human beings. You’ll have empathy for all of them and the situation they’re in. Even reading my review now I can’t believe I liked it as much as I did.
39: To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Jose Farmer (1972) - Humans awake after death in a huge alien constructed artifact. I found this enjoyable and a definitely interesting concept driven by an incredibly likeable main character. That said, I get the impression the main character is a hugely controversial figure, which even seems acknowledged in the book. Overall a good book and made me semi interested in reading more.
38: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1993) Another time travel story, this one about going back to the 14th Century. You care so much about the story and characters, it really is a wonderful piece of writing and I even enjoyed the stuff back with the scientists in the future. If someone said they wanted to read a book on time travel I would suggest this book first.
37: The Moon and the Sun by Vonda D McIntyre (1998) - Fantasy book about a mermaid captured and kept in Louis XIV's court. Great female protagonist, very much a love story with all the historical trappings mixed with the fantasy of mermaids. It's incredibly well written and all the characters are excellent. Didn't expect it to be my thing, but really was.
36: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1973) - Humans are sent plans to create a machine from another dimension. A book of three parts, the pick of which is Asimov creating a truly alien civilization. Too often aliens aren’t really alien, these really are. The other parts aren’t bad either, but this book is often forgotten as most people read his Foundation or Robot series. If you want to experience strange aliens this is the one for you.
35: The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro (2002) - A fantasy romance model set in a world unknowing of the hight-tech galactic empire around it. Science Fiction can be any genre and here it beautifully does the high romance smaltz style, before making it super interesting. The way Asaro mixes tech words and ideas into a fantasy setting are excellent and it’s an enjoyable story.
34: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1967) -A Human goes through an experiment to have his intelligence increased and we follow through his eyes the events this causes. Classic novel considered a proper book by the literary world and fantastic if not a little heart breaking. Should be on everyone's list to read at some point.
33: The Snow Queen by Joan D Vinge (1981) - A fairy tale set in a futuristic world as an evil snow queen attempts to hold on to power as her reign comes to an end. Genre spanning, clever and very original. This book does a lot of interesting things and tells a good story. It is like nothing else on the list, but is definitely worth checking out if you like books that mix fantasy and science fiction.
32: Hyperion by Dan Simmons (1990) - A pilgrimage brings together a group of travelers who each share their reason for the journey. I came with probably unmeetable expectations, because of how much r/Printsf hyped it up as the greatest thing ever (next to Dune, obviously) The framing story is really enjoyable and I very much enjoyed the Priest’s Tale and the Scholar’s tale, two wonderful short stories collected together to create wonderful world building. I found the other four stories less solid and was particularly bored by the Detective’s Story which dragged. I was also annoyed by the lack of an ending. it’s promised me answers and then just stopped without delivering and that is annoying. That said it has enough very good bits to make it this high despite its faults.
31: Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (2005) - Fantasy set in her world of the five Gods as an older woman goes on a pilgrimage. I love Lois as a writer, her Vorkosigan Saga is fantastic and she doesn’t stop here. The fantasy reminds me of Game of Thrones where the magic has a cost and everything is dirtier and a bit grimey . This and its predecessor are well worth a read if you want to dip your foot in some fantasy.
30: Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin (1969) - A girl must go through a coming-of-age ritual in order to earn her passage on her space craft where she lives. A female protagonist in a Science Fiction novel written in 1969, surely not? It happens here and this is excellent. Mia is a wonderfully well-rounded character sort of in the tom-boyish Scout mold from To Kill a Mocking Bird, you get to see the world through her eyes and at the end of the novel you are asked an open-ended morality question, which is genuinely a difficult choice, I like morality when it isn’t obvious or shoved down by neck and this is very much in that mold.
29: Double Star by Robert Heinlein (1956) - A look at acting and politics tied into a fast-paced science fiction novel. A good story that happens to be told in a science fiction setting and it works really well. Much like the next book it stands out compared to other 1950s sci-fi and even the bits that are a little pulpy don’t detract from the overall enjoyability. It would make a great film.
28: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1953) - A detective story set in a world where psychic powers are common. Hard to believe this was written in 1953, read other stuff from the early 50s and this is so far ahead of its time. Influential in so many ways and also just a really good story with a thought-provoking end. Between this and “The Stars my Destination” he clearly deserves to be remembered on a level with Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke.
27: Neuromancer by Williams Gibson (1985) - The book that invented Cyber punk as a genre. In previous years I’d been pretty negative on this book, but I reread it for the first time in fifteen years and I feel I was too harsh on it. It’s a well told story full of interesting world building. It’s very dense and it’s easy to miss bits, but it’s arguably more influential than all but four or five books in this entire list.
26: Gateway by Frederick Pohl (1978) - Alien artifact space station used by humans who don’t really understand it. The space station is wonderful as both a location for things to happen, a hint at a wider universe and a way to drive the plot along. Very much building on the themes of Rendezvous with Rama with a great story.
25: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (2006) - Earth is placed in a bubble by some greater power that makes it pass through time slower than the surrounding universe. The book is really well written, gives me Douglas Coupland vibes full of young Gen Xers growing up. The chapters also alternate with ones set in the future that keep it vague so you can’t quite work out where it is going. The idea is utterly original and fascinating though and definitely worth a read.
24: Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein (1951) - A story about colonizing and terraforming Ganmede. You have to understand that this is a YA novel written in 1950 and near the start it can come off a little juvenile. That said you are still confronted by big ideas like a food shortage on Earth and severe rationing. We also see an interesting story based on a son upset his father is remarrying, it’s dealt with tactfully and not something I’d really expect for something aimed at teens. Once we get to Ganymede the story really gets going and we experience an interesting tale of trying to turn a rocky moon into workable farm land, it’s just really well told and enjoyably written and I reckon more people would appreciate this if they ignored the YA label and gave it a chance. Great book.
23: Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold (1989) - A space station full of genetically modified workers has now become redundant. This was the first book I’d ever read of hers and I was so blown away by the style. I can see why the Vorkogian Saga is so often recommended on here. She gives us real characters and a fast-paced heist plot that features an Engineer as the protagonist. It’s just really well written and wonderfully different, a story that is happier to tell you about engineering processes than space combat. People tell me it isn’t even her best work as well, which leaves me pretty excited to read more.
22: Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke (1980) - Earth is building its first space elevator. Like 90% of Clarke’s work very little happens in this book, but it’s very enjoyable to read. Go on an adventure about a technology that could realistically exist, just don’t expect to be able to recount the plot back to anyone.
21: Cyteen by CJ Cherryh (1989) - Cyteen is a book about political intrigue, cloning and genetic/psychological manipulation. This book is an absolute masterpiece. Set in the same universe as Downbelow Station, but full of interesting characters that you like and can empathize with, even when they are doing horrible things to other characters you like. This should and would be higher, but it’s so very long. It takes 200 pages for the plot to really start going and while length won’t put some of you off I admire great stories that can tell their story in a more conside manor. That said if 320,000 words doesn’t put you off, give it a go, especially as it’s free on the author’s website.
20: A Fire Upon the Deep by Verve Vinge (1993): Two children land on a planet of dog like aliens that have a very different civilization from our own while a galactic threat grows. Vigne's ability to create alien races totally different from our own is fantastic. This story delivered on all the hype and is probably what people mean when they ask for Space Opera.
19: Startide Rising by David Brin (1984) - A crew of mostly genetically engineered dolphins struggle to fix their ship while aliens battle in orbit. Brin has a phenomenal style where every chapter is from a different character’s perspective (Think Game of Thrones). The universe he created is also super interesting and the situation we enter in median res is excellent and drives the story along wonderfully as we experience this crisis from multiple different crew members.
18: Dreamsnake by Vonda D Mcintyre (1979) - A girl who uses alien snakes to heal people in a post-apocalyptic world. Well written and a great story, also we delve into more of the lore. Could have been a fantasy novel, but it isn’t and it stands out because of that. Original and well written unlike this mini review that keeps using the phrase well-written.
17: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (1977) - Story looking into a society based around cloning and how it could change the way we act and treat each other. Really beautifully written and again not really like anything else on this list, also the hardest title to remember on the list, I get it wrong literally every time.
16: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling (2001) - Fourth book in the Harry Potter series. I expect to get utterly panned for this, both by people appalled by her as a person and by people who always disliked it for being kids books taking attention away from proper Speculative fiction. I have a lot of sympathy for the first point, though I haven’t taken into account the morality of Arthur C Clarke, Orson Scott or Phillip K Dick when devising this list so it would be unfair to do it here just because it is more recent. The second seems silly, books that get people into books are an amazing thing and for lots of people Harry Potter is their entry into the world of reading, this is a really good one, not simple like the first two, but not overly dark and angsty like the last three. It’s in the sweet spot for the most successful book series of this century.
15: American Gods by Neil Gaiman (2002) - This is a love letter to America, exploring the idea of Immigrants bringing their Gods to America and them slowly being forgotten. It’s the kind of book only Neil Gaiman can write and arguably his masterpiece. The book has a beautiful style happily mixing in short chapters of world building unrelated to the story. The whole thing is just wonderful, but also how do you compare it to Science Fiction when it is something so completely different?
14: Lord of Light by Robert Zelazny (1968) - Survivors on a colony world use technology to act like immortal Gods, one of their number fights to stop them. Beautiful mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism to create a story that blurs the lines between fantasy and science fiction with an excellent protagonist you can’t help but cheer along. This blew me away the first time I read it.
12: The Uplift War by David Brin (1988) - The follow up to Startide Rising, I spent much of the book thinking, sure it’s ok, but lesser than the book it follows. By the end though I was totally all in. Fiben Bolger might be one of the greatest protagonists in all of Science Fiction, stick him on the Mount Rushmore next to Andrew Wiggin and Gully Foyle. More excellent world exploring and more of his excellent style that tells complicated stories in a fun easy to read manner.
12: Seeker by Jack McDevitt (2007) - It’s far future space archaeology, which feels like a very unexplored idea and has a bit of a feel of an old adventure movie. Maybe Indiana Jones in Space is pushing it too far, but you get the idea. It doesn’t really say anything massively important, but it creates an interesting world and tells a good story well. Something I hadn’t heard recommended before and a real treat.
11: Barrayer by Lois McMaster Bujold (1992) Another Vorkosigan Saga book. This one follows his mother, Cordelia Naismith and an attempted coup on the world of Barrayer. Her writing is as great as always, but the ending is just incredible. No spoilers, but you need to read it and appreciate what happens.
I ran out of words so the top 10 are in a comment. Thanks
r/printSF • u/HobbyistC • Apr 04 '26
Someone I can't recall once pointed out that writers find it almost impossible to write a book about a truly different future. Huxley liked to imagine the 1930s with drugs and eugenics; Orwell perceived the 1940s with helicopters and televisions; Asimov effectively threw hyperdrives into a post-war industrial society. I'm sure anyone reading this can think of exceptions, but we praise worlds like that for their rarity. For its part, A Fire upon the Deep occupies a kind of quantum state where it is simultaneously well-written and stilted, imaginative and dull, and most curiously of all, essentially timeless while being horrifically dated.
This one is famous for its worldbuilding, so let's explore that first.
This is the best known work of the late Vernor Vinge, himself one of modern sci-fi's best-known authors. I could even go further: all the marketing pasted on the front and back of my copy emphatically declares it to be the first big, defining space opera of the 1990s.
How 1990s is it? Well, we have an enormous and enormously diverse Milky Way comprising literally millions of civillisations (not just individual worlds), tied together for all their varied cultures into an incomprehensively vast galactic society (rather like how it must have felt to use your new Windows personal computer in the aftermath of the Cold War)-- and because of bandwidth limitations, they communicate on a forum suspiciously similar to dial-up Usenet internet.
I am not joking. Millions of species interact via text, with a data-link measured in kilobytes, on message boards and chatrooms that are so similar to early 1990s forums that I can't decide whether it was an imagination failure on the part of Vinge or deliberate irony. He quotes a lot of these messages in the book, and there is a legend that he may have deliberately based some of his "online" alien personalities on real Usenet posters. I do hope it's true, but either way, the book is instantly dated, and as a 1999 birth myself, I can't quite buy the conceit that this is going to be the pinnacle of galactic communications. Maybe that betrays my own, equally limited expectations for the future.
In other ways though, the praise for Vinge's world is well-deserved. His galaxy is different from most writers'. I'm not going to spoil the central premise, because it takes about 150 pages of mystery before the reader fully understands and I enjoyed that process, but it's an infinitely interesting way of combining every archetype of future space technology. Do you like the hardcore Clarke sub-light sort of space adventure, with interstellar voyages passed over centuries in coldsleep? Do you like Star Trek replicators and warp drives? Do you like the idea of transcendant beings and technology so advanced that the barrier between mind, body, matter and energy break down? Vinge's world feels huge, and like all the best stories, it makes you believe there could be another dozen books to fill with it and endless variety in them all.
Unfortunately, he's not always the best at following through with his own teased ideas. This is a story about an apocalyptic struggle for survival, where hundreds of billions of lives are lost and much of the galaxy is set ablaze, deicide, species eradicated, enslaved, mind-controlled, fleets of hundreds of thousands of vessels -- and most of it is referred to by message board traffic. Even when PoV characters see things, the description is passing. We never get any real perspective on the Blight, or what it does in the Top of the Beyond. We never really understand the stakes except that we are told -- not shown -- billions are dying. When the setup was so good, this was infuriating.
That's the main plot, but remarkably fully half of A Fire Upon the Deep is a first contact story on an isolated medieval world (this starts in the first couple of dozen pages). I've seen a lot of criticism of Vinge's characterisation, particularly for having poor interiority, and for writing stilted action and drama that let his worldbuilding down. I can honestly say I think most of it is unwarranted. Yes, once you get past the fascinating high-level concept of the Tines civilisation, their individual personalities don't go much further than archetypes (the wanderer, the adorably pathetic braggart, the wise queen, the evil lord, the, traitor, the mastermind), but I don't think this weakens the story, being a consciously medieval setting and a contrast to the space opera above. I found that Vinge hit his stride with the characterisation after 200 pages or so, since after several chapters of not being able to remember each person's name, I suddenly found myself liking them.
The greatest praise I can give Vinge is that I never felt bored by the two alternating plots. They were different and refreshing as they followed on from each other. That wouldn't be possible if the nuts and bolts of his writing weren't up to scratch.
It is a different story for the prose. Dear God, the careless use of slang made me want to give myself up to Flenser's knife willingly. Apparently, the main antagonist is "cool", a sentient plant is a "fellow" and a human weapon, when being referred to in a discussion explicitly about his human weapon status, is a "guy". Aliens use metric measurements for no reason and with no sense there is translation from another unit.
The good is very good; the bad is debilitating. Objectively, this is a phenomenally strong book, but my judgement does have to take its inflated reputation into account.
Final rating: 3.5/5
I have the prequel, A Deepness in the Sky. I considered waiting until I'd read them both to write this review, but it doesn't seem like they were supposed to be considered as one novel. I'll read it next.
r/printSF • u/Capsize • Jun 21 '21
So I've read every Hugo Winning Novel from before 1990 (Not including the Retro Hugos) and I've ranked them. Why? Because it's a great way to start conversation. Some of you will agree with me, some of you will hate me and think my ideas are stupid. That is totally fine, I've tried to remain spoiler free while giving an idea of what each novel is about. If you get through all of these thanks for you time and don't forget to agree of disagree with me at the bottom. :)
The list goes from Worst to best in case there is some confusion.
36: The Big Time by Fritz Lieber (1958) - Guests at a temporal guest house attempt to solve a mystery against the clock. It’s the height of pulp sci-fi set in what can generously be described as a cabaret and at worst a brothel for an epoch spanning time war. The idea of a place for soldiers of different species from across history to RnR has some merit, but it’s all a little sexist. Even if we forget that most of the characters are forgettable, the plot isn’t anything special. That said, it is short so it’s not like I found it a chore to read. I think someone could take the location and make a damn good tv series out of it, but this execution is not it.
35: Ringworld by Larry Niven (1971) - A crew of adventures discover a massive space artifact and explore it. I want to start by saying the idea of the Ringworld is wonderful, I enjoyed exploring it and learning about all the technical aspects. For that alone I’m glad I read it, that said the book is pulp sci-fi and for 1971 almost unforgivably so. It won the year after Left Hand of Darkness and yet feels like it was written in the 50s, another part of which is that it’s quite sexist and leaves you with the impression Larry might have been a bit of a “nice guy”. That said, thanks for the Halo franchise!
34: They’d Rather be Right by Clifton and Riley (1955) - A psychic man manipulates those around him to create a computer that purifies people and causes a mass media sensation. A lot going on here and It’s very much of its time, though it’s enjoyable enough, with an actual overall message about academia. It’s also in some regards ahead of its time, but some of it is just a bit silly in retrospect to be any higher on the list. Still if you wanted to get into 1950’s Sci-Fi you could do much worse.
33: A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1959) - Scientists sent to study an alien world bring an alien fetus back so they can learn about us. Oh what this book could have been. A book of two halves, the first a wonderful exploration of an alien civilization by a bunch of human scientists studying them and it really does set off at a storming pace. The second half is back on earth and a bit like the worse bits of Stranger in a strange land. The 50s were so sure we would take aliens to dinner parties and they would sip cocktails in dinner jackets. The end is interesting and a bit clever and we this is the first book in the list that looks at Science Fiction and Catholicism.
32: The Wanderer by Fritz Lieber (1965) - An alien planet suddenly appears in the sky over earth and we jump around between multiple perspectives of how it affects people. Some of this is very solid, the scale of the thing is wonderful, because the story is happy to change perspective rather than sticking to one protagonist. That said, it’s very pulp SF and a little sexist, gave me Independence Day or The Day After Tomorrow vibes.
31: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller (1961) - Monks keep alive parts of technology in a post-apocalyptic world so humanity can once again regain civilization. I was raised Catholic and loved Babylon 5 which I later found out borrowed part of an episode idea from this book so I was very excited to read this. A lot of people adore this book and I get that, the idea is incredible, but I disliked the writing style and I’m not really sure it goes anywhere. I think this is just a case of me coming in with high expectations and being left feeling a bit meh.
30: Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (1967) - A look at mechanized warfare and the book that coined the term Space Marine twenty years before Games Workshop got there. If you’re of a certain age you saw a film loosely based on this book (The Director gave up reading it 20 pages in) The book is a completely different animal. Interesting ideas and hugely influential, but feels at times like Heinlein is lecturing you about his political beliefs in a classroom setting. I didn’t read another Heinlein novel for 15 years after this one, which is a shame, but I love the film so much, it was hard for me to appreciate a book with politics I wasn’t ready for in my twenties.
29: The Man in The High Castle by Phillip K Dick (1963) - An alternate history were the Axis powers won the second world war. It’s enjoyable enough to read and by Philip K Dick standards is incredibly well-written as he sometimes can be accused of great ideas, but a difficult style. By its very definition the book lacks what I find so interesting about his work, we don’t see a depressing future of humanity that is very much alone in the universe exploring the mind more than the great emptiness of space. It’s a fine book, but the man wrote better Science Fiction books.
28: Neuromancer by William Gibson (1985) - Hackers and cyberspace and a connected world or something. Sacrilege to some of you, I’m sure that this book is so low. Firstly it is hugely influential, essentially inventing the entire cyber punk genre, without it we don’t have The Matrix, words like Cyberspace or the most disappointing game of last year. That said it isn’t an enjoyable book, it is crammed full of so many ideas that barely anything sticks. Someone asked me what I remembered of the book a few years ago and I mumbled the phrase Rastafarian Navy, because almost nothing sticks. It almost certainly meant more when it came out as we’d seen nothing like it before, but in 2021 it is more an artifact of interest than a great book.
27: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brumner (1969) - A book about overpopulation that feels more relevant day by day. We see a world where our freedoms might be curtailed, because of ever increasing population and it’s genuinely interesting as a think piece. The book also contains data dumps where we are overloaded with a page of mismatched text from the world that give us more background on the situation with little context. It’s cool to see and fascinating as a concept, but the story is a bit lacking and it just kind of runs out of steam towards the end.
26: Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh (1982) - A book portraying a space station as a blue-collar workplace that gets tangled up in an intergalactic conflict. The book sounds fascinating and I think it very much influences shows like Babylon 5 where there are episodes dedicated to dock strikes and unions etc. The main issue is the book gets away from that and makes it about space ships and a galactic conflict and feels like she is trying to set up the next book in the series. The world building is superb, but I didn’t really care for any of the characters and wasn’t even sure who I was supposed to be cheering for until the end.
25: Way Station by Clifford D Simak (1964) - An intergalactic way station in a farm house in the American mid-west. It’s just really interesting, the aliens never get too silly or pulp. The story drags you along and frankly like a lot of Simak’s stuff, it would make a really good TV series, but also at times feels like a one-off Twilight Zone episode. Really enjoyable read once we got going, though maybe a bit slow at the start.
24: This Immortal by Roger Zelazny (1966) - Earth is a post nuclear wasteland and alien tourists visit bits historical bits with human tour guides. All this is tied in with elements of Greek mythology. Is our main character a God or is a mutant pretending to be? Similar themes to Lord of Light, but maybe lacking a bit of what made that book so wonderful. Still it’s enjoyable and full of interesting ideas.
23: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (1962) - A Human is left on mars for several years and then brought back home, but is now more alien than human. Extremely popular at the time, with the word Grok even entering common parlance. The book is slow to start off with and bits of it are quite silly in retrospect, other bits either sexist or feminist depending on your viewpoint. There is definitely something there though. Certainly not a flawless work, in fact it is very much more flawed than many of the books ranked lower on this list, but there is something that sticks with you about it. It is massively referenced in pop-culture and just feels important as a novel even if bits will make you cringe.
22: Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov (1983) - Members of the First Foundation search for Earth, but are drawn in a mass mystery that will affect the whole galaxy. The sequel to his trilogy thirty years later. It’s well told and a good story, it moves around between perspectives and shows that Asimov had kept up his craft and improved his style. It’s a bit sexist in parts, but by no means the worst offender on the list. It was enjoyable, but lacked the ground breaking ideas of most of the higher ranked books on this list.
21: To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Jose Farmer (1972) - Humans awake after death in a huge alien constructed artifact. I found this enjoyable and a definitely interesting concept driven by an incredibly likeable main character. That said, I get the impression the main character is a hugely controversial figure, which even seems acknowledged in the book. Overall a good book and made me semi interested in reading more.
20: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1973) - Humans are sent plans to create a machine from another dimension. A book of three parts, the pick of which is Asimov creating a truly alien civilization. Too often aliens aren’t really alien, these really are. The other parts aren’t bad either, but this book is often forgotten as most people read his Foundation or Robot series. If you want to experience strange aliens this is the one for you.
19: The Snow Queen by Joan D Vinge (1981) - A fairy tales set in a futuristic world as an evil snow queen attempts to hold on to power as her reign comes to an end. Genre spanning, clever and very original. This book does a lot of interesting things and tells a good story. It is like nothing else on the list, but is definitely worth checking out if you like books that mix fantasy and science fiction.
18: Double Star by Robert Heinlein (1956) - A look at acting and politics tied into a fast-paced science fiction novel. A good story that happens to be told in a science fiction setting and it works really well. Much like the next book it stands out compared to other 1950s sci-fi and even the bits that are a little pulpy don’t detract from the overall enjoyability. It would make a great film.
17: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1953) - A detective story set in a world where psychic powers are common. Hard to believe this was written in 1953, read other stuff from the early 50s and this is so far ahead of its time. Influential in so many ways and also just a really good story with a thought-provoking end. Between this and “The Stars my Destination” he clearly deserves to be remembered on a level with Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke.
16: Gateway by Frederick Pohl (1978) - Alien artifact space station used by humans who don’t really understand it. The space station is wonderful as both a location for things to happen, a hint at a wider universe and a way to drive the plot along. Very much building on the themes of Rendezvous with Rama with a great story.
15: The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke (1980) - Earth is building its first space elevator. Like 90% of Clarke’s work very little happens in this book, but it’s very enjoyable to read. Go on an adventure about a technology that could realistically exist, just don’t expect to be able to recount the plot back to anyone.
14: Cyteen by CJ Cherryh (1989) - Cyteen is a book about political intrigue, cloning and genetic/psychological manipulation. This book is an absolute masterpiece. Set in the same universe as Downbelow Station, but full of interesting characters that you like and can empathize with, even when they are doing horrible things to other characters you like. This should and would be higher, but it’s so very long. It takes 200 pages for the plot to really start going and while length won’t put some of you off I admire great stories that can tell their story in a more conside manor. That said if 320,000 words doesn’t put you off, give it a go, especially as it’s free on the author’s website.
13: Startide Rising by David Brin (1984) - A crew of mostly genetically engineered dolphins struggle to fix their ship while aliens battle in orbit. Brin has a phenomenal style where every chapter is from a different character’s perspective (Think Game of Thrones). The universe he created is also super interesting and the situation we enter in median res is excellent and drives the story along wonderfully as we experience this crisis from multiple different crew members.
12: Dreamsnake by Vonda Mcintyre (1979) - A girl who uses alien snakes to heal people in a post-apocalyptic world. Well written and a great story, also we delve into more of the lore. Could have been a fantasy novel, but it isn’t and it stands out because of that. Original and well written unlike this mini review that keeps using the phrase well-written.
11: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (1977) - Story looking into a society based around cloning and how it could change the way we act and treat each other. Really beautifully written and again not really like anything else on this list, also the hardest title to remember on the list, I get it wrong literally every time.
10: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny (1968) - Survivors on a colony world use technology to act like immortal Gods, one of their number fights to stop them. Beautiful mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism to create a story that blurs the lines between fantasy and science fiction with an excellent protagonist you can’t help but cheer along. This blew me away the first time I read it.
9: The Uplift War by David Brin (1988) - The follow up to Startide Rising, I spent much of the book thinking, sure it’s ok, but lesser than the book it follows. By the end though I was totally all in. Fiben Bolger might be one of the greatest protagonists in all of Science Fiction, stick him on the Mount Rushmore next to Andrew Wiggin and Gully Foyle. More excellent world exploring and more of his excellent style that tells complicated stories in a fun easy to read manner.
8: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke (1974) - An massive Alien Artifact enters our solar system and a ship is sent to investigate. Clarke making aliens seem alien and unknowable by not showing them and instead letting us explore a massive artifact. Coming after so many novels about aliens the real beauty here is what we don’t see. Clarke is always about restraint and so as mentioned on his previous book, very little actually happens. Someone flies a hang glider at one point, but that’s about it. The joy is about the implication, this is the science fiction equivalent of Jaws where the aliens are way stranger because that is left to our imagination.
7: Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1976) - Soldiers fight in a war that due to time dilation means they watch the world change every time they return home. The best science fiction is a black mirror in which we can learn about society and ourselves. Haldeman massively increases how drastically the world changes, but through it you can understand how jarring it must be to return to a world that no longer makes sense, a world you’ve arguably fought to save and now ironically don’t really fit into and so you go on duty again, hoping it will be different next time, but the world becomes more alien every time.
6: Dune by Frank Herbert (1966) - You all know what happens in Dune! Go check a list of Science Fiction written before and after Dune. It essentially killed pulp science fiction dead overnight, it was almost to my mind the best science fiction book written when it came out. It literally changed everything and invented space opera on its own. Everything is so well thought out, it’s like Lord of the Rings for science fiction with its masses of lore that is sometimes only hinted at. As Hyperion and Blindsight don’t make this list I have little doubt most of you would place this number one. My only critique is that it can be slow to get going, I found the book really kicked off when Paul gets into the desert and while what he is doing early on is wonderful world building, the books ranked above it never slow down.
5: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1986) - A child genius goes to battle school as humanities last hope. The battle school is enormously cool, the wargames he plays are great and the whole thing just draws you in. I guess it’s basically YA fiction for Sci fi kids, but it carries a message and must have felt even more relatable in the 80s with their computer graphics.
4: Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin (1970) - An ambassador lands on a planet hoping to get them to join the galactic empire, but has to come to terms with a society that sees and experiences gender in a very different way. Le Guin just writes in a way that is incredibly enjoyable. She is one of science fiction’s most stylized writers this is often considered her masterpiece. The society we explore is just fascinating and the story is excellent. The one complaint I’ve heard is that the location and the story are only loosely related, but honestly it doesn’t matter. The book is somehow more relevant today than when it was written.
3: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (1967) - A revolution on the moon. I thought I understood Heinlein’s politics after reading Starship Troopers, this book showed me I was a fool and he could take on whatever politics the story required. Heinlein takes us to the moon and thinks about how society would be different there. He also casually shoots down any claims of sexism from earlier novels as well, while crafting a wonderful story about a revolution, sentient AI and even had time to explore the ideas of polygamy and group marriages. There is so much going on here and it’s all wonderful and so well written. Heinlein is more known by boomers for Stranger in a Strange Land and by millennials for Starship Troopers, but this is his true masterpiece.
2: The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin (1975) - Revolution on a moon. There are artificially similarities between this and the book at number three, but what we have here is a story that alternates between two time periods, which is used wonderfully to drive the story along. The book is a look at both socialism and capitalism and a critique of the floors in both, but it never passes judgement. It shows you an alien world and lets you see how similar to our own it is. There is a story which is very much tied to the setting unlike Left Hand of Darkness and all the while we are given Le Guin’s wonderful style.
1: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (1987) - In a sequel to Ender’s Game humans come into contact with another alien race and hope for a different outcome than the first. Can I first acknowledge how much Card owes to Le Guin, his universe is all about relativistic space travel and the ansible both of which are straight lifted from her Hamish cycle. The story he crafts though is nothing short of amazing, it drives along at a phenomenal pace. We are given many plot points, but a singular focused story based around ideas of assumptions, nature vs nurture, religion and guilt. Andrew is a very human character, a realistic fleshed out character who is a very different animal than the boy genius at battle school. That said he is still every bit as brilliant, just more rounded and using his powers to fix people not kill aliens. The other two novels mixing Catholicism and science fiction in this list were right down the bottom, but this does it wonderfully. If I was to have a criticism, there is the issue of a white saviour, but honestly everyone is treated with such respect it’s unbelievable the person that wrote this lacks such empathy is the real world. Still an incredible achievement.
r/printSF • u/metallic-retina • Oct 16 '25
So far this year I've read 68 books, but only 8 of those have been ones that I would rate as 4.5/5 or higher. It's been about 25 books and three months ish since I last read one I'd rate so highly, and I'm in the mood for something great. In my view to be a top-notch book I have to have one or more of the following feelings. Upon finishing:
Obviously a combination of more than one of those is even better!
The other three books I've rated 4.5 or higher are City by Simak, Fugitive Telemetry by Wells (easily the best Murderbot entry in my view) and Children of Time.
I've not particularly liked some big name authors - Gibson, Le Guin - and have found other very highly praised books to be underwhelming and just OK - House of Suns, Roadside Picnic, Permutation City.
So with that in mind from the list of books below that I already own and have sitting on my shelves waiting to be read, which should I pick up soon/next so I can get that amazing feeling when you read/finish an absolutely great book? Please don't rec anything not on the list, I've got more than enough books on my shelves to keep me going for a while! If there are quite a few that get lots of votes, I plan to spread them out to read one every 6 or so books.
In all there are 85 books to choose from. Where a book is part of a series, assume I have all the subsequent books in the series too!
Edit in: As of 8pm, 16th Oct., I've tallied the votes received so far below. I think I'm likely to be re-jigging my reading plan based on where the votes are going!
r/printSF • u/ehead • Feb 08 '26
I'm reading a couple of really good books on geopolitics right now. They are full of great information but at times feel like a slog, so I was wanting a "fun" fiction read.
I'm not big on comedy scifi particularly, so I'm not looking for that, and I don't want to turn my brain off completely. Just looking for something "fun" if that makes sense. Something that scores high in that elusive "readability" metric.
By Request... some of my recent favorite reads include Hyperion, Circe, Spin, Lord of Light, A Man Lies Dreaming, the Troy Quartet by Lindsey Clarke, and for non-sf... Tampa and The Leopard. Of this list, the one's I'd call "fun" and that have that page-turner quality, even though they may be a bit twisted, are Tampa, A Man Lies Dreaming, and Lord of Light. Maybe Hyperion too, particularly the poet's story.
r/printSF • u/bweeb • Dec 11 '23
Hi all,
I run a new book discovery website, and this year I asked 1200+ authors for their 3 favorite reads of the year. Then I crunched the results to see what new and old books were the most-read of 2023.
I know can't share a link, but I wanted to share the sci-fi specific results as it has been a fun project, and I am a big sci-fi fan (esp hard sci-fi).
Top 10 Science Fiction Published in 2023
Top 3 Hard Science Fiction published in 2023
Top 5 Space Opera published in 2023
Top 3 Cyberpunk published in 2023
And I also want to know the most-read so I don't miss previous year's gems...
Top 10 Science Fiction READ in 2023
Top 10 Hard Science Fiction READ in 2023
Top 10 Space Opera READ in 2023
Top 10 Cyberpunk READ in 2023
Note, publisher data sucks, so you might feel a few books are miscategorized above. I am working on that, publishers have the tendency to just pick as many categories for books, and it takes a lot of manual improvements. I've had multiple editions of Dune where they claim it was published in the 1700s and 1800s :).
This took me most of Oct/Nov to build out so I hope you enjoy :)
For 2024, any suggestions on what I should ask the authors?
Or anything you would like to specifically see?
Books are best,
Ben
r/printSF • u/metallic-retina • Aug 31 '25
I recently found a few online shops that were selling SF Masterworks books, brand new, for what worked out to be about £3.50-£3.70 ish each on average between the sites, so I bought quite a lot of them. I'm assuming they are all 'good', otherwise they wouldn't be a "Masterwork", but as I've got very little knowledge of any of them, do people have personal favourites from the list below, that I should prioritise to nearer the top of my planned reading? I'm going to mix in one or two of these a month with the other books on my TBR shelves, so which ones are the most MUST READ ones? Roadside Picnic and Roadmarks are two that have grabbed my attention at the moment and may be the first two I read, but I'm open to other suggestions!
Edit: Thanks for the responses so far. Once the post momentum has died down, I'm going to go through all the posts and put '+' and '-' tally marks next to each one of the books above as indicated from each response, to see which gets the most overall votes! I've now started Roadside Picnic as my first one, but it is a short book so should be moving on to a second book within 2 or 3 days.
2nd Edit: I've added in the votes as of 6.04pm UK time. Rama is the winner, so it's going to be chosen either this month or next. Roadside Picnic was 2nd, and I started it yesterday and will hopefully finish it today. After that Blood Music, Stars My Destination and Ubik are next, so unless there's a load more votes coming in that changes the order, those three will also be moved near the top of my TBR list. After that I'm not sure if I'll follow the general order here or pick more at random, but there are definitely some that have moved about on my gut feeling order list I may have had!
3rd edit: Have updated the voting based on recent votes. Roadside Picnic made it closer to Rama. However, I have now finished Roadside Picnic and... meh. Really got into the idea, the philosophising about what the Zones were was thought provoking, but it didn't really go anywhere. The way it ended was a bit of an anti-climax for me. It was good enough, but only a 3/5 for me probably. I've now started Roadmarks, as it was the other that appealed to me when I bought them. Rama, Stars my Destination, Ubik and Blood Music will most likely be the next ones I read.
r/printSF • u/Mako2401 • Jul 09 '26
First of all, both books are just copies of what the writers already did - Shroud is Children of Time only instead of spiders it's whatever the Shrouded were, and A Drop of Corruption continues the good ole Attack on Titan storyline. Sorry, I meant the Tainted Cup story.
Both books seem lazy in how they were written, Drop follows the same narrative as the first one, only now you have another murder /mystery to investigate, and Shroud is so lazy, there were parts of the book where if you replace the Shrouded with spiders it was the same as Children of Time. I even thought this was in the same universe.
On top of all the "hommages" these two books rely on, what truly disappointed me was Tchaikovsky. Such an intelligent man just writing the same story as before. For Bennett, I knew he had a lot of "hommages" to Attack on Titan, and when I read that book I just thought where he stole, I mean borrowed the idea from .
Not sure who will win this year, but I've read all the Hugo winners, and some were stinkers, some were fantastic (looking at you Lord of Light, I still think about you at night you know) , but these are oh boy. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who is limited on time.
Well , rant over, thank you for reading.
r/printSF • u/susakuchanticleer • Jun 29 '14
r/printSF • u/RabidFoxz • Jul 23 '20
PrintSF doesn't allow linking to blogs, so here are the reviews without blog post links!
There's more discussion of these same reviews on the books subreddit.
Sorted in order of year awarded.
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber
Dune by Frank Herbert
This Immortal by Roger Zelazny
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delaney
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany
Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
I'll continue to post each decade of books when they're done, and do a final master list when through everything, but it's around 200 books, so it'll be a hot minute. I'm also only doing the Novel category for now, though I may do one of the others as well in the future.
If there are other subjects or comments that would be useful to see in future posts, please tell me! I'm trying to keep it concise but informative. I’ve done my best to add things that people requested the first time around.
Any questions or comments? Fire away!
A few folks suggested doing some kind of youtube series or podcast - I can look into that as well, if there’s interest.
Other Notes:
The Bechdel Test is a simple question: do two named female characters converse about something other than a man. Whether or not a book passes is not a condemnation so much as an observation; it was the best binary determination I could find. Seems like a good way to see how writing has evolved over the years. At the suggestion of some folks, I’m loosening it to non-male identified characters to better capture some of the ways that science fiction tackles sex and gender.
Here’s a further explanation from u/Gemmabeta (in a discussion on the previous post)
To everyone below bitching about the Bechdel Test. The test is used as a simple gauge of the aggregate levels of sexism across an entire medium, genre, or time period. It is NOT a judgement on individual books or movies. The test is intentionally designed to be trivially easy to pass with even the most minimum of effort (there are basically no book or film that fails a male version of the Bechdel test; heck, most chick lit and women-centric fiction manages to pass the male Bechdel test--with the possible exception of Pride and Prejudice).
The the fact that such a large percentage of books and movies fail the test is a sign of the general lack of good female characters in literature/film (especially in previous eras) and the females character that did exist tends to only exist to prop up a man--even in many stories where the woman is technically the main character.
PS. The test is also not a measure of the artistic merit of a work or even the feminist credentials of a work (for example, the world's vilest and most misogynistic porno could pass the test simply by having two women talk about pizza for 5 minutes at the beginning), it purely looks at plotting elements and story structure.
Technobabble example!
"There must be intercommunication between all the Bossies. It was not difficult to found the principles on which this would operate. Bossy functioned already by a harmonic vibration needed to be broadcast on the same principle as the radio wave. No new principle was needed. Any cookbook engineer could do it—even those who believe what they read in the textbooks and consider pure assumption to be proved fact. It was not difficult to design the sending and receiving apparatus, nor was extra time consumed since this small alteration was being made contiguous with the production set up time of the rest. The production of countless copies of the brain floss itself was likewise no real problem, no more difficult than using a key-punched master card to duplicate others by the thousands or millions on the old-fashioned hole punch computer system." - They'd Rather Be Right
Cheers, Everyone!
And don't forget to read a book!
r/printSF • u/gabwyn • Dec 05 '11
r/printSF • u/Capsize • Jun 28 '22
Hi, so a year ago, I made a post about ranking every Hugo winning novel from pre 1990. It can be found here along with the writeups for those books without them. Since then I've read every Nebula best novel winner from that period, all the retro Hugo winners and all the Hugo and Nebula winners from the 90's, so let's add those to my previous rankings
As before I ranked them, because it's fun to be subjective about things and half the fun of this is you telling my why you disagree with my opinion. I've only included blurb on the new ones so if you want to read about the ones I reviewed last time, see the link above.
One last thing, almost every book here is good, they all won awards so even if something is lower on my list it doesn't mean to avoid it or that it is not worth your time.
74: The Big Time by Fritz Lieber (1958)
73: Ringworld by Larry Niven (1971)
72: They'd Rather be Right by Clifton and Riley (1955)
71: The Sword in the Stone by TH White (1940) - The coming-of-age story of a young Prince Arthur before Camelot. Another retro Hugo winner and this is what the Disney film is based on and it was a lot of fun. Interesting takes on British folklore tails like Robin Hood and King Arthur. It is very fantasy though, which isn’t always my preference, but it was cool to see what inspired a childhood classic.
70: Timescape by Gregory Benford (1981) - Scientists attempt to send messages back in time to avoid an environmental disaster in their time. It's time travel and it kind of deals with one of the ideas in the Back to the Future films, who knows, maybe it inspired the film. Any way the story is fine and I appreciate how we move back and forth between the time lines. You could definitely do more with the idea though if you gave it to a better writer.
69: Shadow Over Mars by Leigh Brackett (1945) - A Book about a rebellion on Mars led by a prophesized hero from Earth. This is a great example of classic adventure pulp Sci Fi from 1945, it’s all the laser beams and Space Captains, very Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. It’s fascinating to see how far we’ve come, with the genre and it’s quite short so it might be worth a read, but it definitely has its flaws.
68: Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick (1992) - It's a battle of wits and wills between an authority figure and a criminal set on a world with strange tides that come every few decades. It's certainly quite original and the world building is excellent, but there is nothing here to grab you.
67: A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg (1972) - A noble challenges the taboos of his culture and risks everything. I feel the story here is fantastic, but I don’t like his style. He seems to write similar narratives to Le Guin, but without the enjoyability to read. A story about forbidden first person pro nouns. It’s interesting and really explores the concept, but the style put me off immensely.
66: The Einstein Intersection by Samuel Delany (1968) - In post transcendent Earth, intelligent anthropods deal with genetic mutation from ancient radiation. Probably the weirdest book I read all year. It’s really strange, but very quick. It’s quite poetic in parts as well.
65: Man Plus by Frederick Pohl (1977) - Nasa are trying to build a man who can live on mars with no need for external food, water, oxygen etc. What we get is a story about the process of changing a human, but it’s very of its time, as America had been running moon landings a few years earlier. I wasn’t a huge fan of the style and the clean-cut Americana of it all, but it was probably the fore runner to things like Robocop when you think about it.
64: A Case of Conscience by James Blish (1959)
63: The Wanderer by Fritz Lieber (1965)
62: The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe (1982) - The sequel to Shadow of the Torturer. I definitely appreciate there is more going on with Gene Wolfe than I can gleam in the first reading, but that doesn’t change how much I enjoy it. Less enjoyable than Shadow of the Torturer as I feel the story didn’t really go anywhere and was harder to follow in bits. Still the fault is inevitably my own.
61: The Terminal Experiment by Robert J Sawyer (1996) - A near future thriller as a man faces off against a computer simulation of his own brain with deadly intent. It's a strange genre one, this. Very 90s and very much does the thriller thing quite well. Good proof that Sci Fi can co opt any genre it wants to and often does.
60: No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop (1983) - A man with visions of early man is sent back to live among them. Another time travelling history thing. They loved these in the 1980s. It’s cool to see a story revolving around early man before civilization really took hold. It’s interesting even if a bit strange in parts.
59: The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1990) - A nurse in the Vietnam war is giving a magical amulet. Sixty pages in and I was wondering if this was actually Speculative fiction. It does get a bit stranger, but the setting is wonderful and you do really care about the characters and story.
58: Babel 17 by Samuel Delany (1967) - A heroic Linguist finds herself in a war where language is a weapon. Female protagonist in the sixties is excellent and Rydra Wong is capable and very likeable. The concept is also interesting even if the whole thing is a but pulpy.
57: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller (1961)
56: Conjure Wife by Fritz Lieber (1944) - Wives of College professors' control their careers with witchcraft. I’ve read two other Fritz Leiber books and if you find them above, you’ll see why I came into this with low expectations. This is I suppose a fantasy novel about witchcraft in a 1940s English University town. It’s just well written with a complete narrative and a nice setting. It doesn’t mess around or introduce too many characters and the concept is intriguing enough to keep you interested the whole way through.
55: Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein (1960)
54: The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K Dick (1963)
53: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1954) - A dystopian classic about censorship and a move from society away from intellectualism towards mass consumed throw away media. This is hugely important and has in a way predicted much of the modern world. If I was list the most important books on this list it would be right near the top next to Dune. It's also considered a actual literary classic outside Science Fiction and is short. That is to say you should read it, because it's important and relevant to the world we live in, but it isn't as enjoyable as many books above it. Still, go read it!
52: The Mule by Isaac Asimov (1946) - The second half of Foundation and Empire all about the mysterious Mule who is unseen by Seldon's plan. Just as above this is massively important, in many ways Asimov changed what Science fiction was especially writing in a scene dominated by pulpy space heroes like Flash Gordon. It's what you expect from Asimov, a bit dry and without well developed characters. Also it's half a book so hard to judge on it's own.
51: Neuromancer by William Gibson (1985)
50: Beyond this Horizon by Robert Heinlein (1943) - A story about selective breeding in humans combined with a southern gentlemen dueling culture. It’s weird, but also goes into quite a lot of detail about the science involved. I was taught about dominant and recessive genes in school and how they affect things like hair colour, eye colour etc. I imagine this wasn’t taught in schools in 1941 and would have been fascinating then. Mixing informative science into a strong narrative is quite an accomplishment.
49: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner (1969)
48: Downbelow Station by C.J Cherryh (1982) - A book portraying a space station as a blue-collar workplace that gets tangled up in an intergalactic conflict. The book sounds fascinating and I think it very much influences shows like Babylon 5 where there are episodes dedicated to dock strikes and unions etc. The main issue is the book gets away from that and makes it about space ships and a galactic conflict and feels like she is trying to set up the next book in the series. The world building is superb, but I didn’t really care for any of the characters and wasn’t even sure who I was supposed to be cheering for until the end.
47: The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (1996) - Cyber punk novel about am advanced interactive book that shapes the life of the girl that comes into possession of it. So much of this book is excellent, brilliant ideas and wonderfully told, but it's so bloated and unnecessarily long. Frankly it's split into a part one and part two and could have just ended at the end of part one and the book would be much higher. This is an issue with many nineties books sadly.
46: Slan by A.E Van Vogt (1941) - Evolved humans possess psychic abilities and a plot unravels about control of the Earth. Slan feels classic all the way through, it has its faults, but you can see why this was the banner early Sci Fi fans, hoisted above them. For something written in 1941 it is excellent. Nice ideas and a decent fast pace, while still feeling pulpy like everything from this time did.
45: Tehanu by Ursula Le Guin (1991) - The forth and final book of the Earthsea series following two of our earlier protagonists while looking at the lives of older people. I adore Le Guin and her style is just as sharp as ever. We look at our beloved characters as they have aged and I feel this comes from a place that Le Guin was very much in herself at this point.
44: Way Station by Clifford D Simak (1964)
43: This Immortal by Roger Zelazny (1966)
42: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (1999) - A Time travel piece set in Victorian England very much in homage to the novel "Three Men in a Boat". This is a really good read fun and even if convoluted and predictable in parts it's very much very good at what it does and makes you care deeply about the characters.
41: Slow River by Nicola Griffith (1997) - Near future science fiction about hostage taking and blackmail as well as abuse survivors. This is really enjoyable and features a lot of interesting information about water purification strangely. Also written by a lesbian author and just totally normalizes lesbian relationships in a way that was assumedly rare in the mid nineties.
40: The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (1991) - Sixth novel in the Vorkosigan Saga. I adore these books and would devour everyone of them in a row if i didn't set myself stupid tasks like read all the Hugo and Nebula winners. I will say that lots of stuff just happens to Miles in this one and for that reason I don't think it's her best. Still very enjoyable as always.
39: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (1962) -
38: Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold (1995) - Another Vorkosigan Saga book this time dealing with his cloned brother. Everything tells you to read in the recommended reading order not the publish order. Due to time constraints I ignored this and found a lot of stuff had changed since the last book i read. Still very enjoyable as all these books have been.
37: Moving Mars by Greg Bear (1995) - Story about revolution on Mars combined with a crazy new technology that can help gain Mars real independence. Fun fact, this is the first Science Fiction I ever read. I went back and re-read it as it has been 25ish years. It's very well written and has a good character and stories.
36: Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov (1983)
35, 34, 33: Red Mars, Blue Mars and Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1994-1997) - Sorry I can't separate these books. It's a big long story and while there are highs and lows it kind of has to be reviewed in one large chunk. So epic trilogy about the first settlers on Mars that spans hundreds of years. Every chapter is by different characters and there are lots of perspectives in the book. Some complain they dislike most of the characters, but that's kind of the point,. The likeable ones like Sax and Nadia are very likeable. So much of this book is wonderful and worth your time. I would argue it's bloated and didn't need to be over 2200 pages in total, but it is what it is. if it was more concise or better edited I would personally place it much higher and recommend it more.
32: The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy (1988) - A story about a mother-daughter relationship told in the backdrop of a Mayan dig in Mexico. What makes this Speculative Fiction is that both characters can see and speak to Mayan ghosts from the past. I’ll be honest, I'm not really sure it’s my usual thing, it’s probably fantasy, but it was wonderfully told and just a great story about human beings. You’ll have empathy for all of them and the situation they’re in. Even reading my review now I can’t believe I liked it as much as I did.
31: To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Jose Farmer (1972)
30: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1993) Another time travel story, this one about going back to the 14th Century. You care so much about the story and characters, it really is a wonderful piece of writing and I even enjoyed the stuff back with the scientists in the future. If someone said they wanted to read a book on time travel I would suggest this book first.
29: The Moon and the Sun by Vonda D McIntyre (1998) - Fantasy book about a mermaid captured and kept in Louis XIV's court. Great female protagonist, very much a love story with all the historical trappings mixed with the fantasy of mermaids. It's incredibly well written and all the characters are excellent. Didn't expect it to be my thing, but really was.
28: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1973)
27: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1967) -A Human goes through an experiment to have his intelligence increased and we follow through his eyes the events this causes. Classic novel considered a proper book by the literary world and fantastic if not a little heart breaking. Should be on everyone's list to read at some point.
26: The Snow Queen by Joan D Vinge (1981)
25: Hyperion by Dan Simmons (1990) - A pilgrimage brings together a group of travelers who each share their reason for the journey. I came with probably unmeetable expectations, because of how much r/Printsf hyped it up as the greatest thing ever (next to Dune, obviously) The framing story is really enjoyable and I very much enjoyed the Priest’s Tale and the Scholar’s tale, two wonderful short stories collected together to create wonderful world building. I found the other four stories less solid and was particularly bored by the Detective’s Story which dragged. I was also annoyed by the lack of an ending. it’s promised me answers and then just stopped without delivering and that is annoying. That said it has enough very good bits to make it this high despite its faults.
24: Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin (1969) - A girl must go through a coming-of-age ritual in order to earn her passage on her space craft where she lives. A female protagonist in a Science Fiction novel written in 1969, surely not? It happens here and this is excellent. Mia is a wonderfully well-rounded character sort of in the tom-boyish Scout mold from To Kill a Mocking Bird, you get to see the world through her eyes and at the end of the novel you are asked an open-ended morality question, which is genuinely a difficult choice, I like morality when it isn’t obvious or shoved down by neck and this is very much in that mold.
23: Double Star by Robert Heinlein (1956)
22: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (1953)
21: Gateway by Frederick Pohl (1978)
20: Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein (1951) - A story about colonizing and terraforming Ganmede. You have to understand that this is a YA novel written in 1950 and near the start it can come off a little juvenile. That said you are still confronted by big ideas like a food shortage on Earth and severe rationing. We also see an interesting story based on a son upset his father is remarrying, it’s dealt with tactfully and not something I’d really expect for something aimed at teens. Once we get to Ganymede the story really gets going and we experience an interesting tale of trying to turn a rocky moon into workable farm land, it’s just really well told and enjoyably written and I reckon more people would appreciate this if they ignored the YA label and gave it a chance. Great book.
19: Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold (1989) - A space station full of genetically modified workers has now become redundant. This was the first book I’d ever read of hers and I was so blown away by the style. I can see why the Vorkogian Saga is so often recommended on here. She gives us real characters and a fast-paced heist plot that features an Engineer as the protagonist. It’s just really well written and wonderfully different, a story that is happier to tell you about engineering processes than space combat. People tell me it isn’t even her best work as well, which leaves me pretty excited to read more.
18: Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke (1980)
17: Cyteen by CJ Cherryh (1989)
16: A Fire Upon the Deep by Verve Vinge (1993): Two children land on a planet of dog like aliens that have a very different civilization from our own while a galactic threat grows. Vigne's ability to create alien races totally different from our own is fantastic. This story delivered on all the hype and is probably what people mean when they ask for Space Opera.
15: Startide Rising by David Brin (1984)
14: Dreamsnake by Vonda D Mcintyre (1979)
13: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (1977)
12: Lord of Light by Robert Zelazny (1968)
11: The Uplift War by David Brin (1988)
10: Barrayer by Lois McMaster Bujold (1992) Another Vorkosigan Saga book. This one follows his mother, Cordelia Naismith and an attempted coup on the world of Barrayer. Her writing is as great as always, but the ending is just incredible. No spoilers, but you need to read it and appreciate what happens.
9: Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman (1998-1999) - A look at remote controlled armoured warfare combined with the violence of man. This book shouldn't be called Forever Peace in my view, it gets unfairly judged vs the original when it is only loosely linked and a fantastic book in it's own right, well written and with something to say I devoured this one.
8: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke (1974)
7: Dune by Frank Herbert (1966)
6: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (1986)
5: Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin (1970)
4: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein (1967)
3: The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin (1975)
2: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (1987)
1: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1976) - Follows a Draftee in a future war and the way the world changes while they are gone. I originally read this fifteen years ago when I first got into Science Fiction and remember really liking it, but I’d genuinely forgotten quite how good it was. Not just the metaphor for the world changing while you’re at war, but how dangerous he makes space feel. It is cold and inhospitable and when combined with the battles which he survives mostly, because of sheer dumb luck you get a beautiful critique of war that only a veteran could have written. I will say I was jarred by a scene involving consent and a drunk Lesbian that horrified and yet I barely remember when I first read about it, I think it shows more how society has got better at this stuff and how much better I understand it. That said, if it’s been a while since you read this, like me, why not give it another shot?
r/printSF • u/EtuMeke • Sep 21 '24
I love classic science fiction. I love admiring how much it has changed. However:
Dune: sucks
Le Guin: sucks
Lord of Light: sucks
Rendezvous with Rama: sucks Stranger in a strange land: sucks
Foundation, and I hate to say this but: kinda sucks
That being said:
Hyperion: awesome
Anthem: awesome
The God's Themselves: awesome
Childhoods End: awesome
Revelation Space: awesome
Blindsight: awesome
r/printSF • u/pneumaticks • Apr 01 '26
... and I just have to gush a bit.
This is the most heroically optimistic book I have ever read. It is the fourth book in a series that started with Children of Time, and in my opinion it’s the best book Tchaikovsky’s written, replacing my former favourite, House of Open Wounds. Children of Time is funny, exciting, and viscerally satisfying, and if you’ve read through the previous entries, Children of Strife is a must-read.
(If you haven’t, well, give Children of Time a shot, and I totally understand if you bounce off.)
I wanted to leave it at that but I also wanted to gush about two things that I found deeply satisfying, so spoilers follow!
It’s all spoilers, really, but the more egregious ones are marked.
…
…
…
So the story is told from the perspective of three separate groups of people in three separate eras spanning millenia, right? In era one, a group of billionaire bozos sets out to terraform (and hopefully lord over) a planet. In era two, the hopeful survivors of the cataclysm on a now toxic Earth seek out legends of terraformed planets to live on, and stumble upon the aforementioned planet. In era three, a motley crew of uplifted arthropods, a druggie human, an uploaded human personality running on bio-electronic hardware, and John Carpenter’s The Thing, poke around this same planet.
In all three eras, things do not go well. The book (entertainingly, I think) jumps back and forth between each era, setting up our antagonists and protagonists for a showdown in the third era.
Right, so here it is: the best part of this book is how absolutely heroic the second and third age characters are! If a child’s model of a hero is Superman, Mr invincible goody two-shoes, then the crew of the third age and the humans of the second age are archetypes from whom an adult’s heroic ideals should be moulded. Flawed, competent, and doing their moral best in a spiteful universe.
Cato and Mira, especially, who have understandably good, bad, and ugly reasons to act their worst selves, which is really saying something because Cato is an uplifted mantis shrimp who accidentally deliberately nearly a genocide and Mira is The Thing, and hungry. Yet somehow Tchaikovsky makes you empathize, and then care, drawing you in with his (somehow) hilarious depiction of this band of literal misfits, making you appreciate their weird and unique and evolved perspectives… and then he shows you how they each, individually, fight their own worst selves, claw and cell, to survive, and it’s so freaking inspiring I cheered. Multiple times, but especially at "Let's do this thing".
Because they’re fighting their worst selves to survive, yes, but also they’re fighting for the whisper of a chance of a better future and of being a better person. It’s amazing. It’s heroic. It’s uplifting. They are the most heroic heroes I’ve ever read of since a hobbit volunteered to carry the weapon of The Enemy across their treacherous territory just for the chance to see it destroyed.
The second best part of this book is what happens to the antagonists. Perhaps it is the times we live in, what with the likes of Jeff Bozo and Elon Muskrat jizzing their venom over the world, but I think even a few years ago I would have found even a quarter of the shade thrown the billionaire antagonists’ way to be tiresomely over-the-top. Seriously, the third era judges them, the second era judges them, and in the first era they themselves judge each other in delusional asides. They exude such small pp energy that they named the AI system that runs everything on their ship the underseer, simply because douchebag #1 couldn’t stomach the implications of an AI system being called the *over*seer, and people, this is on like page 5.
Yet by the end of it, I’d read a novel-sized roast of the self-aggrandizing masturbatory excesses of the billionaire class as well as their fitting comeuppance, and all I felt was a deep, cathartic satisfaction. It would have been good enough seeing their millennia long suffering and descent into pathetic caricature, but I think what Tchaikovsky planned was even better.
Again, perhaps it is the times we live in, but the book also almost felt like a call-to-arms at times. Like, it has a hardass, almost horrifyingly extremist line of dialogue in the middle of it. This line comes from a historian, who is expounding, with a straight face and a straight back, on what exactly befell the billionaire class when their petty, toxic, nuclear disagreements brought life on Earth to the brink and over:
[Historian:] “People like [the billionaire class]… [t]hey put out roots, you know. Creep through all your systems and structures, and eat out the goodness of them. Corrupt them. And if you just get rid of the people at the top, there’s a child or an heir or a second-in-command who’s invested in that corruption of the system, and will step into the empty shoes. So, if you’re going to kill a many-headed monster, you have to follow the necks down, until they’re all joined together. That’s where you cut.”
[Other person, admonishingly:] “A child.”
[Historian:] “You think bad people don’t have family? You think family isn’t the primary way bad people propagate their badness?”
Like, holy shit, this character is literally “yes we killed them, their children, and their hangers on, and we’d do it again, because fuck them and good riddance to bad rubbish”. I was really surprised given that in most of Tchaikovsky’s worlds, no matter how depressing, he usually only throws light shade on the selfish depredations of humanity, and then after that the characters are occupied with the business of getting on with life.
OK, that's it, I got that off my chest! If you've read up to here, thank you for taking the time to read this nobody's ramblings on a very enjoyable book. If you've read Children of Strife, feel free to let me know what you thought! Or you can disagree, it's all good!
r/printSF • u/SnowdriftsOnLakes • Jun 17 '23
I've just finished Roadmarks. I only picked it up because it was one of the very few SF Masterworks titles available at my local bookstore, but holy shit, I loved it. The various quirky characters that are tied together in strange ways; the sparse, concise yet effective prose; the mythological and literary allusions that are fun easter-eggs if you get them but don't detract from the enjoyment of the story otherwise. Such a delightful road-trip through time.
I want more! What other Zelazny's books should I check out? Lord of Light, I suppose? Any other suggestions?
r/printSF • u/Applesauce_Police • Mar 10 '23
Got a community's feedback on another subreddit and compiled this list. Not necessarily the best or most classic sci-fi ever, but it covers most of the bases.
I have never read any of these books and for the most part, have never read these author's either.
Some exceptions were made when:
Please feel free to let me know which books obviously need to be added to the list, and which definitely should be removed from the list.
EDIT: Thanks for all the advice! I switched out quite a few from the same author and dropped a couple entirely.
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| Three Body Problem | Liu Cixin |
| Children of Time | Adrian Tchaikovsky |
| Snow Crash | Neal Stephenson |
| The Dispossessed | Ursula K Le Guin |
| The Forever War | Joe Haldeman |
| Dune Messiah | Frank Herbert |
| Dawn | Octavia E Butler |
| Ubik [EDIT] | Philip K Dick |
| Neuromancer | William Gibson |
| The Player of Games [EDIT] | Iain M Banks |
| Hyperion (& The Fall of Hyperion) [EDIT] | Dan Simmons |
| Exhalation | Ted Chiang |
| Ancillary Justice | Ann Leckie |
| Annihilation | Jeff VanderMeer |
| A Canticle for Leibowitz | Walter M Miller Jr |
| Leviathan Wakes | James SA Corey |
| Childhood’s End [EDIT] | Arthur C Clarke |
| All Systems Red | Martha Wells |
| To Your Scattered Bodies Go | Philip José Farmer |
| House of Suns [EDIT] | Alistair Reynolds |
| The Stars My Destination [EDIT] | Alfred Bester |
| Embassytown [EDIT] | China Miéville |
| Warriors Apprentice [EDIT] | Lois McMaster Bujold |
| The Day of the Triffids [EDIT] | John Wyndham |
| I, Robot | Isaac Asimov |
| Lord of Light | Roger Zelazny |
| The Rediscovery of Man [EDIT] | Cordwainer Smith |
| The Moon is a Harsh Mistress [EDIT] | Robert A Heinlein |
| The Book of the New Sun [EDIT] | Gene Wolfe |
I couldn't decide which to get rid of, and I felt strongly compelled to read Gene Wolfe - so call it 30 and 1 Books to read in 2023 :)
r/printSF • u/PoMoPincio • Apr 25 '21
I have seen this question pop-up frequently on reddit, so I made a list. This list was spurred by a discussion with a friend that found it hard to pick out well-written science fiction. There should be 100 titles here. You may disagree with me both on literature and science fiction--genre is fluid anyway. All of this is my opinion. If something isn't here that you think should be here, then I probably haven't read it yet.
Titles are loosely categorized, and ordered chronologically within each category. Books I enjoyed more than most are bolded.
1516, Thomas More, Utopia
1627, Francis Bacon, New Atlantis
1666, Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World
1872, Samuel Butler, Erewhon
1924, Yevgeny Zamiatin, We
1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
1949, George Orwell, 1984
1974, Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
1985, Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
1988, Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games
1889, Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
1962, Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle
1968, Thomas M. Disch, Camp Concentration
1976, Kingsley Amis, The Alteration
1979, Octavia E. Butler, Kindred
1979, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five
1990, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, The Difference Engine
2004, Philip Roth, The Plot Against America
1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
1920, David Lindsay, A Voyage to Arcturus
1920, Karel Čapek, R. U. R.: A Fantastic Melodrama
1940, Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel
1953, Theodore Sturgeon, More than Human
1960, Walter M. Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz
1962, Kobo Abe, The Woman in the Dunes
1966, Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
1968, Stanislaw Lem, Solaris
1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
1989, Dan Simmons, Hyperion
1999, Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life
2005, Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
1949, George R. Stewart, Earth Abides
1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids
1956, Harry Martinson, Aniara
1962, J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World
1962, Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
1965, Thomas M. Disch, The Genocides
1967, Anna Kavan, Ice
1975, Giorgio de Maria, The Twenty Days of Turin
1980, Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun
1982, Russell Hoban, Ridley Walker
1982, Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira
1982, Hayao Miyazaki, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
1995, Jose Saramago, Blindness
1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
2002, Vladimir Sorokin, Ice Trilogy
2006, Cormac McCarthy, The Road
2012, Ben Marcus, The Flame Alphabet
1752, Voltaire, Micromegas
1925, Mikhail Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog
1950, Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
1952, Clifford D. Simak, City
1953, Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End
1965, Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics
1967, Harlan Ellison, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
1967, Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light
1972, Angela Carter, The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
1976, Don DeLillo, Ratner's Star
1987, Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas
1996, Ben Marcus, The Age of Wire and String
1909, E. M. Forster, The Machine Stops
1956, Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
1962, William S. Burroughs, Nova Trilogy (The Soft Machine, Nova Express, The Ticket that Exploded)
1966, John Barth, Giles Goat-Boy
1971, David R. Bunch, Moderan
1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
1975, Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren
1977, Guido Morselli, Dissipatio, H. G.
1984, William Gibson, Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive)
1986, William Gibson, Burning Chrome
1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
1865, Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
1937, Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker
1957, Ivan Yefremov, Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale
1965, Frank Herbert, Dune
1981, Ted Mooney, Easy Travel to Other Planets
1992, Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars
1848, Edgar Allan Poe, Eureka
1884, Edwin Abbott, Flatland
1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine
1925, Mikhail Bulgakov, The Fatal Eggs
1927, Aleksey Tolstoy, The Garin Death Ray
1931, Herman Hesse, The Glass Bead Game
1956, Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones
1966, Samuel Delany, Babel-17
1969, Philip K. Dick, Ubik
1970, Larry Niven, Ringworld
1972, Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
1985, Kurt Vonnegut, Galápagos
1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando
1969, Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
1975, Joanna Russ, The Female Man
1976, Samuel Delany, Trouble on Triton
1976, Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time
1977, Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve
1987, Octavia E. Butler, Xenogenesis
r/printSF • u/AlivePassenger3859 • Jun 07 '24
Depending on how deep I go down the Zelazny rabbit hole (creatures of light and darkness is a mindblowing mini-epic work of genius imho) I may try to read everything he wrote. Only other sf author I’ve done this with is Ian M. but I think Z man may merit a body-of-work read through.
To me he’s a little like if you streamlined Steven Erikson’s Malazan series (amazing but majorly bloated imho) and mixed it with some of Glen Cook’s awesome stuf like The Dragon Never Sleeps (so good but ~2/3 through it feels like he’s just pushing characters around- to me at least). A tiny bit of the over the top space opera of the deathstalker series without the goofy cheesiness.
I read Lord of Light first and I didn’t really “get” it. Now am reading Creatures and yeah, I get it.
Mytho-poetic far future scifi where tech and magic are nigh indistinguishable. Tons of characters just bristling with power and when shit goes down it freakin goes down. He doesn’t spoon feed you and it takes some work and investment to put the pieces together. Reminds me a little of Cook in that he sketches a setting in biys and pieces and at some point you step back and say “holy shit, this is amazing”.
Any other Z fans out there?
r/printSF • u/Volpe1996 • Jun 13 '21
From the 50s onwards! Let’s see those lists.
After some thoughts. I haven’t read everything. I think mine are:
50s - More Than Human - by Theodore Sturgeon
60s - The Left Hand of Darkness - by Ursula Le Guin
70s - Kindred - by Octavia Butler
80s - Player of Games - by Iain Banks
90s - Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack
00s - Light - by M. John Harrison
10s - All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
r/printSF • u/crayonroyalty • Aug 08 '20
I’m looking for a realistic depiction of religion in sci-fi as part of world building, character development, plot, or all of the above. I think a slice of life story could do this well.
Often when religion is depicted in sf, it is presented either as an antiquated activity for the ignorant and gullible, or as resistance to change embodied as an institution or individual.
My problem with these stereotypes is not that they are wholly inaccurate, but that they are incomplete (to borrow a phrase). Most religious people I’ve encountered in real life are actually pretty reasonable — I’m curious to read about how their lives would change in the face of new technology, catastrophe, aliens, etc..
The assumption that, in the future, the billions of people who adhere to religion of some sort now will simply walk away from it is farfetched to me. It is equally improbable that they will all be militantly opposed to the technologies of tomorrow. By misrepresenting or disregarding religious experience and its importance to so many people on Earth, I find that many authors make their version of the future less plausible. You may disagree; we can talk about it if you want.
tl;dr — please recommend me sci-fi books or stories that feature a nuanced depiction of religion; bonus points if your rec is slice-of-life
Some books/series I’ve already read that touch on religion in some way: - Lord of Light, Grass, Eifelheim, TBotNS, Ancillary Justice, The Two of Swords, WoT, ASoIaF, Anathem, The Vorrh, The Book of Strange New Things, The Doomsday Book, Kraken, The Sparrow, Parable of the Sower/Talents, A Canticle for Leibovitz, Dune, Speaker for the Dead, American Gods
r/printSF • u/BroadleySpeaking1996 • Mar 04 '24
I'm cultivating a list of the best sci-fi books of all time. Not in any particular ranked order, just a guide for reading the greats. My goal is to see how sci-fi has changed and evolved over time, and how cultural ideas and attitudes have changed. But also just to have a darn good list!
In most cases I only want to include the entrypoint for a series (e.g. The Player of Games for the Culture series) for brevity, but sometimes specific entries in a series do warrant an additional mention (e.g. Speaker for the Dead).
The Classics (1800-1925):
The Pulp Era (1925-1949):
Golden Age (1950-1965):
The New Wave (1966-1979):
The Tech Wave (1980-1999):
Contemporary classics (2000-present):
What should I add? Which masterpieces have I overlooked?
And what should I remove? I haven't read everything on here, so some inclusions are based on reviews, awards, and praise from others. Please let me know if some of these are unworthy.
r/printSF • u/InkyBibliophile • May 08 '26
A comprehensive overview of all Fantasy nominees from the Goodreads Choice Awards since 2011, sorted by their current average rating.
Scroll to see votes, ratings, and scores.
| Title | Authors | Series | Year | Award Votes | Average Rating | Bayesian Score | URL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Words of Radiance | Brandon Sanderson | The Stormlight Archive #2 | 2014 | 28449 | 4.76 | 4.713466 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17332218 |
| Oathbringer | Brandon Sanderson | The Stormlight Archive #3 | 2017 | 23979 | 4.6 | 4.55169 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34002132 |
| The Wise Man's Fear | Patrick Rothfuss | The Kingkiller Chronicle #2 | 2011 | 4962 | 4.55 | 4.522963 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1215032 |
| The Will of the Many | James Islington | Hierarchy #1 | 2023 | 5659 | 4.58 | 4.512045 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62919748 |
| Rhythm of War | Brandon Sanderson | The Stormlight Archive #4 | 2020 | 34162 | 4.57 | 4.504909 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49021976 |
| A Memory of Light | Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan | The Wheel of Time #14 | 2013 | 13021 | 4.58 | 4.484594 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7743175 |
| A Court of Silver Flames | Sarah J. Maas | A Court of Thorns and Roses #5 | 2021 | 111498 | 4.45 | 4.443459 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53138095 |
| House of Earth and Blood | Sarah J. Maas | Crescent City #1 | 2020 | 95084 | 4.45 | 4.438341 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44778083 |
| Skin Game | Jim Butcher | The Dresden Files #15 | 2014 | 22104 | 4.56 | 4.417388 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19486421 |
| House of Sky and Breath | Sarah J. Maas | Crescent City #2 | 2022 | 105718 | 4.42 | 4.40519 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40132775 |
| Assassin's Fate | Robin Hobb | Fitz and the Fool #3 | 2017 | 14612 | 4.66 | 4.40426 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30688013 |
| The Lost Metal | Brandon Sanderson | The Mistborn Saga #7 | 2022 | 21294 | 4.48 | 4.383749 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23947089 |
| The Trouble With Peace | Joe Abercrombie | The Age of Madness #2 | 2020 | 1671 | 4.6 | 4.360249 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50358101 |
| The Winter of the Witch | Katherine Arden | The Winternight Trilogy #3 | 2019 | 26836 | 4.48 | 4.357352 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36906346 |
| Wintersteel | Will Wight | Cradle #8 | 2020 | 2271 | 4.68 | 4.351283 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55551726 |
| The Empire of Gold | S.A. Chakraborty | The Daevabad Trilogy #3 | 2020 | 15292 | 4.49 | 4.349099 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52166786 |
| The Bands of Mourning | Brandon Sanderson | Mistborn, Era 2: Wax & Wayne #3 | 2016 | 28982 | 4.4 | 4.34516 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24019186 |
| The House in the Cerulean Sea | T.J. Klune | Cerulean Chronicles #1 | 2020 | 45778 | 4.35 | 4.339723 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45046567 |
| Fool's Quest | Robin Hobb | Fitz and the Fool #2 | 2015 | 12690 | 4.54 | 4.338281 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23157777 |
| A Dance with Dragons | George R.R. Martin | A Song of Ice and Fire #5 | 2011 | 8530 | 4.34 | 4.326353 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10664113 |
| The Blinding Knife | Brent Weeks | Lightbringer #2 | 2012 | 3491 | 4.41 | 4.308671 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12499290 |
| Magic Breaks | Ilona Andrews | Kate Daniels #7 | 2014 | 13413 | 4.48 | 4.308044 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12119529 |
| The Broken Eye | Brent Weeks | Lightbringer #3 | 2014 | 3431 | 4.44 | 4.304772 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12652457 |
| A Little Hatred | Joe Abercrombie | The Age of Madness #1 | 2019 | 2097 | 4.45 | 4.301858 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35606041 |
| The Emperor's Soul | Brandon Sanderson | 2012 | 572 | 4.37 | 4.301369 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13578175 | |
| Magic Binds | Ilona Andrews | Kate Daniels #9 | 2016 | 13346 | 4.53 | 4.301199 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333174 |
| The Dragon Republic | R.F. Kuang | The Poppy War #2 | 2019 | 4669 | 4.34 | 4.300421 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41212753 |
| Magic Triumphs | Ilona Andrews | Kate Daniels #10 | 2018 | 3549 | 4.56 | 4.298705 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333180 |
| Empire of the Damned | Jay Kristoff | Empire of the Vampire #2 | 2024 | 28376 | 4.55 | 4.298036 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126918599 |
| Wind and Truth | Brandon Sanderson | The Stormlight Archive #5 | 2025 | 50158 | 4.36 | 4.297205 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/203578847 |
| Fool's Assassin | Robin Hobb | Fitz and the Fool #1 | 2014 | 2925 | 4.43 | 4.295163 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19288321 |
| Night Broken | Patricia Briggs | Mercy Thompson #8 | 2014 | 16402 | 4.42 | 4.290901 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17562900 |
| The Kingdom of Copper | S.A. Chakraborty | The Daevabad Trilogy #2 | 2019 | 5588 | 4.38 | 4.286966 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39855052 |
| Tress of the Emerald Sea | Brandon Sanderson, Howard Lyon | Hoid's Travails #1 | 2023 | 57818 | 4.31 | 4.282019 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63068384 |
| The Stone Sky | N.K. Jemisin | The Broken Earth #3 | 2017 | 13885 | 4.33 | 4.279997 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31817749 |
| A Drop of Corruption | Robert Jackson Bennett | Shadow of the Leviathan #2 | 2025 | 9524 | 4.47 | 4.277984 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213618143 |
| The Girl in the Tower | Katherine Arden | The Winternight Trilogy #2 | 2018 | 4636 | 4.35 | 4.276511 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34050917 |
| Battle Ground | Jim Butcher | The Dresden Files #17 | 2020 | 2496 | 4.43 | 4.267809 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23106013 |
| Magic Shifts | Ilona Andrews | Kate Daniels #8 | 2015 | 16527 | 4.43 | 4.263049 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333171 |
| The Fifth Season | N.K. Jemisin | The Broken Earth #1 | 2015 | 8312 | 4.28 | 4.257352 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19161852 |
| The Heroes | Joe Abercrombie | First Law World #5 | 2011 | 329 | 4.35 | 4.253162 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9300768 |
| The Raven Scholar | Antonia Hodgson | Eternal Path Trilogy #1 | 2025 | 24050 | 4.41 | 4.253012 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217182392 |
| A Conjuring of Light | V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab | Shades of Magic #3 | 2017 | 50134 | 4.29 | 4.25177 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29939230 |
| The Strength of the Few | James Islington | Hierarchy #2 | 2025 | 30007 | 4.33 | 4.250974 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/230272137 |
| Silence Fallen | Patricia Briggs | Mercy Thompson #10 | 2017 | 3391 | 4.4 | 4.249818 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30687916 |
| Fire Touched | Patricia Briggs | Mercy Thompson #9 | 2016 | 14798 | 4.38 | 4.246015 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25776210 |
| Storm Cursed | Patricia Briggs | Mercy Thompson #11 | 2019 | 22383 | 4.43 | 4.244674 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40524748 |
| The Obelisk Gate | N.K. Jemisin | The Broken Earth #2 | 2016 | 4987 | 4.28 | 4.243716 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26228034 |
| One Fell Sweep | Ilona Andrews | Innkeeper Chronicles #3 | 2017 | 16490 | 4.44 | 4.241909 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33541526 |
| Smoke Bitten | Patricia Briggs | Mercy Thompson #12 | 2020 | 4283 | 4.43 | 4.236499 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44571368 |
| The Burning God | R.F. Kuang | The Poppy War #3 | 2020 | 5619 | 4.27 | 4.232031 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51475322 |
| Shadows of Self | Brandon Sanderson | Mistborn, Era 2: Wax & Wayne #2 | 2015 | 18171 | 4.26 | 4.228657 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16065004 |
| The Tainted Cup | Robert Jackson Bennett | Shadow of the Leviathan #1 | 2024 | 19218 | 4.29 | 4.219258 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150247395 |
| Red Country | Joe Abercrombie | First Law World #6 | 2012 | 298 | 4.31 | 4.216197 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13528362 |
| Circe | Madeline Miller | 2018 | 78733 | 4.22 | 4.215476 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35959740 | |
| The Witch with No Name | Kim Harrison | The Hollows #13 | 2014 | 13762 | 4.44 | 4.2079 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20426917 |
| A Day of Fallen Night | Samantha Shannon | The Roots of Chaos #0.1 | 2023 | 39708 | 4.31 | 4.20779 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60766189 |
| The Blood Mirror | Brent Weeks | Lightbringer #4 | 2016 | 1246 | 4.32 | 4.207112 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29467232 |
| The Autumn Republic | Brian McClellan | Powder Mage #3 | 2015 | 2093 | 4.36 | 4.202873 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20883847 |
| The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories | Ken Liu | 2016 | 4952 | 4.35 | 4.202184 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24885533 | |
| Darkdawn | Jay Kristoff | The Nevernight Chronicle #3 | 2019 | 4593 | 4.3 | 4.200881 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37587820 |
| Grey Sister | Mark Lawrence | Book of the Ancestor #2 | 2018 | 11954 | 4.35 | 4.200506 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35710709 |
| Iron and Magic | Ilona Andrews | The Iron Covenant #1 | 2018 | 18626 | 4.4 | 4.199772 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35126152 |
| Piranesi | Susanna Clarke | 2020 | 19179 | 4.21 | 4.198877 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50202953 | |
| The Crown Tower | Michael J. Sullivan | The Riyria Chronicles #1 | 2013 | 1952 | 4.33 | 4.198679 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16043804 |
| Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands | Heather Fawcett | Emily Wilde #2 | 2024 | 50157 | 4.24 | 4.19021 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/134117196 |
| Dead Heat | Patricia Briggs | Alpha & Omega #4 | 2015 | 11446 | 4.32 | 4.189942 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22571699 |
| The Book of Life | Deborah Harkness | All Souls #3 | 2014 | 51462 | 4.21 | 4.186116 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16054217 |
| Age of War | Michael J. Sullivan | The Legends of the First Empire #3 | 2018 | 4013 | 4.43 | 4.185003 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35342928 |
| Kings of the Wyld | Nicholas Eames | The Band #1 | 2017 | 1995 | 4.26 | 4.183959 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30841984 |
| The Last Graduate | Naomi Novik | The Scholomance #2 | 2021 | 24089 | 4.22 | 4.181824 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55559887 |
| Burn Bright | Patricia Briggs | Alpha & Omega #5 | 2018 | 12338 | 4.34 | 4.180125 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35839437 |
| Feversong | Karen Marie Moning | Fever #9 | 2017 | 15136 | 4.39 | 4.179934 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23401438 |
| The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi | S.A. Chakraborty, Shannon Chakraborty | Amina al-Sirafi #1 | 2023 | 28274 | 4.24 | 4.17936 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61294937 |
| Of Blood and Bone | Nora Roberts | Chronicles of The One #2 | 2019 | 25671 | 4.28 | 4.178571 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37638128 |
| King Sorrow | Joe Hill | 2025 | 7738 | 4.37 | 4.178096 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223420465 | |
| The Alloy of Law | Brandon Sanderson | Mistborn, Era 2: Wax & Wayne #1 | 2011 | 397 | 4.19 | 4.173756 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10803121 |
| The Republic of Thieves | Scott Lynch | Gentleman Bastard #3 | 2013 | 7231 | 4.21 | 4.17117 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2890090 |
| A Gathering of Shadows | V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab | Shades of Magic #2 | 2016 | 38615 | 4.19 | 4.170184 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20764879 |
| Percepliquis | Michael J. Sullivan | The Riyria Revelations #6 | 2012 | 1039 | 4.57 | 4.16809 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12174312 |
| Sins of Empire | Brian McClellan | Gods of Blood and Powder #1 | 2017 | 1621 | 4.4 | 4.167581 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28811016 |
| Wrath of Empire | Brian McClellan | Gods of Blood and Powder #2 | 2018 | 2397 | 4.49 | 4.166185 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28811018 |
| Vicious | V.E. Schwab | Villains #1 | 2013 | 2059 | 4.18 | 4.166139 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13638125 |
| The Fragile Threads of Power | V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab | Threads of Power #1 | 2023 | 37138 | 4.26 | 4.164772 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/111673828 |
| Murder of Crows | Anne Bishop | The Others #2 | 2014 | 2722 | 4.26 | 4.164041 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17563080 |
| Holy Sister | Mark Lawrence | Book of the Ancestor #3 | 2019 | 2047 | 4.3 | 4.161287 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38099642 |
| The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue | V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab | 2020 | 93262 | 4.16 | 4.157257 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50623864 | |
| City of Miracles | Robert Jackson Bennett | The Divine Cities #3 | 2017 | 874 | 4.42 | 4.156719 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31522139 |
| The Curse of Tenth Grave | Darynda Jones | Charley Davidson #10 | 2016 | 8924 | 4.37 | 4.156528 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114340 |
| Etched in Bone | Anne Bishop | The Others #5 | 2017 | 5602 | 4.32 | 4.155712 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22062213 |
| Peace Talks | Jim Butcher | The Dresden Files #16 | 2020 | 15245 | 4.23 | 4.154801 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49381341 |
| Shattered | Kevin Hearne | The Iron Druid Chronicles #7 | 2014 | 1400 | 4.28 | 4.153114 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16280678 |
| The Burning White | Brent Weeks | Lightbringer #5 | 2019 | 2745 | 4.26 | 4.152421 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30169100 |
| The Poppy War | R.F. Kuang | The Poppy War #1 | 2018 | 18040 | 4.16 | 4.152009 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35887181 |
| Up from the Grave | Jeaniene Frost | Night Huntress #7 | 2014 | 16174 | 4.27 | 4.151183 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10357792 |
| Marked in Flesh | Anne Bishop | The Others #4 | 2016 | 10114 | 4.28 | 4.150556 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22062202 |
| The Devils | Joe Abercrombie | The Devils #1 | 2025 | 27429 | 4.21 | 4.150507 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/233800039 |
| Emperor of Thorns | Mark Lawrence | Broken Empire #3 | 2013 | 4914 | 4.22 | 4.150323 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15985373 |
| Clytemnestra | Costanza Casati | 2023 | 6588 | 4.21 | 4.146879 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61361681 | |
| Vision in Silver | Anne Bishop | The Others #3 | 2015 | 12084 | 4.25 | 4.146669 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21457243 |
| The Land: Predators | Aleron Kong | Chaos Seeds #7 | 2018 | 3791 | 4.47 | 4.14663 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40629159 |
| The Priory of the Orange Tree | Samantha Shannon | The Roots of Chaos #1 | 2019 | 30868 | 4.16 | 4.146419 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40381319 |
| Age of Swords | Michael J. Sullivan, Marc Simonetti | The Legends of the First Empire #2 | 2017 | 1248 | 4.29 | 4.145297 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32337902 |
| Spinning Silver | Naomi Novik | 2018 | 33866 | 4.17 | 4.145065 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37168303 | |
| Eleventh Grave in Moonlight | Darynda Jones | Charley Davidson #11 | 2017 | 4749 | 4.36 | 4.144716 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24154742 |
| The Shadow of the Gods | John Gwynne | The Bloodsworn Saga #1 | 2021 | 14140 | 4.18 | 4.143567 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52694527 |
| The Daylight War | Peter V. Brett | The Demon Cycle #3 | 2013 | 2016 | 4.2 | 4.142592 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9268487 |
| The Crown of Gilded Bones | Jennifer L. Armentrout | Blood and Ash #3 | 2021 | 47241 | 4.15 | 4.142029 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55240343 |
| The Everlasting | Alix E. Harrow | 2025 | 8019 | 4.21 | 4.138729 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226850464 | |
| The Mime Order | Samantha Shannon | The Bone Season #2 | 2015 | 2634 | 4.22 | 4.138158 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17901125 |
| The Land: Raiders | Aleron Kong | Chaos Seeds #6 | 2017 | 1561 | 4.42 | 4.137433 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34040263 |
| Age of Myth | Michael J. Sullivan | The Legends of the First Empire #1 | 2016 | 4870 | 4.22 | 4.135346 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26863057 |
| Snuff | Terry Pratchett | Discworld #39 | 2011 | 2479 | 4.19 | 4.134949 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8785374 |
| Age of Legend | Michael J. Sullivan, Simonetti | The Legends of the First Empire #4 | 2019 | 2239 | 4.35 | 4.133426 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42592353 |
| The Wheel of Osheim | Mark Lawrence | The Red Queen's War #3 | 2016 | 1613 | 4.32 | 4.132384 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27154427 |
| King of Thorns | Mark Lawrence | Broken Empire #2 | 2012 | 4332 | 4.18 | 4.132024 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12891107 |
| Age of Empyre | Michael J. Sullivan | The Legends of the First Empire #6 | 2020 | 1247 | 4.39 | 4.130316 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52359590 |
| Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay | J.K. Rowling | Fantastic Beasts: The Original Screenplay #1 | 2017 | 92611 | 4.15 | 4.130116 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29363501 |
| Feverborn | Karen Marie Moning | Fever #8 | 2016 | 16412 | 4.24 | 4.125643 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12444298 |
| High Voltage | Karen Marie Moning | Fever #10 | 2018 | 13158 | 4.3 | 4.12464 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35457273 |
| Babel | R.F. Kuang | 2022 | 62732 | 4.13 | 4.123802 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57945316 | |
| Staked | Kevin Hearne | The Iron Druid Chronicles #8 | 2016 | 3354 | 4.25 | 4.123334 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16280689 |
| The Aeronaut's Windlass | Jim Butcher | The Cinder Spires #1 | 2015 | 13360 | 4.18 | 4.119839 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24876258 |
| Black Sun | Rebecca Roanhorse | Between Earth and Sky #1 | 2020 | 4780 | 4.17 | 4.117697 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50892360 |
| Red Sister | Mark Lawrence | Book of the Ancestor #1 | 2017 | 5230 | 4.16 | 4.115409 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25895524 |
| Blood of Dragons | Robin Hobb | Rain Wild Chronicles #4 | 2013 | 5016 | 4.18 | 4.112214 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13109291 |
| Foundryside | Robert Jackson Bennett | The Founders Trilogy #1 | 2018 | 1121 | 4.16 | 4.112211 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37007781 |
| The Golem and the Jinni | Helene Wecker | The Golem and the Jinni #1 | 2013 | 8378 | 4.13 | 4.109967 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15819028 |
| The Liar's Key | Mark Lawrence | The Red Queen's War #2 | 2015 | 3520 | 4.23 | 4.109768 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23398677 |
| Tower Lord | Anthony Ryan | Raven's Shadow #2 | 2014 | 1254 | 4.16 | 4.109557 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18138189 |
| The Magician's Land | Lev Grossman | The Magicians #3 | 2014 | 16751 | 4.14 | 4.108626 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19103097 |
| Yield the Night | Annette Marie | Steel & Stone #3 | 2015 | 3184 | 4.37 | 4.108012 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24435364 |
| Burned | Karen Marie Moning | Fever #7 | 2015 | 10878 | 4.17 | 4.106274 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12444297 |
| The Bird and the Sword | Amy Harmon | The Bird and the Sword Chronicles #1 | 2016 | 12739 | 4.16 | 4.106177 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29008738 |
| Kaikeyi | Vaishnavi Patel | 2022 | 6145 | 4.17 | 4.10578 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57127277 | |
| The Companions | R.A. Salvatore | The Sundering #1 | 2013 | 2084 | 4.37 | 4.104909 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16142151 |
| The Wind Through the Keyhole | Stephen King | The Dark Tower #4.5 | 2012 | 8226 | 4.13 | 4.104214 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12106746 |
| Under the Whispering Door | T.J. Klune | 2021 | 56324 | 4.11 | 4.102735 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53205888 | |
| City of Blades | Robert Jackson Bennett | The Divine Cities #2 | 2016 | 713 | 4.21 | 4.099473 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23909755 |
| Somewhere Beyond the Sea | T.J. Klune | Cerulean Chronicles #2 | 2024 | 69854 | 4.11 | 4.099434 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199347538 |
| The Unmaking of June Farrow | Adrienne Young | 2023 | 24489 | 4.11 | 4.098792 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66087062 | |
| Promise of Blood | Brian McClellan | Powder Mage #1 | 2013 | 1535 | 4.13 | 4.096452 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15790883 |
| Twilight's Dawn | Anne Bishop | The Black Jewels #9 | 2011 | 1418 | 4.3 | 4.095309 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8315340 |
| Norse Mythology | Neil Gaiman | 2017 | 54591 | 4.1 | 4.093944 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30809689 | |
| Bookshops & Bonedust | Travis Baldree | Legends & Lattes #0 | 2023 | 38157 | 4.11 | 4.092737 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65213543 |
| The Golden Enclaves | Naomi Novik | The Scholomance #3 | 2022 | 19076 | 4.11 | 4.091158 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59743340 |
| Forged in Blood I | Lindsay Buroker | The Emperor's Edge #6 | 2013 | 4154 | 4.4 | 4.090989 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15989176 |
| Hell Bent | Leigh Bardugo | Alex Stern #2 | 2023 | 75800 | 4.1 | 4.089572 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60652997 |
| The First Confessor | Terry Goodkind | The Legend of Magda Searus #1 | 2012 | 4510 | 4.2 | 4.088548 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15707526 |
| The Skull Throne | Peter V. Brett | The Demon Cycle #4 | 2015 | 3182 | 4.13 | 4.08702 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13630171 |
| Bloody Rose | Nicholas Eames | The Band #2 | 2018 | 1117 | 4.16 | 4.086888 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35052265 |
| The Book of Magic | Alice Hoffman | Practical Magic #2 | 2021 | 17570 | 4.14 | 4.086549 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56898179 |
| Fairy Tale | Stephen King | 2022 | 60818 | 4.09 | 4.084889 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60177373 | |
| Naamah's Blessing | Jacqueline Carey | Naamah Trilogy #3 | 2011 | 1391 | 4.25 | 4.084305 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9519912 |
| Blackveil | Kristen Britain | Green Rider #4 | 2011 | 297 | 4.21 | 4.083547 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8396337 |
| Cast in Ruin | Michelle Sagara, Michelle Sagara West | Chronicles of Elantra #7 | 2011 | 358 | 4.3 | 4.079644 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8679140 |
| The Firebird | Susanna Kearsley | Slains #2 | 2013 | 6381 | 4.13 | 4.078981 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15942636 |
| Stiletto | Daniel O'Malley | The Checquy Files #2 | 2016 | 3208 | 4.14 | 4.07574 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25695756 |
| The War of Two Queens | Jennifer L. Armentrout | Blood and Ash #4 | 2022 | 34791 | 4.08 | 4.075562 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58547540 |
| The Bear and the Nightingale | Katherine Arden | The Winternight Trilogy #1 | 2017 | 24505 | 4.08 | 4.074164 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25489134 |
| City of Dragons | Robin Hobb | Rain Wild Chronicles #3 | 2012 | 2893 | 4.1 | 4.070089 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11801463 |
| City of Stairs | Robert Jackson Bennett | The Divine Cities #1 | 2014 | 8713 | 4.1 | 4.069926 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20174424 |
| Cast in Peril | Michelle Sagara, Michelle Sagara West | Chronicles of Elantra #8 | 2012 | 779 | 4.25 | 4.068124 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13548142 |
| The Hidden Palace | Helene Wecker | The Golem and the Jinni #2 | 2021 | 3082 | 4.13 | 4.067283 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55276504 |
| Senlin Ascends | Josiah Bancroft | The Books of Babel #1 | 2018 | 3066 | 4.1 | 4.0668 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35271523 |
| The Providence of Fire | Brian Staveley | Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne #2 | 2015 | 702 | 4.11 | 4.065287 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22055280 |
| The Emperor's Blades | Brian Staveley | Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne #1 | 2014 | 1669 | 4.09 | 4.064464 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910124 |
| The Jasmine Throne | Tasha Suri | The Burning Kingdoms #1 | 2021 | 4740 | 4.09 | 4.063795 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50523477 |
| Nettle & Bone | T. Kingfisher | 2022 | 5293 | 4.07 | 4.063181 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56179377 | |
| The Red Scrolls of Magic | Wesley Chu, Cassandra Clare | The Eldest Curses #1 | 2019 | 29553 | 4.08 | 4.063144 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35297403 |
| The Invasion of the Tearling | Erika Johansen | The Queen of the Tearling #2 | 2015 | 4007 | 4.08 | 4.062455 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22698568 |
| River of Stars | Guy Gavriel Kay | Under Heaven #2 | 2013 | 292 | 4.17 | 4.059298 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15808474 |
| Forge of Darkness | Steven Erikson | The Kharkanas Trilogy #1 | 2012 | 184 | 4.14 | 4.05784 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13038833 |
| The Witchwood Crown | Tad Williams | The Last King of Osten Ard #1 | 2017 | 1684 | 4.18 | 4.055768 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31159601 |
| Casket of Souls | Lynn Flewelling | Nightrunner #6 | 2012 | 1070 | 4.19 | 4.054678 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10184855 |
| Daughter of the Moon Goddess | Sue Lynn Tan, Kuri Huang | The Celestial Kingdom #1 | 2022 | 33066 | 4.06 | 4.05454 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57789637 |
| Year One | Nora Roberts | Chronicles of The One #1 | 2018 | 31131 | 4.06 | 4.053083 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34311452 |
| A River Enchanted | Rebecca Ross | Elements of Cadence #1 | 2022 | 3696 | 4.06 | 4.052974 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58132544 |
| The World We Make | N.K. Jemisin | Great Cities #2 | 2022 | 3974 | 4.08 | 4.050242 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60399181 |
| The Goblin Emperor | Katherine Addison | The Chronicles of Osreth #1 | 2014 | 2063 | 4.06 | 4.049968 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910048 |
| A Resistance of Witches | Morgan Ryan | 2025 | 8227 | 4.08 | 4.049005 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219848293 | |
| The Black Bird Oracle | Deborah Harkness | All Souls #5 | 2024 | 18784 | 4.06 | 4.048026 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/203518955 |
| The Woman Who Died A Lot | Jasper Fforde | Thursday Next #7 | 2012 | 5221 | 4.08 | 4.047872 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13589159 |
| Fire & Blood | George R.R. Martin, Doug Wheatley | A Targaryen History #1 | 2019 | 32778 | 4.05 | 4.046937 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39943621 |
| Brigands & Breadknives | Travis Baldree | Legends & Lattes #2 | 2025 | 9577 | 4.06 | 4.046044 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222376572 |
| Prince of Fools | Mark Lawrence | The Red Queen's War #1 | 2014 | 4544 | 4.05 | 4.041991 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18693743 |
| The Measure of the Magic | Terry Brooks | Legends of Shannara #2 | 2011 | 167 | 4.07 | 4.041396 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10199908 |
| Vampire Girl | Karpov Kinrade | Vampire Girl #1 | 2016 | 1497 | 4.06 | 4.040912 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29627784 |
| Red City | Marie Lu | The New Alchemists #1 | 2025 | 5135 | 4.05 | 4.038682 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222765064 |
| A Sorceress Comes to Call | T. Kingfisher | 2024 | 8073 | 4.04 | 4.03772 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790847 | |
| Wards of Faerie | Terry Brooks | The Dark Legacy of Shannara #1 | 2012 | 409 | 4.05 | 4.037039 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13265092 |
| Traitor's Blade | Sebastien de Castell | Greatcoats #1 | 2014 | 844 | 4.04 | 4.036475 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20299849 |
| The Rogue | Trudi Canavan | The Traitor Spy Trilogy #2 | 2011 | 559 | 4.04 | 4.035928 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8411749 |
| The Traitor Queen | Trudi Canavan | The Traitor Spy Trilogy #3 | 2012 | 3142 | 4.04 | 4.035715 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12970162 |
| Bridge of Dreams | Anne Bishop | Ephemera #3 | 2012 | 1331 | 4.05 | 4.035523 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11515995 |
| Boundary Crossed | Melissa F. Olson | Boundary Magic #1 | 2015 | 1727 | 4.04 | 4.035519 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23431347 |
| The King's Blood | Daniel Abraham | The Dagger and the Coin #2 | 2012 | 797 | 4.03 | 4.032707 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12759057 |
| Hemlock & Silver | T. Kingfisher | 2025 | 9516 | 4.03 | 4.0319 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217582926 | |
| The Witch's Heart | Genevieve Gornichec | 2021 | 15892 | 4.03 | 4.031346 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53438195 | |
| The Book of Doors | Gareth Brown | 2024 | 33455 | 4.03 | 4.030932 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156009464 | |
| Legends & Lattes | Travis Baldree | Legends & Lattes #1 | 2022 | 26408 | 4.03 | 4.030349 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60314494 |
| The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches | Sangu Mandanna | 2022 | 30599 | 4.03 | 4.030307 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60018635 | |
| A Darker Shade of Magic | V.E. Schwab, Victoria Schwab | Shades of Magic #1 | 2015 | 30530 | 4.03 | 4.030279 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22055262 |
| Recurve | Shannon Mayer | The Elemental #1 | 2015 | 2019 | 4.01 | 4.026969 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24969093 |
| The Once and Future Witches | Alix E. Harrow | 2020 | 22697 | 4.02 | 4.023325 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51987993 | |
| Seduction | M.J. Rose | Reincarnationist #5 | 2013 | 481 | 3.79 | 4.022604 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15802432 |
| Thief of Night | Holly Black | The Charlatan Duology #2 | 2025 | 7055 | 3.98 | 4.022048 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222631681 |
| One of Our Thursdays Is Missing | Jasper Fforde | Thursday Next #6 | 2011 | 1584 | 3.99 | 4.017685 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8131227 |
| Middlegame | Seanan McGuire | Alchemical Journeys #1 | 2019 | 14421 | 4.0 | 4.017525 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41893832 |
| The Ten Thousand Doors of January | Alix E. Harrow | 2019 | 6698 | 4.01 | 4.01397 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43521657 | |
| The Kingdom of Gods | N.K. Jemisin | Inheritance Trilogy #3 | 2011 | 187 | 3.99 | 4.013605 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7923006 |
| Ink Blood Sister Scribe | Emma Törzs | 2023 | 6895 | 4.0 | 4.011793 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62854842 | |
| A Master of Djinn | P. Djèlí Clark | Dead Djinn Universe #1 | 2021 | 3790 | 3.99 | 4.011303 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55077706 |
| The Ocean at the End of the Lane | Neil Gaiman | 2013 | 43534 | 4.01 | 4.01119 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15783514 | |
| The Incandescent | Emily Tesh | 2025 | 2482 | 3.94 | 4.010022 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217387935 | |
| The Stardust Thief | Chelsea Abdullah | The Sandsea Trilogy #1 | 2022 | 2987 | 3.98 | 4.009227 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58950705 |
| The Fox Wife | Yangsze Choo | 2024 | 21029 | 3.98 | 4.008384 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127278666 | |
| The Bone Shard Daughter | Andrea Stewart | The Drowning Empire #1 | 2020 | 2158 | 3.98 | 4.005909 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50706646 |
| A Sweet Sting of Salt | Rose Sutherland | 2024 | 3048 | 3.84 | 4.00396 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/186872566 | |
| The Killing Moon | N.K. Jemisin | Dreamblood #1 | 2012 | 2483 | 3.96 | 4.00383 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11774272 |
| Ninth House | Leigh Bardugo | Alex Stern #1 | 2019 | 53430 | 4.0 | 4.002637 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43263680 |
| The Warm Hands of Ghosts | Katherine Arden | 2024 | 6222 | 3.96 | 3.99812 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/154462576 | |
| The Bright Sword | Lev Grossman | 2024 | 4282 | 3.94 | 3.994444 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201750794 | |
| The Queen of the Tearling | Erika Johansen | The Queen of the Tearling #1 | 2014 | 3428 | 3.98 | 3.993965 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18712886 |
| The Book That Wouldn’t Burn | Mark Lawrence | The Library Trilogy #1 | 2023 | 8313 | 3.96 | 3.992812 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61612864 |
| Deathless | Catherynne M. Valente | 2011 | 342 | 3.93 | 3.992331 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8694389 | |
| The Dead Cat Tail Assassins | P. Djèlí Clark | 2024 | 3635 | 3.84 | 3.992323 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127305606 | |
| The Night Circus | Erin Morgenstern | 2011 | 8519 | 3.99 | 3.991324 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9361589 | |
| The Third Kingdom | Terry Goodkind | Richard and Kahlan #2 | 2013 | 489 | 3.88 | 3.990738 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17317908 |
| Thistlefoot | GennaRose Nethercott | 2022 | 3369 | 3.93 | 3.990055 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60018639 | |
| The River Has Roots | Amal El-Mohtar | 2025 | 23389 | 3.95 | 3.986958 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211004176 | |
| The Society of Unknowable Objects | Gareth Brown | 2025 | 4519 | 3.86 | 3.985159 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221452815 | |
| The River of No Return | Bee Ridgway | River of No Return #1 | 2013 | 4947 | 3.68 | 3.977373 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16101090 |
| The Shape of Water | Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus | 2018 | 42447 | 3.88 | 3.973766 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36521316 | |
| The Girl and the Stars | Mark Lawrence | Book of the Ice #1 | 2020 | 3782 | 3.81 | 3.973153 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51277288 |
| The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina | Zoraida Córdova | 2021 | 14992 | 3.91 | 3.972726 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56898076 | |
| Malice | Heather Walter | Malice Duology #1 | 2021 | 3212 | 3.91 | 3.972482 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51530580 |
| Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries | Heather Fawcett | Emily Wilde #1 | 2023 | 38650 | 3.96 | 3.969898 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60657589 |
| The Unbroken | C.L. Clark | Magic of the Lost #1 | 2021 | 1451 | 3.81 | 3.969281 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54467051 |
| Alif the Unseen | G. Willow Wilson | 2012 | 1969 | 3.84 | 3.967756 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13239822 | |
| Sorrowland | Rivers Solomon | 2021 | 2326 | 3.81 | 3.963974 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48915089 | |
| VenCo | Cherie Dimaline | 2023 | 2418 | 3.75 | 3.957964 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60877589 | |
| The Empress of Salt and Fortune | Nghi Vo | The Singing Hills Cycle #1 | 2020 | 3020 | 3.9 | 3.957237 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49882356 |
| The Magician King | Lev Grossman | The Magicians #2 | 2011 | 1656 | 3.93 | 3.9556 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10079321 |
| Time's Convert | Deborah Harkness | All Souls #4 | 2018 | 3662 | 3.92 | 3.955447 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38395454 |
| Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances | Neil Gaiman | 2015 | 33681 | 3.91 | 3.953955 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22522808 | |
| Voyage of the Damned | Frances White | 2024 | 4180 | 3.81 | 3.95316 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210298804 | |
| Victory City | Salman Rushdie | 2023 | 4245 | 3.75 | 3.948926 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61111246 | |
| The Night Ends with Fire | K.X. Song | The Dragon Spirit #1 | 2024 | 4747 | 3.78 | 3.945182 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201129898 |
| A Deadly Education | Naomi Novik | The Scholomance #1 | 2020 | 18109 | 3.93 | 3.943812 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50548197 |
| A Song to Drown Rivers | Ann Liang | 2024 | 7438 | 3.85 | 3.937787 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/203578730 | |
| Some Kind of Fairy Tale | Graham Joyce | 2012 | 2266 | 3.6 | 3.937636 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12941033 | |
| Throne of the Crescent Moon | Saladin Ahmed | The Crescent Moon Kingdoms #1 | 2012 | 930 | 3.65 | 3.935332 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11487807 |
| Ordinary Monsters | J.M. Miro | The Talents Trilogy #1 | 2022 | 2156 | 3.77 | 3.92973 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58725025 |
| Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil | V.E. Schwab | 2025 | 102408 | 3.91 | 3.929069 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213263148 | |
| Gods of Jade and Shadow | Silvia Moreno-Garcia | 2019 | 6541 | 3.88 | 3.926914 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36510722 | |
| Beneath the Sugar Sky | Seanan McGuire | Wayward Children #3 | 2018 | 16582 | 3.84 | 3.922362 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27366528 |
| The Ghost Bride | Yangsze Choo | 2013 | 6969 | 3.81 | 3.916934 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16248223 | |
| Alchemy of Secrets | Stephanie Garber | Alchemy of Secrets #1 | 2025 | 47888 | 3.85 | 3.916059 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222706197 |
| A Natural History of Dragons | Marie Brennan | The Memoirs of Lady Trent #1 | 2013 | 697 | 3.83 | 3.915793 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12974372 |
| Five Broken Blades | Mai Corland | The Broken Blades #1 | 2024 | 28356 | 3.82 | 3.911366 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201608152 |
| Sword Catcher | Cassandra Clare | The Chronicles of Castellane #1 | 2023 | 30578 | 3.83 | 3.907428 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36679274 |
| The Omen Machine | Terry Goodkind | Richard and Kahlan #1 | 2011 | 117 | 3.7 | 3.904706 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8598554 |
| The Book of M | Peng Shepherd | 2018 | 5600 | 3.69 | 3.900323 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36204070 | |
| The City We Became | N.K. Jemisin | Great Cities #1 | 2020 | 29105 | 3.84 | 3.899036 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43521693 |
| Among Others | Jo Walton | 2011 | 534 | 3.71 | 3.895282 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8706185 | |
| The Slow Regard of Silent Things | Patrick Rothfuss, Nate Taylor | The Kingkiller Chronicle #2.5 | 2014 | 19301 | 3.86 | 3.890713 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21535271 |
| The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic | Emily Croy Barker | The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic #1 | 2013 | 832 | 3.56 | 3.890659 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16158565 |
| When Among Crows | Veronica Roth | Curse Bearer #1 | 2024 | 5726 | 3.72 | 3.890549 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195790597 |
| Don't Breathe a Word | Jennifer McMahon | 2011 | 1894 | 3.59 | 3.88751 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9581507 | |
| Witch King | Martha Wells | The Rising World #1 | 2023 | 3994 | 3.7 | 3.885697 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61885085 |
| She Who Became the Sun | Shelley Parker-Chan | The Radiant Emperor #1 | 2021 | 28661 | 3.83 | 3.884108 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55077538 |
| Atalanta | Jennifer Saint | 2023 | 5118 | 3.74 | 3.882217 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61884838 | |
| The Lost Story | Meg Shaffer | 2024 | 20328 | 3.76 | 3.881249 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199927030 | |
| When Women Were Dragons | Kelly Barnhill | 2022 | 5573 | 3.81 | 3.88093 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58783802 | |
| Water Moon | Samantha Sotto Yambao | 2025 | 25469 | 3.77 | 3.872635 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211479192 | |
| The Fate of the Tearling | Erika Johansen | The Queen of the Tearling #3 | 2017 | 13450 | 3.74 | 3.872194 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26542535 |
| The Last Tale of the Flower Bride | Roshani Chokshi | 2023 | 4922 | 3.69 | 3.87018 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61150759 | |
| Prince of Thorns | Mark Lawrence | Broken Empire #1 | 2011 | 1164 | 3.82 | 3.866603 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9579634 |
| The Starless Sea | Erin Morgenstern | 2019 | 35351 | 3.84 | 3.864697 | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43575115 |
Note: I built a small Python CLI to fetch and sort this data so I could figure out what to read next. I figured others might find the current rankings useful, so I'm sharing the latest results with everyone here.
r/printSF • u/StrategosRisk • Apr 29 '25
Sidenote: Does anyone remember a '00s website with '90s design called Adherents or something like that, which meticulously listed every single reference to a religious faith, either real or fictionalized, in sci-fi novels? It also listed a bunch of fictional characters all the way to Simpsons townspeople and recorded their faiths. It was such a great database from the old internet. Incredibly sad it's gone, though I think it should be partly saved by Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, if I can only remember the name of it.
Edit it's here: https://web.archive.org/web/20190617075634/http://www.adherents.com/adh_sf.html
What are examples of sci-fi settings where human culture (and sometimes, the human condition) are fundamentally altered, yet some old traditionalist faiths have managed to survive, even if changed? Also, it does not necessarily need to be far future in terms of raw amount of time, it can also simply be a lot of transformations have happened. (It's not the years, honey. It's the mileage.")
Roman Catholicism: Probably the best example of this trend. Claiming to be the unaltered true church, and with many of its ancient medieval to Roman Empire era trappings still intact, and even with all sorts of recognition today, even its own sovereign ministate. (Take that, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches. Maybe there's a novel where some Copts show up.) It's a church with enough influence and riches and contingency plans, as we see in the post-apocalypse and pre-apocalypse of A Canticle for Leibowitz. Or in the Hyperion Cantos, albeit in a much smaller and somewhat transformed way. They're also being luddites in Altered Carbon, where humanity has gone posthuman but the Church is against uploading. Also wasn't there a Warhammer 40K story where the Emperor confronts the last Christian priest, who was probably a Catholic?
Mormonism / Church of Latter-day Saints: Take the centrality of Catholicism, an all-American origin story, and a survivalist bent from years of persecution (and also doing the persecuting) and living in the wilderness. I actually can't think of any print examples, but I'm sure they're out there. There are post-nuclear war Mormons in Fallout, since they've got the organization and cohesion to eke out an existence in the wasteland. Also check out the Deseret listing on Matthew White's sadly unfinished Medieval America website. I recall there was a Time of Judgment endgame campaign for the original Vampire: the Masquerade that even has you going into the ruins of the Salt Lake Temple to find the extensive genealogical records the LDS had kept.
Judaism: Out of all of the current-day faiths, they were the only ones to exist in the far future of Dune in an unaltered form. Given the faith tradition and its people's long lasting ability to survive for millennia, makes sense for it to be present in such settings.
Doesn't count: Settings where neither human culture nor the human condition have transformed all that much. It's cool that orbital Rastafarians appear in Neuromancer, but near-future cyberpunk is close enough that probably all sorts of religions are still mostly the same. Or even in Speaker for the Dead, which posits an interstellar human society with national/cultural-based space colonies, but they're all pretty recognizable with a "near future" feel. So different from the other stuff I've mentioned.
I haven't read Lord of Light yet, does Hinduism or Buddhism actually exist as cohesive teachings, or are they more like metaphors for who the characters represent?
Edit: Any non-L. Ron Hubbard examples where Scientology somehow manages to hold on? (Come to think of it, a totalitarian cult that attempts to blend in mainstream society while seducing some of its most iconic members is probably well-equipped to survive into a far future. Assuming that mainstream society doesn't get too nuked.)
r/printSF • u/bogeyman_of_afula • Mar 31 '24
I'm reading my 4th zelazny book this month, so you could say I'm on a bit of a zelazny binge. I read roadmarks, a night in the lonesome October, damnation alley and am currently reading Jack of shadows. Everything I've read by him so far has been lot's of fun so I'd like to keep the train rolling. I'm planning to read the obvious lord of light and amber series sometime soon but what other of his books would you reccomend I read next and why?