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The following list is a list of books that are suggested reading for all sci-fi/fantasy fantasy lovers. If you have more additions to the list put them in the recommendations. Otherwise enjoy getting some books to read from here.

THIS IS IN NO WAY A FULL LIST. EDITING WILL OCCUR OVER TIME. BUT IT IS A USEFUL START FOR FINDING BOOKS PARTICULARLY TO HELP FINISH CHALLENGES.

Science Fiction
Rendezvous With Rama
Quicksilver,The Confusion and The System of the World
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
The Sentinel
Red Mars
The Gods of Riverworld
Isaac Asimov's Caliban
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
On Basilisk Station
The Ship Who Sang
Novels By Lois Mcmaster Bujold, including: Vorkosigan Saga, Ethan Of Athos, Paladin Of Souls, The Curse Of Chalion, The Hallowed Hunt, Falling Free, Diplomatic Immunity (novel), The Sharing Knife, Beguilement, Legacy (2007 Novel), The Spirit Ring
Starship Troopers
Ringworld
Consider Phlebas
The Eyre Affair
The Dragonriders of Pern
Jinx on a Terran Inheritance
Fall of the White Ship Avatar
Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds
Conquerors' Pride
Conquerors' Legacy
Coyote and associated sequels
Ghost Legion
King's Test
King's Sacrifice
Hung Out
Soldier of the Legion
The Draco Tavern
A World Out of Time
Decision at Doona
The Dinosaur Planet Omnibus
The Stainless Steel Rat and accompanying sequels
Deathworld 1
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of the Robot Slaves
Contest
The Hyperion Omnibus
Dayworld and accompanying books
Conditioned Response
Reamde

Fantasy
Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set
The Alloy of Law
Elantris
Warbreaker
The Way of Kings, Part One
The Way of Kings Part Two
The Dresden Files Collection 1-6The Dresden Files Collection 7-12
The Wheel of time series by Robert Jordan
The Name of the Wind
The Wise Man's Fear
A Song of Ice and Fire
Gardens of the Moon
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Mists of Avalon
The Sword of Shannara Trilogy
Wizard's First Rule
Vampire Chronicles: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned
The Color of Magic
American Gods
Coraline
Stardust
Neverwhere
The Graveyard Book
Howl's Moving Castle
Perdido Street Station
Magician
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Merlin Trilogy
The Dragonbone Chair
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Robin Hobb Collection: Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest
Lord Valentine's Castle
Riddle-Master: The Complete Trilogy
Chronicles of The Black Company
The Summoner
Spring
Theft of Swords
Rise of Empire
Heir of Novron
His Majesty's Dragon
The Lions of al-Rassan
The Summer Tree
The Children of Húrin
The Warded Man
Legend
Mythago Wood
Ship of Magic
The Ladies of Grace Adieu: And Other Stories
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
King's Dragon and associated series books
Darkover Books including The Spell Sword List Of Darkover Books Darkover Landfall Stormqueen Darkover Series Hawkmistress The Shattered Chain Two To Conquer The Fall Of Neskaya Zandru's Forge A Flame In Hali The Heritage Of Hastur
The Word And The Void Omnibus
Darkness Weaves and accompanying books
Merlin's Godson
Malevil

Young Adult/Children's Science Fiction and Fantasy
Harry Potter Boxed Set
The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset
The Bartimaeus Trilogy Boxed Set
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Abhorsen Trilogy Box Set
The Hobbit
His Dark Materials
Inheritance Cycle Boxed Set
Revenge of the Witch and sequels
The Ruins of Gorlan and sequels
Mister Monday and sequels
Artemis Fowl and sequels
The Time Trilogy: A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Ender's Game
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and sequels/prequels
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
The Book Thief
Watership Down
Redwall and sequels
Skulduggery Pleasant and sequels
Charlotte's Web
The Neverending Story
The Dark Is Rising Sequence
Incarceron
The Maze Runner
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Boxed Set
Daughter of Smoke and Bone and sequels
Divergent and sequels
Legend and sequels
Hover Car Racer

Classic
Herbert George Wells Collection: The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Tales of Space and Time
Around The World In Eighty Days; From The Earth To The Moon Direct; 20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea
The Day of the Triffids
Dune
Neuromancer
Kafka on the Shore
Fahrenheit 451
Slaughterhouse-Five
Foundation
1984
Brave New World
We
The Handmaid's Tale
Metropolis
John Carter's Chronicles of Mars
Flowers for Algernon
The Lord of the Rings
The Silmarillion
The Gormenghast Novels
The Man in the High Castle
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Martian Chronicles
The Illustrated Man
Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories
The King of Elfland's Daughter
The Iliad & The Odyssey
The Worm Ouroboros
Beowulf
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Broken Sword
The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights
Conan the Barbarian and accompanying books
Silverlock
The Worm Ouroboros

Humorous Sci-fi/fantasy
The Misenchanted Sword and associated books in the series
A Princess of Landover and associated books in the series
Another Fine Myth and associated books in the series
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
The Princess Bride

I love the list. Can't wait to read these.

You forgot the Madeline LeEngle books

Riverworld series by Philip Jose Farmer

YOU FORGOT in science fiction: THE CALIBAN TRILOGY(by Roger Mcbride Allen), and in classics: METROPOLIS (by Thea Von Harbou)!!!! THOSE ARE MUST READS!!

The list is now updated for your use!

Ah, so many I've read, but too many I haven't. I love it.

Great list. may I add The Name of the Wind and The Chronicles of the Necromancer series by Gail Martin under Fantasy? I also enjoyed the Hyddenworld series.
I've penned two myself under young adult/fantasy but 'no adverts'.

I look forward to reading more from the list above, so thankyou.

The Kingkiller Chronicles which feature The Name of the Wind are already up there. I will be certain to add the other two to the list right now.

I just noticed you updated the list. Last time I saw the list I went away and read those books which I hadn't read before, and here I came smugly expecting to feel self-satisfied because I was all "up-to-date" and you've gone and added more! I can't catch up now though ... I'm off to find my battered old copy of Dune which is hiding somewhere in my unpacked moving boxes.

I really like your list!

Well I had help from others so it's the group's list as such.

Oh, ok. That explains why it's so big and why everyone said "You forgot this!" lol

Might I add that you "forgot" (LOL) one of the most EPIC series in SciFi Space Opera ever?

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold

Won more Hugos than any other series (though I suspect Orson Scott Card's Enderverse (which also spawned a whole second series, the one I prefer, the Shadow Saga) came pretty darn close. Ender got more fame anyway and Ender is getting made into a movie while Miles Vorkosigan, the mutant little git, apparently doesn't appeal to Hollywood no matter how many space ships he blows up. Maybe he needs to try blowing up a planet next? haha, shhh, shouldn't give Lois ideas and she did just recently start visiting Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ!

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

Author of Conditioned Response, a SciFi Thriller to Remember--if you can!

Marjorie wrote: "Might I add that you "forgot" (LOL) one of the most EPIC series in SciFi Space Opera ever?

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold

Won more Hugos than any other series (though I suspect Orso..."

True, Vorkosigan has won 3 Hugos for best novel now while Ender, CJ Cherryh's Alliance Union, David Brin's uplift war, Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought each got 2. :) If we include non-space opera Connie Willis' series about time-traveling historians from Oxford has won 3 Hugos for best novel also.

It's not st the awards. The Vor series is exceedingly well-written! Yeah, I'm a devoted fangrrl :)

Also they're all free:)

Xdyj wrote: "Also they're all free:)"

Excuse me?? Lois's books are definitely NOT "all free" by any means. In fact, she just got her rights reverted back to her so she can finally upload them to the Amazon Kindle Store (which she has just done recently, Herself). Also, Baen eBooks still definitely sells her books (by separate agreement) and of course, Baen still publishes the print versions.

Then there are the Avon (Harper Collins Imprint) fantasy genre books which, well, HC is about the antithesis of "free" and they make a point of continuing to be as "unfree" (and DRM'd) as possible.

Lois's books (collectively) are definitely not "free" in any sense of the word.

There is ONE and ONLY ONE book that is offered free through the Baen Free Library: . That's it. If people are getting Lois's books "all for free" then that's a good piece of information for her to know--given the food on her table and mortgage over her head depends on finally getting her royalties now that her rights reverted at long last.

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks
Lois's Devoted Fangrrl / Minion

Xdyj wrote: "Also they're all free:)"

I think you've just been slapped! Sorry bro!

There is a site who claim that Baen has given them permission to distribute Bean CDs. And I was wrong that it's not the complete series, but it's also more than one book. There was even a long debate on Wikipedia about whether or not they should link to that site for copyright reason, and finally someone said s/he went to buy a Baen book and verified that there is really a statement "This disk and its contents may be copied and shared, but NOT sold" and settled the issue.

I'm well aware of Joe Buckley's site--so is Lois. She OBJECTS strongly to her books being pirated there but since Baen (used to) hold the rights, she had no recourse. She recently got her rights back (reverted) and hopefully Joe won't fuss about taking down the objectionable content.

He's a long standing member of the Bar (as is Lois obviously) so he know why it took so long to get Lois to agree to having her books go out on a CD (inside the hardcover version of the book, which is where Joe gets the mirrors for his site). The books are, in Lois's mind being stolenthere because she definitely did NOT authorize Joe to give them away on HER behalf. She vehemently objects, in fact. She's still making a living off her writing and having it pirated by Joe is painful in a number of ways. As I said, she JUST got her e-rights back so that may change quickly.

Other Baen authors like John Ringo and David Weber, have NO objection to Joe giving their books away for free. That's the problem. Not all authors are the same but when Baen owned everyone's rights anyway, it was easy for Joe to come to an informal (all-encompassing) agreement with BAEN ( not the authors) and the individual authors had no recourse.

When an author has been writing best-sellers as long as Lois has, it's easy to assume she no longer cares about royalties but making pennies on a book sale (traditional publishers take 85% or more of the cover price and generally don't pay royalties on a regular schedule; Baen was better than most but even they didn't pay much or often) doesn't pay the mortgage does it? Esp. not if people are pirating her books half the time. I feel for her. I'm not her agent, just a fan who knows if she can't afford the mortgage we're not getting more Bujold books anytime soon.

And I'm not trying to "hit" anyone, just trying to shed a little light on the reality here. Pirated doesn't mean "free for the taking." Lois did just manage to get all her books onto Kindle :) She's taking ownership of her own books as quickly as she can! The one and only novel actually free is The Warrior's Apprentice, as noted above.

You know what, Xdyj? You should go to the Bar and ask Lois to her face, so to speak. She logs into Miles to Go on . baen.com pretty much daily.

I see, I'll buy them from Baen ebook then if I like The Warrior's Apprentice. And I deleted the link to that site just in case.

I'm aware that almost all reasonably well-known fiction that haven't already been in public domain have been pirated online but I also know only legally downloadable ebooks (like Blind Sight & Jennifer Government, both are under Creative Commons) are allowed here by GR policy, I just assumed Joe's site is the second kind because a lot of ppl in the blogsphere as well as on Baen Bar say so. I hope she can clarify it on her blog or website, and not just complains about it on a fan forum that needs registration, if she indeed has any legal ground in accusing Joe of piracy. After all, most readers probably do not have a through knowledge of the finer points of US copyright law, or keep track of who is holding what rights of a book, or would register in a forum that only hard-core fans know about.

Well, to be fair, it's not a site "just hard-core fans" know about. It's the publisher's site. Baen Books is the publisher of the Vorkosigan Saga. Their online forums have been around since the 1980s. Jim Baen started online forums when he was back at Ace Books and he brainstormed it with some friends at Tor Books when he opened Baen Books.

I guess in that way, yeah, okay, only hard-core SciFi fans (not new to SciFi genre) would know that the 2d largest SF/F genre publisher (Baen whereas Tor is #1) has an online forum where all of their authors making daily appearances. I'm not trying to be snarky but the Baen forums are pretty widely known among the SF/F readership.

Also, Baen Books has a philosophy of giving books away--and Lois has always stood against it. That's been well-known and clearly stated by Lois all along, everywhere she ever posts anything. She got embedded in MySpace years ago when it came out and she's never really moved on so that's her actual "home base" believe it or not.

She does READ here on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ (as was recently evidenced by her reply to me--on the Bar--in response to something I said in a different Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ discussion about her books) She flatly stated she does not anticipate ever POSTING here on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ other than having her MySpace blog auto-fed through to here. She would rather spend time writing more books.

I have to clarify that Joe Buckley (one of the longest-standing, most well-known members of the Baen Bar fan community) started that site on his own and asked for permission after the fact which permission was granted by everyone else (not Lois). It's just that one author.

In fact, one of my favorite series (Ghost/Kildar by John Ringo) is on a CD called and actually carries a joke intro that says you MUST give away copies of that CD or the puppy's gonna get it (they have a picture of an adorable puppy).

It was a tacit agreement by John Ringo and Taylor "Doc" Travis for that those books included on the CD being distributed far and wide FOR FREE. They chose free distribution for THEIR books. Just theirs. They are not "all" of the Baen authors. They are just TWO.

Also Joe clearly states on the site (a) he's NOT associated with or employed by Baen nor is he acting with their actual authorization or permission and (b) he gets no money for the books but they ARE copyrighted material and should not be resold or redistributed without permission (of the publisher).

If you want some really good FREE books that the authors WANT to have distributed far and wide, get the :-)

The note here being look before you apply one rule to "everyone." Not everyone is the same which is kind of what makes the world we live in so damned interesting instead of the most boring place to have to survive until you die.

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

Firstly, the wikipedia editors of definitely are not aware of this. SF/F fandom & blogosphere is huge so maybe I wasn't familiar with certain parts of it well enough.:) I'm reasonably familiar with Baen Books but never bothered to register on their forum before.
I'm aware of her attitude towards Cryoburn CD only after reading her post on Baen Bar, and is still not completely sure if redistributing said CD is really against the current US copyright law, which may and may not be consistent with an author's will. Anyway I assume it's illegal just in case.

p.s. I've just finished the first book, and it convinced me to pay for others:)

Maybe we can also include The Princess Bride. I just finished it & it's brilliant imo.

Xdyj wrote: "Maybe we can also include The Princess Bride. I just finished it & it's brilliant imo."

Okay, at the risk of being shot ;-) I had no clue that was a real book and not just a makebelieve book in the movie!! Thank you! I truly must read it :) I loooooove that movie!

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

Yes! I loved that book! My 6th grade science teacher read that to us and I've been meaning to read it but completely forgot!

Updated the book list guys. Thanks for reminding me about The Princess Bride which is one of my personal favourites.

I need to read it again sooooooooooooooooooo bad. I forgot what the movie is like so I'm gonna read it again before seeing the movie again. :)

I'm going to go through later and edit the list later. I'll put up some more authors and hopefully I want to put some proper links in...

I have now updated the list with some additional titles and linked all possible books. Keep titles coming in when you think of them.

Is Asimov's considered a classic? It's where he first defined the 3 Laws so in my mind, it's the classic (not I, Robot) but most people don't read Bicentennial Man and just go for I, Robot.

TBH, I enjoyed the movie version (Starring the inimitable Robin Williams in the lead role as the robot seeking his own rights to his own life) a bit better than the book version. I think the dramatic license Hollywood/Williams took actually improved on an already stunning story.

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

Friday, I have to tell you that your 'history' is just wrong.

Asimov published the "Three Laws" long before he wrote, "The Bicentennial Man". Decades before, in fact.

Btw, the first person to actually spell out the "Three Laws" was John W. Campbell, in an author/editor conference. Campbell said they were implicit in Asimov's various Robot stories up till then, but they hadn't been spelled out.

I guess anything by Asimov would be in terms of Sci-fi. I'll put it up there. I'm pretty sure some of the books I've posted in the other sections such as sci-fi are classic but I'm yet to have anyone correct me :p

I think the definition of "classic" is sort of subjective, & it roughly means "it's kind of old & I (and my friend, and some other ppl) like it".

I kinda like classic fantasy and sci fi too maybe coz I am kinda old too. haha

I have saved the list to mark off at my leisure what I have read and what I need to read.

        Bev wrote: "I kinda like classic fantasy and sci fi too maybe coz I am kinda old too. haha"

That reminds me of the classic line 'The Golden Age of Science Fiction/Fantasy/YA novels/movies whatever was ...










        (WAIT FOR IT!)

















fourteen.'

Xdyj wrote: "I think the definition of "classic" is sort of subjective, & it roughly means "it's kind of old & I (and my friend, and some other ppl) like it"."

True enough but I think it has to have been liked by enough people for it to rate as a classic. I actually don't like some of those books I view as classic myself. (see Neuromancer)

They're up there. Check Merlin trilogy for those ones.

Jaq wrote: "Another forgotten series;
The Crystal Cave
The Hollow Hills
The Last Enchantment"

I love those Jaq. Read them when I was a nipper with my grannys library card ...

Yeah thats another oldy but memorable set for me.

Updated with more books.

Nice list!

Michael wrote: "Nice list!"

Thanks, it wouldn't be half so nice without the collaborative efforts of everyone else. And it was inspired by other groups I was in also but still it's always nice to make a list.

beautiful! i'm such a sci-fi/fantasy virgin, this is exactly what i was looking for! thanks!

No problem.

Okay...There are a lot of good books on this list. I've not read every post so I'll try to put out some books that may be lesser known, but fun reads. I'm sure someone's mentioned them already. I appologize in advance for duplicating things.

Science Fiction

Brian Daley
Jinx on a Terran Inheritance
Fall of the White Ship Avatar
Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds

Timothy Zahn
Conquerors' Pride
Conquerors' Legacy

Allen Steele
Coyote: A Novel of Interstellar Exploration
Coyote Horizon: A Novel of Interstellar Discovery
Coyote Frontier: A Novel of Interstellar Colonization
Coyote Rising: A Novel of Interstellar Revolution
Coyote Destiny

Margaret Weis
Ghost Legion
King's TestKing's Sacrifice
Hung Out

Soldier of the Legion

Larry Niven
A World Out of TimeThe Draco Tavern


Anne McCaffrey
Dinosaur Planet
Dinosaur Planet Survivors
Decision at Doona

Harry Harrison
The Stainless Steel RatThe Stainless Steel Rat Wants You!The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge
Deathworld 1
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of the Robot Slaves

I'll save the Fantasy books for a different post. There are many more where that came from.

Those are great additions Hugh!