Editor's Choice: Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
- Dune, by Frank Herbert (1965)
- Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R.Tolkien (1954)
- Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card (1985)
- Foundation series, by Isaac Asimov (1951)
- Discworld Series, by Terry Pratchett (1990's)
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein (1961)
- Neuromancer, by William Gibson (1985)
- Hyperion, by Dan Simmons (1989)
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert A. Heinlein (1966)
- Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card (1986)
- 1984, by George Orwell (1949)
- The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (1979)
- I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov (1950)
- Ringworld, by Larry Niven (1970)
- Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny (1967)
- The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman (1974)
- A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller (1959)
- Startide Rising, by David Brin (1983)
- Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke (1954)
- The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury (1950)
- Gateway, by Frederick Pohl (1977)
- The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle (1975)
- Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke (1973)
- Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson (1992)
- Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein (1959)
- The War of the Worlds, by H.G.Wells (1898)
- The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
- The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester (1956)
- A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge (1991)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (1954)
- The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester (1953)
- Stand on Zanzibar, by John Brunner (1969)
- The Uplift War, by David Brin (1987)
- The Claw of the Conciliator, by Gene Wolfe (1981)
- Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes (1966)
- Way Station, by Clifford Simak (1963)
- The Time Machine, by H.G.Wells (1895)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K.Rowling (2002)
- Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson (1992)
- Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), by Philip K. Dick (1968)
- The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis (1950)
- The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick (1962)
- The Gods Themselves, by Isaac Asimov (1972)
- Downbelow Station, by C.J. Cherryh (1981)
- Ubik, by Philip K. Dick (1969)
- Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks (1988)
- Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov (1954)
- The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells (1898)
- The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers (1983)
- Barrayar, by Lois McMaster Bujold (1991)
- Lucifer's Hammer by Niven and Pournelle (1977)
- Time Enough For Love, by Robert A. Heinlein (1973)
- This Immortal, by Roger Zelazny (1966)
- The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson (1995)
- The Door Into Summer, by Robert A. Heinlein (1956)
- The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis (1992)
- Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay (2001)
- The Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan (1990)
- A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin (1997)
- Eon, by Greg Bear (1985)
- To Your Scattered Bodies Go, by Philip Jose Farmer (1971)
- Timescape, Gregory Benford (1980)
- Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley (1932)
- A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)
- More Than Human, by Theodore Sturgeon (1953)
- Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut (1963)
- The Stand, by Stephen King (1978)
- A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess (1962)
- Cyteen, by C.J.Cherryh (1988)
- Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
- Last and First Men, by Olaf Stapledon (1930)
- The City and the Stars, by Arthur C. Clarke (1956)
- Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem (1961)
- Double Star, by Robert A. Heinlein (1956)
- The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe (1980)
- Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey (1971)
- The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks (1978)
- The Puppet Masters, by Robert A. Heinlein (1951)
- Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice (1977)
- Dorsai, by Gordon Dickson (1960)
- Burning Chrome, by William Gibson (1986)
- The Big Time, by Fritz Leiber (1958)
- Helliconia Spring, by Brian Aldiss (2002)
- The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)
- Dragon's Egg, by Robert Forward (1980)
- The Stainless Steel Rat, by Harry Harrison (1961)
- The Sheep Look Up, by John Brunner (1972)
- Black Sun Rising, by C.S.Friedman (1992)
- Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E.Feist (1993)
- Slan, by A.E. Van Vogt (1998)
- Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne (1864)
- The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
- The Fountains of Paradise, by Arthur C. Clarke (1979)
- American Gods, by Neil Gaiman (2002)
- Dreamsnake, by Vonda McIntyre (1974)
- Stone of Tears, by Terry Goodkind (1996)
- Babel-17 by Samuel Delany (1966)
- The Female Man, by Joanna Russ (1975)
David Pringle's 100 Best Science Fiction Novels
David Pringle is a master of science fiction bibliography and criticism. Some find him a bit of a Britophile, but we certainly don't see any harm in that (if true). Here is his list of the 100 best science fiction novels of all time (through about 1984, when Everything Changed anyway). It is a strange list in many ways; there are no Van Vogt books, Asimov's Foundation isn't included, but it is a good list in most aspects. Our angle is that we have many of these books in stock, and you are encouraged to buy them!
- George Orwell 1984
1949 The complete picture of the world messed up by Authority. The great Dystopia.
2. George R. Stewart Earth Abides
1949 The ur-ecological disaster novel, and more. The Dying Earth, where the Earth dies hard.
3. Ray Bradbury The Martian Chronicles
1950 Okay, the stories are not really about Mars, but Bradbury's sometimes pastoral and often beautiful tales are the most human in science fiction.
4. Robert Heinlein The Puppet Masters
1951 A great Body Snatchers story, enlivened by Bob's anti-Communist paranoia.
5. John Wyndham The Day of the Triffids
1951 Invading extraterrestrial plants in a world gone blind, except for Two. Tour de force storytelling.
6. Bernard Wolfe Limbo
1952 Masterful tale of a future where men cut off their arms so that they won't make war. Amazing and disturbing book.
7. Alfred Bester The Demolished Man
1953 The first of Bester's masterpieces. Rich guy attempts to get away with murder in a part-telepathic society.
8. Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451
1953 Classic tale of an anti-book society where the Firemen burn literature.
9. Arthur C. Clarke Childhood's End
1953 Alien Overlords arrive and bring order to a troubled world. And the humans Dream, and transcend. One of science fiction's most mystical books.
10. Charles L. Harness The Paradox Men
1953 Superior tale of the paradoxes of time travel. Amazing conceptualization.
11. Ward Moore Bring the Jubilee
1953 One of the best alternative world stories, in which the DSouth has won the Civil War.
12. Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth The Space Merchants
1953 Hilarious tale of when the admen rule the world.
13. Cifford D. Simak Ring Around the Sun
1953 Complex story of the economics of a Universe of many parallel worlds, with a bit of McCarthyism satire thrown in.
14. Theodore Sturgeon More Than Human
1953 Misfits and morons come together telepathically to form a greater whole.
15. Hal Clement Mission of Gravity
1954 Hard sci fi story of Earthers on complexly conceived ovoid Big Planet.
16. Edgar Pangborn A Mirror for Observers
1954 Martians are secretly observing Earth, and messing around. A good vs. evil morality story, almost pretentious in its attempt to come to terms with human nature.
17. Isaac Asimov The End of Eternity
1955 Adventures of time traveling Fixer, who smooths the bumps in human history. Then he falls in love with an agent of Change.
18. Leigh Brackett The Long Tomorrow
1955 Two searchers after technology in a Luddite pastoral world that follows a nuclear catastrophe. A Good Science story.
19. William Golding The Inheritors
1955 A reappraisal of our assumptions, portraying Neanderthal society as rich and humane, until destroyed by the murderous Modern Men.
20. Alfred Bester The Stars My Destination
1956 High adventure following a seeker of Vengeance in a Strange New World.
21. John Christopher The Death of Grass
1956 Published in the US as No Blade of Grass. A virus kills all the grasses in the world and most of its food. A grim story.
22. Arthur C. Clarke The City and the Stars
1956 Expansion of Against the Fall of Night. The last city on Earth cowers in isolation from terrible alien Invaders. An Individual goes forth.
23. Robert Heinlein The Door Into Summer
1957 Cat lover attempts to become rich through canny investment and suspended animation, but his plans go awry. So there is time travel and stuff. Not as politically shrill as a lot of Heinlein is.
24. John Wyndham The Midwich Cuckoos
1957 Aliens inseminate an English village, and the Humans must make some hard moral choices.
25. Brain Aldiss Non-Stop
1957 Published in the US as Starship. The mother of all generation starship stories.
26. James Blish A Case of Conscience
1958 Priest/scientist discovers heresy, and it leads to trouble, and an act of genocide.
27. Robert Heinlein Have Spacesuit-Will Travel
1958 Last of Bob's juvenile titles. Guy wins second hand spacesuit, is taken into flying saucer, and has adventures. Many think Heinlein's juvenile titles are his best work.
28. Philip K. Dick Time Out of Joint
1959 Paranoid tale of a guy who is going about his life until he finds out he is the center of a virtual reality environment for predicting missle trajectories.
29. Pat Frank Alas, Babylon
1959 Morally ambiguous tale of the aftermath of a nuclear war. Holocaust as transcendence.
30. Walter M. Miller A Canticle for Liebowitz
1959 Great classic tale of the monks who preserve Knowledge after the nuclear catastrophe, in a world that may be unredeemable.
31. Kurt Vonnegut The Sirens of Titan
1959 Millionaire spaceman flies into a synclastic infundibulum, and has a series of wacky adventures that cannot be adequately summarized; it must be read.
32. Algis Budrys Rogue Moon
1960 Psychological novel about Earthers investigating a deadly alien maze on the Dark Side of the Moon. One of the first really modern, modern sci fi books.
33. Theodore Sturgeon Venus Plus X
1960 Interesting story of a guy who awakes in a post-sexual Somewhere Else.
34. Brian Aldiss Hothouse
1962 Tale of a far, far future Earth that has stopped rotating and is covered by a giant Tree.
35. J.G. Ballard The Drowned World
1962 Masterpiece of the survivors on a world covered by water.
36. Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange
1962 Classic dystopian future England and the adventures of a vicious gangleader, and how society deals with him, oh my brothers.
37. Philip K. Dick The Man in the High Castle
1962 Inside out world in which the Axis won WWII, and Americans are the oppressed people under the heel of foreigners.
38. Robert Sheckley Journey Beyond Tomorrow
1963 Amusing story of an innocent Polynesian guy thrown into American society and ultimately triggering Armageddon.
39. Clifford D. Simak Way Station
1963 Meditative tale of an aging Wisconsin hermit, and what happens when his farm becomes a galactic way station.
40. Kurt Vonnegut Cat's Cradle
1963 Great story that mocks everything, and about a dangerous substance called ice-nine.
41. Brian Aldiss Greybeard
1964 In a world where a nuclear disaster has rendered everyone sterile and no more children are born, the youngest man left (over 50) makes the last voyage of discovery.
42. William Burroughs Nova Express
1964 The Nova Police take on the Nova Mob, who want to addict the world. Massively brilliant book.
43. Philip K. Dick Martian Time-Slip
1964 A Mars novel in which Man has conquered space but stayed Everyman.
44. Philip K. Dick The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
1963 Druggy nightmare of a story about duelling hallucinogenics and stuff. Very, very weird, and great.
45. Fritz Leiber The Wanderer
1964 A giant artificial planet arrives during a lunar eclipse and causes gravitational disaster, among other things.
46. Cordwainer Smith Norstrilia
1964-8 The Planet Buyer and The Underpeople combined and posthumously revised. Far, far future wherein are the Underpeople and the Lords of the Instrumentality. Complex, complicated, unique, and great.
47. Philip K. Dick Dr. Bloodmoney
1965 World War III happens, but life goes on in Marin County. A Dickian community forms, and two maniacs try to tear it apart.
48. Frank Herbert Dune
1965 A complexly built World, with a vastly interesting beat-all story of a Chosen One. An incredible book.
49. J.G. Ballard The Crystal World
1965 Another of Ballard's "elemental" novels. In this one, the world is turning to Stone. Amazing imagery.
50. Harry Harrison Make Room! Make Room!
1965 A crime story within a horrifying setting of a massively overpopulated New York. Filmed as Soylent Green.
51. Daniel Keyes Flowers for Algernon
1966 A story about intelligence enhancement, and its problems.
52. Roger Zelazny The Dream Master
1966 A doctor has a machine to enter people's dreams, then loses control of the process.
53. John Brunner Stand On Zanzibar
1966 An excellent attempt to portray the future world without fantasy. A very ambitious book.
54. Samuel R. Delany Nova
1968 A richly drawn space opera, featuring one of Delany's ubiquitous Kids.
55. Philip K. Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
1968 Masterful story of Deckard, the bounty hunter tracking down rogue androids. Filmed as Blade Runner.
56. Thomas M. Disch Camp Concentration
1968 In a future world of endless war, secret intelligence enhancing experiments that result in horrible physical side effects.
57. Michael Moorcock The Final Programme
1968 A Jerry Cornelius adventure, with lots of action and Strange Happenings.
58. Keith Roberts Pavane
1968 A fascinating world in which the Catholic Church dominates.
59. Angela Carter Heroes and Villains
1969 A story of a post-nuclear war world and the struggle between civilization and barbarism.
60. Ursula K. Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness
1969 A gender issues tale of an Earthman's journey through a world of hermaphrodites. Giant piece of narrative writing.
61. Bob Shaw The Palace of Eternity
1969 The "poet's world" must go to interstellar war.
62. Norman Spinrad Bug Jack Barron
1969 Hurly-burly tale of a charismatic and powerful media figue and immortality.
63. Poul Anderson Tau Zero
1970 Starship which can't slow down and is approaching the speed of light. Excellent hard sci fi.
64. Robert Silverberg Downward to the Earth
1970 Colonial administrator seeks redemption on pastoral alien planet. Loosely quotes Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
65. Wilson Tucker The Year of the Quiet Sun
1970 Time traveler finds parallels between Biblical apocalyptic manuscript and the end of the United States. Evocative writing.
66. Thomas M. Disch 334
1972 Tour de force storytelling in a nasty future City, technologically advanced but socially bereft.
67. Gene Wolfe The Fifth Head of Cerebrus
1972 Interesting Gothic tale of an exotic space culture, touching on cloning and individuality.
68. Michael Moorcock The Dancers at the End of Time
1972-6 Moorcock's Hero in a far-off furture. Trilogy, comprising An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and The End of All Songs.
69. J.G. Ballard Crash
1973 Amazing story of cars and sex. A masterpiece.
70. Mack Reynolds Looking Backwards, From the Year 2000
1973 Interesting re-doing of Bellamy's 1888 classic Looking Backward.
71. Ian Watson The Embedding
1973 Complex, sometimes anthropological first contact story. Lots of issues.
72. Suzy McKee Charnas Walk to the End of the World
1974 Harrowing feminist parable of gender horror. A very tough book.
73. M. John Harrison The Centauri Device
1974 Satirical but action packed story of a nasty future Earth and the loser Spacemen is carrying alien DNA and dealing with space Anarchists and...
74. Ursula K. Le Guin The Dispossessed
1974 People flee to planet's moon and form Utopian society. In the Hanish universe of The Left Hand of Darkness.
75. Christopher Priest Inverted World
1974 Interesting and complex story of a Place where Time and Distance are, well, confused.
76. J.G. Ballard High Rise
1975 Terrific story of a mega-apartment building whose inhabitants become unglued and get in touch with their inner Savage.
77. Barry N. Malzberg Galaxies
1975 Subversive writers writing about writers writing story, deconstructing sci fi while revelling in its eccentricities.
78. Joanna Russ The Female Man
1975 The masterwork of feminist science fiction, told in a gripping multiplex narrative.
79. Bob Shaw Orbitsville
1975 Spacers discover a Dyson Sphere. Sort of a thinking man's Ringworld.
80. Kingsley Amis The Alteration
1976 Tale of a would-be eunich in a world where the Spanish Armada conquered England. Great alternates history story. (See also Keith Roberts' Pavane)
81. Marge Piercy Woman On the Edge of Time
1976 Woman wrongly committed to a mental hospital is haunted by a ghost of the Utopian Future.
82. Frederik Pohl Man Plus
1976 A grimmer than usual story of cyborgs and the cyborged society, as man and machine merge.
83. Algis Budrys Michaelmas
1976 Very interesting story of machine intelligence and a networked world. Ahead of its time.
84. John Varley The Ophiuchi Hotline
1977 A title of Varley's Eight Worlds series. Mankind in the Solar System and aliens communicating. Many interesting facets.
85. Ian Watson Miracle Visitors
1977 A serious look at UFO culture, with a red Thunderbird that flies to the Moon and Back. More serious than it sounds.
86. John Crowley Engine Summer
1979 An often beautiful story of the world After the Big One, told by an storyteller.
87. Thomas M. Disch On Wings of Song
1979 Coming of Age story in a Balkanized future America.
88. Brian Stableford The Walking Shadow
1979 Time jumpers travel to the End of Time, to a world owned by an gigantic idiot vegatable mass. Grim.
89. Kate Wilhelm Juniper Time
1979 More great feminist sci fi, in an America devastated by Drought, and an alien artifact and the damaged Survivor who is the only one who can translate it.
90. Gregory Benford Timescape
1980 Scientists in the Future (well, the late 90's) try to send a warning message to the Past.
91. Damien Broderick The Dreaming Dragons
1980 Wonderfully arcane story of an Australian aborigine who finds an alien artifact in Ayers Rock.
92. Octavia Butler Wild Seed
1980 Prequel to the Patternist books, covering the rise of the telepathically gifted.
93. Russell Hoban Riddley Walker
1980 Great story of a post-nuclear war barbarized England, as the narratot tells the Story of His Life.
94. John Sladek The Roderick Books
1980-3 Often hilarious tale of the life and times of a robot growing up.
95. Gene Wolfe Book of the New Sun
1980-3 Epic rationalized fantasy of the Dying Earth in the far, far distant future. A visionary work.
96. Philip Jose Farmer The Unreasoning Mask
1981 One of the great books of modern sci fi. A sentient ship and crew steal a line to the infant God. Startling cosmology.
97. Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle Oath of Fealty
1981A less hoakum tale than their usual by these two, in a fascinating arcology society.
98. Michael Bishop No Enemy But Time
1982 Interesting story of a guy who travels back in Time to visit humanity's ancesters.
99. John Calvin Batchelor The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica
1983 Latter day Vikings flee a disentegrating world for the Far South.
100. William Gibson Neuromancer
1984 Either the book that ended sci fi or the book the gave it rebirth. Compelling adventures in the Wired cyberfuture.
http://www.strangewords.com/weirdbooks/scifi100.html
David Pringle's 100 Best Fantasy Novels
Another of David Pringle's Best 100 books, this time taking on the fantasy genre. In addition, Pringle includes some alternate "best of" choices in his introduction, something missing in his previous Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. So, here we go again, with another good basis of a reading list for the Compleat Fantasy Fan of the Modern persuasion.
1. ervyn Peake Titus Groan
1946 Beginning of the Gormenghast trilogy. As important (or more) than Tolkien to modern fantasy.
2. A.E. Van Vogt The Book of Ptath
1947 A Superman and reincarnated God, displaced hundreds of millions of years into the future, battles Evil in a dreamlike tale.
3. Fletcher Pratt The Well of the Unicorn
1948 Modern swords and sorcery revisiting to the world of Lord Dunsany.
4. Jack Williamson Darker Than You Think
1948 The tale of a race of shapeshifters living parallel to human society.
5. Robert Graves Seven Days In New Crete
1949 Fascinating timeslip to a questionable future Utopia. An amazing piece of storytelling.
6. John Myers Myers Silverlock
194 A strange epic of a Guy shipwrecked on a land of myth and legend.
7. L. Sprague De Camp & Fletcher Pratt The Castle of Iron
1950 The often hilarious adventures of Harold Shea, who can travel to other realities, in a hurly burly journey through mythological realms.
8. Robert E. Howard Conan the Barbarian
1950 Crom! The ur-Barbarian that launched a thousand sword and sorcery epics. The first and the best.
9. C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
1950 First book of the Narnia epic, an extended but lightly done Christian parable partaking of a hodge podge of mythological themes.
10. Mervyn Peake Gormenghast
1950 Second book of the Gormenghast trilogy, in which Peake continues his allegorical Dying Britain.
11. Jack Vance The Dying Earth
1950 Vance reset the baseline for the modern fantasy with this tale of Earth at The End of Time.
12. Sarban The Sound of His Horn
1952 A disturbing and masterfully told story of a world after a Nazi victory.
13. Fritz Leiber Conjure Wife
1953 Paranoid tale of female Black magic, with a coven of witchly faculty wives. Scary stuff.
14. Fritz Leiber The Sinful One
1953 Orig. You're All Alone. A truly horrifying story of a Guy who falls out of the machinery of normal life.
15. Poul Anderson The Broken Sword
1954 Full-tilt Norse fantasy of changelings, trolls in the Elfland of Faerie.
16. J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings
1954-5 Perhaps the greatest modern fantasy epic, with its sly digs at industrial society.
17. William Golding Pincher Martin
1956 Vivid story of a Sailor shipwrecked on a rock in the vastness of the Atlantic.
18. Richard Matheson The Shrinking Man
1956 Modern Kafka-esque tale of a Guy shrunken by radioactivity (forget the movie, read the book!).
19. Ray Bradbury Dandelion Wine
1957 Collection of linked short stories partaking of the lore of the American Volk.
20. T.H. White The Once and Future King
1958 Four book collection, a humorous retelling of Arthur and Avalon.
21. Robert Heinlein The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag
1959 Husband and wife detectives are drawn into a looking glass world of delusion and dream.
22. Shirley Jackson The Haunting of Hill House
1959 Possibly the scariest ghost story ever penned, of a Group spending a night in a haunted house. Keen psychological insights.
23. Mervyn Peake Titus Alone
1959 Final book of the Gormenghast trilogy, in which Titus emerges into a modern world.
24. Peter S. Beagle A Fine and Private Place
1960 Druggists hangs out by a cemetary (the grave is the "fine and private place"), communing with the ghosts.
25. Poul Anderson Three Hearts and Three Lions
1961 Modern man is cast into a Carolingian Other World, and contends with the forces of Faerie.
26. John D. MacDonald The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything
1962 Roving philanthropist with secret Banker finds trouble. Funny stuff.
27. Robert Heinlein Glory Road
1963 Ex-soldier becomes obsessed with woman on nude beach, which leads to adventure.
28. Andre Norton Witch World
1963 First book of popular series. 20th century man is cast back in time; swashbuckling with early feminist slant.
29. John Fowles The Magus
1965 Rite of passage with a Jungian perspective.
30. Michael Moorcock Stormbringer
1965 First novel of Elric, albino warrior with a half-sentient sword.
31. Thomas Pynchon The Crying of Lot 49
1966 Incredible and literate conspiracy story of the Secret Postal Service.
32. Thomas Burnett Swann Day of the Minotaur
1966 Fantasy taking place in ancient Crete, with lots of Greek mythology.
33. Jack Vance The Eyes of the Overworld
1966 Sequel to The Dying Earth. The Trickster at the end of time.
34. Alan Garner The Owl Service
1962 The supernatural is let slip in Wales, and three people re-enact the Mabinogian. Masterful fantasy.
35. Ira Levin Rosemary's Baby
1967 The Devil spawns a son among the affluent of New York City.
36. Flann O'Brien The Third Policeman
1967 A killer is killed by his accomplice, and is cast into the Afterlife. Creepy.
37. Andrew Sinclair Gog
1967 Amazing fantasy tour of mythological England, set at the end of WWII.
38. Peter S. Beagle The Last Unicorn
1968 A UNicorn quests after her kind, in a fallen, post-Magical world.
39. Ursula Le Guin A Wizard of Earthsea
1968 Adventures of a young wizard in an archipelago world.
40. Fritz Leiber The Swords of Lankhmar
1968 The essential modern swords and sorcery, with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
41. James Blish Black Easter and The Day After Judgement
1968, 1971 Great Black magic books, with the Art as a technololgy.
42. Kingsley Amis The Green Man
1969 Excellent horror story set in a Fawlty Towers millieu.
43. Avram Davidson The Phoenix and the Mirror
1969 The story of Vergil the sorcerer, and a story of constructing a magic mirror.
44. Philip Jose Farmer A Feast Unknown
1969 Tour de force recursion of Tarzan and Doc Savage, as borderline pornography. Unique.
45. R.A. Lafferty Fourth Mansions
1969 Weird Catholic allegory of transformation and general strangeness.
46. Joy Chant Red Moon and Black Mountain
1970 Children are whisked away to a fantasy land in the midst of a battle between good and evil.
47. Jack Finney Time and Again
1970 Excellent time travel romance, exploring time travel without instrumentality.
48. John Gardner Grendel
1971 The tale of Beowulf, told from the standpoit of the monster. Excellent fantasy/tragedy.
49. Doris Lessing Briefing For A Descent Into Hell
1971 The story of the fantasies of a man hospitalized for delusionary behaviour. Perhaps Lessing's best work.
50. Roger Zelazny Jack of Shadows
1971 Jack the Hero quests on a world that has ceased to rotate.
51. Richard Adams Watership Down 1972 Interesting fantasy of life in a rabbit culture.
52. Angela Carter The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr, Hoffman
1972 The War of Dreams, wherein a civil servant seeks to cure a city of a plague of dreams.
53. Michael Frayn Sweet Dreams
1973 Guy dies and goes to a middle-class British Heaven.
54. Patricia McKillip The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
1974 The tale of an ice maiden with an enchanted menagerie, with romance and politics.
55. Stephen King 'Salems's Lot
1975King's second book, in which he explores the Dracula material.
56. Brian Moore The Great Victorian Collection
1975 An interesting fable about the emergence of the miraculous into the mundane world.
57. Salman Rushdie Grimus
1975 Rushdie's first novel, the story of an immortal American Indian searching for his stolen love/sister.
58. Gene Wolfe Peace
1975 Magnificent oral Book of rthe Dead, told by a Midwestern ghost.
59. Brian Aldiss The Malacia Tapestry
1976 An entropic tale of the Artist as cultural agent in a fabilistic Land.
60. Gordon Dickson The Dragon and the George
1976 Collegian is thrown into the past and transformed into a Dragon. Important in the genesis of the modern "fun" fantasy, a la Piers Anthony's Xanth.
61. Emma Tenannt Hotel de Dream
1976 Residents of a strange Hotel dream of their own shabby Perfect Worlds.
62. Angela Carter The Passion of New Eve
1977 Erotically Gothic tale of a wierd, stereotyped Bad America.
63. Stephen R. Donaldson The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever
1977 Angst-ish leper Hero battles corruption and evil in a Tolkienesque trilogy.
64. Stephen King The Shining
1977 Tour de force story of a writer's descent into madness in a haunted hotel.
65. William Kotzwinkle Fata Morgana
1977 Policeman pursues a magician who may be Count Cagliostro in a mock-nineteenth century tale of mystery and Magic.
66. Fritz Leiber Our Lady of Darkness
1977 Great story of modern ghosts of a technological society who haunt a City (San Francisco).
67. Michael Moorcock Gloriana
1978 Complex tale of a Queen living in a Gormaghast-like House in an alternative ancient London.
68. J.G. Ballard The Unlimited Dream Company
1979 An urban fantasy tale of magical transfrmation and a Dying God.
69. Phyllis Eisenstein Sorcerer's Son
1979 A sorceress with power over things Woven is seduced and impregnated by a Demon, and the questing of the resultant Son.
70. Jonathan Carroll The Land of Laughs
1980 Couple researching an author find his mometown may be the creation of his fantasies.
71. Suzy McKee Charnas The Vampire Tapestry
1980 Spohisticated, interesting story of an intellectual and altogether Human vampire.
72. M. John Harrison A Storm of Wings
1980 Middle book of the Viriconium trilogy, a masterful and stylish Dying Earth fantasy.
73. Rudy Rucker White Light
1980 Mathematician experimenting with lucid dreaming finds he can't get back to his body, and travels through a supernatural Afterlife.
74. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Ariosto
1980 Historical romance/fantasy of an alternative Renaissance, in parallel fantasy and reality arcs.
75. William S. Burroughs Cities of the Red Night
1981 Parabilistic tale of ancient cities intertwined with stories of pirates, Utopias, detectives, and drugs.
76. John Crowley Little, Big
1981 Complex and well-told pastoral urban fantasy of Fairyland.
77. Alasdair Gray Lanark: A Life in Four Books
1981 Epic fantastic "spiritual autobiography" and mock encyclopedia of fantasy literature.
78. Michael Moorcock The War Hound and the World's Pain
1981 Quest for the Grail by Moorcock's Eternal Campion von Bek during the Thirty Years War. Tied to the later The Brothel in Rosenstrasse and The City in the Autumn Stars.
79. Michael Shea Nifft the Lean
1982 Vanceian sendup of heroic fantasy. A Hero travels to and from a grotesquely realized Hell (at one time in a handcart).
80. Mark Helprin Winter's Tale
1983 Apocalyptic capitalist fantasy of an alternatived weird New York.
81. K.W. Jeter Soul Eater
1983 A comatose woman reaches out with her mind to demonically possess people, perhaps a Parable for parental selfishness.
82. R.A. MacAvoy Tea With the Black Dragon
1983 Woman searching for her daughter meets a wise Man who claims to have started out as a Chinese dragon.
83. Brian Moore Cold Heaven
1983 Strange ghost story of a woman's battle with the inexplicable.
84. Tim Powers The Anubis Gates
1983 Truly great time travel thriller involving Coleridges London, ancient Egypt, and Souther California.
85. Michael Bishop Who Made Stevie Crye?
1984 Single mother encounters weird typewriter repairman and horror follows.
86. James Blaylock The Digging Leviathan
1984 California male obsessives struggle to reach the subterranean World underneath the world.
87. Angela Carter Nights At the Circus
1984 Winged circus Heroine tells the story of her life and leads herr biographer to follow her to the ends of the Earth at the turn of the twentieth century. Feminist parable.
88. Thomas M. Disch The Businessman
1984 Demonic misogamist (and fan of john Norman's Gor books!) is haunted by his wife's ghost.
89. Robert Holdstock Mythago Wood
1984 Fantastical pocket Universe in an ancient patch of magical forest where Time and Space are distorted.
90. Christopher Priest The Glamour
1984 Guy's girlfriend's ex-boyfriend is part of an Underground who can make themselves Invisible.
91. John Updike The Witches of Eastwick
1984 Three Sybils in modern New England take on the Devil.
92. Peter Ackroyd Hawksmoor
1985 Assistant to Sir Christopher Wren (based on the architect Nicholas Hawsmoor) melds his Satanist beliefs into the design of London churches, tied into a modern murder case involving an Inspector Hawksmoor and a 300 year old doppelganger.
93. Lisa Goldstein The Dream Years
1985 Timeslip romance that links up the Paris Dadaists of the 1920's with the revolutionary Paris of 1968.
94. Guy Gavriel Kay The Fionavar Tapestry
1985-7 Mythological tale of Canadian collegians whisked away to a fantasy World where they have herioc fantasy stuff happen. Comprises The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road.
95. Iain Banks The Bridge
1986 Guy has car wreck on Forth bridge in Scotland and awakes in a Strange Bridge World.
96. Ramsey Campbell The Hungry Moon
1986 Fanatic fundamentalist preacher attempts to challenge pagan practices, and horror happens.
97. Ken Grimwood Replay
1986 A modern reincarnation tale in which a Guy keeps dying in 1988 and being reborn in 1963, with his memory intact and ready to change history.
98. Geoff Ryman The Unconquered Country
1986 A magical realist allegory of the tragic recent history of Cambodia.
99. J.G. Ballard The Day of Creation
1987 A twisted Heart of Darkness, as a WHO employee in a somehow different Africa seeks the source of a mysterious Rive.
100. John Crowley Aegypt
1987 A novel of Secret History, and the place of Hidden Knowledge in human existence.