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Favourite Sci-Fi / Fantasy Books of all time... What's yours?

Lizards of Renown
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Lizards of Renown

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There are a lot of discussions on various subjects, but I don't see one on favourite books!

So I'll kick off:

My favourite books of all time are:

- Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time
- Orson Scott Card's Enders Game
- Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles
- L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth and Final Blackout
- Anything with Druss in it from David Gemmell

Honorable mentions to the Elenium and Tamuli which I really enjoyed as a kid, but have re-read recently and they're not that great. Also the Shannara series but they are SERIOUSLY dark.

I may add some once I've had a bit more of a think about it.

But, for now...

DISCUSS! What are your favourite books?

(P.S. I will freely admit that i'm also looking for some good reading material so this thread has an alterior motive... ;))
 
Lizards of Renown said:
Also the Shannara series but they are SERIOUSLY dark
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I have read ar least 12 of the books, I liked them really much. I dig fantasy world books.
I do not particulairy recall it being extreemly dark, it had some grim parts but overall a good story.

Sadly I don't have a lot of Time lately to read.
At the 'moment' I am reading a novel about the burning of Rome for over a year:oops::oops:

I will dig into the titels I read to make some list sometime soon ;)

Grrr, Imrahil
 
Scalenex said:
I like Artemis Fowl and the related series, but the first was the best.

I like every mythology based thing Rick Riordian has written.
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I LOVED the first AF book. I read the second and third and then fell out of it.

You mean the guy who wrote Percy Jackson? Maybe I'll take another look at that stuff.
 
Lizards of Renown said:
I LOVED the first AF book. I read the second and third and then fell out of it.
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I read all eight. I will admit each book was slightly less good than the last. I don't think the 8th book was bad I just think it was less good.

Lizards of Renown said:
You mean the guy who wrote Percy Jackson? Maybe I'll take another look at that stuff.
Click to expand...

The movies are crap. Well the first ten minutes of the first movie are awesome. I really liked watching Poseidon rise out a tidal storm in his full glory and gradually morph into a mortal man then watching him have a heated argument with Zeus. But then the movie studio ran out of their special effects budget and the director told the actors not to push themselves too hard.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is the series that made Riordian famous. It's five books.


The Kane Chronicles features a brother and sister team and alternating narrators. It's a three book series. It's almost as good as the Percy Jackson series. It features Ancient Egyptian mythology. The characters are not demigods, the characters are distant descendants of pharaohs and they are rookie wizards much like Harry Potter. Unlike Harry Potter, when the child wizards have adult wizards chasing after them, the child wizards usually have to run away barring unusual circumstances.

I really like the brother and sister dynamic. Within the mythos of this world, every wizard has a specialty (that they don't get to choose, they are born with). Within that wizard's specialty they can do magic much easier and more intuitively. Wizards can and do learn tricks outside their specialty but it's much harder. Within their specialty a child wizard can go toe-to-toe against and adult wizard with the wrong specialty for the situation. That's a handy plot device, but I like how Riordian builds sibling dynamics around. If the Kane siblings were in a buddy cop movie, Carter Kane is the by the book character that likes to plan things and be methodical. Sadie Kane is the loose cannon that prefers flying by the seat of her pants. Carter's specialty is combat magic and Sadie's specialty is runes and writings. That means the two characters are forced to learn to act like the other sibling to use their powers at their best.


The Heroes of Olympus series is a five book sequel to the Percy Jackson series expanding on the mythos with new characters and lore. It's my favorite. I can reread this over and over.


Magnus Chase is a three book series focusing on Norse mythology. I still enjoyed it, but I thought it was the weakest series in the lot. Rick Riordan can and does write about serious things, but his bread and butter is light hearted stuff. Norse mythology is a fair bit darker than Greek and Egyptian making this a bit of an awkward fit.


His latest series is the Trials of Apollo featuring the god Apollo, trapped in mortal form. It's a five book series. The fifth book is coming out in late September. I enjoyed the first four books. I will admit this might be the weakest series Riordian has created. Again, I don't it's bad, I think it's less good than the others. It does tie into all the other books and I enjoy seeing cameos from my favorite characters.

Also, Apollo starts out really annoying but he's gradually becoming less so. It's just his character growth is so slow.

Lately, Riordian has made a lot of off-hand references to Aztec gods and the Heroes of Olympus stories has a Greek demigod that is half-Cherokee and draws a lot of parallels between Greek mythology and Cherokee stories. I'd be intrigued to see what Riordan's take on Native American mythology would be.
 
Scalenex said:
I read all eight. I will admit each book was slightly less good than the last. I don't think the 8th book was bad I just think it was less good.



The movies are crap. Well the first ten minutes of the first movie are awesome. I really liked watching Poseidon rise out a tidal storm in his full glory and gradually morph into a mortal man then watching him have a heated argument with Zeus. But then the movie studio ran out of their special effects budget and the director told the actors not to push themselves too hard.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is the series that made Riordian famous. It's five books.


The Kane Chronicles features a brother and sister team and alternating narrators. It's a three book series. It's almost as good as the Percy Jackson series. It features Ancient Egyptian mythology. The characters are not demigods, the characters are distant descendants of pharaohs and they are rookie wizards much like Harry Potter. Unlike Harry Potter, when the child wizards have adult wizards chasing after them, the child wizards usually have to run away barring unusual circumstances.

I really like the brother and sister dynamic. Within the mythos of this world, every wizard has a specialty (that they don't get to choose, they are born with). Within that wizard's specialty they can do magic much easier and more intuitively. Wizards can and do learn tricks outside their specialty but it's much harder. Within their specialty a child wizard can go toe-to-toe against and adult wizard with the wrong specialty for the situation. That's a handy plot device, but I like how Riordian builds sibling dynamics around. If the Kane siblings were in a buddy cop movie, Carter Kane is the by the book character that likes to plan things and be methodical. Sadie Kane is the loose cannon that prefers flying by the seat of her pants. Carter's specialty is combat magic and Sadie's specialty is runes and writings. That means the two characters are forced to learn to act like the other sibling to use their powers at their best.


The Heroes of Olympus series is a five book sequel to the Percy Jackson series expanding on the mythos with new characters and lore. It's my favorite. I can reread this over and over.


Magnus Chase is a three book series focusing on Norse mythology. I still enjoyed it, but I thought it was the weakest series in the lot. Rick Riordan can and does write about serious things, but his bread and butter is light hearted stuff. Norse mythology is a fair bit darker than Greek and Egyptian making this a bit of an awkward fit.


His latest series is the Trials of Apollo featuring the god Apollo, trapped in mortal form. It's a five book series. The fifth book is coming out in late September. I enjoyed the first four books. I will admit this might be the weakest series Riordian has created. Again, I don't it's bad, I think it's less good than the others. It does tie into all the other books and I enjoy seeing cameos from my favorite characters.

Also, Apollo starts out really annoying but he's gradually becoming less so. It's just his character growth is so slow.

Lately, Riordian has made a lot of off-hand references to Aztec gods and the Heroes of Olympus stories has a Greek demigod that is half-Cherokee and draws a lot of parallels between Greek mythology and Cherokee stories. I'd be intrigued to see what Riordan's take on Native American mythology would be.
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That's a bunch of titels I have to check out, when i have the time ;)

I watched Percy Jackson and I liked the mythology aspect of it the story-line wasn't great, but I'll give the books a try.

Grrr, Imrahil
 
Imrahil said:
That's a bunch of titels I have to check out, when i have the time ;)

I watched Percy Jackson and I liked the mythology aspect of it the story-line wasn't great, but I'll give the books a try.

Grrr, Imrahil
Click to expand...

I heard about the movie and was thrilled as I grew up reading Greek Myths and Gods and for some reason this really appealed to me, so when the movie seemed to be a homage to them I was very excited.

Movie was a bit of a let-down. Shame really as the main character actor did a great job in The Maze Runner and Alexandra Dadario is a pretty good actress too, so must have been the directing...

Either way, I should have realized that the books would be worth a look, so will check those out as a next read. Thanks @Scalenex

Oh, to add to my list of favourite books (I am a bit of a book worm), I would also put on there Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Saga which I am eagerly awaiting Book 4 of.
 
I've got a very soft spot for many classic authors, plus something newer.
without thinking too much on it

Fantasy:

all Conan by Howard
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (Fritz Leiber)
the misplaced legion series by Turtledove
the OT of A Song of Ice and Fire
Percy Jackson and the Olympians



FS

R. Zelazny! Francis Sandow series (Isle of the dead, to die in Italbar), plus all the mythological books (Lord of light, Creatures of light and darkness, ...and call me conrad),
Jack Vance (the Demon Princes)
Starship troopers, Moon is a harsh mistress (R. Henlein)
C. Hintz - the Paratwa trilogy
you can't go wrong with the Robot series by Asimov, neither with the OT of the Foundation
 
Killer Angel said:
I've got a very soft spot for many classic authors, plus something newer.
without thinking too much on it

Fantasy:

all Conan by Howard
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (Fritz Leiber)
the misplaced legion series by Turtledove
the OT of A Song of Ice and Fire
Percy Jackson and the Olympians



FS

R. Zelazny! Francis Sandow series (Isle of the dead, to die in Italbar), plus all the mythological books (Lord of light, Creatures of light and darkness, ...and call me conrad),
Jack Vance (the Demon Princes)
Starship troopers, Moon is a harsh mistress (R. Henlein)
C. Hintz - the Paratwa trilogy
you can't go wrong with the Robot series by Asimov, neither with the OT of the Foundation
Click to expand...

Some great books there.

I loved Heinlein's Starship Troopers which for anyone who saw the movie it is NOTHING LIKE IT AT ALL! (Sheesh, what a butchered manuscript).

I'll be sure to put those others on my list of books to check out :)
 
Wow, I’m surprised someone only thought of this now, indeed I’m surprised I didn’t think of it being an avid book reader. Thanks @Lizards of Renown mate! :)

Favourite fantasy series:
  • The Edge Chronicles series (Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell) - a very unique series that is beautifully illustrated by the latter, this series is set on a peninsula that sticks out over a cliff, and the floating spherical rock chained to it. It’s a universe where rocks fly, ships that use them as power have battles in the sky and all manner of weird versions of known fantasy creatures exist.
  • Harry Potter series (seeing as I’m of that generation :D)
  • Redwall series (Brian Jacques) - a real fantasy classic, I was first introduced to this by the animated film and the series it was made from, which is faithful to the first book, but the others I’ve read (Martin the Warrior and The Pearls of Lutra) are great too. I don’t think I’ve read all the ones I have yet, must read some more of them at some point
  • The Five Realms series (Kieran Larwood) - a 21st Century Redwall, this series is nevertheless great in its own right. This is the first series I’ve ever read that has a heavy basis in Celtic civilisation, with the rabbit protagonists living in burrow kingdoms with tribal chieftains and bards, with all of these rabbit-tribes under threat from the Gorm, pretty much rabbit Chaos Warriors.
  • Middle Earth series
  • Goblins series (Phillip Reeve) - a novel take on fantasy that portrays Goblins as neutral good or Chaotic good guys rather than bad guys, alongside humans of varying alignments, Dwarves (who are curiously portrayed as being less benign than the Goblins) a prince who is genuinely hopeless in a fight and a princess who is about fifty-odd from waiting to be rescued for so long. A fun and well-written series.
  • How to Train your Dragon series (Cressida Cowell) - this series shot to fame through the films, but like the Percy Jackson films these are really toned-down and simplified versions of the books. The How to Train Your Dragon series is a beautiful example of how characters can be interlinked between each other through fate, and turns from being quite light-hearted to pretty grimdark about midway through.
  • Mortal Gods series (Francesca Simon) - this author is more famous for her books for young children, but this little-known series she has written really makes me smile sometimes as a Pagan. It is set in an alternative England where Christianity died out about 1500 years ago and the population continued to practice Teutonic Paganism. Familiar landmarks are still there, like the British Museum, and familiar scenarios still occur (Henry VIII creating the Fane of England to divorce his first wife) but the culture of the land is more heavily-rooted in the culture of the Saxons and Vikings even in the 21st Century. In some ways it parallels Percy Jackson, but in other ways it’s different as Freya, the protagonist, is just an ordinary person rather than a demigod or wizard, yet she has to cope with similar trials to those that Percy Jackson faces, from enchanted Lewis Chessmen to Giants on the rampage and the Norse Gods trying to get into celeb culture.
  • Percy Jackson series - I liked the Percy Jackson series a lot, and I’ve read the first two Heroes of Olympus novels and have the first Kane Chronicles novel, The Red Pyramid but haven’t got round to reading that one or any of the others, because Riordan just keeps on writing and writing and I’m having trouble keeping up. I haven’t even bothered reading Magnus Chase because that seems to be a Norse version of Percy Jackson and I prefer the Mortal Gods series for Norse myth, or Trials of Apollo.
I haven’t read so much sci-if as fantasy yet, but I still have loads of books I haven’t read yet. Probably my fave sci-fi works at the moment are The War of the Worlds and the sequel approved by the H.G. Wells estate, The Massacre of Mankind. I love the original novel and the Jeff Wayne version, and Stephen Baxter’s sequel ties both in beautifully while also giving the Martians the ability to adapt their tactics and launch an invasion MK II that once again knocks humanity for six (and this time they’re immune to the bacteria that killed them in the first one :android:). The 1953 film was OK in places but in the wrong time and place, the 2005 film was just plain hideous and the recent BBC series was the right time and place but not long enough and messed with the story because the BBC have become a left-wing mouthpiece (and I imagine the BBC rushed it in order to get onto making that stupid His Dark Materials series that was shown about the same time period :mad::bored:)
 
Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl said:
Wow, I’m surprised someone only thought of this now, indeed I’m surprised I didn’t think of it being an avid book reader. Thanks @Lizards of Renown mate! :)

Favourite fantasy series:
  • The Edge Chronicles series (Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell) - a very unique series that is beautifully illustrated by the latter, this series is set on a peninsula that sticks out over a cliff, and the floating spherical rock chained to it. It’s a universe where rocks fly, ships that use them as power have battles in the sky and all manner of weird versions of known fantasy creatures exist.
  • Harry Potter series (seeing as I’m of that generation :D)
  • Redwall series (Brian Jacques) - a real fantasy classic, I was first introduced to this by the animated film and the series it was made from, which is faithful to the first book, but the others I’ve read (Martin the Warrior and The Pearls of Lutra) are great too. I don’t think I’ve read all the ones I have yet, must read some more of them at some point
  • The Five Realms series (Kieran Larwood) - a 21st Century Redwall, this series is nevertheless great in its own right. This is the first series I’ve ever read that has a heavy basis in Celtic civilisation, with the rabbit protagonists living in burrow kingdoms with tribal chieftains and bards, with all of these rabbit-tribes under threat from the Gorm, pretty much rabbit Chaos Warriors.
  • Middle Earth series
  • Goblins series (Phillip Reeve) - a novel take on fantasy that portrays Goblins as neutral good or Chaotic good guys rather than bad guys, alongside humans of varying alignments, Dwarves (who are curiously portrayed as being less benign than the Goblins) a prince who is genuinely hopeless in a fight and a princess who is about fifty-odd from waiting to be rescued for so long. A fun and well-written series.
  • How to Train your Dragon series (Cressida Cowell) - this series shot to fame through the films, but like the Percy Jackson films these are really toned-down and simplified versions of the books. The How to Train Your Dragon series is a beautiful example of how characters can be interlinked between each other through fate, and turns from being quite light-hearted to pretty grimdark about midway through.
  • Mortal Gods series (Francesca Simon) - this author is more famous for her books for young children, but this little-known series she has written really makes me smile sometimes as a Pagan. It is set in an alternative England where Christianity died out about 1500 years ago and the population continued to practice Teutonic Paganism. Familiar landmarks are still there, like the British Museum, and familiar scenarios still occur (Henry VIII creating the Fane of England to divorce his first wife) but the culture of the land is more heavily-rooted in the culture of the Saxons and Vikings even in the 21st Century. In some ways it parallels Percy Jackson, but in other ways it’s different as Freya, the protagonist, is just an ordinary person rather than a demigod or wizard, yet she has to cope with similar trials to those that Percy Jackson faces, from enchanted Lewis Chessmen to Giants on the rampage and the Norse Gods trying to get into celeb culture.
  • Percy Jackson series - I liked the Percy Jackson series a lot, and I’ve read the first two Heroes of Olympus novels and have the first Kane Chronicles novel, The Red Pyramid but haven’t got round to reading that one or any of the others, because Riordan just keeps on writing and writing and I’m having trouble keeping up. I haven’t even bothered reading Magnus Chase because that seems to be a Norse version of Percy Jackson and I prefer the Mortal Gods series for Norse myth, or Trials of Apollo.
I haven’t read so much sci-if as fantasy yet, but I still have loads of books I haven’t read yet. Probably my fave sci-fi works at the moment are The War of the Worlds and the sequel approved by the H.G. Wells estate, The Massacre of Mankind. I love the original novel and the Jeff Wayne version, and Stephen Baxter’s sequel ties both in beautifully while also giving the Martians the ability to adapt their tactics and launch an invasion MK II that once again knocks humanity for six (and this time they’re immune to the bacteria that killed them in the first one :android:). The 1953 film was OK in places but in the wrong time and place, the 2005 film was just plain hideous and the recent BBC series was the right time and place but not long enough and messed with the story because the BBC have become a left-wing mouthpiece (and I imagine the BBC rushed it in order to get onto making that stupid His Dark Materials series that was shown about the same time period :mad::bored:)
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:D Glad you like the idea!

I like the sound of the Edge series, must remember to check that out.

Harry Potter almost made it onto my list. I really liked all the books.

I read Redwall years ago. Still love the idea of a Battle Badger ;)

And another with praise for Percy Jackson... I better get started on the series!
 
Oooh this thread piqued my interest. I really enjoy the book series Dragonlance, it's an older fantasy series but it's amazing. I also love Lord of the Rings (of course). I've read some forgotten realms, also loved a series by Raymond E Feist called the Riftwar saga, about a young magician it's really good.
 
The following books are part of my list. In no particulair order:

- The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I started in The Silmarillion but lacked the will to stumble through the first couple of chapters so gave up on that.
- the series 'De Roodburcht', 'Het Zuidland' and 'Het Moswoud' I read as a child, probebly my first fantasy books. I only recently found out that these are the Dutch translations of the Redwall series :oops:
- during my study I read about two-third of the Shannara series. Still very fond of the Stories, maybe I'll re-read them sometime(what I rearely do with books)
- my little brother was into The Ranger's Apprentice when the Dutch versions came out, so after him I read all of those. The last 2 of the serie where harder to get through but overall a nice serie set in fictional medieval scene.

That is it for now. I'll think about all other books I read and which fit the theme ;)

Grrr, Imrahil
 
- +1 for Hobbit/Lord of the Rings
- Gotrek & Felix series by William King - I guess most people here will know it, but still worth mentioning imho
- the same goes for Eisenhorn & Ravenor trilogies and the Gaunts Ghosts series by Dan Abnett, pretty much the best 40k there is, especially the two trilogies, people not into military sci-fi might not get full mileage out of the Gaunts Ghosts series
- the old Star Wars stuff is pretty good, Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn, X-Wing series by Michael Stackpole
- classic Battletech novels are always a good choice, same goes for Shadowrun

Regarding something newer, THE EXPANSE series by James S.A. Corey gets my absolute top vote. Near-future, hard sci-fi is a nice change of pace to what I normally read (lots of 40k in the last few years). The TV series (started on SyFy, now on Amazon) is brilliant as well, and criminally underrated. The best sci-fi series since Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine, with the best VFX of any space series ever. Rise up, Beltalowda!
 
Acehilator said:
- +1 for Hobbit/Lord of the Rings
- Gotrek & Felix series by William King - I guess most people here will know it, but still worth mentioning imho
- the same goes for Eisenhorn & Ravenor trilogies and the Gaunts Ghosts series by Dan Abnett, pretty much the best 40k there is, especially the two trilogies, people not into military sci-fi might not get full mileage out of the Gaunts Ghosts series
- the old Star Wars stuff is pretty good, Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn, X-Wing series by Michael Stackpole
- classic Battletech novels are always a good choice, same goes for Shadowrun

Regarding something newer, THE EXPANSE series by James S.A. Corey gets my absolute top vote. Near-future, hard sci-fi is a nice change of pace to what I normally read (lots of 40k in the last few years). The TV series (started on SyFy, now on Amazon) is brilliant as well, and criminally underrated. The best sci-fi series since Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine, with the best VFX of any space series ever. Rise up, Beltalowda!
Click to expand...

I loved all of the Gotrek and Felix books. Good reading.

Mental note to self: check out The Expanse.
 
Erta Wanderer said:
the books not the show it's not as good
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That's heresy of the highest order, my man :p

On topic, what I forgot to mention was Andrzej Sapkowski - Witcher series. Most people have probably heard of the Witcher 3 computer game, but the novels are really good too. The first book is a collection of short stories (which I am normally not a fan of), but it gives great insight into the character and the world. The rest form a pretty epic story arc. Also worth mentioning the new TV series with Henry Cavill as Geralt, on Netflix. The TV series is probably the weakest of the three entries across those three mediums, but still good entertainment. The game is required material for everybody with access to a gaming PC or console, though. One of the best games of this generation, period.
 
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