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Science Fiction and Fantasy Must Reads

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3,758 books · 4,792 voters · list created August 3rd, 2009 by Assirahc (votes) .
8 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Assirahc 715 books
93 friends
Renee (Reneem1) 740 books
84 friends
Holly 3730 books
11 friends
Belinda 823 books
30 friends
Deb 386 books
105 friends
Kat 28 books
0 friends
Tessa 1507 books
144 friends
Eileen 545 books
11 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-43 of 43 (43 new)

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message 1: by Michaelbrent (new)

Michaelbrent Collings For consideration on this list:

Billy: Messenger of Powers by Michaelbrent Collings (check it out at www.whoisbillyjones.com)


message 2: by Emily (new)

Emily  O Why are The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns on here? There are neither Science Fiction nor Fantasy. Can someone remove them?


message 3: by Emily (new)

Emily  O I also hate when people put Science Fiction and Fantasy together. They are clearly very different things.


message 4: by Doctruthyness (new)

Doctruthyness Dude, your book is not a 'must read.' It's not even a 'maybe read.'


message 5: by Victoria (new)

Victoria Wish I could have retracted my vote (for a single Pullman vs the series).

Roger Zelazny, the Amber Chronicles The Great Book of Amber
Isaac Asimov, the Foundation seriesThe Foundation Trilogy


message 6: by Victoria (new)

Victoria Emily wrote: "Why are The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns on here? There are neither Science Fiction nor Fantasy. Can someone remove them?"

Thoroughly agree!


message 7: by Victoria (last edited Jul 14, 2010 11:49AM) (new)

Victoria Oh, well if vampires are included then one must read Anne Rice, who popularized the romance and sensuality of vampires:

The Vampire Chronicles Interview With the Vampire; The Vampire Lestat; The Queen of the Damned


message 8: by Victoria (new)

Victoria Doctruthyness wrote: "Dude, your book is not a 'must read.' It's not even a 'maybe read.'"

Just wondering who "Dude, your book" is!


message 9: by Angel (last edited Nov 02, 2010 08:54PM) (new)

Angel And could someone remove the duplicate editions? I don't think we need to list titles like Brave New World more than once. And yes, why are books like The Kite Runner on this list, which clearly are not science fiction nor fantasy?


message 10: by Sue (new)

Sue How is Midnight Sun number 33?

It's not a book, it is, at best, an unfinished manuscript available on the internet that will probably never be published.


message 11: by Ruby (new)

Ruby Hollyberry There are a great many books on this list that do not qualify as great or even good, they are merely new. Apparently a lot of people haven't read anything that was published before they entered high school.


message 12: by 4l3x (last edited Aug 24, 2012 03:55AM) (new)

4l3x The Hunger Games before Dune? This list lost all it's credibility


message 13: by [deleted user] (new)

4l3x wrote: "The Hunger Games before Dune? This list lost all it's credibility"

the hunger games is much better


message 14: by 4l3x (new)

4l3x Monique wrote: "4l3x wrote: "The Hunger Games before Dune? This list lost all it's credibility"

the hunger games is much better"


oh please... Have you even read Dune?


message 15: by [deleted user] (new)

4l3x wrote: "Monique wrote: "4l3x wrote: "The Hunger Games before Dune? This list lost all it's credibility"

the hunger games is much better"

oh please... Have you even read Dune?"


have you even read the hunger games?


message 16: by [deleted user] (new)

Monique wrote: "4l3x wrote: "Monique wrote: "4l3x wrote: "The Hunger Games before Dune? This list lost all it's credibility"

the hunger games is much better"

oh please... Have you even read Dune?"

have you even..."


and yes i have read it


message 17: by Ruby (new)

Ruby Hollyberry Somebody's eatin' the crazy pills! The Hunger Games is young adult!! There's no way it could compare to the universe & history in the Dune series. Get a perspective.


message 18: by 4l3x (last edited Sep 05, 2012 06:54AM) (new)

4l3x Monique wrote:
oh please... Have you even read Dune?"

have you even read the hunger games? "


I have. The whole series. (as you can see in my read books ;D) And while I enjoyed it in some extent (I find Katniss incredibly annoying and clueless) there is no way it should be before Dune in any list

Ruby wrote: "There's no way it could compare to the universe & history in the Dune series. Get a perspective. "
I see there is still hope out there


message 19: by Scribble (new)

Scribble Orca 4l3x wrote: "The Hunger Games before Dune? This list lost all it's credibility"

LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE

and

+1


message 20: by Karina (new)

Karina Delcourt Emily wrote: "I also hate when people put Science Fiction and Fantasy together. They are clearly very different things. "

YES! 1000X YES!


message 21: by [deleted user] (new)

science fiction and fantasy can be good together


message 22: by Ruby (new)

Ruby Hollyberry I agree. I love it when they are mixed in the same world! Or when the story seems like one and turns out to be the other.


message 23: by [deleted user] (last edited Sep 12, 2012 04:57AM) (new)

i like fantasy and science fition i loved footprints of thunder and thunder of time there fantasy and science fiction


message 24: by Nessarose (new)

Nessarose It feels as though books that are part of series are really clogging the list up. Someone who's read a single series from start to finish will feel like they're a big man on campus after reading this list.


message 26: by Jonathan (new)

Jonathan Science fiction AND fantasy in one list? Oh brother... Why don't you just mix children books with zombie books next for all the sense it makes? YAUGRL--yet another useless goodreads list.


message 27: by Wolfgarr (new)

Wolfgarr another list turned worthless due to everyone and his brother spaming every single book in a series.....When all you need is the first one.


message 28: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman There are other better lists:

For recent science fiction take a look at Best Science Fiction of the 21st Century.

For popular fantasy take a look at The Most Popular Fantasy on Goodreads

For both these lists there are links in the list description to other good fantasy and science fiction lists.


message 29: by Donna (new)

Donna Davis The system found and removed 4 duplicates.


message 30: by Fatemeh (new)

Fatemeh برای کشف اقیانوس باید جرات ترک ساحل را داشت این دنیا دنیای تغییرات است نه تقدیر


message 31: by Donna (new)

Donna Davis Greg wrote: "A new collection for consideration. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3..."
This is spam, and it violates Goodreads author conduct policy. I recommend you delete it. Otherwise I will flag it.


message 32: by Donna (last edited Aug 31, 2017 08:36PM) (new)

Donna Davis As mixed lists go, this one is pretty good. I am seeing some genre issues though. Removed Beloved from p 5. Toni Morrison, science fiction and fantasy? The hell?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

On the line: where do we draw the line between fantasy and horror, folks? I am looking at some Stephen King titles, and Anne Rice. Dracula by Bram Stoker is clearly out of genre, and I'm removing it:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Love to hear some input about the others mentioned here. Some have a large number of votes, and I know that once a list is established, the first page becomes almost sacred. I don't want to touch anything that's liable to draw objections unless it's very clearly in the wrong place...

Removed from page 7, A Thousand Splendid Suns, out of genre:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Removed from page 8, A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...


message 33: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman So - I'm not a big fan of horror. But a lot of horror I would consider also fantasy. And I'm not the only one. Dracula for example, is shelved 7,950 as horror. But it is also shelved 3,360 as fantasy. As a librarian I do a lot of removing books from lists. But as far as I'm concerned vampires and werewolves are just about always fantasy - and sometimes horror and sometimes romance and sometimes very rarely science fiction.


message 34: by Donna (new)

Donna Davis Mitchell wrote: "So - I'm not a big fan of horror. But a lot of horror I would consider also fantasy. And I'm not the only one. Dracula for example, is shelved 7,950 as horror. But it is also shelved 3..."
The difference in genre, as I understand it, is that horror is written to induce fear more than anything else. I did see that some people have incorrectly shelved Dracula, but it's also a very small percentage of readers overall. (Look at the numbers at the top of the shelf list and you'll see what I mean.)
However, I also realize--though I'm not a fan personally--that there are now a lot of stories involving paranormal and vampirical love. So that's where the line gets hazy, because we have a category that used to be entirely horror and now is not.
As I previously said, I"m not going to remove anything I'm not sure of. I feel confident about Dracula.


message 35: by Donna (new)

Donna Davis The system found and removed 6 duplicates.


message 36: by Radu (new)

Radu Emily wrote: "I also hate when people put Science Fiction and Fantasy together. They are clearly very different things. "

I TOTALLY agree!


message 37: by Ginny (new)

Ginny Horn-Horn by ADT McLellan - one of those few books that you will go from the last page immediately back to the first page. Like The Sixth Sense, reading it a second time is like reading it for the first time again. It's a completely different story once all of the twists are revealed.


message 38: by Liz (new)

Liz So...number 1777 is Black Beauty. Perhaps the person who added it meant a different Black Beauty? Either way, they tagged the kid's book. Perhaps it should be deleted...or we should add Old Yeller. ;)


message 39: by Donna (new)

Donna Davis Liz wrote: "So...number 1777 is Black Beauty. Perhaps the person who added it meant a different Black Beauty? Either way, they tagged the kid's book. Perhaps it should be deleted...or we should add Old Yeller. ;)"

Good eyes. It's gone now.

The system found and removed 21 duplicates.


message 40: by Amy (new)

Amy The Ascendance Protocol: Endeavour by Chris Scott

Such a great book. I have both kindle and paperback versions!

The Ascendance Protocol: Endeavour

The Ascendance Protocol: Endeavour


message 41: by Donna (new)

Donna Davis Amy wrote: "The Ascendance Protocol: Endeavour by Chris Scott

Such a great book. I have both kindle and paperback versions!

The Ascendance Protocol: Endeavour

[book:The Ascendance Protocol: ..."

If you want that title on the list and it isn't there yet, you have to enter it yourself using the tab at the top of the list.


message 42: by Yaroslav (new)

Yaroslav Zemtsov Why Hunger Games are here?


message 43: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Mary wrote: "Why are there some books with less than 1K votes and hundreds of votes in the list? They should be deleted..what a joke.
Examples: The Outlands"


This list was setup without criteria that let's a librarian remove books with some impunity. You might appreciate Most Popular Science Fiction on Goodreads and the lists that it links to more.


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