Must read Science Fiction/Fantasy books?

[Mr.Napier]

Dresden Files and Codex Alera

 

[rekabdarb]

anything to do with Raistlin Majere and his family, Dragonlance chronicles. (margaret weis and tracy hickman)

Night watch quad...ily quadgrily the 4 book series

Drizzt Do'Urden series (like 18 books and still going strong)

Now that I think about it, Night Watch from Sergei Lukyanenko is really good.

ninja'd kinda

 

[Phoenix14]

For fantasy you might like the Infernal City...It's basically the elder scrolls in book form, takes off from where oblivion ended.

 

[ben---neb]

Now that I think about it, Night Watch from Sergei Lukyanenko is really good.

And his others - Day Watch (weakest), Twilight Watch (best) and the Last Watch (good!). The whole series is really good. Having been to Russia just recently I re-read and apprecaited so much more of the cultural references and humour.

 

[Gutkrusha]

Malazan book of the Fallen and The Wheel of Time series are both very good fantasy series. A lot of books, though. Malazan has.. 10, I believe? and the Wheel of time will have 12 or 13 when it's finished.

a classic Sci Fi novel would have to be Ender's game, though. I absolutely love that book. My favorite Sci Fi book by far.

 

[mindlessvulgarity]

Orcs by Stan Nicholls.
Brilliant stuff.
Also try to avoid Stephen King novels, they're crap, apart from The Shining, The Shining is awesome.

Anything by Critchen.
White Devils by Macauley is very good.
Also the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

 

[ben---neb]

There's a series of books I always recommend in cases like this:

David Edding's The Belgariad.

One of the best fantasy series I've ever read.

In lack of a better description for it, it's if Lord of the Rings had better dialogue and more lovable characters (Might get flack for that one)

You sir have made my day, also do not forget the other amazing books by Eddings, like The Redemption of Althalus (my personal favorite) and the Malloreon, and the Elenium and the Tamuli, so basically everything but the dreamers.

The Redemption of Althalus is probably my favorite book ever.

I'm an Eddings fan but that book has some really bad reviews on Amazon (63 1 star ones to be precise). Still worth it? What's so good about it? What might be so bad about it? (No spoliers please)

 

[Muffinthraka]

Robin Hobb's books are good: The Farseer, The Liveship Traders and The Tawny man Trilogies are excellent (my favourite being The Liveship Traders.
Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts books are great (there are currently 16 0f them).
David Edding's The Belgariad and The Malloreon are also really good (10 books in all) and also The Elenium and The Tamuli (of which I only read the first two books).
Finally there are The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson. Excellent books (I read them when I was 11 so they had a big impact on me), I've just checked the wiki page and discovered there will soon be a third set of books to the series.
Stephen Donaldson's other mayor series is The Gap Cycle I got to the third book in the series and gave up in disgust. I didn't like them, but you might.

 

[Duruznik]

Edit: Oops, ignore this. Accidental post.

*Facepalm*

 

[shiajun]

How come no one has mentioned Ender's Game (and maybe also Ender's Shadow) by Orson Scott Card? Very good books.

Dune, as everyone has said, is mandatory. The original series is all good, but if you don't want to read all 6 books you can stop at Children of Dune and walk away pretty satisfied.

I'll also suggest Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut and maybe Ubik as my particular Phillip K. Dick favorite. Contact, the book, by Carl Sagan is damn good.

 

[McShizzle]

I may Ruffle a few feathers but seeing what you've already read, I'd have to recommend against R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books or the Sword of Truth series or that Althalus book.

The first three Drizzt books are ok but Salvatore has been writing the same thing over and over and over again ever since. The Sword of Truth series, of which I read the first five, to a maturing reader are little more than dressed up harlequin novels IMO. As to "The Redemption of Althalus" the reason it's not in print much and you won't find it in a lot of bookstores is becuase it's far from Eddings best work.

Recommendations, well if you haven't already, read Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass (fundamentals!). For a bit darker fantasy setting i'd recommend the Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake. Also while Lovecraft has already been mentioned I'd specifically read his "Dream Cycle" stories in which he delved more into fantasy as opposed to horror. They're an interesting read at the very least. The dream cycle stories have been collected into one book although I'm not sure if it's still in print.

 

[dalek sec]

I can't believe no one has talked about Commissar Cain: HERO OF THE IMPERIUM! I'm rather dissapointed in you all by this. Also as talked about before, the Horus Heresy series is also a great series of books.

 

[Blue Musician]

The Bartimaeus Trilogy. Best Books I have ever read.

 

[Frankster]

I've read all the Thanatonauts' books, but being a french canadian, it may not be that surprising. These are really good books.

French canadian or not, take a cookie for simply knowing of it It tends to get submerged under the tide of more famous book series.

 

[Axolotl]

I loved Princess of Mars!! And the sequel too, Gods of Mars was great (and what a cliffhanger ending!)

I've not gotten to the sequel yet, weren't there loads? I can't remember how many but I know there were a few.

You say you read HG Wells, did you read The Time Machine and The Island of Dr. Moreau? Those were really good IMO, and actually fairly short.

I've read The Island of Dr. Moreau but not the Time Machine yet. I agree that it's an amazing book.

I know it's not sci-fi, or even really fantasy, but Captain Blood is a fan-fricken-tastic pirate book (Rafael Sabatini).

Anyway, for a little more modern stuff, Apocalypse Troll is a really interesting book about AI vs humans and time travel.

I hear Metro 2033 is a great book. I loved the game, so that's one I'm looking to pick up.

Thanks, I'll look out for those. I've seen Metro 2033 but it was a big hardback so I ignored it.

 

[deadguynotyetburied]

A few that have already been mentioned, I strongly agree with. Add my votes for the Deed of Paksenarrion series by Elizabeth Moon, the Tamir series by Lynn Flewelling, and the Black Company books by Glen Cook.

I'll also recommend a couple that have not yet been mentioned: "Icarus Descending" by Elizabeth Hand, and "The Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis.