500 Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Books You Should Read Before You Die - Members' Version

[hitmouse]

328. The Marid Audran trilogy by George Alec Effinger, starting with When Gravity Falls.
Complex, unusual cyberpunkish SF noir, middle-eastern souk setting. Compelling characterisation and plotting. Excellent writing, and refreshingly different from 99% of cyberpunk or for that matter any other sf I can think of. Quite under-rated. I dont think that GAE has had a mention on Chrons for several years.

 

[svalbard]

319. The Walrus and The Warwolf - Hugh Cook. A cult classic that mixes High Fantasy with the ridiculous.

 

[hitmouse]

I thought it would be good to qualify a list I posted earlier. Too difficult to type on an iphone. Please bear in mind that we are way beyond these numbers now.

276. The Drowned World JG Ballard
277. Vermilion Sands JG Ballard
278. The Status Civilisation Robert Sheckley
279. Cats Cradle Kurt Vonnegut
290. The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut
291. The Garments of Caen Barrington Bayley
292. An Alien Heat Michael Moorcock
293. The Tripods Trilogy John Christopher
294. Hothouse. Brian Aldiss

So:

Drowned World. JG Ballard. Seminal new-wave inner space SF 1960s British SF. Ecological disaster, with a deeply ambiguous main character. Should be considered alongside Ballard's The Crystal World and The Drought.

Vermilion Sands. JG Ballard. SS collection set in the eponymous faded desert resort, in which equally faded and jaded starlets, poets, architects and hangers-on maintain superficial elegance, manners and artistic pretence, whilst succumbing to ennui. Atmospheric and beguiling, as with all of the best Ballard.

Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley. Absurdist SF. TBH could have picked one from a number of Sheckley novels. He needs to be better remembered.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Absurdist SF and religious parody, with the brilliant SF idea of ice-9.

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. Yet more absurdist SF, this time quite movingly sad in places.

The Garments of Caen J Barrington Bayley. New Wave SF. Wry SF conceit about sentient clothes. Reads a bit like Jack Vance.

An Alien Heat. Michael Moorcock. The first of the Dancers at the End of Time books. Lush unrestrained and psychedelic sf set at the end of the universe, when the last few immortal individuals on Earth possess unlimited power and almost childlike naivety, spending their time making ridiculous artistic installations, having affairs and parties, and generally being decadent.

The Tripods trilogy John Christopher. YA dystopia, where the earth is controlled by aliens who live in domed cities and dominate through WOTW-type tripods. Hugely influential.

Hothouse Brian Aldiss. Far future, Earth dominated by tropical jungle, and the barely recognisable descendants of humanity struggle for existence.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

320. The Female Man by Joanna Russ.

321. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick.

 

[Rodders]

322. Excession by Iain M. Banks.
323. Use Of Weapons by Iain M. Banks.
324. Look To Windward by Iain M. Banks.

Sorry, but I really rated his work.

 

[BAYLOR]

325 Alph by Charles Eric Maine
326 The Rim of the Morning : Two Tales of Cosmic Horror by William Sloane
327 The Starchild Trilogy by Frederic Pohl and Jack Williamson
328 The Malacia Tapestry By Brian Aldiss
329 Merlin's Ring by H. Warner Munn
330 The Well At The End of the World by William Morris
331 Lilith by George MacDonald
332 Voyage to Arcturus by Davis Lindsey
333 Book of the Three Dragons by Kennith Morris
334 Typewriter in the Sky by L Ron Hubbard

 

[BAYLOR]

I just novice that Voyage to Arcturus was already listed earlier. Opps.

 

[Steves]

335 The Dragonbone Chair, Tad Williams
336 The Stone of Farewell, Tad Williams
337 To Green Angel Tower, Tad Williams

Adhering to the single book rather than trilogy listing, aka "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" trilogy. I searched the forum and did not find these listed so I hope I am not duplicating them. I would add the bridge novel and the new trilogy but the last book is not published yet (so my jury is out...). I like his writing a lot.

 

[C.C.]

18. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. The epitome of adventure and excitement.

Is that book public domain? Anybody know?

 

[dask]

Not sure but the Kindle edition is free at Amazon.

 

[Extollager]

Check archive.org or Project Gutenberg for Doyle’s Lost World and many other classic works of sff. I’ll bet archive.org has the 1925 movie of Lost World too.

 

[Extollager]

338.Wilson Tucker's time travel novel The Year of the Quiet Sun has engaged my imagination and feelings through four readings now.
339.Eugene Vodolazkin's The Aviator involves a character who comes awake in our time (in Russia) having passed out of consciousness around the time of the Revolution. I've read it just once, but expect to read it again with enjoyment and appreciation. This might appeal to some readers more than the author's Laurus, which I've already nominated.
340.Lars Walker's Blood and Judgment, sort of sword-and-sorcery for grownups with a Hamlet theme. It works.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

I just novice that Voyage to Arcturus was already listed earlier. Opps.

I'm pretty sure I already listed The Malacia Tapestry too.

 

[Extollager]

I thought some more about it and, really, folks do owe it to themselves to try these --

341.Saga of the Volsungs (Byock translation is a good choice) -- this is not very long, by the way, only around 75 pages or so.
342.The Mabinogion -- specifically the Four Branches -- I have liked the Jones translation in Everyman from around 1960
343.Grimms' Fairy Tales -- the Pantheon edition, for example
344.Jacqueline Simpson's collection for Penguin of Scandianvian Folk Tales or her selection of Icelandic Folktales and Legends -- some eerie tales!
345.Shakespeare's Hamlet -- think of it as an Elizabethan Turn of the Screw
356.A book of E. T. A. Hoffmann's stories such as "The Sandman" in particular
357.Beowulf
358.Malory's Morte d'Arthur -- at least the early Arthur material (sword in stone, etc.) and the Grail quest and death of Arthur
359.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -- Brian Stone translation is what I like most
360.Kalevala -- I liked Bosley's translation but hear good things about Magoun's and Friberg's -- feel free to skip the material on charms for wounds, beer-making, etc.

It's easy to take "classics" for granted, and some people assume "not for me," but readers of sffh owe it to themselves to try these for their intrinsic merits, not just as "historical obligations."

 

[Extollager]

361.Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan -- strange stories from Japan
362.Walter de la Mare's The Listeners or some other collection of his poems that includes that one and other mysterious verse; I recommend also his anthology Behold, This Dreamer! as likely to interest some readers of fantasy and the mysterious, though I've only sampled it)
363.Ray Bradbury's The October Country (macabre)
364.C. S. Lewis's The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" -- the Narnian books need to be represented, and this one might be a good first book for someone to encounter the enchantment of the series

 

[Randy M.]

I'd added The October Country previously. How about making 363. Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier (fantasy, horror, ghost stories, mystery/crime)?

Good catch on Kwaidan. I should have thought of that one.


Randy M.

 

[Extollager]

I haven't read the Collier, but It's fine if the substitution be made.

 

[Randy M.]

You might like the Collier.

Randy M.

 

[BAYLOR]

361.Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan -- strange stories from Japan
362.Walter de la Mare's The Listeners or some other collection of his poems that includes that one and other mysterious verse; I recommend also his anthology Behold, This Dreamer! as likely to interest some readers of fantasy and the mysterious, though I've only sampled it)
363.Ray Bradbury's The October Country (macabre)
364.C. S. Lewis's The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" -- the Narnian books need to be represented, and this one might be a good first book for someone to encounter the enchantment of the series

There exists a film a Japanese film adaptation of Kwaidan . The film was made in 1964. It can be found on Youtube. It's worth seeing.

 

[AndrewT]

Since Hitmouse overwrote my numbers on page six of this thread in the post immediately after mine. Not to be a nitpicker, I honestly thought he posted at almost the exact same time as me and used the same numbers.

365. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov (can't believe that's not on here yet)
366. Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov (counted separately, you can stop with that one which is best and the rest worse)
367. Different Seasons by Stephen King (my personal favorite of his, don't like some of his other stuff)
368. Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds (better than Revelation Space and should be read first. Kind of dark but brilliant)
369. Codex Alera by Jim Butcher (I liked the first two and they went downhill a bit after that but not too much)