# Amazon list of 100 Sci Fi and Fantasy books to read in a lifetime **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [October 3, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133 "2020-10-03T18:38:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/41 "2020-10-05T08:21:14Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > It’s arguable whether her fantasy or SF was more influential. Sure. Both were very influential, both inside and outside genre fiction, to the degree that I think discerning which was more so is pointless, myself. I was just noting that I’d seen _LHoD_ on the list, is all. > [@GreenWyvern](#): > > I found her Earthsea books more memorable. It was _Always Coming Home_ for me. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/42 "2020-10-05T08:21:50Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Is it possible this list is changing, generated by an algorithm every time you look at it? Or generated every day? It might be influenced by reviews or some other voting? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/43 "2020-10-05T09:59:43Z")
There are many other lists of best science fiction and fantasy books on the Internet, like [Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books : NPR](https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books) for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/44 "2020-10-05T11:47:19Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I’ve only read 52 of these. “Sword of Shannara”? Hunh. I’m wondering if maybe there wasn’t a lot of YA fantasy available when it was written. It was certainly one of the first novels of that length that I read. Not anything I’d pick up again, but certainly something I’d hand to a child today. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/45 "2020-10-05T11:50:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yet another in the category of “Why did they pick THAT book from the series”, they have The Dark is Rising, but not the far superior Over Sea, Under Stone. Even though the latter is the first book in the series (the criterion they apparently used for Discworld). I thought it was a written-later prequel and was surprised when I learned she’d actually written it first. Like a decade earlier. It’s much lighter on the overt fantasy. So much so they may consider it off-genre for the list. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/46 "2020-10-05T12:44:08Z")
As others have remarked (and I agree with most of the criticisms) an odd list. It seems to be compiled by someone more familiar with recent books, because it slights an awful lot of older, arguably more classic novels. What about L. Sprague de Camp’s **Lest Darkness Fall** , which inspired a lot of alternative histories (including everything by Harry Turtledove)? Or Mark Twain’s **A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court** , which inspired de Camp? (and de Camp deserves mentions for other books, too). How can I take seriously a list of _100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime_ that doesn’t include a single book by Jules Verne or H.G. Wells? They practically invented the genre, and were spectacularly influential. They’re not as 'boring" as _Frankenstein_ \* and if you don’t think they’re still relevant, read _The Time Machine_ again sometime. (What, they have _The Time Traveler’s Wife_, but not _The Time Machine_?) I’m also annoyed at a Fantasy list that leaves off Robert E. Howard (if you’re looking for big influences in fantasy, how can you possibly leave him off?) or Edgar Rice Burroughs (What, not even Tarzan?) or Charles G. Finney’s _The Circus of Dr. Lao_ \*I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve re-read Frankenstein. I found it boring at first, too, until I found the annotated edition by Leonard Wolf, and, later, Leslie Klinger’s re-annotation. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/47 "2020-10-05T12:51:39Z")
What - no Piers Anthony? (Kidding! Please stop hitting me.) Pleased to see the Ted Chiang collection on there - it’s a great bunch of stories. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/48 "2020-10-05T13:41:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > How can I take seriously a list of _100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime_ that doesn’t include a single book by Jules Verne or H.G. Wells? They practically invented the genre, and were spectacularly influential. Of course, it doesn’t even pretend to be a list of the most influential works. But your guess is as good as mine what criteria (if any?) they actually did use in compiling the list. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/49 "2020-10-05T13:55:27Z")
You’d think there would be some Afrofuturism in there, too. No Octavia Butler? ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/50 "2020-10-05T15:04:46Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > > > [@kitap](#): > > > > > > > [@mbh](#): > > > > > > > > Definitely need Andre Norton. > > > > > > It’s really odd; r/fantasy almost never mentions her. It’s like she’s vanished from view. > > > > Which book? Is there a specific book by her that stands out? > > That’s the problem. Hard to pick just one. > One of her most famous books? _Judgement on Janus, The Beast Master, Witch World_? > One of my personal favorites? _The Crystal Gryphon, Star Man’s Son, Steel Magic_? Witch World, probably. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/51 "2020-10-05T15:20:33Z")
Not the worst list, although it seems a bit present-day biased to me. There are lots of good novels that aren’t quite so new on there. Plus, it’s lacking Iain Banks’ _Culture_ series entirely. That makes it a bit suspect in my view. I’d also argue that Glen Cook’s _“The Black Company”_ is a lot more seminal in a whole lot of ways than _“Sword of Shannara”_, as much as I enjoyed that series. Brooks’ Shannara books are basically Tolkien knockoffs at first, but _“The Black Company”_ is kind of the granddaddy of the whole grim/gritty fantasy genre. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/52 "2020-10-05T15:59:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > You’d think there would be some Afrofuturism in there, too. No Octavia Butler? She’s on there with _Kindred_. Not that it’s easy to tell, with how badly that list was formatted. As you all have noted. In addition to the omissions already noted, no Vernor Vinge? I don’t expect Reynolds, Stross, or a lot of the Brit New-New Wave—though I did expect Banks. SpaceX names their stuff after his books, for Chrissake!—but leaving off Vinge is pretty surprising. It’s really more of a, “Here’s 100 authors you should read,” rather than 100 books. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/53 "2020-10-05T16:40:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Charles G. Finney’s _The Circus of Dr. Lao_ Now I have to go and read that again! 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/54 "2020-10-05T16:42:33Z")
I thought maybe the formatting was just shit because I was browsing on my phone. No, it’s shit everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/55 "2020-10-05T16:56:27Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I found it boring at first, too, until I found the annotated edition by Leonard Wolf, and, later, Leslie Klinger’s re-annotation. You’ve, piqued my interest, thanks. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Of course, it doesn’t even pretend to be a list of the most influential works. But your guess is as good as mine what criteria (if any?) they actually did use in compiling the list. I would separate “most influential”, “best”, “most widely read”, with “to read in a lifetime” maybe being an amalgamation of all three.\* “Most influential” is probably easier to argue about. Because re: “best”, people like what they like. And that changes over time. I’m very much not into YA fiction, but Brooks, Eddings, Cook, etc. were all a blast when I was a kid. How fun would it have been to read Harry Potter as a child? I can only imagine. And while I may acknowledge that A is a better writer than B, I may still enjoy B better because A writes about time travel, a topic that I find tired but that others really enjoy. \*I think putting together all of these lists would be a fun exercise. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/56 "2020-10-05T17:02:46Z")
The Time Machine and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea were both on the list. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/57 "2020-10-05T17:43:34Z")
I must have been reading the list wrong, somehow. I went over it three times and didn’t see them. They get points for those, if that’s the case. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/58 "2020-10-05T18:34:56Z")
No Vox Day on the list either. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/59 "2020-10-05T18:59:15Z")
Each row of the list had to be scrolled to the right. Maybe where you lost some entries. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133/60 "2020-10-05T19:42:39Z")
Thank you for the suggestion, but I scrolled each line all the way until I started over again. I didn’t see the Wells and Verne books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-list-of-100-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-read-in-a-lifetime/922133.md?page=4)