It all started when I saw one too many iterations of the BBC’s top 100 books on Facebook. These lists are always heavily weighted with hoary old tomes written by dead white guys. Plus the BBC always leans on British authors (as well they should, since they’re based in London, but still). But my biggest issue with these lists is that they never include enough speculative fiction entries. I’m defining speculative fiction as science fiction, fantasy, horror, and any combination, including all subgenres, thereof.
Anyway, I saw that list and I snapped. I have a lot of well-read friends who read speculative fiction all the time. And I was certain that if I asked around, I could come up with a list of 100 speculative fiction novels – and not only that, but our list would be a whole lot more interesting and fun than anything the BBC could put together.
So I took nominations and posted the list on Facebook. That drew more nominations, so I added them and posted it again – which drew more nominations. We ended up with 147 entries for our list of top 100 speculative fiction novels. (That reminded me of the marketing hook for Douglas Adams’s So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: “the fourth book in the trilogy!” That trilogy was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which of course is on our list.)
The list actually includes way more than 147 books, because I insisted on each series being one listing or else we’d have gotten to 100 too fast. (For example, if you count each of the 41 Discworld novels separately, you’re nearly halfway to 100 already.)
Of course, when I posted my final-final list on my blog, I received even more nominations from my friends. But I’m sticking with this iteration for now. Happy reading!
Top 147 Speculative Fiction Novels, in no particular order (according to Lynne & Friends)
1. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever – Stephen R. Donaldson
3. Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
4. The Tooth Fairy – Graham Joyce
5. The Foundation series – Isaac Asimov
6. The Robot series – Isaac Asimov
7. The Malazan Book of the Fallen – Stephen Erikson
8. Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling
9. Dracula – Bram Stoker
10. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
11. The Inheritance Trilogy – N.K. Jemisen
12. The Broken Earth Trilogy – N.K. Jemisen
13. The Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler
14. Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert A. Heinlein
15. The Illustrated Man – Ray Bradbury
16. To Your Scattered Bodies Go – Philip José Farmer
17. Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
18. Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut
19. Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut
20. War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells
21. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – H.G. Wells
22. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
23. Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
24. Riftwar Saga – Raymond Feist
25. The Sun Wolf and Starhawk series – Barbara Hambly
26. The Darwath Trilogy – Barbara Hambly
27. Dragonsbane – Barbara Hambly
28. The Mysterious Stranger – Mark Twain
29. Alas, Babylon – Pat Frank
30. Dune – Frank Herbert
31. The Forever War – Joe Haldeman
32. Farseer Trilogy – Robin Hobb
33. Liveship Traders Trilogy – Robin Hobb
34. The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. LeGuin
35. Lathe of Heaven – Ursula K. LeGuin
36. The Earthsea Cycle – Ursula K. LeGuin
37. Little, Big – John Crowley
38. Space Opera – Catherynne M. Valente
39. Habitation of the Blessed series – Catherynne M. Valente
40. The Second Apocalypse – R. Scott Bakker
41. Elatsoe – Darcie Little Badger
42. Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy – Cixin Liu
43. Culture Series – Iain M. Banks
44. Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake
45. A Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
46. Bless Me, Ultima – Rudolfo Anaya
47. The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova
48. Winter’s Tale – Mark Helprin
49. Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
50. The Tempest – Shakespeare
51. Lucifer’s Hammer – Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
52. Earth Abides – George R. Stewart
53. A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller Jr.
54. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia – Ursula K. LeGuin
55. The Gate to Women’s Country – Sheri S. Tepper
56. Grass – Sheri S. Tepper
57. Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
58. A Wrinkle in Time – Madelaine L’Engle
59. Tales from the Arabian Nights
60. The City and the City – China Miéville
61. The Wormwood Trilogy (Rosewater is book 1) – Tade Thompson
62. Books of Blood – Clive Barker
63. The Girl Next Door – Jack Ketchum
64. American Gods – Neil Gaiman
65. Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman
66. The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman
67. The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
68. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
69. Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel
70. Neuromancer – William Gibson
71. Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
72. New Crobuzon series (includes Perdido Street Station) – China Miéville
73. Black Leopard, Red Wolf – Marlon James
74. The Stand – Stephen King
75. Carrie – Stephen King
76. The Pern series – Anne McCaffrey
77. The Mirror – Marlys Milhiser
78. Among Others – Jo Walton
79. My Real Children – Jo Walton
80. The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell
81. The Mermaid’s Daughter – Ann Claycomb
82. Vorkosigan Saga – Lois McMaster Bujold
83. The Fionavar Tapestry – Guy Gavriel Kay
84. The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
85. We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
86. Grendel – John Gardner
87. Feed – Mira Grant (a.k.a. Seanan McGuire)
88. October Daye series – Seanan McGuire
89. Mercy Thompson series – Patricia Briggs
90. The Walker Papers series – C.E. Murphy
91. A Boy and His Dog – Harlan Ellison
92. House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski
93. Miss Luddington’s Sister – Edward Bellamy
94. Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process – Edward Bellamy
95. Outlander series – Diana Gabaldon
96. Good Omens – Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
97. Discworld series – Terry Pratchett
98. Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes
99. Wanderers – Chuck Wendig
100. The Miriam Black series – Chuck Wendig
101. The Finishing School series – Gail Carriger
102. The Aeronaut’s Windlass – Jim Butcher
103. The Dresden Files series – Jim Butcher
104. The Last Unicorn – Peter S. Beagle
105. Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
106. A Song of Ice and Fire – G.R.R. Martin
107. Mordant’s Need duology – Stephen R. Donaldson
108. The GAP books – Stephen R. Donaldson
109. Song for the Basilisk – Patricia A. McKillip
110. In the Forests of Serre – Patricia A. McKillip
111. Neverness series – David Zindell
112. The Chronicles of Amber – Roger Zelazny
113. Memoirs of an Invisible Man – H.F. Saint
114. The Invisible Man – H.G. Wells
115. Hyperion – Dan Simmons
116. Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand – Samuel R. Delany
117. Nova – Samuel R. Delany
118. Odd John – Olaf Stapledon
119. Star Maker – Olaf Stapledon
120. The Stars, My Destination – Alfred Bester
121. Magic Kingdom of Landover series – Terry Brooks
122. His Dark Materials series – Philip Pullman
123. The Thursday Next series – Jasper Fforde
124. The Athena Club series – Theodora Doss
125. 2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke
126. Rama series – Arthur C. Clarke
127. Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke
128. The Prince of Nothing series – R. Scott Bakker
129. The Book of the New Sun series – Gene Wolfe
130. The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
131. Watership Down – Richard Adams
132. The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy series – Douglas Adams
133. Radix Tetrad – A.A. Attanasio
134. Imperial Radch trilogy (book 1 is Ancillary Justice) – Ann Leckie
135. The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi
136. The Uplift Saga – David Brin
137. The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
138. Gaea Trilogy – John Varley
139. Thunder and Lightning series – John Varley
140. Snowcrash – Neal Stephenson
141. Wool series – Hugh Howey
142. Demon Seed – Dean Koontz
143. Whispers – Dean Koontz
144. The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
145. Mistborn series – Brandon Sanderson
146. Rivers of London series – Ben Aaronovitch
147. Kitty Norville series – Carrie Vaughn
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Lynne Cantwell is the author of several fantasy series, including the fourteen books in her Pipe Woman Chronicles universe. Her latest novel is a contemporary fantasy called The Payoff. You can find her on Amazon here. She blogs every Sunday at http://hearth-myth.com.
