You may have noticed that a large part of this blog consists of nothing but SciFi and Fantasy book reviews. I'm 58 now, and I've done nothing but reading SF and Fantasy over the last 40 odd years. There has been the occaisional side trip into other genres, but in the end I always return to my roots 😇 So, what are the best books I've ever read?
Good versus Entertaining
I'm not a librarian. I'm not a linguist, a book collector, a Professor in the Written Arts. To me, entertainment (read: joy) is more important than (perceived) quality prose.
Book versus Author
It's hard to differentiate between books and authors. In general: if you like a specific title, you probably like most - if not all - of the works by that author's hand.
Book versus Series
It's also hard to select a book that's part of a series. In effect, you're typically selecting the series, not the book, so I took the liberty to not only think of the title or the author, but also consider it's role in a series, as well as the series as a whole. To me, great book and great series can by aliases for the same thing.
Top 3
Creating a top 3 is - frankly - an impossible task. I have tried... and I failed. Don't take this for the best books ever. Think of these as the first books that came to (my) mind when thinking about the best Fantasy and Scifi books. In other words: this top 3 means nothing.
Let's start by cheating, as this isn't a single book but a series of five books, written from the point of view of Corwin of Amber, who is the modiest half-god (well, non-human, he's not a god) that has ever traveled the worlds stretching from chaos to order.
This is my absolute all-time favorite series, and Corwin is my absolute all-time favorite character. He's moody, often wrong, pisses on his own grave, and almost became king of Amber up until the moment he decided he no longer cared. He's the champion of endurance, never, ever giving up.
He is also flawed. And that's what makes characters even better. We all have flaws, and so should our heroes. There is intrigue and backstabbing, a dysfunctional family, swashbuckling, and an endless strong of worlds to explore, each one just a little different from the next one. Aliens, magic, unicorns, fleet battles, purses filled with hand grenades, memory loss, hellhounds chasing cars and chewing on the fenders. This has it all.
I could rant on and on, but there's simply nothing like the Amber series, so go and read them. They're simply fantastic. You may also have a look at the second block of five books, but definitely stay away from the Betancourt rubbish. Although supported by (heirs of the) Zelanzy estate it's disgustingly bad.
As for the other books by Zelazny's hand, there's so much interesting stuff. Creatures of Light and Darkness is a classic (if hard to read), but I would especially like to recommend A Night in the Lonesome October as a nice, entertaining read.
2. Terry Pratchett - Discworld
Again, cheating, as the whole Discworld series is great, with some great arcs featuring the witches, Death, and the Night Watch. The first two and some of the later works may be a little flatter, and they still rock.
If I would be pushed to list my favorite novel, I'd probably pick Reaper Man or Men at Arms.
3a. David Weber - Honor Harrington
With Fantasy and humor both covered I still need to pick my favorite Science Fiction novel. It needs Scifi, and a lot of Scifi includes space battles, some aliens, politics. But there's a whole sub-section of military SF, and so I cheat, yet again, by listing two different novels. One's a 'real' Scifi novel, the other one a 'military' story.
Let's start with the latter. For now, I'll put Honor Harrington in the top 3, with books 1 to 9 being the better ones. Some say stop at book 7. Some say stop at 14. To me, the best wrap-up is when the Republic of Haven and the Kingdom of Manticore find peace.
3b. Richard K. Morgan - Altered Carbon
This was a hard one! Altered Carbon is perhaps more Scifi Noir than pure scifi, but it's quite entertaining. There were two other novels competing for this position, and those were Cryptonomicon and Perilous Waif. The former because it is an amazing blend of reality and fiction, the latter because it throws 100 ideas per second at the reader. But I could only pick one (and I was already cheating)...
Worth mentioning
There are so many good stories and books that it's completely unfair to the lot of them, but I had to force myself to a top 3. Here are some more favorites, or books that were somehow important to me.
- Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon
- E. William Brown - Perilous Waif
- Jack Vance - Tschai (Planet of Adventure)
- A.E. Van Vogt - Null-A
- Hans Andreus (Johan Wilhelm van der Zant) - De Kikako (Dutch)
The book that started it all. I think this was the first book I've ever read featuring the 'fantastical', as in 'contemporary fantasy'. No fairy tales. No morality. Just a kid and an undersea creature (alien?) doing a road trip (train trip?). Reading the reviews there may have been some social commentary in there, but me as a kid never noticed.
I haven't read this book ever since, and I still remember one of the characters playing an occarina. I think. Maybe. Mayhaps I should try to locate a copy and re-read it... (Click click click... and I just ordered a second hand copy. I'll get back to you.)
- Keith Laumer - Ruimte-odyssee en Dinosaurusstrand / Galactic Odyssee and Dinosaur Beach
Another, very early read for me, with me still being very impressionable. Galactic Odyssee was written in 1967, before computers, mobile phones, gender equality, two years before the first landing on the moon.
I must have been fourteen or fifteen years old when I borrowed a copy from the local library, where I had access to the adult stacks thanks to my parents' permission. (They had to sign for that, with me being a minor.)
What. A. Blast. Even today it's pure escapism, and still enjoyable.
- Tolkien - Lord of the Rings I, II, III
Classic, if a bit dusty. Read it a few times (and it's about time to re-read again). This is the model countless other fantasy books based their worlds upon. This is the template for your typical stock fantasy dwarfs, elves, wizards, orcs, hobbits (halflings), humans... This is what D&D is based upon.
If you can't stand the hundreds of pages you might consider giving Peter Jackson's movies a chance. They are a lot more faithful to the books than I thought possible.
More?
Many, many more...
I'll try and keep adding reviews to this blog, but of course you can always visit Good Reads 😏
More!
- Scifi book reviews on this blog
- Fantasy book reviews on this blog
- Audiobook reviews on this blog
- Goodreads
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