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Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works

  Science-fiction & fantasy literature: a critical list with discussions.

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All Listed Speculative-Fiction Books


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“‘What is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’”

– Alice in Wonderland,
Lewis Carroll

About This List

This books-by-title page is not, nor is it meant to be, a list of every good science-fiction and fantasy book: it is a list of the science-fiction and fantasy books that I know and like. Omission of a given book may mean I didn’t think highly enough of it to include it—or it may simply mean that, even in two-thirds of a century of science-fiction and fantasy reading, I still haven’t gotten to that book (as I say in several places on this site, that is especially likely to be true of books from the last decade or two, when annual science-fiction and fantasy title-publication totals have been staggering).

(I have now added a couple of other lists to try to minimize that gap: one is books yet unread here but by authors already in these lists, the other—working from what I hope to be reputable critical sources—books yet-unread here by authors not yet in these lists but recommended by those reliable—one hopes—other sources.)

Each book title on the list below is a link to the availability listings for it at AbeBooks; every author name is a link to a page here about that author. Those author pages each contain the same list of the author’s books as do the books-by-author pages, plus a brief discussion of the author and of those books (warning: not all the discussions are in place yet, though all the pages—and book lists thereon—are). Those discussions are not profound analyses: they are meant to help you rank the authors and books on your personal “to-read” list.

Note also that this list includes some books that are not on the actual main science-fiction & fantasy authors/books list—those extras are other books mentioned here and there on this site—books about authors here, books of speculative-fiction criticism, books about specfic art, books that are almost fantasies, and various other odds and ends. Every book referenced anywhere on this site is collected in the list below.

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The Actual List:

(The listings are alphabetical by title, except that titles beginning with The, A, or An are listed by the next word in the title.)

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This page was last modified on Sunday, 4 February 2024, at 5:32 pm Pacific Time.