What is your favorite fantasy/sci fi novel?

[senda wales]

Hardly anything on my list that hasn't already been mentioned:

-Harry Potter. Absolutely a given.

-Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate. This was an absolute favorite as a teen and was formative in shaping my views of morality and ethics. It's a coming of age and wartime series hidden within a sci-fi plot.

-Everworld series by K.A. Applegate. Another favorite. This series has the character that I got my SFL namesake from, Senna Wales.

-His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass). I wish the movie had done the book justice.

-Ender's Game. The gamification of reality is a hot topic right now. I wonder how rereading it would be since I work a lot in the virtual worlds/gaming industry now.

-Redwall series. I loved this series as a kid, but I'm not sure how much I'd still enjoy it now.

-Chronicles of Narnia. (See Redwall series)

-1984 and Brave New World. These count as sci-fi? I enjoyed these.

-Planet of the Apes. The original book is surprisingly engaging.

-The Giver. Enjoyed this as a teen/college student but I haven't read it in awhile.

[diachenko]

(08-16-2011 05:37 PM)senda wales Wrote:  -Redwall series. I loved this series as a kid, but I'm not sure how much I'd still enjoy it now.

-Chronicles of Narnia. (See Redwall series)

Yeah, Redwall was a great kids series, but for me, now, it no longer works. Narnia, on the other hand, has never lost its charm.

[C_Fresh]

Some good books I've read:

Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit

Chronicles of Narnia

I used to read a ton of the Star Wars books. Some of the best were the Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn and also The Courtship of Princess Leia

Discworld series is awesome as others have mentioned

Humorous webcomic: The Order of the Stick - an adventure that takes place using the D&D core rules. Lots of RPG jokes and pop references. One of the jokes that comes to mind is when two background characters are mentioned by name which gives them a great sense of relief because they believe they are much less likely to die since they now have plot significance.

I liked the Dresden Files TV series, eventually hope to read the books. I really got a kick out of the hockey stick as a wizard staff.

[diachenko]

(08-24-2011 07:26 AM)C_Fresh Wrote:  I liked the Dresden Files TV series, eventually hope to read the books. I really got a kick out of the hockey stick as a wizard staff.

The series was fun, but the books are waaaaaaaay better! In fact, I wish they would take another crack at making these into a series, but closer to the books. For instance, Dresden carries an actual wizard staff in the books. No hockey stick or drum stick. Some of the best books I've read.

[paul]

Didn't see this earlier, glad someone resurrected it. OK, there is no way I can narrow this down to a single book, but here are the ones on my list...

Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison (the whole series of books is excellent. Definitely NOT hard sci-fi, but fun and entertaining)
Sten - Alan Cole and Chris Bunch (I enjoyed this one very much. 7 books to essentially tell a story about "absolute power corrupts absolutely")
Midshipman's Hope - David Feintuch (Written in first person, so it took some getting used to, but I liked it. Another series)
The Way of the Wolf - E.E. Knight (Sci-fi vampire series done in a unique way. Another series, do we see a pattern?)

Honorable mention:
Asimov - I love to read anything by Asimov. I'm still looking for a copy of Foundation and Earth, but I loved the Robot series and the Foundation series (although Prelude to Foundation did drag a bit). Asimov is one of my all time favorite authors, but don't bother with the junk published in the Foundation universe after his death; pretentious authors who though they could match Asimov's greatness but fell far short of even readability.
Heinlein - Another that I like to read. His views on the way things should be are, uhm, shall we say unique. But I like everything I've read by him.
(Side note: PLEASE do NOT blame Heinlein for the tragedy that was the Starship Troopers movie. There is a reason his wife had them remove his name.)
Ender - I enjoyed the Ender series, but I felt it started to drag a bit toward the end of the series.
Douglas Adams - And now for something completely different.

I'm forgetting something, but since I can't remember it now, I'll wait until I am in the same city as my books again.