50 Science Fiction-Fantasy Novels

Meme Time! Here's the list, from this post, where they thoughtfully discuss their criteria and limits (No more than one book or series per author, for example). Despite the waste of virtual paper, the blank list is appended below my annotated list, so you don't have to extract my added text. (I've learned that if you drop formatted text directly into HTML compose mode, it wipes the formatting clean, to plain text.)

Standard rules: bold the ones you've read, * the ones you found particularly outstanding, / the novels or series you've only read a fraction of, that is, not finished. ? if you're not sure. (I haven't read much new SF in 20 years, so I have a number in that category; memories are not forever. Add notes as desired. Make a suggestion or two for ones they missed. Or, you know, make up your own rules.

1. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card*
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien*
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood ?
5. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
6. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin
7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
8. The Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake Excellent, but too depressing for a *
9. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler- I know I've read a couple novels by her, but not this one.
11. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin It's been a LONG time, but I think*
12. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut*
15. The City & The City, China Miéville
16. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
17. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
18. Zone One, Colson Whitehead
19. The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling / First book only and movies, but in process of acquiring the whole series. When complete, I'll read the whole thing.
20. The Time Quartet, Madeleine L’Engle / 1st book only (Wrinkle in Time)
21. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis Loved this as a youngster, hated it as adult. Like I need to be beaten about the head with Christian symbolism.
22. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
23. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
24. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
25. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
26. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams *for the first three, then it gets too dark.
28. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert*
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell Like Gormenghast, excellent, but too depressing for a *
30. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
31. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
32. Neuromancer, William Gibson
33. American Gods, Neil Gaiman Only thing I've read by him, and not terribly impressed. Need to try others.
34. The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
35. Discworld, Terry Pratchett / Only 2 or 3 of series, damned if I know which ones.
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll** My all-time, life long, favorite book. By the end of elementary school, I darned near had the whole thing memorized.
37. Among Others, Jo Walton
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley / Bored me to death. Didn't finish
39. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle ?
40. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
41. Witch World, Andre Norton ?
42. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
43. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
44. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro Movie only. Despite comments at the source site, I quite liked it.
45. Little, Big, John Crowley
46. The Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey / A few, but again, they got dull
47. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
48. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
49. The Castle trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones
50. The Giver, Lois Lowry

One nice thing about this list is that it gives me some clues about which more recent authors I should be catching up with. Two authors I think should be included are Connie Willis, who's almost always excellent, but I'll go with her Doomsday Book and Sherri Tepper. For her, I'll go with The Family Tree, as that one is not as grim and brutal as many of her novels can be. Looks like my bolded count is 31, but quite a number of those are only partials.

Here's the "blank." Wanna play?

1. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
5. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
6. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin
7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
8. The Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake
9. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler
11. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
12. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
15. The City & The City, China Miéville
16. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
17. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
18. Zone One, Colson Whitehead
19. The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
20. The Time Quartet, Madeleine L’Engle
21. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
22. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
23. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
24. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
25. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
26. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
30. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
31. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
32. Neuromancer, William Gibson
33. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
34. The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
35. Discworld, Terry Pratchett
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
37. Among Others, Jo Walton
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
39. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
40. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
41. Witch World, Andre Norton
42. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
43. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
44. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
45. Little, Big, John Crowley
46. The Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey
47. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
48. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
49. The Castle trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones
50. The Giver, Lois Lowry