Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books

Tolkien's seminal three-volume epic chronicles the War of the Ring, in which Frodo the hobbit and his companions set out to destroy the evil Ring of Power and restore peace to Middle-earth. The beloved trilogy still casts a long shadow, having established some of the most familiar and enduring tropes in fantasy literature.

In the first, hilarious volume of Adams' Hitchhiker's series, reluctant galactic traveler Arthur Dent gets swept up in some literally Earth-shattering events involving aliens, sperm whales, a depressed robot, mice who are more than they seem, and some really, really bad poetry.

As the Seven Kingdoms face a generation-long winter, the royal Stark family confronts the poisonous plots of the rival Lannisters, the emergence of the Neverborn demons, the arrival of barbarian hordes, and other threats.

Portrays life in a future time when a totalitarian government watches over all citizens and directs all activities.

In a far future world, television dominates, and books are outlawed. The totalitarian regime has ordered all books to be burned by "firemen," whose job is to start the fires rather than stop them. But one fireman begins to see the value of the printed word.

Huxley's classic prophetic novel describes the socialized horrors of a futuristic utopia devoid of individual freedom.

This tale of a handsome farm boy who, aided by a drunken swordsman and a gentle giant, rescues a beautiful princess named Buttercup comes with a slyly humorous, metafictional edge: Goldman claims to have merely abridged an earlier text by one "S. Morgenstern" (actually a pseudonym) and peppers his text with clever commentary.

Farm animals overthrow their human owners and set up their own deeply (and familiarly) flawed government. Orwell's mordant satire of totalitarianism is still a mainstay of ninth-grade reading lists.

As former members of a disbanded group of superheroes called the Crimebusters start turning up dead, the remaining members of the group try to discover the identity of the murderer before they, too, are killed. A graphic novel.

Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future — a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.

Valentine Michael Smith, born and raised on Mars, arrives on Earth stunning Western culture with his superhuman abilities.

Billy Pilgrim returns home from World War II only to be kidnapped by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, who teach him that time is an eternal present.

Mary Shelley's chilling portrait of a scientist obsessed with creating life (whose eventual success comes at too great a cost) was among the first works of science fiction ever produced. Its potent allegorical power, compelling ethical and philosophical themes, and its sheer creepiness have ensured it remains one of the most enduring and influential as well.

Dick's trippy novel tells of sophisticated off-world androids who turn against their creators, slip back to a post-apocalyptic Earth, and must be hunted down by bounty hunter Rick Deckard. The book inspired — albeit very loosely — the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner.

A chilling look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.

Two astronauts find their journey into space and their very lives jeopardized by the jealousy of an extraordinary computer named HAL.

A monumentally devastating plague leaves only a few survivors who, while experiencing dreams of a battle between good and evil, move toward an actual confrontation as they migrate to Boulder, Colo.

Weaving contemporary imagery with Sumerian myths, Stephenson's third novel revolves around a mysterious "pseudo-narcotic" Snow Crash that is capable of affecting people both within — and without — the alternate-reality Internet called the "Metaverse."

The tranquillity of Mars is disrupted by the earthmen who have come to conquer space, colonize the planet, and escape a doomed Earth.

A young writer decides to interview the children of a scientist primarily responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb.

Burgess created his own youth slang for this acid satire of contemporary culture which follows young Alex as he makes his merry way through a dystopia of drugs, sex and ruthless violence, only to be chosen for a psychological experiment meant to mend his ways.

In one of Robert A. Heinlein's most controversial novels, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the universe and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against humankind's most frightening enemy.

Often described as "the Aeneid of rabbits," this is the story of young rabbit Fiver and his brother Hazel, who set out on an epic journey to find a new home after their own warren is destroyed. Watership Down began as a series of improvised stories author Richard Adams told his young daughters during car trips. Adams also invented the language, Lapine, spoken by Hazel and Fiver.

A one-armed computer technician, a radical blond bombshell, an aging academic and a sentient all-knowing computer lead the lunar population in a revolution against Earth's colonial rule.

Miller's 1959 novel follows the Monks of the Order of St. Leibowitz as they attempt to preserve the remnants of civilization after a nuclear war.

Wells' classic 1895 story of an unassuming British inventor who creates a device that sends him hurtling into the far future – A.D. 802,701, to be precise – where subterranean Morlocks prey upon the childlike Eloi.

Professor Arronax and his two companions, trapped aboard a fantastic submarine as prisoners of the deranged Captain Nemo, come face to face with exotic ocean creatures and strange sights hidden from the world above.

When brain surgery makes a mouse into a genius, dull-witted Charlie Gordon wonders if it might also work for him. It does ... but then the mouse begins to regress.

With advanced machines of destruction, aliens from another planet swoop down on planet Earth and begin their conquest, in the classic sci-fi work by the author of The Time Machine.

Retells the legend of King Arthur as perceived by the women central to the tale, from the zealous Morgaine, sworn to uphold her goddess at any cost, to the devout Gwenhwyfar, pledged to the king but drawn to another.

Niven's hugely influential 1970 novel of an outer space expedition to a mysterious object – a vast artificial world in the shape of a ring – that goes horribly wrong.

These creation myths of Tolkien's Middle-earth, for those who found The Lord of the Rings too breezy and slight: In the author's characteristic Beowulfian prose, he recounts the legends of the world's beginnings, the downfall of its gods and men, and the events that changed the face of Middle-earth forever.

Describes King Arthur's life from his childhood to the coronation, creation of the Round Table, and search for the Holy Grail.

Gaiman's wry, darkly whimsical tale of an average young businessman who stops to help a girl bleeding on a London sidewalk and finds himself pulled into a bizarre subterranean world.

The author questions the survival of mankind in this science-fiction tale about Overlords from outer space who dominate the world.

In 1999, a multinational team of astronauts ventures deep into outer space, where they come face to face with an advanced alien civilization.

In the quiet English hamlet of Wall, Tristran Thorn embarks on a remarkable journey through the world of Faerie to recover a fallen star for his lover, the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester.

More than 50 years after Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse and Sergeant Bobby Shaftoe are assigned to Detachment 2702, a secret cryptographic mission, their grandchildren — Randy and Amy — join forces to create a "data haven" in the South Pacific, only to uncover a massive conspiracy with roots in Detachment 2702.

An account of the decade-long conflict between humankind and hordes of the predatory undead is told from the perspective of dozens of survivors — soldiers, politicians, civilians and others — who describe in their own words the epic human battle for survival.

The last unicorn leaves the protection of her enchanted lavender forest to search for her own kind, with the assistance of Schmedrick, the only occasionally successful magician, and dreamer Molly Grue.

Brutha, a simple man leading a quiet life tending his garden, finds his life irrevocably changed when his god, speaking to him through a tortoise, sends him on a mission of peace.

Sentenced to death for forgery and swindling, Moist von Lipwig accepts an offer of a pardon in exchange for revamping an ancient post office, but his efforts are thwarted by tons of undelivered mail, an 18,000-year-old ghost postman, his shoe-wielding new girlfriend, and murderous characters who want the post office shut down.

The accidental killing of a group of emissaries to Earth threatens man's survival.

In nineteenth century England, all is going well for rich, reclusive Mr Norrell, who has regained some of the power of England's magicians from the past, until a rival magician, Jonathan Strange, appears and becomes Mr Norrell's pupil.

A lone human survivor in a world that is overrun by vampires, Robert Neville leads a desperate life in which he must barricade himself in his home every night and hunt down the starving undead by day.

Passionately in love, Clare and Henry vow to hold onto each other and their marriage as they struggle with the effects of Chrono-Displacement Disorder, a condition that casts Henry involuntarily into the world of time travel.

Introduces the world of Roshar through the experiences of a war-weary royal compelled by visions, a high-born youth condemned to military slavery, and a woman who is desperate to save her impoverished house.

Follows Professor Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel and their guide Hans as they venture deep into a volcanic crater in Iceland on a journey that leads them to the center of the earth and to incredible and horrifying discoveries.

Enlisting in the Army on his 75th birthday, John Perry joins an interstellar war between Earth and alien enemies who would stake claims on the few existing inhabitable planets, unaware that the conflict involves much more than he understands.

The story of an engineer who creates a device to raise a girl capable of thinking for herself reveals what happens when a young girl of the poor underclass obtains the device.

During the 22nd century, a space probe's investigation of a mysterious, cylindrical asteroid brings man into contact with an extra-galactic civilization.

Unwilling to accept that his anarchist world must be separated from the rest of the civilized universe, Shevek, a brilliant physicist, risks his life by traveling to the utopian mother planet of Urras.

Set in an Oz where a morose Wizard battles suicidal thoughts, the story of the green-skinned Elphaba, otherwise known as the Wicked Witch of the West, profiles her as an animal-rights activist striving to avenge her dear sister's death.

In a world where you can actually get lost (literally) in literature, Thursday Next, a notorious Special Operative in literary detection, races against time to stop the world's Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature, forcing her to dive into the pages of a novel to stop literary homicide, in a wildly imaginative, mesmerizing thriller.

Stewart's first chapter in her five-volume take on the Arthurian legend is told from the point of view of young Merlin, who reluctantly engineers the birth of Arthur.

Raz, who has lived in a monastery since childhood, away from the violent upheavals of the outside world, becomes one of a group of formerly cloistered scholars who are appointed by a higher power to avert an impending disaster.

Five years after the fall of the Empire, a dying part of the Empire all the more dangerous near death has just discovered something that could bring it back, the last of the Emperor's warlords, Admiral Thrawn.

Eighteen science fiction stories deal with love, madness and death on Mars, Venus and in space.

All hope for stopping the vampiric elite from controlling Earth depends on human SOFs (Special Other Forces) and the success of their attempt to recruit Sunshine, the daughter of legendary sorcerer Onyx Blaise.

Set in a far-future where space has been portioned into "regions of thought," a human expedition to an ancient data archive unleashes the Blight, a superintelligent entity capable of destroying thousands of worlds.

Fearing a violent confrontation between Earthmen and Spacers, Detective Baley and his new partner, a robot, investigate the murder of a Spacetown scientist

As the great Hamner-Brown comet, dubbed Lucifer's Hammer by the press, approaches Earth, various business executives, politicians, criminals, journalists and scientists await the impending cataclysm and its general and personal effects with decidedly differing feelings

Stranded in the 14th century — a time of superstition and fear — time traveler Kivrin becomes an unlikely angel of hope during history's darkest hour and awaits rescue by her comrades.

In the squalid, Gothic city of New Crobuzon, a mysterious half-human, half-bird stranger comes to Isaac, a gifted but eccentric scientist, with a request to help him fly, but Isaac's obsessive experiments and attempts to grant the request unleash a terrifying dark force on the entire city.