The Very Best Science Fiction and Fantasy
Explore the ultimate list of the best science fiction and fantasy books. Discover top-rated fantasy fiction and sci-fi novels for every reader's taste.
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Threshold
by David R. Palmer
The product of centuries of genetic manipulation, Peter Cory must use his extraordinary abilities to confront a malevolent black hole that threatens the fabric of the universe--if he can survive the perils of a deadly planet
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Hour of the Horde
by Gordon R. Dickson
Representatives of each planet meet in space in a last-pitch effort to turn back an invading horde of space travelers
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Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
Child-hero Ender Wiggin must fight a desperate battle against a deadly alien race if mankind is to survive.
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The True Game
by Sheri S. Tepper
Grass, has helped redefine speculative fiction. Award winner, national bestseller, and one of the genre's most respected and acclaimed talents, she has transcended the boundaries of science fiction and fantasy with her widespread success. Available for the first time in one volume, this is the long out-of-print trilogy that launched her remarkable career: King's Blood Four, Necromancer Nine, and Wizard's Eleven. In the lands of the True Game, your lifelong identity emerges as you play-Prince or Sorcerer, Demon or Doyen. Raising the dead is the least of the Necromancer's Talents-he is a wild card who threatens the True Game itself. A giant stalks the mountains. Shadowpeople gather by the light of the moon. Bonedancers raise up armies of the dead. And the Wizard's Eleven sleep trapped in their dreams. Players, take your places. The final Game begins now...
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The Great Book of Amber
by Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber have earned their place as all-time classics of imaginative literature. Now here are all ten novels, together in one magnificent omnibus volume. Witness the titanic battle for supremacy waged on Earth, in the Courts of Chaos, and on a magical world of mystery, adventure, and romance.
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Old Man's War
by John Scalzi
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce—and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine—and what he will become is far stranger. "Solid . . . [Scalzi] sidesteps most of the clichés of military science fiction, delivers fast-paced scenes of combat and pays attention to the science underpinning his premise." —San Francisco Chronicle "Scalzi's imagined interstellar arena is coherently and compellingly delineated . . . His speculative elements are top-notch. His combat scenes are blood-roiling. His dialogue is suitably snappy and profane. And the moral and philosophical issues he raises . . . insert useful ethical burrs under the military saddle of the story." —Paul Di Filippo, The Washington Post "Thought-provoking!" —Entertainment Weekly "Smartly conceived and thoroughly entertaining, Old Man’s War is a splendid novel." –Cleveland Plain Dealer "When humanity reaches the stars, it discovers that it must defend its claim to new planets against alien races with similar expansionist tendencies. To ensure the expertise of its soldiers, Earth creates the Colonial Defense Force, an army of men and women otherwise classified as senior citizens, who give up their lives on Earth for an uncertain and perilous future among the stars. Scalzi's first novel presents a new approach to military sf, boasting an unusual cast of senior citizens as heroes. A good choice for most libraries." —Library Journal "Though a lot of SF writers are more or less efficiently continuing the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein, Scalzi’s astonishingly proficient first novel reads like an original work by the late grand master . . . This virtuoso debut pays tribute to SF’s past while showing that well-worn tropes still can have real zip when they’re approached with ingenuity." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Gripping and surpassingly original. It's Starship Troopers without the lectures. It's The Forever War with better sex. It's funny, it's sad, and it's true." —Cory Doctorow "John Scalzi is a fresh and appealing new voice, and Old Man's War is classic SF seen from a modern perspective—a fast-paced tour of a daunting, hostile universe." —Robert Charles Wilson "I enjoyed Old Man's War immensely. A space war story with fast action, vivid characters, moral complexity and cool speculative physics, set in a future you almost want to live into, and a universe you sincerely hope you don't live in already." —Ken MacLeod
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Man Who Never Missed
by Steve Perry
The first title in Perry's cult-classic Matador series is now back in print. Once a ruthless soldier, Emile Khadaji has disappeared from the Galactic Confederation--with a secret plan to destroy it all in the name of freedom. Reissue.
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Storm Front
by Jim Butcher
In the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series, Harry Dresden’s investigation of a grisly double murder pulls him into the darkest depths of magical Chicago… As a professional wizard, Harry Dresden knows firsthand that the “everyday” world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most of them don’t play well with humans. And those that do enjoy playing with humans far too much. He also knows he’s the best at what he does. Technically, he’s the only at what he does. But even though Harry is the only game in town, business—to put it mildly—stinks. So when the Chicago P.D. bring him in to consult on a double homicide committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name... “A great series—fast-paced, vividly realized and with a hero/narrator who’s excellent company.”—Cinescape
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Jumper
by Steven Gould
Story of Davy, a young man, who discovers he has a power that sets him apart from others, teleporting.
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Wildside
by Steven Gould
VOYA "Outstanding Books of the Year" selection An American Library Association "Best Books" selection Forget the lottery. Teenager Charlie Newell has just discovered something that will make him and his friends billionaires. What if a world existed in which no humans ever evolved? No cities. No pollution. No laws. A fantastic world filled with unimaginable riches in which everything--everything--was yours just for the taking? Charlie has found that world. And he plans to use it to make him and his friends rich. There is a problem: How do you keep something this big a secret?
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Starship Troopers
by Robert Anson Heinlein
In a futuristic military adventure a recruit goes through the roughest boot camp in the universe and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry in what historians would come to call the First Interstellar War
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Master of the Five Magics
by Lyndon Hardy
Alodar was a mere apprentice thaumaturge, learning the least of the five arts of magic. As such, he had no right to aspire to the hand of the fair lady, Queen Vendora, not even when he saved her during the demon-inspired seige of her frontier castle. But aspire he did. His quest forced him from one exacting brance of magic to another, with the rewards he earned always going to others. Finally, only the branch of wizardry remained--the great, almost lost art of controlling demons. It was then he learned of the ancient plot behind his rise--and faced the greatest danger any man could dare!