| 1 | The Lord of the Rings | J.R.R. Tolkein | I started reading a friend's copy of "The Two Towers" while staying at his house on summer night. I didn't get far past Boromir's death, but that was enough to stamp an imprint that has lasted to this day. The next morning, I begged and pleaded until my mother finally gave in and ran out to the library. I don't think I left the house for five days. Can you believe the movies don't suck! There, my friend, is proof of the existence of God! |
| 2 | Magister Ludi | Hermann Hesse | I was on a serious Hesse kick in high school and wrote my senior paper on "Siddhartha". Even more deeply reflective than most of his work- I enjoy it all, but this novel, in my opinion, is the pinnacle. The concept of the Glass Bead game is tremendously compelling to any would-be intellectual. |
| 3 | The Dark is Rising | Susan Cooper | The whole series is great, but this book, the second, is the one to read first. I also very much like "The Grey King" and "Silver on the Tree". I have a personal tradition of re-reading it every year around Christmastime. |
| 4 | Dune | Frank Herbert | I really enjoyed the entire series, but the first book is simply head and shoulders above the rest. It's one of the few truly epic works of science fiction. I've been holding out on the pre-quels written by his son, but I don't know how much longer I can do so since they're supposed to be halfway-decent. |
| 5 | The Chronicles of Narnia | C.S. Lewis | I re-read these recently and liked them even better than the first three times. Excellent for both children and adults. My favorite is "A Horse and His Boy", but they're all very good. Philip Pullman, the notorious anti-Narnian, is not only one strange-looking excuse for a proto-human, but is a prodigious ass besides. These books will be read and loved long after "The Golden Compass" is forgotten. |
| 6 | Foucault's Pendulum | Umberto Eco | Umberto Eco is, in my opinion, the greatest living writer. I have had the good fortune to read a number of his academic works as well as to interview him, and greatly admire not only his erudition but also his playful, lively mind and his remarkable kindness. Foucault's Pendulum is his best novel, a wild thriller of stunningly broad dimensions. |
| 7 | Cryptonomicon | Neal Stephenson | If Eco is the world's greatest living writer, I suspect that Neal Stephenson may prove to be the best of my generation. I envy his works even as I marvel at them. Cryptonomicon not only has one of the coolest titles in the history of publishing, but also manages to combine philosophical and technological reflection in a hard-hitting real-world setting that nevertheless feels fantastic. |
| 8 | The Name of the Rose | Umberto Eco | Eco. Murder. Monks. The Apocalypse. Read it. |
| 9 | Dandelion Wine | Ray Bradbury | Tremendously evocative of what it felt like to be a boy growing up. Bradbury at his absolute best. |
| 10 | The Iliad | Homer | Okay, it's not exactly a novel per se, but it seemed unthinkable to leave out any reference to the classic Greek tales on which I first honed my reading skills. It will probably come as no surprise to those familiar with the battle scenes in my own work, but I very much prefer "The Iliad" to "The Odyssey". |
| 11 | The Code of the Woosters | P.G. Wodehouse | You could pretty much substitute any Bertie and Jeeves novel here. They are all the same, and they are all great. When my friends and I nearly needed mass organ replacement after coming close to laughing ourselves to death at "The Play's The Thing", I was not in the least surprised to learn Wodehouse had had a hand in writing it. |
| 12 | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | There are few series as purely funny as the Hitchhiker's books. Alternately weird, funny and sneakily insightful, they are a pure delight to read. I stopped with Mostly Harmless, however, and I'm glad I did. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish was lost on me as a teenager, but I read it again five years ago and was surprised how funny it was. |
| 13 | The Tale of Genji | Murasaki Shikibu | This is possibly the oldest novel in history, a fictional tale of the Heian court at Edo written by a lady-in-waiting at its real-world eleventh century counterpart. Everything about it is foreign, from its structure, its belief systems and its graceful, delicate sensibility. A long and distinctly unusual read, but one well worth making. |
| 14 | The Hobbit | J.R.R. Tolkein | In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.... |
| 15 | The Secret Books of Paradys | Tanith Lee | Tanith Lee is a gorgeous writer. Her text is like a dreamy woman with impossibly voluptuous curves draped, barely, in red silk. She can be as disturbing as Guy de Maupassant, as eldritch as Lovecraft, but her horrific visions are always conjured with a light and graceful touch. |
| 16 | Neuromancer | William Gibson | Oh, it's just cool. Still. My old band was almost named Burning Chrome instead of Psykosonik, but Paul shot it down. |
| 17 | Lord of Light | Roger Zelazny | Great book. Great freaking book! The gods of the Hindu pantheon are actually the human explorers wielding technology that, in Clarkian terms, is not so much confused with magic as with divine powers. Perhaps its the Siddhartha element, but there's something Hesse-like about this book somehow. |
| 18 | The Magic of Xanth | Piers Anthony | I like Piers Anthony, a lot. In fact, I can't believe I left "Macroscope" off the list. However, he really does seem to get tired of a series after three books, although Xanth kept it going through the first five or so. |
| 19 | The Chronicles of Prydain | Lloyd Alexander | Has there ever been a better title for a hero in literary history than Taran: Assistant Pig-keeper? I think not. Enchanting, wonderful books, especially The Black Cauldron. |
| 20 | The Hyperion Cantos | Dan Simmons | Dan Simmons is one of the few writers who truly awes me. There is a heart of darkness at the core of his vision that is genuinely ominous, and yet his creation of a future universe dominated by a space-faring Vatican is truer to the historical reality of the Catholic Church as well as the spirit of true religious belief than almost any other modern SF&F writer. The Shrike is such a fearfully wonderful creation that I actually worked it into a rather bizarre poem I once wrote... I wonder what ever happened to that. The Lord of Pain, the razor-tipped monster outside the bounds of time and space, very cool. |
| 21 | Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency | Douglas Adams | In some ways, I actually prefer the Dirk Gently books to the Hitchiker's trilogy. The humor is a little less obvious and a little more wry, and as a former software developer, I can't help but appreciate some of the jabs Adams makes at the industry. The books are also more philosophical, allowing Adams' more serious side to show through, if only a little. There is a poignancy to the unwanted gods, and to the helplessly immaterial ghost, that only highlights the brilliant humor. |
| 22 | Watership Down | Richard Adams | I was always confused how an author of this book could have failed to write anything else that even approached the power of this novel. But it finally made sense when, a few weeks ago, I read that the book is really a rewrite of stories he used to tell his children when they were young. It was fascinating to learn how they helped him with the manuscript, reminding him of characters he'd forgotten. This book is not solely for children, but it is one of the greatest children's books ever written and is an unforgettable introduction to the concept of life and death. It is powerful, emotional and unforgettable. |
| 23 | Goblin Moon | Theresa Edgerton | Theresa Edgerton's writing makes me think she must be Tanith Lee's nicer, more light-hearted younger sister. There is a lovely creepy edge to her writing that perfectly complements her exquisite 18th century milieu. The Green Lion trilogy is also rather good. |
| 24 | A Swiftly Tilting Planet | Madeleine L'Engle | While many have a high regard for A Wrinkle in Time, I vastly preferred this book. Frightening, terrifying even, but ultimately optimistic. I'm quite pleased to know that Rowena, who painted this cover, also painted the cover of the first edition of The War in Heaven. |
| 25 | The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis | It will surprise no one to know that this was a major influence on the Eternal Warriors series. It is increasingly less so as the story continues, but without it I don't know if EW would even exist. I also recommend reading Screwtape Proposes a Toast, which is included in some of the newer editions. |
| 26 | The Deryni Chronicles | Katherine Kurtz | |
| 27 | Of Human Bondage | W. Somerset Maughm | |
| 28 | Dragonsong | Ann McCaffrey | |
| 29 | Brideshead Revisited | Evelyn Waugh | |
| 30 | Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy | |
| 31 | Valis | Philip K. Dick | |
| 32 | Dragonflight | Ann McCaffrey | |
| 33 | The Swiss Family Robinson | Johann Wyss | |
| 34 | The Belgariad | David Eddings | |
| 35 | The Tower of Geburah | John White | |
| 36 | The Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries | Dorothy Sayers | |
| 37 | Accelerando | Charles Stross | |
| 38 | The Illuminati Trilogy | Robert Anton Wilson | |
| 39 | The Flanders Panel | Arturo Perez-Reverte | |
| 40 | Narcissus and Goldmund | Hermann Hesse | |
| 41 | The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant | Stephen Donaldson | |
| 42 | Vanity Fair | William Thackeray | |
| 43 | Hercule Poirot mysteries | Agatha Christie | |
| 44 | The Island of the Day Before | Umberto Eco | |
| 45 | Giant's Star | James P. Hogan | |
| 46 | The Fountains of Paradise | Arthur C. Clarke | |
| 47 | The Programmed Man | ||
| 48 | The Snow Queen | Joan D. Vinge | |
| 49 | Red Storm Rising | Tom Clancy | |
| 50 | The Innocence of Father Brown | G.K. Chesterton | |
| 51 | Chung-Kuo | David Wingrove | |
| 52 | A Wrinkle in Time | Madeleine L'Engle | |
| 53 | Dragonlance Chronicles | Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman | |
| 54 | The Sunne in Splendour | Sharon K. Penman | |
| 55 | The Green Lion Trilogy | Theresa Edgerton | |
| 56 | A Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens | |
| 57 | On a Pale Horse | Piers Anthony | |
| 58 | Atlas Shrugged | Ayn Rand | |
| 59 | Saga of the Pliocene Exile | Julian May | |
| 60 | Brother Cadfael mysteries | Ellis Peters | |
| 61 | Nine Princes in Amber | Roger Zelazny | |
| 62 | Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood | Rebecca Wells | |
| 63 | Siddhartha | Hermann Hesse | |
| 64 | The Bourne Identity | Robert Ludlum | |
| 65 | A Shadow Over Innsmouth | H.P. Lovecraft | |
| 66 | The Deverry series | Katherine Kerr | |
| 67 | The Riftwar Saga | Raymond Feist | |
| 68 | Tunnel in the Sky | Robert Heinlein | |
| 69 | Foundation | Isaac Asimov | |
| 70 | The Avignon Quintet | Laurence Durrell | |
| 71 | Interview with the Vampire | Anne Rice | |
| 72 | The Club Dumas | Arturo Perez-Reverte | |
| 73 | Ender's Game | Orson Scott Card | |
| 74 | A Canticle for Leibowitz | ||
| 75 | Not For Glory | Joel Rosenberg | |
| 76 | The Razor's Edge | W. Somerset Maugham | |
| 77 | The Call of the Wild | Jack London | |
| 78 | The Number of the Beast | Robert Heinlein | |
| 79 | The Oz books | L. Frank Baum | |
| 80 | The Fencing Master | Arturo Perez-Reverte | |
| 81 | The Lions of Al-Rassan | Guy Gavriel Kay | |
| 82 | The Cairo Trilogy | Naguib Mahfouz | |
| 83 | The Misplaced Legion | Harry Turtledove | |
| 84 | Crime and Punishment | Fyodor Dostoevsky | |
| 85 | The Ivanhoe Gambit | Simon Hawke | |
| 86 | Headcrash | Bruce Bethke | |
| 87 | The Diamond Age | Neal Stephenson | |
| 88 | The Seville Communion | Arturo Perez-Reverte | |
| 89 | Guardians of the Flame | Joel Rosenberg | |
| 90 | A Passage to India | E.M. Forster | |
| 91 | The Left Hand of Darkness | Ursula K. LeGuin | |
| 92 | Dragon Prince | Melanie Rawn | |
| 93 | Red Dwarf | Grant Naylor | |
| 94 | Memoirs of a Geisha | Arthur Golden | |
| 95 | Snow Crash | Neal Stephenson | |
| 96 | A Room with a View | E.M. Forster | |
| 97 | The Initiate Brother | Sean Russell | |
| 98 | The Silmarillion | J.R.R. Tolkein | |
| 99 | Good Omens | Terry Pratchett | |
| 100 | A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius | Dave Eggers | This book is too self-obsessed and autobiographical for the author to ever write an interesting novel, but it is quite entertaining. The Acknowledgements are hysterical, quite possibly the best part of the book. |