#13 The Final Empire - Mistborn first trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

What can I say. Wow. I never had heard much about Brandon Sanderson. I was going through the Wheel of Time books when he started writing the final few books in the series. When I finished the first of those, I enjoyed it enough that I thought I would grab one of Sanderson’s. So I grabbed the first of the Mistborn books.

The premise completely blew me away. It was so original. What if when Frodo had taken the ring to mount doom, Sauron got it, and won. What would the world be like in a thousand years. The magic system based on metals and using those metals to do magic is so unique. It still be being revealed to this day what things can be done with them.

On top of all this, we will be doing the standard hero’s journey with a character in the book, a young lady named Vin. That is straightforward enough, so they decided that it needed another twist. Kelsier, the person that finds Vin and is going to train her, is in the middle of a giant heist. He and a crew are getting together to try and steal from the Lord Ruler. So rather than the standard journey, it would be told all the while they are trying to steal all they can from the dark lord himself.

Some of the characters are truly terrifying. the steel inquistors (think the nazgul from Lord of the Rings) They are made by the lord ruler and the process is “messy”. they are bald, covered in tatoos, and have two giant spikes hammered through their eyes that protrude from the back of their heads. In fact in later books they are death, or considered the gods of death. The image makes me shudder.

#15 Daughter of the Empire by Janny Wurts and Raymond E. Feist

I read Fiest’s Magician Apprentice and Master books when I was younger. I enjoyed them, and even got a few more books into the series. Eventually In the 90s I grabbed Daughter of the empire and was completely blown away.

I think it was rare to see a book written entirely from the view of a young lady. At least it was rare at that time. A time when so many books were being tossed around with only heroes that were young men. A fantasy built in Fiest’s world. It has that fantasy element, but even more, a medieval political intrigue, mixed with some spy book.

The opening scene is what blew me away, and had be hooked. Mara is in the temple in prayer. When she completes the ritual, she will be a servant of the goddess. As it nears completion, a battered and weary guard runs into the room while temple servants and priests try and stop him. He cries out that he has come for the Lady of the Acoma.

That is not just a phrase. it is based on what I assume is a oriental honor based culture, and their own imagination. Only the ruler of the family is called the Lord or Lady. So he is crying out to stop her, her father and brothers are dead/ The unusual has happened, and a woman will lead a house. Mara recognizes the cry and stands. She sets aside her things and moves on.

Had he been too late, the house would have fallen. No heirs and the house would be considered forfeit, and cursed by the gods. The soldiers moving on to banditry , and the history of the house destroyed. Her father and brother had been killed in a battle in Midkemia, another dimension (see Magician: Apprentice and Master). Most of the soldiers of the family were destroyed in the process.

She must find a way to protect what is hers, then slowly gain allies, and go after those who betrayed her family and brought about their death. Written masterfully and making me wonder what was next. At first everyone assumes she will be killed quickly and no one really puts pressure on her because she was not a threat.

By the time her enemies begin to strike, she is getting too powerful, more than they expected. Eventually, she will become a force that will reshape the empire.

Each book adds more depth, and the young teen that takes control of the house, defeats enemy after enemy and makes more and more powerful friends on her rise. Yet it is not for power. Power is not a club to be used, but a silent knife. Working in shadows, and to help support the Emperor, and live in peace is her goal. Striking only when others threaten that peace.

Still a great book. I wondered if I should move it up, it dropped only a place or two from my last book list. However, it is because new books have come out and slipped in. If I read it a few months ago, I bet I would have moved it up 4-5 spots, but maybe not, there are some incredible books to come.

#17 Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Another of the books from my youth that I return too regularly. This book was completely massacred by the movie, but I do love the movie. It just is nowhere near the movie. Five years ago, when I did this list, this book was listed number nine.

I think I have added too many good books. That’s not a bad thing. I still come back to this book pretty regularly. It is such a good book.

This was written in 1959, and won the Hugo Award in 1960. It is not a light-hearted romp of science fiction loveliness that you can mindlessly enjoy on a Sunday afternoon. It can be gut-wrenching, and thought-provoking. So much of the novel explores the mindset of a future world and battling an adversary that we don’t understand in space.

The time is a military based future. Remember, this was written soon after WW2, the Korean War and in the midst of the Cold War. In order to vote, you have had to “sacrificed for the greater good” and served a term in the military. Everyone has to be allowed to serve in the military, if you want, so you can be a voter. Even if “you are an invalid pushing buttons at the North Pole.” They will find something that you can do. There is a lot of philosophy and military thinking put into the book.

Rico was a rich kid, spoiled and was just graduating from form high school. His best buddy Carl wanted to join, and he goes with them, and joins. He goes through testing that day, and finds out that he has no aptitude for anything he is interested in, so he is put in as an infantryman. There was the option of being a dog handler of a genetically altered hound, however he was kind of found not ideal for that either. Upon returning home and not being sure what he was doing, and he tells his parents. His dad is furious, and that sets him that he was going through with it.

You then go through training with him, and he is doing well, and then struggling. Eventually, he goes all in when the bugs drop a meteor on his home. Then it moves from mission to mission. His going on to be a leader, then an officer. All the time discussion of military philosophy and tactics.

He grows, he becomes better. The soldiers are in armored suits, packed in egg capsules where they can’t move and are ejected into the atmosphere for their drops. Many are killed while falling, like a paratrooper in WW2, but they can’t see what is going on until they get to the lower atmosphere. Carrying small nukes and an array of weapons, they rule the battlefield. Heinlen goes into detail with these weapons and the rules of engagement that all soldiers receive.

I don’t agree, but people say this glorifies the soldier, making killing and an army career glorified. I am not sure I agree. Does that mean any book that poses a positive light on the military is biased? and every book that shows the terrible parts hates the military? No, this is a point of view, a view from that era. The era of WW2 soldiers. War is losing friends, getting yelled at and punished, bad commanders and good ones, wondering if you will survive the next drop, and fighting for a cause. War is hell, but it can have honor and meaning. Other books will tell a different story in a different era.

The downsides are that it was written in the late 50’s. Many of the ideals that would have been considered progressive at that time, are now considered outdated. I won’t defend or argue the points, it is a snapshot of the future from his time, not ours. I think its wrong to look at books and completely look at them from our time. Stranger in a strange land was written a few years later, and I have heard people say it is dated, but in the 1960s it was extreme.

Well, I do enjoy the boo and recommend it to others.

#16 Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Ahhh The Expanse. I had given up on the later books by the time this series came out. This book sent chills through me when I read the story. This was a realistic future, using science, tossed with a bit of detective story, action, sci-fi, and a touch of horror.

I really wished the horror aspect of the creatures had been tossed in the TV series, the horror of what they saw was missing. It made him want to destroy and all involved and was missed.

But I get ahead of myself. An ice hauler is out gathering ice chunks for colonies in the rim of the solar system. It gets an sos, gets at the scene, sends a few crew. Then a highly advanced ship pops into appearance and nukes their ship. They believe along with evidence from the scene that is being done by the human colonized Mars.

They cobble together a broadcast with their evidence, expecting to die there. Accusing Mars of the first actions in a war. They get an order to rendezvous with the Martian flagship, and are followed by a number of smaller ships.

The martians take them in as prisoners, and get ready to start interrogating them when they are attacked by the smaller ships. They are escorted away as the ship is overrun, and led to a swift assault ship. One of the five that had been rescued was a former martian pilot. They jump out with the small ship, and their adventures begin.

In the middle of all this, someone has released an organism. The best way of thinking of it is from John Carpenters “The Thing”. I love that show. The organism has a purpose, and it uses living matter to get there. Reprogramming the DNA to make what it needs.

There is also the secondary detective story of a washed up police officer hunting for a rich girl that was the patent zero for the Thing virus monster. He wants to find her, then find out who did this to her, using her as a biological weapon. To the point of becoming obsessive.

I loved this story almost more at the beginning of the novel, towards the end it slides into the background. As it needed to. However this leads to conflict in the three groups. Earth, Mars, and the Belters. A fantastic story. I did find it ran a bit long, and even after loving the first book I eventually gave up on the last book. I was burned out. i don’t know if it will return, but the first book is fantastic.

#18 The Goblin Emperor by Sarah Monette

This was a book nominated for about every award. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel of 2014, the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the 2015 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and won the 2015 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.

I found it different, a new twist on the genre. The book is politics and political maneuvering. It is about tolerance and hate. It is also a look inside the elves and elven community. Likewise, it is so well written, I found myself immersed in that world.

Maia is born as the son of the elven emperor and a goblin princess. The marriage was arranged for peace between the two kingdoms. As one of the many wives of the emperor, she is tossed aside because of her race. He spent his time with his other wives. When his mother passes, he is moved to an estate far from the capital to be forgotten and ignored.

When an accident occurs in an airship with the King and his sons on board that kills them all Maia suddenly finds himself Emperor. In a world where he is hated for being half goblin. He is also foreign to the ways of the court and the world he suddenly finds himself.

He finds a conspiracy to kill his father, and rule. Then has to find a wife, and make his way through the twisted world that is politics. It is not a deep read, but thoroughly fun and enjoyable .

#19 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

It may just be me. However, there were a lot that loved this story, so it was made into a book. However, it was perfect for my generation. The movie was interesting, and I loved many of the graphics, but it was the book that was fascinating. This appeared lower on my last list now it has moved up about 7 spots.

The book tells the story of Wade Watts, living in a dump and a world falling apart. So, like so many others, he spent his time in the oasis. Think of it as a virtual reality World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, and just about every other fiction tossed into a pot. People lived, played, went to church, school, and did everything imaginable there. It was cheaper than real life.

When the owner died, he put a game in his game. The winner gets ownership. People scramble to solve the first riddle. How is it different than the movie. Well, Lets just look at the fist key. It was a car race in the movie. Some spoilers here for the part of the book.
In the book. they took the riddle Three hidden keys open three secret gates. Wherein the errant will be tested for worthy traits, and those with the skill to survive these straits will reach The End where the prize awaits. that does not help but announce the contest.

Then people searched his journals and discovered pages marked and assemble letters to the following. The Copper Key awaits explorers In a tomb filled with horrors, But you have much to learn, If you hope to earn, A place among the high scorers

Well obviously for those of us playing DND back in that era a tomb of horrors is the Tomb of Horrors DND module. Where in this fantasy world had all been modeled and built. They had to find it, and find the right one.

There are arcade games, references to anime, and many other oddities. I remember watching Little Big Man, and Forrest Gump, both taking you on trips through past eras. This book did that for me. Well written, not condescending, and not needing vast amounts of imagination. I did not have to suspend reality a lot. You often have to do that a lot on fantasy and scifi books. So it is just plain fun.

#20 Thomas Covenant books by Steven R Donaldson

Behold the anti-hero of legend. One that so many reviewers love or hate. When last I wrote this book countdown, I placed it in my top 10, but time has not been good for the series for a few reasons. This is a book that, so often, I see people stop reading a few chapters in and give up on it, and over time has been lost on many peoples lists.

First, the newer books in the series become more incoherent as each one is published. That makes me struggle with the series as a whole. I think the author should have given up at the end of the second trilogy. The second trilogy was not great, but it was not bad. Then it just got bad.

Second, I believe that I am living in the greatest age of fantasy writing. In the 1970s, a number of mediocre writers wrote fantasy. They are hailed by many, but the books are not very good. So it is easy for a good book like this one to rise to the top in the 80s and 90s, However, the same book is struggling with the writing of today’s authors. yes, many are still pumping out junk, but there is a vast array of fantastic storytelling and writing out there.

The final thing varies in this time frame that makes it not age as well will be covered in my review.

I listened to many of these books in the last few years. I was trying to pull myself back to my youth and relive this. I have read the first trilogy every 5-6 years now I am older. The world building is deep and for the time it was written it is unique.

Thomas Covenant is a leper. The stigma that goes with that was more horrible 40-50 years ago, so he was really cast out of the community. No one wanted to be near him, no one knew how it was spread. His wife and child left him, and he found himself bitter and alone. He hates everyone for the place that he is in, he was an author and is living on the few checks still rolling in. Physically, he has had some of his fingers amputated when he did not take care of himself, and clings to his wedding ring. The white gold ring that is the memory of his love and marriage.

This paints him and bitter, angry, cynical, and just a disagreeable character. He rarely lets glimpses of a better, happier person seeps through. I think this resonated more in my youth. I had my friends. Eric, Merrill, Dan, Tracy, and a few other nerds growing up, but before them, I was picked on and ignored. I registered that anger, and bitterness.

He finds himself summoned to a magic land by a being wanting the white gold and the power it represents. Legends tell of the power in it, and that it can save and/or destroy the land. He ends up in a small village and is found by a teenage girl who sees a half handed figure fighting the evil. It brings to people’s mind the image of Berik the half hand that saved the land a millenia before. Due to a chain of events that I will not try and explain, he eventually ends up raping her. This transgression will haunt him in every book and every step of the journey he takes. He can never escape it.

That is the reason that many stop reading, and is why the book does not go over as well. I see myself in the girl’s father now. As a father to three daughters, I struggle more with the book than I did as a youth. In the books, no one feels they can judge him because of the power he wields. Overwhelmed by grief for what he did, he tries again and again to fix things, only to destroy and damage the land a little more. In many ways, the anti-hero come to peace with what happened by realizing he can never atone for what he did. There is not making it better.

He makes poor choice after poor choice. Some knowingly, others by chance. He does do both. He does destroy the land, and save it. The second trilogy is heartbreaking, as he returns after a millennium has passed. Everything about the land that he loved is gone, everything’s is corrupted by the evil that can never fully be destroyed.

As I write this, part of me thinks it should be lowed, and also higher than where I dropped it. Maybe I will come to grips with this book. I hunted for the original trilogy in the covers with the picture I show here. I only rarely hunt for Hardbacks, They can overtake the house, and i don’t want to damage them by taking them out into the world on trips. So it is pretty rare I grab them, but this trilogy I did.

#21 Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling

It took me a while, and I finally reached the halfway mark. Every time I get ready to make the next post I start shuffling my list. Then I start moving the remaining books up and down. This was higher at one point then it was lower. It was never put in my last countdown. That was a horrible miscalculation, and I regret that decision a lot.

Harry Potter had taken off when I started reading it. I thought the first book was amusing, and for kids. I had kids that were 12-13, and I thought it was great to have a fantasy book that was so well done targeted to that age. I mean, the hobbit is, but few others are. They seem to be for young adults, adults at that point, or for small children. I think this is the last teen book on my countdown. I will have to dig to make sure.

The first book was good, and the second. Then I noticed something. When I read the Prisoner of Azkaban, I noticed that the writing was growing up. By the Order of Phoenix, we were touching on dark subjects. Subjects that were not preteen in nature. I do not know if it was the plan, but the books changed, and they really sucked me in.

I will say that the Order of Phoenix was the book where I became a fan. The angry teen, the problems in life. Feeling ignored, loss, anger. All are things that most teen books ignore. They like to gloss over those as just something that happens, or try and say that they do not exist.

It is good to see a character grow up. Too many kids books, the kids are perpetually 12. Even though they are supposed to grow, or we just pretend they are that age for book after book. I think that is a disservice to the kids. Knowing life can be hard, but lived is important. There are far more messages in these books than I want to think about.

As I look back, I love the series even more. From the childlike wonder of book one, to the adult darkness and despair of book seven. The themes of friendship, and love in the middle of horror and sadness cannot be undervalued. You can read it years later and see new things, new little Easter eggs to help you in life. So I thank Rowling for this engaging and loving jaunt through life.

When push comes to shove, it ended up as 21, but it could have easily ended up far higher depending on my mood that day.

#22 A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

In 1912 Burroughs wrote this fantastic science fiction book. I cannot fathom the imagination that is needed to do science fiction in this era. In a time when there were no accolades for this kind of thing. This year saw two novels that were released, A Princess of Mars and Tarzan of the apes.

Give some thought to that. Science fiction 110 years ago. The hero is a confederate officer in 1876 that has left to go into the wild west to hunt for gold. He finds it but the Apaches are after him, so he hides in a cave the Apaches consider sacred.

The next thing he knows, he is on Mars, and is found by the green four armed martians of the planet. There is less gravity, and the thinner atmosphere means he has superhuman strength there. He gains the respect of the tribe and its leader and lives with them

Eventually and save a woman, Dejah Thoris who is the Princess of Helium a red martian, (humans are red). He rescues her to return her to her people. They are a collection of cities that have more technology than the greens, and if I recall they control the canals of Mars, and the food.

There was a movie, it was not horrible, but I feel it killed the story. Think of this like a steampunk series. That is the feel. If I am remembering sequels, the flying machines are dirigibles, and there is a lot of swashbuckling going on. This was before WW1, so the wars were on horseback and a saber was the gentlemans way to fight. So that is how it is here. I remember scenes that were like sky pirates.

This book was in my library in school, one of the few science fiction books, and it fascinated me, I was reading it in the 70s, and that was 60 years after it was written. I thought it was cool and short tale that captivated my mind before I moved onto more complex stories.

#23 Magician Master and Apprentice by Raymond Feist

This is one of the first series that I started when it first came out in 1982. It has such a traditional start, it reminds me a lot of the Disney movie the Sword in the Stone. Very simple and great for a kid to start into, but it quickly escalates and becomes bigger and more creative as time goes on.

Boys are coming of age in a remote Duchy of the kingdom, and part of that is the annual ceremony where the masters select their apprentices. Boys dream of fighters or other careers, others leave on the sea for a craft, or if you are not chosen by any of the guild masters go about their way.

At the end of the ceremony, Pug is not selected, but then Kulgan the wizard steps in and picks the youth to be his apprentice. He has never selected one before, and partially picks the boy out of pity. His life changes drastically as he tries to study magic, with no success.

Yet, he uses magic in a dramatic and sudden fashion to save the princess of the kingdom, and is rewarded by being made a squire. Then a war breaks out with people with superior magic and from another reality. He is captured by them, and a new life starts to mingle with its old.

Like I mentioned, it starts out overly simple and builds into a deeper and richer story. I like his books, but the first two that are written as one book and split by the publishers in the US to two books are great.

#24 Ringworld by Larry Niven

It is funny to me how I thought this list would be all fantasy books, but ends up with a lot of fiction/science fiction in it. I guess I am a little more rounded than my brain thinks.

I stumbled across this book in college, or just before. It was written in the 1970s and tells the story of Louis Wu, he is 200 and getting tires of life. Nothing is new or different, nothing changes. He is approached by Nessus, who is a Pierson’s Puppeteer, he wants him to go on a mission with him.

Puppeteers are reclusive. In fact, they live in terror of everything. They chose Nessus for this mission because he is slightly insane. Only a puppeteer that is insane would travel among humans, and risk hyperspace.

Louis accepts and is taken to the secret puppeteer home world. They are busily planning for the galaxies end in a billion years. They have seen a ring world planet. Someone that smart could be a threat and a massive galaxy power, so they must go and explore to find the extent of the threat.

Louis accepts, along with his girlfriend Teela, a representative of the Kzin (a cat warrior race) and Nessus. In the process of getting to the ring world, they are attacked by the world’s defenses and crash there and must figure out how to survive. The intelligent beings that built it are gone, or the descendants are roaming this giant world along.

In the end, it is fascinating to think of the science and all that could go wrong with it. The exploration is interesting and fantastic. The world building is great and slowly reveals itself.

The sequels are a mix of good and mediocre. That is normal for sequels, I enjoyed them all to different degrees, but it was always interesting

#25 Jack Ryan Books by Tom Clancy

This is a broad range of books that officially stretch 21 books. However, there is a notable dropoff in quality at one specific book. So I will go with the two best that bookend so many of the other quality books.

The Hunt for Red October

\The book begins with the younger Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) that, so many come to know in the Hunt for Red October. As a CIA office worm, he is drawn into the world of a field agent mostly by chance. We have all seen the movies, and TV shows. The movies make it seem as Jack Ryan does it all. Yet, the genius of the novel is that it is a team. There are many many people behind the scenes in the military, and intelligence agencies that make it all happen.

So he gets info, speaks with friends and other agents, and develops a working thesis of what is going on. This is at the height of the Reagan Cold War, you are a few years before the walls will come tumbling down. Russia has made a nearly silent submarine, that will be masterful as a first strike weapon. In that process they give command to their greatest sub commander, Sean Connery,….. er no. It is actually Marco Ramius. He has picked his crew, and the officers plan to defect and deliver the boat to the Americans.

He sends a letter to his commander of what is going to do, and heads to the deep ocean. Furthermore, he has burned the bridges behind him, and the Soviets go hunting him. Enough clues are left out there that Jack Ryan comes to the conclusion that the sub is defecting. However, so many others believe that he is going rouge and going to launch the nukes at the USA on its own.

So a mad dash as he is given the authority to check if the defection is real, and most of the US and Soviet navies are out to sink it. So many people are gathering info along the way.

The best middle books in the series

You then start into a chain of Jack Ryan Books. The movies starring Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine. Like the earlier novels, none of these books are like the movies. The central core, yes, but not really.

The best of these books are the Sum of All Fears and Clear and Present Danger. You see Jack Ryan go from a CIA office worker to slowly evolve into a skilled field agent, and then moving up the leadership in the CIA. The President comes to trust him, and so does congress. They love him and his skill. These books lead to the single best book in the series.

Executive Orders.

This book is almost the best book that he wrote. In the book before this, Jack uncovers serious issues with the Vice President, and he is asked to resign, and does Jack is asked to fill the role of Vice President. The Senate loves him, and he is quickly approved to fill out the last 18 months of the term.

As he was traveling to the Capitol building to be sworn in, a terrorist pilot crashes a cargo plane into the capitol building. Who was in there? The president, justices, senators, department heads and so many more of the governor’s leadership.

In a flash, he finds himself at the head of a decapitated country. It can make no laws or deal with what comes. Iran, India, China, domestic militiamen all make a move. You see terrorists try to kill Jacks family, and a biological Ebola attack launched on the US.

In the middle of this he is in a job that he never wanted and politics are kicking in. There are always people who want to be in power.

Conclusion

I have loved these books for the technical detail. He will stop in the middle of a sequence to explain the weapons systems, and tactics. He explains the weakness and failure rates of systems. I think often we are tols to accept that they always work, or always fail. Usually ours always works, and the enemies always fails. In reality it is in the middle.

The characters also do not want to be there. They know it is a job, and they are doing their job, but they dont want to be there.

If you want to, read executive orders as a stand alone. There is enough explanation in the books that you do not have to read them all. I have only filled in holes later in my life from the books I read as a college student.

#26 Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

I do not have many teen books on the list. This is one of them. I remember seeing the cover and being fascinated. Then reading the intro. The last time I did my list, I did not include this one, and it is an oversight. Like most teen books, you have to overlook the fact that adults would willingly let kids do something dangerous and possibly fatal. However, like most of those books, the reason seems perfectly logical.

At some point in the past, magical preserves were created. Humans were expanding, and many of the intelligent creatures agreed to be bound by certain rules and live on the preserves. As magical being they are unable to break that bond without the humans releasing them. The humans watch the preserves and care for the creatures and oversee beings that live there.

On top of that, humans cannot really see the magical creatures. You interpret them as something else. Two kids come to visit their grandparents that they have rarely seen when their parents go on an extended trip. They enter the preserve and live in the giant house. The daughter loves the array of giant, colorful butterflies that live in the garden. Until one day she stumbles across the magic that lets her see the butterflies for what they are, tiny fairies.

This leads them both down a path of opening their eyes. The grandparents never push the visitors to find out what is there, they let the magic take its course. Some will never believe even after they see, while others believe before they see this magical world.

Eventually, you run into a group that is trying to break the contracts and let the creatures loose. They feel that the bargains should never have been made. In the process, the two heroes make decisions to save their family and friends that leave them both touched, the older wiser sister, by the fairies. Giving her abilities that she comes to understand over the books. While the younger brother makes a deal with a demon trapped in Fablehaven. That deal leaves him touched as well. Both balancing each other.

The kids are kids. Each doing their own stupid things, and being manipulated by the creatures and adults around them. Kids are quick to trust, and get burned that way by adults that have darker motives, a pretty face and a smile makes them a bit gullible. They learn, and overcome with some fun story telling.

Maybe it was the time I was reading this first series, I think my kids were that age, and it seemed magical. It reminded me of my youth, and yearning for magic in the world like this. Centaurs, demons, witches, undead, dragons, giants, and more all find a home in this series, and it was entertaining and fantastic. I wanted more. The second series was not nearly as enjoyable, but the first was a story that was well done and told.

Is this series a great piece of fantasy literature, no. Yet I think every 13-15 year old should have the opportunity to read. This is the gateway drug to fantasy. The fun story that will relate before we get into stories of adults doing adult things.

On a fun side note. I was at Salt Lake Cities comic con a few years ago. I was in a back hallway and sat down to relax. Out of the way of the huge crowds bustling around. Out came Brandon Mull, he is one of a handful of authors that I recognize. He had his kids (I don’t know if all of them were), and they stopped next to me. He was telling them how much they could spend, (not a lot) and giving them instruction. Plus there was a little scolding for the older ones not helping with the younger ones. He had work to do as well as some fun.

It was fun to realize that he was a regular guy. Yes, he wrote books, but he had the same concern as every father out there. They headed off, and I got a nod as he went on. Just a small interaction in the back of nowhere.

#27 The Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

I have a love hate relationship with this series that I will get into later. My hate relationship had me leaving it off my last list. But man, what can I say. I started reading this back in about 2004. At the time, I think only three books had come out.

For those under a rock and have not followed it. It is hard to explain. Two guys went to war, and claimed the kingdom. One goes back home to the north and runs his little land far on the frontier and has a large family. The fact that the family is large is one of my hated things… but once again I get ahead of myself. The other goes to the capitol and starts ruling the kingdom.

The kind comes to visit, and wants Stark to return and be his right-hand man in the city. Help the king run things. He is needed, plus they would wed his daughter to the prince. So, boom, just like that, a kid will be a queen.

He hates the idea, but leaves, takes some of his kids and goes. Then things get messy. This is a massive book of political intrigue. The king is not a great king, and everyone else wants someone as king. It is a fascinating story with twists around every corner. I love political intrigue books. So this had to be going. Mostly.

If you love deep in depth stories, this is great. I really love them. It starts fairly simple. Telling the story of Stark, his kids. Then they split. We see Stark and a few kids, plus the story of the few kids that stay home to run the home castle. Oh, then we add the story of people that want to take the throne back. Then an attack causes the family at home to scatter. So now we are telling 4-5 stories. Then you meet more characters and start telling those stories… you are 7-8 stories.

I made it through the book, then followed it with the second book, the Clash of Kings. I did not realize it until I looked back, the house of cards was becoming too tenuous. We were following 15+ characters or more. By the time I was well into book three, A Storm of Swords, we were following more. And almost everyone one has their own chapter.

I was tired and put it down. I was mad. I only wanted to hear about 4-5 characters in depth. I had finished those chapters, and was trudging through the 15 chapters (it was my guess) before I would hear from the ones I cared about again. The house of cards collapsed, and I never went back.

Its a shame. Books so well written and drew me in, but I have never regretted it. So I have a book series I like, and I just never finished it, or cared to. I still do not have a desire after almost 20 years. I don’t feel a hole.

So I feel like it makes my list, but I just can’t move it up. I loved it, and yet hated it enough to just not want to delve into those vile horny families again. I was not made better by the book, just entertained. It was not enough to overcome the sheer annoyance of the writing as it progressed. That is common. Too many people turn me off as they get lazy, or the books become top-heavy. Some authors just get lazy. So this one remains somewhere below the middle of my favorites.

#28 The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke

I gave a lot of thought as i was shuffling through my books. This was written in 1956, but it is deceiving, as it was a rewrite of another story written in 1948 after WW2. Well-thought-out. It was never on my earlier lists, so it was an addition that came along later.

It takes place 2-3 billion years in the future. Humanity has left the planet millions of years in the past. The main City Diaspar is the home of Alvin. Diaspar is fully contained, no one leaves and no one returns. Machines repair and fix everything. Plus, it is machines that birth/clone all the new people.

The life cycle is unique. When you die, the computer stores your memories, then when a new clone is born it is allowed to grow and live. Parents are assigned, and until they become adults, watch over them. Then when they become adults they are given their former memories back, and continue their lives. This idea is passed on in another novel I love that will show up later in the list. However, I digress.

Alvin, is not like the other. Once every so often, a ‘unique’ is born. They have no former memories. This gives someone who does not have long memories. People that think differently into the community. The dreamers and thinkers outside the box. They don’t have millennia of likes, dislikes, prejudices.

Alvin wants to see outside. However, he is told by many they are locked here because humans went on a rampage, and were beaten back. Not being seen or going out is whey they are allowed to live. They must never explore space again or be destroyed, and has been translated to never leaving the city. he eventually find an underground subway that connected to other cities, that are mostly destroyed.

Well, he finds another long changed civilization, explores the planet, finds a robot guide. Then finds a ship. In the process, learning so much about his people and the word/galaxy we live in.

Like stranger in a strange land from Heinlein, this is a look into humanity. Where one is looking at someone from another planet (well kind of) trying to understand our world, religions, and passions, this book is where we might go. The fragmentation of humanity and where we may go. Then looking at that decadence and decay from the outside.

Heinlan and Clarke are, in my opinion, the two greats in sci-fi literature. Asimov might be better known, but i believe these two wrote better work. They are more soul-searching. I know they have some poor quality ones, every author seems to, but I love that it is not sci-fi just for action, or a story. This was an era where books were written to make us look at ourselves. Even that dark sides of ourselves.

#29 Jurassic Park by Micheal Creighton

It’s funny, about every five or so books I have to go through and reevaluate all my books and where I have them listed. Almost every book I sit and look at the ones above it and say. What books do I like the least of the final 30. Is this it…. Maybe… maybe… then I finally pick.

I really find this book in the same category as the Robert Langdon books, they are interesting and are really based on a lot of fact. There is a lot of science in these books. I say these because there are a number of them that really stand out. I really only wanted to highlight one of his books, I am a fan, but not a huge fan. I almost gave it to Andromeda Strain. I found that one terrifying, and the movie rolled out when I was a kid. Yet there are other good books, West world, Sphere, or Prey. But in the end, i will stick to Jurassic Park.

Of course, the movie drags you into it, but the book adds that feeling of horror. Nedry is poisoned in his eyes, and crawling out through the jungle to escape the poison spitting dinos. Then he is eaten alive. That is a horrifying prospect, and he was doing it for money.

The fatherly image of the guy that made the park is uncovered a bit more. You see his greed, and avarice. He is so proud of the things that he has created. Not others, but him. This is all his making.

The characters are so real, and they make the science believable, everything about it could have been done. So you feel this place could have been built, and the catastrophe will unfold how it will. Life will find a way, and it does.

I read this after the movie, like so many did. I actually did not put together the fact that he had written the Andromeda Strain. That is also heavily based in science. When I realized it, it was an eye opener, and I appreciated this book even more. A book from my teen years that I loved, and a book from my adult years. So they all come together.

#30 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

What to say. This is a book that I had read years ago, but a reread recently made me add it to this list. Written in 1961 before the flower child era, before hippies and the space race, this was another groundbreaking sci-fi book that is overlooked by the recent generation.

Right before world war III, a large ship is sent to Mars and looses contact with Earth. Twenty-five years later, another craft lands on Mars and makes contact with the native martians. They find out that the earlier spacecraft had one survivor, a small child that is now 25 years old. He returns to earth.

He inherits all the wealth of those that went to mars, and by a quirk of the law, technically owns Mars. So being wealthy beyond belief tries to explore and understand Earth and its people. He has never seen women, had sex, seen our world, understood food, laws, or religion.

Good fantasy lets you get away, good science fiction does as well. However, the great science fiction takes you to another place and makes you think. Looking at life. This consists of a deep dive into what it is to be human, and what we are and could become.

A religion has formed that is superconservative, except in their churches. As a good and faithful person you can get a pass to participate in any debauchery, gluttony, or vice that interests you, while you are there. A look into a religion that requires you to be conservative, but lets you cast that away if you wish for a time.

All of this was fascinating to me, and though I do not agree with many of his conclusions about the human race, I did find it interesting. He is considered one of the big three sci-fi writers of the 20th century, along with Asmov and Clarke, and it is well deserved. He tries to get to the core of what is human, what we are and what we can be.

#36 The Merlin Trilogy

#31 The da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

The book became famous and a movie came out of it. It was the entire series of Robert Langdon that I enjoyed. Some of course were better than others.

Angels and Demons, Da Vinci Code, and the Lost Symbol are among the best of the books, with the others trailing out behind. There is something about a pseudo realistic mystery novel that grabs. It points to secret societies, backroom organizations, and conspiracies that make these books fantastic.

Realistically, you go into them not knowing what is real or fake. Mixed among the actual history is speculation and conjecture that bring these books to life and make them more interesting and more enjoyable than they have a right to be.

My favorite will always be the Da Vinci Code. The hunt for the holy grail. Robert Langdon is pulled into a mystery where he is a suspect, and is running accross England and France hunting for the clues for a modern hunt for the Holy Grail. Digging through old histories, and symbolism that is his trade, he interprets what he sees with a partner that takes him to the next step.

I read this when it came out, and later read three to four additional books. Many were stretches of the imagination. Taking it too far to really enjoy it. What makes it real is the possibility that it may be real. That is what is fascinating about the books. Maybe. Just maybe the hunt for treasure is something we can all stumble across and participate in.

Five years ago, this rated at 26 on my list. It has slid over time, not because I find the series less appealing, but because there are other books that I found that have moved above it. Still very enjoyable.

#32 The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

Jump to the 1970s I was in Jr. high at the end of that time and there were not a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy that existed in a 700 square foot library that was in our old building. It had been built when there were only 40-50 students in a grade.

I remember the options were low. A string of Conan Books, John Carter of Mars and Tarzan, a few Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clark, Wizard of Oz, and a smattering of a few others. Most of them were old when I was born in the 60s

This book of course came to mind. There was an old movie in the 60s. Let’s be honest, in that era that was not an old movie. It played once in a while on Friday night or on Saturday. I remember first picking up a classic comics’ version of it that was in the library, then eventually to a paperback that the library had turned into a hardback. They would buy the paperbacks then cut the cover off and glue the cover on the outside, and the book to a hardback binding.

What innovation. I thought it was a good book, but even more so as time passed. The book was written in 1895, one hundred and twenty-five years ago. This was in an era before cars, most of what we take for granted now, was new and innovative. I am amazed at the creativity.

Then to think, he gave thought to the ancient past and the far future. To him, the world looked bleak as well. I love science fiction. Often it makes me look at the present with a critical eye. Good science fiction will do that. Making it relevant, and telling a good story is key. It is valid enough the tropes he created still exisit to this day. Time travel, changing of the future, and meddling with time always seems to appear in every science fiction story sooner or later.

If i read it more often it may be higher on the list. However it is short, and simple. I tend to return to fantasty in that catigory and to complex sci-fi. however this book is amazing, and still relivant today.