#35 The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

The last time I made this list, I never included this in the countdown. That was a mistake that I sought to fix this time around. This was another of the first fantasy books that I read in Jr. High. Mixed among the small smattering of fantasy was this one. I did not read the others at that time, but later.

This was a story of my imagination, something that I understood was special and unique. A fantasy parable. Telling stories that would teach people morals couched in the world of fantasy. That was way different from that era, as most adults thought of fantasy as evil and/or trash. So this really interested me more.

I want to say I think the series is fantastic. It is excellent, but it has its weakness. I like The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is good, and Prince Caspian and the Dawn Treader books. Yet, amidst all that is the Magicians Nephew, the Silver Chair, and the Horse and his boy. Get rid of those three and the series would be fifteen spots higher, but I can’t get over the bad ones in the middle of the others.

This is really impressive seeing the era this was written in. This is approaching 75 years old, and people still love it. Most books take place in the 1940s, aside from one that is about 1900. It is a book for children, though many adults love it, it was written and stars children. In fact, as they age, they can no longer return to Narnia.

A solid book series and it deserved to be on the list.

#38 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I can’t recall when I read this. I did when I was younger in jr high or high school. It began my love with the nonsense and humor that can be in books. This one kind of capped it off. Just funny, odd, different and out of the norm.

I am not sure if I loved it at first, and had to come back to it. However, it started a love affair with the crazy. The Princess Bride, Good Omens, Xanth novels. Yet, this one is my favorite. I am not sure why, kind of like how The Holy Grail ended up as one of my favorite movies. Makes no sense, I know, but it is.

So much has made it into my lexicon. So long, and thanks for all the fish, 42, babelfish, and others. If you think it is not out there, try searching in Google “what is the answer to life the universe and everything” and see what the answer is. It is just a fun filled oddity. and my favorite of that nut filled genre.

#39 Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour

This is another in the books I picked up just to be a relaxing. I had finished a few other books by John Lee on Audible. That made me want to find other books that he had done, and ran accross this series. So I dove in.

A warning upfront. Terry Mancour is a study of the mideval society. So be prepared when you go in. Most women of this area are treated as objects and are subject to their husbands and society. This is a not a book where the word is running as we run now. There are also some scenes in the series that have haunted me and I skip when rereading them. Plus a few others scenes that are sexual in nature. So fair warning if you dive into them.

The main characters was from a bakers family and a member of the bakers guild. So not peasants, but they are nowhere near noble. Upon finding out he has magical ability, he is sent to school. Then did a mandatory military service to overthrow a mad mage that had found a piece of He saw enough that he found a small village in the mountains that is far from society to set up shop. He hangs up his mage blade, and war wands, takes an apprentice and went to spend his life doing small magics for the village of Boval Vale.

Jumping back in time, centuries earlier, magicians ruled the continent. Sometimes wisely sometimes not. A series of magical disasters happened and the irianite wichstones that amplify magic were gathered and tossed in the sea. Penalty for possessing it is the sentence of death. So most magicians had only the smallest amount of magic. Killing someone with magic would be almost unheard of. This is the society in which the spellmonger lives

While there, the semi-peaceful goblins attack, with a shaman at their lead. After defeating him he investigates and finds the shaman had a witchstone. Then more shamans appear, and more witchstones. He sends a call for help, and he and another local magician and their apprentices gather in the castle for an extended siege begins. Now the five are the most power magicians in the five duchies.

As the series progresses, he finds himself in many perils, and starts to build back the power of the magicians. The five duchies cannot fight without magic, and the wichstones are the key. Many are not happy with real magicians again. Political intrigue runs rampant. It is well written and well thought out.

I read another book recently where magic build a castle. They decided they wanted it, and the dwarves show up and in a week its done. Too much seemed to unbelievable. In this one they point out the advantages magic can have, but it takes time. In the series there is a grand castle to be built, yet even with magic and craftsman, they plan on a decade or two.

I just felt this is well written. Also unlike other series I have read, I feel like there is growth and a progression. He makes mistakes, he causes problems, and he pays for those as time goes on, and is rewarded for succeeding. Anger a noble, and have him and his sworn vassals fighting you or causing problems. It just seemed well done.

#40 Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe

Sometimes you read the heavy books; Sanderson, Martin, or Herbert. ASometimes I do not want a book that is going to make me think and try to do a lot of understanding of unique lore. So I look for something that I would consider a light pulp fiction or fantasy book. Usually they are thrown away. Star Wars, Star Trek (decades ago) or other books that are not literary masterpieces, just something fun.

However, in the middle of those I have found gems. I love origin stories, the reveal of something new and special. This book was one of those.

Youth struggling with magic, check. Going to go to a wizard school, check. Struggling to be looked upon as a real person, check. This could have easily been so boring. Yet I found it fascinating. This falls into a new genre of Fantasy books that has arrived lately, LitRPG.

LitRPG stands for literary role playing game. This is different from the old choose your path adventure books. It is a book series where leveling, adding and mastering powers, is an important part of the story.

It starts with a youth doing a challenge in a tower. If you want magic in this realm, you have to go to one of the towers and participate in a challenge. Go to a room, overcome the puzzle or fight, then select one of three doors that exit in to the next room. This goes on until you die, or you are given a magic mark that will signify your power and its use.

Then as you kill creatures, they leave power cores that you can sell, or use. Then the rooms reset. It reminded me a lot of an anime that I watched once. I have not seen much anime, but this did remind me of that.

Corrin Cadence’s brother went in and never returned. He idolized his brother, and vows to find out what happened to him and get him back. His belief is that when he gets his magic, he can master it and then eventually reach the spire of the tower, where you can ask a boon from the guardian. He wants his brother back. The loss broke up his family and drove his dad to be more overbearing and demanding from his kids.

He goes to the tower, meets a number of people and beings, and leaves with his power. Then he enrolls in school. Do poorly, and you have to do your military service, and if you do ok you will also get to do military service. Do extremely well, and you get to climb towers and only get called on when you are needed. That is a shortened version of his goals.

LitRPG talks about levels a lot. They have a way to measure their power levels, and because he is a student wondering about power, he refers to it regularly. I have seen this in other books, and it is needlessly tossed about and annoying. I feel this is the first one that did it well. It did not seem forced. Of course a school would have a way to measure magic ability, there are dangers with using too much, so knowing your limits is important.

The character is also written without sexuality. Dating and others does not interest him. A guy asks him on a date, and he panics and wonders what to do, not because it is a guy, but the panic of being in a social situation with another. Corrin is socially inept, he struggles with the touch of others. Hugs and touches make him cringe. It is interesting to see how this is portrayed in his mind. He knows that his friends do like to give each other hugs, and does not want to alienate the friends he does make. It makes for an interesting story.

Other than the school, the series focuses a lot on the tower. The tower creates challenges. You go and fight, get rewards and leave. So basically they are doing dungeon crawls to level and gather materials. The dungeon may trap you or kill you, so be smart, and you get rewards. The gods that oversee the towers will reward you.

However, the story unfolds in a fun way. His magic is not what his family expected, he is making the best of what he has. I found it fun. If I had known it was a series I think I would have stayed away, but over time I have really come to enjoy the story, and I have looked forward to the new books.

#41 Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey

I was thirteen in 79. I do not remember where we were going but we were traveling as a family. I bought my first fantasy book. I was a young backwards nerd, and had few friends at this point. So most of my time was getting trapped into the fantasy worlds. Some were not great, others were something of a good memory. So The White Dragon captivated me.

I saw the cover above and was fascinated. The white dragon with the guy riding it. Dragons were monsters, from legends. Smaug, and from the movies. So this idea was completely fascinating that humans should have bred them for riders. Most covers from that era were pretty bad. (some may call them classic, but they were not great art or illustrations)

Think of the old Tolkien, cs Lewis, or black cauldron. They were washed out watercolors, little detail and leaving a lot to the imagination. Or were the dramatic sexualized covers of Frank Frazetta from Tarzan, Conan, and John Carter of Mars books. This was the era of the arrival amazing, colorful artwork that so many of us are familiar with. Swrod of Shannara, wheel of time. and Thomas Covenant. So I was drawn in.

I was sucked into this world and I remember dreaming with the covers of tiny dragons and the dragon riders. This was truly a unique word, a blend of fantasy and science fiction that was new and difficult at the time for me. However the memories have lasted though I only ready a half dozen, I was in a fantastic world that opened my eyes to new corners of fantasy.

#42 Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

I think I read this in jr high. Our library there was maybe 800 square feet. It was a small town. I think I was introduced to sci-fi and fantasy there. They had a lot of comic books. Seems odd now, but it was old classics illustrated. Comics that illustrated literaty books. Three musketeers, The Time Machine, 20,000 leagues under the sea, and others. I read them and then dug through all the fantasy and sci-fi books in that library.

That led me to our old city Carnage library. Still not huge, but a good size for a small community of 4000. That led me to Frankenstein. Published in 1818 by a 20 year old Mary Shelly. Many credit is as the first sci-fi book. I think it is better to think of it as the oldest remembered sci-fi. Whatever the case this book is a fascinating book on what it is to be alive and human. She could have easily made it a horror, ghost story, or just a slasher book.

Yet the book evokes feeling and heart. There is a reason why it is a favorite, and why it was made into a movie in the early 30’s. It can invoke horror and revulsion and follow those up with thought and caring. Exploring what is life and caring. You can see todays culture reflected in the writing. Lets give everyone a chance to love.

This was the era where many remembered the founding of the United States. The thoughts were going through Europe of what it meant to be free, and what are the rights of the people. This is a window into that time. A time of horses, and armies marching through Europe. A different age, that we can still see as relevant now.

It is funny to think this is public domain book that carries so much weight today. how many other writings will survive through the eras.

Top 43 Fantasy and Sci-Fi Books

I will add to this list as I go. Also, though i am calling it books I will lump series together. This is true except in a few trilogies, or short groups. I will talk about them as i get to them. I did that so I do not have to “my favorites are, #3 is in series X, and #4 is in series X. and #8 is in series X.” That would easily happen. I will point out the best parts of the series

There are also a lot of books, a lot of books that I just did not care for. People recommended them to me, I started a series, or just did not get into them. Sometimes after some research I found that book 1 written 50 years ago is not good, but apparently book 5-10 are great. However with all the good fantasy, and bad stuff I have waded through, i did not get through the early writings.

#35 The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

#37 Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkind

#38 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

#39 Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour

#40 Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe

#41 Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

#42 Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

#43 Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson

#43 Expeditionary Force Craig Alanson

I was going to do a top 40. Then I decided to just add a few more. Those ones that are not fantastic books, deep literature, but they keep me coming back for more. I do not know why i picked up this book. I just was bored one day, coming off a deep, heavy book that was dragging me down. That led me want something lighter.

So I fumbled around and this is one of the ones I came up with.

Earth is attacked by aliens. Well a group of hamster like aliens have invaded, the soldier, Joe Bishop, on leave happened to catch one. Soon after, another group of reptilian aliens shows up and chases them off our little green and blue ball in space. Well, Joe is hailed as a hero, and the lizards offer us the stars if we help them fight the hamsters.

This seems simple, right? Earthlings are trained in all the basics, but nothing important, but are meant to be the lizard’s shock troops on the front lines. Only, who is in the right? Who is the right? Come to find out, there are many levels of races, each using lower races to fight and die for them. Joe being a hero is thrust into the middle of this. However, the military is not that happy with a lowly soldier suddenly becoming a corporal at the command of the lizards.

In his travels with the Earth Expeditionary Force, he stumbles across ancient artificial intelligence. The small can like object, was created millions of years before. Skippy, as he is nicknamed, is awake, and helps Joe. He and Joe escape from a predicament, leading a band of soldiers and stealing a high life forms ship. This evolves into a friendship between the human and the beer can.

Joe spends a lot of his time like me. Wondering how I got myself into this. How am I so dumb? Skippy is the brilliant person that has the intuition. He can’t see outside the box and finds himself in many situations that somehow the dumb monkey Joe is able to get them out of.

All in all, I have loved the series. In later books, I was getting tired that nothing was happening, or it was progressing too slow. It was kind of rehashing the same stories. I have been told I should finish that last few, but I have not yet. However, I find the book fun. The AI mocks the humans regularly. Yet he cares for all the crew and especially Joe.

All the aliens they encounter are divided into two camps.  Neither one is a good side, and both are equally assholes.  Each side hunt for each other, and ancient technology from lost races that are no longer around.  The humans find themselves moving to an important center in the galaxy.  It takes a lot of luck, time, and Skippy the magnificent along with the Merry Band of Pirates. 

It is fun and just an enjoyable read.  I love that I think about these books years later, I wonder what happens, and what is in store for them next.  That is really what makes me put books on this list, the fact that I want to read them again.