Mary Bertelson's Top Ten Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels

In no particular order.

1. The Chanur Books by CJ Cherryh. (The Pride of Chanur, The Kif Strike Back, Chanur Homecoming, and Chanur Venture)
   These are excellent hard science books and she assumes her readers are intelligent enough to not require a lot of explanation. While one of the main characters is human, I really liked her telling the story from the alien viewpoint. It was a tough choice to pick only one set (The Faded Sun Trilogy was a major contender) from my library of her books, she's one of my favorites.

2. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.
   Basically an "anti-Starship Troopers", this is one of the best uses of relativity and time distortion I've seen. It is also an enthralling indictment of war.

3. Enders Game by Orson Scott Card.
   An amazing book that I read in one sitting. Genetically selected children bred for military strategy (as opposed to prowess) fighting a misconcieved war that they believe is a video game. Brilliant concept and execution.

4. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.
   Very realistic telling of a time travel story, addressing such issues as language, dress, and appearance. Favorite part--When the heroine initially requests to be pulled out of the past saying that she's too big, her clothing is too well made, etc. Most time travel books gloss over this sort of problem.

5. Dune by Frank Herbert.
   Well realized society that works within its framework. Too bad he seemed to get lazy with the later books.

6. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books by Douglas Adams.
   Rollicking good absurd fun, esp. in the first two books.

7. The Riverworld Books by Jose Farmer.
   While the later entries into the series got somewhat tedious, the first few ( esp. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, and The Fabulous Riverboat) kept me wanting more. And since, the concept was that everyone who ever lived was reborn on the river, I got to assume I was somewhere in there.

8. The Lord of The Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien. I'm not much of a fantasy fan, but these books just blew me away.

9. The Majipoor Trilogy (Lord Valentine's Castle, Majipoor Chronicles, Valentine Pontifex) by Robert Silverberg.
   I love these (huge) books so much I've read them all more than once. I especially liked the concept of the detection and punishment of crime through dreams. They even inspired me to try repeatedly (and unsuccessfully) to learn how to juggle.

10. Season of Mists (and all the other Sandman graphic novels) by Neil Gaiman.
    OK, these are technically comics, but they are terrific. Season of Mists is my particular favorite because it deals with Lucifer abandoning Hell and what that means to the cosmos.