Tim Wick's Top Ten Science Fiction Novels

I admit that I am probably one of the least qualified to write this kind of list. Though I love to read, my primary love is movies. When I do read, I tend to read history and science books rather than fiction of any kind. I must admit (with some embarrassment) that I have never even read the Ring Trilogy. With that said, I HAVE read some great Science Fiction/Fantasy books, so let's get to the list (in no particular order):

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
I love the Narnia Chronicles over all, but this is the book I read more than any other when I was growing up. I'm not sure why exactly. Perhaps it was because I identified with the Shasta (the aforementioned "boy") or because it was the only story that focused on characters from the world of Narnia almost exclusively. The other books are great (though I never liked The Silver Chair or The Last Battle because they were too dark), but this one is truly my favorite.

• The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
  I don't know if this fits as a genre book, but where else does one fit a book about a trumpeter swan who learns to read, write and play the trumpet? Along with The Horse and His Boy, this book was the most read book of my childhood. Louis, the Swan in question, was an outcast because he had no voice. Being the nerdy outcast myself, I could relate.

• The Time Master Trilogy by Louise Cooper
  In a world where Law = good and Chaos = evil, we are asked to route for a character who is essentially the antichrist. We are reminded that Law and Chaos are neither good or evil in themselves, but become good or evil depending on the spin that is placed on them. Great writing and interesting characters make this series a lot of fun. I also love the cover art.

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  Censorship is one of my pet peeves. I think it is ultimately damaging to censor anything because the eventual risk is that you will end up censoring everything. This book shows us a world where that nightmarish result has already happened. Bradbury says it is not Science Fiction, and given some of the censorship that takes place today, it may not be as fictional as many of us would like to believe. This is a story that stayed with me for a long time.

• The Hitchhikers Trilogy by Douglas Aadams
  Here I am referring to the original trilogy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, the Universe and Everything. They are some of the funniest books I have ever read and make me laugh anew every time I re-read them.

• The Riddle Master of Hed trilogy by Patricia McKillup
  The story here is pretty good, but the writing is wonderful. Poetic and evocative, I couldn't put these books down the first time I read them.

• The Belgariad by David Eddings
  A great cast of characters and a fun story line. Eddings has gone on to write a bunch more books revolving around these and other characters, but I've never had the chance to read them. In all honesty, this series didn't need a follow up.

• The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin
  A strange world of dreams and reality intermixed. Spooky and hopeful at the same time, it was made into a very creepy movie on Public Television in the 80's.

• Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger
  OK, so this isn't Science Fiction, but I still love the book and I'm going to include it here. To get a real idea of how the Apollo program worked both on a normal mission and when under the extreme stress of a mission gone horribly wrong, this is a great book.

• On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony
  This is the first book in his forgettable Incarnations of Immortality. Where this book is a wonderful character study and a nifty take on the "job" of being death, the books that followed range from the ridiculous (in the book on time, a woman living time backwards wonders what "it" would be like if she and Time "got it on" - whatever) to the simply moronic (the entire book on the Devil). Given the promising beginning, I could not have been more disappointed. But I recommend this one. I really enjoyed it and it has very little of the excessive sex that pervades most of Anthony's books (not that I mind sex, I just mind it when it has little or nothing to do with the actual story).