Science Fiction and Fantasy
1. The Familiar, Vol. 1, One Rainy Day in May
Mark Z. Danielewski
5 STARS
Perhaps Danielewski’s most accessible work to date. Nine lives destined to
intertwine… But at what cost?
2. The Name of the Wind
(Kingkiller Day 1)
Patrick
Rothfuss
5 STARS
Best pure fantasy series I’ve read in a very long time. Harry Potter for
adults.
3. The Wise Man’s Fear
(Kingkiller Day 2)
Patrick
Rothfuss
5 STARS
4. The Slow Regard of Silent Things
(Kingkiller Novella)
Patrick Rothfuss
5 STARS
5. The Long Earth (Long Earth 1)
Terry
Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
5 STARS
Good story, fast paced read, unique premise. Millions of Earths ready to be
explored.
6. The Water
Knife
Paolo
Bacigalupi
5 STARS
Water shortage wars between the states of Nevada, California, and Arizona.
Believable, frightening, and perhaps, prophetic.
7.
Seveneves
Neal Stephenson
6 STARS
The best hard science fiction I’ve read in 20 years. And yes, that’s a
six start rating! What happens when the moon is fragmented into seven
pieces by a wormhole?
8. Flowers for Algernon
Daniel Keyes
5 STARS
A classic worth the time to re-read. What is intelligence?
9. The Dead
Lands
Benjamin
Percy
4 1/2 STARS
Lewis and Clark in post-apocalyptic America.
10. The Pilgrims (Pendulum 1)
Will Elliott
4 1/2 STARS
A strange door into a fantasy world filled with intrigue and war.
11.
Lexicon
Max Berry
5 STARS
Sticks and stones may break your bones… but words can annihilate you!
12. Station
Eleven
Emily St.
John Mandel
5 STARS
Excellent post-apocalyptic quest.
13.
Revival
Stephen King
5 STARS
The fine line between good and evil. Crossed, over and over again...
Western and Weird West
14. The Last Kind Word Saloon
Larry McMurtry
4 STARS
Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday ride again.
15. The
Revenant
Michael
Punke
5 STARS
Revenge has a long memory… and one fur trapper is on the trail of those who
left him to die.
16. The Winter Family
Clifford Jackman
5 STARS
A rare western as seen by the perspective of the outlaws.
17. The
Son
Philipp Meyer
6 STARS
The best “western” I’ve ever read and another of the rare six star
ratings I’ve given. Generations of Texans survive the difficult trials of the
west.
18. The Big
Sky
A.
B. Guthrie Jr.
5 STARS
Excellent historical novel about mountain men who prefer the great expanses
of the west over city life.
19. Dead of
Winter
Lee
Collins
4 STARS
Western-paranormal-urban fantasy with a twist…
20. One Night in
Sixes
(Children of the Drought
1)
Arianne ‘Tex’ Thompson
5 STARS
A dark and intense fantasy western filled with both supernatural and natural
elements. Very good series.
21. Medicine for the Dead
(Children of the Drought 2)
Arianne 'Tex'
Thompson
5 STARS
22. Dead Man’s Hand: An Anthology
John Joseph Adams
(Editor)
5 STARS
Over twenty short, weird western stories by some of the greats, including Joe
Abercrombie, Orson Scott Card, Kelly Armstrong, Elizabeth Bear, Ken Liu, Tobias
Buckell, Tad Williams, and Jonathan Maberry.
23. The Good the Bad and the Infernal
(Heaven's
Gate 1)
Guy Adams
5 STARS
Excellent supernatural western series.
24. Once Upon a Time in Hell
(Heaven's Gate
2)
Guy
Adams
5 STARS
25. For a Few Souls More
(Heaven's
Gate 3)
Guy Adams
5 STARS
26. Black Hat
Jack
Joe R.
Lansdale
5 STARS
The old west as told from the perspective of a black buffalo soldier.
