My Favorite Science Fiction & Fantasy Authors

A subjective list combining interesting and entertaining reads. Click headers to sort.

Stars	Author	Genre	Key Titles	Comments
******	Asimov, Isaac	SF	Foundation Trilogy, Empire Serie, Robots serie, The End of Eternity, The Gods Themsleves	Grand Master, Big Ideas, Foundation of modern SF.
******	Heinlein, Robert A.	SF	The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Double Star, Job: A comedy of justice, Starship Troopers	Influential, varied styles, strong characters, often controversial.
******	Kay, Guy Gavriel	Fantasy	Tigana, The Lions of Al-Rassan, Under Heaven	Historical resonance, beautiful prose, emotional depth.
******	Sanderson, Brandon	Fantasy	Mistborn series, The Stormlight Archive	Intricate magic systems ('hard magic'), worldbuilding, Cosmere. Prolific.
******	Tolkien, J.R.R.	Fantasy	The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion	The father of modern epic fantasy.
*****	Adams, Douglas	SF	The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy	Iconic comedic SF, wit, satire.
*****	Brin, David	SF	Glory Season, The Uplift series (Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War)	Big ideas, Uplift concept, thoughtful SF. (*Glory Season* blends SF/Fantasy elements).
*****	Card, Orson Scott	SF	Ender's Game, Pastwatch: The redemption of Christopher Columbus	Compelling characters, ethical dilemmas, strong narratives.
*****	Liu, Cixin	SF	The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, Death's End	Hard SF, huge scope, mind-bending concepts, translated Chinese SF.
*****	Rowling, J.K.	Fantasy	Harry Potter series	Cultural phenomenon, strong characters, accessible magic world.
*****	van Vogt, Alfred E.	SF	Null-A, The weapon Makers	Golden Age master, complex, sometimes bewildering plots.
*****	Vinge, Vernor	SF	A Fire Upon the Deep, A deepness in the Sky	Singularity concept, Zones of Thought, large scale space opera.
****	Barjavel, René	SF	Le Voyageur imprudent, La nuit des temps, L'enchanteur	Classic French SF author.
****	Bear, Greg	SF	Eon, Eternity, Blood Music	Hard SF, biology, nanotechnology, large scale concepts.
****	Bordage, Pierre	SF	Les guerriers du silence	Popular French SF author.
****	Clarke, Arthur C.	SF	2001: A space Odyssey, Rendez-vous with Rama, The Fountains of Paradise	Hard SF, sense of wonder, technological extrapolation.
****	Eddings, David	Fantasy	The Belgariad, The Elenium, The Redemption of Athalus	Classic archetypes, banter, accessible quests. Good easy reading.
****	Egan, Greg	SF	Permutation City, Diaspora, Schild's Ladder	Extremely hard SF, mathematics, physics, consciousness. (Upgraded rating).
****	Feist, Raymond E.	Fantasy	Magician (Riftwar Saga)	Classic coming-of-age, evolving world (Midkemia). Good easy reading.
****	Hobb, Robin	Fantasy	The Farseer Trilogy (Realm of the Elderlings)	Deep character work, emotional depth, patient storytelling.
****	Huxley, Aldous	SF	A Brave New World	Classic dystopian literature.
****	Le Guin, Ursula K.	SF & Fantasy	The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, A Wizard of Earthsea	Deep anthropological SF, Taoist influences, foundational fantasy.
****	McCaffrey, Anne	SF & Fantasy	Dragonriders of Pern series	Blending SF/Fantasy, dragons, strong female characters, telepathy.
****	McCollum, Michael	SF	Antares, The Makers (Life Probe)	Hard SF, often with engineering focus.
****	Orwell, George	SF	1984	Definitive dystopian novel, political commentary.
****	Pratchett, Terry	Fantasy	Discworld series (e.g., Guards! Guards!, Mort, Small Gods)	Satire, wit, philosophical humor, incredibly prolific and beloved.
****	Vance, Jack	SF	Demon Princes, Alastor, Dying Earth	Unique prose style, exotic locales, Dying Earth subgenre originator.
****	Weis, Margaret & Hickman, Tracy	Fantasy	Dragonlance Chronicles, Dragonlance Legends	Iconic party-based adventures (D&D roots). Legends often considered stronger.
***	Abercrombie, Joe	Fantasy	The First Law Trilogy (The Blade Itself)	Grimdark subgenre pioneer, subverted tropes, cynical characters.
***	Cherryh, C. J.	SF	Cyteen, Downbelow Station, Foreigner series	Detailed worldbuilding, politics, believable aliens (Alliance-Union universe).
***	Corey, James S. A. (Abraham & Franck)	SF	The Expanse series (Leviathan Wakes)	Modern space opera, realistic solar system politics, gritty feel.
***	Dick, Philip K.	SF	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ubik, A Scanner Darkly	Exploration of reality, perception, paranoia, what it means to be human.
***	Donaldson, Stephen R.	Fantasy	The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Mordant's Need	Complex anti-hero, challenging themes, vivid worldbuilding.
***	Gibson, William	SF	Neuromancer, The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling)	Cyberpunk pioneer, style, near-future speculation.
***	Goodkind, Terry	Fantasy	The Sword of Truth series (Wizard's First Rule)	Epic scope, chosen one, clear good vs. evil (initially).
***	Herbert, Frank	SF	Dune	Monumental worldbuilding, ecology, politics, religion.
***	Lewis, C.S.	Fantasy	The Chronicles of Narnia	Classic children's fantasy, allegory, mythology.
***	Stross, Charles	SF	Accelerando, Halting State, The Laundry Files	Versatile, witty, high-concept SF, near-future, singularity.
***	Verne, Jules	SF	20000 lieues sous les mers, De la Terre à la Lune	Pioneer of the genre, adventure, scientific romance.
***	Wells, H. G.	SF	The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau	Pioneer, originator of many core SF tropes.
**	Banks, Iain M.	SF	The Culture series (Consider Phlebas, Player of Games)	Vast space opera, post-scarcity society, complex AI. (Many rate higher!)
**	Bradbury, Ray	SF	Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles	Lyrical prose, focus on human element, often more speculative fiction.
**	Brooks, Terry	Fantasy	Shannara series (The Sword of Shannara)	Classic quest fantasy, strong Tolkien influence, accessible.
**	Brunner, John	SF	Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up	New Wave SF, dystopian, experimental structure.
**	Foster, Alan Dean	SF	Novelizations (The Last Starfighter, Star Wars), Pip & Flinx	Prolific, reliable adventure SF, novelizations.
**	Furey, Maggie	Fantasy	Aurian	Memorable series starter, traditional fantasy elements.
**	Pohl, Frederik	SF	Gateway, Man Plus	Satire, social commentary, Heechee saga.
**	Pullman, Philip	Fantasy	His Dark Materials (Northern Lights / The Golden Compass)	YA crossover, philosophical themes, challenging religious authority.
**	Reynolds, Alastair	SF	Revelation Space series (Chasm City), House of Suns	Modern space opera, gothic elements, hard SF concepts. (Often rated higher!)
**	Shelley, Mary	SF	Frankenstein	Proto-SF, foundational work exploring creation and responsibility.
**	Silverberg, Robert	SF	Majipoor series, Dying Inside, The Book of Skulls	Prolific, varied career from pulp to literary SF.
**	Simak, Clifford D.	SF	City, Way Station	Pastoral SF, focus on humanity, robots, aliens.
**	Simmons, Dan	SF	Hyperion Cantos, Ilium/Olympos	Literary SF, complex structures, horror elements. (Often rated higher!)
**	Zelazny, Roger	SF & Fantasy	Chronicles of Amber, Lord of Light	Mythic resonance, powerful protagonists, blending genres.

Authors To Read List (SF & Fantasy)

Based on recommendations and authors not yet explored fully:

• Abercrombie, Joe (Fantasy): (Already rated 3*, explore more?) *The First Law Trilogy*
• Bacigalupi, Paolo (SF): *The Windup Girl, The Water Knife* (Biopunk, Cli-Fi)
• Banks, Iain M. (SF): (Rated 2*, many recommend exploring further) *The Culture series*
• Chiang, Ted (SF): *Stories of Your Life and Others, Exhalation: Stories* (Philosophical short fiction)
• Erikson, Steven (Fantasy): *Malazan Book of the Fallen series* (Dense, epic scope)
• Flanagan, John (Fantasy): *Ranger's Apprentice series* (Accessible adventure, YA crossover)
• Hamilton, Peter F. (SF): *Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star), Night's Dawn Trilogy* (Massive space opera)
• Jemisin, N. K. (SF/Fantasy): *The Broken Earth Trilogy, The City We Became* (Genre-bending, social themes)
• Jordan, Robert (Fantasy): *The Wheel of Time series* (Vast epic fantasy)
• Lackey, Mercedes (Fantasy): *Valdemar Universe* (Character-focused, accessible)
• Leckie, Ann (SF): *Imperial Radch trilogy (Ancillary Justice)* (Modern space opera, AI perspective)
• Lynch, Scott (Fantasy): *The Gentleman Bastard sequence (The Lies of Locke Lamora)* (Witty heist fantasy)
• Martin, George R. R. (Fantasy): *A Song of Ice and Fire series* (Gritty political fantasy)
• Moon, Elizabeth (Fantasy): *The Deed of Paksenarrion* (Classic heroic/military fantasy)
• Reynolds, Alastair (SF): (Rated 2*, potential for upgrade?) *Revelation Space universe, House of Suns*
• Rothfuss, Patrick (Fantasy): *The Kingkiller Chronicle* (Lyrical prose, incomplete series)
• Salvatore, R. A. (Fantasy): *The Legend of Drizzt* (Action-adventure, D&D)
• Simmons, Dan (SF): (Rated 2*, potential for upgrade?) *Hyperion Cantos*
• Stephenson, Neal (SF): *Anathem, Seveneves, Snow Crash* (Dense, idea-heavy SF)
• Tchaikovsky, Adrian (SF): *Children of Time, Shards of Earth* (Innovative concepts, non-human intelligence)
• Weir, Andy (SF): *The Martian, Project Hail Mary* (Hard SF, problem-solving)
• Wells, Martha (SF): *The Murderbot Diaries* (Character-driven AI novellas/novels)
• Williams, Tad (Fantasy): *Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy* (Influential epic fantasy)

Personal Ranking based only on what I read... not to be understood as real author ranking because I did not read everything from many of those authors and may just have been unlucky in my (usually random) choice of title when browsing the library or the bookshop.
The ranking means roughly:

******	Beyond 5 stars...
*****	Several books among my all-time favorites
****	Many books I liked a lot and/or at least one book among my all-time favorites
***	Several books I liked a lot
**	At least one book I liked a lot, or several I enjoyed and remember
*	At least one book I enjoyed

Wait... there is nobody with one star in the list. This is on purpose, because there are many 'one star' authors - some may even merit another star - with many books that provides entertainment and fun, but they did apparently not stay in my memory when writing this list... (a sign that I enjoyed less or that it was long ago (avid reader since more than 20 years)). So better no names than an unfairly uncomplete list.