The essentials: Top ten science fiction and fantasy books

Jamshid Mousavinezhad | amNY.com

4:11 PM EST, December 11, 2007

Believe it or not, some of the best and most thought-provoking contemporary writing can be found in the science fiction/fantasy section of your local bookstores. Here are books and collections to get you started.

J.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings fantasy series, written mainly during WWII
Everyone knows about them, but Tolkien's detailed Middle Earth of hobbits and elves and more is still the gold standard in the field.

Isaac Asimov's Foundation science fiction series, written mainly after WWII

It all goes back to Asminov -- this trilogy turned heptalogy about the interactions of human and robots (underpinned by a sociological theory) forms the base for modern science fiction.

Orson Scott Card's Ender science fiction series, started in 1985 and continuing today Ender's Game was a startling revelation; the rest of the series explores, mostly through the eyes of a young and then not-so-young man, what we'd call multiculturalism.

Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea fantasy series, started in the 60s, continuing today
LeGuin may be the most literary of science fiction writers, and is living proof that interesting ideas--in her case dragons twinned with humans--don't require clunky prose.

Frank Herbert's Dune science fiction series, started in the 60s
The first of the six ecologically-themed Dune books set on a desert planet is by the far the best, with its intoxicating look at man, war and faith.

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter genre-busting series, 1997-2007
Her prose makes you cringe at times, but millions testify to how easy it is to get sucked into her world of adolescent magic.

Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials fantasy series, 1995-2000
This Paradise Lost-inspired trilogy about teens, their daemons and their souls neatly sidesteps the preachiness and cloying prose of Pullman's arch-nemesis C.S. Lewis's Narnia series.

Christopher Paolini's Inheritance fantasy series, 2003-today
Paolin wrote the first book, Eragon, when he was 19; he's some sort of home-schooled genius, and although derivative his tales of a boy and his dragon will keep you up reading all night.

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, 1992
This post-cyberpunk author will make your head spin with his hysterical vision of a future where private entreprise--and virutal reality--rule.

Philip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle, 1962
You can't have a sci-fi list without something from the prolific and wildly inventive Dick; his portrayal of a U.S. that lost WWII is a mainstay of the alternate universe genre.