The Greatest Speculative Fiction Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
35 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 British English
39 Frankenstein Mary Shelley 1818 British English
47 One Thousand and One Nights Unknown 800 Multiple Arabic
50 Brave New World Aldous Huxley 1932 British English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
53 Dracula Bram Stoker 1897 British English
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
146 The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien 1937 British English
150 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 1953 American English
153 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
155 Macbeth William Shakespeare 1606 British English
164 The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1902 British English
189 The Turn of the Screw Henry James 1898 American English
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
211 The Tempest William Shakespeare 1623 British English
212 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler 1940 British German
215 The Haunting of Hill House Shirley Jackson 1959 American English
218 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
224 Watership Down Richard Adams 1972 British English
225 Fairy Tales and Stories Hans Christian Andersen 1835 Danish Danish
234 The Chronicles of Narnia C. S. Lewis 1950 British English
236 Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling 1997 British English
274 The Stand Stephen King 1978 American English
278 A Wizard Of Earthsea Ursula K. Le Guin 1968 American English
286 The Once and Future King T. H. White 1958 British English
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
293 A Wrinkle In Time Madeleine L'Engle 1962 American English
294 The Time Machine H. G. Wells 1895 British English
303 Peter And Wendy J. M. Barrie 1911 Scottish English
309 Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912 American English
320 Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak 1963 American English
321 We Yevgeny Zamyatin 1924 Russian Russian
322 Household Tales Brothers Grimm 1812 German German
327 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
340 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum 1900 American English
346 The Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole 1764 British English
361 Foundation Isaac Asimov 1951 American English
363 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
367 Journey to the West Wu Cheng'en 1592 Chinese Chinese
368 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
372 War of the Worlds H. G. Wells 1898 British English
378 Melmoth the Wanderer Charles Robert Maturin 1820 British English
381 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe C. S. Lewis 1950 British English
399 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 1995 British English
400 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
459 The Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells 1896 British English
476 The Monk Matthew Lewis 1796 British English
511 Perfume Patrick Suskind 1985 German German
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
522 The Phantom Tollbooth Norton Juster 1961 American English
528 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 1968 American English
547 Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll 1871 British English
548 Le Morte d'Arthur Thomas Malory 1485 British Middle english
553 The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin 1974 American English
578 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris 1988 American English
579 The Outsider And Others H. P. Lovecraft 1939 American English
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
615 Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary M. R. James 1904 British English
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
662 The House On The Borderland And Other Novels William Hope Hodgson 1908 British English
671 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe 1839 American English
673 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne 1870 French French
676 The Princess Bride William Goldman 1973 American English
677 Lud-in-the-Mist Hope Mirrlees 1926 British English
681 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
696 King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard 1885 British English
702 Vathek William Beckford 1786 British French
710 At the Mountains of Madness H. P. Lovecraft 1936 American English
711 Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes 1959 American English
712 A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court Mark Twain 1889 American English
769 A Voyage To Arcturus David Lindsay 1920 Scottish English
773 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Edgar Allan Poe 1838 American English
776 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
777 I Am Legend Richard Matheson 1954 American English
793 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
808 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
810 Amadis of Gaul Garci R. de Montalvo 1508 Spanish Spanish
811 The Phantom of the Opera Gaston Leroux 1909 French French
822 I, Robot Isaac Asimov 1950 American English
841 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
842 Outlander Diana Gabaldon 1991 American English
861 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson 1962 American English
864 Reynard the Fox Unknown 1479 Multiple Middle dutch
866 The Black Spider Jeremias Gotthelf 1842 Swiss German
871 Wieland Charles Brockden Brown 1798 American English
887 Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1915 American English
893 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
894 Rosemary's Baby Ira Levin 1967 American English
896 She H. Rider Haggard 1887 British English
917 The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham 1951 British English
925 Deliverance James Dickey 1970 American English
926 Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne 1864 French French
951 A Princess Of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912 American English
972 The Orlando Furioso Lodovico Ariosto 1516 Italian Italian
980 News from Nowhere William Morris 1890 British English
981 It Stephen King 1986 American English
994 Blindness José Saramago 1995 Portuguese Portuguese
1001 Red Dragon Thomas Harris 1981 American English
1004 2001 Arthur C. Clarke 1968 British English
1005 The Dark Is Rising Susan Cooper 1973 British English
1013 Green Mansions W. H. Hudson 1904 British English
1017 Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban J. K. Rowling 1999 British English
1071 The Midwich Cuckoos John Wyndham 1957 British English
1073 The Lottery and Other Stories Shirley Jackson 1948 American English
1079 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe 1980 American English
1086 Misery Stephen King 1987 American English
1117 The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
1134 The Neverending Story Michael Ende 1979 German German
1148 The Werewolf Of Paris Guy Endore 1933 American English
1173 Little, Big John Crowley 1981 American English
1196 Conjure Wife Fritz Leiber 1943 American English
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1210 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English