Ursula K. Le Guin
The genre's most honoured writer and its moral centre of gravity: the standard demonstration that SF and fantasy can do everything literature does, plus things only they can.
Your field guide to the fantastic
Who should you read next, and why do they matter?
From Mary Shelley's laboratory to the Broken Earth, the Guide profiles the writers who built science fiction, fantasy and horror — with honest pen-portraits, the books that count, and none of the filler.
100 Authors profiled
281 Essential books
82 Series mapped
45 Sub-genres
Pick your poison
Browse all authors →This week in the crow's nest
All 100 authors →Terry Pratchett
The most beloved British writer of his generation and comic fantasy's permanent summit: Discworld proved a fantasy series could be a complete satirical instrument, and characters like Vimes, Granny Weatherwax and DEATH have entered the culture's shared furniture.
Shirley Jackson
The author of the finest haunted-house novel in the language and the great demonstration that horror's true engine is psychology: Hill House and 'The Lottery' are permanent fixtures of the canon and the curriculum alike.
Iain M. Banks
The writer who revived British space opera virtually single-handed and gave SF its most fully argued utopia.
Start-here books
All 281 books →The Left Hand of Darkness
Hugo and Nebula winner, the founding masterpiece of feminist SF, and a permanent fixture at the top of all-time lists.
Dune
Co-winner of the first Nebula, Hugo winner, and the bestselling SF novel of all time.
Tigana
World Fantasy finalist and a permanent top-ten fixture in fantasy polls: the genre's defining novel of cultural erasure, taught and cited well beyond it, and the proof of concept for Kay's history-adjacent method.
The Haunting of Hill House
The consensus finest haunted-house novel in the language: source of Robert Wise's classic 1963 film and Mike Flanagan's 2018 series, and the structural model for every psychological haunting since — King's The Shining declares the debt openly.
Recommended reading lists
All 7 lists →The Steampunk Starter Kit
Brass, steam and revolution: where to begin among the airships.
Space Opera: The Essentials
From back-garden starships to the heat death of everything: nine ships, one genre.
Gateway Grimdark
Mud, consequences and heroes you wouldn't lend money to.