The Telegraph: the best sci-fi and fantasy novels of all time
In April 2014 the British newspaper, The Telegraph, published their list of the best all time novels from the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. It’s hard not to enjoy these genres, so if you do, then this list is a must read! This list contains many entries which are not currently in the Public Domain, so you should visit the original listing here.
12 from 33 books available for download
-
1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Journey with Alice down the rabbit hole into a world of wonder where oddities, logic and wordplay rule supreme. Encounter characters like the grinning Cheshire Cat who can vanish into thin air, the cryptic Mad Hatter who speaks in riddles and the harrowing Queen of Hearts obsessed with the phrase... read more »
-
2. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s..." So begins H. G. Wells’ classic novel in which Martian lifeforms take over planet Earth. As the Martians emerge, they construct... read more »
-
3. Dracula by Bram Stoker
A true masterwork of storytelling, Dracula has transcended generation, language, and culture to become one of the most popular novels ever written. It is a quintessential tale of suspense and horror, boasting one of the most terrifying characters ever born in literature: Count Dracula, a tragic... read more »
-
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few... read more »
-
6. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
It is 1984. The world is in a state of perpetual war and Big Brother sees and controls all. Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party and propaganda-writer at the Ministry of Truth, is keeping a journal he should not be keeping and falling in love with Julia, a woman he should not be seeing... read more »
-
19. Utopia by Thomas More
One of the most influential books in the Western philosophical and literary tradition, Sir Thomas More’s Utopia appeared in 1516. The formidable Henry VIII had recently assumed the throne in England, and conflicting ideas about religion were fuelling the Reformation throughout Europe. A... read more »
-
20. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms and brutish... read more »
-
21. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
Follow the macabre events that sweep the narrator into the haunted world of Roderick Usher--a morbid recluse and slave to fear--whose descent into madness inevitably brings the great House of Usher to its most sinister fate. read more »
-
22. Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass is a sequel of sorts to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published seven years later. Alice, now slightly older, walks through a mirror into the Looking-Glass House and immediately becomes involved in a strange game of chess. Soon, she is exploring the rest of the... read more »
-
24. Animal Farm by George Orwell
The most famous by far of all twentieth-century political allegories, Animal Farm is the account of a group of barnyard animals who revolt against their vicious human master, only to submit to a tyranny erected by their own kind, can fairly be said to have become a universal drama. Orwell is one... read more »
-
32. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Wells touches gently on time travel as a notion, but mostly The Time Machine is about the terminal future he sees for mankind: His nameless time traveler ventures to the world that will be 802,701 A.D., And there he finds mankind divided among the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are a gentle... read more »
-
33. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
When first published this unique novel evoked a tremendous amount of hostile criticism, in most part due to its immoral content. Oscar Wilde was identified with the "art for art's sake" movement of the nineteenth century which did not subordinate art to ethical instruction. However, this novel is... read more »