5 of my Favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

Science fiction and fantasy are two of my favorite genres to read, and I’ve been able to read a handful of fantastic books from both categories. That being said, it took me a while to decide on just these five books for this week’s Top 5 Wednesday:

Top 5 Wednesday (#T5W) is a bookish meme created by Lainey (Gingerreadslainey) in 2013. You can learn more about it by visiting the group’s goodreads page.

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

This isn’t the first time the Mistborn series has come up  in one of my Top 5 Wednesdays, and that’s because this series is so damn good.

The Final Empire is the first book in the series. It’s set in a world where a bad man rules an empire and, if you’re not one of his noblemen, you’re a lowly peasant slaving around for him. There’s so much that happens in this book, but the biggest plot line follows a group of thieves who formulate a crazy plan to steal from the emperor. Their only saving grace is that their group consists of skilled allomancers, people who can ingest specific metals and “burn” them in order to gain certain powers such strength or enhanced senses.

Brandon Sanderson is a magnificent author, and if you’re anything like me, you will bawl your eyes out when you finally finish the series.

(See this book on Goodreads.)

Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde

Heir Apparent is another book that I’ve mentioned multiple times on this blog.

It’s a middle grade book about a girl, Giannine, who gets stuck in a virtual reality game when something goes wrong. She has to complete the game without dying, and fast, before she actually dies in the real world. If that’s not bad enough, there are countless ways to win the game and every time Giannine dies in the game, she has to start from the very beginning.

I guess this book can sort of be classified as both science fiction and fantasy since Giannine is stuck in virtual reality, fantasy game.

(See this book on Goodreads.)

Insignia by S.J. Kincaid

Yet another book I’ve already mentioned in a Top 5 Wednesday post, but I can’t not include a book from the Insignia series.

Insignia is the first book in the trilogy of the same name. It’s set in a future where the world’s major corporations, backed by governments, are at war with each other, but in space. Tom Raines, a snarky 14 year old gamer, is recruited by the United States government to train in an academy of genius teenagers to the fight against the enemy.

I recently got my sister to read this series, so she can attest to how much of a emotional roller coaster it is.

(See this book on Goodreads.)

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater

I honestly did not expect that this book would become a favorite of mine. I almost wrote it off as “one of those books about horses that will put me to sleep”, but in the end, I actually lost sleep staying up to read it.

This book is set on the small island of Thisby and follows a girl, Puck, and boy, Sean Kendrick, who both desperately need to win the Scorpio Races. The Scorpio Races is a race that occurs annually at the beginning of November in which participants race the dangerous capaill uisce, or water horses, in order to win the hefty prize money.

The elements of romance combined with the coming-of-age stories make this a sweet, refreshing read.

(See this book on Goodreads.)

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I love Ready Player One for so many reasons. For starters, this book rekindled my love for reading at the end of 2015 and ultimately pushed me to read more books for leisure again. Another reason is that most of this book takes place in virtual reality, and I’m a complete sucker for anything virtual reality-related.

This book is set in 2044 where people take to spending most of their waking hours in a virtual reality utopia, OASIS. After the creator of OASIS, James Donvan Halliday, dies, people begin to race to solve the clues he left behind in order to win the biggest prize ever (uh-uh-uh, no spoilers). The main character, Wade, finds himself in the perfect position to win as he has spent countless hours studying Halliday, Halliday’s fascination with the 80s (the decade he grew up in), and the many intricacies of OASIS.

(See this book on Goodreads.)

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What do you think of my picks? What are some of your favorite science fiction and fantasy book?