Science fantasy is that strange and wonderful realm combining the best elements of SF and fantasy. Spacers meeting sorcerers, wielders of advanced science wandering savage worlds, strange blends of alternate worlds fueled by science that looks strangely like magic. . . You name it. Science fantasy is the space between.

The long tale of Morgaine and her faithful and often confused companion Vanye began Cherryh's career. Gate of Ivrel was her first published novel, winner of the John W. Campbell award. A skillful blend of Morgaine's advanced science and the more standard trope of Vanye's stoic fantasy swordsman works very, very well, especially in the slow progression of their relationship through the series.

This volume includes:

Gate of Ivrel, Well of Shiuan, and Fires of Azeroth 

The series concludes in Exile's Gate (Morgaine Saga, Book 4)  

Cherryh excels at alien relationships, in this case, humans stranded on a planet where the most sensitive are able to bond with the native telepathic fauna. Together with the nighthorses which choose to companion humans, the bonded pairs protect the human villages from the rest of the planet's wildlife. Young Danny, who has been raised to distrust nighthorses, finds himself sought out by one. Companioned with Cloud, he must find a rogue rider and his beast before ill forces can hunt them down.

Also Cloud's Rider  

Fforde's first novel, and the first in his wildly successful Tuesday Next series, uses pseudo science to bring literature to life in an alternate version of England where the Crimean War has been dragging on for 130 years. Tuesday, a highly literate, brave, and cheeky young lady, is out to stop the perfidious Hades before he steals another character right out of the pages of one of her favorite books. After all, he's already lifted Mr. Quaverley from the original manuscript of Dickens' immortal Martin Chuzzlewit and killed him, thereby changing all copies printed after 1985. Can she stop Hades from forever altering Jane Eyre?

These amazing stories earned Ms. Henderson myriad letters from people convinced they were also lost descendents of "the People", stranded here on Earth after their home world is destroyed. Wonderful, gentle, and often wise, the many individual stories have been woven together into a loose narrative framed within a larger story. The abilities of the People fall well within the realm of science fantasy, for what they can do seems like magic, but is simply part of their own heritage, much like Superman's. 

Highly recommended, this volume includes all of the stories included in:

Pilgrimage and The People: No Different Flesh  

The foundation for her series of books about psi-talented humans, this collection of short stories showcases how "normal" humans might react to people with telepathic or telekinetic abilities, and how those abilities might become integral to a future society. As always, Norton's ability to tell a story and involve the reader with her characters shines through.

Norton was a master at blending SF and fantastic elements and seldom better than in this tale of a young space-faring human, Krip Vorlund, who ends up trapped in the body of a beast on a planet caught in the machinations of spacers trying to control its wealth. Getting out becomes a race against time, as the Moonsinger Maelen tries to save both Krip and a man dear to her whose mind and body are also at risk under the moon of three rings.

This deliciously funny tale could only occur in the limitless universe of SF. It may be true that no good deed goes unpunished. When Captain Pausert, who wanted only to make a decent living plying the space lanes in his beat-up freighter, the Venture, frees three children from slavers, he quickly gets caught in their well-meaning attempts to be helpful. Between their, eh, interesting powers and their hot new space drive, young Pausert ends up the most hunted guy in the galaxy, discovering too late that he has fallen in with the witches of Karres.