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NPR Books Summer Poll 2021: A Decade Of Great Sci-Fi And Fantasy

We asked, you answered: your 50 favorite sci-fi and fantasy books of the past decade.

Petra Mayer

The question at the heart of science fiction and fantasy is "what if?" What if gods were real, but you could kill them ? What if humans finally made it out among the stars — only to discover we're the shabby newcomers in a grand galactic alliance ? What if an asteroid destroyed the East Coast in 1952 and jump-started the space race years early?

Summer Reader Poll 2021: Meet our expert judges

Summer Reader Poll 2018: Horror

Click if you dare: 100 favorite horror stories.

Summer Reader Poll 2019: Funny Books

We did it for the lols: 100 favorite funny books.

This year's summer reader poll was also shaped by a series of "what ifs" — most importantly, what if, instead of looking at the entire history of the field the way we did in our 2011 poll , we focused only on what has happened in the decade since? These past 10 years have brought seismic change to science fiction and fantasy (sometimes literally, in the case of N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series), and we wanted to celebrate the world-shaking rush of new voices, new perspectives, new styles and new stories. And though we limited ourselves to 50 books this time around, the result is a list that's truly stellar — as poll judge Tochi Onyebuchi put it, "Alive."

As always, a pretty extensive decision-making process went into the list, involving our fabulous panel of expert judges — but we know you eager readers want to get right to the books. So if you're inclined, follow these links to find out how we built the list (and what, sadly, didn't make it this year ). Otherwise, scroll on for the list!

We've broken it up into categories to help you find the reading experience you're looking for, and you can click on these links to go directly to each category:

Worlds To Get Lost In · Words To Get Lost In · Will Take You On A Journey · Will Mess With Your Head · Will Mess With Your Heart · Will Make You Feel Good

Worlds To Get Lost In

Are you (like me) a world-building fanatic? These authors have built worlds so real you can almost smell them.

The Imperial Radch Trilogy

Breq is a human now — but once she was a starship. Once she was an AI with a vast and ancient metal body and troops of ancillaries, barely animate bodies that all carried her consciousness. Poll judge Ann Leckie has created a massive yet intricate interstellar empire where twisty galactic intrigues and multiple clashing cultures form a brilliant backdrop for the story of a starship learning to be a human being. Your humble editor got a copy of Ancillary Justice when it came out and promptly forced her entire family to read it.

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The Dead Djinn Universe (series)

What a wonderful world P. Djélì Clarke has created here — an Arab world never colonized, where magic-powered trams glide through a cosmopolitan Cairo and where djinns make mischief among humans. Clarke's novella Ring Shout also showed up on our semifinalists list, and it was hard to decide between them, but ultimately our judges felt the Dead Djinn Universe offered more to explore. But you should still read Ring Shout , a wild ride of a read where gun-toting demon-hunters go up against Ku Klux Klan members who are actual, pointy-headed white demons. Go on, go get a copy! We'll wait.

The Age of Madness Trilogy

One of my pet peeves with fantasy novels is they sometimes don't allow for the progression of time and technology — but in Joe Abercrombie's Age of Madness series, the follow-up to his debut First Law trilogy, industrialization has come to the world of The Union, and it's brought no good in its wake. More than that — machines may be rising, but magic will not give way, and all over the world, those at the bottom of the heap are beginning to get really, really angry. This series works as a standalone — but you should also read the excellent First Law series (even though it's old enough to fall outside the scope of this list).

The Green Bone Saga

This sprawling saga of family, honor, blood and magical jade will suck you in from the very first page. Poll judge Fonda Lee's story works on every conceivable level, from minute but meaningful character beats to solid, elegantly conveyed world-building to political intrigue to big, overarching themes of clan, loyalty and identity. Plus, wow, the jade-powered martial arts sequences are as fine as anything the Shaw Brothers ever put on screen. "Reviewing books is my actual job," says fellow judge Amal El-Mohtar, "but I still have to fight my husband for the advance copies of Fonda's books, and we're both THIS CLOSE to learning actual martial arts to assist us in our dueling for dibs."

The Expanse (series)

Yes, sure, you've seen the TV show (you HAVE, right? Right?) about the ragtag crew of spacers caught up in a three-way power struggle between Earth, Mars and the society that's developed on far-off asteroid belts. But there's much, much more to explore in the books — other planets, other characters, storylines and concepts that didn't make it to the screen. Often, when a book gets adapted for film or TV, there's a clear argument about which version is better. With The Expanse , we can confidently say you should watch and read. The only downside? Book- Avasarala doesn't show up until a few volumes in.

The Daevabad Trilogy

Nahri is a con woman (with a mysteriously real healing talent) scraping a living in the alleys of 18th century Cairo — until she accidentally summons some true magic and discovers her fate is bound to a legendary city named Daevabad, far from human civilization, home of djinns and bloody intrigues. Author S.A. Chakraborty converted to Islam as a teenager and after college began writing what she describes as "historical fanfiction" about medieval Islam; then characters appeared, inspired by people she met at her mosque. "A sly heroine capable of saving herself, a dashing hero who'd break for the noon prayer," she told an interviewer . "I wanted to write a story for us, about us, with the grandeur and magic of a summer blockbuster."

Teixcalaan (series)

The Aztecs meet the Byzantines in outer space in this intricately imagined story of diplomatic intrigue and fashionable poetic forms. Mahit Dzmare is an ambassador from a small space station clinging desperately to its independence in the face of the massive Teixcalaanli empire . But when she arrives in its glittering capital, her predecessor's dead, and she soon discovers she's been sabotaged herself. Luckily, it turns out she's incredibly good at her job, even without her guiding neural implant. "I'm a sucker for elegant worldbuilding that portrays all the finer nuances of society and culture in addition to the grandness of empire and the complexity of politics," says judge Fonda Lee. "Arkady Martine delivers all that in droves."

The Thessaly Trilogy

Apollo, spurned by Daphne, is trying to understand free will and consent by living as a mortal. Athena is trying to create a utopia by plucking men and women from all across history and dropping them on an island to live according to Plato's Republic. Will it all go according to plan? Not likely. "Brilliant, compelling, and frankly unputdownable," wrote poll judge Amal El-Mohtar , "this will do what your Intro to Philosophy courses probably couldn't: make you want to read The Republic ."

Shades of Magic Trilogy

V.E. Schwab has created a world with four Londons lying atop one another : our own dull Grey, warm magic-suffused Red, tyrannical White, and dead, terrifying Black. Once, movement among them was easy, but now only a few have the ability — including our hero, Kell. So naturally, he's a smuggler, and the action kicks off when Grey London thief Lila steals a dangerous artifact from him, a stone that could upset the balance among the Londons. Rich world building, complex characters and really scary bad guys make Schwab's London a city — or cities — well worth spending time in.

The Divine Cities Trilogy

On the Continent, you must not, you cannot, talk about the gods — the gods are dead. Or are they? Robert Jackson Bennett's Divine Cities trilogy builds a fully, gloriously realized world where gods are the source of power, miracles and oppression, and gods can also be killed. But what happens next, when the gods are gone and the work of running the world is left to regular human men and women? What happens in that unsettled moment when divinity gives way to technology? This series spans a long timeline; the heroes of the first volume are old by the end. "And as ancient powers clash among gleaming, modern skyscrapers, those who have survived from the first page to these last have a heaviness about them," writes reviewer Jason Sheehan , "a sense that they have seen remarkable things, done deeds both heroic and terrible, and that they can see a far and final horizon in the distance, quickly approaching."

The Wormwood Trilogy

Part of a recent wave of work celebrating and centering Nigerian culture, this trilogy is set in a future where a fungal alien invader has swallowed big global cities, America has shut itself away and gone dark, and a new city, Rosewater, has grown up around a mysterious alien dome in rural Nigeria. It's a wild mashup of alien invasion, cyberpunk, Afro-futurism and even a touch of zombie horror. "I started reading Rosewater on vacation and quickly set it down until I got home, because Tade Thompson's work is no light beach read," says judge Fonda Lee. "His writing demands your full attention — and amply rewards it."

Black Sun (series)

Author Rebecca Roanhorse was tired of reading epic fantasy with quasi-European settings, so she decided to write her own . The result is Black Sun , set in a world influenced by pre-Columbian mythology and rich with storms, intrigue, giant bugs, mysterious sea people, ritual, myth and some very scary crows. (They hold grudges, did you know?) This is only Book 1 of a forthcoming series, but we felt it was so strong it deserved to be here, no matter where Roanhorse goes next.

Words To Get Lost In

If you're one of those people who thought genre fiction writing was workmanlike and uninspiring, these books will change your mind.

Susanna Clarke at last returns to our shelves with this mind-bendingly glorious story — that's a bit hard to describe without spoiling. So we'll say it's about a mysterious man and the House that he dearly loves, a marvelous place full of changing light and surging tides, statues and corridors and crossings, birds and old bones and passing days and one persistent visitor who brings strangely familiar gifts. Clarke "limns a magic far more intrinsic than the kind commanded through spells," wrote reviewer Vikki Valentine , "a magic that is seemingly part of the fabric of the universe and as powerful as a cosmic engine — yet fragile nonetheless."

Imagine Circe, the fearsome witch of the Odyssey, as an awkward teenager, growing up lonely among scornful gods and falling for what we modern folks would call a f***boy, before coming into her own, using her exile on the island of Aiaia to hone her powers and build an independent life. Circe only shows up briefly in the Odyssey, but Madeline Miller gives her a lush, complex life in these pages. She has worked as a classics teacher, and as our reviewer Annalisa Quinn noted , Miller "extracts worlds of meaning from Homer's short phrases."

Mexican Gothic

A sharp young socialite in 1950s Mexico City travels to a creepy rural mansion to check on her cousin, who has fallen ill after marrying into a mysterious family of English landowners. What could possibly go wrong? Silvia Moreno-Garcia "makes you uneasy about invisible things by writing around them," said reviewer Jessica P. Wick. "Even when you think you know what lurks, the power to unsettle isn't diminished." Not to be too spoilery — but after reading this stylishly chilling novel, you'll never look at mushrooms the same way again.

The Paper Menagerie And Other Stories

"I taught Liu's 'The Man Who Ended History' in a graduate seminar one semester," says judge Tochi Onyebuchi, "and one of the toughest tasks I've ever faced in adulthood was crafting a lesson plan that went beyond me just going 'wtf wtf wtf wtf wtf' for the whole two hours. Some story collections are like those albums where the artist or record label just threw a bunch of songs together and said 'here,' and some collections arrive as a complete, cohesive, emotionally catholic whole. The Paper Menagerie is that."

Spinning Silver

Judges had a hard time deciding between Spinning Silver and Uprooted , Novik's previous fairy tale retelling. Ultimately, we decided that this reclamation of "Rumpelstiltskin" has a chewier, more interesting project, with much to say about money, labor, debt and friendship, explored in unflinching yet tender ways. Judge Amal El-Mohtar reviewed Spinning Silver for NPR when it came out in 2018. "There are so many mathemagicians in this book, be they moneylenders turning silver into gold or knitters working to a pattern," she wrote at the time . "It's gold and silver all the way down."

Exhalation: Stories

"I often get the same feeling reading a Ted Chiang story as I did listening to a Prince song while he was still with us," says judge Tochi Onyebuchi. "What a glorious privilege it is that we get to share a universe with this genius!" This poll can be a discovery tool for editors and judges as much as audience, so hearing that, your humble editor went straight to the library and downloaded a copy of this collection.

Olondria (series)

In Olondria, you can smell the ocean wind coming off the page, soldiers ride birds, angels haunt humans, and written dreams are terribly dangerous. "Have you ever seen something so beautiful that you'd be content to just sit and watch the light around it change for a whole day because every passing moment reveals even more unbearable loveliness and transforms you in ways you can't articulate?" asks judge Amal El-Mohtar. "You will if you read these books."

Her Body And Other Parties: Stories

These eight stories dance across the borders of fairy tale, horror, erotica and urban legend, spinning the familiar, lived experiences of women into something rich and strange. As the title suggests, Machado focuses on the unruly female body and all of its pleasures and risks (there's one story that's just increasingly bizarre rewrites of Law & Order: SVU episodes). At one point, a character implies that kind of writing is "tiresome and regressive," too much about stereotypical crazy lesbians and madwomen in the attic. But as our critic Annalisa Quinn wrote , "Machado seems to answer: The world makes madwomen, and the least you can do is make sure the attic is your own."

The Buried Giant

Axl and Beatrice are an elderly couple, living in a fictional Britain just after Arthur's time, where everyone suffers from what they call "mist," a kind of amnesia that hits long-term memories. They believe, they vaguely remember that they once had a son, so they set out to find him — encountering an elderly Sir Gawain along the way, and long-forgotten connections to Arthur's court and the dark deeds the mist is hiding. Poll judge Ann Leckie loves Arthurian legends. What she does not love are authors who don't do them justice — but with The Buried Giant , she says, Kazuo Ishiguro gets it solidly right.

Do you love space opera? Alternate history? Silent film? (OK, are you me?) Then you should pick up Catherynne M. Valente's Radiance , which mashes up all three in a gloriously surreal saga about spacefaring filmmakers in an alternate version of 1986, in which you might be able to go to Jupiter, but Thomas Edison's death grip on his patents means talkies are still a novelty. Yes, Space Opera did get more votes, but our judges genuinely felt that Radiance was the stronger book. Reviewing it in 2015, judge Amal El-Mohtar wrote , " Radiance is the sort of novel about which you have to speak for hours or hardly speak at all: either stop at 'it's magnificent' or roll on to talk about form, voice, ambition, originality, innovation for more thousands of words than are available to me here before even touching on the plot."

Will Take You On A Journey

Sure, all books are some kind of journey, but these reads really go the distance.

The Changeling

It's easy(ish) to summarize The Changeling : Rare book dealer Apollo Kagwa has a baby son with his wife, Emma, but she's been acting strange — and when she vanishes after doing something unspeakable, he sets out to find her. But his journey loops through a New York you've never seen before: mysterious islands and haunted forests, strange characters and shifting rhythms. The Changeling is a modern urban fairy tale with one toe over the line into horror, and wherever it goes, it will draw you along with it.

Wayfarers (series)

Becky Chambers writes aliens like no one else — in fact, humans are the backward newcomers in her generous, peaceful galactic vision. The Wayfarers books are only loosely linked: They all take place in the same universe, but apart from that you'll meet a new set of characters, a new culture and a new world (or an old world transformed). Cranky space pacifists, questing AIs, fugitives, gravediggers and fluffy, multi-limbed aliens who love pudding — the only flaw in this series is you'll wish you could spend more time with all of them.

Binti (series)

Binti is the first of her people, the Himba, to be offered a place at the legendary Oomza University, finest institution of learning in the galaxy — and as if leaving Earth to live among the stars weren't enough, Binti finds herself caught between warring human and alien factions. Over and over again throughout these novellas, Binti makes peace, bridges cultures, brings home with her even as she leaves and returns, changed by her experiences. Our judges agreed that the first two Binti stories are the strongest — but even if the third stumbles, as judge and critic Amal El-Mohtar wrote, "Perhaps the point is just having a Black girl with tentacles for hair possessing the power and freedom to float among Saturn's rings."

Lady Astronaut (series)

What would America's space program have looked like if, say, a gigantic asteroid had wiped out the East Coast in 1952 — and started a countdown to destruction for the rest of the world? We'd have had to get into space much sooner. And all the female pilots who served in World War II and were unceremoniously dumped back at home might have had another chance to fly. Mary Robinette Kowal's Hugo Award-winning series plays that out with Elma York, a former WASP pilot and future Lady Astronaut whose skill and determination help all of humanity escape the bonds of Earth. Adds judge Amal El-Mohtar: "Audiobook readers are in for a special treat here in that Kowal narrates the books herself, and if you've never had the pleasure of attending one of her readings, you get to experience her wonderful performance with bonus production values. It's especially cool given that the seed for the series was an audio-first short story."

Children of Time (duology)

Far in the future, the dregs of humanity escape a ruined Earth and find what they think is a new hope deep in space — a planet that past spacefarers terraformed and left for them. But the evolutionary virus that was supposed to jump-start a cargo of monkeys, creating ready-made workers, instead latched on to ... something else, and in the intervening years, something terrible has arisen there. Poll judge Ann Leckie says she can't stand spiders (BIG SAME), but even so, she was adamant that the Children of Time books deserve their spot here.

Wayward Children (series)

Everyone loves a good portal fantasy. Who hasn't looked in the back of the closet hoping, faintly, to see snow and a street lamp? In the Wayward Children series, Seanan McGuire reminds us that portals go both ways: What happens to those children who get booted back through the door into the real world, starry-eyed and scarred? Well, a lot of them end up at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children. The prolific McGuire turned up on our semifinalists list A Lot. We had a hard time deciding between this and her killer stand-alone Middlegame , but the Wayward Children won the day with their shimmering mix of fairy tale, fantasy and emotional heft — not to mention body positivity and solid queer and trans representation. (As with a lot of the also-rans, though, you should really read Middlegame too.)

The Space Between Worlds

There are 382 parallel worlds in Micaiah Johnson's debut novel, and humanity can finally travel between them — but there's a deadly catch. You can visit only a world where the parallel version of you is already dead. And that makes Cara — whose marginal wastelands existence means only a few versions of her are left — valuable to the high and mighty of her own Earth. "They needed trash people," Cara says, to gather information from other worlds. But her existence, already precarious, is threatened when a powerful scientist figures out how to grab that information remotely. "At a time when I was really struggling with the cognitive demands of reading anything for work or pleasure, this book flooded me with oxygen and lit me on fire," says judge Amal El-Mohtar. "I can't say for certain that it enabled me to read again, but in its wake, I could."

Will Mess With Your Head

Do you love twisty tales, loopy logic, unsolved mysteries and cosmic weirdness? Scroll on!

Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Poll judge Amal El-Mohtar once described Black Leopard, Red Wolf as " like being slowly eaten by a bear ." Fellow judge Tochi Onyebuchi chimes in: " Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a Slipknot album of a book. In all the best ways." Set in a dazzling, dangerous fantasy Africa, it is — at least on the surface — about a man named Tracker, in prison when we meet him and telling his life story to an inquisitor. Beyond that, it's fairly indescribable, full of roof-crawling demons, dust-cloud assassins, blood and (fair warning) sexual violence. A gnarly book, a difficult book, sometimes actively hostile to the reader — yet necessary, and stunning.

Southern Reach (series)

The Southern Reach books are, at least on the surface, a simple tale of a world gone wrong, of a mysterious "Area X" and the expeditions that have suffered and died trying to map it — and the strange government agency that keeps sending them in. But there's a lot seething under that surface: monsters, hauntings, a slowly building sense of wrong and terror that will twist your brain around sideways. "If the guys who wrote Lost had brought H.P. Lovecraft into the room as a script doctor in the first season," our critic Jason Sheehan wrote , "the Southern Reach trilogy is what they would've come up with."

The Echo Wife

Part sci-fi cautionary tale, part murder mystery, The Echo Wife is a twisty treat . At its center are a famed genetic researcher and her duplicitous husband, who uses her breakthrough technology to clone himself a sweeter, more compliant version of his wife before ending up dead. "As expertly constructed as a Patek Philippe watch," says poll judge Tochi Onyebuchi. "Seamlessly blends domestic thriller and science fiction," adds fellow judge Fonda Lee. "This book is going to haunt my thoughts for a long time."

The Locked Tomb (series)

This series is often described as "lesbian necromancers in space," but trust us, it's so much more than that. Wildly inventive, gruesome, emotional, twisty and funny as hell, the Locked Tomb books are like nothing you've ever read before. And we defy you to read them and not give serious consideration to corpse paint and mirror shades as a workable fashion statement. There are only two books out now, of a planned four-book series, but Gideon the Ninth alone is enough to earn Tamsyn Muir a place on this list: "Too funny to be horror, too gooey to be science fiction, has too many spaceships and autodoors to be fantasy, and has far more bloody dismemberings than your average parlor romance," says critic Jason Sheehan. "It is altogether its own thing."

Remembrance of Earth's Past (series)

Liu Cixin became the first author from Asia to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel, for The Three-Body Problem , the first volume in this series about one of the oldest questions in science fiction: What will happen when we meet aliens? Liu is writing the hardest of hard sci-fi here, full of brain-twisting passages about quantum mechanics and artificial intelligence (if you didn't actually know what the three-body problem was, you will now), grafted onto the backbone of a high-stakes political thriller. Poll judge Tochi Onyebuchi says, "These books divided me by zero. And, yes, that is a compliment."

Machineries of Empire (series)

In the Hexarchate, numbers are power: This interstellar empire draws its strength from rigidly enforced adherence to the imperial calendar, a system of numbers that can alter reality. But now, a "calendrical rot" is eating away at that structure, and it's up to a mathematically talented young soldier — and the ghost of an infamous traitor — to try to repair the rot while a war blazes across the stars around them. " Ninefox Gambit is a book with math in its heart, but also one which understands that even numbers can lie," our critic Jason Sheehan wrote . "That it's what you see in the numbers that matters most."

Will Mess With Your Heart

Books that'll make you cry, make you think — and sometimes make you want to hide under the bed.

The Broken Earth (series)

In the world of the Stillness, geological convulsions cause upheavals that can last for centuries — and only the orogenes, despised yet essential to the status quo — can control them. N.K. Jemisin deservedly won three back-to-back Hugo awards for these books, which use magnificent world building and lapidary prose to smack you in the face about your own complicity in systems of oppression. "Jemisin is the first — and so far only — person ever to have won a Hugo Award for Best Novel for every single book in a series. These books upheaved the terrain of epic fantasy as surely and completely as Fifth Seasons transform the geography of the Stillness," says poll judge Amal El-Mohtar.

Station Eleven

Author Emily St. John Mandel went on Twitter in 2020 and advised people not to read Station Eleven , not in the midst of the pandemic. But we beg to disagree. A story in which art (and particularly Shakespeare) helps humanity come back to itself after a pandemic wipes out the world as we know it might be just the thing we need. "Survival is insufficient," say Mandel's traveling players (a line she says she lifted from Star Trek ), and that's a solid motto any time.

This Is How You Lose the Time War

Enemies-to-lovers is a classic romance novel trope, and it's rarely been done with as much strange beauty as poll judge Amal El-Mohtar and co-author Max Gladstone pull off in this tale of Red and Blue, two agents on opposite sides of a war that's sprawled across time and space. "Most books I read are objects of study. And more often than not, I can figure out how the prose happened, how the character arcs are constructed, the story's architecture," says judge Tochi Onyebuchi. "But then along comes a thing so dazzling you can't help but stare at and ask 'how.' Amal and Max wrote a cheat code of a book. They unlocked all the power-ups, caught all the Chaos Emeralds, mastered all the jutsus, and honestly, I'd say it's downright unfair how much they flexed on us with Time War , except I'm so damn grateful they gave it to us in the first place." (As we noted above, having Time War on the list meant that Max Gladstone couldn't make a second appearance for his outstanding solo work with the Craft Sequence . But you should absolutely read those, too.)

The Poppy War Trilogy

What if Mao Zedong were a teenage girl? That's how author R.F. Kuang describes the central question in her Poppy War series . Fiery, ruthless war orphan Fang Runin grows up, attends an elite military academy, develops fire magic and wins a war — but finds herself becoming the kind of monster she once fought against. Kuang has turned her own rage and anger at historical atrocities into a gripping, award-winning story that will drag you along with it, all the way to the end. "If this were football, Kuang might be under investigation for PEDs," jokes judge Tochi Onyebuchi, referring to performance-enhancing drugs. "But, no, she's really just that good."

The Masquerade (series)

Baru Cormorant was born to a free-living, free-loving nation, but all that changed when the repressive Empire of Masks swept in, tearing apart her family, yet singling her out for advancement through its new school system. Baru decides the only way to free her people is to claw her way up the ranks of Empire — but she risks becoming the monster she's fighting against. "I've loved every volume of this more than the one before it, and the first one was devastatingly strong," says judge Amal El-Mohtar — who said of that first volume, "This book is a tar pit, and I mean that as a compliment."

An Unkindness of Ghosts

The Matilda is a generation ship, a vast repository of human life among the stars, cruelly organized like an antebellum plantation: Black and brown people on the lower decks, working under vicious overseers to provide the white upper-deck passengers with comfortable lives. Aster, an orphaned outsider, uses her late mother's medical knowledge to bring healing where she can and to solve the mystery of Matilda 's failing power source. Poll judge Amal El-Mohtar originally reviewed An Unkindness of Ghosts for us , writing "What Solomon achieves with this debut — the sharpness, the depth, the precision — puts me in mind of a syringe full of stars."

The Bird King

G. Willow Wilson's beautiful novel, set during the last days of Muslim Granada, follows a royal concubine who yearns for freedom and the queer mapmaker who's her best friend. "It is really devastating to a critic to find that the only truly accurate way of describing an author's prose is the word 'luminous,' but here we are," says judge Amal El-Mohtar. "This book is luminous. It is full of light, in searing mirror-flashes and warm candleflame flickers and dappled twists of heart-breaking insight into empire, war and religion."

American War

This was judge Tochi Onyebuchi's personal pick — a devastating portrait of a post-climate-apocalypse, post-Second Civil War America that's chosen to use its most terrifying and oppressive policies against its own people. "It despairs me how careless we are with the word 'prescient' these days, but when I finished American War , I truly felt that I'd glimpsed our future," Onyebuchi says. "Charred and scarred and shot through with shards of hope."

Poll judge Tochi Onyebuchi centers this story on the kind of person who's more often a statistic, rarely a fully rounded character: Kevin, who's young, Black and in prison . Born amid the upheaval around the Rodney King verdict, Kevin is hemmed in by structural and individual racism at every turn; meanwhile, his sister Ella has developed mysterious, frightening powers — but she still can't do the one thing she truly wants to do, which is to rescue her brother. This slim novella packs a punch with all the weight of history behind it; fellow judge Amal El-Mohtar says, "I've said it in reviews and I'll say it again here: This book reads like hot diamonds, as searing as it is precise."

On Fragile Waves

Every year, we ask our judges to add some of their own favorites to the list, and this year, Amal El-Mohtar teared up talking about her passion for E. Lily Yu's haunted refugee story On Fragile Waves . "I need everyone to read this book," she says. "I wept throughout it and for a solid half-hour once I had finished it, and I know it's hard to recommend books that make you cry right now, but I have no chill about this one: It is so important, it is so beautiful, and I feel like maybe if everyone read it the world would be a slightly less terrible place."

Will Make You Feel Good

Maybe, after the year we've just had, you want to read a book where good things happen, eventually? We've got you.

The Goblin Emperor

In a far corner of an elven empire, young half-goblin Maia learns that a mysterious accident has left him heir to the throne. But he has been in exile almost all his life — how can he possibly negotiate the intricate treacheries of the imperial court? Fairly well, as it turns out. Maia is a wonderful character, hesitant and shy at first, but deeply good and surprisingly adept at the whole being-an-emperor thing. The only thing wrong with The Goblin Emperor was that it was, for a long time, a stand-alone. But now there's a sequel, The Witness for the Dead — so if you love the world Katherine Addison has created, you've got a way back to it. "I just love this book utterly," says judge Amal El-Mohtar. "So warm, so kind, so generous."

Murderbot (series)

Oh Murderbot — we know you just want to be left alone to watch your shows, but we can't quit you. Martha Wells' series about a murderous security robot that's hacked its own governing module and become self-aware is expansive, action-packed, funny and deeply human . Also, your humble poll editor deeply wishes that someone would write a fic in which Murderbot meets Ancillary Justice 's Breq and they swap tips about how to be human over tea (which Murderbot can't really drink).

The Interdependency (series)

John Scalzi didn't mean to be quite so prescient when he started this trilogy about a galactic empire facing destruction as its interstellar routes collapse — a problem the empire knew about but ignored for all the same reasons we punt our problems today. "Some of that was completely unintentional," he told Scott Simon . "But some of it was. I live in the world." The Interdependency series is funny, heartfelt and ultimately hopeful, and packed with fantastic characters. To the reader who said they voted "because of Kiva Lagos," we say, us too.

The Martian

You don't expect a hard sci-fi novel to start with the phrase "I'm pretty much f****d," but it definitely sets the tone for Andy Weir's massive hit. Astronaut Mark Watney, stranded alone on Mars after an accident, is a profane and engaging narrator who'll let you know just how f****d he is and then just how he plans to science his way out of it. If you've only seen the movie, there's so much more to dig into in the book (including, well, that very first line).

Sorcerer to the Crown/The True Queen

A Regency romp with squabbling magicians, romance and intrigue, with women and people of color center stage? Yes, please! These two books form a wonderful balance. Sorcerer to the Crown is more whimsical and occasionally riotously funny despite its serious underlying themes. The True Queen builds out from there, looking at the characters and events of the first book with a different, more serious perspective. But both volumes are charming, thoughtful and thoroughly enjoyable.

How We Built This

Wow, you're some dedicated readers! Thanks for coming all the way down here to find out more. As I said above, we decided to limit ourselves to 50 books this year instead of our usual 100, which made winnowing down the list a particular challenge. As you may know, this poll isn't a straight-up popularity contest, though, if it were, the Broken Earth books would have crushed all comers — y'all have good taste! Instead, we take your votes (over 16,000 this year) and pare them down to about 250 semifinalists, and then during a truly epic conference call, our panel of expert judges goes through those titles, cuts some, adds some and hammers out a final curated list.

What Didn't Make It — And Why

As always, there were works readers loved and voted for that didn't make our final list of 50 — it's not a favorites list if you can't argue about it, right? Sometimes, we left things out because we felt like the authors were well known enough not to need our help (farewell, The Ocean at the End of the Lane , Neil Gaiman, we hope you'll forgive us!), but mostly it happened because the books either came out before our cutoff date or already appeared on the original 2011 list. (Sorry, Brandon Sanderson! The first Mistborn book was actually on this year's list, until I looked more closely and realized it was a repeat from 2011.)

Some books didn't make it this year because we're almost positive they'll come around next year — next year being the 10th anniversary of our original 2012 YA poll, when (spoiler alert!) we're planning a similar redo. So we say "not farewell, but fare forward, voyagers" to the likes of Raybearer , Children of Blood and Bone and the Grishaverse books; if they don't show up on next year's list I'll, I don't know, I'll eat my kefta .

And this year, because we had only 50 titles to play with, we did not apply the famous Nora Roberts rule, which allows particularly beloved and prolific authors onto the list twice. So as much as it pains me, there's only one Seanan McGuire entry here, and Max Gladstone appears alongside poll judge Amal El-Mohtar for This Is How You Lose the Time War but not on his own for the excellent Craft Sequence . Which — as we said above — you should ABSOLUTELY read.

One Final Note

Usually, readers will vote at least some works by members of our judging panel onto the list, and usually, we let the judges themselves decide whether or not to include them. But this year, I put my editorial foot down — all four judges made it to the semifinals, and had we not included them, the final product would have been the less for it. So you'll find all four on the list. And we hope you enjoy going through it as much as we enjoyed putting it together!

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

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29 of the Best Science Fiction Books Everyone Should Read

Looking for your next sci-fi must-read? Cyberpunk, space operas, dystopias – we've pulled together some of the WIRED team's favourite science fiction novels. Some are eerily plausible, others are wild trips of the imagination, but all present compelling visions of our possible future. Listed here in chronological order for completists.

You may also enjoy our guides to best sci-fi movies and the best space movies , too. If you're after more reading inspiration, try our selection of the best fantasy books and we have a guide to the best audiobooks if you're feeling lazy.

It's Prime Day 2023, so we've uncovered the top discounts. Check out the best Prime Day deals in the UK here.​​

The Blazing World, by Margaret Cavendish (1666)

This book is arguably the first science fiction book ever written. The Blazing World's language may be dated, but this fearless feminist text from Margaret Cavendish is packed full of imagination is not just incredibly brave for its time. It's also still incredibly relevant; cited as inspiration by writers including China Miéville and Alan Moore.

Cavendish's utopian tale follows the adventures of a kidnapped woman, who travels to another world run by part-humans, part animals - fox men, fish men, geese men, the list goes on. As she is a very beautiful woman, she becomes their Empress, and organises an an almighty invasion of her own world, complete with literal fire(stones) raining from the sky.

Price: £10 | Amazon | Waterstones | Wordery | Audible trial

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (1818)

Mary Shelley started writing classic gothic thriller Frankenstein when she was 18 years old. Two centuries later, it is a major ancestor of both the science fiction and horror genres, tackling huge themes like the nature of life and death, immortality and genetic engineering. It is a pro-science novel that at its heart shows Dr Frankenstein as the callous fiend of the story, who created a being and was not willing to accept responsibility for his actions. In an age where the space between technical life and death is narrower than ever, and scientists are playing with the makeup of what makes us humans, Frankenstein can still teach an important lesson: just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Price: £6 | Amazon | Waterstones | Blackwells | Audible trial

Foundation, by Isaac Asimov (1951)

Asimov was a prolific writer, but many of his best works are classic short stories such as Nightfall , or The Last Question , which play out like long jokes with a punchline twist at the end. In the Foundation series, he’s in another mode entirely, charting the rise and fall of empires in sweeping brush strokes. Asimov’s prose can be stilted, and betrays the attitudes of its time in the portrayal of female characters, but it has left a lasting legacy.

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The Foundation series follows Hari Seldon, who is the architect of psychohistory – a branch of mathematics that can make accurate predictions thousands of years in advance, and which Seldon believes is necessary to save the human race from the dark ages. You can see why it’s one of Elon Musk’s favourite books (along with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy , and The Moon is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein – also recommended). A long-awaited screen adaptation is one of the flagship shows of Apple TV+.

Price: £8 | Amazon | Waterstones | Wordery | Audible trial

The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester (1957)

This landmark novel begins with a simple proposition – what if humans could teleport? – and sprawls into a tale of rebirth and vengeance that winds across the Solar System: The Count of Monte Cristo for the interstellar age. First published as Tiger! Tiger! in the UK, named after the William Blake poem, it follows Gully Foyle – a violent, uneducated brute who spends six months marooned in deep space, and the rest of the book seeking retribution for it.

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Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem (1961)

If you think you know Solaris from the 2002 Steven Soderbergh film, the original book may come as a bit of a surprise. Written by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem in 1961, this short novel is heavier on philosophy than plot. It follows a team of humans on a space station who are trying to understand the mysterious living ocean on the planet Solaris, with little success – their research is limited to lengthy descriptions that paint a vibrant picture of the alien planet but fail to elucidate how it works. As they poke and prod, Solaris ends up exposing more about them than it does about itself, with the book demonstrating the futility of humans trying to comprehend something not of their world.

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Dune, by Frank Herbert (1965)

In 2012, WIRED US readers voted Dune the best science-fiction novel of all time. It’s also the best-selling of all time, and has inspired a mammoth universe, including 18 books set over 34,000 years and a terrible 1984 movie adaptation by David Lynch, his worst film by far. A very different effort was released in 2021, directed by Denis Villeneuve. The series is set 20,000 years in the future in galaxies stuck in the feudal ages, where computers are banned for religious reasons and noble families rule whole planets. We focus on the planet Arrakis, which holds a material used as a currency throughout the Universe for its rarity and mind-enhancing powers. Lots of giant sandworms, too.

Price: £10 | Amazon | Waterstones | Foyles | Audible trial

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein (1966)

One of Elon Musk's favourite books, apparently, this gripping novel paints a plausible picture of life on Earth's satellite, three years before man set foot on the moon for the first time. Its depictions of the challenges of life in orbit, and the ingenuity of human solutions to the problem – even among the exiles and misfits who make up the lunar population – are memorable.

Ice, by Anna Kavan (1967)

Anna Kavan's last (and best) sci fi novel provides a haunting, claustrophobic vision of the end of the world, where an unstoppable monolithic ice shelf is slowly engulfing the earth and killing everything in its wake. The male protagonist and narrator of the story (who is nameless) is eternally chasing after an elusive and ethereal young woman, while contemplating feelings that become darker and more violent towards her as the ice closes in. He frequently crosses paths with the Warden, the sometimes-husband but also captor of the young woman, who is always one step ahead. And as the ice closes off almost all paths by land and sea, he is running out of time to catch them up.

The novel reads like a grown-up, nightmarish version of Alice in Wonderland : Kavan takes you on a journey that is hallucinogenic and unsettling, with no regard to whether the narrator is dreaming or awake. But the true genius of the book is its language - depicting a powerful allegory crushing pain of addiction, loneliness and mental illness will do little to cheer you up, but will capture your attention.

Price: £8 | Amazon | Waterstones | Foyles | Audible trial

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)

Le Guin alternated between genres during her prolific career, and this intricate novel came out the year after the classic fantasy book A Wizard of Earthsea . The bulk of the action takes place on Winter, a remote Earth-like planet where it’s cold all year round, and everyone is the same gender. It was one of the first novels to touch on ideas of androgyny – which is viewed from the lens of protagonist Genly Ai, a visitor from Earth who struggles to understand this alien culture.

A Scanner Darkly, by Philip K Dick (1977)

A curious novel that reads less like sci-fi and more like a hallucinated autobiography detailing the author’s struggle with drug addiction. In a near-future California, vice cop Bob Arctor lives undercover with a community of drug addicts hooked on devastating psychoactive dope Substance D. Arctor, who needs to don a special “scramble suit” to hide his face and voice when meeting his fellow cops, has to grapple with gradually losing his sense of self.

Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler (1979)

Though Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred was published more than 40 years ago, it carries lessons and learnings that we can all still use today. When African-American writer, Dana finds herself transported from 1979 Los Angeles to the pre-Civil War Antebellum south to repeatedly save her white slave-owning ancestor, she must confront the horrendous reality of surviving slavery while not losing her modern day identity. This is only more complicated when she accidentally transports back with her white husband.

The novel explores major themes of power, race and inequality. Butler’s contextualising of this era is devastating; the way in which she contrasts modern day 1979 with the pre-Civil War age offers a different perspective on the complicated and degrading reality of slavery. Kindred allows you, the reader, to engage with the emotional impacts of slavery, something unfortunately often lost in too many of today’s teachings of the subject.

Neuromancer, by William Gibson (1984)

The definitive cyberpunk novel, William Gibson’s Neuromancer follows hacker-turned-junkie Henry Case as he tries to pull off one last, rather dodgy sounding job in the hope of reversing a toxin that prevents him from accessing cyberspace. Set in a dystopian Japanese underworld, the novel touches on all manner of futuristic technology, from AI to cryonics, and features a cast of creative characters that will stick with you long after you turn the last page.

Consider Phlebas, by Iain Banks (1987)

Back in 1987, after four acclaimed fiction novels, Iain Banks published his first sci-fi book, Consider Phlebas , a true space opera and his first book of many to feature the Culture, an interstellar utopian society of humanoids, aliens and sentient machines ostensibly run by hyper-intelligent AI "Minds". A war rages across the galaxy with one side fighting for faith, the other a moral right to exist. Banks melds this conflict with something approaching a traditional fantasy quest: the search for a rogue Mind that has hidden itself on a forbidden world in an attempt to evade destruction.

Hyperion, by Dan Simmons (1989)

Winner of the 1990 Hugo Award for Best Novel and part of a two-book series, Hyperion is a richly woven sci-fi epic told in the style of The Canterbury Tales . In the world of Hyperion , humanity has spread to thousands of worlds, none more intriguing or dangerous as Hyperion. It's home to the Time Tombs, ageless structures which are mysteriously travelling backward through time, and guarding them is the terrifying creature known as the Shrike. It kills anyone who dares encroach on the Time Tombs and has inspired a fanatical religious group who control pilgrimages to the tombs. On the eve of an invasion, a group of travellers convene what's likely to be the last Shrike pilgrimage and share their tales of what brought them there.

Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton (1990)

Before it mutated into the mega media franchise “Jurassic World”, Jurassic Park was a smart, thoughtful and gripping sci-fi classic written by Michael Crichton, author of the equally brilliant Andromeda Strain. Crichton's tale remains a great parable about the dangers of genetic engineering, (as well as a slightly heady exploration of chaos theory). His descriptions of dinosaurs are also brilliant, like the T-Rex: "Tim felt a chill, but then, as he looked down the animal's body, moving down from the massive head and jaws, he saw the smaller, muscular forelimb. It waved in the air and then it gripped the fence."

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson (1992)

Frantic, fun and almost suspiciously prescient, Snow Crash grabs you from its opening sequence – a high-speed race through an anarchic Los Angeles that has been carved up into corporate-owned ‘burbclaves’ – and barely lets up. The book follows main character Hiro Protagonist (yes, really), an elite hacker and swordsman, as he tries to stop the spread of a dangerous virus being propagated by a religious cult. It combines neurolinguistics, ancient mythology and computer science, and eerily predicts social networks, cryptocurrency and Google Earth.

Price: £9 | Amazon | Waterstones | Wondery | Audible trial

Vurt, by Jeff Noon (1993)

“Vurt is a feather - a drug, a dimension, a dream state, a virtual reality.” That’s what the back of this 1993 cyberpunk novel reads, and it’s a perfect way into the chaotic and surreal world of Vurt . Set in a gritty future Manchester, Vurt follows the story of Scribble, who’s on a mission to find his sister Desdemona who he believes is trapped inside a feather called Curious Yellow. That’s right, a feather. Vurt is about virtual reality, but not the strapping on a headset kind. Instead, people put feathers into their mouths to visit different dimensions and states of consciousness. Written in a frantic, dark and funny way that makes the action feel like it’s bouncing along beside you, Vurt won the Arthur C. Clarke award in 1994 and has since become a cult classic – although it’s not always easy to find a copy.

Price: £17 | Amazon | Audible trial

Under The Skin, by Michel Faber (2000)

Set in Scotland, Under The Skin is about an alien who’s sent to Earth to drug hitchhikers that she then delivers to her home planet. Despite being here to lead people to their deaths, she’s contemplative about Earth and nature. We’re used to considering what an alien visiting Earth for the first time might think about certain things, but the way Faber writes about Isserley’s experiences feels fresh, strange and, at times, oddly beautiful.

At times, Under The Skin is profoundly unnerving and difficult to read. But it’s not gratuitous. Elements of the novel are meant to be satirical, touching on present-day themes of our treatment of each other, animals and the Earth. We also highly recommend Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 movie adaptation, which is loosely based on the book but is a brilliant and intensely dark movie full of haunting imagery and a breath-taking score.

Price: £8 | Amazon | Waterstones | Audible trial

Metro 2033, by Dmitry Glukhovsky (2002)

It’s 2033, and a nuclear apocalypse has forced the rag-tag remains of the human population of Moscow to flee to the underground maze of tunnels below the city. Here they develop independent tribes in each metro station, trade goods and fight against each other. But hidden in the tunnels between the stations hide terrifying flesh-eating mutants and a voice that is driving people mad… This is the premise of Dmitry Glukhovsky’s wildly successful novel, which was later made into a series of video games. Part epic tale, part thriller, the translated story follows a teenager called Artyom, who has to travel to the heart of the Metro through unpredictable dangers to save the remains of humankind. Expect to be shocked.

Price: £9 | Amazon | Waterstones | Foyles | Audible trial

Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood (2003)

While The Handmaid’s Tale describes a world that seems more plausible by the day, in Oryx and Crake Atwood spins a genetically-modified circus of current trends taken to their absolute extreme – a “bio-engineered apocalypse,” is how one reviewer put it. A number of television adaptations have been mooted, including a now-defunct HBO project with Darren Aronofsky, but this might be one to place alongside The Stars My Destination in the impossible-to-adapt file. The world of the book is vibrant, surreal and disturbing enough.

Read more: The best sci-fi movies everyone should watch once

The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin (2008)

Liu Cixin was already one of China’s most revered science fiction writers when, in 2008, he decided to turn his hand to a full-length novel. The Three-Body Problem is the result – an era-spanning novel that jumps between the Cultural Revolution, the present day, and a mysterious video game. The first part of a trilogy, it’s a fascinating departure from the tropes of Western science fiction, and loaded with enough actual science that you might learn something as well as being entertained.

Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2015)

Children of Time is an epic book about a dying Earth. People are leaving, and there’s a plan to keep some of them safe and the human race flourishing elsewhere. However, things don’t quite pan out how they should. This is a saga of a story spanning many, many generations. That’s a tricky thing to pull off and ensure readers still follow with care and attention. But Adrian Tchaikovsky infuses interest, humanity and authenticity into every character and storyline so well. You’ll find yourself rooting for every new character that comes next – even when they’re only distantly related to the one you met a few chapters ago. The book deals with small interactions and feuds through to huge themes about belief, artificial intelligence, legacy, discovery, alienness and much more. It’s no surprise it won the 2016 Arthur C. Clarke Award. There’s a follow-up called Children of Ruin and (fingers crossed) a possible movie adaptation in the works.

The Martian, by Andy Weir (2015)

Andy Weir's debut novel literally puts the science into science fiction, packing in tonnes of well-researched detail about life on Mars. There's descriptions of how to fertilise potatoes with your own excrement, and hack a life-support system for a Martian rover – in levels of detail that the movie adaptation starring Matt Damon came nowhere near to reaching. The sassy, pop-culture laden writing style won't be to everyone's taste – this book probably won't get taught in English Literature lessons – but the first-person perspective makes sense for this story of an astronaut stranded on the Red Planet with no way to get home.

Price: £7.50 | Amazon | Waterstones | Foyles | Audible trial

The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood (2015)

An odd cocktail of a novel: part techno dystopia, part satire, part sex comedy, part classic Atwood. In a bleak, postlapsarian version of the US, young lovebirds Charmaine and Stan endure a miserable existence sleeping in their car and dodging criminals’ knives. Salvation arrives under the guise of an offer to move to the Positron Project – a gated community modelled after an American 1950s suburb. The rub? All Positron’s couples must spend every other month working in a prison, temporarily swapping homes with another couple, called “alternates”. When both Charmaine and Stan start developing oddball sexual relations with their alternates, things move rapidly south.

The Power, by Naomi Alderman (2016)

Margaret Atwood also had a hand in this gripping novel, which inverts the premise of The Handmaid’s Tale , and puts women in the ascendancy. Atwood mentored the author, Naomi Alderman, as she wrote this inventive thriller about women and girls discovering a powerful new ability to emit electricity from their hands, up-ending civilisation in different ways across the world. The Power is paced like a television series, and it is, in fact, coming to screens soon via Amazon Studios.

Borne, by Jeff VanderMeer (2017)

The Annihilation series showcased Jeff VanderMeer's gift for the surreal, and he turns it up a notch in Borne – which starts with an unknown scavenger plucking an object from the fur of a giant flying bear in a post-apocalyptic city, and only gets weirder from there as the main character strikes up a friendship with an intelligent sea anemone-like creature called Borne. The story is, it eventually transpires, one of biotechnology run amok – which makes for the most colourful dystopia you're likely to come across.

Moonrise: The Golden Age of Lunar Adventures, by Mike Ashley (2018)

Moonrise , from the British Library's Science Fiction Classics series, could just have easily appeared in the 1950s or even the 1900s in this list. It's a brilliantly curated anthology of twelve SF short stories about the moon – getting to it, exploring it, contemplating it – with lunar-inclined fiction from H.G. Wells and Arthur C. Clarke present and correct but also the likes of Judith Merril's 1954 Dead Centre , which distills all the potential tragedies of space programs into just a handful of haunting images. From author and science fiction historian Mike Ashley.

Exhalation, by Ted Chiang (2019)

Exhalation is a book of short stories rather than a novel, but hear us out. Ted Chiang is a fantastic science-fiction writer who weaves real science and theory into his tales. This makes them feel somehow part of this world despite dealing with a range of classic sci-fi themes, including parallel realities, robot pets and time travel.

From a circular time travelling portal in ancient Baghdad to a device that allows you to meet your parallel self that you can trade-in at a local store in the present day, it’s glorious science-fiction filled with wonder and mystery. There are stories and ideas nestled in Exhalation’s pages that stick with you long after you’ve finished reading. Chiang has breathed life into the science-fiction genre, creating stories that feel refreshing and human rather than concerning distant worlds and ideas that can lead to a disconnect. This is evident in his short story Story of Your Life , the source material for Denis Villeneuve's Arrival .

The Resisters, by Gish Jen (2020)

A speculative dystopia set in an 'Auto America', Gish Jen's The Resisters , which was published in early 2020, puts the sport of baseball – of all the things – at the centre of her world, which is divided into people who still get to have jobs, the Netted, as in 'Aunt Nettie', as in the internet, and the rest: the Surplus. The story centres on Gwen, who comes from a Surplus family but who has the chance to rise in status when her baseball skills get attention, with Jen taking on surveillance culture and the value of work and leisure.

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Best science fiction books 2023: explore captivating new worlds and realities.

• Melissa Epifano

Immerse yourself in fascinating alternative realities and chilling distant universes with these top science fiction reads

Trekking across freshly discovered planets, surviving an apocalypse, even fighting for your life against zombies, anything is possible reading science fiction. The genre has captivated people for hundreds of years, but it was in the 1920s when science fiction became a term that was familiar to the general public.

On its surface, sci-fi literature seems fairly self-explanatory. It usually posits some kind of alternative reality, alternative history or a future that has changed the course of the world. On top of which, unique inventions, mutated viruses, missing (or additional) world events, space travel or superior human capabilities are all common features.

Choosing the best science fiction book for you largely comes down to personal preference. There are many different avenues and styles to explore, and numerous subgenres of science fiction. More realistic settings and plots might take your fancy, or perhaps a brilliantly contrived scenario that’s a far stretch from reality, but thrilling nonetheless, will suit your personal tastes. Once you’ve decided on an interesting theme, it will help you narrow down your options.

With the peril most of these characters go through, it’s nice to know you can enjoy getting lost in a different world, but just as quickly come back to reality by closing the pages. Grow your personal library and get stuck into our picks of the best science fiction books listed below. We’ve also put together a brief guide on choosing the best ones for you. 

Best science fiction books: At a glance

• Best overall science fiction: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler | £9
• Best space opera: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir | £5
• Best classic science fiction: Dune by Frank Herbert | £7
• Best science fiction short story collection: Strange Highways by Dean Koontz | £8
• Best satirical science fiction: Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut | £7
• Best metaphysical science fiction: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro | £9
• Best paranoid science fiction: Ubik by Philip K Dick | £6

How to choose the best science fiction book

What types of science fiction books are available.

With no shortage of sci-fi subgenres, there is truly something for everyone. The list of options is long, but here are just a few examples: 

• Space opera
• Apocalypse and post-apocalypse
• Transrealism
• Hard science fiction 
• Space warfare
• Afrofuturism

What features should I look for in a good science fiction novel?

This can only be determined based on your own likes, but here are some important details to keep in mind when you’re searching for your next best science fiction read:

• A solid plot: Pick a setting that sounds interesting, something that you will understand and become engrossed in. If space blows your mind you will likely prefer a plot that travels to other planets over hard science fiction that focuses on the technical or historical.
• A fascinating topic: With the long list of subgenres available, it won’t be too difficult finding a good topic. Like a solid plot, you’ll want the overarching theme of your sci-fi read to pique your interest.
• Format: Although novels are the primary format of digesting a good science fiction story, there are plenty of great short story anthologies and novellas, too. And, aside from paperback and hardcover books, you’ll find a good selection of science fiction stories told through audiobook, or available on digital e-readers (such as Kindle).

Another good guide to choosing great sci-fi is to look for stories that have won awards. Though everyone’s taste in books is extremely subjective, if a book has won a prize, it’s a good indication that it’s worth reading. The Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards are some of the most esteemed for this genre, and many of the picks we’ve featured below have earned one, or the other, or both.

If you’re hankering for a great new science fiction read, continue on for some of the best sci-fi books out there.

READ NEXT: Best reading light

The best science fiction books to buy in 2023

1. parable of the sower by octavia butler: best overall science fiction.

Octavia Butler won numerous prestigious awards with her writing, including the Nebula and Hugo twice each. And, if you’re unfamiliar with her work, The New York Times bestseller Parable of the Sower is a solid place to start. But if that’s not enough to convince you, maybe the thousands of five-star reviews will.

If harrowing stories of dystopian societies thrill you, this is a must-add-to-cart. What makes this particular book so powerful is its chilling believability as it sheds light on a dystopian world through the eyes of a young woman named Lauren. Intertwining racial injustices, politics, environmental issues and religion, it’s a haunting tale that echoes themes familiar to us today. That it’s set in 2026 makes it hit even closer to home.

Once you’ve finished, there’s a sequel to crack on with: Parable of the Talents . Butler also has a collection of science fiction short stories, if that’s your preferred method of reading.

Key details – Length: 320; First published: 1993; Formats available: Paperback, Kindle, audiobook

Parable of the Sower: the New York Times bestseller

2. project hail mary by andy weir: best space opera.

Nearly 70,000 five-star reviews speak for this book – the latest science fiction novel from the author of The Martian , Andy Weir – following the journey of an astronaut named Ryland, who has a plan to save planet Earth, but wakes up to realise he doesn’t remember it, or even who he is.

This synopsis may sound frightening, but the book has the perfect balance of humour woven into it, which almost makes the plot feel more realistic and Ryland more relatable. Part of the beauty of science fiction is how immensely detailed authors can get, and this is a perfect example – Weir explains things on an extremely scientific level, to the point where you feel like you may be learning how to manoeuvre a spaceship yourself.

This one is a fan-favourite for a reason, and even former President Barack Obama had it on his reading list.

Key details – Length: 496; First published: 2021; Formats available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle, audiobook

Project Hail Mary: From the bestselling author of The Martian

3. dune by frank herbert: best classic science fiction.

First published in 1965, Dune received another spike in popularity after the latest movie adaptation was released in 2021. It’s a classic science fiction read that mixes space travel, tumultuous inner conflict and romance with philosophical themes, class hierarchies and power struggles. Even nature and ecological themes are woven into its tale; part of Herbert’s inspiration stemmed from sand dune stabilising plants. Another Nebula and Hugo award winner, this book can’t be missed for true lovers of sci-fi.

The plot centres on a young man whose family controls a bleak planet that’s home to a substance that enables everything from space travel to longer life expectancy. Of course, even when your fam has this kind of power, nothing is easy, especially when a powerful drug is involved. If you adore the first, and we’re sure you will, you’ll be pleased to hear that there are five sequels to read right after.

Key details – Length: 592; First published: 1965; Formats available: Paperback, hard cover, audiobook, Kindle

Dune: Frank Herbert

4. strange highways by dean koontz: best science fiction short story collection.

Dean Koontz is best known for his thrillers and suspense novels, but this particular collection of short stories is worth a read, whether or not lengthier books are more your thing. While the genre is science fiction, Koontz’s knack for keeping readers on the edge of their seats is still clear throughout the pages of this Locus award-nominated pick.

The title of this anthology is a metaphor, following the life paths – or highways, if you will – of several characters, making you think about the choices we make and the options we choose between without any idea how things will turn out.

This collection’s stories weave in bits of horror along with the science, and even robots. Space opera lovers and hard science fiction enthusiasts will appreciate the alien invasions and mutated rats, too. There are two novellas included along with ten shorter-form pieces.

Key details – Length: 512; First published: 1995; Formats available: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, MP3 CD

Strange Highways: A masterful collection of chilling short stories

5. cat’s cradle by kurt vonnegut: best satirical science fiction.

If hard science fiction isn’t your go-to genre, you’ll appreciate Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. There’s still plenty of science, earth-shattering inventions, apocalyptic happenings and even a twist of religion, but it’s not chock-full of technical terms and confusing plot twists. It’s a satire brimming with sci-fi themes and an interesting perspective on what happens when people are given too much power.

Jonah, the protagonist, finds this out the hard way while on a quest to learn more about a dangerous form of water and its inventor. Vonnegut is a master of his art and although it’s one of the shorter picks on this list, there’s a lot to digest and pick apart. It’s also darkly funny.

If you prefer more “standard” science fiction, Vonnegut has plenty in that department, including his well-known novel Slaughterhouse-Five , and short story collection Welcome to the Monkey House . But it’s worth noting that, while it missed out on the Hugo award, this book was good enough to earn Vonnegut a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago (talk about impressive!).

Key details – Length: 224; First published:  1963; Formats available: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, audio CD

Cat's Cradle: Kurt Vonnegut (Penguin Modern Classics)

6. never let me go by kazuo ishiguro: best metaphysical science fiction.

Science fiction as a broad genre often gets a bad rap as people assume these books are full of over-the-top alien invasions or shallow, laser-beam-shooting heroes, but as this list proves, most stories are far more thought-provoking and moving. With that in mind, readers more interested in philosophical and metaphysical science fiction will have a profound appreciation for Sir Kazuo Ishiguro’s book Never Let Me Go. With relatable, heart-wrenching themes such as childhood trauma and friendship, it’s a story that sits with you a long time after reading it.

The book follows students at a special school during a time in which they find out the unnerving and heartbreaking reason they’re really there. It asks big questions around fate, deception and why some lives are deemed more important than others. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and earning Ishiguro several other prestigious awards, it’s worth jotting this one down on your must-read list.

Key details – Length: 304; First published: 2005; Formats available: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, Kindle

Never Let Me Go

7. ubik by philip k dick: best paranoid science fiction.

Popular science fiction author Philip K Dick is best known for works such as The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? , which was taken as inspiration for the movie Bladerunner. For another mind-blowing piece of work, try Ubik on for size.

Anyone who loves the truth-twisting situations science fiction novels excel at will enjoy this book that alters the reader’s (and the characters’) idea of what’s real. Something that is considered in today’s world as pseudoscience – psychic abilities – is an everyday capability and a must-have on the CVs of the people living in Dick’s book. When one company’s leader is supposedly killed, things start becoming fuzzy for the employees. Ubik, a special preservative, seems to be the only product giving anyone answers and keeping them alive. This story follows warped twists and turns, leaving a lot of readers with questions and awe when the final page turns.

Key details – Length: 224; First published: 1969; Formats available: Kindle, paperback, audiobook

Ubik (S.F. MASTERWORKS): The reality bending science fiction masterpiece

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Reviews :: Book Genre :: Science Fiction

This archive contains links to all of the Science Fiction Book Reviews we've written over the years. Everything from light stuff like Star Wars to the heavy duty hitters like Reynolds. If you've come here looking for something in that realm, you're in luck! We just happen to have more than a few suggestions lying around the place waiting for your perusal.

If you're looking for something else, say a book in another genre or maybe just any book that we happened to think was awesome-sauce, browse around the site for a bit and check out our reviews.

Just don't forget to let us know what you thought of a book you've read or if there's a suggestion you have for something we'd like to read! We're always looking for some brilliant new escape into the worlds of science and the universe.

• The Far Reaches

It seems like my social media feeds have been getting slammed lately by ads for this new anthology of science fiction stories put together by Amazon. Almost seemed to double in frequency after I got them, oddly enough. Sometimes it just boggles my mind how much money must flow through the coffers of social media ads, and I can’t help but wonder how much of it goes to absolute waste. In this case, it got me to pick them up, but everything since then? Yeah.

You’ll notice that our image doesn’t match the name of the collection. Yup. Thank you e-book collections. So, instead I just included the cover for the best story in the group. Hint hint. Wink wink. Nudge nudge. Read the rest of this review »

If there are any core concepts more central to the genre of science fiction than mind-bending ideas, awe-inspiring vistas, and grand adventure, I don’t know what they are. In the relatively short time period since the fantasy genre has split from it, and stories written under its guise have taken us up and out into the cosmos, many authors have endeavored to fill the space with their version of the best kind of fiction. I may be biased, but in my view there is no better fiction than great science fiction. And Alastair Reynolds is writing some of the best science fiction there is. Read the rest of this review »

• Legionnaire

I’m always on the lookout for a great, quick read, and when I came across this one, I decided pretty quickly that it fit the bill. Read the rest of this review »

• The Heirs of Babylon

I haven’t read near enough Glen Cook.

I keep telling myself this, and yet my penchant for continuing to push his books down my TBR pile is, quite frankly, fairly embarrassing. I actually received this book quite some time ago, and only recently took the chance to read it. Mainly because it was short and I needed to get to something short. One of these days I’m going to figure out how to get ahead of the review game again, and have these things scheduled out. Until then, one foot in front of the other. Read the rest of this review »

Primordial Threat

This is one of those reads that I took on a whim. Prior to it, I hadn’t come across this author or any of his books. Taking a quick look at his back log, he’s put out quite a few, across a surprising number of genres. Found out after the read, that this book had been part of the first year of the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, which I thought was pretty cool. Although, after seeing online how voraciously the author tackles the concepts of self-publication and marketing, it didn’t surprise me in the slightest that he would have been one of those to throw his hat into the ring that first year. In my opinion, he pushes the boundaries, in many respects, as to what can be accomplished as a self-published author. Smart dude for sure. Read the rest of this review »

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

This book has an interesting title. Don’t you think? I must admit, it threw me for a bit of a loop the first time I saw it. Same for the series name. Didn’t quite know what to think after the initial announcement. Excitement for a new Mark Lawrence book? Well, yeah, of course. But what kind of book was this going to be? Any idea as to whether or not it would be connected to the rest of his books, as they all seem to be so far? It sure didn’t sound like it. But there was always the chance. And so, alas, not a book that I pre-ordered, but when I got the chance to get an eArc, I was in. Of course, I was. What kind of question is that? THE BOOK THAT WOULDN’T BURN is the first of a new projected trilogy from Mr. Mark Lawrence, one of our favorite authors here at EBR. Although, given this guy’s throughput, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to find out that he’d already penned (at the very least) the first draft of the last line of the series. Guy produces. Evar and Livira are two […] Read the rest of this review »

We’re long-standing proponents of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off ( EBR Archive ) here at EBR. Even though we haven’t thrown our hat into the reviewer-ring in quite some time, we still believe in both the importance and efficacy of that contest, and have nothing but great things to say about it and those who continue to run it. Thankfully, there are those who believe that Science Fiction authors should also have those same kind of opportunities (Hugh Howey). Enter The Self-Published Science Fiction Competition ( SPSFC ).

This book happens to be the winner of the first year of that contest.

And also? It’s awesome. Read the rest of this review »

Empire of Silence

This is a book that I likely would not have picked up of my own accord. Instead, my reading of it came on the shoulders of the recommendation of a trusted friend. Not that anything in particular made me shy away from the book. These days I just tend to avoid anything resembling large-ish science fiction tomes that don’t also come with a strong recommendation from someone I trust. My poor experience with the genre in general, I guess, but this won’t be news to those that follow our site. Read the rest of this review »

Project Hail Mary

When Ryland Grace wakes up on his spaceship, he doesn’t know where he is at first. For the first few chapters it is this very mystery that compels you to keep reading because you must know what’s going on. Who he is. Why he’s there. And what happened. Fortunately, Andy Weir doesn’t keep you in suspense for very long. If you loved THE MARTIAN, you’ll love PROJECT HAIL MARY. Read the rest of this review »

Broken Angels

So, a few months ago, one of our readers commented on my review for ALTERED CARBON ( EBR Review ) that I should look into the second and third books in this series. If I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t too high on the idea, as I’ve never really been overly enamored with Richard K. Morgan’s books. Still I thanked the reader for the comment and proceeded on my merry way.

Then, randomly, I found a copy of the second book in the series at one of the second-hand bookstores that I frequent, and the thing was only two bucks. The thickness of the spine made it look like it was going to be relatively short too. So, I picked it up with no real intention to read it any time soon. But the opportunity to dive in was quickly afforded me when I was asked to chaperone for a couple days at a girl’s camp my daughter was attending. All I needed to do was be present. So I figured, why not grab a quick read and see what came of it?

And here we are.

I mention all this mostly because at no point in this whole process did I think there was going to be any chance that I might actually like this book.

Man, do I love being surprised. Read the rest of this review »

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Best Science Fiction Book Review Blogs in 2024

Showing 106 blogs that match your search.

Booklover Book Reviews

https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/

WELCOME BOOKLOVERS! I’m Jo, an Aussie book reviewer. I started this website in 2009 and quickly realised I enjoy writing and blogging about books almost as much as reading them. Hope you enjoy browsing my book reviews & following my reading adventures.

Blogger : Joanne

Genres : Science Fiction

🌐 Domain authority: 36

👀 Average monthly visits: 4,000 p/mo

💌 Preferred contact method: Website contact form

⭐️ Accepts indie books? Yes

9th Street Books

https://www.9thstreetbooks.com

9th Street Books is the place to go for everything about the literary life, including book reviews, lists, and more.

Blogger : Grace Pursel

🌐 Domain authority: 14

👀 Average monthly visits: 1,800 p/mo

http://www.nishitak.com/

If you are an author/publisher/publicist/other who wants to promote books on my blog, read on: I accept all kinds of books for review, except for Non-Fiction (unless it is health/fitness related). Once I receive the book, it can take me up to 2 months to review it depending on my TBR list. If your book is a part of a book tour or you want a review published at a specific time, please state it up-front.

Blogger : Nishi K Kat

🌐 Domain authority: 31

👀 Average monthly visits: 3,000 p/mo

Book Lover Worm

https://bookloverwormblog.wordpress.com/

I am a book lover and reviewer. I’ve always loved reading and remember the joys of reading the Famous Five, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. I prefer crime fiction and psychological thrillers but also have a soft spot for chick-lit and women’s fiction and anything else that catches my interest.

Blogger : Sandra

🌐 Domain authority: 27

💌 Preferred contact method: Email

The Creative Muggle

https://www.thecreativemuggle.com/

The Creative Muggle is a place for anyone who wants to read books. You can find fascinating reading lists to have a productive reading time in your busy life. From charming romance novels to propulsive thrillers, you are in for a literary treat!

Blogger : Stephy George

🌐 Domain authority: 20

👀 Average monthly visits: 20,500 p/mo

Mru's Books and Reviews

https://mrusbooksnreviews.com

Exclusive recommendations, lists, bookish merch & more. I am a software consultant by profession: a mom and an avid reader by choice. My job's 9-5 grind bored me to death. That's when I was inspired to break the monotony. I discovered book blogging. Through my blog, I would love to promote my passion for reading and to read as many books as I can.

Blogger : Mrunal Natu

👀 Average monthly visits: 3,500 p/mo

Whispering Stories

https://www.whisperingstories.com/

Whispering Stories was established in 2015. We are a team of reviewers committed in providing professional, 100% honest, unbiased book reviews, for FREE. The majority of our reviews are for fictional books, including children’s books, (we do review non-fictional books too).

Blogger : Stacey

🌐 Domain authority: 28

👀 Average monthly visits: 6,000 p/mo

Pop. Edit. Lit

https://editingeverything.com/

I started my book blog as a way to have a presence as an editor online, but started enjoying reading and reviewing so much more than I thought. I am based in Australia, so I am always eager to learn about new Australian authors. Currently my favourite genre is crime, whether it's adult fiction, YA or NA. I'm a fan of urban fantasy and contemporary reads as well.

Blogger : Verushka

🌐 Domain authority: 34

👀 Average monthly visits: 2,200 p/mo

The Future Fire

http://reviews.futurefire.net/

We will consider all subgenres of speculative fiction (and related nonfiction), regardless of author or medium, including self-published work, but we are especially interested in seeing more books by and about women, people of color, LGBTQIA, disabled people, people with nonwestern languages and religions, and other under-represented groups.

Blogger : TFF Team

🌐 Domain authority: 45

Indie Reader

http://indiereader.com/

There were over 391,000 books self-published in 2012. That's a lot of company (and competition!) for any author.åÊIndieReader offers the best value for reviews, bar none. IR's reviewers & some of the best in the field & will let you know if you've achieved what you set out to do. Charges may apply. IR also recommends titles to the HUFFINGTON POST and USA TODAY.

Blogger : The IndieReader Team

🌐 Domain authority: 49

👀 Average monthly visits: 15,000 p/mo

The Captain's Quarters

https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com

Foremost, I post here on me blog. I also will post on me Goodreads account and on Amazon. If a book is sent to me by a publisher then I will email a copy of me review to their preferred account as well. Please note that while me blog does not list ratings, I do rate novels on Goodreads and Amazon. Happy sailing and reading!

Blogger : A Pirate Captain

🌐 Domain authority: 19

The LitBuzz

https://www.thelitbuzz.com

A book review site featuring a diverse Hive of voices reading and sharing, we have a vast palette. We welcome both indie and traditionally-published authors - at no charge for reviews, ever.

Blogger : The LitBuzz Hive

🌐 Domain authority: 25

👀 Average monthly visits: 5,000 p/mo

Shalini's Books & Reviews

https://bookreviewsbyshalini.com/

My first love has always been BOOKS. My blog features my reviews, author interviews, book spotlights, and other bookish events. I read nearly all genres, according to my mood.

Blogger : Shalini

💌 Preferred contact method: Social media

The Bookish Elf

https://www.bookishelf.com/

The Bookish Elf is a site you can rely on for book reviews, author interviews, book recommendations, and all things books.

Blogger : Mitul Patel

🌐 Domain authority: 40

👀 Average monthly visits: 30,000 p/mo

The LitBuzz Hive

https://www.thelitbuzz.com/

🌐 Domain authority: 7

👀 Average monthly visits: 300 p/mo

So you want to find a book blog?

If you’re a voracious reader, you might think of a book blog as an oasis in the middle of the desert: a place on the Internet that brims with talk about books, books, and more books.

Well, good news — we built this directory of the 200 of the best book blogs  to satiate your thirst. Take a walk around, use the filters to narrow down your search to blogs in your preferred genre, and feel free to bookmark this page and come back, as we do update it regularly with more of the best book blogs out there. 

If you’re an aspiring author, you might see a book blog more as a book review blog: a place where you can get your yet-to-be published book reviewed. In that case, you’ll be glad to know that most of the book blogs in our directory are open to review requests and accept indie books! We expressly designed this page (and our book marketing platform, Reedsy Discovery ) to be useful to indie book authors who need book reviews. If you’re wondering how to approach a book blog for a review request, please read on. 

You’ve found a book blog. Now what? 

Let’s say that you’re an author, and you’ve found a couple of book blogs that would be perfect fits to review your book. What now? Here are some tips as you go about getting your book reviews:

• Be sure to read the review policy. First, check that the book blog you’re querying is open to review requests. If that’s the fortunate case, carefully read the blog’s review policy and make sure that you follow the directions to a T.  
• Individualize your pitches. Book bloggers will be able to immediately tell apart the bulk pitches, which simply come across as thoughtless and indifferent. If you didn’t take the time to craft a good pitch, why should the blogger take the time to read your book? Personalize each pitch to up your chances of getting a response. 
• Format your book in a professional manner before sending it out. Ensure that your manuscript isn’t presented sloppily. If the book blogger asks for a digital ARC, you might want to check out apps such as Instafreebie or Bookfunnel. 
• Create a spreadsheet to track your progress. Wading through so many book blogs can be troublesome — not to mention trying to remember which ones you’ve already contacted. To save yourself the time and trouble, use a simple Excel spreadsheet to keep track of your progress (and results). 

Looking to learn even more about the process? Awesome 👍 For a detailed guide, check out this post that’s all about getting book reviews . 

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Though this is later than usual, I once again scoured the internet looking for information on speculative fiction books that are scheduled for release this year and put together a list of works that I wanted to highlight. Just like the last few years, it was hard to keep the number of books featured in this annual post to a somewhat reasonable number given that there is so much coming out that sounds interesting. Yet after finding as much as I could on various titles when looking through descriptions, articles on the book or author, excerpts, and early reviews, I managed to narrow down this year’s list to 17 fantasy and science fiction books coming out in 2024 that look especially compelling to me.

As always, this is not even close to a comprehensive list of all the speculative fiction books being published this year: these are just the books I came across that sound most intriguing to me personally. (There are always books I hear about later in the year that I wish I had known about when putting one of these posts together!) Given my particular interests, this list includes fantasy inspired by legend and folklore, books that promise morally gray and/or villainous characters, novels with dark magic, stories containing dragons and/or other mythical creatures, a science fantasy, and more. I hope that those of you with similar tastes find some books here that sound appealing to you too.

These books are ordered by scheduled publication date, and these are US release dates unless otherwise stated.

Due to the length of this blog post, I’m only showing the first 6 books on the main page. You can click the title of the post or the ‘more…’ link after the sixth book to read the entire article.

Cover images link to Bookshop. As a Bookshop affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

This debut novel reimagining the story of Medea sounds excellent, and I was even more interested in it after reading this interview with Eilish Quin on The Nerd Daily . She discussed how she’s been fascinated by Greek myths and this particular character from a young age, what to expect from her first novel, her inspirations, and more. I especially loved what she had to say about retellings:

In my mind, the whole purpose of the retelling as a distinct genre is that it serves as a kind of radical reorientation. Retellings allow historically censored protagonists the space to break free from the contexts and biases which might have previously ensnared them, and permit readers the ability to exalt in novel forms of complexity. Retellings are meant to make us question the reliability of the narrators we are given, and consider the other elements of form which we might normally consume passively. I hope that my Medea makes people think critically about how storytelling, when proliferated in the interest of existing powers of oppression, can compound harm– that by doing something as simple as recentering a traditionally marginalized experience, exhilarating and vivacious narratives can spring up.

My fondness for retellings stems from how they can make us question the reliability of narrators and think more deeply about storytelling, so this sounds fantastic.

Discover the full story of the sorceress Medea, one of the most reviled and maligned women of Greek antiquity, in this propulsive and evocative debut in the tradition of  Circe ,  Elektra , and  Stone Blind .

Among the women of Greek mythology, the witch Medea may be the most despised. Known for the brutal act of killing her own children to exact vengeance on her deceitful husband, the Argonauts leader Jason, Medea has carved out a singularly infamous niche in our histories.

But what if that isn’t the full story?

The daughter of a sea nymph and the granddaughter of a Titan, Medea is a paradox. She is at once rendered compelling by virtue of the divinity that flows through her bloodline and made powerless by the fact of her being a woman. As a child, she intuitively submerges herself in witchcraft and sorcery, but soon finds it may not be a match for the prophecies that hang over her entire family like a shroud.

As Medea comes into her own as a woman and a witch, she also faces the arrival of the hero Jason, preordained by the gods to be not only her husband, but also her lifeline to escape her isolated existence. Medea travels the treacherous seas with the Argonauts, battles demons she had never conceived of, and falls in love with the man who may ultimately be her downfall.

In this propulsive, beautifully written debut, readers will finally hear Medea’s side of the story through a fresh and feminist lens.

Molly X. Chang’s debut novel is supposed to feature tough choices, magic that comes at a cost, and a heroine who makes awful decisions because she cares so deeply—all elements I love to see explored in stories. The author discusses her book further in her note to booksellers on Instagram , including writing a flawed protagonist, drawing inspiration from the stories of the her Siberian-Manchurian ancestors, and refusing to make her heroine into more of a heroic “girlboss” than the desperate survivor she is, despite being told it would make it easier to get her novel published.

She has power over death. He has power over her. When two enemies strike a dangerous bargain, will they end a war . . . or ignite one?

“A thrilling tale of magic and murder, intrigue and betrayal.”—Cassandra Clare, #1  New York Times bestselling author of  Sword Catcher

The gorgeous first edition hardcover of  To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods  will feature a poster, color endpapers, a custom-stamped case, and a foil jacket!

Heroes die, cowards live. Daughter of a conquered world, Ruying hates the invaders who descended from the heavens long before she was born and defeated the magic of her people with technologies unlike anything her world had ever seen.

Blessed by Death, born with the ability to pull the life right out of mortal bodies, Ruying shouldn’t have to fear these foreign invaders, but she does. Especially because she wants to keep herself and her family safe.

When Ruying’s Gift is discovered by an enemy prince, he offers her an impossible deal: If she becomes his private assassin and eliminates his political rivals—whose deaths he swears would be for the good of both their worlds and would protect her people from further brutalization—her family will never starve or suffer harm again. But to accept this bargain, she must use the powers she has always feared, powers that will shave years off her own existence.

Can Ruying trust this prince, whose promises of a better world make her heart ache and whose smiles make her pulse beat faster? Are the evils of this agreement really in the service of a much greater good? Or will she betray her entire nation by protecting those she loves the most?

This science fiction novella set in a university on a generation ship sounds fantastic, and I’ve heard such wonderful things about World Fantasy Award winner Sofia Samatar. Editor Emily Goldman discussed power as a theme and described The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain as “‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas’ taken to whole new level” in the book announcement . Sofia Samatar also shared a bit about it there, starting with:

This book is for people who sit in meetings wondering why words like diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and even justice do not seem to be adding up to anything real. It’s for people whose time and energy are devoured by proposals and projects they hope will transform the places where they live and work, and who wind up drained and bewildered, gazing at the same old walls. It’s for everybody who experiences these things, in any kind of workplace, and especially for people who study and work in universities, because this story is set at a university on a spaceship.

It sounds as though it really delves into ideas related to power and academia, and I’m excited for this story’s release in April.

“I am in love with Sofia Samatar’s lyricism and the haunting beauty of her imagination. Her stories linger, like the memory of a sumptuous feast.”—N. K. Jemisin

Celebrated author Sofia Samatar presents a mystical, revolutionary space adventure for the exhausted dreamer in this brilliant science fiction novella tackling the carceral state and violence embedded in the ivory tower while embodying the legacy of Ursula K. Le Guin.

The boy was raised as one of the Chained, condemned to toil in the bowels of a mining ship out among the stars. His whole world changes—literally—when he is yanked “upstairs” and informed he has been given an opportunity to be educated at the ship’s university alongside the elite.

Overwhelmed and alone, the boy forms a bond with the woman he comes to know as “the professor,” a weary idealist and descendent of the Chained who has spent her career striving for validation from her more senior colleagues, only to fall short at every turn.

Together, the boy and the woman will embark on a transformative journey to grasp the design of the chains that fetter them both—and are the key to breaking free.

This debut novel by the author of the Nebula and Locus Award–winning short story “ Rabbit Test ” sounds excellent, plus I enjoyed the prose in the sample (linked above). Science fantasy tends to appeal to me, along with stories about characters coming to realize the truth about their world and the systems with which they were raised.

A loyal warrior in a crisis of faith must fight to regain her place and begin her life again while questioning the events of her past. This gripping science-fantasy novel from a Nebula, Sturgeon, and Locus Award-winning debut author is a complex, action-packed exploration of the costs of zealous faith, ceaseless conflicts, and unquestioning obedience.

[STARRED REVIEW] “A triumphant debut novel.”  —Booklist

[STARRED REVIEW] “This cathartic adventure will stay with readers long after the final page.” — Publishers Weekly

[STARRED REVIEW] “VERDICT Mills’s debut novel is complex and haunting, filled with beautiful prose and timely themes of political and religious upheaval and personal journeys.” —Library Journal

Zenya was a teenager when she ran away from home to join the mechanically-modified warrior sect. She was determined to earn mechanized wings and protect the people and city she loved. Under the strict tutelage of a mercurial, charismatic leader, Zenya became Winged Zemolai.

But after twenty-six years of service, Zemolai is disillusioned with her role as an enforcer in an increasingly fascist state. After one tragic act of mercy, she is cast out and loses everything she worked for. As Zemolai fights for her life, she begins to understand the true nature of her sect, her leader, and the gods themselves.

This is Mai Corland’s first adult novel after having published YA and children’s books as Meredith Ireland. Her upcoming fantasy novel draws some inspiration from Korean myths and legends, and she discussed Five Broken Blades a bit on Goodreads , including the following:

My killers are all morally grey. They are guided by love and/or revenge and please do note the trigger and content warnings, as there are many. However, the story pulls from my experiences as an adoptee, as someone queer, as someone with the same hearing loss described in the book. The diversity and global elements in the story reflect the diversity in our world and in myself.

She also clarifies that this book does not technically fit into the fantasy romance genre: although it includes multiple romances, it would work without those storylines.

The deception and betrayal mentioned in the book description and aforementioned morally gray characters driven by love and/or vengeance sounds right up my alley, so I’m rather excited about this one!

It’s the season for treason…

The king of Yusan must die.

The five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together for a single objective: to kill the God King Joon.

He has it coming. Under his merciless immortal hand, the nobles flourish, while the poor and innocent are imprisoned, ruined…or sold.

And now each of the five blades will come for him. Each has tasted bitterness―from the hired hitman seeking atonement, a lovely assassin who seeks freedom, or even the prince banished for his cruel crimes. None can resist the sweet, icy lure of vengeance.

They can agree on murder.

They can agree on treachery.

But for these five killers―each versed in deception, lies, and betrayal―it’s not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other…but only one can take the crown.

Let the best liar win.

This upcoming fantasy novel just sounds delightful . It’s described as whimsical, and I love the idea of a dragon exterminator who hates the job he inherited—especially the idea of this concept as written by New York Times bestselling author Peter S. Beagle.

From the  New York Times  bestselling author of  The Last Unicorn  comes a new novel with equal amounts of power and whimsy in which a loveable cast of characters trapped within their roles of dragon hunter, princess, and more must come together to take their fates into their own hands.

Dragons are common in the backwater kingdom of Bellemontagne, coming in sizes from mouse-like vermin all the way up to castle-smashing monsters. Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax (who would much rather people call him Robert) has recently inherited his deceased dad’s job as a dragon catcher/exterminator, a career he detests with all his heart in part because he likes dragons, feeling a kinship with them, but mainly because his dream has always been the impossible one of transcending his humble origin to someday become a prince’s valet. Needless to say, fate has something rather different in mind…

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• Author: Kristen
• Tags: 2024 Releases , Books of 2024 , Fantasy , Science Fiction , Speculative Fiction  

If you’re a longtime visitor of this site, you’re probably aware of just how much I love Patricia A. McKillip’s writing, particularly her novels The Changeling Sea and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld , which are two of my favorite books ever. Given that, I am delighted to have one hardcover copy of the upcoming 50th anniversary edition of The Forgotten Beasts of Eld to give away, courtesy of Tachyon Publications .

Available in both hardcover and digital formats on February 29, this new edition of the beloved World Fantasy Award–winning novel contains art by Stephanie Law and an introduction by Marjorie Liu .

Of course, it also contains the beautifully written story of Sybel, a mage who inherited a menagerie of legendary animals and became entangled in human affairs after years spent in seclusion. Imaginative and timeless, it’s a novel about power, choice, love, and hate that explores shadows of the soul and becoming what one fears most, yet it does not feel grim despite delving into these topics. With its elegant prose, fairy tale feel, and lovely moments of quiet humor, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is a masterpiece of fantasy.

About THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD (Special 50th Anniversary Edition):

“Rich and regal.” — The New York Times New introduction by Marjorie Liu ( The Tangleroot Palace ) New illustrations by Stephanie Law ( Shadowscapes) Fifty years ago, the soon-to-be celebrated young author Patricia A. McKillip (the  Riddle-Master trilogy) penned the tale of an iron-willed young sorceress. Brought vividly to life by McKillip’s gorgeously lush prose, Sybel is powerful and resourceful, yet headstrong and flawed. Sybel and The Forgotten Beasts of Eld continue to enrapture new generations of readers and writers. Sybel, the heiress of powerful wizards, needs the company of no-one outside her gates. In her exquisite stone mansion, she is attended by exotic, magical beasts: Riddle-master Cyrin the Boar; the treasure-starved dragon Gyld; Gules the Lyon, tawny master of the Southern Deserts; Ter, the fiercely vengeful falcon; Moriah, feline Lady of the Night. Sybel only lacks the exquisite and mysterious Liralen, which continues to elude her most powerful enchantments. But when a soldier bearing an infant arrives, Sybel discovers that the world of man and magic is full of both love and deceit, with the possibility of more power than she can possibly imagine.

Giveaway Rules: To be entered in the giveaway, fill out Fantasy Cafe’s Forgotten Beasts of Eld Giveaway Google form, linked below. One entry per household and the winner will be randomly selected. Those from the US are eligible to win. The giveaway will be open until the end of the day on Friday, February 23 . The winner has 24 hours to respond once contacted via email, and if I don’t hear from them after 24 hours has passed, a new winner will be chosen (who will also have 24 hours to respond until someone gets back to me with a place to send the book).

Please note email addresses will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winners. Once the giveaway is over all the emails will be deleted.

• Tags: Fantasy , Giveaway , Patricia A. McKillip , The Forgotten Beasts of Eld  

Happy (very belated) New Year! I had hoped to have this post up much earlier, but I got a bad cold starting on Christmas Eve and it just would not go away. I don’t think I started to feel normal again until about halfway through January. But late as it is, I could not pass up the opportunity to discuss my favorites of 2023 since I read some wonderful books and found something else fantasy-related that I absolutely love (which is covered in a special category I made just for this case, Media of the Year).

Blog Highlights in 2023

One of the biggest highlights of 2023 on this blog was the twelfth annual Women in SF&F Month, which was filled with amazing essays by speculative fiction authors discussing their thoughts, experiences, and work. It featured the following guest posts (which are eligible for nonfiction/related work awards):

• Ashing-Giwa, Kemi — The Role of Family in The Splinter in the Sky
• Bear, Lauren J. A. — “Finding Fantasy, My Postpartum Power”
• Blackgoose, Moniquill — Media Representation (particularly Indigeneous North American) and Creativity
• Bonnin, Elisa A. — “Breaking the Mold, or ‘What even is neurotypical anyway?’”
• Chao, A. Y. — “Mirrors and Doorways”
• Cruz-Borja, Vida — “‘New myths’ and the people who tell them”
• Davenport, N. E. — “Why I Write Confident Heroines”
• Deane, Maya — Literary Realism and the Power of Fantasy
• Elsbai, Hadeer — “The Doctoress on a Donkey: Finding Transformative Fantasy in History”
• Frost, Sienna — “A World You Don’t Belong”
• Kaner, Hannah — “Don’t damsel your fury”
• Okosun, Ehigbor — “Myth and Magic, Seen and Unseen”
• Older, Malka — Watership Down ‘s Influence on The Mimicking of Known Successes
• Penelope, Leslye — “When Fantasy and STEM Collide”
• Weekes, Gemma — “Coming Home to Magic”
• Wells, Martha — “Deconstructing Epics”

There were also some additional guest posts or excerpts last year, such as:

• Beagle, Peter S. — Excerpts from The Essential Peter S. Beagle: Volumes 1 and 2
• Gornichec, Genevieve — “Worldbuilding the Past: A Fantastical Viking Age”
• Hansen, Essa — “Creating Belonging While Finding Family”
• Tsai, Mia — “The Case for Aftermaths”
• Yolen, Jane — The Scarlet Circus Collection and Romance

If you enjoy lists, I also shared about my Favorite Books of 2022 and some Anticipated 2023 Speculative Fiction Releases . (And a heads up for those of you that enjoy giveaways, I’ll be giving away one of my favorite books ever next week!)

Favorite Books & Media of 2023

Once again, I reflected on what I read over the last year and came up with a list that feels right for my experiences with the books I read during that time. Though I was not as taken with some of my most anticipated books as I’d hoped (like this standalone by an author who has written other books I’ve enjoyed , this debut novel , and the conclusion to a trilogy that was not as well executed as the first two volumes ), there were others that were highlights. This year, I had three clear favorites released in 2023 and two favorite trilogies released prior to that, as well as at least one honorable mention in each category.

I don’t normally discuss media other than books in these posts, but this year is unusual since I am utterly obsessed with something else fantasy-related that came out last year and could not resist including it!

Favorite Media of 2023

As a fan of the two games that preceded it (as well as D&D and Icewind Dale ), I’ve been excited for Baldur’s Gate 3 for a while, but I did not expect to love it the way I do. I’ve now finished two multiplayer games and one single player game, and I am currently in the second act of my second single player game. Considering this is more than I’ve played any other, I think it’s safe to say this is now my favorite game of all time.

It’s just fun with a lot of entertaining dialogue and scenes, and it also has some beautifully done scenes and storylines, excellent acting, and a story that I appreciate more each time I play it. But what stands out to me the most about Baldur’s Gate 3 is the character development and growth that can happen depending on how you interact with and treat your companions, paired with the aforementioned excellent acting that makes them all the better. I didn’t really remember much about the characters from the previous games, but this one has some memorable ones with fantastic lines and journeys, including one character from the older games who I appreciate far more in this one. There are also a lot of wonderful animals and non-main characters, and the narrator (Amelia Tyler) does an incredible job.

It’s also made to replay: I come across new things each time I play it and a different main character can make for a different story, even if I do keep playing the Dark Urge and pairing my characters with the same companion. (Yes, I’m currently on my third Astarion romance. I just can’t help it. Of course, the award-winning performance by Neil Newbon is amazing, and his primary writer, Stephen Rooney, did an incredible job. I think he is the best written character with the best lines, and the way each act shows a new layer of characterization is perfection .) My last completed game followed a Seldarine drow fighter/bard who liked dramatics and intimidation, had a soft spot for innocents and animals, and became less hardened over the course of her journey, especially with how close she came to her found family. My current character is a high elf Oath of Vengeance paladin/sorcerer who is darker and more chaotic than the last, extremely loyal, and someone who cares fiercely when she does care—and she is making a huge mess of things because she’s terrified and would burn down the world for those she cares about. I’m having the best time shaping her story even when it hurts, and I’m already contemplating ideas for my next character.

If by any chance anyone who was part of the team that worked on Baldur’s Gate 3 comes across this: Thank you. You’ve created something truly special and unique, and this fantasy fan is grateful.

Favorite Books Released in 2023

Cover images link to Bookshop. As an affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Book of the Year 1. Cassiel’s Servant (Kushiel’s Legacy) by Jacqueline Carey My Review Read an Excerpt

Cassiel’s Servant is a companion to Jacqueline Carey’s beloved first novel, Kushiel’s Dart , telling the same story from the perspective of a different character: Joscelin, the warrior-monk whose order assigns him the task of protecting the courtesan/spy Phèdre. While many of the novel’s events are familiar if you’ve read the first Kushiel’s Legacy book, the first 20% is new material covering Joscelin’s training and monastic life before his fate collides with that of his god-marked charge—and of course, his first-person voice fits his personality and viewpoint, meaning it’s much different from Phèdre’s narration. Joscelin is far less dramatic and verbose with a more straightforward, concise style.

This novel is yet another example of Jacqueline Carey’s prowess as a master storyteller (in addition to the Kushiel books, also see Starless ). Although the prose is less embellished than the books narrated by Phèdre, it’s also beautifully written and I loved the exploration of the relationship between the two main characters. They have different but complementary strengths, and I particularly appreciated the evolution of Joscelin’s perspective as he reevaluates his beliefs and reforges them into something new, something that makes sense with the world he experiences once he’s no longer confined to the monastery. Though his attitude and views change throughout the story, they are true to him as a person who grew to have a more mature worldview once he was no longer isolated within one order that followed one system of beliefs—but it’s also done with nuance, without making all the monks who taught and raised him seem like “bad” people.

I just adored Cassiel’s Servant , and it’s my absolute favorite book I’ve read this year.

Book of the Year Runner-Up 2. The Jasad Heir (The Scorched Throne #1) by Sara Hashem My Review Read an Excerpt

The Jasad Heir follows “Sylvia,” the heir to a demolished kingdom who has repressed her past self in order to hide her identity and survive. However, her plans of remaining in obscurity go awry when she catches the attention of Arin, the heir to the military kingdom that razed her homeland. As she does her best to keep him from realizing just who she is, Sylvia is forced to contend with the complicated feelings about her identity as the Jasad heir that she’s been avoiding—all while growing closer to the son of the man who killed her family.

The first book in an Egyptian-inspired epic fantasy duology, The Jasad Heir is great fun with its banter, dark humor, and wonderful character dynamics. Sara Hashem also clearly recognizes exactly what makes tropes like enemies-to-maybe-something-more-romantic and a protagonist hiding their royal lineage and magic work , and these common story elements are excellently executed. Sylvia is a fantastic narrator: her voice brims with personality and her stabbiness is expressed in new and creative ways instead of seeming repetitive, and she’s more complex than most characters I encounter with her prickliness, selfishness, loyalty, awareness of her flaws and shortcomings, and overall complicated relationship with herself. The contrast between Sylvia and her love interest makes the progression of their relationship all the more delicious. Arin is self-assured, confident, and manipulative—traits Sylvia finds simultaneously admirable and infuriating—but his facade starts to fall apart as he comes to care about this frustrating woman he’d once described as having the “temperament of a deranged goose.”

I found The Jasad Heir immensely entertaining, and I can hardly wait for the sequel (fingers crossed for a 2024 release!).

3. To Shape a Dragon’s Breath (The First Book of Nampeshiweisit) by Moniquill Blackgoose Read/Listen to an Excerpt

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath  is the first book in a new series set on an alternate version of Earth that followed a different path in history and has dragons. It follows Anequs, a young indigenous woman who discovers a dragon egg and bonds with the first dragon her people have encountered in ages. After her hatchling accidentally injures someone when startled, Anequs decides it’s her duty to go to the dragon academy on the mainland and learn all she can about being bonded to a dragon and how to prevent it from hurting others. Here, Anequs is thrust into a new world filled with social rules that make no sense to her, but instead of following a more traditional fantasy of manners arc—that of attempting to fit in with these customs or flouting etiquette here and there while building toward rejecting these ways in the end—Anequs constantly calls them out, loudly , and it is a delight . I was actually surprised by just how much I enjoyed this novel considering I tend to prefer characters that have internal conflicts, but I found Anequs’ security in who she was and what she believes to be refreshing. To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is a riveting story, and I am eagerly awaiting news of the sequel.

Honorable Mentions

The Battle Drum (The Ending Fire #2) by Saara El-Arifi The Final Strife , the first book in this series, was my Book of the Year in 2022 with a world full of rich history that made it real, excellent protagonists, and pacing that kept me engaged. Although I didn’t love The Battle Drum quite as much, I still rather enjoyed it and am looking forward to the final book in the trilogy. (Even if I was extremely irritated by one character in the end. Yes, I’m looking at you, Anoor.)

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill This novella, a retelling of the folktale “The Crane Wife,” is dark and traumatic with lovely writing. It’s an honorable mention because it wasn’t a book I loved that stuck with me, but it is a really well done story that I admired even so.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle Much like The Crane Husband , this short horror novel didn’t stick with me as much as I’d hoped but it’s also a book I think is really well done. It had some amazing lines that made me pause in appreciation and short chapters and fast pacing that kept me turning the pages, but I did discover that I much preferred the setup to the conclusion. That said, I did like the handling of the theme of letting go of toxic ideas instilled into one in their youth.

Favorite Books Published Before 2023

1. The Welsh Princes Trilogy by Sharon Kay Penman Here Be Dragons , Falls the Shadow , The Reckoning

After reading Cassiel’s Servant , I wanted something that felt similarly epic, and I ended up deciding to pick up Here Be Dragons . (I would have just reread Kushiel’s Dart and then finished the rest of the trilogy, but due to some house issues, those were among a bunch of books that were packed away at the time.) Although the Welsh Princes trilogy is historical fiction rather than fantasy, I’d seen them recommended for fans of A Song of Ice and Fire, and now that I’ve read the series, I completely understand why with its blend of politics, drama, and complex characters.

Set in the thirteenth century, Here Be Dragons centers on the conflict between England and Wales, showing characters from both countries as people with both strengths and flaws that make them real (even though one side is portrayed as being more sympathetic than the other). It has a large number of characters, but the one who ties everything together most is Joanna, the illegitimate daughter of King John who is wed to the Welsh prince Llewellyn the Great. Joanna’s story is poignant because she loves them both and is caught between them: though most people see her father as a villain, it’s more difficult for her to view him that way since he was kind to her and made her feel safe for the first time as a child. As much as I enjoyed the entire series, which covers the conflict between Simon de Montfort and King Henry in the second book and that between Llewellyn II and King Edward in the third, Here Be Dragons is my favorite of the three largely because of Joanna.

2. The Scholomance Trilogy by Naomi Novik A Deadly Education , The Last Graduate , The Golden Enclaves

As you may recall from my review, I did not like A Deadly Education the first time I read it , so it’s amusing to me that this series made my list. I probably wouldn’t have read the entire trilogy if my husband hadn’t gifted them to me, saying he knew it was a risk given my opinion of the first but that he’d seen raves about these books and heard they got better. But I actually was curious because as much as I struggled with the voice and the amount of infodumping in A Deadly Education , I did find the main character memorable and also wondered if I might have had a better experience with it if I hadn’t read a digital version. (I much prefer reading print, and I also felt that format might have worked even better for me than usual in this case, given that the rambling sentences sometimes took up more than one screen.)

It probably worked better for me on a reread both because of reading it in paperback and knowing where it went, but whatever the reason, I enjoyed it a lot more the second time and read the entire trilogy back to back. El’s a great character: prickly but also loyal, someone with a strong sense of justice, someone who sticks to her values and hates that trying to survive magic school results in people treating others as a means to an end rather than fellow human beings. Her unique personality is what draws the class hero, Orion, to her (even though she is not happy with him whenever he comes to her rescue), and they have such a wonderful dynamic. I had an excellent time with all three books, especially the middle volume.

Honorable Mention

Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonin This Filipino-inspired YA fantasy novel stuck with me largely because of how unique the setting was with its settlements amongst large sprawling trees and dangerous beasts. It just overall felt different from most of what I read, and although it’s a common general theme, I thought the author did a fantastic job with the “learning the world isn’t exactly what you’ve been taught all your life” storyline.

• Tags: Baldur's Gate 3 , Books of 2023 , Cassiel's Servant , Fantasy , Favorites , Horror , Speculative Fiction , The Jasad Heir , The Scholomance , To Shape a Dragon's Breath , Welsh Princes  

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

It’s actually been a little while since there were any new books to feature, but an ARC and a finished copy showed up in the mail last week. In case you missed them, there have been two new reviews since then, which covered two books with enemies-to-love-interests arcs that I had very different reactions to:

• Review of The Jasad Heir (The Scorched Throne #1) by Sara Hashem — This was one of the most fun books I’ve read this year with its banter, dark humor, and fantastic character dynamics: a protagonist who has lost her sense of self in her struggle to survive as opposed to her calculating, self-assured enemy/love interest. Sylvia’s rage, voice, and stabby personality made this a delight .
• Review of The Hurricane Wars (The Hurricane Wars #1) by Thea Guanzon — This had a rough start before becoming more compelling for a few chapters, but it ended up being far too repetitive for my tastes. The two main characters did not have a lot of depth or nuance, and they just kept repeating the same basic scenarios that highlighted the same problems and misunderstandings.

On to the latest books!

Faebound  (Faebound Trilogy #1) by Saara El-Arifi

The first book in a new series by Saara El-Arifi will be released on January 23, 2024 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook). The Penguin Random House website has an excerpt from Faebound .

The biggest reason I’m interested in this novel is because  The Final Strife , Saara El-Arifi’s debut novel and the first book in The Ending Fire trilogy, was my Book of the Year in 2022 . Here’s what I wrote about it when reflecting on my favorite reads of the year:

Simultaneously thoughtful and fun,  The Final Strife  explores injustice amidst storylines about uncovering mysteries about the world, a newfound friendship with potential for romance, and a tournament that’s about a variety of types of strength, not just who can fight the best. This fantasy setting feels real and lived in due to having a rich history that’s fleshed out through the characters’ perspectives, oral stories, and epigraphs. With a prologue that drew me in immediately and wonderful worldbuilding, storytelling, protagonists, and pacing that kept me hooked,  The Final Strife  is easily my favorite book of 2022.

You can also read my review of The Final Strife here , and Saara El-Arifi’s Women in SF&F Month essay, “Routes to my roots,” here .

Given my love of the fae and how much I enjoyed this author’s debut novel, I’m very excited for Faebound —plus I was rather intrigued by the first few lines!

Two elven sisters become imprisoned in the intoxicating world of the fae, where danger and love lie in wait.  Faebound  is the first book in an enchanting new trilogy from the  Sunday Times bestselling author of  The Final Strife .

“A romantic fantasy of epic proportions, crackling with magic and passion.”—Samantha Shannon, bestselling author of  The Priory of the Orange Tree

Yeeran was born on the battlefield, has lived on the battlefield, and one day, she knows, she’ll die on the battlefield.

As a warrior in the elven army, Yeeran has known nothing but violence her whole life. Her sister, Lettle, is trying to make a living as a diviner, seeking prophecies of a better future.

When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven Lands, both sisters are forced into the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders.

There they encounter the impossible: the fae court. The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium. But now Yeeran and Lettle are thrust into their seductive world, torn among their loyalties to each other, their elven homeland, and their hearts.

The Serpent & the Wings of Night  (The Nightborn Duet #1) by Carissa Broadbent

This fantasy romance novel is the first book in The Crowns of Nyxia, a series containing three duologies starting with The Nightborn Duet. A new hardcover edition of The Serpent & the Wings of Night , which was originally self published, was just released last week. It’s also available in audiobook and ebook, and a trade paperback edition will follow in May 2024. The second book, The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King , will be rereleased in June 2024.

I’ve heard good things about this book (mostly on the Fantasy Romance Reddit ), and after reading a sample on Amazon, I thought it looked intriguing.

The first book in the  Wall Street Journal  bestselling Crowns of Nyaxia series by Carissa Broadbent. Filled with heart-wrenching romance, dark magic, and bloodthirsty intrigue–perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash  and  A Court of Thorns and Roses.

For humans and vampires, the rules of survival are the same: never trust, never yield, and always – always – guard your heart.

The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya carved her place in a world designed to kill her. Her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself.

But winning won’t be easy amongst the most vicious warriors from all three vampire houses. To survive, Oraya is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival.

Everything about Raihn is dangerous. He is a ruthless vampire, an efficient killer, an enemy to her father’s crown… and her greatest competition. Yet, what terrifies Oraya most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him.

But there’s no room for compassion in the Kejari. War for the House of Night brews, shattering everything that Oraya thought she knew about her home. And Raihn may understand her more than anyone – but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.

Read this  FAQ  to learn more!

• Tags: Carissa Broadbent , Faebound , Saara El-Arifi , The Leaning Pile of Books , The Serpent and the Wings of Night  

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Book Description:

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER! The fates of two bitter enemies with opposing magical abilities are swept together in  The Hurricane Wars , the spellbinding debut in a fantasy romance trilogy set in a Southeast Asia–inspired world ravaged by storms, perfect for fans of  Fourth Wing  and  A Court of Thorns and Roses The heart is a battlefield. All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, she found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire’s shadows. Prince Alaric, the emperor’s only son and heir, has been tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire’s rule with the strength of his armies and mighty shadow magic. He discovers the greatest threat yet in Talasyn: a girl burning brightly on the battlefield with the magic that killed his grandfather, turned his father into a monster, and ignited the Hurricane Wars. He tries to kill her, but in a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen. This war can only end with them. But an even greater danger is coming, and the strange magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it. Talasyn and Alaric must decide… are they fated to join hands, or destroy each other? An exquisite fantasy brimming with unforgettable characters and sizzling enemies-to-lovers romance set in a richly drawn world,  The Hurricane Wars  marks the breathtaking debut of an extraordinary new writer.

The Hurricane Wars , Thea Guanzon’s debut novel, is the first book in a fantasy romance trilogy that follows the third-person perspectives of two characters who have been fighting on opposite sides of the titular conflict. Talasyn, an orphan, was recruited by the rebels when they discovered she had light magic, a rare power since the emperor killed everyone on the continent with those abilities years ago. Since she joined their side, she’s trained in secret, waiting for the right time to use her magic against the conquering army.

But Talasyn is forced to use her magic to save herself in the heat of battle—and does so in the presence of Alaric, the emperor’s son, who possesses shadow magic like his father. Though she survives the altercation that ensues, she knows she’ll need to be wary now that the prince knows about her abilities.

Shortly after her confrontation with Alaric, Talasyn is sent on a mission to some islands that have remained neutral in the war, a mysterious place rumored to have dragons and unique magic. There, she makes a discovery that changes her life and results in her having to work with the person she despises most in the world after the emperor: his son.

There are two main reasons I was excited about reading The Hurricane Wars : the South Asia–inspired world and the enemies-to-lovers arc. (Whether it ends in friendship or romance, I just really enjoy the trope of people who start out despising each other discovering that they have common ground or actually respect/like each other after they are thrown together. Basically, I like relationships of any kind that become more complex over the course of the story, and when this is well done, it really works for me.) However, I found this novel rather lackluster since it didn’t have a lot of depth and the interactions between the two main characters became frustratingly repetitive.

The first third of the book focuses on the wars, which have been going on for some time at that point, and the rest of the book takes place after a four-month time skip that focuses on the aforementioned islands and the relationship between the two main characters. I found it difficult to get through the first 30% or so: a lot happened quickly, and I didn’t know enough about any of these characters to care about their struggles, nor did I find them compelling enough to want to learn more about them.

After it skipped ahead a few months, it became more engaging—even hard to put down for a bit—and I thought I was going to end up enjoying it despite the rough start. The matriarchal island setting was far more interesting to me than the war, and its calculating queen had potential as a character. Unfortunately, it didn’t spend enough time delving into her or any of the others for that to pay off, and all the secondary characters felt like afterthoughts when compared to the relationship between Talasyn and Alaric.

That probably wouldn’t have bothered me if these two had more development or a dynamic that didn’t grow tiresome so quickly. They’re mainly drawn to each other because they each think the other is stunning and the plot demands it, and though there are some scenes later that show how they can fit together as individuals, it wasn’t enough to make me want to keep reading about them and their monotonous relationship problems. They kept running through the same basic scenarios and miscommunications without any hint of character growth, and while there’s still room for more development considering this is only the first installment in a trilogy, I’d have liked for there to be something that showed even a little progress. As sympathetic as Talasyn’s situation was, I just found her annoying by the end since she just kept behaving the same way over and over again. Alaric was slightly more interesting since it’s clear he’s been shaped by fear of his ruthless father, but this installment doesn’t explore that enough to make him truly fascinating, just a little more compelling than the other main character.

Although The Hurricane Wars didn’t work for me, it might work better for those who are looking for Star Wars fanfiction with characters inspired by Rey and Kylo Ren. I did not realize that this novel was based on this when I first heard about it, and even though I am not invested in these characters, I remained excited about reading it even after I learned this: after all, just because I’m not personally a fan of the inspiration doesn’t mean it can’t be remade into a work I’d like.

However, the primary focus of this novel seemed to be banter/bickering and what-could-have-been scenarios involving getting closer then pulling away with characters that didn’t have a lot of original personality, and Alaric sounds exactly like Kylo Ren anytime his appearance is described. Given that I’m more interested in relationships with depth and characters that are more fleshed out, I have no plans to continue this series. (I was also disappointed by the lack of focus on the “strange beasts” mentioned in the book announcement , although I suspect there will be more about them in the next book.)

My Rating : 4/10

Where I got my reading copy : Finished copy from the publisher.

Read an Excerpt from The Hurricane Wars

• Tags: 2023 Releases , Fantasy , Fantasy Romance , The Hurricane Wars , Thea Guanzon  

The Jasad Heir , the first book in The Scorched Throne duology, is an Egyptian-inspired epic fantasy novel by debut author Sara Hashem. She began writing it to examine the following question : “what do you owe to a place and a people you’ve barely known but without whom you wouldn’t exist?” This concept is explored through the first-person perspective of Sylvia, the heir to a demolished kingdom hated for its magic, who has been presumed dead along with the rest of the royal family for the last decade. She’s done her best to hide her heritage and prepare to flee if her identity is discovered, and she does not have dreams of wreaking vengeance or rebuilding her homeland and reuniting her people. Sylvia just wants to remain in obscurity, to survive —though she does have moments of niggling guilt and shame over not aiding her people, who are still persecuted and killed for their magic, that she does her best to shove from her mind.

For the past five years, Sylvia has succeeded at being unremarkable, in part because she can’t actually use the magic that would reveal she’s from the Scorched Kingdom of Jasad. Her grandparents fitted her with invisible cuffs that suppressed her abilities when she was a child, and at twenty years old, she still has them since her family was murdered before they were able to remove them. Without being able to even accidentally unleash the power that would doom her, she has been living a quiet life as a chemist’s apprentice in a small village and has even made a couple of friends (in spite of herself and the prickly personality that keeps most from getting close to her).

Unsurprisingly, Sylvia’s peaceful existence does not last. Arin, the heir to the military kingdom that razed her homeland, comes to her village, presumably searching for a Champion to compete in the upcoming tournament celebrating the remaining lands’ magical founders. Unfortunately for Sylvia, she piques his interest since he’s convinced she has magic but cannot prove it, and Sylvia intends to keep him from being able to verify the truth.

Then a horrific event frees her magic for the first time in years, and Arin has the evidence he’s been seeking. But instead of putting her to death, he chooses her as his Champion and reveals he has another use for her that will buy her freedom if she succeeds—one that brings all of her complicated feelings about her identity as the Jasad heir into disarray and begins a dangerous game with Arin, who is determined to discover her true name and family.

The Jasad Heir is one of the most fun books I’ve read this year. It has banter, dark humor, and great character dynamics, and familiar elements like the protagonist having to hide her magic and her royal identity and the enemies-to-maybe-something-more arc are well executed, showcasing just why these are such beloved tropes for so many of us.

The two central characters and their relationship is a large part of why this works so well, but what most made this novel stand out to me was Sylvia herself: her rage, her loyalty to those who somehow made their way into her heart in spite of herself, and her struggle to figure out who she is and wants to be. She’s a character brimming with personality, and I knew I’d like her from the very first line: “Two things stood between me and a good night’s sleep, and I was allowed to kill only one of them.” Her narrative is full of vivid metaphors and comparisons, and though many of them reflect her stabby personality, I found they had enough variety in phrasing that they remained entertaining instead of getting repetitive after a while. (There are some brief third-person interludes from Arin’s perspective, and in the first of these, he describes her as having “the temperament of a deranged goose,” which seemed very fitting since I could instantly see it .)

I loved that this story delved into how Sylvia forged her hard exterior and dealt with her facing all the internal conflicts she’s ignored for the last few years, showing how she never had a chance to develop a sense of self as she had to set up a front for self-preservation. I loved that she was selfish but also intensely loyal to the few people she does care about, that she was someone aware of her own flaws and shortcomings as she grappled with the shame, guilt, and trauma that made her thoroughly cut herself off from who she used to be. Although I wouldn’t call Sylvia one of the best written characters I’ve ever read, I also think she’s more complex and alive than most, and Sara Hashem did an excellent job at portraying just how utterly lost she is deep inside and how she came to be that way.

This provides contrast that is a large part of what makes her relationship with Arin so compelling: he has the sense of self she lacks, and he’s calculating, manipulative, confident, and in control of his emotions, which Sylvia finds admirable, infuriating, and terrifying. It takes time for their relationship to evolve into something more than enemies (which I much prefer to the protagonist immediately thinking about how incredibly attractive their enemy is and how they shouldn’t be having such thoughts about them; although Sylvia does note that Arin is handsome earlier in the story, it’s also stated in the same way she’d observe that the sky is blue or the grass is green). Sylvia tries to kill Arin after she’s been discovered and feels she has nothing left to lose, and in turn, Arin is furious that it will best suit his purposes to keep her alive.

But as the two spend time together preparing for the trials, they both need to keep Sylvia’s magic a secret, putting them on the same team opposite the other royals. Though Sylvia is still hiding her true name and has a messy relationship with herself, she also gets to be more fully herself than she has in a long time when she no longer has to pretend to be someone completely different, a meek and mild person, all the time. And that is probably a large part of what draws Arin to her. As an heir, Arin’s grown up surrounded by danger and people hiding their ire behind smiles, and once Sylvia’s heritage is exposed, she wears her rage openly. What he calls her “attempts at humor” start to make him smile, and he becomes less and less stoic when he’s around her. I loved their dynamic and every single scene involving the two of them, and seeing Arin’s carefully curated facade fall apart just for Sylvia was delightful .

Although these two were the highlights for me, Sylvia’s friendships were also wonderful with fun dialogue and a great dynamic. Additionally, I enjoyed learning more about the past alongside our narrator as she discovered more about the politics and rivalries she hadn’t been aware of as a child. So far, the different lands and their people mostly have one or two defining traits that set them apart instead of being deeply fleshed out, but I still liked visiting them and meeting their rulers and each of their chosen Champions. (Of particular interest was Sultana Vaida, who appears friendly but is crafty and has a horrifying way of dealing with traitors.)

Even if it didn’t have the complexity that would have made it a 5-star experience for me, The Jasad Heir is a really well done, fun book—a fantastic debut with personality (a stabby one), a great enemies-to-love-interests arc, and a protagonist with a more complicated internal struggle than many. Before writing this review, I went back to reread parts of it, and I was so thoroughly hooked that I ended up reading the entire novel all over again. I can hardly wait to see what happens in the second half of the duology, especially after the exciting ending that changed the trajectory and made me want to read the next book NOW.

My Rating : 8.5/10

Where I got my reading copy : ARC from the publisher.

Read an Excerpt from The Jasad Heir

• Tags: 2023 Releases , Epic Fantasy , Fantasy , Sara Hashem , The Jasad Heir , The Scorched Throne  

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Best Science Fiction Books

Last updated: March 25, 2024

If you love Science Fiction and you're looking for your next family favorite, you're in the right place. We've compiled a top list of the latest and greatest Science Fiction Books. Give it a scroll and find the perfect fit for your family. From kids to tweens and teens, there's something fun and great for everyone. Discover the best new Science Fiction Books to make the most of your family time together. Don't miss out on this always-fresh list that rates high on entertainment and excitement! See more best-of lists like this .

Cool ideas, ok execution, some violence in fantasy future.

The First State of Being

Time-travel tale is gripping, funny, and tinged with grief.

Creative dystopian genre bender has some violence.

Too Many Interesting Things Are Happening to Ethan Fairmont

An appealing alien, likable human teens power E.T. update.

Fox Snare: Thousand Worlds, Book 3

Tigers, foxes, and ghosts in smart, suspenseful space opera.

Clever, hopeful sci-fi adventure explores future dystopia.

The Wild Robot Protects

Beloved robot fights to save home in stirring eco fable.

I Am the Walrus: The N.O.A.H Files, Book 1

Boy gains animal powers in funny sci-fi adventure.

Nothing Interesting Ever Happens to Ethan Fairmont

Plenty happens to teen in fun, funny E.T. homage.

Cosmos Camp: Epic Ellisons, Book 1

Genius girls tackle a mystery in funny sci-fi romp.

The Rhythm of Time

Tween travels through time in fun tale with lots of twists.

New Dragon City

Tweens fly high in suspenseful dragon adventure in New York.

Gleanings: Stories from the Arc of a Scythe

More tales of immortality in bloody collection of stories.

The First to Die at the End

Heartbreaking, hopeful, and romantic prequel.

Nubia: The Awakening

African teen superheroes saga aims high, delivers.

The Getaway

Teens are trapped in amusement park in intense thriller.

Satisfying conclusion to swashbuckling space epic.

The Royal Trials: Last Gate of the Emperor, Book 2

Abandoned Earth proves value in taut adventure.

The Darkness Outside Us

Intense, far-future space voyage explores hope and truth.

The Genesis Wars: The Infinity Courts, Book 2

Afterlife action accelerates in compelling sequel.

Locus Online

The Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field

New & Notable Books, March

Kelley Armstrong, Cocktails & Chloroform (Subterranean 12/23) The latest volume in the A Rip Through Time Series (“ Outlander meets The Alienist ”) sees contemporary homicide detective Mallory Atkinson stuck in Victorian Edinburgh, where she investigates a sex-traf­ficking scheme. “A quick read… with reliable companions tackling all sorts of villains while also engaging in the sort of banter at which Armstrong excels.” [Colleen Mondor]

Marie-Helene Bertino, Beautyland (Farrar, Straus, Giroux 1/24) Adina Giorno believes she’s an alien, sent from another planet to live disguised as a human, and she sends regular reports (via fax!) to her extraterrestrial rela­tives about the oddities of life on Earth. “A very funny and empathetic book that unravels the contradictions, complexities, and weirdness of this thing we call life.” [Ian Mond]

Seth Dickinson, Exordia (Tordotcom 1/24) Buzz is building for this strange SF novel, which min­gles elements of first contact and alien invasion tales with moral philosophy. A woman meets an eight-headed alien in Central Park in 2013 and learns about Exordia: an interstellar empire that uses magic and technology to prevent its subjects from rebelling… but humans might be able to change all that, if they don’t get wiped out in the process.

Christopher Golden, The House of Last Resort (St. Martin’s 1/24) The veteran horror author delivers a compelling haunted-house tale set in a dying Italian town, where the mayor offers an amazing deal: Anyone can purchase one of the vacant homes for a single euro, as long as they agree to stay for at least five years. The offer tempts an Italian-American couple… but their house has an ugly history, and hidden depths.

Shubnum Khan, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years (Viking 1/24) Khan is an award-winning writer in South Africa, but this is her first book published in the US. After her mother dies of a cancer, a girl moves with her father to a haunted mansion turned boardinghouse, where she discovers the diary of a dead woman, becoming obsessed with her story – while a grieving djinn watches from the shadows. “Brimming with evocative prose, well-developed characters, and fantastical elements rendered so realistically you forget you’re reading speculative fiction.” [Alex Brown]

Stephen Kotowych, ed., Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol. 1 (Ansible Press 12/23) This is the first in a new annual series created to shine a light on the often-overlooked Canadian SF scene, featuring stories by Canadian citizens and residents. Volume one covers work from 2022, with 26 stories, including one translated from the French, and 11 poems, by authors including Ai Jiang, Premee Mohamed, Peter Watts, and Dominik Parisien.

Aric McBay, Inversion (Black Dawn 11/23) This utopian novel (with hints of space opera) is set on a planet where an endless wave of renewing fire sweeps across the land, both destroying and rejuvenating, occupied by collectivist inhabit­ants who’ve learned to live with the flames. They have a peaceful society… until a militaristic invasion forces them to defend their way of life. “Every once in a while, I run into a new science fiction story that feels remarkably classic… in the tradition of utopian and anarchist science fiction. With a snappy plot and tons of ideas, this is a real treat.” [Jake Casella Brookins]

Nisi Shawl, Kinning (Tor 1/24) Shawl returns to the Neo-Victorian, alternate-history, steampunk-inflected world of Everfair , this time set in 1921 in an Africa transformed by the rise of “kinnings”: affinity groups whose members take a drug that allows them to form powerful bonds with one another, approaching the level of psychic powers. With “intriguing, complex, and rapidly evolving characters,” it’s “a rare sequel that says something entirely new, while deepening the central themes of the original.” [Gary K. Wolfe]

Tlotlo Tsamaase, Womb City (Erewhon 1/24) This astonishing debut dystopian Africanfuturist horror novel has been described as a fusion of The Handmaid’s Tale and Get Out , mingling SF with elements of body horror and the ghost story, as a woman under constant surveillance tries to hide an affair from her husband… until an accident raises a vengeful ghost. “Incandescent, furious prose.” [Ian Mond]

Maud Woolf, Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock (Angry Robot 1/24) In this dazzling romp of an SF noir novel, the titular has-been celebrity decides it’s time to get rid of her dozen clones, and creates a 13th clone to eradicate the oth­ers… but the assassin develops a conscience, and falls in love with one of her intended targets instead.

From the March 2024 issue of Locus .

©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.

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Abu and Obssa continue their read through of The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. They explore the themes of science versus nature in the novel and unpack the idea of technology as a disease. Join our Patreon for bonus content and helpful reading materials Join our Discord to keep the conversation going Check our Season 1 Schedule to keep up with the reading assignments Email us your thoughts and questions: [email protected]

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Abu and Obssa begin their read through of the modern sci-fi classic The Three-Body Problem from Chinese author Liu Cixin. They explore the life of the author and dig into the history of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Join our Patreon for bonus content and helpful reading materials Join our Discord to keep the conversation going Check our Season 1 Schedule to keep up with the reading assignments Email us your thoughts and questions: [email protected]

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The Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024 (So Far)

Posted: March 6, 2024 | Last updated: March 11, 2024

The opening page of Malka Older’s new book says simply, “There are other ways to live.” That idea carries through so many of this year’s best science fiction books, which are full of questions about how we might live differently with each other, on our troubled planet or in the furthest reaches of space. Science fiction, as Ursula K. Le Guin once wrote, is not predictive but descriptive, and what contemporary science fiction authors are so often describing is a world that seems to be less and less built for humans to thrive in it. We are still close enough to 2020 that we’re reading books that have their roots in that particularly tumultuous year—roots that dig deep into surveillance , capitalism , protest , inequity , and failures to learn from the past.

But there are other worlds, other ways to thrive—and other ways to replicate humanity’s worst failings, too. This year’s best books don’t shy away from who we’ve been, and who we are, but they also brim with a fierce curiosity about who we might become. As Martin MacInnes writes in the glorious In Ascension , “The original science-fiction story—the impossible adventure full of wonder and awe—was merely the existence of the species, all the movements she and her sister and their family and every other living person had shared.”

Below, listed in publication order, are our favorite science fiction books of the year (so far). Watch this space for updates; we’ll continue adding to our list as the year unfolds.

1) Your Utopia, by Bora Chung (translated by Anton Hur)

Bora Chung’s impressive second collection sets its tone with its title: if a utopia is yours, can it be shared? Can it be anyone else’s? There’s a melancholy and a wryness to these stories, in which lonely people (or other beings) try to connect, or protect, or simply survive. In “The End of the Voyage,” the urge to consume dooms humanity. In “A Song for Sleep,” an AI elevator does its best to care for a resident of its building. The elevator seems kind, but its knowledge of the building’s inhabitants is due to an alarming level of surveillance. Through the prism of her singular imagination, Chung looks sharply at the ways the world we’ve made doesn’t suit us: corporate greed is a frequent enemy, whether it’s focused on controlling the natural world (“Seed”) or extending its own existence (“The Center for Immortality Research”). These are stories to sit with, to read one at a time and savor.

2) The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, by Malka Older

The second volume in Malka Older’s utterly delightful Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti series finds Mossa searching for a missing student—a case that expands to include over a dozen missing people. The mystery is satisfying, but the heart of this story is the tentative and endearing relationship between Mossa and the academic Pleiti, the Watson to Mossa’s Holmes, who narrates the bulk of their tale. Older packs a ton into barely 200 pages: academic wrangling, space libertarians, the state of the distant and troubled Earth, a visit to the moon of Io, a trip on Giant’s fascinating railcars, and so much more. This is distinctly a cozy mystery, but also a space opera in miniature. Part of what Older so beautifully illustrates is the way humanity might bring its history and culture—food, tea, language, rituals, fears—into the alien landscapes of space. You can read this one without reading the first book, The Mimicking of Known Successes , but why deprive yourself?

3) In Ascension, by Martin MacInnes

MacInnes’s third novel—longlisted for last year’s Booker Prize—is simply like nothing else I’ve ever read. In Ascension centers on Leigh, a marine biologist who spent a troubled childhood in Rotterdam before venturing far from home: to a distant island, to the depths of the ocean, to the Mojave Desert, and eventually to the stars. But that sounds so simple, and this book is expansively, engrossingly complex, meticulously observed and quietly moving. As Leigh’s work turns confidential and mysterious, involving strange phenomena that connect to her deep-sea adventure, MacInnes details her focus on algae with the same care and consideration that he uses to depict her relationship with her mother, her sister, her colleagues, and her world. This isn’t a book that offers anything approaching a tidy resolution. What it offers instead is the texture of an entire life, reflected and refracted by the lives around it. It’s as immersive and astonishing as the deep-sea dive Leigh takes, a journey through a familiar world made freshly, improbably new.

4) Those Beyond the Wall, by Micaiah Johnson

If this were a ranking of the most memorable characters of the year, Scales would be at the top. A mechanic by assignment but a killer by skill, she’s one of many lieutenants to the Emperor of Ashtown, a desert community that exists outside the walls of privileged Wiley City. Ashtown is not an easy place to live, even when you’re the Emperor’s favorite. But when mangled bodies start appearing, no one is safe, and it will take the combined efforts of Scales, her least-favorite colleague, a disgraced scientist, the Emperor, and a worldwalker to save them—all of them. Johnson’s second book, a standalone set in the same world as her The Space Between Worlds , is fueled by the rage that comes from love. When you love a people, love a place, and that people and place are treated as lesser and disposable, rage is inevitable. (As Johnson writes in the author’s note, “Rage is a beacon calling out to others.”) Complicated, deadly, and absolutely full of secrets, Scales is one hell of a narrator, and her sharp, distinctive voice propels this story though desert, city, multiverse, and her own hidden history. Those Beyond the Wall is a novel about holding tight to community in the face of devastation, and it is a triumph.

5) The Siege of Burning Grass, by Premee Mohamed

The latest work from the astonishingly prolific Mohamed (who has three books out this year alone) is a visceral yet intimate story about violence, nationalism, and war. Injured, captured, and tortured by his own side in an endless conflict, the famous pacifist Alefret is sent on a mission to infiltrate an enemy city. With him is Qhudur, a fanatic who will do anything for victory. Mohamed’s bio-technical setting is vivid and unusual—trained medical wasps, floating cities, and lightspiders dot these pages—but the heart of her story is Alefret’s moral struggle. Would killing Qhudur, an act of violence, lead to peace? When does violence become a habit that a country cannot break? How can a person hold tight to their ideals even amid suffering? How can stories and myths help sustain us? But The Siege of Burning Grass isn’t just a thoughtful consideration of war and pacifism; it’s also a feat of worldbuilding, moral complexity, and taut, precisely paced storytelling. After this, I’m ready to hunt down everything else Mohamed has ever written.

6) These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart, by Izzy Wasserstein

In post-climate disaster America, in what’s left of Kansas City, a woman named Dora investigates a death in the anarchist commune to which she once belonged. She’s certain her ex didn’t overdose, but finding out what really happened isn’t going to be easy. Wasserstein excels at the near-future details of her SF-techno-mystery, but she shines even more when it comes to the unexpected connection between Dora and the person sent to kill her—a person who is wearing her pre-transition face. These Fragile Graces is at once a stylish noir and an exploration of identity, gender, selfhood, control, consent, and intimacy. Wasserstein more than pulls it off—everything here feels lived-in and real, from the details of the commune’s processes to the corporate powers that treat people as disposable or replaceable. Dora’s distinctive, terse voice is one I keep hearing in my head, long after the last page. Maybe, if we’re lucky, she’ll find more mysteries to solve.

7) Floating Hotel, by Grace Curtis

In her second novel, Curtis makes an impeccable balancing act look easy. Floating Hotel is, on the surface, a cozy sort of tale about the staff at the titular spaceship, the Grand Abeona Hotel, which endlessly traverses the same route, catering to wealthy people among the stars. Young, miserable Carl stows away on the hotel as a kid; decades later, he’s risen to the post of manager, now a gentle charmer with a soothing word for everyone. When a peculiar academic conference converges with the search for the Lamplighter (a seditious, anti-Empire figure whose broadsides appear between chapters), the fate of the hotel—and its endearing staff—is called into question. But Curtis doesn’t let the spies, codes, and mysteries take over the story; there’s still time for illicit movie nights and anxious musical performances. Floating Hotel is rich with kindness, with big-hearted characters from every corner of the ship, but it also has teeth, a working-class sensibility, and a rebellious heart. This one is a treat.

8) Calypso, by Oliver K. Langmead

“Generation ship novel in verse” is a series of words I had never considered until I read Oliver K. Langmead’s ambitious and immersive Calypso . While the engineers slept, the crew of the Calypso experienced a schism. When Rochelle—whose role is to question Sigmund, the expedition’s leader—wakes, nothing is as she expects, and nothing goes as planned. Four narrators tell the tale: Rochelle, a woman of faith; Catherine, a biologist; the Herald, who relates the ship’s history; and Sigmund, whose narrative is largely set in his own past. Their voices take different shapes; the Herald’s words are squared off, blocky and challenging, while Catherine’s words bend and twist, branching outward more dramatically as she gets closer to the culmination of her role. In a stunning central chapter that’s part body horror and part triumphant act of creation, Catherine transforms, filling a planet with myriad forms of life. Outside of that section, Langmead’s verse creates a sense of spareness, of space unfilled, that echoes the loneliness Rochelle feels. Like so many generation ship stories, this is an elegantly told meditation on how we can’t leave ourselves behind. Any new world will be seeded with what we know, what we’ve learned, who we are, for better or for worse.

9) Lake of Souls, by Ann Leckie

This complete collection of Leckie’s short fiction contains both science fiction and fantasy stories, but the SF stories make up a full half of the book—and are unmissable. They range from flash fiction to a creation myth from the world of the Imperial Radch to “The Justified,” a haunting story about power, mortality, and choice. The title novelette follows a sentient crustacean—called a “lobster dog” by the anthropologist who crash-lands on its planet—as it leaves home, looking for answers about its world and existence. (I would read an entire novel about the lobster dogs, or about the bird-people who transmit their histories through songs.) Every one of these stories is masterfully told, but the standout is “She Commands Me and I Obey,” which depicts a moment of political turmoil through the eyes of a young monk watching a momentous sports game. Tense, affecting, and layered, it’s a perfect example of Leckie’s gift for knowing exactly the right perspective from which to tell her stories. A child, an elder, a guard on a ship’s journey through troubled space: it is a gift to spend time with these characters.

10) The Practice, The Horizon, and The Chain, by Sofia Samatar

Samatar’s latest is a breathtaking novella that resonates like a new myth made of familiar materials. Deep in the bowels of a spaceship, a boy is imprisoned, linked to others by the chain around his ankle. A professor who wears a lighter anklet works to free him, to elevate him to the level of a student, to give him an opportunity. Neither of them have names; nor do the guards, nor the prophet who encourages the boy’s art. They are individuals, but also archetypes, strong and aching, as they move through Samatar’s critical look at labor, exploitation, community, hierarchy, revolution, and worn-out narratives about acceptance and tolerance that do not allow space for real freedom. This story has its roots in academia, but it’s about any organization built to sustain itself at the expense of those who toil within it. Samatar’s gorgeous prose rings clear as a bell. There are no easy answers here, only a sense of possibility, of— as she puts it —“an invitation to exist in the cracks.''

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Science Fiction Book Review Podcast

Luke burrage reads a science fiction novel and reviews it when he's done. then he reads another., episode list.

Click table headers to sort by episode number, author, book, series, rating or episode duration.

Note about star ratings:

All ratings are out of 5 stars, based purely on the subjective enjoyment of reading the book. Sometimes I enjoy a book more or less on the second read, so the star rating might not reflect my original experience with the novel. Episodes featuring Juliane show the average of her rating and my rating.

Books with equal ratings are arranged by episode order.

The Real Issue With Netflix’s 3 Body Problem

In adapting a sweeping and cerebral trilogy for TV, the new show forgets one of the original story’s biggest themes.

This story contains mild spoilers for Netflix’s 3 Body Problem .

In Cixin Liu’s novel The Three-Body Problem , a scientist being manipulated by an extraterrestrial force is told to look up at the sky one night and watch the universe “wink” at him. The effect—akin to stars blinking on and off in unison—won’t be visible to Miao Wang’s naked eye; he has to use special glasses to observe the cosmic microwave background radiation. When the universe does indeed wink, Wang collapses into a near-catatonic daze. There’s no logical explanation he can turn to, and no one he thinks will believe that something—someone?—otherworldly is altering his reality. “The possibilities would torture him cruelly, like demons,” Liu writes of Wang, “until he suffered a complete mental breakdown.”

The universe also winks in 3 Body Problem , Netflix’s adaptation of Liu’s story, which is the first in the science-fiction trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past —except the message’s intended recipient isn’t alone. The series’s creators—the Game of Thrones duo David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and The Terror: Infamy showrunner Alexander Woo—have stripped the scene of its hard-science jargon while piling on the theatrics. In the show, the universe winks for everyone on Earth in a climactic sequence that ends the premiere. Characters race onto rooftops, open-mouthed, their necks craned toward the cosmos. The next morning, people breathlessly theorize at work about what may have happened. The BBC broadcasts a special report.

Making what’s internal on the page much more external—and much more dramatic—is a trick the show uses often. Liu’s reams of text explaining the nuances of astrophysics have been distilled into compact conversations and easy-to-follow diagrams. Disturbing plot developments have been transformed into eye-popping spectacles. Many of these alterations are not unwelcome. They make Liu’s speculative scenarios accessible and thrilling without losing the broad strokes of the plot: Around the world, some top scientists have been inexplicably dying after seeing visions of a countdown clock. Others have been lured into playing a virtual-reality game in which they must try to solve the titular orbital-mechanics riddle.

Read: The human fear of total knowledge

The culprit behind these moves is revealed to be an alien race fleeing their doomed home, traveling toward Earth to make the planet theirs, and working during their journey—one that will take roughly 400 years—to stop humanity’s rapid technological advancement. In other words, The Three-Body Problem is a cerebral epic about human ingenuity in the face of an existential crisis.

The books, as a result, feature a wide array of characters, most of them strangers to one another; their ideas, Liu suggests, are more important than their relationships. But the Netflix series has turned many of the trilogy’s various protagonists into a collection of friends, all scientific prodigies in their 30s who studied under the same mentor at Oxford University. They’re dubbed the “ Oxford Five ,” and they include Auggie (played by Eiza González), a nanotech expert and the show’s version of Wang; Jin (Jess Hong), a brilliant theoretical physicist who gets sucked into playing the VR game; Saul (Jovan Adepo), an aimless researcher and Auggie’s on-again, off-again love interest; Will (Alex Sharp), a selfless teacher who has long harbored a crush on Jin; and Jack (John Bradley), a wealthy entrepreneur who left academia to run a snack company. All are rather well-adjusted versions of their written counterparts. (Wang, for instance, is a middle-aged workaholic who neglects his wife and child as he searches for solutions.)

The result is a story that certainly feels more conventionally TV-worthy—but it essentially abandons one of the books’ most interesting themes: that of the loneliness and terror that can come with the pursuit of knowledge and progress. Part of the pleasure of reading Liu’s dense story is in observing how he shuffles characters in and out, discarding protagonists in favor of new ones from one book to the next. Given a conflict that won’t manifest for centuries, the story becomes about which theories last—and how so many of the figures who come up with ingenious plans must learn to share them and convince others of their worldview.

That kind of exchange simply can’t happen with characters who already know one another deeply—and as the first season goes on to adapt material beyond the first novel, the harder it becomes to believe that humanity’s future hinges on five best friends who all live in London. Remembrance of Earth’s Past is a saga of an impending close encounter that affects the globe, eventually taking place far beyond our solar system. Liu anchored that dizzying scale with individual characters whose journeys mirror one another’s—many of them have the heavy burden of accomplishing a mission solo—but the Netflix show establishes an overcrowded web of relationships that leaves several subplots noticeably thin. Take the researcher Saul, for example: He’s a version of a character who’s tremendously important in the second book, but because he’s a member of the Oxford Five, he’s introduced early on and spends most of the season on the show’s margins. With too many characters involved, the story flattens most of them into archetypes: Jack is the comic relief. Will is the martyr. Saul is—well, he’s a blank slate, waiting on the sidelines until he has something to do.

Read: How to write science fiction that isn’t ‘useful’

Liu’s characters have been accused of being flat, too, but I like the detached coolness of his approach. His style suggests that anyone is capable of genius; the real challenge is to not be consumed by the weight of discovery, to wield an idea responsibly. In the show, a character explains that humanity’s greatest weapon is “the solitude of the mind,” but what Liu’s writing underscored was how solitude could also be humanity’s greatest downfall. A lone figure determining whether to push a button can seal a population’s fate. A person given too much power to implement any plan could inadvertently turn against his own species. Many of his protagonists learn to depend on others; they don’t start out with total faith in humanity.

The show’s use of a tight-knit ensemble undercuts this idea. When Auggie starts seeing the countdown, she leans on Jin for help. When she’s told to look for the universe’s wink, she takes Saul with her as a fellow witness. The countdown does not seem so terrifying with such a support system in place—and having a network of friends doesn’t help delineate what separates humans from the aliens. The invading species, both the books and the show make clear, operates via groupthink; they cannot lie, because they communicate thoughts instantaneously. Humans can lie, of course, yet the show’s characters have such deep bonds that they begin from a place of trust, leaving little room to illustrate deception. It’s as if the majority of the show is made of members of House Stark, the honorable family at the heart of Game of Thrones .

To be clear, there is much about the adaptation I enjoy. I get a kick out of realizing which portions of the trilogy the show’s creators have chopped up and rearranged, delighted to be shown parallels among characters I had not previously noticed, and still find Benioff and Weiss to be great at writing memorable, economical dialogue. The visuals are also cool, the aliens appropriately enigmatic, and the performances excellent. Hong is a standout as Jin, as are Zine Tseng and Rosalind Chao, the actors playing, at different ages, Wenjie Ye, the woman who establishes first contact after losing faith in humanity amid China’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.

Ye serves as the show’s antagonist, having built a following of zealots convinced that the aliens will save humanity from itself and therefore aiding them in shutting down Earth’s scientific progress. Yet the show fast-forwards through so much plot, it ends up treating Ye and her cohort as little more than a nuisance, presenting humanity as a fairly united front instead. Through the Oxford Five, the show emphasizes how humans deserve to endure because they have built deep bonds. That’s a sweet, sentimental conclusion, but it’s not one the books ever cared to reach. What made the trilogy so stunning and atypical as a sci-fi story was the fact that Liu wasn’t interested in interrogating whether humans deserved to survive. Instead, the novels explored the danger of connection, of the way a thought, once shared, can expand into an unstoppable force—a radical, terrifying ideology or a shrewd solution to a seemingly insurmountable crisis. Knowing we are not alone in the universe shouldn’t inspire comfort, his writing posits. It should instill fear.

​​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic .

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Talking ‘Dune’: Book and Movies

The times’s critic alissa wilkinson discusses frank herbert’s classic science fiction novel and denis villeneuve’s film adaptations..

Hosted by Gilbert Cruz

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Frank Herbert’s epic novel “Dune” and its successors have been entrenched in the science fiction and fantasy canon for almost six decades, a rite of passage for proudly nerdy readers across the generations. But “Dune” is experiencing a broader cultural resurgence at the moment thanks to Denis Villeneuve’s recent film adaptations starring Timothée Chalamet . ( Part 2 is in theaters now.)

This week on the podcast, Gilbert Cruz talks to The Times’s critic Alissa Wilkinson, who covers movies, culture and religion, about Herbert’s novel, Villeneuve’s films and the enduring hold of Fremen lore on the audience’s imagination.

“There’s a couple things that I think are really unsettling in ‘Dune,’” Wilkinson says. “One is, the vision of Frank Herbert was, I believe, to basically write a book that questioned authoritarians and hero mythology genuinely, across the board. Any kind of a hero figure he is proposing will always have things and people come up alongside that hero figure that distort their influence. Even if they intend well, if they’re benevolent, there’s still all of this really awful stuff that comes along with it. So Paul is a messiah figure — we believe he wants good things for most of the book — and then he turns on a dime or it feels like he might be turning on a dime. You can never quite tell where anyone stands in this book. And I think that is unsettling, especially because so many of the other kinds of things that we watch — the superhero movies, “Star Wars,” whatever — there’s a clear-cut good and evil fight going on. Good and evil don’t really exist in ‘Dune.’”

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected] .

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