Science Fiction Books

This year's crop of sci fi award-winners encompasses sentient AI, lost species revival, and genetic mutations, with novels, graphic novels and novellas all scooping prizes. Our fantasy and sci fi editor Sylvia Bishop introduces the prize-winning page-turners that have taken this year's top spots.

The Hugo Awards are an annual celebration of fantasy and sci fi work, chosen by fans. Our fantasy editor Sylvia Bishop introduces this year’s winners, with something for everyone to escape into – from the short story winner for a busy day, to the epic series for long winter evenings.

Fans vote every year for the best of sci fi and fantasy, in both the Hugo Awards and the Nebula Awards, and the Best Novel spot in each is always one to watch. Our fantasy and sci fi editor Sylvia Bishop introduces the sci fi winners of the last decade: from titles that are now classics of the genre, to the newest writers making waves.

There are many ways to approach narrating an audiobook, says award-winning narrator Ray Porter, but whatever the narrator’s method, they must bring conviction to the fantastical tales of sci fi. He introduces his top five choices: sci fi classics and award-winning contemporary novels, read for you by the giants of sci fi narration.

Hard science fiction books build fantastical worlds underpinned by rigorous science. This constraint actually provokes originality, explains multi-award winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky. He talks us through his five favourites, and shows how every sci-fi story exploring science must also explore politics, philosophy and humanity.

Alien invasions are one of the most enduringly popular themes in sci fi. Author Seth Dickinson introduces five mind-bending novels that give a fresh take on the idea of the alien: invasions that are so other in their motives, methods, or meaning that they push us to the edges of human understanding.

Military sci fi can explore complex questions about the military as an institution, without sacrificing any of the action, says Nebula winner A.D. Sui. She introduces five of the most imaginative and exciting examples, from classics to contemporary fiction – featuring bug-aliens, mecha suits, AI, and some highly questionable regimes.

Space opera—a popular subgenre of science fiction—features louder-than-life characters, hair-raising action sequences, and spacefaring civilisations. Kate Elliott, a prolific author of sci fi and fantasy novels, recommends five space opera books that will grab you by the collar and drag you off on an intergalactic adventure.

The best sci-fi explores humanity’s anxieties and concerns and is, in some sense, about the future—but it doesn’t try to predict what’s to come. Literature professor and sci-fi writer Adam Roberts, author of The History of Science Fiction, recommends five classics of the genre.

A series gives a sci fi writer time to develop powerfully layered worlds, says award-winning author and historian Ada Palmer. She talks us through five series that make the most of this complexity, and envision worlds ranging from lunar anarchist settlements to a real-life Plato’s Republic.