• The Best Science Fiction Books of 2025 - Private Rites by Julia Armfield
  • The Best Science Fiction Books of 2025 - The Ministry of Time: A Novel by Kaliane Bradley
  • The Best Science Fiction Books of 2025 - Extremophile by Ian Green
  • The Best Science Fiction Books of 2025 - Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
  • The Best Science Fiction Books of 2025 - Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
  • The Best Science Fiction Books of 2025 - Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf

The Best Science Fiction Books of 2025, recommended by Andrew M. Butler

The Arthur C Clarke award highlights six outstanding science fiction books every year. The judges look for books that reward re-reading and make them think, says chair of judges Andrew M. Butler. He introduces this year’s shortlist, taking in everything from time travel to heist novels: books that provoke questions, confront crises, and make us laugh.

  • The Best Science Fiction: The 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - Chain Gang All Stars: A Novel by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
  • The Best Science Fiction: The 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
  • The Best Science Fiction: The 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
  • The Best Science Fiction: The 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
  • The Best Science Fiction: The 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
  • The Best Science Fiction: The 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - Corey Fah Does Social Mobility: A Novel by Isabel Waidner

The Best Science Fiction: The 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist, recommended by Andrew M. Butler

Every year, the judges for the Arthur C. Clarke Award highlight the best of the latest batch of science fiction books. In 2024, the six-strong shortlist includes an exploration of octopus intelligence, a queer space opera, and a dystopian novel hailed as the new Hunger Games. Andrew M. Butler, academic and chair of the judges, talks us through the finalists for the title of sci fi novel of the year.  See all our best science fiction books.

  • The Best Science Fiction of 2023: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - Venomous Lumpsucker: A Novel by Ned Beauman
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2023: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2023: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2023: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - The Anomaly by Hervé le Tellier, translated by Adriana Hunter
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2023: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - The Coral Bones by E.J. Swift
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2023: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - Metronome by Tom Watson

The Best Science Fiction of 2023: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist, recommended by Tom Hunter

Every year, the judges of the Arthur C Clarke Award select the best sci-fi novels of the previous twelve months. We asked prize director Tom Hunter to talk us through the six science fiction books that made the 2023 shortlist—including a space opera romance and a high-concept action thriller that has already won the most prestigious award in Francophone literature. See our list of The Best Science Fiction of 2024

  • The Best Science Fiction of 2022: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - Deep Wheel Orcadia: A Novel by Harry Josephine Giles
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2022: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - Klara and the Sun: A Novel by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2022: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2022: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - A River Called Time by Courttia Newland
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2022: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - Wergen: The Alien Love War by Mercurio D Rivera
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2022: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist - Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley

The Best Science Fiction of 2022: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist, recommended by Andrew M. Butler

Every year, the judges for the Arthur C. Clarke Award select the best of the latest batch of new scifi books. In 2022, the science fiction award’s shortlist includes new work from Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro, a novel-in-verse from the Scottish writer Harry Josephine Giles, and a new title in Arkady Martine’s beloved Teixcalaan series. Andrew M. Butler, academic and chair of the judges, talks us through the finalists.

  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - The Infinite by Patience Agbabi
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - Edge of Heaven by R B Kelly
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
  • The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist - Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu

The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist, recommended by Tom Hunter

Every year, the director of the Arthur C Clarke Award talks us through their six book shortlist. The 2021 crop of the best science fiction books features a “deliciously pulpy” space opera, a time travel story for young adults, and a cacophonous tale of talking animals. What they all have in common is that they are by debut authors, says Tom Hunter: they represent a new generation of sci fi writing.