Science Fiction Books

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.

If you're looking for audiobooks that will make a good book even better, AudioFile magazine's best of the year lists are a great place to start. Here's their list of best audiobooks for 2025 in the science fiction and fantasy genres—from retellings of mythical tales to the hell of dark academia.

“The best science fiction is heavy on science and light on fiction,” Professor Chris Mason told us in his interview on science fiction and space travel. A geneticist and computational biologist at Cornell, he is just one of several scientists who have recommended the best sci-fi books on our site. Below, we've collected all our sci-fi books recommended by scientists—good choices for readers who love their fiction scientific.

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.

Sci fi writers have busy, flexible minds and give us a lot to enjoy beyond their famous novels, says our fantasy and sci fi editor Sylvia Bishop. Here, she recommends five of her favourite lesser-known works by big names: from novels to short form, and from the wonders of science to glorious nonsense.

'Afrofuturism' is a term that has come to describe books about the Black experience through a speculative lens. We asked Eugen Bacon, the award-winning fantasy author and member of the Sauúti Collective—who, together, have created a shared fictional universe—to recommend five key Afrofuturist books.

Ursula Le Guin's most groundbreaking books are considered landmark texts in speculative fiction, exploring themes of colonisation, gender, nationalism and environmentalism through allegorical means. Here, the science fiction scholar Sherryl Vint selects five of the best books by Ursula Le Guin and examines her legacy as one of the great American writers.

We look to the stars and imagine a new home for humanity, an escape from the troubles that plague us here on Earth, but as astrophysicist Erika Nesvold points out, many of our problems will join us on our voyage. Here, she selects five science fiction books that illuminate the challenges and possible conflicts we’ll face if we head for this new frontier.