Top Ten sci fi Novels
Science fiction has pretty much exactly this problem--a history of at least a century, arguably two if you're in the "Frankenstein was the first science fiction novel" camp. A multitude of subgenres.
Nineteen Eighty-Four, often published as 1984, is a dystopian novel published in 1949 by English author George Orwell. The novel is set in the year 1984 when most of the world population have become victims of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation.
Dune is a 1965 science fiction novel by American author Frank Herbert, originally published as two separate serials in Analog magazine. It tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for the Hugo Award in 1966, and it won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel.
Neuromancer is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It is one of the best-known works in the cyberpunk genre and the first novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy.
Ender's Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled mankind after two conflicts with the "buggers", an insectoid alien species. In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, children, including the novel's protagonist, Ender Wiggin, are trained from a very young age through increasingly difficult games including some in zero gravity, where Ender's tactical genius is revealed.
The Left Hand of Darkness is a science fiction novel by U.S. writer Ursula K. Le Guin, published in 1969. The novel became immensely popular and established Le Guin's status as a major author of science fiction.
In that book, the main character goes back in time when he gets hit on the head, and he goes forward in time when Merlin casts a spell on him.) What makes Wells's book science fiction is less the "time" part and more the "machine" part.
Fahrenheit 451 fits this definition of science fiction quite well: for example, television screens the size of a wall of a house, while not available when Bradbury wrote the book, are physically possible, and we have come much closer to having them in our own society.
Brave New World is a dystopian novel that participates in a tradition of speculative fiction called soft or social science fiction. Typically set far in the future, science fiction draws on current science and technology, but goes further than what is actually possible.
The Forever War (1974) is a military science fiction novel by American author Joe Haldeman, telling the contemplative story of soldiers fighting an interstellar war between Man and the Taurans. It won the Nebula Award in 1975, and the Hugo and the Locus awards in 1976.
Hyperion is a Hugo Award-winning 1989 science fiction novel by American writer Dan Simmons. It is the first book of his Hyperion Cantos. The plot of the novel features multiple time-lines and characters.
Starship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by U.S. writer Robert A. Heinlein. Written in a few weeks in reaction to the U.S. suspending nuclear tests, the story was first published as a two-part serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction as Starship Soldier, and published as a book by G. P. Putnam's Sons in December 1959.
Neal Stephenson’s bonafides as a sci-fi and speculative fiction author are well-established, and while it’s hard to pick his best work, “Snow Crash” stands as the most obvious “Ready Player One” influencer, though it packs its own vivid vision of the future.
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians.
Ringworld is a 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. Niven later added four sequels and four prequels.
Frankenstein as a Science Fiction Mary Shelley's Frankenstein can be read from two main levels; as a science fiction and as human nature. The whole novel moves around the invention of a scientist and the result of it. Dangerous aspect of experience in the scientific field is the subject matter of the novel.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (retitled Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in some later printings) is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1968.
If The Martian Chronicles can be said to be Bradbury’s vision of the future, then it is clearly one rooted in our history, and it clearly parts ways with the more optimistic wing of the science-fiction department. Unlike the more hopeful sci-fi scribes (Jules Verne, for example), Bradbury was a pessimist.
After all, the refugee's story is still a story of the war. Now, the biggest genre of this novel is still science fiction – after all, the enemy army is from Mars – but we can see how this story does use war as central issue.
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science-fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a lunar colony's revolt against rule from Earth. The novel expresses and discusses libertarian ideals.
Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five is generally classified as science fiction and contains some science-fictional elements: The main character, Billy Pilgrim, becomes "unstuck in time" and experiences large parts of his life out of order.
A Canticle for Leibowitz is a bona fide sci-fi classic, you'd be hard pressed to find a list of “all-time great sci-fi novels” without it. I remember being given a copy of this book in my teens when I was starting to become a serious sci-fi fan.
The Handmaid's Tale won the 1985 Governor General's Award and the first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987; it was also nominated for the 1986 Nebula Award, the 1986 Booker Prize, and the 1987 Prometheus Award. The book has been adapted into a 1990 film, a 2000 opera, a television series, and other media.
Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion[1] of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia under indirect alien rule, at the cost of human identity and culture.
The novel is essentially the tale of two worlds: Urras and the colonized nearby moon, Annares, the latter of which was a gift to its once native revolutionaries to tame a threat of rebellion. The nations and societies of Urras are not unlike our own: the excess materialism, the belief in competition, the rabid hunger for wealth and resources, the rigidly structured societies under all powerful autocrats, oligarchs.
The Stars My Destination has 35,236 ratings and 2,157 reviews. Bill said: This is my favorite classic science fiction novel. It is rich in incident, amb...
Rendezvous with Rama is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1973. Set in the 2130s, the story involves a 50-kilometre (31 mi) cylindrical alien starship that enters the Solar System.
Ancillary Justice is the only novel ever to win the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards. And you know what? It's a really good book.
Solaris is a 1961 philosophical science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. The book centers upon the themes of the nature of human memory, experience and the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species.
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Old Man's War is a military science fiction and debut novel by John Scalzi published in 2005. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2006. Old Man's War is the first novel in Scalzi's Old Man's War series.
Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction short story and subsequent novel written by Daniel Keyes. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: A Tour of the Underwater World (French: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers: Tour du monde sous-marin, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: A Tour of the Underwater World") is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870.
A Fire Upon the Deep: Fascinating aliens but clunky plot and characters Originally posted at Fantasy Literature A Fire Upon the Deep was the big breakout novel from Vernor Vinge, winner of the 1993 Hugo Award and nominated for the Nebula.
Quick show of hands: how many science fiction plays have you seen? This one introduced the word “robot” to the English language and science fiction in general. R.U.R. quickly became famous and by 1923, it had been translated into thirty languages.
The Mote in God's Eye is a science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first published in 1974. The story is set in the distant future of Pournelle's CoDominium universe, and charts the first contact between humanity and an alien species.
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence. The Diamond Age was first published in 1995 by Bantam Books, as a Bantam Spectra hardcover edition.
The Martian is a 2011 science fiction novel written by Andy Weir. It was his debut novel under his own name. It was originally self-published in 2011; Crown Publishing purchased the rights and re-released it in 2014. The story follows an American astronaut, Mark Watney, as he becomes stranded alone on Mars in the year 2035 and must improvise in order to survive. The Martian, a film adaptation directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon, was released in October 2015.
Roadside Picnic is a science fiction novel written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in 1971. By 1998, 38 editions of the novel were published in 20 countries. The novel was first translated to English by Antonina W. Bouis. The preface to the first American edition of the novel was written by Theodore Sturgeon. The film Stalker, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, is loosely based on the novel, with a screenplay written by the Strugatsky brothers.
The Mars trilogy is a series of award-winning science fiction novels by Kim Stanley Robinson that chronicles the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars through the intensely personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters spanning almost two centuries.
The Three-Body Problem (Chinese: 三体; literally: "Three-Body") is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. It is the first novel of the Remembrance of Earth's Past (Chinese: 地球往事) trilogy, but Chinese readers generally refer to the whole series by the title of this first novel.
The Foundation series is a science fiction book series written by American author Isaac Asimov. For nearly thirty years, the series was a trilogy: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation.
Neal Stephenson’s bonafides as a sci-fi and speculative fiction author are well-established, and while it’s hard to pick his best work, “Snow Crash” stands as the most obvious “Ready Player One” influencer, though it packs its own vivid vision of the future.
Dhalgren is a science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany. It features an extended trip to and through Bellona, a fictional city in the American Midwest cut off from the rest of the world by some unknown catastrophe.
Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for science fiction and ... Possible anomaly in Cryptonomicon. ... later in the book, ...
Ubik (/ ˈ juː b ɪ k / YOO-bik) is a 1969 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It is one of Dick's most acclaimed novels. In 2009, it was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest novels since 1923.
Lord of Light (1967) is a science fantasy novel by American author Roger Zelazny. It was awarded the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and nominated for a Nebula Award in the same category. Two chapters from the novel were published as novelettes in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - "Dawn" in April 1967, and "Death and the Executioner" in June 1967.
The original title of this paper was “Kurt Vonnegut‟s Novel Cat’s Cradle: “Science Fiction, Thought, and Ethics.” Perhaps it would be better to say “Science‟s Fiction.” In a sense science is fiction. Thomas Kuhn‟s The Stucture of Scientific Revolution was not the first work to point this out.
Beyond creating this new type of heroine, A Wrinkle in Time, along with Norton Juster’s 1961 book The Phantom Tollbooth, changed science fiction itself, opening “the American juvenile tradition to the literature of ‘What if?’ as a rewarding and honorable alternative to realism in storytelling,” writes Marcus.
The Demolished Man is a science fiction novel by American writer Alfred Bester, which was the first Hugo Award winner in 1953. An example of inverted detective story, it was first serialized in three parts, beginning with the January 1952 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction, followed by publication of the novel in 1953.
Anathem is an astonishing, enormous, intimidating, and intensely enjoyable book. However, it is also the most "science fiction-y" of any book he's written so far, and that may turn some people off.