This is for good reason. He believed that science fiction can be combined with any other genre in literature. Here, Asimov combines science fiction with an old-fashioned detective story. This book won both the Nebula and Hugo awards. Kivrin is a young lady who is studying past ages of humanity. She gets stuck in time at a particularly dark period and becomes an unlikely source of hope as her peers struggle to rescue her. This is a dark and unique tale of an eccentric scientist working on some unusual research.
The book takes place in the city of New Crobuzon which is built within the remains of an ancient beast. The scientist, Isaac, has an encounter with a bird-like alien that will change his life forever.
Lewis is well known for his fantasy novels featuring a certain lion named Aslan. What is less known is that he also penned some fascinating science fiction. Upon journeying to Mars, Ransom finds out that Earth has been exiled from the rest of the solar system. Red Schuhart and his friend Kirill travel into the Zone to salvage things left behind by aliens.
A robust black market exists around these alien artifacts. Four different versions of one person from alternate dimensions meet in this witty science-fiction novel. This book is a classic among feminist literature and a fascinating piece of science fiction that delves into the concept of gender roles. A woman in her 30s is able to communicate with the future. Connie can specifically connect to the year The warnings from the future have serious relevancy for today, but of course Connie is simply deemed insane by current-day society.
This story is notable for its unique and realistic characters. It is set on a vulnerable space station and during a war. Then, it creates a suspenseful story set in this well-designed world. This is another science-fiction work that deals with virtual reality. It was turned into a big-budget, special-effects extravaganza film directed by none other than Steven Spielberg. The novel tells of a utopian virtual reality known as the Oasis. This book is known for its fun inclusion of a ton of pop-culture and video-game references.
Unlike similar stories about human characters, the author wanted to tell a story from the point of view of an artificial intelligence being. Klara sits in a retail store and looks at all of the people who walk by on the street and those who come into the store with the hope that someday, one of them will choose her. As the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Ishiguro knows how to pull readers into a story and keep them guessing about what will happen next.
Klara keeps you wondering whether anyone will choose her and whether she will get the love she deserves. It might leave you questioning what love means and looking at the love in your life.
With more than pages, Klara and the Sun will keep you interested until the very end. A virus nearly wipes out an earth colony on the planet Jeep. Only a few women survive the ordeal. After generations of change and adaptation, the humans lose touch with the roots of their humanity, until some fellow Earthlings arrive on the planet. When a proud alien race has its home planet destroyed, they must learn to coexist with another race on their new, adopted world.
The task of preserving their race may come at the expense of losing their very culture and identity. There is often debate on what is the earliest work of science fiction. This book certainly has a strong case for it. Written in , this is the oldest work to make it on this list. This is a feminist masterpiece from a time when you would hardly expect such a thing.
A woman is stranded on another world and becomes its leader. She uses her new power to get rid of war and sexual discrimination. This novel is both science fiction and a police procedural. It takes the unique concept of two cities that actually occupy the same space, and it combines this with a good old murder mystery. Kaye Lang is a biologist with a disturbing theory. She believes that long-gone diseases are coded into human DNA.
Worse still is that they could potentially be brought back into the world to reek havoc on the human population. When a virus hunter discovers a new strain, she fears that her theory has become a reality. Time, space and physics are no longer making any sense after a mysterious disaster plagues the town of Bellona. Two moons appear in the sky, buildings are damaged only to reappear intact and time is no longer consistent.
This book contains 12 short stories that revolve around one central theme. In this sci-fi world, the human race has turned into the Human Galactic Empire. Throughout a hundred millennia, humans used four pillars of science to spread throughout the cosmos. However, the fifth science ended the flourishes empire for good! Every story is unique. However, they all reflect the dangers and pitfalls of human ambition. This novel from the creator of Tarzan is one in a whole series about the hero named John Carter.
Carter is a Civil War-era soldier who finds himself on Mars. This novel is like a mix of a Sherlock Holmes mystery within a science-fiction setting. It features one of the bets twist ending on this list of books. Mike Erikson has unique gifts and is asked to travel across country to investigate a device discovered by DARPA scientists that can fold dimensions. This is a science-fiction thriller and detective story rolled into one. Shannon must come to terms with her past as she searches for a missing girl in this tale of time travel, mystery and military intrigue.
Charles Yu weaves a science-fiction story that explores the father and son relationship. It also deals with the themes of life, linear time, human memories and how we create an identity for ourselves.
Kady awakes one morning with nothing on her mind besides her relationship with Ezra. That same day, the earth is invaded by aliens. This book deals with war, large corporations and how they often profit from those wars with little thought about the consequences to the little guy caught in the middle. Detective stories and mysteries keep popping up in this list of science fiction. This is yet another one that brilliantly blends the two genres. In a world preparing for an near-future asteroid impact on earth, a detective must work to solve a murder mystery.
The death has been officially ruled as a suicide, but the detective suspects foul play. Part of the old United States is now a militaristic republic, perpetually at war. June is a young genius from an elite, wealthy family. She is being trained for military service in the republic. Her world is changed forever when she runs into Day, a young criminal who was born into poverty. This is someone who looks at trends in politics, culture and especially technology.
They then try to predict what the future may hold. To some degree, most science-fiction authors do this. This is a cautionary tale about the dependence people have on technology, especially being connected to the internet. In a future South Africa, a teacher realizes something is wrong with the kids she knows. They seem more caught up than usual with their online lives. In the year , an Commonwealth is developed to connect multiple worlds.
They span light years and are all connected via wormholes. When a distant star mysteriously vanishes, a ship is sent out to investigate the anomaly. Renata Ghali travels deep into the stars in search of a planet that is free of war and poverty.
The planet was seen in a vision by Lee Suh-Mi. It may even hold the answers to the origin of earth and life on our planet. This novel deals with the idea of keeping secrets and the consequences that can stem from it.
Aliens discover an enormous object that is dubbed the artifact. Everyone is apprehensive about encountering the race that could have built such a massive, technological wonder.
Some has called it a science fiction tale, and it certainly contains elements of scientific and rational however effed up, conceited and downright inhuman salvation. I disagree, simply because it is a deranged contemporary commentary, but at least it is a fantastic tale fulfilling every list element. The Road does not. Besides, defining a genre by ticking boxes is damned hard. The Road does not, for my part, tick any science fiction receptors. Jan 05, PM. Espen wrote: "I'd say it is more of a social commentary on today, or perhaps the zombieinfested, paranoid 70s.
It would be watering down the definition of science fiction if every book that is conceivably abou I think there is a danger in narrowing the definition of the genre too much. Almost all sci-fi uses the story as a platform to comment on contemporary issues. Otherwise, it would have difficulty achieving relevance. While the cause of the apocalypse is not clearly identified in 'The Road', McCarthy does a brilliant job commenting on a range of social and environmental issues that are certainly relevant to modern readers, and sets it in a plausible and possible future.
Definitely sci-fi. Don't forget, 'science' also includes the social sciences. As you quite rightly point out, Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged' is a bit debatable as sci-fi. Right wing capitalists who don't give a stuff for humanity go on strike in order to preserve their God-given right to make money without contributing constructively to society.
Her novella 'Anthem', on the other hand, fairly clearly depicts a dystopian sci-fi future. Basically the same premise as Shrugged, but with a lot more sci-fi devices. Rand's imagined future - at least in her eyes - was also plausible and possible. It all comes back to that word 'science'. Whether it involves endangering the planet with political ideology, nuclear weapons, climate change Jan 08, PM. Espen: 1. I was unaware The Road related to the 70's in any way.
How did you figure that out? Everyone else I've talked to about the book's setting thought it was focused on the future rather than an alternate timeline. Any story that is about science fiction would be incredibly boring and no one would be likely to vote for it to be on the list.
The Road, like most good novels I don't personally find it to be great, just somewhat good , is about people. You seem to be a bit confused about what science is. We know that bombs for example can be made and used, therefore the setting and events of The Road are possible.
That's what makes it easy to call it science fiction. Since we have not seen aliens yet, they're pushing science fiction a bit further, though they still count as being elements of science fiction because they might exist.
Aliens are certainly not needed for science fiction to work. Claiming that they're essential or even something to look for to determine if a story is sci-fi is a very unusual idea. Feb 07, PM. I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but it seems unfair to list, for example, The Foundation Trilogy and each of the Foundation books separately. I would think that would split the vote, and lower all 4 choices down the list. Feb 11, AM. Dtigwell wrote: "I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but it seems unfair to list, for example, The Foundation Trilogy and each of the Foundation books separately.
I would think that would split the vote, and If I remove the trilogy, people will just keep adding it. Any ideas? Feb 26, AM. Great list. Everything in the top is unarguably science fiction with for me the weakest case being Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. I am uncomfortable confusing all "having fun with reality" as being true science fiction just because a small plot device in the novel is jokingly premised on some ability we don't currently possess.
But then Orwell's Animal Farm won a Hugo, and there's no possible argument to my mind for Animal Farm being science fiction. I think you may have a difficult case to make for classifying all alternate history as not science fiction.
The work that really tests that contention to my mind is H. Beam Piper's Paratime series, which is unquestionably science fiction as well as alternate history. The reason people in Piper's Paratime series are able to move between Alternate Earths is because of technology we don't have on our Level 4 world.
How history is alternate is less important in most of the works making up this series than the actual moving through dimensions with scientifically created apparati and the ability to do so. Also, Piper is dead serious in his writing style - no Vonnegut playfulness - which makes his work seem more inarguably science fiction.
On double listing Asimov's work, you could simply say at the beginning of the list "Please do not include fantasy, alternate history, entire series list the individual works instead or other speculative fiction genres Then, yeah, you will still no doubt have to constantly remove it.
Mar 25, PM. Hi All. Some good points made here, but any list that allows a high level of interactivity is going to have its quality control issues. For mine, this is the best of its type that I have found. People are free to nominate a book for inclusion, but at the end of the day I decide whether it makes it or not. Again, it's a quality control thing where I exercise my editorial prerogative.
As for some specific comments above, Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle is classic sci-fi satire and more than deserves a spot on the list. Vonnegut, however, always claimed his books were not sci-fi. Six of one, half-dozen of another. Alternate history novels might be sci-fi, but are not necessarily so by definition. There needs to be some sort of science fictional element time travel; parallel universe; etc.
May 15, PM. From what I can make out of the summary, it's not science fiction. I confess the summary is rather confusing, so i could be wrong. Summaries sound like stone age fiction and fantasy. Supernatural thriller, from the sound of it I'm sure there's more, but I got tired of looking for them.
Nov 16, PM. Just including a secondary character who might be immortal or a time traveller does not make the novels anything more than historical fiction. Disappointed to see negative comments about Enders Game. Movie was quite true to the book. Nov 22, PM. Blue: any book with a time traveler in it is either science fiction or fantasy, though it can also be historical fiction at the same time. Dec 03, PM. Michael wrote: "Blue: any book with a time traveler in it is either science fiction or fantasy, though it can also be historical fiction at the same time.
My understanding reading the books was that there was one minor character not central to the story lines who doesn't age. Exactly why is not stated. So, if you want to 'assume' a time traveller then it 'could' be SF. Or is he just an immortal supernatural - not SF? But it is very vague. What do others think?
Dec 04, AM. Well I must say I am greatly surprised by this list; the most recently published book in the top 10 is from and the vast majority that round out the ton seem to be from the 70s and earlier. And I'm not asking this to be inflammatory in any way, I'm genuinely curious to get peoples' opinions on this point. Also, to hark back to previous comments made in regards to whether or not The Road should be considered SF; personally I would have to argue that it's not, for the following reason: In the description for this list, Science Fiction is described thus I would think it's fairly safe to say that none of the final four points apply to The Road, so this really only leaves us with "future settings" with the understanding that these are not the only criteria that constitute a sci-fi story and to my recollection, there is nothing in the story that actually places it as a future setting.
The "disaster" that occurred could just as easily have happened in the 70s or 80s as in the future and this would place the narrative of the story in the past, which to my mind would make it more of an alternate history than sci-fi.
And of course, all this is just conjecture and supposition anyway; there is no definitive definition that fits all cases where genre is concerned and there will always be stories that don't fit neatly into any one or another, but our minds just love to categorise and pigeon-hole and say that this is like that, and, well, sometimes it's just fun to have a good old "it is or it isn't" discussion about a book. And it's really just my rationalisation anyway, ultimately, The Road just doesn't feel like science fiction in my opinion.
And while we're on the subject, I'd have to argue that The Stand doesn't qualify as sci-fi for the same reasons. The Road and The Stand are examples of post-apocalyptic fiction. Some people would like to say of genres that all post-apocalyptic fiction is sci-fi while all alternative history is not. It's neat, clean, and cut and dry to make such assertions. Unfortunately, just as in the world, the shades of gray confound us.
I have already pointed out how the wonderful Paratime series by H. Beam Piper should clearly be considered sci-fi even though it's also alternate history. Alternate history riders in Paratime use a device called the Ghaldron-Hesthor field generator to traverse realities. It can't get much more sci-fi than that!
I'm sure there are other alternate history works that are science fiction like this. You have made a case that I agree with for The Road and The Stand, two post-apocalyptic novels that would automatically be classified as sci-fi, to not be considered as such. I would add Matheson's I Am Legend to this list of two that should not be classified as science fiction for similar reasons. I see no evidence of The Road as possibly taking place in the s. I assumed throughout my reading simply that it took place in the near future.
Your correct assertion that nothing in the novel contradicts that it could have taken place in the s does support not classifying The Road as sci-fi. There's no enhanced technology referred to and no developments from current society that occur except for a nuclear bomb having probably gone off for no revealed reason. A nuclear bomb having gone off is insufficient reason to my mind for classifying The Road as science fiction.
Then, there's the really difficult grays between fantasy and sci-fi, such as Andre Norton's Witch World series, just to name one that quickly comes to my mind. Science fiction? Well, some extra-terrestrial beings appear to have constructed the gates leading into that world.
However, after that, magic and fantasy appear to dominate how both Estcarp and the High Hallack continents work, yet not always exclusively so.
Proper classification here and, I am sure, with many other works I have not read remains elusive. Dan and Marcus: That's a good argument against The Road as science fiction, but not enough to disqualify it from the list. It may or may not be science fiction, but a post-apocalyptic world in which bombs have destroyed civilization could easily be argued to be something that hasn't happened yet and would only happen in the future.
If so, it would be science fiction for two reasons: 1. When science is applied in a new way wiping out a civilization with bombs , that's the definition of science fiction. When a story takes place in the future and is based on an imagined setting for what the future would be like, that is also science fiction. That's a long-accepted way of determining such.
Marcus, you are misunderstanding the description for this list. Unfortunately, it is a home that is trying to drive her out — her cousin is hostile and there are ghouls in the halls. After stumbling through a seam in a shadow that leads her to a place where the ghouls are fully-formed and a dark presence reigns, Olivia must decide if she will protect her world from the Master of the House or join him. From the New York Times bestselling author of the Interdependency trilogy comes a brand new standalone novel.
Jamie Gray is a delivery driver in the middle of the COVID pandemic when a chance delivery connects him to an old acquaintance with a wild job — protecting monster dinosaurs called Kaiju in an alternate dimension.
The author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel is back with another human-centered science fiction novel — this time telling the story of a plague, interwoven through the lives of several characters, set across time and space. Andrew is an exile, traveling the Atlantic on a steamship. Olive Llewllyn is traveling through Earth on a book tour, though she is from the second moon colony, to promote her best-selling pandemic novel.
And a detective in Night City, Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, is investigating the North American wilderness, where he finds mysteries that might upend their entire way of life. Sea captain Xiala finds herself allied with the Prince of Knives while the now living avatars Serapio and Naranpa struggle for free will within their new identities.
A new order is rising and all must learn to navigate a world with living legends. If you would rather watch a princess kill a prince than marry one, T. But of course, building a dog of bones and sewing a cloak of nettles is only the beginning. With a cast of strange companions she meets along the way — a reluctant fairy godmother, a grave witch, and her familiar, a disgraced knight — Marra must find the courage to overthrow the crown and save her sister.
Having enthralled young adult readers for decades, Holly Black makes the much anticipated leap to adult dark fantasy with Book of Night. Formerly a magical thief and lock-pick, Charlie is a dive bartender hoping to keep herself and her sister Posey out of trouble. The planet-killing Architects have returned — threatening life across the galaxy, and throwing human colonies into disarray. That included paper and printing costs. Publishers found that they needed to increase the prices of their books to compensate.
But according to grocery store logic if you want to charge more for a product then it has to weigh more. And there was also this massively big book that came out in paperback, a little story about elves and stuff, called The Lord of the Rings.
At , words it was a massive book that had to be broken down into three parts. But, oddly enough, that little book sold an amazing number of copies. So, given that consumers would buy longer books and pay more for them if they were thicker, well, the writing was on the wall and there was a whole lot of it. At the same time distribution channels dried up. The wire racks were gone.
Stop sending us midlist books, the big bookstores told the publishers. Only send us bestsellers. I know, I know, I read those stories all the time too, about how a self published author sold a million copies of his book and got rich. I also see lots of stories on the news about the guys who won big on the lottery, or got struck by lightning. The stage is feet high and the approach to it slopes up.
The headliners… say, Stephen King, J. Rowling, James Patterson and Neil Gaiman… are feet in the air. Occasionally some author with a toothy grin and the right connections blows past you. So what does that mean for you and your book? Well, like I said, no one wants to read your crappy book.
But… you can change that. Or at least make it more likely that someone will want to read it. Focus on those around you. Be interested in their work. Talk to them. Make friends. Talk about your books if others are interested. What do you like? Comic books? Stamp collecting? Cookie recipes. Talk about that. Be genuine. Be present.
Have a website. Have a Twitter feed. Have a Facebook page. Talk about things you are interested in. People will find you. If this seems like a waste of time, just remember that those writers up there near the stage? So is Steve, J. K, James and Neil. People like them. They like them and they read their books.
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