If you’re on this site, you’re probably a nerd, which means you probably like science fiction. Dating at least back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and possibly even earlier, science fiction is a very popular genre of literature. There’s something compelling about the visions of the future that expand and extend elements of our world to create fantastical, but still theoretically possible, scenarios.
The genre has countless amazing stories to tell, from fascinating what-ifs that speculate on humanity’s future advancements to horrific if-this-goes-ons that warn us about what may lie at the end of the paths we’re taking. We’re here to point you toward some of the best examples of this genre and showcase some of the best science fiction stories (or series, where applicable) out there.
Updated July 29, 2025, by Davis Collins:Surprisingly enough, science fiction has not gotten any less popular in the handful of months since this list was published. There are more sci-fi books coming out every day, some of which will go down in history as classics akin to the giants presented here. We’ve come back to this list to add more amazing stories to it.
Tuf Voyaging
A fun and diverse collection
Written by George R R Martin, author of the Song of Ice and Fire series on which Game of Thrones was based, this collection of short stories chronicles the adventures of Havilund Tuf, an ordinary man in possession of an astounding spaceship.
Not enough people know that George R.R. Martin, the author of the Song of Ice and Fire series on which Game of Thrones was based, started his career as a science fiction writer, but he did.He wrote dozens of sci-fi stories, including several starring Havilund Tuf, a man in possession of an extremely powerful ship that allows him to shape life and genes as if they were clay.
This book collects the previously published Tuf series, and adds some more to give the lot of them a coherent narrative. One of these new stories, the last one, includes one of the best endings in the history of fiction.
Red Rising
A well-fleshed-out dystopia
A modern classic, this sci-fi novel follows a lower-class miner on a dystopian Mars as he infiltrates the upper classes of his society in the form of an elite academy.
Red Rising is the beginning of an epic and still-ongoing dystopian sci-fi series about resistance, oppression, and intrigue. On a futuristic version of Mars where society is separated into a rigid caste hierarchy, this novel follows the story of a lower-class “red” laborer as he infiltrates upper-class “gold” society on behalf of a resistance movement.
This novel is full of twists and turns, which makes it an incredibly engaging read. The protagonist’s struggle is an easy one to become absorbed in, and the secrets he’s keeping from everyone are a constant source of tension.
An Unkindness of Ghosts
How did humanity get here?
Taking place on a giant spaceship with an entire society’s worth of inhabitants, An Unkindness of Ghosts depicts a more viscerally realistic color-based dystopia, and makes that setting the backdrop to an intriguing mystery.
This satirical science-fiction dystopia concerns itself with another color-based caste system, and one which is significantly more grounded in the real world. Mind you, it’s still in the far-future, but the racial oppression of this world is reminiscent of real history.
This novel is an excellent exploration of such a society, and of the complicated problems that those living in them find themselves in. It really gets how complacency, safety, and lesser evils tempt and, sometimes, force people to accept a corrupt system. The novel also does a great job exploring how the legacy of the past affects the present.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
The giant whose shoulders we stand on
Arguably the first science fiction book ever written, Frankenstein tells the story of a scientist who sought to create new life from an assemblage of parts taken from different corpses. This goes as badly as you are imagining.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is an absolute treasure, fully deserving of its classic status. It is probably the first science fiction novel ever written. We say “probably” because there are arguments to be made that a few older works count as sci-fi, but even if they do, it was Frankenstein that brought the genre into mainstream success for the first time.
There are dated aspects to this book. For those of us who have seen countless similar tales of hubris, Dr. Frankenstein’s genre-blindness can be a bit comical, but that isn’t Shelley’s fault. Her work was simply so influential as to retroactively render aspects of it clichéd. This visionary work laid the groundwork for the many amazing stories that would follow it, leaving a legacy that all of them benefit from.
Dune
A classic
The longest single book on this list, and one of the oldest, Dune is another classic work of science fiction that laid the foundations for the tone of many space adventures that would come after it.
Duneis one of the most beloved science fiction works of all time. It has been adapted into multiple other mediums, from films toboard games. This epic story of noble houses and desolate planets explores themes of religion, power, heroism, and destiny over the course of hundreds of pages of compelling storytelling. With some of the most iconic heroes and villains in the genre, Dune’s shadow hangs over the science fiction genre like that of a starship on the desert sands and holds a status as titanic as any sandworm.
Traces of this book can be found as far afield as the mysticism of Star Wars, the bleak authoritarianism of Warhammer 40,000, and the psionic strangeness that pervades many works of science fiction that otherwise eschew the supernatural. Much of what the other books on this list have was given to them by Dune.
Brave New World
Founder of a fantastic subgenre
The first of many dystopias on this list, Brave New World is a harrowing and deeply prescient cautionary table on what psychiatric and mass-production technology could do to society, and a disturbing meditation on the nature of meaning, pleasure, prosperity, and freedom.
Like Dune, Brave New World is a fantastically influential entry in its subgenre. The dystopia as we know it arguably didn’t exist before Brave New World. This excellent novel paints a picture of a grim future, as seen from the early twentieth century, when burgeoning mass manufacturing, escalating convenience, and empty pleasure-seeking have taken over all of humanity, leaving nothing left that means or thinks or fulfills.
The most harrowing thing about this novel is how alluring its world can be. Don’t get us wrong, it’s utterly repulsive, and many aspects of it are terribly cruel, but there’s a sick kind of logic to it that makes it harder to argue with than other dystopias. The true horror of the Brave New World is how easy it is to go along with, both for its characters and for our society.
The Hunger Games 4-Book Paperback Box Set
Incredibly well-crafted
Thoughtful and action-packed, the Hunger Games trilogy’s overexposure during the height of its popularity led it to be extremely underrated. Far from the mindless blockbuster many would paint it as, this book holds a disturbing mirror to our own global society and the injustices it’s built on.
“Oh, The Hunger Games,” you’re thinking. That’s right. We can read your mind through your computer. We’ve always had this power. “That’s the one that kicked off the dystopia fad about a decade ago, right? That got old.”
And yes, The Hunger Games did do that, and yes, that fad did get old, but that’s not this trilogy’s fault, and we shouldn’t let the swarm of knock-offs that followed them spoil these very entertaining and very thoughtful books. The world of the Hunger Games is far more like our own than we’d like to admit, with a global community starkly divided into wealthy and poor regions, controlled by an imperialistic power to whom life has no value and war is a spectacle to be consumed. Given its mainstream success, it’s genuinely shocking how piercing and transgressive this book’s commentary is.
The Handmaid’s Tale
An exploration of the political economy of reproduction
Possibly the greatest dystopian novel ever written, this book, which many would mistake for a left-wing partisan screed, is in reality an extremely thoughtful meditation on the political nature of bodies and the nature and consequences of both authority and freedom.
Whether the Handmaid’s Tale is even a science fiction novel has been debated. Obviously, we think it is one, or it wouldn’t be on this list. It takes place in the future (relative to when it was written), and depicts a world half-ruined by advanced technology and environmental destruction. Indeed, the core of this book is about the human response to that devastation, on both a personal and political level. It explores how fundamental elements of human biology incentivize all societies to value the usefulness of a person over their moral worth.
Though it does critique the conservative America it depicts, it’s just as critical of the liberal one that preceded it, and the failings that caused that society to degenerate into Gilead, whose fictional brand of Christianity is a warped and heretical charade transparently designed to serve those rulers. Everything about this novel is deeply human and nuanced. Many of life’s darkest truths are contained within these pages, and there are far more questions here than answers.
Tech Mage (The Magitech Chronicles Book 1)
Simply glorious
This sci-fi fantasy title is the beginning of a seven-part epic about space marines fighting dragons with a seamless combination of magic and technology. This book manages to be tons of fun while still taking itself as seriously as it needs to be compelling.
Most of the works on this list are somber and cerebral—dystopias and cautionary tales that move and warn and sadden us. However, let’s not forget that sci-fi can be fun. It can be lighthearted and adventurous. If that’s the kind of book you’re looking for, you’re in for a treat with this series.
Tech Mage is the first book of the Magitech Chronicles, a seven-part series of science fiction fantasy books where all the traditional trappings ofhigh fantasyand space opera coexist seamlessly. In these books, war mages wear spellarmor and fire spellrifles as they fight for control of spellships using a well-crafted magic system. They fight dragons alongside theirelfshayan andhalflingdrifter comrades.
This book takes two usually-contrasting elements and mixes them together so well that they feel like they’ve always belonged that way. It’s less cerebral than the other books on this list. Mind you, it’s not stupid. It explores interesting ideas, but its primary focus is simply on being glorious, and that’s exactly what it is. If you want to go on a fantastical sci-fi adventure, this book is for you.
The Left Hand of Darkness
One of the best relationships between two characters ever to be written
Written by legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin, the Left Hand of Darkness is a dense and thoughtful meditation on the relationship between the self and the other and what happens when disparate things come into contact.
Ursula K. Le Guin was a literary giant who cranked out timeless classic after timeless classic throughout her entire career. This list could reasonably be made solely out of her works, but, in the name of diversity, we’re just going to highlight one of her strongest tales.
The Left Hand of Darkness is about an ambassador to a strange planet, where everything from society and culture to basic human biology function differently. The novel exists to explore both how those differences stand in the way of harmony and how harmony is eventually achieved despite them. This book’s two leads are among the most well-drawn characters in the history of fiction, and their dynamic is not only incredibly compelling, but inspirational. We could all stand to learn from the way they overcome their differences and, in so doing, bridge the gap between their peoples.
Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents Boxed Set
Not just on this list, either. They’re the best novels ever.
This duology of futuristic tales blurs the line between dystopia and post-apocalypse. In its portrait of the horrid future, it explores extremely meaningful questions about society and humanity while telling a story that, at different times, evokes radiant joy and overpowering despair.
We saved the best for last. The two parts of the Earthseed Duology, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, are the greatest novels ever written, bar none. Blurring the line between the post-apocalyptic and the dystopian, these novels depict a bleak future which has proven shockingly prescient in the decades since. It explores an enormous number of ideas. Religion, change, power, morality, empathy, disability, gender, race, and society.
Its dystopian world could’ve been the subject of an entire novel on its own. So could “hyper-empathy,” the main character’s strange condition that makes her literally feel any pain she witnesses. So could the incredibly well-fleshed-out religion that she creates. With all those elements mixed together, Parable of the Sower is incredibly rich, and outlines a philosophy and religion many real people have earnestly adopted.
Sower would be the greatest novel ever written, if not for the fact that its sequel, Parable of the Talents, is somehow even better. After creating a fascinating and compelling philosophical outlook in the first book, this sequel comes back to throw everything we thought we loved about Earthseed into stark question and leave us wondering if the heroine at its center was ever even a good person. Few authors could’ve pulled off that reversal, but Octavia E Butler was up to the challenge. If you only read two books in your entire life, let them be these masterpieces.
FAQ
What is the best science fiction book ever written?
This is obviously a matter of opinion. Here, we have expressed the opinion that it’s Parable of the Talents, but many would argue for Dune, along with several of the other books on this list, and a few we couldn’t quite fit in.
Dune is the best-selling science fiction book of all time.
Do any of these books have board game or tabletop RPG adaptations?
The Magitech Chronicles has a TTRPG adaptation, as doesDune. None of the other books here have dedicated TTRPG versions, but campaigns taking place in these worlds could be run with a variety of systems. There are severalpost-apocalyptic TTRPG systemsthat would suit an Earthseed campaign quite well.
