Best Science Fiction Books: Landmark and Modern Novels
Science fiction asks what happens when the world changes: new technology, other planets, strange futures. This list collects the science fiction novels in our catalog, many of them Hugo Award winners.
Pick it for big ideas and good stories. Books are ordered by reader interest, and each has a hook and a note on what you get.
Best for: Readers who like big ideas, space and the future.
- Scope
- Books in our catalog with this genre.
- Order
- By reader interest (Open Library want-to-read counts), then newest first. Not a quality ranking.
124 books
1953Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury
Science Fiction · DarkA fireman whose job is to burn books starts to read
What you get: A fast, inventive story that makes you appreciate every book on your shelf. Its love of reading and curiosity gives it a lasting spark.
1966DuneFrank HerbertScience Fiction · EpicThe Atreides family takes stewardship of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the drug melange
What you get: A rich, immersive world of desert planets, noble houses and prophecy. It is a landmark of science fiction that rewards you with a story as big as its universe.
1985The Handmaid’s TaleMargaret AtwoodScience Fiction · DarkA woman is forced to bear children in a theocratic America
What you get: A haunting, beautifully written story that sharpens your sense of what matters most. It stays with you long after the last page.
1932Brave New WorldAldous HuxleyScience Fiction · DarkIn a future where people are engineered in bottles and conditioned into castes, Bernard Marx begins to doubt
What you get: A vividly imagined future that makes for great conversation. Its ideas about happiness, technology and society feel surprisingly current, and they keep you thinking.
2020The Midnight LibraryMatt HaigScience Fiction · HopefulA woman gets to try the other lives she might have led
What you get: A warm, inventive story that invites you to imagine the lives you could have led. It leaves you feeling hopeful and grateful for your own.
1979The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the GalaxyDouglas AdamsScience Fiction · WarmA man is rescued seconds before Earth is demolished
What you get: Pure comic delight: absurd ideas, sharp wit and a cheerful sense that the universe is far stranger and funnier than we think. Excellent for lifting your mood.
1897The Invisible ManH. G. WellsScience Fiction · DarkA scientist who makes himself invisible and loses his mind
What you get: A fast, entertaining story that is part comedy and part thriller.
1895The Time MachineH. G. WellsScience Fiction · ThoughtfulAn inventor travels to the year 802,701
What you get: A fast, fascinating journey that stirs your imagination and makes you think about where humanity is headed. Easy to enjoy and hard to forget.
1950I, RobotIsaac AsimovScience Fiction · ThoughtfulNine stories about robots and the three laws that govern them
What you get: Thoughtful, puzzle-like stories that make you wonder about intelligence and trust.
1951FoundationIsaac AsimovScience Fiction · ThoughtfulA mathematician predicts the fall of the galactic empire
What you get: A sweeping story of ideas, strategy and a future shaped by science. It makes you feel the size of history and invites you into one of science fiction's greatest series.
1990Jurassic ParkMichael CrichtonScience Fiction · TenseCloned dinosaurs escape on a remote island theme park
What you get: A rollicking, fast-paced adventure packed with fascinating science and gripping scenes. It makes you feel the thrill of standing face to face with the impossible.
1962A Wrinkle in TimeMadeleine L’EngleScience Fiction · WarmA girl travels through space to rescue her father
What you get: A sense of wonder and a brave heroine who finds that love and being yourself are real strengths. It lifts your imagination.
2011Ready Player OneErnest ClineScience Fiction · LightA treasure hunt through a virtual world built on 1980s pop culture
What you get: A high-energy adventure packed with games, music and movie nostalgia. It is a fun, bright treasure hunt you can race through.
1898The War of the WorldsH. G. WellsScience Fiction · DarkMartians invade Victorian England
What you get: The thrill of an unforgettable alien arrival, seen through one ordinary person's eyes. A foundation of modern science fiction that still grips.
1986Ender's GameOrson Scott CardScience Fiction · TenseHumanity is at war with an insectoid alien species, and gifted children are trained as officers through war games
What you get: A fast, clever story about a gifted boy and a bigger challenge than he expected. It keeps you gripped and makes you think about leadership and strategy.
1962A Clockwork OrangeAnthony BurgessScience Fiction · DarkFifteen-year-old Alex narrates his gang's violence and then the state's attempt to reform him
What you get: A fast, inventive story with its own slang that makes you think about freedom and goodness.
2011The MartianAndy WeirScience Fiction · HopefulAn astronaut left behind on Mars must grow his own food
What you get: A fast, funny, endlessly inventive story of one man's ingenuity on another planet. It makes science feel exciting, and it keeps you smiling and turning pages.
2005Never Let Me GoKazuo IshiguroScience Fiction · MelancholicThree students at a boarding school with a secret
What you get: A beautifully restrained, deeply moving story about friendship, memory and what it means to be human.
1985NeuromancerWilliam GibsonScience Fiction · DarkIn a near-future dystopia, an AI and a traumatized former soldier recruit a computer hacker for a heist
What you get: A stylish, electric trip into the world that shaped modern cyberpunk, with a heist plot and a dazzling vision of the networked future. A landmark to explore.
- Contact1985ContactCarl SaganScience Fiction · Thoughtful
A radio astronomer receives a signal from Vega
What you get: A thoughtful, awe-filled story about science, faith and the search for company in the universe.
1968Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?Philip K. DickScience Fiction · DarkA bounty hunter retires androids that look and feel human
What you get: A thought-provoking, atmospheric story that stays with you and sharpens your sense of what it means to care. Great for anyone who likes ideas.
1969Dune MessiahFrank HerbertScience Fiction · DarkThe Emperor Paul Atreides faces a conspiracy
What you get: A thoughtful, atmospheric follow-up that explores destiny and responsibility. It deepens a world you already love with big ideas and quiet drama.
1970The Left Hand of DarknessUrsula K. Le GuinScience Fiction · ThoughtfulAn envoy urges an icy planet's nations to join an alliance; its people have no fixed sex
What you get: A quiet, beautiful story about understanding another world and another person.
19682001: A Space OdysseyArthur C. ClarkeScience Fiction · ThoughtfulA black monolith and a journey to Jupiter
What you get: A vision of space exploration and human evolution that fills you with wonder.
1990HyperionDan SimmonsScience Fiction · EpicSeven pilgrims travel to the Time Tombs on Hyperion, each telling a tale, as an invasion approaches
What you get: A rich, imaginative story with several intriguing tales and a sense of epic mystery.
1963The Man in the High CastlePhilip K. DickScience Fiction · DarkFifteen years after the Axis powers won World War II, the former United States is divided between Japan and Germany
What you get: A tense, atmospheric what-if that makes you think about reality and choice.
19491984George OrwellScience Fiction · DarkWinston Smith rewrites history at the Ministry of Truth in a Britain ruled by the Party and Big Brother
What you get: A gripping, unforgettable vision that sparks conversation and gives you new language for thinking about truth, language and power. A true classic that lingers in the mind.
1972The Stepford WivesIra LevinScience Fiction · DarkThe women of a quiet suburb are suspiciously perfect
What you get: A quick, uneasy read that keeps you asking questions about a perfect-seeming town.
2014AnnihilationJeff VanderMeerScience Fiction · DarkAn expedition enters a zone where nature has taken over
What you get: A short, strange and beautiful expedition that sticks in your mind.
1961A Canticle for LeibowitzWalter M. Miller Jr.Science Fiction · MelancholicMonks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz preserve surviving knowledge across thousands of years after a nuclear war
What you get: A rich, haunting story across centuries that makes you think about knowledge and what we save.
2014Station ElevenEmily St. John MandelScience Fiction · MelancholicA travelling theatre company after a pandemic
What you get: A beautifully woven story about the things that endure, from art to friendship. It is a thoughtful, absorbing read that gives you a sense of hope and wonder.
1967The Moon Is a Harsh MistressRobert A. HeinleinScience Fiction · TenseIn 2075, the Moon's penal colony plans independence from Earth with the help of a self-aware computer
What you get: A lively, smart adventure with a memorable computer character and a spirit of freedom.
1975The DispossessedUrsula K. Le GuinScience Fiction · ThoughtfulShevek, a physicist from Anarres, travels to its twin world Urras in the Tau Ceti system
What you get: A rich, human story that makes you think about freedom, home and the price of change.
1974Rendezvous with RamaArthur C. ClarkeScience Fiction · ThoughtfulIn the 2130s, human explorers intercept a large cylindrical alien starship that enters the Solar System
What you get: A sense of awe as explorers enter a mysterious alien ship, written with a calm, curious spirit.
1961SolarisStanisław LemScience Fiction · DarkA planet-sized ocean that reads human minds
What you get: A haunting, philosophical story set on a strange ocean planet.
1952Foundation and EmpireIsaac AsimovScience Fiction · ThoughtfulThe Foundation faces the Empire and a mutant
What you get: Smart, engaging science fiction full of ideas and confrontation between powers.
1976Children of DuneFrank HerbertScience Fiction · DarkPaul’s children inherit an empire
What you get: A thoughtful, atmospheric continuation with big ideas about destiny and power.
1953Second FoundationIsaac AsimovScience Fiction · ThoughtfulThe search for the hidden Second Foundation
What you get: A smart, satisfying finish full of surprises.
2004Cloud AtlasDavid MitchellScience Fiction · ThoughtfulSix nested stories across centuries, from a ship to a far future
What you get: A daring, imaginative patchwork of tales across time that rewards your attention.
2011Leviathan WakesJames S. A. CoreyScience Fiction · TenseA missing girl and an ice hauler
What you get: A gripping blend of detective story and space action that you will want to share.
1971RingworldLarry NivenScience Fiction · EpicIn 2850, a mission travels to an enormous artificial ring around a sunlike star
What you get: An exciting expedition full of wonder, with an engineering marvel at its center.
1980The Restaurant at the End of the UniverseDouglas AdamsScience Fiction · WarmThe next stop is the end of everything
What you get: Quick, witty, laugh-out-loud fun that keeps the first book's spirit.
1960Starship TroopersRobert A. HeinleinScience Fiction · TenseIn a future ruled by veterans, Johnny Rico joins the Mobile Infantry in a war against the Arachnids
What you get: Action-filled storytelling and plenty to debate about duty and society.
1983Foundation's EdgeIsaac AsimovScience Fiction · EpicFive hundred years after the Foundation's founding, Golan Trevize searches for the Second Foundation
What you get: An engaging, thoughtful continuation with mysteries to unravel.
1973The Gods ThemselvesIsaac AsimovScience Fiction · ThoughtfulAn energy device called the Pump exchanges matter between our universe and a parallel one
What you get: A smart, three-part story with a strikingly original second act.
1976The Forever WarJoe HaldemanScience Fiction · DarkSoldiers fighting an interstellar war age slowly while those they left behind grow old
What you get: A gripping, emotional story about a soldier and time, with plenty to reflect on.
1996The Diamond AgeNeal StephensonScience Fiction · ThoughtfulIn a near-future world of nanotechnology, a girl named Nell receives an interactive book that teaches her
What you get: A creative, wonder-filled story that makes learning and imagination feel like an adventure.
1993A Fire Upon the DeepVernor VingeScience Fiction · EpicA superintelligence awakened in a research facility starts an interstellar crisis across the galaxy's Zones of Thought
What you get: A grand adventure with inventive ideas and characters who truly feel alive.
1981God Emperor of DuneFrank HerbertScience Fiction · DarkThousands of years later, one tyrant rules Arrakis
What you get: A bold, thought-provoking leap far into the future.
1977A Scanner DarklyPhilip K. DickScience Fiction · DarkAn undercover narcotics agent loses himself in a drug
What you get: A sharp, moving story about identity and perception.
1982Life, the Universe and EverythingDouglas AdamsScience Fiction · WarmA cricket match, a rescue and a Total Perspective Vortex
What you get: Wit, inventiveness and absurd fun from start to finish.
2010The Windup GirlPaolo BacigalupiScience Fiction · DarkIn a 23rd-century Thailand shaped by climate change, megacorporations control food through engineered seeds
What you get: A vivid, richly imagined future that pulls you into its streets and ideas.
1978GatewayFrederik PohlScience Fiction · DarkHumans on a crowded Earth pilot abandoned alien starships from an asteroid, hoping for wealth and facing great danger
What you get: A thoughtful, tense story with a fascinating setup and a narrator you follow closely.
1984Heretics of DuneFrank HerbertScience Fiction · DarkHumanity returns from a great scattering
What you get: A rich, gripping continuation with new factions and mysteries.
- 1986Foundation and EarthIsaac AsimovScience Fiction · Thoughtful
A search for Earth, the origin of humanity
What you get: A big, curious journey in search of humanity's origin.
1968Lord of LightRoger ZelaznyScience Fiction · EpicA science-fantasy world shaped by Hindu and Buddhist traditions, with modern Western characters
What you get: A dazzling, imaginative adventure with gods, rebels and clever twists.
1987Speaker for the DeadOrson Scott CardScience Fiction · ThoughtfulThree thousand years after Ender's Game, a Speaker for the Dead visits a Catholic colony beside a sentient species
What you get: A deeply human story about understanding others, more reflective than action-heavy.
2017The PowerNaomi AldermanScience Fiction · TenseWomen develop the ability to release electrical jolts from their fingers and become the dominant sex
What you get: A gripping what-if story that keeps you thinking about power and how it shapes us.
1988Prelude to FoundationIsaac AsimovScience Fiction · ThoughtfulHari Seldon before the Foundation
What you get: An absorbing, character-driven origin story full of ideas.
1962Stranger in a Strange LandRobert A. HeinleinScience Fiction · ThoughtfulA man raised by Martians is brought to Earth and meets human society for the first time
What you get: A thought-provoking, imaginative story about an outsider that makes you reconsider familiar things.
2014Ancillary JusticeAnn LeckieScience Fiction · TenseBreq, the last fragment of a destroyed starship's AI, seeks revenge against the ruler of her civilization
What you get: A fresh, gripping story with a distinct voice and big ideas about identity.
1969Stand on ZanzibarJohn BrunnerScience Fiction · ThoughtfulIn 2010, an overpopulated world and a large cast of characters meet a corporate deal and a genetic breakthrough
What you get: A bold, mosaic-style novel that gives a broad, lively picture of a crowded world.
2020A Memory Called EmpireArkady MartineScience Fiction · TenseAmbassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the Teixcalaanli Empire carrying her dead predecessor's memories and must investigate his death
What you get: A clever, atmospheric mystery set at a glittering imperial court.
2021Network EffectMartha WellsScience Fiction · LightMurderbot, a security android, joins a research expedition that runs into a hostile vessel and a wormhole
What you get: Dry humor, action and a narrator you will want to hang out with.
1993Forward the FoundationIsaac AsimovScience Fiction · ThoughtfulThe last years of Hari Seldon
What you get: A thoughtful, human story that rounds off the saga.
1990The Fall of HyperionDan SimmonsScience Fiction · ThoughtfulThe second book of the Hyperion series
What you get: A rich, imaginative continuation that ties together a grand cosmic story.
1984So Long, and Thanks for All the FishDouglas AdamsScience Fiction · WarmArthur comes home to find Earth is back
What you get: Funny, odd and surprisingly tender.
1969The Andromeda StrainMichael CrichtonScience Fiction · TenseA deadly microbe from space and five scientists with days to stop it
What you get: A gripping, clear and tense race against time in a high-tech laboratory.
1992Mostly HarmlessDouglas AdamsScience Fiction · MelancholicThe last of Douglas Adams’s five books
What you get: A witty, wry finish with the same sharp humor.
1980The Fountains of ParadiseArthur C. ClarkeScience Fiction · HopefulAn engineer proposes an orbital tower linking Earth to a satellite 36,000 km above the surface
What you get: A calm, awe-filled story of an ambitious tower reaching for the sky.
2008The Yiddish Policemen's UnionMichael ChabonScience Fiction · DarkIn an alternate Sitka, Alaska, a Yiddish-speaking city, a detective investigates a death as the city nears reversion
What you get: A clever, atmospheric noir with a rich sense of place and a sharp-tongued detective.
1993Doomsday BookConnie WillisScience Fiction · MelancholicA young historian from mid-21st-century Oxford is sent to the 14th century, a period thought too dangerous
What you get: A moving, absorbing story of the past and those who live in it, with a strong sense of place.
2013RedshirtsJohn ScalziScience Fiction · LightAboard the starship Intrepid, new ensigns notice that low-ranking crew keep dying on away missions
What you get: Quick, witty entertainment that makes you laugh and then surprises you with heart.
2012Caliban’s WarJames S. A. CoreyScience Fiction · TenseA Martian marine and a girl missing on Ganymede
What you get: A gripping, fast-paced second chapter full of intrigue.
1999To Say Nothing of the DogConnie WillisScience Fiction · LightTime-traveling Oxford historians search 1940 Coventry for a missing object called the Bishop's bird stump
What you get: Light, witty and full of Victorian fun, with mysteries and a romance that make you smile.
19973001: The Final OdysseyArthur C. ClarkeScience Fiction · ThoughtfulThe last Odyssey
What you get: A reflective, imaginative close full of big ideas.
19872061: Odyssey ThreeArthur C. ClarkeScience Fiction · ThoughtfulHalley’s Comet and a long-lived hero
What you get: A thoughtful, curious journey to a famous comet.
2016Babylon’s AshesJames S. A. CoreyScience Fiction · TenseThe end of a long war
What you get: A strong, fast-paced finish to a major chapter.
1982Downbelow StationC. J. CherryhScience Fiction · TenseDuring the Company Wars, Pell Station is the transit point between the Earth and Union sectors
What you get: A detailed, gripping story of a space station caught between powers.
2006SpinRobert Charles WilsonScience Fiction · ThoughtfulThree teenagers watch every star vanish at once, as Earth is enclosed in a membrane that slows time
What you get: A gripping, emotional story with huge ideas and a deeply human core.
1972To Your Scattered Bodies GoPhilip José FarmerScience Fiction · EpicHumanity is resurrected on the shores of a mysterious river, and Richard Francis Burton wakes among them
What you get: An imaginative, gripping journey along a river where everyone who ever lived is reborn.
1953The Demolished ManAlfred BesterScience Fiction · TenseIn the 24th century, a wealthy businessman commits murder in a society where telepaths read minds
What you get: A clever cat-and-mouse story that mixes crime and fantastic ideas with style.
2000A Deepness in the SkyVernor VingeScience Fiction · EpicHuman traders and a ruthless rival civilization meet an alien species on a planet orbiting a star that goes dormant
What you get: A grand, absorbing story of traders and a curious alien civilization.
2021Leviathan FallsJames S. A. CoreyScience Fiction · TenseThe last Expanse novel
What you get: A satisfying, emotional end to a long, thrilling space saga.
1956Double StarRobert A. HeinleinScience Fiction · LightA struggling actor hired as a double learns on the trip to Mars that he must impersonate a politician
What you get: A lively, clever story of impersonation and politics on Mars. Short and entertaining.
- Endymion1996EndymionDan SimmonsScience Fiction · Thoughtful
Years after the Fall
What you get: A rich, imaginative continuation that blends adventure and mystery.
1994Green MarsKim Stanley RobinsonScience Fiction · HopefulFifty years after Red Mars, survivors of the First Hundred hide while resistance groups prepare a second revolution
What you get: A big, richly imagined novel of ideas and change on Mars.
2017Persepolis RisingJames S. A. CoreyScience Fiction · TenseThirty years later, a new threat
What you get: A bold, tense return with fresh characters.
2019Tiamat’s WrathJames S. A. CoreyScience Fiction · TenseThe resistance grows
What you get: A tense, absorbing installment.
2024Some Desperate GloryEmily TeshScience Fiction · DarkRaised on Gaea Station after the Majo War destroyed Earth, a young woman named Kyr comes of age
What you get: A bold, emotional and fast-moving novel about belonging.
2022A Desolation Called PeaceArkady MartineScience Fiction · TenseA few months after the first Teixcalaan novel, an alien threat emerges as the empire faces war
What you get: A clever, tense story of language, empire and understanding.
2019The Calculating StarsMary Robinette KowalScience Fiction · HopefulAfter a meteorite strikes in 1952, a mathematician and former WASP pilot argues for women in a space program
What you get: A warm, determined story about women who will not be left on the ground.
2015The Three-Body ProblemCixin LiuScience Fiction · EpicEarth makes contact with an alien civilization from a system of three Sun-like stars orbiting one another
What you get: A mind-expanding mystery that opens huge questions and keeps you hungry for more.
2015Nemesis GamesJames S. A. CoreyScience Fiction · TenseA crisis shakes the solar system
What you get: A fast, intense volume that shakes up the story.
2015Before the Coffee Gets ColdToshikazu KawaguchiScience Fiction · WarmA café where you can go back in time
What you get: A gentle, thoughtful story set in a little café with a magical rule.
2014Cibola BurnJames S. A. CoreyScience Fiction · TenseA new world with a new problem
What you get: A gripping story of settlers and secrets.
2013Abaddon’s GateJames S. A. CoreyScience Fiction · TenseA gate in the dark
What you get: A tense, imaginative adventure with high stakes.
2011Blackout/All ClearConnie WillisScience Fiction · TenseOxford historians sent to World War II Britain find themselves in trouble in a two-volume time-travel novel
What you get: A detailed, moving and suspenseful story full of period life.
- And Another Thing…2009And Another Thing…Douglas AdamsScience Fiction · Warm
Eoin Colfer continues the story
What you get: A cheerful, silly adventure that continues the humor.
2007Rainbows EndVernor VingeScience Fiction · ThoughtfulIn 2025 San Diego, a former poet recovered from Alzheimer's must adjust to a world of ubiquitous networks
What you get: A clever, lively look at a world of augmented reality.
2003HominidsRobert J. SawyerScience Fiction · ThoughtfulAn experiment on a parallel Earth sends a Neanderthal scientist into our world, and his lab partner stands trial
What you get: An engaging, easy-to-read story about two worlds meeting.
1998Forever PeaceJoe HaldemanScience Fiction · DarkIn 2048, soldiers fight remote wars through robots called soldierboys, linked to machines by implants
What you get: A thoughtful, fast-moving story that asks what peace would take.
1997Blue MarsKim Stanley RobinsonScience Fiction · HopefulA century after the second revolution, Mars adopts a new constitution while Earth floods and the solar system opens up
What you get: A calm, reflective finish full of big ideas and hopeful moments.
- The Rise of Endymion1997The Rise of EndymionDan SimmonsScience Fiction · Thoughtful
The end of the Hyperion Cantos
What you get: A big, imaginative finale of grand ideas.
1995Mirror DanceLois McMaster BujoldScience Fiction · TenseMiles Vorkosigan's clone Mark takes his place on a rescue mission to the lawless planet Jackson's Whole
What you get: A gripping, moving story of identity and family that keeps you on edge.
1992BarrayarLois McMaster BujoldScience Fiction · TenseCordelia has married Aral and must adjust to Barrayar, a world with simpler technology and far more violent politics
What you get: A lively, heartfelt story of a woman making a home in a new world.
- Children of Men1992Children of MenP. D. JamesScience Fiction · Dark
A future England with no children being born
What you get: A tense, human story about the future and what keeps us going.
1991The Vor GameLois McMaster BujoldScience Fiction · TenseNewly graduated, Miles Vorkosigan is posted to a winter infantry training base on remote Kyril Island
What you get: A fun, quick-thinking story full of plots and charming characters.
1989CyteenC. J. CherryhScience Fiction · DarkAfter the murder of a powerful scientist and politician on the capital world of Union, the consequences spread
What you get: A big, rich novel of politics and science that rewards your patience.
1988The Uplift WarDavid BrinScience Fiction · TenseAn avian species invades the planet Garth, where humans and uplifted chimpanzees resist
What you get: An energetic, inventive story of ordinary people defending their home.
1985Chapterhouse: DuneFrank HerbertScience Fiction · ThoughtfulThe final book of Herbert’s own saga
What you get: A thoughtful, atmospheric close to a great saga.
1984Startide RisingDavid BrinScience Fiction · TenseThe ship Streaker, crewed by uplifted dolphins, humans and a chimpanzee, finds a derelict alien fleet
What you get: A lively, inventive tale of a ship with an unusual crew and a big secret.
- 2010: Odyssey Two19822010: Odyssey TwoArthur C. ClarkeScience Fiction · Thoughtful
The mission to find what happened to Discovery
What you get: A thoughtful, awe-filled sequel with real scientific flavor.
1981The Snow QueenJoan D. VingeScience Fiction · EpicOn a mostly oceanic planet, two matriarchal clans trade control of the government every 150 years
What you get: A lush, absorbing story of two cultures and a world on the turn.
1979DreamsnakeVonda N. McIntyreScience Fiction · HopefulSnake, a healer who treats illness with genetically engineered snakes, searches for a replacement for her dreamsnake
What you get: A warm, adventurous story about a healer and her unusual companions.
1977Where Late the Sweet Birds SangKate WilhelmScience Fiction · MelancholicAfter civilization collapses, a family's isolated Virginia community survives by turning to cloning
What you get: A calm, haunting novel about a family and what it takes to carry on.
1966This ImmortalRoger ZelaznyScience Fiction · ThoughtfulA guide leads an alien official through the ruins of a post-nuclear Earth overrun by mutated lifeforms
What you get: A lively, stylish tour through a strange future Earth with a wry narrator.
1965The WandererFritz LeiberScience Fiction · TenseA wandering planet enters the Solar System, and disconnected groups of people cope with what follows
What you get: A sweeping, tense story of how very different people react to a world-changing event.
1964Way StationClifford D. SimakScience Fiction · WarmA Civil War veteran runs an interstellar way station on his family farm, until the government takes notice
What you get: A quiet, moving story of a lonely keeper of a station for travelers among the stars.
1959A Case of ConscienceJames BlishScience Fiction · ThoughtfulIn 2049, a Jesuit biologist joins a team judging whether the planet Lithia can be opened to human contact
What you get: A serious, absorbing story that raises big questions about belief and choice.
1958The Big TimeFritz LeiberScience Fiction · TenseTwo factions fight the Change War by altering history, and the story is set in a station outside the universe
What you get: A compact, imaginative story of time-travelers in a single room, full of style.
1955They'd Rather Be RightMark Clifton & Frank RileyScience Fiction · ThoughtfulTwo professors build a cybernetic brain that offers a better mind and eternal youth to those who give up prejudice
What you get: A classic-era idea story that makes you wonder what a better mind would be like.
1870Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the SeaJules VerneScience Fiction · ThoughtfulCaptain Nemo and his submarine, the Nautilus
What you get: A grand underwater adventure with a mysterious captain and endless discoveries.
1864Journey to the Center of the EarthJules VerneScience Fiction · LightA professor and his nephew descend into a volcano
What you get: A thrilling descent full of wonder and surprises that is easy to enjoy.
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