Our writers pick their favourite science fiction books of all time
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We asked New Scientist staff to pick their favourite science fiction books. Here are the results, ranging from 19th-century classics to modern day offerings, and from Octavia E. Butler to Iain M. Banks

This is an interesting list. It’s missing some of the true great classics, like Frankenstein, and it has a number of unusual, less well known titles, but there’s a lot to like on it. There’s certainly a lot for people to disagree about, but it may well have your less often cited favorites, too. What do you think?

  • slazer2auEnglish
    44•6 months ago
    • We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
    • The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
    • Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
    • Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
    • The City & the City by China Miéville
    • An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
    • The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
    • The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
    • The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
    • Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
    • Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
    • Chelsea Whyte God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert
    • 17776 by Jon Bois
    • War With the Newts by Karel Čapek
    • Flatland: A romance of many dimensions by A Square (Edwin Abbott Abbott)
    • Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
    • Neuromancer by William Gibson
    • Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
    • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
    • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
    • The Culture series by Iain M. Banks
    • threelonmusketeersEnglish
      8•6 months ago

      Really pleased to see 17776 getting some recognition. I don’t even like American football and I love that story.

      • AFK BRB ChocolateOPEnglish
        3•6 months ago

        I couldn’t decide if I wanted to add that one to my reading list or not. I hadn’t heard of it before, and I’m not at all a sports guy, but it sounds interesting.

          • AFK BRB ChocolateOPEnglish
            2•5 months ago

            I got around to reading 17776 today. That was fun, thanks for the recommendation!

          • AFK BRB ChocolateOPEnglish
            2•6 months ago

            Well that’s… really interesting. I love it when people experiment with new ways of telling a story. That might move this up much higher on my list. Thanks for the link.

            • @Dozzi92
              3•5 months ago

              It’s chaos, but Jon Bois is amazing at putting order to even the most chaotic things. If you don’t know him, he’s purely a sports guy, but he has a number of video series on YouTube that are absolutely great watches, regardless of whether you like sports. I hate (American) football, but he has a number of videos I watched intently, because he does a great job of analyzing random number sets and plotting them out in a way that is visually appealing. Guy is a nut, and it makes for great television (obviously not TV but yeah).

      • @RizzRustbolt
        3•6 months ago

        If American Football was like that I would probably watch it.

        • threelonmusketeersEnglish
          2•6 months ago

          Yeah, the 17776 version sounds way more entertaining. Especially if it is commentated by three sapient space probes.

    • JackGreenEarthEnglish
      6•6 months ago

      The Mars trilogy is good, although Blue Mars is my favourite, Hitchhiker’s is good but is more of a comedy, Flatland is ok but is more of a satire of Victorian society. The Planiverse by AK Dewdney is a better 2d world book.

      • @Rolando
        3•6 months ago

        Hitchhiker’s is good but is more of a comedy

        You say that like that’s a bad thing…

        • JackGreenEarthEnglish
          2•6 months ago

          Oh no, it’s not a bad thing at all. It just means it doesn’t really belong in a list of sci fi books.

      • Clay_pidginEnglish
        2•6 months ago

        I got it because I love Sir Perry’s Discworld books, and was blown away by how much I liked it!

      • AFK BRB ChocolateOPEnglish
        2•6 months ago

        I’ve read quite a number of the books on the list, but hadn’t read that one, so I put it on my list.