Get started ↓The science fiction classics that shaped the genre. Every book here won a major award before 1980, from the first Hugo winners onward, oldest first.
Award years are ceremony years. Many of these books are still in print, and each links to its full award history.
59 works · Page 1 of 2
Novel · 1951
In a world in which the police have telepathic powers, how do you get away with murder? Ben Reichs heads a huge 24th century business empire, spanning the solar system. He is also an obsessed, driven man determined to murder a rival.
by Frank Riley & Mark Clifton
Novel · 1954
One of 3 novels by early Hugo winner Mark Clifton, exploring ideas re closed vs. open mind, individual vs. group thinking
Novel · 1956
One minute, down and out actor Lorenzo Smythe was — as usual — in a bar, drinking away his troubles as he watched his career go down the tubes.
by Fritz Leiber
Novel · 1958
The Big Time is a short science fiction novel by American writer Fritz Leiber. Awarded the Hugo Award for Best Novel or Novelette in 1958, The Big Time was published originally in two parts in Galaxy Magazine's March and April 1958 issues, illustrated by Virgil Finlay. It was subsequently reprinted in book form several times.
by James Blish
Novel · 1958
The citizens of the planet Lithia are some of the most ethical sentient beings Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez has ever encountered.
Novel · 1959
Starship Troopers takes place in the midst of an interstellar war between the Terran Federation of Earth and the Arachnids (referred to as "The Bugs") of Klendathu.
Novel · 1959
Highly unusual After the Holocaust novel. In the far future, 20th century texts are preserved in a monastery, as "sacred books".
Novel · 1961
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.
Novel · 1962
The Man in the High Castle is an alternate history novel by American writer Philip K. Dick.
Novel · 1963
Way Station is a 1963 science fiction novel by American writer Clifford D. Simak, originally published as Here Gather the Stars in two parts in Galaxy Magazine in June and August 1963. Way Station won the 1964 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
by Fritz Leiber
Novel · 1964
All eyes were watching the eclipse of the Moon when the Wanderer--a huge, garishly colored artificial world--emerged. Only a few scientists even suspected its presence, and then, suddenly and silently, it arrived, dwarfing and threatening the Moon and wreaking havoc on Earth's tides and weather.
Novel · 1965
A desert planet. An empire in the balance. A future that refuses to stay written.
Novella · 1965
A 1965 science fiction novella by Roger Zelazny. Nebula Award winner.
Novella · 1966
"The Saliva Tree" is a science fiction novella by British writer Brian W. Aldiss first published in the September 1965 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It won the 1965 Nebula Award for Best Novella (which it shared with "He Who Shapes" by Roger Zelazny in a tie).
Novel · 1965
This Immortal, serialized as ...And Call Me Conrad, is a science fiction novel by American author Roger Zelazny. For its original publication, it was abridged by the editor and published in two parts in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in October and November 1965.
Novel · 1966
During an interstellar war one side develops a language, Babel-17, that can be used as a weapon. Learning it turns one into an unwilling traitor as it alters perception and thought. This is discovered by the starship captain Rydra Wong.
by Daniel Keyes
Novel · 1966
Until he was thirty-two, Charlie Gordon --gentle, amiable, oddly engaging-- had lived in a kind of mental twilight.
by Jack Vance
Novella · 1966
A group of aristocratic, decadent earth men and women try to survive a revolt on the part of the alien races enslaved by them.
Novel · 1965
It is the late 21st Century and the Moon has been colonized -- as a giant, open, prison.
Novella · 1968
Karl Glogauer is a disaffected modern professional casting about for meaning in a series of half-hearted relationships, a dead-end job, and a personal struggle.
Novel · 1967
A colony of humankind is subjugated by the First Colonists, the crew of the starship that brought them to their new home 1000 years before. They have taken control of ancient technologies and enhanced themselves with godlike psychic powers and virtual immortality.
Novella · 1967
"Riders of the Purple Wage" (1967) is a science fiction novella by American writer Philip José Farmer. It appeared in Dangerous Visions, the New Wave science fiction anthology compiled by Harlan Ellison and won the Hugo Award for best novella in 1968, jointly with Weyr Search by Anne McCaffrey.
Novel · 1967
The Einstein Intersection won the Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of 1967.
Novella · 1967
A 1967 science fiction novella by Anne McCaffrey. Hugo Award winner; Nebula recognition.
Novella · 1967
Dragonriders of Pern is a science fantasy series written primarily by American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning in 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series comprises 24 novels and two collections of short stories.
Novella · 1969
It was Avluela the Flier's scarlet and ebony wings that led the Watcher to the seven hills of the ancient city, leaving the skies and deep space unguarded. And so the invaders came and conquered and Avluela became lost in the turmoil.
Novel · 1968
After the destruction of Earth, humanity has established itself precariously among a hundred planets. Between them roam the vast Ships, doling out scientific knowledge in exchange for raw materials. On one of the Ships lives Mia Havero.
by John Brunner
Novel · 1968
Originally published in 1968, Stand on Zanzibar was a breakthrough in science fiction storytelling technique, and a prophetic look at a dystopian 2010 that remains compelling today.
Novella · 1969
A Boy and His Dog is a cycle of narratives by author Harlan Ellison. The cycle tells the story of an amoral boy (Vic) and his telepathic dog (Blood), who work together as a team to survive in the post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear war.
by Fritz Leiber
Novella · 1969 · Science fiction and fantasy crossover
A 1969 science fiction novella by Fritz Leiber. Hugo Award winner; Nebula recognition.
Novel · 1969
An icy world. A solitary envoy. A radical question about being human.
by Larry Niven
Novel · 1970
The ' (1970–2004), by science fiction author Larry Niven, is a part of his Known Space set of stories. Its backdrop is the Ringworld, a giant artifact 600 million miles in circumference around a sun.
Novel · 1971
In the far future, Earth is a worn-out backwater and humanity is spread across the galaxy on worlds that began as colonies, but now feel like home, each with its own long history of a thousand years or more, and each with its own unique…
Novel · 1971
“The Lathe of Heaven” ; 1971 ( Ursula Le Guin received the 1973 Locus Award for this story) George Orr has a gift – he is an effective dreamer: his dreams become reality when he wakes up.
Novella · 1971
A 1971 science fiction novella by Katherine MacLean. Nebula Award winner.
Novella · 1971
"The Queen of Air and Darkness" is a science fiction novella by American writer Poul Anderson, set in his History of Rustum fictional universe.
Novel · 1971
Imagine that every human who ever lived, from the earliest Neanderthals to the present, is resurrected after death on the banks of an astonishing and seemingly endless river on an unknown world.
Novella · 1971
A Meeting with Medusa is a science fiction novella by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. It was originally published in 1971 and has since been included in the anthology Nebula Award Stories Eight as well as several collections of Clarke's writings.
by Isaac Asimov
Novel · 1972
The year is 2100 A.D.… And Man no longer stands alone in the universe. Now there are other worlds, other living beings. Alien beings who mate in threes and live on pure energy.
Novella · 1972
DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT... ... the eight young astronauts, men and women, who were sent off to colonize a non-existent planet near Alpha Centauri while Washington disintegrated with revolution?
Novella · 1972
Centuries in the future, Terrans have established a logging colony & military base named “New Tahiti” on a tree-covered planet whose small, green-furred, big-eyed inhabitants have a culture centered on lucid dreaming. Terran greed spirals around native innocence & wisdom, overturning the ancient society.
Novel · 1973
Something enormous has entered the solar system. The door is open.
by Gene Wolfe
Novella · 1973
The Death of Doctor Island is a science fiction novella by American writer Gene Wolfe first published as The Death of Dr. Island in Universe 3 (Editor Terry Carr, Random House, 1973).
Novella · 1973
"The Girl Who Was Plugged In" is a science fiction novella by American writer James Tiptree, Jr. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1974.
Novella · 1974
"A Song For Lya" is a science fiction novella by American writer George R.R. Martin. It was published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine in 1974 and won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1975.
Novella · 1974
His wife was among the rekindled dead now. He'd heard that she was on a plane to Zanzibar with five other rekindled dead.
Novel · 1974
Two worlds, opposing ideals, and a physicist trying to build a bridge.
Novella · 1975
A 1975 science fiction novella by Roger Zelazny. Hugo and Nebula Award winner; Locus recognition.
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