Science fiction reading guides

Hand-picked guides to award-recognized science fiction: books like Dune and Project Hail Mary, where to start, short reads, and the best books in every corner of the genre.

Books like Dune: 11 award-recognized sci-fi novels to read nextLoved Dune? These award-recognized science fiction novels share its sweeping politics, strange worlds, ecology and prophecy, with a note on what to expect from each.Books like Project Hail Mary: 10 award-recognized picksAward-recognized science fiction for fans of Project Hail Mary: problem-solving, science that matters, unlikely friendships and the wonder of first contact.Sci-fi books for beginners: 11 award-recognized novels to start withNew to science fiction? Start with these award-recognized books: page-turning, easy to get into and a great sample of what the genre can do.Short sci-fi books: 14 award-winning reads you can finish in a weekendShort science fiction novels and novellas recognized by the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Clarke awards, most under 300 pages, grouped by length.Classic sci-fi books: 12 award-winning novels and where to startWhere to start with classic science fiction: award winners from before 1980, grouped by what kind of story you want, with notes on how each has aged.First contact sci-fi: 13 award-recognized alien encounter novelsThe best award-recognized first contact novels: alien minds, mysterious objects and the hard work of understanding someone truly different.Hard sci-fi books: 14 award-recognized novels for science loversAward-recognized hard science fiction: rigorous physics, engineering and biology, from space elevators and terraforming to alien minds.Space opera books: 13 award-recognized epicsThe best award-recognized space opera: galactic empires, starship crews, interstellar war and politics on a grand scale.Cyberpunk books: 11 award-recognized novelsAward-recognized cyberpunk: hackers, megacorporations, virtual worlds and the books that defined and reinvented the genre.Dystopian sci-fi books: 11 award-recognized novels about futures gone wrongAward-recognized dystopian science fiction: authoritarian states, collapsing societies and the people who resist them.Climate fiction books: 9 award-recognized cli-fi novelsAward-recognized climate fiction (cli-fi): novels about a changing planet, from near-future crisis to terraformed worlds.AI and robot sci-fi: 12 award-recognized books about artificial mindsAward-recognized science fiction about artificial intelligence and robots: androids, ship minds, digital beings and what it means to be a person.Time travel sci-fi: 9 award-recognized booksAward-recognized time travel science fiction: historians lost in the past, messages across decades, paradoxes and wars fought through time.Military sci-fi books: 11 award-recognized novelsAward-recognized military science fiction: soldiers, strategy, interstellar war and the cost of fighting.Cozy sci-fi: 10 hopeful, award-recognized booksHopeful, cozy science fiction recognized by major awards: found family, kindness and low-stakes wonder, sometimes called hopepunk.Books like The Three-Body Problem: 10 award-recognized picksAward-recognized science fiction for fans of The Three-Body Problem: cosmic-scale ideas, hard science, unsettling aliens and civilizations under threat.Books like Hyperion: 10 award-recognized picksAward-recognized science fiction for fans of Dan Simmons’s Hyperion: epic scope, mysterious far futures, religion, myth and stories within stories.Books like Ender’s Game: 9 award-recognized picksAward-recognized science fiction for fans of Ender’s Game: young soldiers, military academies, strategy, alien wars and their moral cost.Books like Murderbot: 10 award-recognized picksAward-recognized science fiction for fans of Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries: AI narrators, dry humor, found family and corporate villains.Books like The Expanse: 10 award-recognized picksAward-recognized science fiction for fans of The Expanse (Leviathan Wakes): realistic spaceflight, solar-system politics, crews and conspiracies.Books like Children of Time: 11 award-recognized picksAward-recognized science fiction for fans of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time: evolving alien species, uplift, deep time and first contact.Books like Station Eleven: 9 award-recognized picksAward-recognized literary science fiction for fans of Station Eleven: pandemics, collapse, memory, art and what is worth saving.Books like The Martian: 10 award-recognized picksAward-recognized science fiction for fans of Andy Weir’s The Martian: survival, problem-solving, real science and humor under pressure.Murderbot Diaries reading order: 6 award-recognized booksThe Murderbot Diaries in reading order, with where to start and what each book adds. Every book listed won or was a finalist for a major award.Where to start with Ursula K. Le Guin: 7 award-recognized booksWhere to start with Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction: The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and more, with what each book is like.Where to start with Connie Willis: 9 award-recognized booksWhere to start with Connie Willis: her time-travel historians, screwball comedies and award-winning novellas, with what each book is like.Vorkosigan Saga: where to start, with 9 award-recognized booksWhere to start with Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga: the award-winning books about Miles Vorkosigan and his family, and the order to read them in.Where to start with Kim Stanley Robinson: 8 award-recognized booksWhere to start with Kim Stanley Robinson: the Mars trilogy, climate novels and solar-system epics, with what each book is like.Where to start with John Scalzi: 9 award-recognized booksWhere to start with John Scalzi: Old Man’s War, Redshirts, The Collapsing Empire and more, with what each book is like.Where to start with William Gibson: 7 award-recognized booksWhere to start with William Gibson: Neuromancer, the Sprawl trilogy and his later novels, with what each book is like.Where to start with Philip K. Dick: 5 award-recognized booksWhere to start with Philip K. Dick: The Man in the High Castle, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and more, with what each book is like.Where to start with Isaac Asimov: 7 award-recognized booksWhere to start with Isaac Asimov’s novels: The Gods Themselves, The End of Eternity and the Foundation and Robot books, with what each is like.Where to start with Robert A. Heinlein: 7 award-recognized booksWhere to start with Robert A. Heinlein: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land and more, with notes on how each has aged.Where to start with Arthur C. Clarke: 5 award-recognized booksWhere to start with Arthur C. Clarke: Rendezvous with Rama, The Fountains of Paradise and more, with what each book is like.Where to start with Ted Chiang: 4 award-recognized storiesWhere to start with Ted Chiang’s award-winning novellas, including Story of Your Life, the basis for the film Arrival.